Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: We don't believe in luck. We are children of destiny. We are called according to divine purpose. Even when God lets us go through persecution and trouble and negative circumstances, he's setting something up so that he can get all of the glory.

Guest (Male): Hello and thanks for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend. Well, as the saying goes, life is difficult. You'll have trials you don't want, tragedies you don't understand, and enemies you don't see coming.

That's one of the reasons God gave us his word, so that we would have countless examples of God's faithfulness in the lives of people just like you and me. Coming up next, we'll take you to one of the most familiar stories in the Old Testament, one that serves as a great reminder that in Christ, you are destined for victory.

If you can't stay with us today, remember to visit pastorpaul.net where you can listen to any of our recent messages on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. You may also want to download our free mobile app so you can listen to Destined for Victory wherever you go. Search Destined for Victory at the App Store. Now, let's get started with today's message, The Favor Factor.

Paul Sheppard: The traits of the parents often become the tendencies of the children. That's just a fact. And so he came from a dysfunctional family, loved more by his father than the other brothers, so the other brothers got mad at him. Then God said, "They're not mad enough to accomplish my purpose. I'm going to make them madder."

So what did he do? He gave Joseph two dreams. And in both dreams, the interpretation that Joseph was quick to tell everyone, "You know what that means, don't you? That means one day all y'all going to be bowing to me." Then they hated him all the more because of the dreams.

You know what this is? This is God setting up a deliverance for a situation that hasn't even occurred yet. The famine hasn't hit. God knows that in natural history, a famine is going to occur. Now, a lot of people say, "Now, if God is God, right? So then he could have just not let there be a famine in the first place. Why he got to go through all this? Why he got to let them have the famine?"

That's because you're not God. God has set certain things in motion in the physical dimensional world, and they're in motion and they're going to take place. Sure, God has the ability to have us all living in utopia right now, but it's not going to happen. We live on earth. You're going to always know this is earth.

Don't ever try to have so much faith that you try to make earth heaven. It will never be that. Heaven's going to be wonderful because it's going to be so different than this. I'm looking forward to heaven. Your most boring day in heaven is going to be better than your greatest day on earth. But in the meantime, you got to get through here, and that's going to require a kind of faith.

And so Joseph was being set up for something that hadn't even happened yet. God knows the famine's coming. God knows if not for a redeemer he would raise up, his people, who are to bring Christ to this earth, would all be wiped out. So he is working against that by preparing through their hatred to bring the redeemer of their natural lives onto the scene.

So what happens? Joseph is hated, his brothers persecute him, they think about killing him, but God puts it in the heart of one of them, Reuben says, "No, let's not kill him. Let's not shed innocent blood. Let's sell him." And they sell him as a slave to people who take him and sell him in Egypt.

Do you know what was happening? God wanted his child in Egypt, and all the persecution did was pay his way to the place of his destiny. I need to tell you something, you who are sweating your enemies, you who are tired of people messing over you. I got a word for you: get your eyes off of them because it is not about them.

God is setting something up. God is writing a story in your life, and that story requires some naysayers. That story requires some enemies. That story requires some people who disrespect you and mistreat you. That story's going to have your own failings and your own mistakes in it. That story's going to have a little bit of everything, but it's not your story.

It's about you, but God is the author. When the Bible says God is the... look at what the writer to the Hebrews said. He said, "Let us get our eyes on Jesus." In fact, he said, "Fix your eyes." Fix them on Jesus. Quit looking at, "See, this one right over there. See that there, and don't let me start on this one here."

And some of us, we are not growing at this point of crisis in our lives because God's calling you to get your eyes off of people. You have them fixed on people and enemies and the folk on the job who not treating you right, and that supervisor who won't give you credit, and that person who keeps taking your projects and taking personal credit for them.

And that one who wouldn't give you the promotion, and that one who wrote you up, and that one who did... and you are busy fixating on the wrong folks. And that neighbor that you sick of, and "I'm going to get them out of this building and..." And you don't understand, God is writing a story. He's writing a story, and they're just characters in the story.

And you got to quit trying to figure out what to do with God's characters. And the Bible says fix your eyes on Jesus, who is the author. Author! He's writing a book. He's the author. Your story, by God. He's writing a story through your life, through your pain, through your mistakes, through your background, through the way you were raised, through the trouble that you had, through the abuse you experienced.

He is writing a story through all of that junk and all of that mess. He is going to bring you as his person to the place of your purpose. And you and I got to get our eyes off of folks. One of the things we all need to do during this consecration period is say, "Lord, deliver me from people. Deliver me from a fixation on people. God, get me to a place where I quit bellyaching about folks who won't do what I asked them to do. God, get me to a place where I quit fixating on people who are mistreating me and lying on me and slandering me and abusing me on my job and persecuting me in my neighborhood."

Whatever it is that you're dealing with, get your eyes off of them. It's not their story. They're not the author. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He's the one writing this story. And you know what the good thing is? When you are writing a book, you get to decide how it comes out. Oh, you could make the plot as thick as you want to make it.

You can put the object of the story in the most precarious situation, but as the author, you're just smiling. And the folk who are reading it haven't been to the end yet, they're saying, "Oh, this is not going to go well." But the author sitting there smiling saying, "Just get on over a couple of chapters and you going to see how this comes out."

Listen, God is not panicked about the folk messing with you. And he is now calling us to get our eyes off of them. Calling us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher. The last chapter's not being written by people who don't like you. It's being written by the Lord himself.

Guest (Male): Let's pause right there for a moment, but don't go away. We'll be right back with the second half of today's Destined for Victory message featuring Pastor Paul Sheppard. If you are enjoying listening to Pastor Paul today, you'll be glad to know that we archive all of our recent messages at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.

Well, some things go without saying, but this is not one of them. The ministry team here at Destined for Victory wants you to know that the only reason we're able to bring you these messages is because of you, our listening friends and partners. You provide all of our financial support and we're so grateful to you, not only for your generosity but for the positive eternal impact it's having in the world.

To give generously today, please visit pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. Sometimes God sets you up for blessing without telling you about it. He's working behind the scenes to ultimately deliver you from the challenge you're facing. Let's listen closely to the rest of today's message, The Favor Factor.

Paul Sheppard: Trouble is going to come in your life because it's part of the story. A story would be boring. You wouldn't buy a book where it's all sunshine and all happiness and they just meet these people and they just love them and they bless them and give them money, and then they go somewhere and they meet some other folk and they give them a house and they go somewhere... you ain't reading no story like that.

You can't have sunshine and wonderful days and beautiful events all the time. That's not life. That's fantasy. Even in Oz they had trouble. Y'all know me, I love the Wizard of Oz. I love myself some Wizard of Oz. Yes, I'm in my 50s, but I love the Wizard of Oz. When it comes on, I will stop what I'm doing. I already have the DVD, but sometime it's on TV, I say, "No, it's coming on. I got to watch it again."

But even in Oz they had trouble. Even in Oz. As soon as that door opens and it goes from black and white into that beautiful color, oh my Lord, you look at that and say, "This is going to be wonderful." Well, some of it's going to be wonderful. Glinda going to come on down and give you a word.

But you know why Glinda had to come and give them a word? Because that other witch was coming. She had to help them because that other one was coming. She's coming there with her green self and getting ready to fool with folk all the way down the yellow brick road. Oh, that's just like your life. You start out skipping on the yellow brick road, but after a while you have lions and tigers and bears.

Let me tell you something, you're not going to leap from one mountaintop to the other one. To get to that next mountaintop, sometimes you're going to have to go through a valley. And we got to learn to quit sweating the valleys and the trouble and the troublemakers and the bad situations and the unfortunate things.

"And I didn't ever... and they up and died and I never... and then and this..." That's life. Folk die, folk get unemployed, folk go through changes and trouble. Your money get funny, your change get strange. Your relatives get ignorant, your enemies get empowered. That's life.

You make your own mistakes, you have your own failings and mishaps and things and mess things up even for yourself. All of that is life. But through it all, there's a God writing a story who said, "I began something in your life and I'm going to bring it to completion. And even you can't do anything about it, much less your enemies."

Quit sweating your trouble. Andraé Crouch had it right decades ago. He said, "If I never had a problem, I'd never know that God could solve them. I'd never know what faith in his word can do." He says, "So through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God."

You got to trust him when folk die, you got to trust him when jobs are lost, you got to trust him when situations go from bad to worse. You got to trust him before you get the promotion, before the favor comes, because favor is being set up. When you have trouble, you need to start learning how to smile. You say, "God is setting something up here. This is a preview to a coming attraction. All the hell I'm going through, this is a preview to a coming attraction. God's going to turn this thing around."

And so there is Joseph in Egypt. Instead of bellyaching, "What in the world I'm doing here?" He just was diligent. The Bible said the Lord was with him. You don't have to like where you are, just know that God is with you there. The Lord was with him. And 22 years after he had the dreams, they came to pass.

His brothers were bowing to him 22 years later. He's Prime Minister in a country he's not even a natural citizen of. His brothers come over there because the famine is severe, looking for food. And God wanted to bless them with more than food. God wanted to feed them through an entire famine and preserve a race so that Jesus Christ could come into the world. This thing is bigger than you.

And you got to walk with God through all of your trouble. Same thing with Ruth. Here she is, not even a woman of Israel, but she's adopted into the culture because God put it in her heart. Instead of being persecuted in the field, she went to glean behind the reapers. And the Bible says she just happened to be gleaning in the field of Boaz.

That wasn't just a happenstance. That was God sending her to the right field. Boaz came home one day, looked up, said, "Who is that woman?" The fellow said, "Oh, that's... she came back with Naomi. That's Naomi's daughter-in-law, but both their husbands are dead."

Boaz gave direction. See, God got to make some of us managers so we can tell folk how to act. Believe God for promotion. He needs some managers who have some good sense. Boaz, that was his field. Everybody in there working was working for him. He called them all, he said, "Look here, now I know some of y'all get a little frisky with some of these women."

He said, "Don't you touch that woman. In fact, leave some handfuls on purpose that she can pick up." When they saw that she was gleaning behind them, they left extra because the boss told them, "Leave that." What's God doing? He's setting her up. So he provided for them.

And then one day Naomi said, "Listen, you know what? God... you need to go request of that man that he be our kinsman redeemer." And she told her how to do it. And you know the story. She went in and with properness and with dignity, she said, "Would you be our kinsman redeemer?"

And he said, "Well, there's one other man who is closer in kin to Elimelech than I am, but we'll find out what he says." He said, "In fact, I'll take care of this for you. I'll talk to him on your behalf. I'm not going to humiliate you, send you to somebody else. You already came to me. I got you."

You ever had God ever set you up with somebody who say, "I got you"? And it's proper, it's dignified, it's of God. God can set somebody up who just decide... in fact, God'll make it so that some folk have to bless you before they get their blessing.

And he went to that other man and he told that other man the situation. And the other man at first he said, "Okay, I'll be the kinsman redeemer." And then Boaz said, "Now, of course, that means you're going to have to marry her." And he said, "Oh no, uh-uh, then I can't do it because I'm going to mess up my own estate. I already got my family and my kids expecting their inheritance and all that, and they fighting now trying to figure out what they going to get when I'm dead."

The Bible is something. It talk just like our lives are. And he thought about all that confusion that would come in his family. He said, "No, uh-uh, I can't do it. Love to help them, but brother-man can't do it." That was God. You know why? That man wasn't supposed to do it.

The people who have turned you down, they weren't supposed to bless you. The houses you didn't get, that wasn't your house. The job you didn't get, that wasn't your job. Quit fussing and being mad, trying to call up somebody and get a Channel 11 Action and Channel 7 Action to intervene for your situation. No, it's not your house.

If God need Channel 7, he'll call them. He'll touch them. If they bless you, they get the credit. God will put you in a situation where nobody can help you but him. That first man whose name we don't even know in the book of Ruth, he said, "No, I can't marry her." He wasn't supposed to. Why? Boaz was supposed to.

Why? Because this is about getting Jesus to earth. Jesus was not in the loins of that first man. Jesus was in the seed of Boaz. So Boaz and Ruth got married and had a baby named Obed. Obed grew up and got married, they had a baby named Jesse. Jesse grew up, got married, they had a baby named David.

Do you get it? Jesus wouldn't have come through that first man who said no. He had to say no so that you and I could be here today saved by grace. If that man had said yes, we'd be lost. God is setting things up. Favor doesn't mean the absence of trouble. Favor needs trouble so that when God writes the story and brings you through that difficulty, he gets the glory and you get the blessing.

I come to tell somebody: get your eyes off of people and circumstances. Quit looking at other folks saying, "They're just lucky. Why they get all the good luck and I get a..." You're a child of God. Get that foolishness out of your mouth. We don't believe in luck. We are children of destiny. We are called according to divine purpose. Even when God lets us go through persecution and trouble and negative circumstances, he's setting something up so that he can get all of the glory.

Guest (Male): Take comfort in these words from John 16:33: "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart; I have overcome the world." So glad you stopped by for today's Destined for Victory message, The Favor Factor.

I'm sure you have someone in your life, a friend, a coworker, a family member, that you've just never quite had the right words to say to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. If so, you're going to love this month's Destined for Victory resource. It's called You Are So Loved. It's a booklet, a short, readable gospel presentation that doesn't feel like a tract. And it might just open a door you've been praying to have open for years.

That's You Are So Loved. Just request your copy as a thank-you gift today for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. 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: Do not assume that every time someone gets power or gets a position, God put them there. The fact of the matter is there's a difference between divine favor to accomplish God's purpose in our lives and human elevation, which only serves to accomplish the purpose of a man or a woman.

Guest (Male): And that's next time in our Destined for Victory message, When Conceit Meets Conviction. Until then, remember: he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. You are destined for victory.