Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Before we get going with today's message, "Turning Pain into Gain," here's a special word from Meredith Sheppard.

Meredith Sheppard: Hello, Destined for Victory family. This is Meredith Sheppard, Pastor Paul's wife. This is the first time you're hearing from me since my beloved husband went home to be with the Lord, and I want you to know your prayers have carried me. Your letters, your messages, cards, books—the ways you've reached out during these months, they've strengthened me through the shock and the grief in ways I can't fully express. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

You know, Paul often said that he wanted to be the black J. Vernon McGee. He'd say it with that grin of his, but behind the humor was something deeply serious—a vision to create a teaching library that would outlive him, that would keep speaking biblical truth long after he was gone. And that's what he did. For decades, Paul poured himself into building Destined for Victory, not just as a radio program, but as a legacy. He wanted to make sure that timeless truth would be available to help people live victorious lives, no matter what generation they're in.

That's why I'm talking to you today, because what Paul worked so hard to build needs your help to continue. Recently, we experienced a change in one of our major funding sources, and for the first time in this ministry's history, we're at risk of losing radio stations, of having to pull back from communities where people depend on this teaching.

I don't want my husband's voice silenced. I don't want the work he dedicated his life to build to disappear because of funding. We need to preserve what Pastor Paul poured himself into creating. So I'm coming to you, this family that's already been so supportive, and I'm asking: will you help us? If Destined for Victory has encouraged you, challenged you, or helped you grow in your walk with God, would you consider giving today?

A monthly gift would especially help us stabilize our funding and keep Paul's teaching on the air in every community that needs it. You can give at pastorpaul.net. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for standing with us, and thank you for your generosity in helping to preserve this legacy. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Meredith. And we do want to say a special thank you to those who have already responded to this need. To those who haven't, we want to make sure you know how much you are needed. When you make your generous gift today, we'll gladly send you a brand new booklet that will help you persevere through life's challenges or through a past you can't quite forget.

It's called "Keep Moving Forward," and it seems rather appropriate in this moment. Drawing from Israel's transition from Moses to Joshua, this booklet will help you understand that God will go before you as your leader and your protector, even when you're facing new challenges. Again, that's "Keep Moving Forward," our gift to you for your generous donation to Destined for Victory today.

You can 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 hope somebody is hearing this. I'm under orders to preach this because some of us are about to make the worst mistakes of our lives over passion, over feelings, over pain. Don't let the pain take you to a bad place. Pain is rough. The exhaustion was real, but it doesn't have to drive you crazy. And we have to learn how to walk in such a way that we won't allow that to happen.

You say, "Well, what's the worst that could happen?" Well, look at Esau. He ended up, by making the dumb decision he made, he chose—he didn't realize this is what he was choosing—but he ended up choosing the permanent pain of disappointment and vain regrets. For the rest of his life, he lived with a heartache of disappointment that he couldn't get rid of. He lived with vain regrets that he couldn't get rid of.

For the rest of—God blessed him. When you read Esau's story, remember when the boys come back together? Because Jacob was on the run for a while, because Esau's like, "I'm going to kill him." Come on, y'all know the story. And it took them 20 years. 20 years, the boy's on the run. He went down to Uncle Laban's house. The whole family is jacked up.

Went down to Uncle Laban's house, y'all remember the story, and he met his daughter. And he said, "The Lord is my shepherd, I see what I want." And you know how he loved that girl, Rachel. He wanted to marry her. Bible says his dad said, "All right, you can marry her, but you've got to work for me for seven years."

The Bible says those seven years were like a few days to him because he loved her. Some of you sisters said, "That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm believing for. Oh, I want a man who just can't hardly think for me." I'm not going there, I've got too much else to cover. Just leave that right alone.

So you know the story. Uncle Laban, the night of the wedding, he introduced Leah, his older daughter, to the wedding tent. In the darkness, he spent the night with her, woke up, said, "Excuse me, please." He went out, found—"Yo! You know who I wanted to marry. I worked seven years for Rachel. What you doing bringing Leah in my tent?"

Uncle Laban: "Oh, you mean I didn't tell you? You can't marry my younger daughter till you marry the older one. I'm still setting you up to have Rachel. Now that you've served the seven years for Leah, now you can have Rachel, but it's going to cost you another seven years." Tricky, whole family.

So Esau, God blessed him. After the boys reconciled, you can see that the Lord blessed Esau anyway, but it wasn't the blessing he would have and should have received had he made a better choice back here in Genesis 25. Does everybody hear what I'm saying? You've got to understand there are consequences. In fact, the writer to the Hebrews mentions it.

There's a verse in Hebrews chapter 12 where it said, "Don't be a fornicator or a profane person," Hebrews 12:16, "like Esau." Called him profane. "For for one morsel of food, he sold his birthright. For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears."

Is that sobering or what? There are some things you can never take back. That's why you've got to get it right, right now. God'll love you and He'll bless you, but some things you never get back. There are some mistakes you can't afford to make if you want to live your best life. So you can't let passion do your decision-making. You can't let pain do your decision-making. You've got to make sound decisions for your life.

Now, some of us are just susceptible to various things, and don't make the mistake of thinking that somebody else's susceptibility is worse than yours. Some people, for instance, are susceptible to a sexual relationship that's going to get them all out of the will of God, and you say, "See, that's just their problem, I don't understand." That's fine, but don't get—you've got your own.

Now, I do need to talk about some who have susceptibility where it comes to relationships. People running game on you. And some of y'all got to understand, learn from Esau. While you're at the gym, somebody looking at you from their machine, you can tell they're interested by the way they're looking at you while they're working out.

And you look at them, and I've told you over the years, but it bears repeating now: if somebody hits on you at the gym, at the job, at Starbucks, wherever it is, it doesn't matter. If somebody hits on you and they don't do anything for you, the enemy didn't send them. Enemy doesn't—he knows you. There are familiar spirits that follow all of us. They are familiar with our patterns, our tastes.

Bible calls them familiar spirits; they're familial. They studied you and your family. They know you. That's how spiritual warfare works. Y'all don't understand spiritual warfare is real. Demons know what you're doing, they know what you like, they know what you don't like.

So a demon's not going to send somebody to the gym or to your job or whatever who doesn't do anything for you. If somebody comes hitting on you and they do nothing for you, devil didn't send them. That's just somebody taking a shot. That's all that is. That's somebody just taking a shot, just saying you never know unless you give it a try.

You know when they got sent to you because—now see, y'all looking holy. You know when they got sent to you because they ring every bell you've got. Oh, I need some help up in here. Y'all looking holy. How many of y'all know there are some people every now and then you have run into and it makes you start praying instantly?

Instantly you go into prayer. You already had your devotion in the morning, but now you're praying again because here you are out at the store, the gym, wherever you are, and somebody comes and they're smiling and looking at you. And you start, "Oh Jesus, Lord Savior, oh in the name of Jesus." Now, that one was sent.

Guest (Male): We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message, so don't go away. You're always invited to come see us at pastorpaul.net to listen to the broadcasts on demand. And when you stop by, be sure to check out our online store, where you'll find books and video messages featuring the legacy teaching and preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. That's pastorpaul.net. We all have a few weak areas, but every now and then we can be weak in an area in which we're normally strong. Now here's the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, "Turning Pain into Gain."

Paul Sheppard: Everybody has moments when you're susceptible. Sometimes you're susceptible to something you normally are not. You've got to get to know: you can be vulnerable in ways you never saw before. You can have something sneak up on you in a certain season of life you never even had to think about before.

I need some honesty up in here. Say, "I never had to worry about that, but lately..." You've got to watch your "latelys" because they'll tell you something. And so you can be vulnerable in ways you never thought before. Over the years, I've had several friends who were ballplayers, professional ballplayers. One was a baseball player, a couple of them basketball players, musicians. Those—I know people, significant people in all three of those areas.

Baseball, years ago, one of my friends was playing for the Dodgers. And I was living in Philly at the time and the Dodgers came to town to play the Phillies. And he told me he was coming. I said, "All right, I'll meet you down at the hotel and we can go to dinner and what have you." "All right, yeah, good." So I'm down there waiting on their charter bus to pull up to the hotel. I was not waiting alone.

I'm waiting to see my boy so we can go have dinner. The sisters were waiting with a different agenda. I knew they had a different agenda because of what they had on. It's the summertime, baseball season. Bus pulls up full of Dodgers. Normally in Philly, they hate the Dodgers, but not everybody hate the Dodgers.

I mean to tell you, it was just they were there for the bus. But I'm looking around saying, "Jesus, Savior, oh Lord have mercy." Am I helping anybody? So he and I went on fellowship, ate our dinner, took in one game while they were there playing that series, what have you. But he—I said, "You all right? You good?"

You've got to help your friends. Don't leave them vulnerable. "You all right? Do I need to come back to another game? Do I need to walk you to your room? What do we need to do?" My basketball, NBA player friends, same thing. They would just tell me, and it was very matter-of-fact. They say, "In every city it happens." And they say, "Some of the guys have names based on the city they met her in."

I'm telling you, this is a real thing. Football players, I do chapels for some NFL teams. Same thing, football. One of the stars on his particular football team, she went after him in particular. And she accomplished her goal. See, the devil knows how to make one-night stands and everything else seem like it's just the best thing ever.

Luther helped them back when he was living. "If only for one night, let me take you home so I can keep you safe and warm." If—oh come on, y'all, I'm not the only one know Luther Vandross, y'all stop it. "Pastor, you know?" I when he would come to town, I'd go. That man could sing. But the reason why I went is because I took my wife with me.

We can do something after the concert. Come on, somebody, and be in the will of God. I don't think I want to hear have a pastor who listen to who went to Luther Vandross concerts. Trust me, Pastor was blessed at the end of the night. Yes, sir! Oh, Luther helped a brother out! All that crooning and sounding smooth. Sister M be up in the morning, "What you want for breakfast?"

You've got to find where your vulnerabilities are. This one football player that I just referenced to, so he went on and had this one-night stand with this drop-dead gorgeous woman. Two months later, true story, he got a two-word text: "Gotcha." She was pregnant.

That's what that night was about. It wasn't that you were such a mind-blowing basketball—football player she just had to lay down with you. Strategic. She now knows I've got 18 years of the bills being paid really well because I'm carrying the seed of a multi-millionaire ballplayer who doesn't have to marry me if he doesn't want to. Just let the check be on time.

Come on, somebody. You've got to understand there's strategy behind the enemy's attacks in your life. And your passion and your pain works against you unless you meet it with strategy. Some of you say, "Well, this must be for the younger people because I don't—that's—" you've got other vulnerabilities.

Some of you are vulnerable in the area of lack of self-control. And it might not manifest sexually, might not manifest in any kind of illicit relationship, but lack of self-control can get you in trouble in a whole lot of ways. Whether it is food, whether it is alcohol, whatever it is that you have a tendency toward, that all the enemy wants to do, "Let's just ramp this up." He's working a strategy.

Food. I know folk who have eaten themselves into poor health over mishandling pain and passion. Come on, somebody. I'm just trying to help you. Some of you, your impatience is an area that the enemy targets. Because impatience is one thing when—there are people in jail right now. They in there for something they never thought they would do. But they got so impatient and a wrong moment where they got set up.

Anger. Some of you are angry and your anger's going to get you in trouble. That's why the Bible says be angry but don't sin. There is such a thing as sinful anger. Anger way out of control. Some of you are judgmental and that's where the enemy's going to get you. Because you're so busy judging other people, you're not looking out for yourself.

Oh, I'm preaching good. Some of you are envious. Your problem is you always envy folk who have what you want. And you and you're stuck at an envious place, and that can destroy your future. Jealousy, gossip, on and on and on. Don't tell me because you're not sexually susceptible normally that you're okay. You've got to watch every area of your life.

And that's why the Bible says, Paul, the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5 verses 15 and 16, "See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil." What did Paul just say? He said, "See to it, you make sure that you do what? Walk circumspectly."

"What does that mean, Pastor? That's not a word that's in my normal vocabulary." All right, let me break it down. Walk looking around while you take your steps. You don't just go bounding down the street. You've got to learn how to walk observantly. "Okay, what's this next step? Where's this going to take me?"

You have to make sure that you're mindful as you live your life. Don't just assume because you wake up feeling good, everything that day is going to go your way. The enemy loves it when you wake up feeling wonderful, because many of us aren't ready for the pounce.

So when you're feeling good, be careful. Be prayerful. You've got to learn to pray your day in the shower, getting ready, cooking breakfast. I pray my day. "Lord, You know what's ahead of me today. I don't know. I don't know what attack. I don't know what ambush has been set. I don't know what's going to creep up that's going to make me angry or irritated or or lustful or whatever it is. God, You know what's ahead of me. I need You to guide me."

Guest (Male): We're so glad you stopped by for today's Destined for Victory message, "Turning Pain into Gain." 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.

"Some pain seems worse because we can't trace their origin. And pain can be even more painful that we don't know where the pain came from. And so my first word of encouragement to you is don't sweat it when you can't find answers. There isn't always a one-to-one correlation between what you do and what happens to you."

That's next time when we continue our message, "Three Things to Remember When Life Hurts." Until then, remember: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.