Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Resolve to make right decisions regardless of the consequences. Living by resolve, what that means is God is calling us to make up our mind in advance of any crisis or any fork in the road or any decision to be made to know ahead of time if this happens, this will be my response.

Guest (Male): Actors memorize their lines long before opening night. Athletes learn their playbooks long before they ever get on the field of play. And we as believers in Christ should decide in advance the choices we'll make when a crisis comes along.

Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Well coming your way today, a case study in living by resolve. As you follow along, you'll get some biblical advice that will help you learn to make the right choices in moments of crisis, no matter what the consequences might be.

As always, you're 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, Getting Heaven’s Attention.

Paul Sheppard: We left off in the last message at the point where Haman has gone to the king and said, "King, there are some people in your kingdom who are Jews and they do not pay attention to your laws and decrees. They're a different kind of bunch. They don't dance to the music that you put out. They live by their own whims and own desires and frankly, King, they are a nuisance and they disobey you. And so I want to ask your permission to have all of these folks killed."

And that's where we are when we arrive at chapter 4. Haman is interested and has developed this plot in his heart and in his mind to have the Jews killed. He has gone to the king. In fact, he even offers, when you look at chapter 3, he even offers to pay money, big money, in order for the people who are going to carry out the edict to have these folks killed, in order for them to be compensated. You know, there are some people who will go to great expense to make sure you are marginalized.

There are people who don't like what God's doing in your life and they are going to come against you very proactively. We need to understand that as it happened in Bible days, it is happening in our day. Around the world, there are Christians who are majorly persecuted and all they're doing is trying to stand for Christ. And let me tell you something, although in America, we're in a country that historically has allowed freedom of worship, I can see the tide shifting and I can see it where it is developing to the point where if you don't agree with public policy and with secular thinking, you and I are going to be persecuted like never before.

It's coming. They are saying some things that the Bible says are wrong, they're declaring them right in our society. And they're going to get it to the point where they make us look like something's wrong with us simply because we stand for God and stand for His Word. And so these are the kinds of books that we need to learn lessons and pay attention to because we're moving into an era, even in our lifetime, where we're going to see this same type of persecution develop. Slowly but surely, the people of God are being marginalized and we are being ostracized and before long, they are going to go after us in some very definite ways.

So when you arrive at Esther 4, this word, this decree has gone out that all of the Jews on a particular day are to be killed wherever they are found anywhere in the kingdom of Persia. Now look with me at Esther chapter 4, the first 8 verses. "When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the city wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king's gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes."

"When Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews."

"He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her. He told him to urge her to go into the king's presence to beg for mercy for her people." Now, here's what I want you to focus in on as we continue to examine this book. Mordecai made the right decision. What was the decision? The decision was to refuse to express worship or adoration to a human being and to reserve worship and adoration exclusively for the Lord his God.

He was not against honor and had he simply been asked to give honor, general honor and respect to this man, it would have been no problem. But this command was far beyond deserving honor. This command was adoration, worship. "When you see Haman, bow. Get low." Some folk would get on their knees, bow their heads, put their face on the ground. This was more like worship and adoration and Mordecai said, "Nothing doing."

He made the right decision. He made a decision that pleased God but his decision displeased some men, especially Haman. What do you do when something inside of you says, "Here is the right decision," and another voice says, "Yeah, but if you make that decision, do you know who's going to be PO'd at you? Do you know what's going to happen if you dare to do the right thing?" Here's what I want to tell you, point number one in this message as we explore this section of the book of Esther. Resolve to make right decisions regardless of the consequences.

Mordecai had his mind made up as he lived his life. I am not going to obey man when what man demands of me is contrary to what God says I ought to do and be. It's a resolve that Mordecai's living by. Notice now that when this decree was given, when this command was given by the king, everybody who sees Haman is to give him, pay extreme homage to him, to bow to him, to adore him. When this came out, Mordecai was not in any distress. Mordecai simply said, "I don't roll like that." It was a matter of his resolve. I don't worship man.

Do you know our journey, we who are called to be followers of Christ, that is what this journey entails? The Holy Spirit teaching us and helping us to live more and more by resolve. Living by resolve, what that means is God is calling us to make up our mind in advance of any crisis or any fork in the road or any decision to be made to know ahead of time if this happens, this will be my response. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we don't naturally live that way. We typically live by our passions, by our feelings, by our thoughts of the moment.

Sometimes we live by situational ethics. We decide in the moment what is the way I want to go. And sometimes, let's be honest, when we're in the flesh, we don't make the decision based on what God wants. We can make it based on the feelings of the moment or the passion of the moment. We can make it based on the fear of the consequences. But the calling, the reason why we study the word, the reason why we have Bibles, is because God says I have you on a path of becoming what I've destined you to be.

And this book is a lamp to your feet and a light to your pathway. And this book tells us if we're going to please God, we gotta know ahead of time that that must be by resolve, that can't be by reaction to a particular set of circumstances because circumstances will come up in all of our lives where we don't feel like going the right way, but God says this is the way, walk in it.

Guest (Male): Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Sheppard. If you're new to the program, we want you to know that we've archived all of our recent messages at our website, pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast at Spotify, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.

Our mission here at Destined for Victory is to serve you and all of our listeners by sharing timeless truth for a victorious life. And one of the reasons we're able to do it is because of your prayers and financial support. You're invited to prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory today. Call 855-339-5500 to make your gift over the phone, or give safely and securely at pastorpaul.net. Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, Getting Heaven’s Attention.

Paul Sheppard: The first point is to resolve to make the right decision regardless of the consequences. We have to be like the early church leaders showed in their own example in Acts chapter 4. You see Peter and John for the first time being directly threatened. "Do not preach the word of God." In Acts 4, beginning in verse 18, they are threatened not to preach the word of God and their response is, "Judge for yourself whether it's right for us to obey you if it means disobeying God."

They didn't have to stand there and say, "We going to do what God says." They said, "You judge. You just figure this out for yourself. God says preach His word, you say don't preach His word, what do you think we ought to do?" And ladies and gentlemen, that's the way we have got to decide by the help of the Lord, by the grace and power He offers to us. We've got to decide the rest of our lives are going to be lived by the resolve to do His will. Not the feeling, not the passion, not the "well what will happen if I make this decision", but the resolve to do the will of God.

They said, "We must obey God rather than man." Over in Acts 16, Paul and Silas are simply doing the will of God. What's the will of God for them? They're on a missionary journey. Silas, as you know, wasn't his original partner in ministry. Originally it was Barnabas, but they had a falling out in Acts chapter 15. But Paul said, "Just because we fell out doesn't mean my calling is revoked. I still gotta do what God's called me to do." So he fell out with Barnabas and God gave him Silas, and he continued on.

And in Acts chapter 16, he's still doing what he was called to do. And in the process of that, they come across a young girl who has a spirit by which she predicts the future. And this girl walks around behind him motivated by this spirit that lives in her and she's constantly the spirit is constantly speaking through them, trying to give them faint praise, hoping they'll hurry up and get out of town so that they can go back to business as usual.

And one day Paul turns around, grieved in his spirit, rebukes that spirit, commands it to come out of that girl and when the spirit comes out of her, she's free. But her masters can no longer make money because she can't predict the future. Let me stop long enough to let you know, here is a case in point about the shift in our country. Just this morning, when my family and I first got in our vehicle to drive here for service, I had it on the news station.

And literally as I was backing out of my garage with that station on, I heard a commercial on the news station, CBS news station here in our region, and the commercial was for psychics, like it was a product to buy in a store. Instead of a Macy's commercial, there was a psychics commercial. "If you need to know this, if you need to know, just call us." It's being slipped in on us as though that's normative.

And the next thing you know, you're going to be strange if you say that's of the devil, it's to be resisted. Now, you're strange. When we say certain things are not God's will for our life and lifestyle, we're going to be strange. So it's here folks, it's not coming, it's here. And we have to get into this word because it's our lamp, it's our light, and it's telling us, since times are changing, since there are people who resist the will of God and want you to resist it, they don't want to acknowledge that there is a God who has a will we must live by, you and I are going to be more and more called to live by resolve.

Not to live in anger or meanness. Jesus represented holiness and righteousness everywhere He went. Yet He was known as a friend of publicans and sinners. So when I'm saying this, I'm not talking that we're going to ever line up with those mean-spirited Christians. I never want anything to do with them. When I see them, I run from them. I know sinners do. You know what I'm saying? You ever seen these mean Christians? They just walk around with the meanest sign they can write up.

They go find some rally somewhere so that they can go and show folk. The Bible says let your light so shine. They let their meanness so shine. They go anywhere where there's going to be a parade or a group of folk and they put up the meanest sign, "You going to hell." I don't want anything to do with them. I want to go around and pass out apology cards. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. They don't represent Jesus." That's Christian Pharisaism.

Jesus, when He hung out in public places, He wasn't making folk sick. He was befriending them so that He could get into their lives and let them know there is a way that I've called you to live and to be and there is a power that is available to you to do the will of God. And we need to be like Christ, loving agents in this dying world. But in the course of loving people, we never are called to compromise the truth of God's word.

So we have to learn to live with this kind of wisdom and resolve. Mordecai didn't start a movement, he just said, "No, I'm not bowing." And the next thing you know, he and all of his people are slated for execution. But he's resolved. We have to resolve to live a life that pleases God, even when our right decisions get us terrible consequences. Before I go to the next point, let me make a point, a word to those who have made wrong decisions.

What do you do when you've been wrong? What do you do when you've made wrong choices? What do you do when you've been out of God's will? Here is the good news. You are never so wrong that you can't get right. That's the good news. That's the gospel. We lived all of our lives before Christ, wrong. You had no choice. You were born wrong. See, some people just don't like that. They don't like that we're born in sin, but that's what the Bible said, we're born in sin, shapen in iniquity.

And all you gotta do is look at your kids and you know it's true. We're born wrong. Born heading in the wrong direction. We're born selfish and self-centered. We want our way. We want the world to revolve around us. "Did you take the cookie?" "Uh-uh." Why? Because I want the cookie and I don't want the consequences for having eaten the cookie when you told me not to eat the cookie. So it's easier to lie. "Did you eat that cookie?" "Uh-uh." Crumbs right there. "Uh-uh."

Born wrong. Lying and cheating and stealing and making selfish decisions and angry at people and all of that stuff. And we live our whole lives there. When Christ comes, He comes to forgive our sin and to start us on a journey. On that journey though, you're still going to make more mistakes. You're still going to have sin that has to be confronted and dealt with in your life. In fact, truth be told, some of us never find out how jacked up we really are until we're in Christ.

Why get shocked at yourself when God unveils the truth about who you are? He's now in your life. The Holy Spirit is there to reveal truth, not just the truth of who God is, but the truth of where you are so you can get to where God wants you to be. This is going to be a church where imperfect people are not pacified but they are affirmed that God never stopped loving you because He found out you were imperfect. In fact, He didn't discover it, you did. He knew it, which is why He saved you. We get shocked. "Say what?"

What do you do when you've made wrong choices as a believer? You've never been so wrong that you can't get right. Here's what you do. You make the next decision the right decision. Been wrong, done wrong, all of that. Consequences all over the place. "What do I do now?" You make your next decision the right decision. You take your wrong to the right place. The Bible says in Proverbs 28:13, "He who covers his sins will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will receive mercy."

God specializes in taking you from way off the beaten path somewhere. Got yourself tangled up into God knows what. I mean somewhere so desperately lost you're not even on a GPS. You can't be found. The thing keeps saying "trying to acquire satellite signal". That's where you are in your life, just way over somewhere. God specializes in saying, "I know exactly where you are."

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message, Getting Heaven's Attention. Well, here at Destined for Victory, we want to direct the world's attention to Jesus Christ. And to do that, we need your help. We've always believed in the power of partnership. It's a core value Pastor Paul put in place years ago. I once spoke with him about the benefits of partnership and today we'd like to share that past conversation with you.

Paul Sheppard: Well, you know when I think of victorious, my mind goes back. I'm a kid growing up watching TV in the 60s so my mind goes back to the Wide World of Sports. Oh yeah. There was an announcer named James McKay, Jim McKay something like that. He had this classic line where he talked about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. And I love just thinking about how thrilling it is to be victorious. I love in any game I'm playing I want to be victorious. I tell people I don't care whether it's Monopoly or something really serious, I want to win.

And in life we can win in Christ and that's what the Bible tells us, that we are victorious in Him. And victorious means that we're following His lead, that we're letting the Holy Spirit take us where He wants us to go in life. We're saved by His grace and then we're simply following His direction. And of course the word of God is so key to following God's direction because the word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway.

And so those who tune in to broadcasts like Destined for Victory are really supposed to be receiving guidance so that we can walk in and live in victory. And that's what I pray is happening as people tune in day by day.

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 today. 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 your way 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. You can make your pledge over the phone or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, P.O. Box 1767 Fremont California 94538. You can also become a partner from our website pastorpaul.net.

If you can't become a partner but would like to send a generous gift to the ministry today we'd love to send our latest booklet, 'You are so loved'. For more information on this outstanding resource please stop by pastorpaul.net.

Paul Sheppard: You gotta learn when trouble comes, get heaven's attention. That's what Mordecai did. He was getting heaven's attention. He was saying this isn't a time to be cute and be full of myself, this is a time to say I need God like never before. And folks we need Him today like never before.

Guest (Male): That's tomorrow at our message Getting Heaven's Attention. Until then though remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. You are destined for victory.