Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: You got to trust God with your tomorrows. With your tomorrows. See, the Bible would teach us to have a today orientation. And what do you do with tomorrow? You trust. You trust. I walk with God today, but I trust God for tomorrow. See, a lot of us want to worry about tomorrow. And I hope you have gotten it by now that worry doesn't produce anything good.

Guest (Male): Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. That's Proverbs 3:5 and 6. And this is Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Every now and then, we're tempted to rely on our own strength, our own minds to figure things out. And usually, all that does is make our paths crooked.

Over the past couple of days, we've seen how important it is to trust God with our failures, our foes, and our frustrations. Today's big idea: learn to trust God with our future. 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. Now let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, Trust Him.

Paul Sheppard: We talked about the fact that we need to trust God in several key areas of our lives. That first of all, we needed to learn to trust God with our failures, with our failures. And all of us have them. And so what do you do when you've come short of your own expectations for your life? What do you do when you've come short of God's will for your life in some way? You've got to learn to trust God with those failures.

Thank God when you walk with Him, your start doesn't have to determine your finish. You know we're not dealing with natural things. In the natural, if you get a slow start, chances are you're not going to finish in first place. But thank God in the supernatural realm, when you walk with God, you can't look at where I started, or you can't look at where I stumbled to try to figure out how I'm going to finish the race. Because God has an uncanny ability to take you from where you are to where you need to be, and He'll get His work finished in your life.

So you've got to trust Him with your failures. Secondly, we said that you have to learn to trust God with your foes, your enemies. All of us have those too. Even those of you who are still in denial, you have enemies. And you have to learn to trust God with your enemies. In fact, you have to give your enemies over to God. And we discussed the fact that some of us try to hold on to our enemies, we try to fight our own battles.

We take it personally, but in God's kingdom, this is not your battle. The battle is the Lord's. And so you have to give your enemies over to the Lord and trust that He knows how to deal with them. And you have to be like the psalmist in Psalm 27, who said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"

You have to trust Him with your failures and your foes. Third, you have to trust Him with your frustrations. All of us have those too. Well, most of us. And if some of you are too young to have been frustrated, my grandmother had a word for you: keep on living. Just keep on living because sooner or later you're going to experience frustrations.

When I was a child growing up in church, the saints would have some services where they would testify. Some of y'all remember testimony service in some of your churches. They would testify, and I'd hear the saints testifying about trials, going through trials and tribulations and what have you. And you know, the way they testified about it, it sounded almost like fun.

I was a kid just listening to the saints. And so, you know, once I got saved and all, I was like, I want to go through some trials so I can testify. I didn't know what I was talking about. I didn't know that you don't even have to ask for trials. You don't have to ask to go through tribulations. "God, would you please take me through something so I can have a testimony?"

Don't even bother praying that prayer, young converts, those of you who are brand new in the faith. Don't even bother doing that. Trials and tribulations are standard equipment in the vehicle of life. You don't have to ask for it. It would be like going to a car dealer and saying, "I want something with wheels on it." No, no, standard equipment in the vehicle of life are your trials and your tribulations. So frustrations are coming.

And you're going to have times where you don't get it and where you don't understand what's going on. And you say, "God, I thought you loved me. Why would you let me, your child, go through this?" But they're coming. And what you'll discover as you walk with God is He will take your trials and the things that frustrate you and use them. Even if He didn't bring the trial into your life, He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He'll use it.

Sometimes the devil brings things, but God will use what the devil brought. And He will use it to grow you. So you got to trust Him with your frustrations. And finally, we said you got to trust Him with your future. That's where I want to pick it up. You got to trust Him with your future. You've got to, you've got to trust God with your tomorrows. With your tomorrows.

See, the Bible would teach us to have a today orientation. And what do you do with tomorrow? You trust. You trust. I walk with God today, and I'll be talking about walking with God in a few moments. I walk with God today, but I trust God for tomorrow. See, a lot of us want to worry about tomorrow. And I hope you have gotten it by now that worry doesn't produce anything good.

Nothing good comes out of worry. It's not like worry will get you somewhere, which is exactly why the Bible talks about worry in terms that make it clear that in God's mind, your worry is a sin. Not just something you need to give up. The Bible talks about worry like it's the enemy of the plan of God. Jesus said don't worry about tomorrow. Paul said in Philippians 4, don't worry about anything, but pray about everything.

Because worry produces nothing good. When you stay up worrying about, "Oh, what's going to happen," all you're doing is losing sleep. And you know what? You serve a God who neither sleeps nor slumbers, the Bible says. So since God is up, why don't you go to sleep? Since God has the night shift, you might as well sleep.

No need of worrying at night, no need of staying up not knowing what's going to happen. I've told you many times before, a lot of folks are up when the Bible clearly says that God gives us morning by morning, He gives us the mercies we need for that day. Jesus said in Matthew 6, God will give you the sufficiency for today.

He'll promise you blessings, He'll promise you help for tomorrow. But what you have grace for is today. So you live in the "is-ness" of walking with God now. God is my present help in trouble. He's going to be my future help as I learn to trust Him. But right now, I have the grace of Him as my present help. This is good, you just don't know it.

But you'll figure it out probably on your way home or something. You'll say, "Oh wow, that was good." He is your present help. God is here to help me now. He'll get me through the now. And when you're up 2:00 in the morning talking about, "I don't know how I'm going to make it," you ran out of that day's grace. I don't know what time God's cut-off is on the grace, but you have run out of that day's grace.

Anything from there, you're just going to be spinning your wheels. So here's a word from the Lord. Somebody said, "I need a word from the Lord today." When you have lived that day in the presence of God, cast your cares upon Him, given Him your concerns, cried and prayed and cast them on Him, then worshipped Him and exercised faith to believe that He has heard you and He will answer prayer, here's a word: when you're up at night wondering about tomorrow, go to sleep.

There's your word. You needed a word? There it is. Go to sleep in Jesus' name. Get under those covers. Pray yourself a little prayer. "Thank you, Lord, for the day. It was a rough one, but you got me through." And now help me to get some sleep, Jesus. Bible even says the Lord gives His beloved sleep. Ask Him for the grace to go to sleep. For the grace to turn it off.

Your mind's still running and spinning, you can't get good sleep like that. You have all kind of crazy dreams. Come on, somebody, you know what I'm talking about. All kind of weird stuff happening at night because you haven't turned something off. When you turn off the lights, and if you have an alarm, put on your alarm and all of that, when you get your house locked down for the night, then turn off your brain. Say, "Lord, I'm not going to worry. I'm going to believe you for the sleep you promised me in your word. I need some sleep, Jesus, so come on here and let me go to sleep and have the grace that you promised." And go to sleep. You know why? Because when you wake up in the morning, there's a fresh batch of mercy and grace.

Guest (Male): Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Our mission 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. Just call us at 855-339-5500 to make your gift over the phone, or give safely and securely at pastorpaul.net. There's nothing wrong with having plans for your future, but there's a difference between planning and presumption. Now let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, Trust Him.

Paul Sheppard: You got to learn to trust Him with the future. Don't try to be proactive about your future in some unbiblical sense. Now you can, of course, do some sensible things for the future. Every now and then, people get too fanatical when they talk about this, you know. Because in Matthew 6, Jesus said, the King James puts it this way, "Take no thought for tomorrow." And He was talking about this idea of worry.

He wasn't meaning that you couldn't have any planning at all. That same Christ told us in other teachings that planning is to be expected. He said as you're counting the cost to be a disciple of Christ, He said you have to plan. You have to take into consideration what it means to follow the Lord. And He gave the example. He said, "No one goes to war without planning." He said, "No one builds a tower without planning."

And so Jesus wasn't against planning. He was against fruitless planning. The kind of planning you can't do. "I'm trying to make sure that everything goes the way I want." You can't do that. Some of y'all know that who've been in the stock market. You can't do that. Best you can do is get good advice, look at the options, and say, "I believe here's a sound investment, enough risk tolerance for me," and all of that.

And so you go on and do it. But don't trust the stock market for your future. Trust God with your future. So if your portfolio starts going in the other direction, you don't panic. See, I was here pastoring in the Silicon Valley in those years when the bubble was getting big. And I remember some of the sermons I preached back then, and some of you all who were with us in those years, you know.

I was faithful to the word back then, and everybody was delirious. Their portfolios were just blowing up. They were getting rich and they were excited and all of that. And y'all know I was preaching, "Don't put your trust in it. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. You better have a plan and a godly purpose for what God's given you. If you need to take it and put it in the cash so that it's available for the kingdom, it's time to do it."

I was preaching all of that stuff, and folk were up there, "Oh see, Pastor doesn't understand. See, he doesn't have enough to put in there, and so he doesn't understand. You got to understand, Pastor, you go on and preach the Bible, but this is finance. We got this, we got this." Ah, but I was still preaching when that bubble burst.

And folk were dragging in the church. See, and then the ushers would have to help them in because the bubble burst. And I had to counsel with some members who said, "Pastor, I was worth this much and in one year's time, in 18 months' time, I'm worth one..." One brother told me, "I'm worth one-tenth of what I was worth a year ago."

And his head was down. I said, "Let me tell you what I was preaching the whole time: God is in charge of your life. And you have to now put your trust in Him because He knows how to take care of His own. Trust Him with your future. Trust Him with your future. You have to believe God knows tomorrow, and I don't know tomorrow.

I know the God who knows tomorrow. You got that? Tomorrow's on one side, God's in the middle, I'm on the other side. I can't reach around God and try to work on tomorrow. The best I can do, and the right thing to do, is to put my hand in the hand of the one who owns tomorrow. If you're well now but you end up sick later, if your hand is in God's hand, you say, "I trusted you when I'm well, so I'm not about to change now. I'm going to trust you."

And you know whether the Lord heals you on this side, and He's gracious and heals many people on this side. I don't argue with folk about healing who don't believe in present-day miracles and healing. No need arguing about it because I know. And many of you know, God is still a healer. He's still a healer, He never stopped healing. "Well, where are the miracles today?" Well, with that attitude, no wonder you haven't seen any.

But here's the point, even if you're a faith-walking person believing God for divine health and healing and all that, sometimes we have mysteries. And if God chooses not to heal you on this side, if you've been trusting Him with your life, you'll discover that He'll give you grace to go through what He's allowing you to go through. And even what we would call worst-case scenario: if He never brings the healing on this side, if I die believing for a healing I never receive on this side, you got to understand, if I'm a child of God and I'm believing for healing and I die, He healed me when I died. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Just this week, I flew to Los Angeles to pay final respects to a friend who died of AIDS. In fact, if you were in our church in the '90s, she came and spent some time with our singles. Her name was Lynn Chamberlain. Her testimony was powerful. She fell into a sexual relationship outside of marriage. She was a single woman for many years, until two years ago.

She was single all of her life and in her college years got into a relationship with someone and it became sexual. She was a Christian at the time, she had been taught at the time, she knew it was wrong, but she fell into this kind of relationship. She didn't know that this man had AIDS and knew he did. And he was so careless and so disrespectful that he had unprotected sex with her and did not inform her.

Folks, it pays to be in God's will. Young folks, it pays to be in God's will. When we're teaching you the word of God, the word of God will not only save you spiritually, it'll save you naturally. There's a myth out here called safe sex. Safe sex, let me define it for you. Safe sex is sex God's way.

And this man infected her with the HIV virus and it, as you might imagine, turned her life upside down. But as she went through that whole season of trying to get a grip on what happened, she realized, "What I need to do is repent on the fact that my own sin brought this into my life, and I need to own the fact that God's not through with me yet."

And she repented and turned to God and she said, "Lord, however you can use me in this state, Lord, I want to be used of you." And she over the past several years ministered not only here throughout the United States but ministered abroad the message of sexual abstinence, sharing her story with Christian and non-Christian young people alike, letting them know that God's way is the right way.

She came and taught our singles and inspired them to live right and all of that. And she was full of life. Full of life. Fully expecting that God would bless her. For years she would talk to me, she said, "I know God's going to give me a husband, I just know it." And she said, "He got to be a special man. Not everybody can deal with what I'm dealing with, but God's got somebody for me, I just know it."

I said, "Well, I believe God with you then." And we would pray about it sometimes and what have you. She spent time in our home, our family enjoyed her presence. And two years ago, she married her Prince Charming. And they lived together. In fact, the last time I talked to her, I said, "You know what? Since you got married, you dropped me off."

I said, "Now all while you were single and believing God and going through, you called up, 'Pray for me and tell me...' and kept me posted." I said, "You got a man and you left all of us." And she knew it was true. She said, "I'm sorry." I said, "Well you go on, be blessed."

And the next thing I heard is that she took suddenly ill, went into the hospital, and you know, with that immune system disease, it doesn't take much. And she went down rapidly, went on into the presence of the Lord. A few days ago, I went down to pay my respects, and I stood at the casket looking at this young woman in her 30s. And I said, "Lord, she believed you for healing, and you've healed her. Because she's in your presence now. No HIV, no trouble, no sickness." And I tell you what, folks, when you walk with God, you can't lose.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message, Trust Him. You know, here at Destined for Victory, we've always believed in the power of partnership. It's a core value put in place years ago by Pastor Paul Sheppard. I once spoke with him about not only about the power of partnership, but the benefits of partnership. So before we leave you today, here's that brief conversation.

Paul Sheppard: I think that we do need to underscore that it is a win-win situation when a person is not only a faithful prayer warrior to undergird us with prayer, but when they are faithful in supporting our ministry financially. There is a real benefit to them, because when you think about it, Jesus said in Matthew 6, "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth corrupts and things get eroded and all that."

He says you need to store up treasures in heaven. And if people say, "Well, how in the world do you do that while you're still living on earth?" The answer is you support things that make a difference not only for time, but for eternity. And ministries like ours are making that kind of difference.

So you get to directly benefit as a supporter, because Jesus is saying in essence, you share in the victory, you share in the fruitfulness of the ministries you support. And I know that to be true. God has blessed me over the years because of faithful listeners who stand with us every month. I can count on the fact that part of what they do is they sow into this ministry so that we can continue to preach timeless truths in a timely way that's making a difference for people both in this life and preparing them for the life to come.

And there is no Pastor Paul or any of the other ministers that God is using without those who faithfully support them. To you, I say thank you so much. To others, I'm saying please prayerfully consider becoming part of that support team.

Guest (Male): I'll say it again: without you, there would be no us. When you decide to partner with us for as little as $20 a month, you'll receive a few thank you gifts, including one of our most popular resources, Pastor Paul's CD, "The Best of Let My People Smile". It's a compilation of some of his best and funniest moments, something the entire family can enjoy. Call 855-339-5500 or mail your gift.

And when you do, please let us know you'd like to become our partner. The address is Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. You can also sign up by selecting "Become a Partner" at the top of the pastorpaul.net homepage. That's pastorpaul.net. Now 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, "You Are So Loved". For more information on this outstanding resource, please stop by pastorpaul.net.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. What does that mean? In all your ways acknowledge Him. That means if I'm really going to live this life of trusting God, I've got to learn to walk with God actively day by day. That's tomorrow in our continuing message, Trust Him. Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.