Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: I want to tell you something. If servanthood was good enough for Jesus, it ought to be good enough for us. Jesus, who was God, chose to humble himself and took on the form of a servant. How great would it be if the Lord said to you at the end of days, "Well done, my good and faithful servant"?

Guest (Male): Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Being a servant is never easy. It takes hard work and sacrifice, but most of all, it takes humility. And our best example is the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you long to be more like him, stay with us now to see what being a faithful servant is all about. Now if your schedule won't allow you to stay with us, you can always visit pastorpaul.net. That's where you can listen to any of our recent messages on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. Now let's get started with today's Destined for Victory message, Be Faithful.

Paul Sheppard: First Corinthians chapter 4, we'll look at the first five verses. "So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes.

He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God." I want to talk about the importance of being faithful. As we study this portion of Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, he is wrapping up his comments on division in the church.

As we said when we opened our study, Paul troubleshoots a lot of issues in the church at Corinth, and by way of divine inspiration, a lot of issues in the church in the 21st century as well. And one of them was division in the church. And we've seen that he was very specific in admonishing them that while it is okay for them to bless God for the leaders that God had given them and those who spoke into their lives, they should not have an attitude of prejudice.

They should not decide that this is the only individual that God speaks to me through and I really have no openness to others in the body of Christ. And he has let them know that this is not to be the mindset of the child of God. And as he's wrapping up his thoughts about that as he ends chapter 3, he said, so then no more boasting about men, verse 21 of First Corinthians 3.

No more boasting about men. All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours and you are of Christ and Christ is of God. He says, open your heart to receive whatever God would bring you through whatever vessel he chooses.

And while you might prefer the ministry of some and God might use certain people in significant ways in your life, be open to God so that if he chooses to use other people as well, you'll receive everything he has for you. And he admonishes us not to have an either-or mentality, but to have a both-and mentality. Thank God for Paul, but also thank God for Apollos and for Cephas.

He says all things are yours. And this is what leads into the verses we want to consider. He says in First Corinthians 4:1, so then men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. He says, if you want to get the proper perspective of those of us that God is using to lead and to teach you, understand that we are God's servants.

And that will help you to be open to whoever God chooses to use in your life. That all of us, Paul is saying, are just God's servants. I want to talk to you first of all about being faithful as a servant of God. Everyone of us in the body of Christ, not just the leaders that Paul refers to here, but everyone in the body is a servant of the Lord.

He is the master, we are his servants. And when it comes to looking at leaders, he says, I want you to understand that we are just servants. God has given us great responsibility, he would say as apostles and leaders in the early church. We have tremendous clout with the body of Christ, we have tremendous influence. God is using us in significant ways, but don't get it twisted, he says. We know who we are; we are merely God's servants.

Now later in the chapter, he's going to bring balance and talk about the fact that he is to be honored, leaders are to be honored and respected. He said in First Thessalonians, we are to honor our leaders because of the work God's given them to do in our lives. So he's not making a case that honor is wrong, but he is simply saying understand who those people are that you honor for their work's sake: they are merely God's servants.

And everyone God uses significantly, I have learned that typically he will bring them through a process so that by the time they get to a place where they have great responsibility and great influence, they also have learned some important lessons of servanthood and humility. I'm afraid of leaders who are stuck up.

I'm afraid of people in the body of Christ that God blesses and it changes them. Have you ever seen folk get blessed and different? They used to be okay, but the blessing ended up being a curse because they couldn't handle it. Those are people who didn't come through the right process. When you go through the right process and understand that as you're faithful over a few things he gives you more responsibility, if it changes you it's because you don't know that you'll never graduate from being a servant.

Paul said, I have charge of all of these churches, but I am just a servant of God. People look to me, their spiritual life depends on the preaching and teaching and my ministry in their lives, but I am just a servant. I'm not a big shot. I'm not special. He's saying regard us as servants of God. Everyone of us ought to glory in the privilege of being servants of God.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to just be a servant, a waiter for God. That's all we are, we're just waiters for God. Lord, what would you like now? Can I bring you anything else? We're servants of God. And if God gives you great influence, whether it's in vocational ministry such as I'm in, or whatever your sphere of influence is, whatever you do, you are serving God in your vocation.

And if you have great responsibility, great clout, please know that you are just God's servant. I'm in ministry, God has blessed me over these years. I now have substantial influence. I'm amazed, I'm still amazed at what God is doing in expanding our ministry and giving us a voice to the nation. I'm amazed, it still hasn't sunk in. I don't get it. How could God take a dude from Philly and do what he's doing?

But it's because he chose to do it, and he has taught me along the way, before anybody knew my name, when I was just a Sunday school teacher without a Sunday school room. When I had a few chairs in front of me and they said fill it up with a few students and teach them what you know. When I was a deacon taking the lady home that lived the furthest from the church.

When I had summer jobs working cleaning up the church. All through those seasons of obscurity, God was teaching me that when I take you where I plan to take you, remember who you are and remember who you are not. And so these days when I'm around the country at these radio rallies and ministering to people in conferences, and "Oh that's the guy I listen to on the radio every day" and they're coming up afterwards and I'm signing my books and all of that stuff, when that happens I'm still realizing that this is just me.

I recently had one of these services where one of the radio stations that we're on sponsored, and they advertised I was speaking and the place filled up, and we got there early, Meredith and I. And so I decided to go out early and greet the people before the service. So we spent about 30 minutes before the service started just greeting.

And the whole time I was taking pictures and signing books and what have you, and folks say, "Ooh, this is..." and they're crying as soon as they get to me, the tears start flowing, they're talking about how God uses me in their life and how I've changed their life. I get emails every day to that effect. Please understand when you see that happening, I know that I am only a servant. Only a servant.

I was in Hawaii ministering, and one of our growth groups decided to take a vacation together and they knew I was going to be in a conference there, and they showed up at the conference. And when they saw the hoopla around me—they're just members of our church, they just see me as just Pastor Paul, hanging out—and they saw me in another context and all this signing and taking pictures and people hand me their babies and all this stuff, and I heard one of them say over on the side to the other one, "Oh, I didn't know that he's famous. I thought that's just Pastor Paul. I didn't know you had it like that, I'm sorry."

But please understand, I know exactly who I am. I got up after that radio service and all of that attention to me, and I was worried that some of the folk seeing it might think that I was getting a big head. So I got up and my first statement was, I want you to know there's a superstar in the house and his name is Jesus Christ. And I'm just fortunate to be his servant.

And I'm glad God uses me to speak into your life and to impact you, but to God and to God alone be the glory. I am the jar, he is the treasure in the jar. God has taken something vulnerable and put something valuable in it. Something pitiful and put something precious in it. And you've got to remember who you are as well. Don't get stuck up. God knows how to humble stuck-up folk. Don't get full of yourself. Anybody wrapped up in him or herself is a small package.

Guest (Male): Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Don't forget to download our free mobile app. Search Destined for Victory at the App Store and listen to Destined for Victory wherever you go. Visit pastorpaul.net for more details on the app or to find out how you can listen to Destined for Victory on your favorite digital platform.

Well, if you want to be a faithful servant of the living God, the place to start is by humbling yourself before his mighty hand. For more about that, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, Be Faithful.

Paul Sheppard: And my daddy taught us through the years, I'm so glad I still hear his preaching in my head every now and then, he said stay humble. And the Bible says humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. He said don't make God humble you, he might have to put you in a casket to do it. Don't make God humble you, humble yourself.

Say to God be the glory when God blesses you, when God uses you, when God gives you influence or resources or favor or whatever it is, understand you are to serve him. To God and to God alone be the glory. We're servants. People, you ever seen these folk climbing the ladder and as they climb they're changing, their attitudes change.

They're no longer approachable. You can't just say hi to them, they look at you like, "You speaking to me?" Some of you heard me tell the story years ago of as teenagers getting saved in Philadelphia, the early 70s. We were excited because Andraé Crouch was coming through town. Back in those days, man, that was it, when Andraé was coming anywhere near you, you showed up.

And he was coming, he was on tour and coming to Philly. And so a bunch of us got tickets and I was especially excited because one of the young ladies who was touring with him—it was Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, his backup singers—and I knew one of the Disciples. Because there was a church in New York that we shared fellowship with.

We'd go to their church in New York and they'd come to ours in Philadelphia. And they had the most outstanding gospel choir and some great singers. And this young woman was perhaps their greatest soloist in that choir. And Andraé heard her one day and made her a Disciple, took her all around the world with him. And I knew her from the church and the choir.

And in those days we'd go and sing and hug and how you doing and all that. And so she was a Disciple, but I said, I know her. So I told all the young people, the teenagers who were with me, I said, afterwards we're going to go to the backstage door and as the Disciples come out, I'm going to introduce y'all to one of the Disciples that I know.

And so they began to come out, the band and what have you, and folk were trying to get their attention and what have you. And I saw this young woman come out. And so I ran up to her and said, "Hi, how you doing?" and she looked at me and said, "Hello." And I thought, "Hello?" She had a new attitude. This was before Patti LaBelle's song came out.

She had a new attitude. And I mean, she did good to give me a minute. And I tried to chat, what have you, and she said, "Oh, nice seeing you, how's your father? Give him my best." And she was gone. And I turned around and those young folk looking at me. I barely got to speak to her myself. There was no hope of introducing her, she was out of there.

And I was discouraged and so I said, "Oh man, let's just go home." But a few of them said, "No, we're going to hang around, we at least want to see Andraé up close." And I said, "Well, I'm going home," because I figured if a Disciple is acting like that, what in the world is Andraé going to be like? So I said, "I'm not going to hang around and see how stuck up he is. I'm just going to go home."

And I went, and the folk that were in my car went, but the others said they're going to stay, at least watch him come out. Next morning we're in church, this was a Saturday night, Sunday morning after Sunday school, between Sunday school and the start of service, those that stayed came running up to me, said, "Oh, you left too soon!" I said, "What y'all talking about?".

They said Andraé came out and instead of getting on the tour bus, he came over to where we were, he signed autographs and took pictures and then he said, "Look, we heard about a restaurant that stays open late, we're hungry, we're going to go down there. If y'all want to, you can meet us down there, we can fellowship at the restaurant." They said, "We ate with Andraé Crouch!"

Several months ago, I had a speaking engagement in which Andraé was the guest singer. And when I got up to speak, he was sitting in the audience having already ministered in music. And before I got into my message, I paid tribute to him. I told that story. And I said I thank God that over the years, this man whose name is around the world and who has touched the church with some of the greatest music we've ever heard—Through It All and My Tribute and some of the greatest songs that are blessing us—he wrote and sung for us.

And I thank God that he is a man who is humble today just like he was when he played the piano in his daddy's church. He came to me afterwards, he said thank you so much for those kind words. And we spent time and shook hands together with the people and took pictures until we were just tired. But I said I'm just so glad that I've had models like this of people that God blessed with influence and it didn't change who they were.

Let me tell you something, you'll never graduate from being a servant. In fact, you should never want to graduate from being a servant. It's the highest calling to serve God. It's the highest calling to serve people in the name of God. And it is a wonderful thing to be a servant of the Lord. We've got to have the right attitude about servanthood.

Philippians chapter 2, verse 5 says this: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." I want to tell you something. If servanthood was good enough for Jesus, it ought to be good enough for us.

Jesus, who was God, chose to humble himself. Did not hold on to the deity at the expense of humanity because he knew the only way he could save us was if deity combined with humanity. Jesus was all God and all man. He was all man so he could relate to us and he was all God so that he could be the bridge between man and God.

And he humbled himself in order to do it, took on the form of a servant. Made himself, King James says, of no reputation. Now he had a reputation, but it wasn't of his making. It wasn't because he got a powerful PR machine going and built himself up to be somebody. He made his reputation by serving God and serving others in the name of God.

Let me tell you something, your greatest reputation is the one that you'll have because you're a servant. People want to know that they are being ministered to by people who know exactly who they are. And I'm telling you, it's a sad thing when you find these folk who don't understand what it is to serve. You ever had a boss who apparently they don't know what it is to have worked at your level?

Because they can't relate to you, they don't know how to be kind, don't know how to talk to folk. Those are folk who skipped some of the steps they should have taken on their way to the top. When you get there, to whom much is given, much is required. And you've got to know how to treat people and talk to people and be nice to people.

And when you see folk who haven't learned those lessons, it's because they didn't go God's way. God's way is for you to be faithful over a few things and wait for him to promote you and give you more influence and more ability to serve other people, but you'll never graduate from being a servant. Be faithful as a servant.

Decide that it's okay to be a servant. Decide that it's okay to meet the need of God and to meet the need of others in the name of God. That that is a wonderful privilege. We ought to just be glad we're on God's program. I'm just glad I'm on there. I'm just glad he has something for me to do. And I can't afford to get stuck up because God knows how to raise up somebody else.

You get full of yourself, God will take his hand of anointing away and he could raise up somebody else if he chose to. If you think you're all that, I dare you to die. You will discover that God used you for a period, but when you are gone, God's work will move right on. Don't think you're all that important. Don't think the church can't do without you. Yes, we can.

Don't think your job can't do without you. Yes, they can. They'll hire somebody in a second, have them in your office. You are not going to stop the show. All of us are just servants of God. Don't think your family can't do without you. They might love you to death, but I dare you to die. They'll take you out to the edge of town.

They might be crying as they go. Hopefully, if you were nice and kind and loving and great influence, they'll cry as they go, but they'll get in these long black cars, drive out to the edge of town, take your remains, have a little service at the graveside, lower your remains into the ground, turn around, get back in those cars and go to somebody's house or to a church and eat.

And you out there at the edge of town by yourself. You are not all that. Told you over the years, if they're black, chances are they're going to eat chicken and potato salad. I'm a PK, I grew up going to many a funeral. That was the black folk funeral meal: chicken, potato salad, little string beans. Then they'd have a little dessert table, some sweet potato pie. Talk to me, somebody.

Old folk were slicing pie and cutting pound cake, handed it out. I pastored all these wonderful ethnicities, I know y'all eat different things, but everybody's got some way of surviving. And life will go on without you. And so what you want to do is keep the attitude of a servant. As God blesses you, don't get cute. Don't get stuck up. Don't get full of yourself, because you are a servant.

Guest (Male): All of us are sinners who will fail many times in our lifetimes, but here's some good news: you don't have to be flawless, only faithful. So glad you stopped by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. It's always a pleasure studying the Word of God with you.

As you may know, the summer season is a difficult time financially for most ministries like Destined for Victory. So today, when you're giving your generous gift, we have something special we'd like to send you with our thanks. For the first time ever, Let My People Smile is available in video form.

Let My People Smile has long been a huge favorite among our listening friends and partners, featuring Pastor Paul's unique blend of humor and biblical wisdom. But now you can see these great teaching clips. That's Let My People Smile, available in DVD or a streaming link, and it's yours this month for your most generous gift of $25 or more 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. Or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: Because on that day everything's going to be exposed. That which was hidden in darkness is coming to the light. That which was buried in the motive of a man's heart is going to be exposed on that great day. And all of us will receive his praise from God.

Guest (Male): That's next time in our Destined for Victory message, Be Faithful. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.