Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): Hello and thanks for being with us on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Before we get going with today's teaching, "The Center of God's Will," we have an important message to share with you. As you may know, Pastor Paul devoted his life to reaching the lost with 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 a 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 partners, 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 calls 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 partnership? 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): Well, 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, including one of our most popular CDs, "The Best of Let My People Smile." So call 855-339-5500 and 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, PO Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. Now, you can also become a partner from our website, pastorpaul.net. If you can't become a monthly partner but would like to send a generous gift to the ministry today, 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: Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought. Let's get you in proper perspective. And if you can get yourself lined up where God wants you, he can do great things with your life. But sometimes the biggest challenge to God using you is you.

Guest (Male): The Apostle Paul said that if he was going to boast about anything, it would be about his weaknesses so that God would get all the credit and all the glory. On today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard, we continue our study of Romans with a message about humility because we cannot be proud and carry out the will of God at the same time. The message is called "The Center of God's Will," and it starts right now.

Paul Sheppard: We're looking at this matter of living in the center of God's will. We established in the first installment of this series that there are those things which God allows and then there are those things with which God is pleased. And they are two different categories. God allows many things that do not please him. He allows persons to live in sin, yet that does not please him. He allows many tragedies and mishaps to occur in this fallen world that is groaning to be redeemed, and yet these things do not delight the heart of God.

And so God allows everything that occurs; nothing is outside of his purview. But we established that our goal as children of God ought to be not merely to live a life that God allows, but to live a life with which God is pleased. And we're calling that being in the center of God's will. Paul's giving us some helpful points in terms of how to live in the center of his will. Now we established that being in the center of God's will is governed by three principles that we see here in this passage, and we've covered the first.

The first principle for life in the will of God is surrender to God. If you want to be in God's will, you've got to understand one fundamental thing: we exist to please him; he does not exist to please us. And we must remind ourselves that life is not to be governed by how we think or how we feel, but by God's eternal will and word for our lives. Christianity is not Burger King; you can't have it your way. You can't customize Christianity and live in the center of God's will. You've got to learn to live a life of faith and obedience.

And we said that this means you have to offer yourself to God. That's the first thing Paul says in the passage: offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We have to die to self and offer ourselves completely to the Lord that his purpose might be fulfilled in us. And not everyone does that. The rich young ruler failed to do it because he did not want to give up his possessions. But blessed is the man, the woman, the boy, the girl who says yes to God in every area of life.

And when you surrender, God blesses you in wonderful ways. Abraham found that out in the Old Testament when God said, "I want you to offer your only son, Isaac." By then Ishmael had been disowned and sent out with his mother Hagar, and so he only had one remaining son. And God said, "Take that only son and sacrifice him." And Abraham, not understanding why God would ask such a thing, began to act in faith and obedience.

And when he raised the knife with full intention of killing his son, the Bible lets us know God spoke out of heaven and said, "No, I don't want that. I don't want a dead Isaac. I want a living Isaac who is surrendered to my will." And God can use your life when it's surrendered to his will. Now I want to pick up and talk about the second principle that governs life in the will of God that we find in the passage. And the second principle is sober thinking about ourselves.

The first principle that governs life in the will of God is surrender to God. The second is sober thinking about ourselves. Look with me at verse three of Romans 12. It says, "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." The challenge here is to think soberly about ourselves.

Now this was, of course, a challenge for Paul's immediate audience. The church at Rome was made up, as we saw in the early part of our study, of a predominance of Gentiles but also a large minority of Jewish believers. It was a culturally mixed church, which I'm sure created any number of dynamics. And one of the things that Paul knew both groups would wrestle with was this business of thinking more highly of themselves than they ought.

The Jews would tend to think that way, or at least some would be challenged about that issue because of a sense of spiritual superiority. Now he's been addressing that in no uncertain terms as he's written this letter. But he knows that the tendency on the part of the Jewish person may be to feel, well, we are the chosen of God and therefore we are superior to everyone else. But there was also a challenge with the Gentiles because they would tend to feel culturally and intellectually superior to the Jews.

The Gentiles feel like, well, we are the ones who are in power. We are the ones who are in charge in society. We have built a great Roman kingdom and we have much to take pride in. They also took pride in their intellectual prowess. They took pride in the fact that they felt like other people just weren't as smart, just weren't as gifted as they. And so there were challenges for both Jews and Gentiles.

But I want to let you know all those challenges didn't end in the first century. People throughout the centuries have needed this same exhortation, and I'm sure some people—not you, but others listening to me right now—need this exhortation. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought. Let's get you in proper perspective. And if you can get yourself lined up where God wants you, he can do great things with your life. But sometimes the biggest challenge to God using you is you.

And so we've got to deal with this issue of not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. A lot of people have bragging points in their lives, in their hearts, in their minds. Have some bragging points. For some of us, as was the case in the early church, some of us feel intellectually astute and perhaps even intellectually superior. We have strong minds and we are proud of the way we think and the way we have studied and how we have learned. Some of us are graduated summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude and what have you.

And so we just so glad and you feel more superior. You feel superior to the people who graduated, "Thank you, Lord." That's where some of us graduated. Just I wasn't in the magna, the summa, the cum, I was just in the "thank you" bunch. Thank you, Lord, that I made it through many dangers, toils, and snares. I made it. I made it. And so the tendency for some is to feel intellectually superior.

There is the tendency for some to feel superior based on wealth and all that you have accomplished in term or acquired in terms of wealth and material possessions. Have you ever seen people who are stuck up based on what they have? Stuck up based on where they live. Stuck up based on what they drive. Stuck up based on what they wear. Stuck up based on their jewelry and their clothes and where their kids go to private school and there's some home over here and their fall home down there and what have you.

And some people feel like they are better than everybody else because they have more than most other people have. And so for some people, that's a bragging point. Some people are stuck up because of the way they look. They're cute and they know they're cute. Fine and they know they're fine. And built and they know they're built and on and on. They just love themselves. Have you ever seen people who are in love with the way they look?

They pass by mirrors very slowly. Very slowly. They don't rush by any mirrors. They stop and check it out. Some of them throw their hair, throw their hair and wipe and dab and make sure everything is just perfect. And so their looks is a bragging point for them and they feel superior to the plain folk of this world.

Guest (Male): In case you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Now 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 of course, when you stop by our website, remember that's where you can listen to the broadcasts on demand at your convenience. Pastorpaul.net. Jesus said to his disciples, many of whom became great leaders in the church, "Apart from me you can do nothing." It's one of the most important lessons we can learn. Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, "The Center of God's Will."

Paul Sheppard: There are a lot of people who for some reason or another have achieved fame and they're well-recognized. And so they feel special because they're recognized and they love the fact that wherever they go, there's someone always calling their name or wanting an autograph or that sort of thing. And for some people that is a point, a bragging point. For some people, it's physical strength that excites them. There are some people who are strong and muscle-bound and they look real good.

You can tell that they're in the gym and working out and everything is just—and they love to glisten it up and make it real shiny so everybody can see all the rips and all of the muscles and the things they have worked on. And so they love their physical strength and their physical ability. Some people love the skills they have achieved, those skills that they have developed in life.

And there's any variety of those, and some people just love having a competence in something. It may even be a hobby as opposed to a way they make their living, but they're very competent at something and love it, experts at what they do. Some men love the fact that they can build almost anything with their hands and that's a bragging point for them. Some men establish their maleness and their manhood. Their sense of maleness and manhood comes out of what they can build.

I'm glad that's not the definition for manhood because I'd never make it. God hasn't called me to build anything but a ministry. I can't build around my house. Praise God, I don't even try to build around the house. My wife is more handy than I. Something can be fixed in the house, she'll do it because all I can do is pick up the phone and say, "When can you all be over here?" That's what I want to know.

That's my manhood, my ability to pick up the phone and then pay the bill when you get through. And I still feel like a man. You know some of these brothers just like, on a weekend, "I just decided this weekend I'm going to tear down my house and build it back up." Have you ever met these kind of guys? God bless you, brother. Go on. Invite me over after it's over; I'm not coming with all that mess in there.

But for some people that's their bragging right. For some it's athletic excellence. For some it's musical ability. On and on, a lot of us have bragging points, bragging points. For some parents, it's your children. You brag on your kids. "Oh, my kids are so smart. They're so wonderful. They're just head and shoulders above everybody in the school. The school can hardly contain my child." And so, you know, for some people, that's a bragging point.

You get my drift. There are lots of different ways that you can be conceited. And what we have to realize is that God has called us to think soberly about ourselves. Now sober thinking doesn't mean you deny any of your strengths. God doesn't want you to deny your strengths. You don't have to pretend you're not wealthy or pretend you're not smart or pretend you're not excellent at something.

Some people think that's true humility, is to just lie about yourself. No, the problem isn't you knowing, the problem is how you think about what you know. And so the word of God would call us to right thinking because you can't live in the center of God's will till you get yourself in proper perspective. And he said, "Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought, but think soberly."

So the Bible gives you some mandates and gives you some principles that will help you to think soberly about yourself. Let me just throw three of them at you. There's so many we could talk about. In the interest of time, I'll only talk about three. Sober thinking is aided by three truths. One, everything praiseworthy about us is a tribute to the one who created us. That's the first thing that'll help you get your thinking in perspective.

Everything praiseworthy about you is a tribute not to you, but to the one who created you. See, we are the created, not the creator. And so how can the created rob the creator of praise? When it's all said and done, to God be the glory. Whether it's for your intellect or for your skill or for your looks or for your fame or your wealth or your intelligence, anything that you have that is praiseworthy, to God be the glory.

You exist only because God willed that you exist. He designed your life. He is the one who brought you to the planet and he assigned you a set of abilities. He built it into who you are. Your DNA holds the potential that God designed for you to bring him glory in this world. And there are all kinds of ways that we can bring him glory, and the worst thing in the world is for you to take God's ability, maximize it, and then rob him of the glory for it.

For what do you have that God didn't give you the ability to attain? I say it often because it needs to be repeated in a day like this. We cannot afford to feel that we are self-made people. Don't ever allow yourself to believe that you have achieved something on your own. It is because God blessed you to get where you are. God blessed you to have what you have. When you see a person saying, "I'm self-made. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps," that's foolish talk.

God gave you the boots, the straps, and the strength to pull them up. So to God be the glory. You build a great company, to God be the glory. You come up with a wonderful medical breakthrough, to God be the glory. You have technological insight and are advancing our technological age, to God be the glory. You have nothing that God didn't give you. When you leave here, you're going back to the dust from which you came, so to God be the glory.

And folks, we've got to make up in our minds that God alone is worthy of praise. What you make of yourself is nothing more than your stewardship over that which God gave you. He will congratulate you. He will actually reward us. It is amazing that God's the one who gave us the ability, then he sends us out to maximize it, and when we do, he says, "Well done, good and faithful servant." God could just act like, well, that's what you were supposed to do.

But we serve such a benevolent God until he says to you, "If you give me a return on my investment, if you work out that which I worked in, one day I'm coming and my paycheck is in my hand and I'm going to reward you for what you've done on this earth." I want to let you know it is amazing that we have the opportunity to maximize gifts that God gave us, abilities that God gave us, and when we do, he will actually give us a reward for doing so.

And so you've got to aid sober thinking by reminding yourself that everything praiseworthy about us is a tribute to the God that we serve. And that's exactly why God resists the proud. Do you know that the Bible says God resists proud people? He resists. It offends God when you're stuck up. It offends God when you think you're all that. Here you are, just a little, just "breath in britches" my mama used to call it.

That's somebody walking around thinking they're something. Don't understand how limited they are, how fragile they are, how frail they are. Walking around thinking they're something. The old folk just look at them and say, "That's breath in britches." They need a reality check. And some of us need a reality check because God resists the proud. You're told that in James chapter 4 and verse 6.

The Lord actually resists those who are proud. Proverbs chapter 6, verse 16 and 17, talks about seven things that God hates. And the first thing on the list is a proud look. God hates folk looking proud. He hates it when folk look haughty. Now, if he hates it when you look haughty, you know he hates you being haughty. And so you've got to decide to aid sober thinking by reminding yourself to give God glory.

Whatever you do that is good, for which you get congratulations from other people, humbly accept it, say thank you for honoring me in that way, I appreciate it. And then say to yourself, or say sometimes to them just to remind them as well as you, to God be the glory. God deserves the credit for all that he has done for me. See, the Bible says let everything that have breath praise the Lord. If you're breathing, you owe him praise. You owe him praise. You don't even have to be saved, you owe him praise. You ought to get saved, too, but you owe God praise in your sins for letting you wake up to see another day and another opportunity to experience his mercy.

Guest (Male): If you want to be in the center of God's will, learn to boast about your weaknesses and to give God the glory for your strengths. Do that, and you'll be that much closer to living in the center of God's will. We're so glad you stopped by for today's Destined for Victory message, "The Center of God's Will."

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: Our assets and strengths are subject to change either in a moment of time or over time. What will help sober you is when you realize that what you would brag about can be lost quickly. Don't brag because you might not have it always.

Guest (Male): You'll hear that tomorrow in our continuing message, "The Center of God's Will." Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. In Christ, you are destined for victory.