Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Legalism specializes in condemning. Liberalism specializes in condoning. God is neither legalistic nor liberal; he is righteous.

Guest (Male): Here’s how devious Satan can be. He will invite you to sin, but the moment you do, he condemns you for it. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. God is not that way. He neither condones sin nor condemns the sinner, and that’s the approach he wants all of us to take with people in our lives.

How do we do it? Stay with us now to find out. Remember, you’re always invited to come see us at pastorpaul.net, where you can listen to any recent message on demand, including today’s. That’s pastorpaul.net. You can also subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Now let’s listen closely to Pastor Paul’s Destined for Victory message, "Can’t We All Just Get Along?"

Paul Sheppard: Don’t worry about trying to get other folks’ lives straight until you say, "Lord, search me. Try me. See if there be any wicked way in me." Paul said in Galatians 6, "Even when you see a brother or sister overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one." Watch this: "In the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted."

In other words, don’t worry so much about getting other folks right when you’re not in touch with how messed up you are. You might have different issues, which can tend to make you feel superior. But just because you have different issues doesn’t mean that you don’t have things that have to be worked through.

So that’s the other question: where’s the man? They let him go. They know they better not fool with a man who has just been doing what he wanted to do. Some religious folks are going to come and try to step to him? He would have beaten them down.

So they let him go. I’m sorry, he would have had a confrontation with them. Translate as I go. They picked a poor, defenseless woman. They dragged her out there to Jesus. Now here’s what I want you to see about acceptance. They said, "This woman was caught in the act of adultery. Now the law says stone her. Now, Jesus, what do you say?"

Jesus knew their hypocrisy, knew that they only grabbed the woman, knew that they only referenced the law when they got good and ready to suit their own purposes. And so Jesus doesn’t answer the question verbally. You know what he does? Read it when you get a chance in John chapter 8.

He stoops down. He says, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." You all want to have a stoning? All right, here’s the condition: make sure you’re sinless. And in case any of them were that far out of touch as to think they might be in a sinless category, Jesus stooped down. And the Bible says he started writing in the ground, in the dirt.

We don’t know what he wrote; scripture doesn’t tell us. But whatever he wrote jogged the memory or opened up the eyes of the hypocrites standing over his shoulder. Perhaps he looked at the one over his right shoulder and wrote something that let that fellow know, "I know you."

And my man looked at what he wrote. Maybe it was an address, maybe it was a name. You know what I’m saying? But he wrote something, and my man looked at it, and he said, "All right," and he walked away. We don’t know how Jesus did it. Maybe he smoothed that out, looked at the man over the left, wrote something about him, and he walked away.

When Jesus got through writing, the only person left was the woman they dragged out there in the first place. And when he looked at her, he said, "Where are your accusers?" She looked around. She said, "No man accuses me. They’re gone."

Now listen to what Jesus says if you want to learn how to accept people whose lifestyle you disagree with. Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you." Now please don’t misunderstand what Jesus said. He did not say, "I condone what you just did." He said, "I am not here to condemn you."

They attempted to condemn you from a life and a position of hypocrisy. I am not here to condemn you. He says, "I want you to go and sin no more. Stop doing what you’re doing. Stop living the way you’re living."

How does Jesus get to speak that into her life? He has said, "I am not here to condemn you. God in heaven nor I condone what you did," is what he implied. "Rather, I’m here to show you you don’t have to keep living this way. I’m here to walk you out of the dark place into the marvelous light. Come on and experience my grace, and my love, and my mercy."

Legalism specializes in condemning. Liberalism specializes in condoning. God is neither legalistic nor liberal; he is righteous. And in righteousness, he speaks to the dark places in our lives and says, "I’m not calling you to live that way. I’ve got a higher place to take you to, but I’m not going to beat you up in darkness. I’ve come through Christ to tell you I love you and I want to walk you into the light."

And the church will be more like Jesus when we accept people the way he did. We’ve got to accept people the way he did. The church has got to become a place where people aren’t ashamed to say, "Here’s where I am, and I’m open to hear what God’s will and God’s plan is for me. I first and foremost need to receive his grace and his forgiveness, and then I need a community of people who won’t condemn me, but who will help me understand that all of us are seeking to be what God has called us to be."

It’s a sad day when people who are hurting and know they’re messed up think, "I can’t go to church because there are a bunch of people there ready to beat me up with their Bibles. They’re ready to condemn me. They’re ready to look at me and have a very legalistic attitude about who I am and what’s going on in my life."

The church has got to become a place where people say, "I know there are some folks who will love me for who I am. They will love me despite some of the messes in my life." We’ve got to become a therapeutic community. We’ve got to be a place where people don’t have to be hypocrites. For God’s sake, let folks show up in the house of God. If you can’t come before God just as you are, where in the world are you going to go?

And so they’ve got to find this as a place where you’re welcome. We tell our greeters and ushers, "Make sure people know by the look on your face that they’re welcome." Then we try to teach the people as they come into your row, "Smile at them. They might not be dressed the way you wish they were."

Somebody wrote me once and said, "I visited your church, and some folk up in there were dressed in such an indecent way. I just thought I’d let you know I’m never coming back to your church again."

And I thought, if they only knew, the church is the place where people who haven’t learned yet what decent and what preferable dress and all of that is like because their lives have been mired in some things where they’re not down to that. They’re dealing with some deeper issues. And if they can just find some folks who can love them well enough to love them with the love of God, to teach them the word of God, then the word is able to change a life, to clean up a lifestyle, to get your wardrobe together and your speech together.

And I thought, poor fellow. He’s walking around looking for a church where everybody’s straightened up. And my question is, well, who are you ministering to? You’ve got a little righteous club. You’ve got a little clique. That’s exactly what the Pharisees were. You’re not in our club. You don’t do what we do. You don’t look like we look. You don’t have the disciplines we have, and you’re not in the club. They didn’t know most folk didn’t want to be in the club.

And I thought, thank God we’ve developed a reputation where folk can know, come as you are. If you don’t have the best clothes, do the best you can, but come as you are. And we’re going to have the grace to love you like you are. I mean, come on, just have common sense. How are you going to clean up somebody’s life and you haven’t even accepted them and loved them and shown them that we are safe?

We’re safe for you. You don’t have to worry about us. We’re not out to come down on you because we come out of some of the same bags. Oh, come on now. What are you doing looking down on somebody who looks a whole lot like you used to look, and not necessarily that long ago? I don’t get it when folk get saved and get amnesia. Saved and conveniently forget who they are and where they came from.

No, you’ve got to understand. God saved you to position you to turn around, run back into the same burning house that he rescued you out of, to find somebody else and to say there is a way out.

Young man came to me once and said he was in one of the membership classes, and he pulled me aside because we said after the end of the class, people were beginning to say, "All right, I want to be part of the fellowship," and the welcome to the family team was dealing with them. And a young man came to me, and he said, "Pastor, I want to join this church, but I’ve got an issue here." He said, "I struggle with homosexual tendencies, and it’s been a struggle for quite some time."

And he said, "I don’t want to mess up your church. And I would love to be here, and I’m not saying my lifestyle is the way God wants it to be. I want God to work in my life. But this is where I am. I’ve got to start from where I am, and I’m afraid if I come in, I’ll mess up your church."

I said, "Brother, it’s already messed up. You’re too late if you think you’re the one who’s going to come in and mess it up. I’ve got news for you: you are several hundred members too late. This is a hospital. It’s not full of well folk; it’s full of sick folk who are getting well by the word of God."

I said, "No, no, you don’t have to worry about messing things up. We are a holy mess already. Holy because we’re found clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. See, he clothes you first so that if you die while he’s still working on you, you have on Jesus and you’re going to heaven. Therefore there’s no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus."

I said, "So when you’re in Christ, you’re forgiven. And now the Holy Spirit goes to work." And I said, "Man, when you’re dealing with issues like that, that’s not a fruit issue anyway, that’s a root issue. And some churches only want to go after the fruit. Stop slipping around."

You don’t deal with weeds in your yard by cutting them down at the surface and above-level. You’ve got to find out what’s going on. And I said, "In Christ and in fellowship, you’ll get to the bottom of some things so that as you’re discovering from the word what the will of God is, you’re also discovering how the dynamics in your life have brought you to the place where this is the kind of help you need." I said, "But be assured, everybody in here from the pastor down needs some kind of help, and the Holy Spirit is working on all of us."

And I told the people, "Hand me one of those membership profiles." I said, "Here, brother, fill this out. You are welcome in this place. You make the commitment to line your life up with the leading of the Spirit by the help that he provides." I said, "God will give you a shining testimony."

And let me tell you something: until the church learns how to accept without either condemning or condoning, we’ll not be what God has called us to be, and there will be so many people we can’t reach. Because listen, if people can’t find among God’s children a safe place, the church ought to be—I heard a term I love a couple of years ago, been using it ever since—the church ought to be a soft place to fall. It ought to be a place where your fall isn’t going to kill you. It’s not going to break your neck.

God’s people ought to be able to hear where you are without fanning hard. You know what I mean? Sitting in a group, you need to be able to say, "And here’s what I’m struggling with." And let me tell you something, that’s why in a lot of churches, God can’t send certain folk to them. Because he knows you’d mess them up for life.

But if he can find a group of people who will determine, "I will not be shocked," because the very nature of sin is sin has all kind of forms, all kind of manifestations. If some of you all knew what some of us on the pastoral team know about folk you’re worshipping with, where they are, what they’re struggling to overcome, what they’re giving over to God, some of us wouldn’t want to sit too close to them. But others of us who know that I’m in the same position, that is, God is working on me to bring me into conformity to his will.

Now what we don’t want is folk who say, "Here is where I am, here is the way I live, and you just better accept it." Well, no, we don’t have to do that, because God doesn’t tell us to do that. You’ve got to show sincerity. Even back when John the Baptist was baptizing folk, he said, "Give me some proof of repentance. I want to see an evidence that you want the will of God for your life."

He said, "But I’m not asking for perfection. I’m just asking for evidence of a changed heart." See, that’s where you want to be. You want to say, "Lord, I’m here so you can change my heart, so you can bring me in line with your will."

Don’t bring your sin and try to parade it in God’s face and say, "This is the way I’m going to be, and I don’t care who likes it, and the church better get off of my back." Told you, I told you years ago I was in Philadelphia ministering as an associate pastor, and we had some folk in the church. They came, got real excited about the church and what have you. And so they joined and they wanted to get in the choir and what have you.

And one day, for—I was looking through the records and I saw these people, and I didn’t know them to be married, but I saw the same address and what have you. I said, "Okay, let me just find out what’s going on here. We might have some error in the records." And so I just called them and said, "Listen, we’re just trying to get some things straight and just want to check this out."

And so confirmed that they both live in the same place. I said, "So now wait, are you all—are you all married and you just have two separate last names?" They said, "No, no, we’re not married. We’ve been living together for years," and what have you. I said, "Oh, well, I need to talk to you. Can you come on in?"

And so they came on into the office and I lovingly said to them, "Now, I hear you’ve been living together. I’m assuming this is in a romantic kind of relationship as opposed to platonic, separate rooms, and you all have some special arrangement of some sort?" And so they said, "No, we’ve been, you know, we’ve been living together and we don’t—"

I said, "Now, have you—that well, obviously you care about the things of God. You’ve come to the church. You want to plug in." I said, "You do understand, I take it, that the arrangement of your lifestyle is not consistent with the will of God, and that God would want you to get married if in fact you all want to unite and live together as husband and wife? You need to be married."

I said, "I’ve married many people right here in this office, and so if that’s what you all want to do, we can arrange that very quickly." And they said, "We have no interest in getting married and we have no interest in you budding into the situation. And we want to be in the choir."

And so I apologized for my intrusion into their—into their issues. I said, "But by virtue of the fact that you want to join our church and you want to be in the choir, that’s where I have to insert myself. I’m sorry that it makes you uncomfortable, but I need to tell you our standard is very clear because the word of God is very clear. If you’re going to live in this kind of arrangement and this kind of lifestyle, you need to get married or one of you needs to move out. And until that happens, we’re not going to be able to accommodate you in our membership. You’re always welcome to come to the services and hear the word of God."

And they were highly incensed. Oh, they were through with me and they were through with the whole church and they stormed out. Well, see, I can’t apologize for that, because I didn’t write the book. I didn’t write the book; it beat me here. And my job is to simply tell folk what thus saith the Lord.

Now again, if folk are struggling with some deeper issues, then the church ought to help walk them through those issues. See, there’s a balance to this thing. If you just give folk the command and don’t walk with them, that won’t help a lot of folk. But then if you fail to give them the command, you’re not honoring God.

If I want to love you in an anything goes way, well, I’m not representing God when I do that. Because God says I love you, but not everything goes. God says I love you like you are, but I don’t plan to leave you like you are. And I’ve shown my acceptance of you by sending my son to first of all die for your sins, and then secondly to give you his Holy Spirit so that the Spirit can walk with you.

And I want to tell you something: when we learn to accept people, God will send them. God will send them. Some of them won’t look like you, won’t act like you. Some of them you’ll think they’re strange. But remember, when you think people are strange, chances are they think you’re strange, too.

But I know that if the church will learn to accept others, neither condemning nor condoning, but pointing the way—and Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life"—we’ll see God moving in a marvelous way, and it’ll help us to establish unity in our midst.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being here with us for today’s Destined for Victory message, "Can’t We All Just Get Along?" Always glad to have you with us. As you may know, Pastor Paul Sheppard spent his life sharing the gospel and helping believers grow in their faith. But he never did it without help because he knew he needed it. We all do.

Many times over the years I had the chance to speak with Pastor Paul about the power of partnership. I asked him then what he would say to you, our listening friends, and here’s what he had to say.

Paul Sheppard: I want them to know your partnership is very, very important and necessary. When you think about it, starting way back, I’m thinking about Moses. He could not have been Moses without the partners God gave him. God raised up Joshua. The Bible called Joshua Moses’ minister before it called him God’s minister. And Joshua was one of those key people. Aaron, his brother, was one of his key partners.

Every man or woman of God since then, all the way into, of course, when you get to the ministry of Jesus, Jesus himself required partnership. Isn’t that amazing that the God-man needed partners? He took Peter, James, and John farther into the Garden of Gethsemane, and he said, "Just stay here and watch with me," and he cried and poured out his heart to get ready for that moment when he would lay down his life for us. And he needed that partnership. He had Peter, James, and John; he also had Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

Then when you look at the apostles, there is no Paul without Timothy, without Silas, without Barnabas, and on and on. All of us need partners. So the bottom line is, I’m so grateful for every man, woman, boy, and girl who has become a partner for our ministry so you can keep on providing this platform so that we can reach even more people for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Pastor Paul always made it clear that he wanted Destined for Victory to continue long after his preaching days were over. So today your partnership with us is more important than it’s ever been as we seek to build upon the strong legacy of faith he left behind.

For as little as $20 a month, you can become a Destined for Victory partner. And we want you to know that every penny of your donation will go towards advancing the gospel all over the world through our media ministry at Destined for Victory.

When you partner with us, we’ll send you a few thank you gifts, including one of our most popular CDs, "The Best of Let My People Smile." Call 855-339-5500 to find out more about how to become a Destined for Victory partner. Make your pledge over the phone or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. You can also become a partner at our website, pastorpaul.net.

Now if you can’t become a monthly partner but would like to send a generous gift to the ministry, we’d love to send you our latest booklet, "Improving Your Serve." For more information on this outstanding resource, please stop by pastorpaul.net.

Paul Sheppard: We’d have a greater witness for God if churches in the same city would stop fighting each other. You’ve got a devil to fight. Why are you going to fight your brothers and sisters? We’ve got a spiritual warfare to wage.

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