Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): Hello and thank you for being here with us on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Before we get going with today’s teaching, Improving Your Serve, we have an important message to share with you. For years now, Destined for Victory has been committed to using the media to reach as many people as we can with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to ask Pastor Paul to talk about why radio is so important, and here’s what he said.

Paul Sheppard: Well, 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 there are the ways that I say them that are unique. I believe that that perspective needs to be heard throughout Christendom. So, 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 bombarded or 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. So, 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. So, 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, and I pray that that’s resonating with listeners. I pray that that 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 Christ.

Guest (Male): Well, that was Pastor Paul’s mission, and it remains our mission today: to bring timeless truth for a victorious life on radio, online, and on our free mobile app. Now, we can’t do any of this without your help. So today, we’re asking you to send a generous donation to Destined for Victory so we can keep Pastor Paul’s preaching on this media outlet.

As our way of saying thank you, 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.

You can do that by giving on the phone and calling 855-339-5500. That’s 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.

I want to let you know that service comes at a price tag. It comes at a price tag of sometimes your personal comfort. It comes at a price tag of your wallet or pocketbook. You can't love people and see them in need and do absolutely nothing. Christianity is a service industry. We're called to follow in the steps of Jesus, who humbled Himself to a life of servitude, including the laying down of His own life. Today, you'll be reminded that God not only calls us to improve in the area of service, but He infuses us with the power to do so. The message is called Improving Your Serve, and it starts right now.

Paul Sheppard: Romans chapter 12, the third foundational principle, governing principle for life in the will of God, is service to others. You cannot love God without loving the people He loves and serving them in His name. So, Paul gives us, as he wraps up this chapter, some practical pointers for how to improve your service to others.

Now, we’ve already covered the first two in an earlier message, and they are: number one, to love people without compromise. Paul says love must be sincere while we hate what is evil and cling to what is good. The idea there is that we must love people with the love of God. The word "love" in verse nine is the Greek word "agape." It means unconditional, sacrificial love, a love that is not just because of, but a love that is in spite of.

He says our love toward people should reflect the love of God Himself and to love them even if they don't treat you right. We talked about the importance of loving people without compromising evil in our lives or in the lives of other people. We talked very specifically about how to do that. Then the second point in verse ten is to practice devotion.

The second pointer Paul gives for improving your serve is to practice devotion. Devotion has to do with being so committed to people on the basis of that brotherly love. Now, the love, the word "love" in verse ten, is a different Greek word than agape. It is the Greek word—the base of it is "phileo." The expression here is "Philadelphia." It is the word that the city I was born and raised in was named after: the idea of brotherly bond, of brotherly affection.

Paul says here, when it comes to being in the family of God, we have a bond that ought to express itself in devotion. I want to encourage you: stop throwing people away in your life because you might have a spat with them or a disagreement with them. Brotherly love says we are family, we are committed, and I won't throw you away because I didn't bring you into the family.

You’ve got to remember now that you pick your friends, but you're stuck with your relatives. In the body of Christ, you don't get to pick who's in. If they're in by the blood of Christ, they're in. That's all you can do is just say, "There's my brother, there's my sister. Yeah, a little strange at times, but that's my brother or sister." We are called to be devoted to one another, to make a strong commitment to one another. We talked some about that.

Now I want to pick it up and talk about the third pointer that Paul gives us here as he wraps up chapter 12, and that would be to maintain your spiritual fervor and focus. Look at verses 11 and 12 of Romans chapter 12. Paul says in verse 11: "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

Paul says if you want to serve people better and in so doing please God, you've got to maintain your spiritual fervor and focus. What he means by that is the only way to serve God and serve other people well is to make sure that you keep up in your walk with God. I have noticed that if a person begins to slip in his or her personal walk with God, the quality of the way they treat others will also begin to slip.

That's because we serve people ideally—we do it out of the spiritual power that we gain by walking with the Lord. I want to encourage you: don't let anybody keep you from getting your time with God. You need your time with God. Don't ever say, "I'm too busy to pray." You are too busy not to pray. You need prayer. If you're going to deal with people, you need to talk to God.

Do I have a witness? Because people—if you don't talk to God, you won't have enough energy, enough strength, enough grace to put up with some of the people in your life. I'm talking about your life now. Think about the folk in your life, not just the ones you like. "Oh, that's my boy. Oh, that's my girl. Oh, yeah." No, no, not just those. You don't need a whole lot of energy for that because some of them are fillers.

I told you in another message: there are some people who are fillers and there are some people who are drainers. Think about your drainers for a moment. The drainers in your family, the drainers on your job, the drainers in your community, the drainers out here on these roads and streets. The folk that in the store—that bad customer service rep with an attitude. I'm talking about the folk at the grocery store, the folk where they get on your last—they tap dance on your reserve nerve.

That last nerve. You know, we have our normal set of nerves, and then you have that reserve nerve. That's the last one. If that one goes, everybody better back up. Have you ever had anybody messing with your reserve nerve? That's that last one. You feel like you're not far from losing the whole thing. If they mess with that one, if somebody else from the church sees you, they'll say, "Oh, Lord."

Have you ever embarrassed yourself by the way you—come on now, we need to be real. We need to be honest. No future in fronting now. Everybody want to be real for a minute? Have you ever embarrassed yourself? You were ashamed of yourself, the way you handled somebody or the way you went off on somebody. You just said, "That just doesn't even make sense. There's no point in me trying to justify it. God, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know I did not reflect Your glory in that moment."

The only way to avoid that, my friend, is for you to make a quality decision that if anything doesn't get done in your day, what will get done is you will spend time with God. Spend some time reading a chapter or two of His word. Spend some time—what I call praying your day—and spend some time focused on: "Lord, help me to reflect You as I go about my day. Help me to reflect Your glory. Give me the grace I need to deal with people with energy."

See, Paul said, "Don't be lacking in zeal." Well, where am I going to get that? I've got to get that from the presence of the Lord. Give me the zeal, Lord, I need. Give me the fervor I need in order to represent You, to love people well. Jesus was the kind of person when He walked the earth that when people saw Him coming, they loved seeing Him come because they knew that it would be a good experience. Now, He taught some tough things, and truth sometimes offends people. But even though His message was sometimes offensive, His carriage never was.

Guest (Male): In case you joined us late, you’re listening to Destined for Victory featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. And 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. So 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 when you stop by our website, remember that’s where you can also listen to the broadcasts on demand at your convenience: pastorpaul.net. Jesus was always offering practical help to those in need. He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick, and in doing so, He opened the door to sharing the Gospel. Now let’s get you back to the rest of today’s Destined for Victory message, Improving Your Serve. Here once again is Pastor Paul Sheppard.

Paul Sheppard: Jesus didn't offend people by what He did. He didn't mistreat people because He operated in the power of the Holy Spirit. I want to let you know that that power is available to you and to me. When you're saved, God sends His Spirit into your heart, establishing a relationship between you and God. What you must learn to do is yield so that the Holy Spirit fills you with the power to make a difference for Him in the lives of other people.

That's a power that you can only get from heaven. Joel described it this way in his prophecy: He said, "In the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." You know, on the day of Pentecost, that is the scripture that Peter referred to when folk looked at these disciples who were at that moment speaking in tongues, the wonderful works of God in these various languages.

People looked and said, "What in the world is going on?" The response came from Peter: "This is what God was talking about through the prophet Joel." They accused them of being drunk. He said, "We're not drunk. It's only nine in the morning and the bars aren't open yet." Right there in your Bible! He said, "It's the third hour of the day. We're not drunk as you suppose."

But the implication was: "But we are high on something." What we're high on is the power of God that'll help us represent God in a world where you better not be sober; you better be high on the Holy Spirit. I want to encourage somebody to take a drink in the morning before you get out there. Take a drink of the Holy Spirit's power. "Oh God, I need You. I can't afford to be sober. I need to have a little spiritual buzz."

I need a little buzz now to deal with these folk. If I'm sober, I'm going to hurt somebody now. I need a buzz. He says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor." I want to encourage you to do that. You know, because when the Holy Spirit energizes you, it is not—in many ways, it's not unlike the analogy of being drunk. When folk are drunk, two things characterize them. Their speech is different. Isn't that right? You can tell when folk are drunk just listen to them.

We'll know when you're operating in the power of the Holy Spirit because your speech reflects the fact that God is at work here. The second thing about drunk folk is they walk differently. Have you noticed that? They walk differently. They can't walk the same when they're drunk. Your walk will be different when you are energized by the Holy Spirit, operating under the influence. See, you get pulled over for driving under the influence. Well, I want to suggest that there's a DUI you want. You want to drive under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

You want to live under the influence of the Spirit. You want to speak to others and deal with others under the influence of the Spirit. That means that you spend time with God. So he says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor." You get that from the presence of the Lord. He gives us specifics. He says, "Be joyful in hope." When the Holy Spirit is operating in your life, you can have a joy. Now joy is different from happiness. Always know that happiness depends on what happens.

But joy you can have even when you're not crazy about what's happening. I don't know about you, but that's what I need. I can't count on happiness, but I can look to the Lord for joy. "The joy of the Lord," Nehemiah said, "is our strength." He said you can be joyful when you're living under the influence of the Spirit; you can be joyful in hope. Drunk folk can smile when there's really nothing funny.

So I want to suggest that you allow God to do a work in your life where you can just smile when it just doesn't make sense. When the enemy thinks you ought to be going crazy right about now, you just have a nice smile on your face. You know, some folk will say, "See, she just tuned out. She just lost it. There it is." No, I haven't lost it; I just found a secret place. The Psalm said, "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

So you want to be joyful in hope. He says that you want to be patient in affliction. If you're going through a trying time, afflictions aren't necessarily physical. Some afflictions can be physical in nature—some sort of sickness—but affliction is trouble in general. If you are going through a time of being troubled, a time of being challenged, going through some valley experience, there is a grace to be patient in the midst of that, knowing God won't leave you there. But for the season you are there, He is with you.

You want to tap into God's power so you can be faithful in affliction. The final thing he says here is be faithful in prayer. You want to be faithful in prayer. Do not allow your prayer life to suffer. In fact, the more you go through tough times, the more you deal with challenging people, the more you ought to pray. Just make up in your mind. Now prayer is the kind of discipline that you have to develop against everything around you because the one thing the enemy doesn't want you to do is pray, because he knows there's wonderful power in prayer.

He doesn't mind you always going to church. He doesn't mind you necessarily hanging out with other believers. But when you begin to call on God and ask Him to give you grace and power and surrender before Him, that's when the enemy gets agitated. So what happens is—and some of you know it who have decided you're going to establish a regular prayer time—is you have to fight for it. If you don't believe in spiritual warfare, I can prove it to you. Just make up in your mind you're going to pray every day.

You will discover the reality of spiritual warfare. You will set your time and you'll say, "Okay, this is my time with God," and everything will come up in your mind. Everything will come up as a reason why you can't pray. "I don't have time to pray." Stuff will come through your mind because the enemy will just try to shoot you all kind of thoughts, because he hates the idea of you praying. He knows that when you pray, you'll have the power to chase him off. So you want to be faithful in prayer and decide that you are going to maintain your spiritual fervor and focus.

Number four, the fourth practical pointer Paul gives us for improving our service to others is found in verse 13. Look at what he says there. He says very simply: "Share with God's people who are in need and practice hospitality." Practice hospitality. That's the fourth pointer: practice generosity and hospitality. Practice generosity and hospitality. The idea is, if I want to improve the way I serve others in the name of the Lord, then I have to realize that this cannot be at my convenience.

If we serve only at our convenience, we will not meet many needs. Some people's need can only be met if I will divest so that I can invest in them. So I want to let you know that service comes at a price tag. It comes at a price tag of sometimes your personal comfort. It comes at a price tag of your wallet or pocketbook. You can't love people and see them in need and do absolutely nothing.

But the Bible says, if you see your brother or sister in need and you shut up your bowels of compassion, how does the love of God dwell in you? So there will be those times when people are in need and they express the need or you learn of the need, and at least you want to pray and say, "Well, let me pray and let's believe God with you that this need will be met." But don't be surprised when in the course of asking God to meet someone's need, the Holy Spirit doesn't tap you on the shoulder and say, "Yeah, and the answer to that prayer is in your pocket, or in your pocketbook, in your wallet, or you can write a check, or you can go to the ATM."

Because love costs. God so loved the world that He gave. See, some folk want to have a love that talks rather than a love that gives. But talk is cheap. If you truly love somebody and there is a need you can meet, unless the Holy Spirit tells you not to meet it, your default position ought to be, "Lord, is this part of what You want me to do?" Because Paul said, "Share with people in need."

So that ought to be something that you are prone to do, prone to help one another. The Bible says the early church was characterized by this kind of generosity. They would share with one another as they had need. I want to tell you something: the body of Christ has got to look out for one another. Because Jesus said in John chapter 13, "They will know that you are My disciples by the love you have one for another."

Notice what He didn't say. He didn't say the world will know you belong to Me by the love you have for them. Now it's important to love people who don't know the Lord. But Jesus' point in John 13:35 is they'll know you are My disciples by the way they see you loving brothers and sisters in the family of God. Because they'll want to be part of a family that doesn't just talk a good game. The world is not interested in a church that doesn't practice what it preaches. They will not be impacted by people who are all rhetoric and no reality. So one of the ways you do that is you express generosity.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being here with us for today’s Destined for Victory message, Improving Your Serve. To find out more about Destined for Victory’s mission and purpose or about the special gift reserved for you when you give generously today, please come see us at pastorpaul.net. That’s pastorpaul.net.

Paul Sheppard: My friend, I want to let you know: whether friend or foe, the Bible calls us to seek to get along with everyone. In your sphere of influence, make sure that you are doing what promotes harmony and peace in your relationships with other people.

Guest (Male): That’s next time in our continuing message, Improving Your Serve. Until then, remember: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.