Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Before we get started with today's message, we've got something we'd like to share with you. As you know, summer's always a tough time for ministries like Destined for Victory. Donations tend to plunge during these few months and our faith is tested from time to time. I once asked Pastor Paul to share his thoughts on the subject and here's what he said.

Paul Sheppard: It would be great if your mortgage company or whoever you pay your housing bill to would say, "Hey, it's summer and I know you've got things you want to do. So take a vacation and we'll see you in September." Yeah, that's not going to happen for you and your family life and it doesn't happen for those of us who are broadcasters of the word of God. The stations we broadcast, the platforms that we use, they require that we support them financially every month. And for that reason, we need our listeners to be supportive of us. We don't have the ability to broadcast without thinking about paying the bill.

That's where our listeners, that's where our donors come in. As you consider the fact that 12 months, every month without fail, we need your support. We appreciate the fact that you'll think of us during the summer and realize that the bills are still coming and the word of God still needs to go out. And thankfully, we're able to reach some people on vacation or wherever they happen to be, even some of those who aren't normally listeners and we're able to reach them with the word of God. So thank you to those who help us.

And I want to challenge more and more listeners. Would you become partners with us? And would you remember us even if you're not a monthly partner? In the summer, think about us and drop us a line and put a check in there or contact us with the online platform of giving and say, "We want to make sure that you continue throughout the year including in these summer months." Thanks for thinking of us this year.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Paul, and as you give generously today, we have an outstanding resource to share with you as our way of saying thanks for your gift. Introducing our latest booklet, *When Humans Attack*. You may remember the story of Mary and Martha from the Gospel of Luke. Martha is busy preparing a meal and doing household chores and she grows frustrated because Mary, rather than helping her out, is sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his teaching.

Pastor Paul Sheppard takes an honest look at this story in *When Humans Attack*, contrasting distraction and devotion and showing the value of pausing to be near Jesus. It also offers some biblical wisdom about how to handle unmet expectations and personal conflict. That's *When Humans Attack*, our thank you gift this month when you make a generous donation to Destined for Victory.

You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Or by visiting 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: And he himself modeled for us that you can be angry without being in sin at that moment. Don't bottle up your anger. Very often anger is our hurt demanding justice. Well, you can't demand justice unless you speak up. And so if you are angry because you're hurt and you want justice for your hurt, then you've got to let that out.

Guest (Male): The Bible talks a lot about anger, sinful anger as well as righteous anger. The truth is it can sometimes be necessary to be angry, but that anger does not have to lead to sin. Jesus modeled righteous anger for us and on today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard, you'll discover what it looks like to follow in his steps. Now, let's get started with today's Destined for Victory message, Being Holy, Being Human.

Paul Sheppard: Some of you are uncomfortable with the biblical Jesus. Some of you like that dude that walks around with the white robe and looking a little effeminate and a little scared of everybody, and just kind of mealy-mouthed, just walking around. And you all think he was nice and polite about everything. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. Read this story. Jesus walked in there. The best paraphrase for it would be he went off.

I'm trying to help you now. Matthew 21, I've never seen those words in a translation, but I've done my studying in the Greek. When you get through looking at the passage, Jesus went off. He went off. He went in there. He didn't say, "Fellas, excuse me. Excuse me, would you all not do this? It really isn't, this is not appropriate." No, read it. Jesus went in there and threw people out. He didn't say, "Would you mind leaving?" He helped them out. He was grabbing brothers. I'm telling you, it's right there in your Bible.

He was getting them up out of there in a hurry. Here's the term you'll find in NIV: he drove them out. Drove them out. Do you know the only other place that term is used of Jesus is when he drove out demons? Same term. It says he drove out those people who had turned the temple courts into a den of robbers. Drove them out. Now, when he talked to demons, he wasn't polite. So what makes you think he was polite with them?

He got them up out of there in a hurry. He didn't say, "Would you clear this table?" The Bible says he overturned tables. He was tossing tables. I told you he was a carpenter by trade up to age 30 when he began his ministry. And carpenters in his day didn't drive the pickup to the lumberyard and let the crew load the lumber on. Carpenters in his day cut down trees. Jesus had muscles. Jesus was kind of cut. And so when something needed to be done, he could get it done. He didn't need to go get his friends.

You need to understand, though, he was very angry in that moment. Jesus was angry. He was righteously indignant. And you don't have to like things that aren't right. You don't have to like when people mistreat you or others. You don't have to like it when they besmirch your name and ruin your reputation. You don't have to like it. It's not the Christian thing, "Well, you know, that's it's all right." It's not all right. I don't deserve to be treated like that.

And I want to tell you, some of you, you're praying for a breakthrough, and some of your breakthrough is in learning to operate by being true to how you feel. And so anger can be appropriate. It gets inappropriate when you lose sight of the issue. The issue is you have offended me. You have disrespected me. You have assaulted me in some way, if not physically, in some way. You have come against me. It's not right and you call people on it. You haven't gotten into sin. It gets sinful when you get off of the issue, when you become hateful toward the individual.

I don't hate you, but I do hate what you did. I don't hate you, but I do hate how you disrespected me. And I'm not going to put up with it. And unless you change your ways, I'm not going to deal with you. And you've got to understand that this is right. Keep it out of sin. Now sin is when you go to hating the person and you're supposed to be dealing with the issue. Now you're calling them all out their name. See, you've gone too far. Now you don't have to change up somebody's name. Stick with who they really are, what's on their birth certificate. That will work.

But you've got to understand walking with Christ is a real life, is an authentic life. And he himself showed us, he modeled for us that you can be angry without being in sin at that moment. Don't bottle up your anger. Very often anger is our hurt demanding justice. Well, you can't demand justice unless you speak up. And so if you are angry because you're hurt and you want justice for your hurt, then you've got to let that out.

Somebody's got to know that you owe me here. You owe me more respect. You owe me an apology. You owe me a change of behavior. And you've got to let it out. Don't say, "You know what you did." Maybe they do, but you need to exhale. You need to let them know where things really are. And I want to tell you, my friend, this is the key to living a balanced life because some of the things that we keep trying to get God to deliver us and God to do something from heaven, he's waiting for us to act appropriately on Earth. And whatever you do on Earth, he'll bless it from heaven if you're following his will and following his word.

And so I want to encourage someone: don't suffer in silence when you need to be speaking. Don't bottle up anger when it needs to be expressed. Don't let your Christian super-spiritual Christian friends put you in bondage. You know, a lot of times we do a disservice to one another in the body of Christ. Now here's somebody already hurt or going through something. Then they have some self-righteous friend come along and say, "Well, you know, if you just prayed more, if you just did this, just did that," with some quick answer.

You ever had anybody come to you, you're already messed up, and now here comes some super-spiritual somebody with a quick fix? So now I'm dealing with other emotions and now I'm sick of you, too. You have compounded my trouble. You're not helping me, you're making matters worse now. Just got an email from somebody the other day and they're just talking about how long they've been dealing with a certain chronic affliction and illness and how they're just trying to believe God.

And so I just sent encouragement, but they also said, "And on top of that, I've got some relatives who keep telling me that if I just had more faith, if I just had more faith, I wouldn't be going through this because if you were in faith, you wouldn't go through this." Listen, when you find people who are telling you that your problem is always the same thing, then these are people who you cannot allow to speak directly into your life because everything isn't as cut and dried as that.

I know people who are in strong faith but they're in a season of trouble and their faith can't get them out quick. This is not Monopoly. Faith isn't a get out of jail free card. You can't just say, "As soon as I get in faith, God's going to spring me out." Sometimes you have to have faith to believe him through a dark night of the soul. And he'll get you out, but he's not coming right away. See, we love that God is a right now God, "He's a right now, right now." No, sometimes he's a later-on God. The Bible says weeping may endure for a night.

And let me tell you something, your nights can get kind of long sometimes. People taking you through difficult situations. That can be a long night. You've been about five hours, it's 2:30. You have more darkness to go through. Your faith is designed not to spring you out early. Your faith is designed to take you through. David said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." You can't always helicopter out of it.

I know some folks just want to have a faith that will always just spring them out, just helicopter out. No, no, no, some of us who have strong faith know what it is to go through. You've got to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, no shortcuts. You've got to walk through. There's the one path, that's the only one you can stay on. But here's the good news: your faith will remind you, well, although I'm in the valley of the shadow of death, I don't have to fear because I'm not here by myself.

David said, "I found out though I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I don't fear evil because thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." And then he found out that eventually God brought him out and sat him down at a table to feast on the fruit of spiritual growth and development. Sometimes God doesn't get you out early because there are some lessons you can learn when it's a delayed provision, a delayed deliverance from your circumstances. And I want to let you know that God is with you, whether you go through for a short period of time or a protracted period of time. God is with you.

Guest (Male): In case you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. 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 click contact in the top menu of the homepage 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. pastorpaul.net. Once you've done all you can do to live a healthy, balanced Christian life, there is one final step to take. You'll hear all about it next as you listen to the rest of today's message, Being Holy, Being Human.

Paul Sheppard: But you have to learn how to exhale, learn how to get it out. Don't bottle it up when God gives you opportunity to get it out. James 5:16 says confess your faults one to another. You're going through some deep problem in your life, maybe it brings a lot of shame. Maybe you're thoroughly ashamed of yourself. Someone needs to know. You don't bottle it up just because you're ashamed. What you're doing is preserving an image that's not real in the first place.

See, if I can't let someone trusted in my life know where I really am, then what I'm doing is putting on a show for them. I'm presenting to them who I want to be, not who I am. And God brought them into my life to help me become who he wants me to be. But in order to become who he wants me to be, they have to know who I am so they can help pray and encourage and minister to me that I can become what God wants me to be.

And I'm telling you folks, we in the body of Christ have got to get this once and for all. We've got to give people permission to be imperfect. We've got to give people permission to be less than what they ought to be. The church is a hospital. It's a place where sick people let God bring healing to bodies, soul, mind, spirit. Don't ask people to pretend. Don't ask people to come in and always have a testimony of being on top.

Some folks barely got here. They barely could get in the car, barely could point it in the direction of a church. The last thing they need is somebody judging them. You barely get here, it took all the spiritual warfare you could fight just to tell the devil, "No, I'm not staying home. I'm going to the house of God, let somebody pray for me. I'm going to my small group, let somebody minister to me." And sometimes you fight, you barely get there. If you get there and can't get out the car, blow the horn.

If the saints know, they'll come get you. Blow the horn. They'll come out, "What's the matter?" "You all better pick me up. I did good to get here and now somebody's got to take it from here." That's fine. We ought to know what it's like to carry one another's burdens and don't feel holier than thou while you're carrying somebody because the day might come when they have to carry you.

So you have to learn how and when to exhale. Finally, if you're going to live with Christ-like balance, you've got to learn the value of prayer. The reason why you exhale is because there are some things that are in you that need to get out so that folks can pray for you, encourage you, support you. But the bottom line is there's some things that only God can do. With the best encouragement, with the best friendship, with the best support system, there's some things that only God can do.

There will never be a time in your life when you don't need God desperately. Never. Even when your problems don't seem to be glaring, don't seem to be massive, you desperately need God. And so one of the things you learn from Jesus is how valuable prayer was in his life. One day you would do well to study the gospels and just note how often Jesus prayed or taught how to pray. He was a man of prayer.

Now Jesus was all God and all man, but on Earth, he refused to tap into divine prerogative. That means he chose not to operate on the basis of his deity. And so what he did was, in order to be an example for us, even though he was God and could sovereignly have done anything he chose, he chose to live a life of dependence on the power that came from above. So he constantly prayed so that the heavenly Father could supply him with the grace and the strength he needed. That's what he did in Gethsemane.

In Matthew 26, he prayed, "Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. God, I don't want to go through this. If there's any way I can stay in your will but not go through this, let it pass from me." But that's not where his prayer ended. He said, "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." And there come those times when you need God's grace. You need help from above. And Jesus prayed.

Often when you find him withdrawing, he withdrew in order to pray. You find him praying in Luke 6:12 before he chose the apostles and began to designate them as the successors to his ministry. You see him praying in Luke 9:28. You see him praying for all of us in John chapter 17. Over and over again he prayed and he taught to pray. You see him in Luke 18 teaching us the parable of praying in a fashion where we never give up. And he talked about the woman who went into the judge's chambers and demanded justice and wouldn't take no for an answer. And the Bible says he taught that parable so that we would learn to always pray and never give up.

Let me tell you something, my friend: you're going to always need the Lord. And so if you're going to live a life of balance, the things you can do something about, like reconciling relationships, expressing yourself to people, you do those. Make sure you're not asking God to do what you're supposed to do. But then understand that after you've done all you can do, you've got to learn how to turn it over to Jesus.

The key to balance is learning that you weren't built to carry heavy loads. Don't try to test your spiritual strength by how much you can carry on your own. In fact, spiritual strength teaches you how dependent upon God you really are. And so there's some things you weren't meant to do. There's some burdens you weren't meant to carry. And that's why you've got to come to Jesus because he said when you come to me in Matthew 11, when you're weary and heavy-burdened, he said, "Come to me because I want to give you rest."

God knows that you can't truly represent him in this world if you walk around with a burden too heavy to bear. How are you going to bless anybody? How are you going to help anybody when you're carrying too much in your life? You say, "Well, how do I get it off of me?" Well, you do all that the Bible tells you to do in terms of exhaling and in terms of cultivating right relationships and getting things straight with people and setting your appropriate boundaries, learning how to say no and all of that.

But when it's all said and done, you've got to go back to old-fashioned, "Father, I stretch my hand to thee. No other help I know." Folks, it's time to go back to prayer and pray just so you can get the burden off of you. Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." He said, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." You'll know when you're walking right with God because he gives you a burden that you can handle.

In fact, the Bible says he will not allow more to be put on you than you can bear. And so you've got to learn when you've got an unbearable load, God didn't do that. And you've got to have the courage to cast some of that stuff off of you. If your life is like an 18-wheeler truck with a big trailer in it, you've got to make sure that you know what's in there is what God wants in there. Don't let your friends and your relatives, all your family and them come with that stuff and put it in your truck. Come on, come on, there's some folks who will load up your truck.

And you've got to know what's in there. And so you need to pull it over. If you're right now saying, "My life is too heavy. It's unmanageable," pull over. Get out. Open up the back of that thing. Look in there and find out what's in there. And things that are in there that God didn't put in there, the Word doesn't say you have to carry, ask the Lord in prayer for the strength to put that stuff out.

If it's your families', roll it out the truck and call them. Say, "I'm on Route 55. I just figured out that I was going too slow. This was too heavy and I pulled over and do you know you put your stuff in my truck? And so if you need it, it will be over here on the side of the road." No, no, don't let people weigh you down when God's trying to lift you up. He's trying to make your journey enjoyable.

Listen, we have enough trouble. We're all going to go through trouble. You're not going to get delivered from trouble until you leave this world. So you're going to have your seasons of challenge and all of that. Why make it worse? Since you have some things that you've got to go through, don't add unnecessary things to it. God wants you to be a Christian who enjoys your life. You ought to actually be able to smile sometimes.

Do you know you're supposed to smile as a believer? Supposed to be joyful. The Bible says rejoice evermore. You're supposed to be joyful. You ought to be somebody folks know that you're nice to be around. And so in order to do that, though, you've got to monitor your load and things too heavy for you, you have to give them to God. Casting all of your cares on him, for he cares for you. And then you can enjoy your life.

You can laugh. Christians need to laugh sometimes. You ever seen these stuffy ones that are always frowning? Not you, but people I know. Always frowning, always look when you see them. If you were happy when you saw them, you say, "Oh Lord, you mess around and kill my joy if I'm not careful." No, no, no, yeah, we all go through sometimes and people ought to be there for you when you're going through. But if you're going through all the time, some folk are getting some mental images in their mind.

Then I suggest you allow God to teach you how to live a balanced life. There are some things he wants to do in you, for you, so that you can have not only eternal life, that's guaranteed in Christ, but he said, "I've come that you might have life to the full." I want you to enjoy your life. I want you to enjoy life in Christ. I want you to know that you can handle living in the will of God.

What's really burdensome is living outside of the will of God. Now that's a burden too heavy to bear. When you're trying to pull off being a sinner and you're trying to pull off having a fulfilled life, but you're outside of God's will. Now that's trouble. Be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Thanks for being with us for today's Destined for Victory message, Being Holy, Being Human.

Guest (Male): 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.

Paul Sheppard: There are some people they are there to be blessed by you, not to be a blessing to you. You've got to learn this. You've got to learn it. Some folk, if you bless them, you've got to have the reward of knowing you did what God said and that one day the Lord will look at you for how you blessed them and he'll say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Guest (Male): That's tomorrow in our message, When Humans Attack. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.