Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): Hello and thanks for being here with us on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Before we get going with today’s message, "Can’t We All Just Get Along," we want to share a conversation I once had with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Destined for Victory has always been committed to using the media to reach as many people as we can with the gospel of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, I once asked Pastor Paul to talk about why radio is so important, not only to the ministry, but to him personally. Here’s what he said.

Paul Sheppard: I want to tell you that it's important to me as a discipler that my voice is heard and it is used to help people grow in their knowledge of the Lord and in their faith walk with Him. Fact of the matter is, my voice doesn't sound like most of the other folks you hear on Christian radio. I'm well aware of that and I'm really comfortable with that. I come from my own unique background, both ethnically and in terms of life experience. There are things I share, there are things I say, and the ways that I say them that are unique. I believe that perspective needs to be heard throughout Christendom.

While I'm so grateful for all of my heroes, your heroes are mine. I listen to the same people, the guys who have been on the radio for decades and have proclaimed God's word faithfully. I really do appreciate those guys. But I've learned not to be intimidated by them because I've got my own way of processing and my own way of sharing and helping people to learn and to grow in their faith. It's quite intentional.

Sometimes I like to be really colloquial in what I say and how I say it because I'm just using who I am and I think God wants to use that. He's the one who called me. I didn't call myself. He called me and I believe He knows what He was getting when He called me into the ministry. I'm just trying to make a difference because the gospel really does change lives. I believe I have a unique calling to help present the gospel from my own perspective. I pray that it’s resonating with listeners and I pray that it means enough to them that they'll make sure my voice can continue to be heard right along with our other heroes who teach the gospel of Jesus.

Guest (Male): That was Pastor Paul’s mission and it remains our mission today to bring timeless truth for a victorious life to radio, online, and through our free mobile app. We can’t do any of this without your help. Today we’re asking you to send a generous donation to Destined for Victory in honor of Pastor Paul’s memory. As our way of saying thanks, we’d like to send you our brand new booklet, *Improving Your Serve*.

What are the keys to developing a lifestyle of service? What does being a servant look like in day-to-day life? Our latest booklet, *Improving Your Serve*, will help you understand the answers to these and other questions. That’s *Improving Your Serve*, our gift to you today for your generous donation to Destined for Victory.

If you’d like to give, we’ve got several options for you. Stop by pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. Call us at 855-339-5500. That’s 855-339-5500. Or you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: Men will always be men. Women will always be women. Thank God. Thank God. You might think you want your spouse to be exactly like you in every way, but that’s not why God gave us the concept of marriage.

Guest (Male): When two people sing in perfect harmony, the tone and texture of each voice is unique. They’re singing different notes, but when done well, it’s beautiful to hear. That’s the message we want to share with you on today’s Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard.

Living in harmony with one another isn’t always easy. But when we commit ourselves to work on our relationships, it’s only a matter of time before we can make beautiful music together in all of our relationships, including our marriages. The message is called "Can’t We All Just Get Along" and it starts right now.

Paul Sheppard: What Paul is doing here as he wraps up this letter is he is talking about the need for the church to walk in unity. We know that this was a diverse church. It was a church made up of both Jew and Gentile. In fact, it was predominantly a Gentile church being in Rome, but it had a large and considerable minority population of Jewish believers as well.

They were a prototype for many churches that later became culturally diverse, racially diverse as the church developed over the centuries. The church at Rome is a good church to look at for some of those early dynamics. Paul's interest was in helping them to understand that they needed to walk in unity. If God was going to use them in a city like and in a province like Rome, in a place where Caesar reigns and where paganism seems to be in charge, if the church is going to make its mark, Paul is suggesting that there must be unity.

A divided church will not impact a sinful world. A divided church will not have the message and the anointing to proclaim the message that it ought to have. Not only was that true in the first century, but that's true in the 21st century. The church will be better off in America and in various places around the world when we come to understand how important Christian unity is.

It is a major theme of the New Testament. It was a major theme in the teachings of Jesus as He taught us to love one another and serve one another and be united with others. It's a major theme in the writings of the apostles as they came to understand that a divided church would not get the job done. Jesus said it right, "A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand." He said that in Luke 11 and verse 17.

We've got to understand that unity is God's priority for the church. Please understand that Jesus promised us power, but He prayed for us to have unity. He promised you that if you will seek God and that if you will give your life over to Him, that the Holy Spirit will come and give you the power to be an effective witness. Part of the effectiveness of that witness is not just a personal anointing you will carry into the world, but it is how unified you are with brothers and sisters who can stand with you, pray with you, who can walk and minister with you in this world.

While Jesus promised us power, He prayed for unity. When you read John chapter 17, He is getting ready to go back to heaven and before He does, He says, "Father, I want you to make them one just as we are one." He says, "I'm leaving them in the world, but I don't want them to be of the world, and so I want you to sanctify them and unify them that they might have the power to witness for me in this dark world."

Unity is God's high priority for the church. My subject is, "Can't We All Just Get Along?" Perhaps you know where I got that. Back in the early '90s, many of you recall the circumstances surrounding the Rodney King trial. Here was a man who was beaten by policemen. It was captured on videotape. It stirred up a lot of controversy around the country and throughout the world, and especially during the trial of those officers when they were acquitted of the charge of beating him wrongfully. Then there was the outbreak and the upheaval in the LA area.

In the midst of that, Rodney King had an interview and he was just hoping that somehow he could help quell the fury. He stood and looked at cameras during this interview and said, "Can't we all just get along?" I remember that very well. At the time the answer was an emphatic no. People said, "No, we can't all just get along. We have some issues to deal with here." Some were dealing with them through violence and all kinds of things were going on. But the phrase never got far away from me. As I came to this portion of the study, I thought that's the perfect title for this section of Romans. That's what Paul is after here.

He wants these people who come from different backgrounds and have different understandings and different practices in some ways, but who are unified through faith in Christ, he wants them to learn in practical terms how to get along. It's really about this business of unity and agreement. Paul wants them to learn how to walk in agreement and that's a major theme of the New Testament.

If you want to walk in agreement, not only in the church family, but in all of your relationships that God's brought into your life, in your natural family unit, when it comes to your fellowship circle, unity is a priority. What we're going to learn as we look at chapters 14 and 15 is practical steps for walking in agreement. Agreement is the goal. We want to learn to walk in agreement.

Agreement has to do with the concept of harmony. If you want to follow the exhortations of Romans 14 and 15, then you want to understand that the goal in agreement is harmony. Harmony is different, essentially different than unison. This is important because a lot of folks act like we can walk in agreement as soon as you see everything my way.

Have you ever met any people like that? Not you, but they're on your row somewhere. There are people who have the attitude that we can get along as soon as you see it the way I see it. Some folk would say, in fact, you don't even have to see it the way I see it, just do what I tell you to do and we can have agreement. They're wondering why there's a problem.

But you have to understand if you see your way as the way, your philosophy as the philosophy, your practice as the right practice, then you are not going to walk in agreement because agreement is based on the concept of harmony, not unison. Let's talk about it in musical terms and then hopefully you'll get the broader understanding.

In music, there's the term unison and it simply means the same. In the case of music, it would be the same note. I'm going to illustrate by playing just a little bit of a song. I'll play just a part of the verse of a song in unison. What I played was part of *Amazing Grace*. If you're familiar with that, then you knew it because you could detect the melody. I played it in unison. I played two notes, but it was the same note an octave apart, meaning there was no harmony. There was sameness. *Amazing Grace*, the melody line was the same. That was unison.

Guest (Male): Just in case you joined us late, you’re listening to Destined for Victory featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Stay with us. The second half of today’s message is coming right up. One of the things we love to do for friends and listeners like you is to pray for you when you’re in need. If you have a prayer request, please visit pastorpaul.net and use the contact feature to share it with us. Our ministry team is always happy to lift you up in prayer. And of course, when you stop by our website, remember that’s where you can listen to the broadcasts on demand at your convenience, pastorpaul.net. Now let’s get you back to the rest of today’s Destined for Victory message, "Can’t We All Just Get Along."

Paul Sheppard: Harmony doesn’t require sameness. Harmony just requires that there is a goal that different parts seek to reach together without giving up their individuality. When you talk about harmony, you talk about introducing different notes into the same piece, like this.

Some of you thought that second one was anointed. I know what happened, but it got anointed when he played it the second time. No, it wasn't the anointing. It was the power of harmony. What I did was took different notes. They didn't have to be like the melody. But the other notes said, "Melody, you go on and do your thing, we'll add some flavor to it." We don't have to be like you to work with you.

Harmony is the idea of not surrendering difference but making difference work toward a common goal. That's what Paul is suggesting the church must have happen. He doesn't want Jews to become Gentiles. God made them Jews. He doesn't want Gentiles to become Jews. God made them Jews. But what they've got to learn to do is to work together and harmonize and blend their differences to the glory of God and to the effective witness for Christ in this world.

Our marriages will be better when we introduce harmony to them. When we quit trying to make the spouse like ourselves. It's not going to happen. Men will always be men. Women will always be women. Thank God. You might think you want your spouse to be exactly like you in every way, but that's not why God gave us the concept of marriage and the privilege to marry in the Lord.

Harmony doesn’t require sameness. Harmony just requires that there is a goal that different parts seek to reach together without giving up their individuality. The idea is for you to have someone who is different but who can harmonize and bring to your life and you to theirs some things that they cannot have alone. You don't want sameness and thank God because it'll never happen in a marriage relationship. A man and woman will never want the same temperature in the same room at the same time. It's not going to happen.

Quit trying to make it happen. Quit praying that it'll happen. Get over it. It's not going to happen. What you have to do is find a place of harmony. You can reach harmony a number of ways. You can reach it through understanding, through compromise, through negotiation. You can find a place of agreement which means harmony, which means we don't have to want the same temperature in the same room. Let's just figure out how to live in the same house and create an atmosphere of unity, of agreement, of harmony.

Difference is going to serve you well if you allow it. God loves difference. Look at the way God created us. He loves difference. He loves the fact that everything isn't the same. Even in nature, look at the wonderful diversity in nature. Snowflakes aren't even the same. We don't stop and study them, but if you do, they've discovered none of them are the same.

Our fingerprints aren't the same. God loves diversity. He loves both/and, not either/or. God doesn't say pick red or blue, which one you want? God made some things red, made some things blue. He says it can all work together in my plan. People groups can work together in God's plan. One group isn't superior to another group. We are all God's children. We are different by design, but we can all serve the same Christ and glorify God together.

We have to learn to do that. Sometimes Christians try to belittle difference in an attempt to achieve unity. I've heard folk say, "Well, I don't even see color when I see the body of Christ. I don't even see color." Well, why not? There's color there. I know what you mean. You're trying to say that it doesn't create any feeling of prejudice or superiority or anything in you. Okay, to that extent fine, I know what you're getting at. But don't put down difference because God created it.

Don't tell me, "When I see you, Pastor Paul, I don't even see a Black man." I don't know why not. Help me now. Why don't you see what I am? You're probably trying to say that you don't see me in the way that many folks viewed us in days gone by, decades gone by in this country. Some folks still view us according to some old, outdated, unbiblical mindset and understanding. You might be trying to assure me that you don't see me as lower than you or beneath you or anything like that. I appreciate your heart, but don't throw away my difference trying to achieve it.

If you're Caucasian or Asian or Hispanic or from some other cultural group, let's recognize the difference, but let's recognize the difference through the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ, who takes our difference and makes it too glorify Him. Years ago, the late Bishop Benjamin Reid, one of my dearest mentors, told the story of how we can so easily just get trapped into presumptuous thinking.

He says he boarded a flight one day. Bishop Reid was a man about 350 pounds, just a huge fellow. He flew first class to get the comfort of that larger seat. He pulled into his seat and sat down. Before long, a big, tall—now Bishop was a big Black man—a big, tall white gentleman got on board with a big Texan hat. He came in and he slid into the seat next to me. We just kind of looked at each other and that was it.

We sat there, didn't really speak to each other and before long, they buckled in and they took off. He said it was one of those rough take-offs. There were a lot of turbulence in the air in the lower altitudes, and it just took us a while to get into smooth air. We were just being tossed around in the air all while we ascended to cruising altitude. It was just unusually rough, but finally we settled in. When we hit smooth air, he said, "I just sighed, 'Thank you, Jesus.'"

When he said that, the man whipped his head around and said, "What'd you say?" Then I got attitude. In just a split second, I got attitude. I said, "I said, 'Thank you, Jesus.'" Because in that moment I thought, how dare he try to throw off on the fact that I love the Lord and that I thank God for the blessing of smooth air? In my mind, I was building a case against this guy. He hasn't spoken to me. Bishop didn't realize I haven't spoken to him either. But you see how you can be when you're trapped in your own thoughts.

He's thinking, "He hasn't spoken to me, so he's probably prejudiced. He's probably wondering why I'm up here in first class with him." All this can go on in your mind. "He's probably wondering why am I up here? Now not only is he prejudiced, but he's a prejudiced atheist." So I was going to set him straight. I told him, "I said, 'Thank you, Jesus.'" When I said that, the man said, "Well, hallelujah!" He stuck out his hand and said, "I'm Pastor so-and-so, I pastor such-and-such church."

Guest (Male): Consider these words from the apostle Paul. "If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?" Let’s learn to embrace the differences in our brothers and sisters in Christ because we need them just as much as they need us. We’re so glad you stopped by for today’s Destined for Victory message, "Can’t We All Just Get Along."

To find out more about Destined for Victory’s mission and purpose or about the special ministry gift reserved for you when you give generously today, please come see us at pastorpaul.net. That’s pastorpaul.net.

Paul Sheppard: I know you think you’re really wonderful, but a whole world full of you? A whole world full of you, everybody’s like you, have your taste in everything, be a boring world. And it wouldn’t work. A dysfunctional world because all of us have strengths and we have weaknesses. Well, if everybody’s like you, then they all have your same weaknesses.

Guest (Male): That’s tomorrow in our continuing message, "Can’t We All Just Get Along." But until then remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. You are destined for victory.