Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Don't let anybody else light up your life. I've told you many times before, if you let anybody else light up your life, they own the light bulb. "Oh, you light up my life, you give me hope to carry on." Don't sing that about a person. If they light you up, they own the light bulb.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory, featuring Pastor Paul Sheppard. Whether you're listening on radio, online, or from our free mobile app, thanks for making us part of your day. Well, for the past several days, we've taken up a close and personal look at the key attributes of the risen Christ.

He is the spotless lamb who takes away the sin of the world, the King of Kings who will one day return to take His children home. Today, we'll talk about why Jesus is the light of the world and why He should be the only light of your world. Remember, pay us a visit at pastorpaul.net, where you can hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, "Jesus in High Definition."

Paul Sheppard: Pastor friend of mine said he had scheduled an appointment with a very high-level pastor that he wanted to pick his brain. This man's extremely busy, and he said the man's executive assistant called me and said, "He's going to give you 20 minutes. You need to be here at such and such a time. You'll get 20 minutes with him."

He said, "I made sure to get there early. I'm sitting there waiting, and finally she said, 'All right, sir, you may go in.'" And he went in, he said, and started talking with him. He knew he was on the clock, so he pulled out his paper. He started asking his questions, picking his brain. And he said just when we started, this pastor's child ran in. Didn't have an appointment.

Child just ran in and said, "Daddy, Daddy, I want you to see something." And showed him something, I forget what he said, whether it was a drawing or whatever. He stopped talking to me altogether and began to focus his attention on his child. And he looked at them and interacted with them. "Yeah, and something happened, and had something else." And he stood there.

He said the child took about seven minutes. Finally, the busy pastor said, "All right, now I need to finish talking with this pastor, so why don't you run along? I'll meet up with you a little later." He said, "All right, Daddy," and ran out. The pastor looked at his watch and said, "Now you have 13 minutes."

Why? Because the child had first preference of his time. Do you know you have first cut at God's time? You can come to God whenever you need Him. You can call on Him in the middle of the night. You can call on Him in the middle of a hectic day. You can say, "Daddy, I need You. Things aren't going well. I need Your help, I need Your grace, I need Your peace, I need Your strength, I need Your power. Help me, help me right now."

And the Bible says He is a present help when you and I are in trouble because we are a kingdom and we are priests. We can come boldly to His throne. No heavenly executive assistant to keep you out. When you call on heaven, you don't get put on hold and have to listen to the angels sing for a while.

I'm trying to show you that Jesus is wonderful. Then in verse seven, we're told He's coming again. I've told you earlier in the series that Jesus is coming again. No need of us fussing about eschatology. I know we have the different views, family of God. We have the futurists and the preterists and the this and the that and all of that.

And we have amillennial and premillennial and post and all that stuff. Listen, we can disagree vigorously about the how-tos, but let's affirm vigorously the main and plain truth, which is that Jesus is coming again. He's coming again. I'm here to tell somebody who's getting too comfortable in this life, don't do it. Jesus is coming again.

The old folks said wear this world like a loose garment. Don't act like you're staying here forever. Don't build all your hope on things here that are temporal and that can vanish in a moment. Jesus is coming again. And so you got to live ready to check out any old time. You got to have your bags packed. You got to have your business in order.

Don't walk around owing somebody an apology you won't give them. Jesus is coming, and He's coming soon. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days." You say, "Well, how do you know it's the last days, Pastor?" Watch this. Terrible times in the last days.

This is Paul writing first century, the beginning of the last days. He said in the last days, later on, terrible times are coming. He said, "Let me show you what it's going to look like. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents." Don't start me on that. "Ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."

And the last thing he mentions is having a form of godliness but denying its power. All of those things are in blossom all around us. So surely, we have to live knowing Christ's return is imminent. And so He says He's coming again.

Now, as you look at the closing verses of Revelation 1, John gives us a little more of a description of Christ. And in the midst of that, he pauses long enough to tell us who he is. He says that, "I am here, I am on the Island of Patmos," and he said, "I'm here because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."

John was the sole survivor among the original apostles at this time. Among the original followers of Christ who became leaders of the early church, John now is the sole survivor, and he has been exiled to the Island of Patmos. The others have all already died, and they have already died the death of martyrs.

John is the only one who did not die as a martyr. He, by every indication, died of old age, natural causes. But the Lord left him alive to receive this testimony. They thought they were getting rid of the old man, sending him away. But the Lord said, "I'm going to let you get back. They're not going to sentence you to the rest of your life on that island; they're just putting you away for a while."

And all they did was send him away so that he could hear from God. God is wonderful. Even when folk are trying to do bad by you, your steps are ordered by the Lord. And John's on the island, but he's there by the will of God. And God says, "I'm just going to give you a revelation, and when you get back home, I want you to take it and share this message with the seven churches I'm going to send you to."

But then look at what he says, and he gives us a little more information. He says, "On the Lord's Day," verse 10, "I was in the spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said, 'Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches.'" And then he begins to describe what he saw.

Before we get to what he saw, note he said, "On the Lord's Day I was in the spirit," talking about resurrection day, talking about Sunday, the day the church came to honor because of the resurrection of Christ being on the first day of the week. And that's how the church came to traditionally worship on Sunday.

It was historically just an acknowledgment and celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. So when people ask you, "Well, why don't New Testament believers always worship on the Sabbath?" Some do, but others choose to worship on Sunday because it was a celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Listen, I don't fight anybody over days. I don't care when you worship. I just care that you worship.

Worship on the Sabbath, worship on the Lord's Day, worship on Wednesday afternoon at 2:37. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you worship God in spirit and in truth. But he said, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day," meaning I was having a spiritual experience. I was tuned in to God.

I want to tell you something. Coming to church is not going to bless you and let you offer to the Lord your sacrifice of praise unless you are in the spirit. That means you have to get out of the flesh. You have to get out of fleshly mindset. You have to tune in and zoom in on God and say, "Lord, I want to love You. I want to have a one-on-one with You. I want to let You know how much You mean to me, and I want to be in a place where I can receive what You have for me."

Just because you're in the church, just because it's Sunday or Saturday or whatever day you worship, doesn't mean you're in the spirit. Being in the spirit means you tune in to God. You shut out the thoughts of the world, and you say, "Lord, this is our time. This is just You and me." And you'll experience God better when you learn to walk in the spirit. You'll experience God better.

Let me give it to you this way. Walking in the spirit, tuning in to God, is very much like tuning in a television receiver or a radio. Do you know in this room right now are all kinds of things? Right in here now, there's classical music right in here. Beautiful violins and strings and horns. Beautiful stuff. You know why you're not enjoying it? You're not tuned in.

There's gospel in here right now. There's rap in here right now. Some of y'all say, "Thank God I'm not tuned in." But it's in here right now. Pump it up, pump it up, hoe, hoe. In here right now. There's jazz in here right now. There's the Quiet Storm. There's oldies but goodies. All of it. You know why you're not experiencing it? You're not tuned in. But if you had the right receiver with you and it's plugged in and tuned in to one of those stations, you'd be experiencing something that the other folk aren't experiencing because you're tuned in.

Guest (Male): Please don't go away. We have more of today's Destined for Victory message coming up next. But we want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help us keep this media ministry going. If you'd like to join us in our mission to preach timeless truth for a victorious life, please consider making a safe and secure donation at our website, pastorpaul.net.

Or, if it's more convenient, you can just give us a call at 855-339-5500. Again, 855-339-5500. Now, let's get you back to the second half of Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, "Jesus in High Definition."

Paul Sheppard: I used to have a sister back in the early days when we were at Coberly Theater, little tiny church. She would come in with her radio. She was such a sports enthusiast. And during worship, she had the thing in her ears, and she's listening to her game. Every now and then I'm preaching, and her "Amen," her response wasn't because of what I said.

She's not here now. She's gone on to be with the Lord, so y'all don't have anybody to tease now. And I told her after service one time, I said, "This is our time with the Lord, not your team. Cut that out in Jesus' name." And we now try to get people to do that with cell phones and all that. There's a time to zone out so that you can focus in.

And thank God most of you are doing it. I appreciate it. Every now and then, some of y'all, I'm still praying for you. Other day, man just text through the whole service. Just text. Heard my announcements biggest day, just texting. And didn't even, I mean, wasn't even trying to be, on the down-low.

Had it where you'd hear the little tone when his text was responded to. Di-dip, and then he'd text him back. Di-dip, text him back. I'm preaching. Y'all know Jesus has done a work in me. I'm telling y'all right now. You got any doubt? I'm telling you, I got all kind of proof. Jesus has done a work in me. I'm like Homie, I don't play that.

You got to be in the spirit if you're going to receive from God. That's why you have to be careful when you're getting ready to worship. You have to be careful what happens and doesn't happen. My wife and I learned years ago, especially if I was going to be ministering, but even if I'm not going to be ministering, just that we're going to have an experience with God in public worship.

We learned, but it was all the more so when I was getting ready to preach. And we saw this little pattern develop not that long into our marriage where we'd get into the dumbest fights just before church. And now I'm coming to church with an attitude. We're mad and upset and not speaking in the car and all that stuff. Y'all, some of y'all been there.

And you got to get out the car, you're mad, and then folk say, "Praise the Lord," you say, "Hallelujah, God bless you." And you feel just as phony. And we had to learn, we had to learn. Saturday is a no-argument day so that we could tune in and get our hearts ready. So I could get ready to minister, and she could get ready to be here and receive from God, and we be here to minister to the people.

And we had to learn, and we made years ago, we made an agreement. Look, if there's something, I say, "Babe, if we need to have some intense fellowship about something..." That's the euphemism for arguing, intense fellowship. Said, "If we need to do that, why don't you just put that on hold and just let us get through the weekend so we're both free? I'm free to minister, you're free to serve and worship and what have you, and we're free."

And then after that's over, then you can share what's on your heart. And I was so grateful that she developed that discipline. There's some times when I knew there was something. I could tell on the look on her face. I knew the look on her face meant when I get you Monday morning, it's going to be on. Y'all messing up my message. Where am I? Oh yeah.

In the spirit on the Lord's Day. So you have to protect your attitude. I'm telling you, you have to protect your attitude. You have to decide, I'm going to stay focused on the right things. Look at what he said as we wrap it up. He said in verse 13, he said, "I saw one like the Son of Man standing among the golden lampstands."

You learn in the last verse or so of chapter 1 that the lampstands represent the churches. He was standing among the churches. What that tells you is that Jesus knows what's going on in the church. Why? Because it's His church. Don't ever start acting like it's my church. No, it's the church I'm a member of, but it's Jesus' church.

You can't act any old kind of way in Jesus' church. You can't disrespect people and not love people in Jesus' church. It's His. We got to do things His way. That's why there has to be discipline when people get out of order. And that's one of the features of church life a lot of people don't like. They think they can come show off and then get away with it.

But as an under-shepherd, myself and the elders and pastors and leaders of this church have to call them on it. Say, "You can't act any old kind of way in God's house." And I'm grateful we got people in this church to this day, they've been disciplined and they said, "That's right, I was wrong, so sorry," and they fell right in line. God is blessing them richly.

We had others who felt led to leave. That's fine too. I just hope wherever you land, they know how to practice discipline so that the church of Jesus Christ reflects His glory. He said He was walking among the golden lampstands. Said His robe reached down to His feet. That means He's a king. That's a picture of Jesus as a king.

See, we're kings, but we serve under the great King and the great High Priest. And it's a sign of His being a king and the great High Priest. He said His head and hair were white. That means Jesus is the all-wise one. Listen, God is not a little bit smarter than you. It'll bless you when you really understand that.

You think that's a point not worth making? I promise you, I've been pastoring long enough, I promise you, I got to teach people. God's not a little bit smarter than you. It's not like you graduated cum laude and God graduated summa cum laude. He is infinitely more wise than any of us. So we have to learn to yield to the wisdom of God.

He said His eyes were like blazing fire. You know what that means? That means Jesus knows your business. Blazing fire. That means He knows exactly what's going on in your life. Everything. All the details. What's done in secret is in full knowledge of God. Here's the point of that: You can't get over on God.

That's what Paul was trying to say in Galatians chapter 6. He said, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked." Some of us are just used to getting over on people. But when you bring that into the kingdom, I want to let you know Jesus knows your business. It says His feet were bronze, glowing in a furnace.

That means He is our sure foundation. When you are in Christ, you can stand on the solid rock. You no longer have to be shaky and unsure about the way you live. We have a firm foundation in Christ. Says His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. That means Jesus speaks powerfully and decisively.

People say, "Well, how do you know God when He speaks to you?" Sometimes He speaks in a still small voice, and you have to learn to discern, like young Samuel did in the temple. And when he first heard the voice of God, he ran to Eli because he was used to Eli's voice. Finally, after running to him a few times, Eli said, "You know what? The Lord is speaking to this boy."

He sent him back, he said, "Next time you hear the voice, say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.'" And he zoomed in and focused on God, and God began to share with him as a lad what He was going to do in Israel. And let me tell you something, you'll get to know the voice of God. And hopefully, you'll get to enjoy Him speaking to you in a still small voice.

But I tell you what, if you don't hear Him when He's speaking quietly, God knows how to thunder. You ever had God thunder in your life? You ever been so out of order, you ever been so wrong, that God has to fuss? I've had it happen. Y'all too holy; y'all haven't had it happen. I've had it happen, and it's not fun. He speaks powerfully and decisively.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message, "Jesus in High Definition." Well, Destined for Victory would not exist if it were not for the strong partnerships we've built with many of you. Today, I want to share a conversation I had with Pastor Paul about this very subject. I asked him about the power of partnership and also about what he would say to you, our listening friends and partners, if he could visit with you in person. 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 it goes 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): And today, your partnership with us is more important than it's ever been. For as little as $20 a month, you can become a Destined for Victory partner. And please know that every penny of your donation will go towards sharing the gospel all over the world through Destined for Victory's media ministry.

When you partner with us, we'll send a few thank you gifts your way, including our most popular CD, the best of "Let My People Smile." Call 855-339-5500 and find out 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 partner with us from our website, pastorpaul.net. But if you can't become a partner but would like to send a generous gift to the ministry today, we'd love to send you our latest booklet, "Clothed in Love: Seven Gifts for the Ones Who Matter Most." For more information on this outstanding resource, please stop by pastorpaul.net.

Paul Sheppard: And one of the problems we have in today's Christian world is we kind of act like God has grown old over the centuries and that He kind of doesn't do certain things anymore. But if you're not careful, you end up seeing yourself as a child of a lesser God, that somehow or another God's power has diminished.

Guest (Male): And that is next time in our message, "When Only a Miracle Will Do." Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.