Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: The devil's not playing with you. He will not be happy until your life is destroyed at every important point. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your morals. He wants to destroy your money. He wants to have you messed up in your mind, messed up in your body, messed up in your heart.

Guest (Male): If you want to overcome sin and temptation, if you'd like to walk in victory over the devil himself, stay with us now for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. You know, the devil has three priorities, kill, steal, and destroy, and he's fully capable of doing all three. In our own strength, we're powerless. We can't outfight him, outsmart him, or outlast him. But there is a path to victory, and we'll share it with you over the next 20 minutes or so. Before we get things going, let me remind you to come see us at pastorpaul.net where you can listen to a recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's.

That's pastorpaul.net. Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's message, taking authority over our enemies.

Paul Sheppard: Now, in the last message, we began looking at the fourth step on Gideon's journey of being transformed from a warrior to a warrior. And I mentioned the fact that his journey involved taking to heart his calling. It involved taking away his excuses. It involved taking down his idols. And now we're examining the step of taking authority over his enemies. And it's important to note those steps in Gideon's journey because they are the identical steps that God has many of us taking right now in our lives. And I want you to know this is the time in your life.

If you've not yet taken any of these steps, God is saying this is the time, first of all, to take to heart your calling. You are who God said you are. You are not what you act like. You are not what you feel like. You are not what other people call you. You are who God said you are. And you've got to take to heart your calling and grab that identity, wrestle it into your consciousness and say I am who God said I am. Some of you heard my wife share her ABCs of spiritual identity that she goes through on a regular basis, literally from A to Z, reminding herself from the pages of scripture who she is in Christ.

Many of us would do well to do the same thing. Find ways that you rehearse to yourself what God says about you. If God says you are a conqueror, it doesn't matter how defeated you feel. You are a conqueror, and God's going to help you learn to experience what you already are. See, God doesn't call us based on our actions. I'm so glad about that. When God found Gideon, he was acting like a wimp, but God said, no, you're really a warrior. So you have to learn how to stop acting like a wimp that you are not and become the warrior that you are.

And you've got to do that on your journey. Go from warrior to warrior first of all by taking to heart your calling. Then you got to take away your excuses. Stop telling God why you can't do what he said you can do. Why you can't live the way he said you can live. If God ordained it, God will give you grace to fulfill it. And so you can take away every excuse. And you got to take down your idols. God will not allow his people to have idols. I'm here to remind you if you got things in your life that are define the will of God.

We've all been there in our Christian journey. But let me tell you something. God loves you like you are, but he loves you too much to leave you like you are. We got to get this straight once and for all. Sure, God loves you when you're all jacked up, but he saved you so that he can take you from being jacked up to becoming the person he's ordained you to be. And so we've got to get in line, get in line with God and take down your idols. Some things God doesn't do for you, he calls you to do them.

God's not going to end your ungodly relationship. You got to tell him see you later. God's not going to stop you from lying. The Bible says you have to speak the truth and quit lying. God's not going to stop you from stealing. The Bible is clear. You have what God gives you, but don't steal what doesn't belong to you. Practical teaching right in your Bible. No need to pray and oh lord, help me not to grab it. No, just keep your hands off of it. Take down your idols. Stop idolizing things that don't belong to you, people that don't belong to you.

Jobs that don't belong to you. Stop envying people who have what you don't have. If God wants it for you, he'll get it into your life if you live right. If somebody else has what you want, no need of envying them. That's outside of the will of God. Congratulate them. Bless them. That's wonderful. Somebody married who you want to marry? Congratulate them. That means that wasn't for you. Thank God that you found out on this side of the altar that is not for you. There are a whole lot of people who find out too late he didn't want to be with me.

And they found out too late. Now they've messed their lives together and so all kinds of of craziness going on trying to separate them. You have the freedom to be with somebody you want to be with and who wants to be with you. And you say but they haven't shown up yet. That's all right. Get used to being with yourself and being happy. And wait on God's timing. And take down your idols. Don't idolize anything that is not part of God's plan for you. And now we're looking at the fourth step, which is taking authority over our enemies.

Now, in the last message, I talked about the fact that these enemies, this alliance gathered against the people of Israel in Judges 6. And you know what? That's going to happen in your life. In fact, it's already happened. There's more than one enemy that you and I have to deal with in our Christian journey. They had to deal with a physical alliance of these nations that came together to oppose Israel. And they were quite an imposing force. And these people meant to take Israel out. You know warfare, the reason why God is making us spiritual warriors is because our enemies have no less of an agenda than to take you completely out.

I don't know if you realize it, but the devil's not playing with you. I hope you got it by now. He's not playing with you. He will not be happy until your life is destroyed at every important point. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your morals. He wants to destroy your money. He wants to destroy your influence. He wants to destroy your spiritual drive. He wants to mess up your relationships with other godly people. He wants to have you messed up in your mind, messed up in your body, messed up in your heart.

The devil is not playing with you. This is no cookie and Kool-Aid party. We are in a blood and guts war. I need somebody to take this thing seriously and to realize that the forces that are against you mean business. And some of you know it. You feel it. You feel how much the devil hates you. You sense that the enemy is not playing with you. And I'm here to tell you that just as Gideon saw an alliance arrayed against them, you and I have to deal with what I ended the last message talking about the world, the flesh, and the devil, the unholy alliance that's against us.

You got the world. That is the system of things that oppose the will of God against us. The more we just live for God, that's all we have to do, just live for God, be kingdom first Christians, and you will find yourselves standing out more and more. You're not even trying to stand out, but all you got to do is stand for Christ in an ungodly world. And you'll find yourself standing out more and more. And they're making us look more and more strange. And all we're doing is saying we serve the Lord. They'll make you feel strange about anything.

You come to church and just worship God and are boisterous in your worship of God. And there are people who will make you feel funny. I thought you were intelligent. I went to that church with you and saw you lifting up your hands and hollering hallelujah. Thought you had sense. How come they don't say that to one another when they go to the ball game? I thought you had sense. I saw you go to that game and you were yelling and hollering and talking to people on the field and you knew they couldn't hear you.

And you were screaming and you were throwing things and you were just having having a fit. You know why? Because the world loves its own. That's no problem. You can act like an idiot at the game. Nobody's going to bother you. Put on all kind of paraphernalia. Look all kind of strange. Nobody's going to bother you. It's call you a fan. But show up at church. Put on a Jesus sign. Go to your job with a Bible in your hand. Say hallelujah when something good happens and watch how strange people look at you. Why? Because the world system is against the things of God.

They're against the things of God. They're not against their own stuff. Love their own stuff. But bring God in the equation and you got a problem. Look on these talk shows. You can talk about any old crazy philosophy you want. People sit there and say that's interesting. But get on there and say well I believe the word of God and the word of God teaches so and so. We have to go to a commercial break. It's a system, I tell you. A system against the things of God. And so we've got to learn the world is against us.

That's why the Bible said love not the world. That is the world system. The flesh is against us. End of the last message reminding you, you can't trust your flesh. What is your flesh? When the Bible says flesh, what's it talking about? Not just your body. It's talking about your body controlled by a mind that opposes God. The flesh is the way you are absent the influence of God. It's the natural you. Do you know the natural you did not get saved the day that you accepted Jesus? That wasn't the natural you. That was God quickening your spirit.

That was the Holy Spirit quickening your human spirit and putting you in touch with God directly, spirit to spirit, giving you a relationship. The Bible says whereby the Holy Spirit came into your heart crying Abba, father, establishing an intimate daddy relationship with the heavenly Father. Your flesh didn't get saved. I don't care how long you've been saved. Your flesh hadn't been saved one day. Not one day. And if you don't believe me, just get in your flesh. And you will shock yourself as to how unsaved you can be. That is in terms of behavior. You will shock yourself.

And so the world is against you. The flesh is against you. And the devil is against you. Ephesians 6:12 says you've got to learn to be strong in the Lord in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God. Why? Because we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We're wrestling against principalities and powers, against rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And that's what we have to deal with. But here's the good news. God says despite the gathering forces, my plan, Gideon, and my plan for you, 21st century Christian, is to give you victory.

Guest (Male): Let's pause right there for a quick timeout, but don't go away just yet. The rest of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd is coming right up. Here at Destined for Victory, we're passionate about prayer. And today we'd like to pray for you. If you have a need today, please share your request with us. Click contact at the top menu of our website, pastorpaul.net. While you're there, be sure to visit our online store where you'll find some great Christian resources to help you grow in your faith, including books and video messages from Pastor Paul.

God has a plan for your future, but he also has a right now plan. Let's listen closely to the second half of today's message, taking authority over our enemies.

Paul Sheppard: God doesn't have a plan of well, I hope you can break even. I hope you can at least kind of keep the enemy off of you. No, no. God's plan is for you and for me to walk in victory. And I came to declare to somebody it's time for you to experience victory. Tell your enemies I'm going to walk in victory this year. I'm walking in victory. No more defeat. I've had my time of defeat. I've had my time of being out of the will of God. I made my blunders. It's time for me to walk in victory.

Here to tell somebody time for you to enjoy the thrill of victory instead of the agony of defeat. If you don't know what that means, that just proves to me you're young. So that is you hear the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat and that doesn't move you, that tells me how young you are. Because the old heads like me know exactly what I'm talking about when I say the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. There were those of us who lived before ESPN. There were those of us who lived before cable TV and satellite dish and direct TV.

There are those of us in this room and listening to this message right now who can tell you, young folk, that way back in the day, there wasn't no whole lot of channels to choose from. When we had a TV, that's all we needed. Get yourself a TV. And then you get an antenna to put on the TV. Come on in here, old folk. You're all with me. You all know what I'm talking about. Quit trying to act young. Let's school these young folk right quick. All you needed back in the day was a TV.

You didn't have to pay for anything. TV and an antenna. Usually it's said right there on the top of your TV. And some of you all came from a fancy house. You had a big one up on top of your roof. I can't relate to you all. We didn't have one on the top of the roof. My daddy said the the antenna is right there on top of the TV back in the day. And all you got were the local stations in your area. You didn't have 212 channels to choose from, sitting there all day long flipping and switching.

I don't feel like watching that. I don't feel like No, I don't feel like Oh, they're playing that movie again. Oh, they're spoil rotten. That's what's wrong with you all. Some of you all know it wasn't but about 5, 6, 7, 8 channels in your whole area. Some of them were VHF. Some of them were UHF. And the antenna sitting on top of your TV pulled those stations and that was it. You didn't have a remote control back in the day. Come on. Let's testify for a minute so I can make this point. You didn't have a remote control back in the day sitting there in your lazy boy or on your sofa just flipping and switching.

You all old heads know what we did. If you don't like what you see, you got your happy hips up off the chair and you walked over and you turned the thing. Click, click, click, click, click, click. Now I'm at channel 10. Let's see what they got. You all know I'm telling the truth. Some of us had broken We had broken the knob. So what you did was went and got you some pliers. Oh, I see you all. I see you all. Got yourself some pliers and you click, click, click, click, click. Some families just set the pliers right on top of the TV.

That's the TV pliers right there. Sometime the antenna was broke. The rabbit ears, one of them broke off. Oh, but we weren't going to let the devil keep us off the TV. We went and got ourselves a hanger. You all better not fool with me today. Got yourself a hanger and stuck it where the antenna was supposed to be. If that didn't do it, you went and got you some foil and put it on top. Put the foil on there. Sometime you have somebody standing over there and they're holding it and putting the foil and you say there it is, there it is.

Hold on, hold on. And now they stand there talking about I ain't going to stand here all day. Back in those good old days, there wasn't any ESPN, but there was a show on ABC. The old heads are going to say it with me. It was called the Look at that, the Wide World of Sports. And in the opening monologue, they were talking about sports and what have you. And one of the parts of the opening monologue, they said the thrill of victory. And you would see these wonderful victory sporting moments. And then they said and the agony of defeat.

And you'd see a skier falling all over the snow. Some of you all ought to be sick of the agony of defeat by now. Ought to be tired of living beneath who you are. Tired of having the same besetting sins. Tired of wrestling with the same of strongholds in your life. Tired of being just as mean this year as you were last year. Tired of being just as lustful now as you used to be. Tired of being as ungodly acting as you used to be. At this point, you ought to say if Jesus paid such a price for my salvation, look like to me I ought to have more victory than what I'm walking in.

And I showed up to tell you victory is yours. And you got to learn to walk in it. I know you got a big enemy. The world, the flesh, and the devil are not playing with you. But greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world. I want to let you know that the spirit of the Lord has a plan for your victory. Notice it was the Holy Spirit who responded to this gathering force against Israel. Look at Judges 6:34. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. And he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.

Look at that. The spirit of the Lord saw this gathering force. God from heaven saw that the enemy wanted to wipe out his people, Israel. And God himself had raised up the Midianites so that he could use them to discipline his people. Now that the discipline is over, God wants to redeem them from destruction, from would-be destruction. And so what does he do? He empowers Gideon by the spirit of the Lord. I came to tell you how you going to walk in victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil? The spirit of the Lord wants to empower you, wants to empower me.

It is not by might. It is not by power. It is by by my spirit, says the Lord. And so the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. And now you got to put this in context. Gideon was acting like a wimp when we saw him earlier in the chapter. But now here he is under the influence of the spirit. The spirit came on him and Gideon said I don't care who's in that valley gathering against us. We going to get ready to throw down. And he blew the trumpet under the anointing of the spirit.

It's time for you to get your trumpet and let the Holy Spirit have his way and lead you in the victory. Time for you to say all right, devil, we going to throw down. All right, flesh, we going to crucify you. All right, world, we're going to have victory over you. I'm not putting up with this nonsense anymore. Time for you to get your fight on. Some of you all used to fight in the world. All you got to do is learn to fight the right enemy now. You already got fight in you. Some of you all All you need to do is learn how to fight spiritual warfare.

You are You are a fighter uh from your heart. Some of you all look like you still got fight in you. I can just look at your face. You know some of you all used to rather fight than eat. And others of you were not fighters by nature like Gideon. No problem. When the Holy Spirit comes, he'll bring the spirit of warfare. He'll come in and tell you you don't have to put up with this. We not going to live this way. We're not going to let this go down like this. Get your war face on.

It's time to throw down.

Guest (Male): Victory over Satan comes only through surrender to Christ. Put your trust in God's methods of spiritual warfare and you'll emerge victorious. Let me ask, have you ever felt called to do something you didn't yet feel ready for? If so, we've got a great resource to help you navigate your way through what can often be a confusing time. It's our latest booklet called Before Qualified. Inside these pages, you'll get an up close and personal look at Gideon, a man called by God to be a mighty warrior long before he was brave enough to go into battle.

So if you have been stalling on your calling until you feel qualified, this booklet will remind you. God may not always call the qualified, but he absolutely qualifies the called. That's called Before Qualified. Our thank you gift this month for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory media ministry. Give by phone by 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.

Paul Sheppard: I came to tell you how you going to walk in victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil? The spirit of the Lord wants to empower you. It is not by might. It is not by power. It is by my spirit, says the Lord.

Guest (Male): That's tomorrow in our continuing message, taking authority over our enemies. But until then, remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.