Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Pain is inevitable. Pain is not for certain people. Pain is for everybody. If you're on Earth, if you're walking around, you're going to deal with pain. Pain has nothing to do with you being out of the will of God. Pain has to do with you being a human being on planet Earth. You are going to deal with some pain.

God is all about victory and all that. Yes, sure he's about victory, but you can't have victory without a contest. I don't like people acting like they're undefeated in Christ. Well, yeah, but undefeated doesn't mean that you haven't had a fight. In fact, you can't be undefeated if you never had a fight. There's no boxer walking around talking about, "You know I'm undefeated, right?" "Well, what's your record?" "0 and 0." You're not undefeated, you're untested. You didn't have an enemy standing in front of you. You had nobody come against you. So there's no point in claiming a victory when there hasn't been a contest.

Guest (Male): Pain comes to all of us sometimes. Some more than others, but all of us some. Hello and thanks for being here for today's Destined for Victory, featuring the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Always glad to have you with us.

Here's the thing about pain. It may be predictable, but it's never permanent. Today, we'll take a look at the Gospel of John to find out how to handle pain God's way, so that we can find victory on the other side of it. To hear any of our recent messages on demand, including today's, remember to come see us at PastorPaul.net. Again, the website is PastorPaul.net. You can also subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Now, let's listen to our Destined for Victory message, Turning Pain into Gain.

Paul Sheppard: Now when I said I was going to talk about pain, I know that some of you had different reactions to it. Some of you who are going through a painful situation right now said, "Oh, praise God, oh, Lord gave Pastor a word. I'm going to receive that." But others of you are sitting there saying, "I'm in a great season. This is a wonderful time. Everything's going my way. I came out here because I wanted to hear a nice, positive, wonderful message about things and he's going to talk about pain. That's going to disrupt my flow."

I came to tell you, no, it's not. Because if you're having a good time, keep having it even when I'm done preaching. I'm glad you're in a wonderful season. I love those. Those are fun seasons. Just talked to one of our members the other day. Just in a real good season. She said, "Pastor, this season is so good. I just can't even believe it." Right now, she's not in church this weekend. She said, "Because my family and I planned—you always talk about those cruises—and we planned we were going to have a cruise this year. And this weekend, we're going to be gone, Pastor, because it's a cruise."

And she said, "Do you know that the cruise company—I've never been on one—called me and said because I'm taking my family that they decided they're going to give us the owner's suite of the boat." That's a destiny hookup. They're giving her the owner's suite. She said, "Pastor, I don't believe it." I said, "All these years I've been cruising, we never been in the owner's suite." I said, "You all go on and enjoy it." And she said, "I don't even know whether to be scared. I don't know if this feels like I'm having such a good season. I don't know if I should be a little concerned."

I said, "No, no. Don't be concerned. When the Lord blesses you like this, the Bible has a scripture that says He'll bless you and add no sorrow to it. Don't expect no sorrow to come because things are going." I said, "Girl, go on and enjoy that owner's suite and take pictures so I can just picture us in there one of these days. But you're going to need to know how to deal with pain because all of us are going to have to deal with painful situations and painful circumstances and painful people from time to time. And so you're going to have to learn how to deal with pain."

So let me dissect what Jesus said. This is one of many places in the Bible that you could use to talk about the topic of pain. I decided to stay here because in that context in John 16, Jesus is towards the end of a discourse with his disciples. It begins in John 13, where he starts preparing them for the fact that he's going to leave the Earth. They've spent the last couple of years following him and so they've walked with him in his ministry. He's about to leave. He's been dropping hints about it and mentioning it along the way, but he never really focused on it.

But here now as it is close to happening, he takes some time. John 13, 14, 15, 16. And he wants to make sure they get it. "There's some stuff I need you all to know because I won't be here much longer physically." So in John 13, he starts talking about—well, that's the passage where he's in the Upper Room and so you see the foot-washing experience and he washes his disciples' feet. And he says, "If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash one another's feet," and that sort of thing.

Then he moves into John 14—oh, and he talks about love in 13. "You've got to love one another. You all have to have the spirit of servanthood. You've got to serve each other and love each other." He said, "By this will all men know that you're my followers, if you have love for each other." Then he moves into John 14 and you're familiar with that. "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. I go to prepare a place for you." All of that is in John 14.

Talks about the Comforter coming and what the Holy Spirit is going to do. Gives us really good information. In John 15, he says, "I am the vine, you're the branches." And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so it bears better fruit. If it's not producing fruit, he takes it away. He talks about the importance of staying connected with him. That's why I tell you all the time, Jesus didn't come to start a religion. It's about relationship. The only way you get to be a branch is you've got to stay connected to the vine because the life is not in you. The life is in the vine and he gives his life to you as you stay connected with him.

All this good information as he's getting them ready for his departure. And then here in chapter 16, he just flat out says it. He says, "Now you're about to go through a season where you all are going to be in pain." He says, "You're going to be weeping and in lament." That means you're going to be obvious in pain. You're going to be weeping, crying. Lament suggests just open sorrow. Everybody who sees you will see that you are sorrowful.

He's dealing with the fact that they're about to go through a season where they're saying, "I don't believe this. We followed him for the past few years. Now he's gone and we're left in this world and people know we followed him. What are they going to do to us?" He knows they're about to go through all of that and he's getting them ready. But I love what he says. "Your pain is predictable, but don't worry because your pain's not going to last."

And so what I want to do is just use this as a jumping off point to talk to you about your own life. Here are a few points I'm going to make in the course of the upcoming messages before I get into my next expositional series. Let me talk to you about pain. Here's the first thing. Pain is inevitable. Pain is inevitable. Pain is not for certain people. Pain is for everybody. If you're on Earth, if you're walking around, you're going to deal with pain. Pain has nothing to do with you being out of the will of God. Pain has to do with you being a human being on planet Earth. You are going to deal with some pain.

Guest (Male): Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Psalm 34:17 says that when the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. So if you need prayer today, please use the contact feature at the top of our homepage, PastorPaul.net. Share your prayer request with us there and we'll be happy to join you in prayer. You don't have to invite pain into your life. Sometimes it barges in on its own, unwanted and uninvited. Now, here's the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, Turning Pain into Gain.

Paul Sheppard: Now, our natural tendency is to avoid pain at all costs. Nothing wrong with avoiding it when you can and when that's a proper decision. By all means, try to avoid it. The Bible doesn't suggest we ought to invite pain into our lives. Just know that it's going to come. If you can avoid pain, do it.

I'll never forget when I moved to California. My family and I moved here in 1989 because God called us to pastor out here. And so I'm leaving Philadelphia where I'd spent my whole life prior to that. My first 31 years of life, I lived in Philly. But then the Lord said, "Go west, young man, go west," and come out here. So in relocating to Northern California, I had to rebuild my life's infrastructure. I had to figure out where we were going to do various things.

And for when I got out here I said, "Now I got to find a dentist out here so I know where I'm going to have my dental services performed." And back then, 1989, there was no Internet. Young folks don't believe what I just said. There was life in America before the Internet. I need some old heads to roll with me now. Before there was no Internet in 1989. They were pulling it together and shortly thereafter I remember beginning to hear about the World Wide Web. And it was amazing.

But back in the day, you all know how we found services? We had a big book, young folks, called the Yellow Pages. Oh, I need some help all up in here. Yellow Pages made it happen. Big old thing, Yellow Pages. And that's how you found services. I went to the Yellow Pages and said, "I live in California now. I need a dentist out here." And I went to the Yellow Pages and so the smart dentists back then, because they knew the listings just going to have names of all these people and where their office was, but that didn't make me want to go. Just seeing your name, it was thousands of names.

I looked at the ads, the ones that spent the money to let me know I need to consider them. And the bigger the ad, I would read it and see if they said something that made me want to think that might be my person. And sure enough, as I went through the ads, I saw somebody. I said, "Oh, that's my dentist right there." Because the ad said, "We cater to cowards." We cater to cowards. I said, "There's my dentist right there. We cater to cowards."

I don't mind telling you, yes, I'm a macho dude, yes, all of that, but my bravado has its limitations when it comes to physical pain. Brother-man ain't trying to introduce that into my life when I don't have to be in pain. And so I need a sensitive dentist. I need one who is concerned about how I feel. And when I went, I said, "I'm here because of your ad and I expect you all to live up to this ad. I'm not trying to be hurting."

And I went on, and they said, "We're going to take care of you." They found out I'm Pastor. "All right, Pastor, we're glad you came. We're going to take care of you." And they've been taking care of me for years because they cater to cowards. I know some of you brothers so macho. I just see you just sitting there like, "I don't need no Novocaine. Just go ahead, do what you got to do." God bless your heart, bro. I am not going with you. Going to my place. I need somebody who's going to cater to cowards, who is concerned about my feeling.

Sometimes they were overly concerned, especially in the early years. They said, "Now, Pastor, I know you got meetings during the day and you're here in the middle of a work day, so you're going to have to get back and I know you're Pastor, you got to meet and talk a lot. And so we're—" There was one particular procedure and so the dentist said, "I'm not going to give you too much because I don't want you to be numb too long."

I said, "I didn't ask you to worry about my schedule. Didn't nobody ask you about my schedule. If I want to talk about my schedule, I'll bring up my schedule. I don't need you talking about you concerned that I can talk after the meeting. I don't care whether I talk or not when I leave here. I want to be numb. I don't want to feel nothing at all. I don't care if it takes me a day to get over the numbness. I am not trying to feel stuff." "You sure?" "Yes, I'm sure!" "All right, well we'll shoot you with some—" I said, "Shoot me with everything."

One time they were about to do a root canal. Anybody ever had a root canal? Going to do a root canal. They said, "Now this really goes and we got to get it get go down—" and explained to me how it goes and go down and and take all the nerves out and all that. I said, "Oh, wow, that sounds painful." They said, "No, we're going to make sure that you—" I said, "All right, now look, don't give me just the usual amount. Sounds like what you all about to do is extra. So I need you all to—"

Here's what I said. I said, "I don't care if you take me to within an inch of my life. I don't care if you're about to lose me in the chair. I'm going to believe God to raise me back up if you kill me because I got work still to do. That's all right, I'm I want to be laying there and I want to be almost out but I hear him say, 'Oh, we're about to lose him.' That's what I'm trying to hear because I want to make sure that I don't feel anything, especially you all talking about going down there getting the nerves out. I need you to shoot me with everything you got."

And they do it right. They hooked me up. When new workers come in the office, they must have a write-up on me because they know. Because the new worker said, "Oh yes, Pastor Sheppard, yes we know." I said, "Yes, sure you're supposed to know about me. Because one of you all do something wrong, I'm going to tell you about it. You all are supposed to cater to cowards."

Where am I in this message? All right. The point is, pain is inevitable. If you can avoid pain, go on and avoid it. But there are going to be times in your life, brothers and sisters, when you cannot avoid pain. You're going to have to deal with it. You're going to have to buckle up and deal with some types of pain. And whatever you do, don't ignore pain when it arrives in your life. Do not ignore your pain. Don't try to pretend like it's not there.

Why? Because pain is an indicator of something. Pain is an indicator. So whatever you do, do not ignore pain. Pain, the best way I can describe this, is pain is like a flashing red light in your car on your instrument panel. Any of you all ever drove—you're driving, things going—the car's riding fine, but suddenly you see something red pop up. And then if you keep ignoring it, it's going to start flashing. "I said I'm here!" And what that's telling you is there is something that needs to be addressed. Something needs to be addressed and so don't ignore it. When pain shows up in your life, don't pretend like it's not there. It's an indicator of something and you need to be responsive to pain in your life.

And as I go through this series, I'm going to talk more about what that means. So pain can have different sources, so you can't decide instantly when you experience pain, whether it's pain from people, pain from circumstances, whatever it is. You can't automatically decide in your own head what the pain's about. You got to explore the source. It comes from different places. In the case of this passage, Jesus said, "You all are going to be in pain because I'm going to leave you. You've spent the last few years with me, but suddenly I'm going to be gone. In fact, I'm going to be gone in a rather violent way. They're going to kill me."

But three days later, the Father God's going to raise me up. But then I'll only spend 40 more days on the earth and then I am permanently gone in terms of my physical presence until I return at the end of all things. But you are going to be in pain because of missing me. If you've ever lost a loved one in death, that is a painful experience. If you've ever had somebody care about you and you cared about them and you had a great relationship and they're suddenly gone, that's a pain you have to properly address. Our church realizes that, so we offer things like GriefShare because you need to work it through. Don't act like you can handle it on your own. Quit being macho when you need to work through things. Somebody needs to help you with some painful situations.

And so you've got to learn that pain is inevitable and it is making a statement, so make sure you know what it is trying to say to you. Pain is inevitable. Number two, pain indicates that something has already changed, will soon change, or should intentionally change. Check that out. Pain when it comes, it indicates that something has already changed, will soon change, or should intentionally change.

What did Jesus say? "You will weep and lament." But later in that sentence he says, "But your sorrow will be turned into joy." So he is saying yes, it's going to come, but it's going to result in a change. If you want your pain to result in a positive change, you got to take a look at it. Because sometimes when you get the pain indicator, it means something has already changed. Anybody ever been living your life, doing fine physically, and then one day some pain shows up? And you didn't do anything different. Like, "What is this?" It's an indicator of something. You've got to find out what has changed that is now sending you pain signals so that you can properly address what has changed. It's an indicator something has already changed or will soon change.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory. We'll pick it up right here next time in our continuing message, Turning Pain into Gain. In case you missed any of today's message or any recent program, remember you can listen on demand at PastorPaul.net. That's PastorPaul.net. And when you stop by, be sure to check out our online store for some great resources that will help you grow in Christ, including books and video messages from Pastor Paul.

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Paul Sheppard: The other motivator for change is we are compelled by pain. Sometimes people only change when the pain of staying like they are is too great. Something's got to give. So we're inspired to change, that's positive motivation, or we're compelled by pain.

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