Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): It's another great day here on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Whether you're listening on radio, online, or through our free mobile app, thanks for making us part of your day. Up next, we'll share Pastor Paul's message, When Only a Miracle Will Do. But first, our executive director, Alicia Sheppard Greer, has some exciting news to share with you.

Alicia Sheppard Greer: I'm excited to announce that in June, we are offering for the first time a new compilation of Let My People Smile on video. One of the things that many of you really love about my dad's teachings is that he makes learning enjoyable. Even when the subject matter is convicting, he finds a way to deliver God's word without watering it down at all, and yet still make it funny, down-to-earth, and relatable.

If you think about it, that's such a rare combo to find these days. Thank you so much for continuing to support this ministry. So I hope you enjoy this collection of lighthearted teaching clips from his latter years on video. It's available as a thank-you gift to anyone who sends in their most generous donation of $25 or more only in June. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Let My People Smile is Pastor Paul at his very best, combining biblical wisdom with his unique style and humor. And for the first time, we're making it available on video. And you can choose from a DVD format or a streaming link when you make your most generous donation of $25 or more in June.

So visit PastorPaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online or call us at 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. If you prefer, you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.

Paul Sheppard: I'm here to let somebody know that if God's not done with you, there's a miracle in store for you. That if God is not through with your life, He will move heaven and earth in order to bring you to the place where you can fulfill His will and His purpose.

Some things in life are easy. If you're hungry, you can make some food. If you're sleepy, you can take a nap. But for some of our problems, they're too big to handle alone. So if you need God to do the miraculous in your life today, today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Sheppard will encourage you and strengthen your faith. The message is called When Only a Miracle Will Do. And it starts right now.

I want to let somebody know that when you need a miracle, it's time to read up on the miracle worker. It's time to say, "Lord, according to Your word, I see that You are rich in mercy and grace and love, and I see that in many cases throughout redemptive history, You have taken people whose backs were against the wall, but who still had to accomplish Your purpose, and You have reversed all of their trouble so that they could fulfill Your will."

God, I'm becoming familiar with Your word because Your word reveals Your will. And I want to encourage somebody. Get into this book until this book gets into you. Your Bible is your owner's manual for living. Your Bible will tell you what God thinks about you. Your Bible will show you the heart and the mind of God. I'm not talking about magic wand quick fixes to problems, but I am telling you that we need to understand the heart of God for His children and the power of God that is available to us.

And you do that by getting into the word. The word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. The word reveals to us the heart of God for His children. She heard about Jesus. She didn't have a written Bible like you and I have the privilege of having, but somebody told her, "You know, that man coming down the street there with that crowd around him, he's a miracle worker."

And somebody shared with her what He has done in the lives of other people. Somebody shared with her the fact that He has healed people who had worse conditions than she had. Somebody revealed that His power, His love, His compassion is available to people. She heard about Jesus. And you and I have the privilege of hearing about Him every time we get into this book to discover more about God's love and God's power and God's grace and God's mercy.

She heard about Jesus. Now, hearing is one thing, but believing what you hear and saying, "Well, then I'm going to ask Him to heal me," is another. And we cannot take for granted the fact that people will link one with the other. Sometimes you've heard about the Lord, but what you say to yourself or the way you respond to it demonstrates that you don't understand that He loves you and that if you can go to Him, in fact, the Bible says in Hebrews 4, we have to learn to come boldly to the throne of grace.

And ask for the mercy and the grace and the help that we need. And some of us have trouble with that point of coming boldly to the Lord. But this woman ought to serve as a wonderful encouragement to you because when she heard about Jesus, she instantly said, "You know what? I'm going to go to Him and I'm going to seek the help from Him, the divine intervention from Him that I need."

And when you read the passage, she determined in her mind, "I believe that if I can just touch His clothes, I will be healed." She planned to come up behind Him and touch His garment. You say, "Why would she plan to come up behind Him?" Because remember, she is ceremonially unclean. And if people know about her condition, they would shoo her away. They would make sure she got nowhere near such a holy man.

And so her plan was, "Let me sneak up from behind and let me touch, cause I don't need to be face-to-face. See, I'm not one of those people. I need a miracle. I don't need a confrontation." Some of us would have missed our blessing because we would have confronted Jesus. You know how not you, but people I know, think. "I'm going to see if He's going to respect me. I know the other people not treating me right, but if He's so holy, then He ought to be able to look me in my face."

No, you don't come at Jesus like that. You don't get funky with Jesus. Come on now, let's get it straight. This woman had a humble heart. She's not trying to make trouble. She's trying to get a miracle. And she said, "It's all right that I shouldn't be seen in public with this man of God. It's all right that people would shoo me away. I don't need attention. I'm not trying to bulldoze my way into a blessing. I just believe, based on what I heard, that He cares about me, though I'm insignificant to others."

"And if I can just get behind Him and get low enough to touch the hem of His garment..." She said, "I believe I'll be healed." I love the faith of this woman, and I hope it will encourage you to trust God with your deepest troubles, to trust God with your worst problems, to say, "God, I'm not going to call the game because I need You to intervene for me." And I read in Your word that You can do exceeding abundantly above all that I can ask or even imagine.

Now, by contrast, there's another man in Scripture who has the kind of mentality I want to encourage you to avoid. Go over to John chapter 5. Now, this woman is in Mark chapter 5, but when you go over to John chapter 5, you find a man who has some things about his life where he can relate to this woman, but there are some important differences. In John 5, we're told that Jesus went to Jerusalem for one of the feasts and that there in Jerusalem, there was a sheep gate.

Near the sheep gate, there was a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which was surrounded by five covered colonnades. In fact, archaeological digs discovered that in ancient Jerusalem, there was in fact such a colonnade, such a place. And obviously, it was a makeshift hospital. So that here was a place where they would take people who were, we're told in this text, blind, lame, and paralyzed. And it was sort of a makeshift hospital. The covering protected them from the elements.

And people who cared about them would go there from time to time and see to their needs. And the Bible says that among the people there, there was a man, verse 5 of John chapter 5, there was a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. So we know that he can relate to her on the area of long-term suffering. Here's a man who has been unable to walk for 38 years. He knows what it is to suffer long.

He is a man who perhaps has also experienced—we don't know whether his loved ones were among the people who came and took care of his needs—but as is the case with many people who are in some sort of physical problem, they are often shoved off to the side while well people just sort of take their wellness for granted and go on about their business. And it's easy to feel insignificant when you're laid up and laid aside. And perhaps he can relate to the feeling this woman had of not being significant in the minds of other people.

So he knows what it is to have a physical problem. He knows, perhaps, what it is to have a social problem. But I want you to see what happens in his life. Jesus shows up at the Pool of Bethesda. And just as I said this woman was significant to Jesus, so is this man. You know how we know it? Verse 6 says, "When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time..."

Pause right there. Jesus cared about this man because, first of all, He shows up at a makeshift hospital. There are many people there, but Jesus looks at him. Jesus went there to minister to him. See, Jesus was always listening to His heavenly Father. And this is why you've got to understand, even when you read the Bible about miraculous healings and all, don't get the wrong picture. Jesus didn't heal everybody at the pool.

He went there because the Father led Him to heal this man. Only God knows His purposes. Only God knows the times and seasons that He wants to come through for us. You have to learn to trust Him and wait on Him. And it was this man's day for a miracle. Jesus showed up, He saw him, and He cared so much about the man that He asked somebody, "Tell me about that gentleman right there." And somebody said, "Well, you know, he's been here for 38 years."

The implication seems to me is he had seniority. He been there longer than anybody. Been there longer than anybody. And Jesus found out that this man has been in this condition for 38 years. And then Jesus walks up to him. Now you begin to see the contrast between the two case studies. In Mark 5, Jesus didn't walk up to the woman. She walked up to Him. In John 5, Jesus walks up to the man.

Guest (Male): In case you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. And stay with us, the second half of today's message is straight ahead. 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. And the website again is PastorPaul.net. When Jesus asked the man by the Pool of Bethesda if he wanted to be made whole, it's because the answer to that question isn't always yes. Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's message, When Only a Miracle Will Do.

Paul Sheppard: Now, here's a man. Jesus walks right up to him and asks him, "Do you want to get well?" Now, you can imagine what this lady would have done over in Mark 5 if Jesus in the midst of walking down the street with this crowd around him, spotted her off to the side. He could have done it, you know. In fact, we know He did it at least on one occasion. One time Zacchaeus was sitting in a tree. Zacchaeus was a short man, and he wanted to see Jesus.

And so the Bible says he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed up a tree. And when Jesus walked by, He spotted him and trained His attention on him and gave him the blessing that he sought. So Jesus could have done the same thing for the woman, but she didn't need His attention. She was going to go after her blessing. Now, here's a man. Jesus walks right up to him and ask him, "Do you want to get well?"

And look at his response. When Jesus asked the question, you know the woman would have said, "Oh, thank You! Yes, I do! Thank You for caring so much to come over here. Oh, You are so wonderful! Thank You!" Jesus looks at the man, says, "Do you want to get well?" and he says, "Well, see, let me explain something to you." I'm showing you this because we shouldn't be in his category. He said, "Let me explain something to you."

And what he tells Jesus proves that he has not yet learned to trust God as his source. He's still fixated on people and pools. Now see, the myth was, the understanding was, that every now and then an angel would come down from heaven and stir up the water in the Pool of Bethesda, and if any sick person got in while the water was troubled, they would be healed. So the man is used to thinking about that. He's used to fixating on the pool.

The pool at best is only a means. If it really happened, it was because God from heaven sent the angel. Remember that if God uses people to help you, they're only the means. God is the source of our blessings. And so this man is fixated on the means instead of the source. He's talking to the source. Source is standing there looking at him, asking him, "Do you want to be well?" and he starts talking about the failure of the means.

And he talks about pools and he talks about people. He says, "Well see, here's the problem. Every time the water is troubled, I have no one to help me." Implication seems to me is they leave me here all by myself. They know I've been here, and they know I have seniority. I've been here longer than all these folk. See that man over there? He only been here two years. I've been here 38 years. And he says, "I don't have anyone to help me, and because I don't have anyone to help me, other people get in ahead of me."

Now folks, sometimes we do the same thing. Sometimes we talk to God about our problems like our problems are our problems. You missed that. I gotta say it again. Sometimes we talk to God about our problems as if the problem is the problem. And your problem isn't your problem. Your problem is you've got to learn to give your problem to the problem solver. Your problem is an opportunity to discover the power of God, to discover the compassion of God, to discover the love of God, to discover that God loves you enough to undergird you, to help you.

And when His will calls for it, to give you a miracle. In fact, if you didn't have any problem, you'd never know that He could solve them. See, I love that song Andraé Crouch wrote years ago. It's called "Through It All." And he says, "I've learned to thank God for my mountains, and I thank Him for my valleys, and I thank Him for the storms He's brought me through." He said, "Because if I never had a problem, I wouldn't know that God could solve them. I wouldn't know what faith in His word could do."

And sometimes your trouble is just an opportunity to experience more of God. And so here's this man talking to the source about the means, talking to the problem solver about the problem. And he says, "People get in ahead of me. Nobody is here to help me." And I love Jesus. Jesus sometimes knows we don't have the faith to get the miracle on the basis of faith, and so He just decides to bless this man despite himself.

And I don't know if you know it, but every now and then you've been blessed despite yourself. You've been blessed to the point where if it had been up to your faith, you would have failed the test. Come on, let's be honest. There've been times when we didn't have the faith we needed to get a miracle, but God loved us so much, He just bypassed our lack of faith. So Jesus looked at the man. He knew, "Boy, I tell you what, I'm not going to get this guy a healing based on his faith because he's sitting up here talking to the problem solver about the problem."

So Jesus just looked at him and said, "Get up." Right there in your Bible, "Get up. Take up your bed. Let's go." Aren't you glad about the mercy of God? Aren't you glad that God doesn't hold you to some standard? You know how some of us would have done? We would have been so insulted that here I am, the problem solver, and this man has the nerve to talk to me. He won't even answer my question of whether does he want to get well. He's talking about people and pools.

"All right, fine. You're going to insult me like that? Well, you just stay here and celebrate your 39th anniversary at the pool." Oh, but I'm so glad we don't serve a God like that. I'm glad we serve a God who every now and then just looks on you and knows that you are frail and knows that you are weak and knows that you don't always have the faith you need and He says, "I'll tell you what, I'm going to bless you anyhow."

But the reason why I think it's important to contrast the two people is because if God gives you that mercy blessing, you're still in a position where when the next trouble comes, you haven't yet learned to train your eyes on Him. The reason why you want to learn to live by faith is because, even though God will sometimes bless you despite your lack of faith, the Bible is clear: the just shall live by faith.

And so there are things you need every day of your life. You need to learn to trust God with your problems, trust God with your challenges, trust God with the things that aren't going right in your life. You need to get your mind off of people and pools and stop saying they won't give me the loan, and they won't give me the job, and my family won't come through for me, and my friends have deserted me, and get your attention off of them and say, "Lord, Your word said even if my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will take me up."

You have to learn to become so familiar with your source until sometimes you're tempted to ignore the means and say, "Lord, I'm not trusting in people. I'm not trusting in luck. I'm trusting in God. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness." And just like I trust Him for salvation, I can trust Him with every area of my life. And I can trust Him that He will come through for me in my darkest moments when life is not going the way I would like it to go.

I can look to God. And I'm here to encourage somebody and let you know that you can look to Him. And you want to be more like this woman in Mark 5 because she allowed this experience to grow her faith, which means the next time she has a challenge in life, she now has a stronger basis. She has learned to depend upon Him, and she's in a better position to get the help she needs.

So what she did was she came up behind Jesus, touched the hem of His garment, and because her faith was ripe, the Bible says the power of God—it was God's will to heal her. She'd never gotten healed unless it was the will of God, but it was God's will to heal her. And so her faith, married to the will of God, brought the miracle. And when she touched Him, the Bible says power—the King James says virtue—went out of Him, so much so that Jesus said, "Who touched me?"

And the Bible's clear. Now there was a crowd pressing in around Him. They're trying to get down the street and all these people are pressed in because Jesus is coming through town. But He said, "Who touched me?" And then I love that verse that says, "And the disciples answered." Well, I have a sneaky suspicion who the spokesperson for the disciples was. One of the disciples spoke up on behalf of the others.

I believe with all my heart it was Peter. I believe it was Peter. Listen, I'm prepared to apologize in heaven if I discover it was not Peter. I will tell him, "I preached about you and I'm so sorry." But I believe it was Peter who spoke up. It was just like him to speak up and say, "All these people around us, we can't even go down the street for all these people, and You want to know who touched You?"

That sounds like Peter to me. But Jesus ignored it because He knew this is a different touch. This wasn't the touch of an autograph seeker. This wasn't the touch of somebody who's just excited. "I'm coming down this street," and they about to go jump on the phone. "Guess who just came down past my house?" Wasn't somebody bringing their camera out, you know. "Put that baby in Jesus' hand. Here, take my picture with my baby and Jesus."

It wasn't that kind of thing. "Here, here, take that, take that. Wait Jesus, the flash." No, no, no. This was much more intense. This was somebody who said, "I need a miracle." And when Jesus saw her, when she came and acknowledged it's me. If she was in trouble, she was ready to face it. But He just wanted to identify her so that He could say, "Daughter." And this is the only time in the Gospels that Jesus referred to a woman as daughter.

He wanted to show her the paternal love He had for her. He wanted to show her, "I've got you covered like a loving father has his precious baby girl." He said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well." And let me tell you something, God loves you just like He loved that woman. And I want to encourage you to take your problems and your troubles to the Lord in faith and ask Him to give you the help you need. Come boldly to the throne of grace and believe that there you'll find grace to help you in your time of need.

Guest (Male): Thanks for being with us for today's Destined for Victory message, When Only a Miracle Will Do. 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. Of all the prayers Jesus could have prayed for the church on the night before He died, He chose to pray for church unity. That should tell us something. Here's Pastor Paul.

Paul Sheppard: Folks, agreement is needed today perhaps like never before. Fact of the matter is, discord will disrupt God's power in the midst of His people. Discord will disrupt God's power in your family life, in every area He's called you in. If you don't get ahold of the principle of agreement, you will have a power failure.

Guest (Male): That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Sheppard's message, Learning to Walk in Agreement. Until then, remember: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.