Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Don't get into the habit of trying to figure out whether God is with you or not based on your behavior. You got to know that when you are called according to God's purpose, God is with you and has promised to fulfill that promise.

Guest (Male): He was a thief and a con artist, but in spite of his checkered past, God was with him every crooked step of the way. Glad you've joined us as we study the Word of God together on today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard.

As a young man, Jacob swindled his older brother, Esau, out of the family birthright. With his mother's help, Jacob fled to the house of Laban to avoid Esau's wrath. As devious as Jacob had been, God never left him, and He'll never leave you either. Today, you'll get a beautiful reminder that God's love is not based on your performance, but on His own character.

Before we get started, let me invite you to stop by PastorPaul.net. That's where you can listen to any of our recent messages on demand, including today's. But right now, let's pay close attention to our Destined for Victory message, "Dying To Get Right."

Paul Sheppard: Here is a man who we have seen was born messed up, and in that way, he's an excellent example for us because all of us were born in sin. But he was born tricky. In fact, the Bible says when he came out, he was a twin brother, the second twin to come out. When he came out, he had hold to his brother's heel. He was already planning and plotting in the womb to be a get-over, a con artist, somebody who took advantage of the weakness of others. In that same way, he reminds us that all of us are born in sin.

Now we've seen that one day, when these two boys grew up, Esau came in from the open country famished. He said to his brother Jacob, who was cooking some stew, "I'm about to die. Would you please give me some of that stew?" Jacob, being the tricky man he was, said, "Sure, I'll give you some stew. All you have to do is sell me your birthright."

The birthright, of course, meant the oldest son got twice the inheritance of the other son because he was going to be the one to carry the name into the next generation and to oversee the family enterprise. Jacob had his eye on that inheritance. He took advantage of this opportunity, as all tricky people do, and he tried to maximize it. He said, "Sure, I'll give you stew if you sell me your birthright."

We looked at the fact that the enemy does the same thing in your life and in mine. He will find you at a point of crisis, find you at a point where you have a felt need, where you're going through some dark place in your life. The enemy will come along with an indecent proposal, he'll come along with an illegitimate proposition, and he'll try to take advantage of your weak state.

You and I have to learn to trust God for His provision now, even while we're waiting on the ultimate blessing. In other words, you and I have to learn to delay gratification and say sometimes I have to suffer in the short run so that I can be blessed in the long run. The way we explained it is the devil always finds a hot summer day and comes down the street of your life with his ice cream truck.

He comes along with his ice cream truck and he's got some goodies, but they're not the will of God for you. You and I have to learn to die to self so that we can say, "No, thank you, I'm waiting on the Lord." Because Esau did not wait on God for his provision, he gave up a lifetime of blessings. Some of us must learn from this example to wait on the Lord and be of good courage, knowing that He will strengthen your heart.

Now, not only did Jacob rob his brother of his birthright, now he robs him of his blessing. The blessing was pronounced by the patriarch of the family just before he died. Isaac was getting well up in years and said, "I'm not going to be here much longer. Let me make sure not to leave the next generation without a blessing."

Rebekah knew that it was time for Isaac to bless his son. Rebekah, we're told over in chapter 25, loved Jacob, but Esau was loved by his father, Isaac. Dysfunctional family. Y'all think we made it up? Dysfunctional families were in the Bible long before we got here.

Here you have a dysfunctional family. These folk need family counseling in the worst way. Here you have a father who loves his oldest son more than the other twin, and the mother who loves the youngest twin more than the older one. She gets in cahoots. She said, "Your father is getting ready to bless Esau, but I want you to get the blessing."

Esau was red and hairy, the Bible tells us. That wasn't Jacob's physical makeup. So his mother said, "Let's get you together and put some hair on you, and then we'll put on something that smells like your brother for your clothing." Because he's a man of the open country, his clothing had a unique smell. She said, "Let's get you all situated because you know your father can't half see. We're going to go in there and make sure you get the blessing."

How tricky is that? A mother plot with one son against the other son. I'm telling you, if God can bless these people, He can bless you. That's why we're looking at the case study. You got to know the reason why these jacked-up people are in the Bible is so that you and I can have hope for our lives. The Bible is not a book of perfect people, not a book of righteous people. It's a book of jacked-up people who dared to trust God, who dared to say, "Lord, I messed up," and they experienced His grace and power and He transformed them.

We're going to see that happening in the life of Jacob. Here this boy is tricky. Him and his tricky mama now are robbing Esau of his blessing. They show up in chapter 27. They show up by the bedside. His father had sent Esau, he said, "Go out, hunt and get me something. You know how I like that meat that you cook. Go out and hunt and get me something and then cook it up and come in here. If it tastes right, I'm going to bless you."

Rebekah said, "I'm going to go out and cook something for your father while we get you prepared." They came in there. She came in with this meal and Jacob came in posing as Esau. Read it when you get a chance in Genesis 27. Isaac smelled a rat. He said, "Wait a minute, something is not right. Are you Esau?" Jacob said, "Yeah, I'm Esau. You told me to go get something. Here it is."

He said, "Come here, let me feel you." He felt him and sure enough, it was hair. He said, "Bring me that food over here." When he brought him the food, Isaac grabbed him and smelled him. He said, "Okay, that smells like Esau. I guess it's him." He pronounced the blessing of the oldest son on Jacob.

Later on, the Bible says as soon as they got out of there, then here comes Esau. He's cooked up the food and he's ready for his blessing. Isaac said, "Well, now who was that I just blessed?" Esau realized, "He got me again. Got me first with the birthright, now he got me again with the blessing."

What makes it amazing is in chapter 25 he steals the birthright, in chapter 27 he steals the blessing, but when you get over to Genesis chapter 28, here's what I want you to see that will bless you till you go to heaven. Starting in verse 10 of Genesis 28, Jacob is on the run because his mother heard Esau plotting to kill Jacob.

Esau said, "That's it. The boy stole my birthright, he stole my blessing. I'm going to wait and mourn my father's death. As soon as I mourn his death and the period of mourning is over, I'm going to kill that boy." The Bible just keeps it right in there because God knows what's in our hearts. No need of you trying to pretend to feel good when you know that you have murderous thoughts.

If God's going to bless you and take you where He wants you to be, you have to be honest about where you are right now. Some of us just have to learn to pray honest prayers. If you want to get some real breakthroughs in your life, stop pretending and say, "Lord, I messed up. Lord, I'm ready to hurt somebody now, and I need You to come through for me."

Esau was tired of this and he's ready to kill his tricky brother. Rebekah said, "Listen, your brother is trying to kill you. Why don't you go on down to my brother Laban's house and just stay down there for some years until your brother gets over this? I'll send word to you whenever everything is okay. But I need you to go and get away from here, because I can't have you killed by your brother."

He's on the run. Jacob is now a fugitive. It picks up in verse 10, and you find that he is on his way to his Uncle Laban's house and he stops for the night. The sun sets. Taking a stone, he puts it under his head, lays down to sleep, and has a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

There above it stood the Lord. And the Lord said, "I'm the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Guest (Male): Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. If you want to listen to this program on demand, make sure to download the Destined for Victory mobile app. Just search Destined for Victory at your app store today. Or for more details or to find out how to listen to Destined for Victory on your favorite digital platform, visit PastorPaul.net.

There are two roads that lead to God's blessing: the direct route and the scenic route. Which one you take depends on you. Now here's the rest of today's message, "Dying To Get Right."

Paul Sheppard: Now, here's what I want you to see. You would think, until you understand how God really operates, you would think anybody that tricky is not in with God. You would think anybody who stole his brother's birthright, then turned around and wasn't satisfied with that and stole his blessing, would be in trouble with God.

He's on the run. He's a fugitive because of his own mischief. While he is on his way to his uncle's house, God speaks to him and says, "I am the God of your grandfather and your father. The word I gave them, you are direct descendants of the line of My divine purpose." He says, "Because of My purpose, I'm with you and I will stay with you until My will comes to pass."

Here's what you got to understand. All of us who are struggling with sin, with deceitfulness, with dysfunction, all of us who are messed up, you got to understand that God is not dealing with you according to your sin. God is dealing with you according to His purpose.

Now, get this clear. It doesn't mean He condones your sin. When we sin, that sin always grieves God. Not only does it grieve God, it always has consequences. The reason why you don't want to take the love of God for granted is because sin always has a paycheck you don't want. The wages of sin is death. There's pleasure in sin for a season, but there's always that paycheck at the end that you don't want.

But here's the thing you got to understand. When you and I are messed up, when we're dealing with these besetting sins and issues in our lives and ways that we've displeased God and dishonored other people, don't get into the habit of trying to figure out whether God is with you or not based on your behavior. You got to know that when you are called according to God's purpose, God is with you and has promised to fulfill that purpose.

What you have to go through to get there depends largely on how quickly you obey Him. You can take the direct route or you can take the scenic route. Some of us right now as I speak are on the scenic route. You are sightseeing in sin's neighborhoods. You're exploring all the sinful possibilities. You are doing all these things that you know are outside of God's will. No need of you even trying to act like you're in God's will. You know you are outside of God's will.

No need of coming to the office saying, "I need an appointment with the pastor to try to figure out, am I in the will of God?" The answer is no. You know you're doing things you have no business doing. You know you've got stuff in your heart that needs to be dealt with. You know you haven't dealt right with people. You know that you're displeasing God in some area of your life.

But here's the good news. When you are called according to God's purpose, He says, "All right, you want to take the scenic route? Well, I'll let you suffer the consequences of all of your behavior, but I will not withdraw My purpose from your life." What that means is we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, but My will is going to come to pass.

I'm here to tell somebody who's on the scenic route, who's dipping and dabbing in things you have no business with, that if you are called according to purpose, if Jesus Christ has His hand on you, if you are a marked man or a marked woman, the sooner you realize that it doesn't pay to be outside of God's will, the better your own life is going to be.

You're not putting God out. When we're out of the will of God, God is not the one distressing. Please understand that. When you're out of the will of God, God's not in heaven saying, "Oh, Lord. What am I going to do with this child?" No, when you're outside the will of God, you're the one running.

You see Jacob? The boy can't live in his own house because of his own sin. He's got to go now down to where his uncle lives. When he gets there, he's going to find out that trickery runs in his mama's family. Are you familiar with this passage? He got the trickery from his mama. It's in her family because he is about to run into his uncle, who was tricky before Jacob ever showed up.

He is about to eat the consequences. He's about to eat the fruit of his mischief. You will always dine at the table of your own sin. Don't think for a moment that sin is going to have an eternal payoff for you. There'll always be the negative consequence that you don't want.

So he's on the run. The boy can't stay home. When he gets down to the region where his uncle lives, he runs into Rachel, his uncle's daughter, his cousin. He sees her and he makes up that homemade scripture, "The Lord is my shepherd, I see what I want."

Then he goes on and meets Laban. Laban sees he's struck with his daughter. He starts working hard to impress Laban. One day, Laban says, "What can I do for you? You're working so hard for me, tell me what your wages are." Genesis 29. "Tell me what your wages are." Jacob says, "Oh, this is my chance." He said, "Well, you know I love your daughter. I love your daughter, Rachel, and I would love it if you would give me Rachel as my wife."

Laban says, "Oh, not a problem at all. Tell you what, work seven years for me and I will give you my daughter. Just seven years." See, these folk are tricky. These folk know how to make something look like a deal. Same way Jacob made stew look like a deal in exchange for a lifetime of blessing. Now, he's trying to con a con man, and you can't con a con man.

He thinks he's going to get over. He thought, "I worked hard for a few days, I'll impress Laban and he's just going to give me his daughter." Laban said, "Oh yeah, I'll give her to you, but just seven years. Just knock it right out, you'll be all right."

In fact, Jacob loved the girl so much that the text goes on to say it seemed like just a few days to him. That's how much he loved Rachel. He's working every day. He's working hard looking over there, "Hey, Rachel." He was acting like he had Rachel on layaway.

This generation doesn't know anything about layaway. But some of us used to know. I'm talking about 40 and over now. Layaway. You could not afford it, but you would go put something down on the shirt. I was the king of layaway. Put down something on the shirt. Then you'd go down every couple of weeks to see if you could put another $10 or $5 on it, and the store would update your account. Sometimes we'd just go to the store to show our friend what I'm going to have one day.

Jacob was acting like he had Rachel on layaway. He's just working hard. Seven years later, watch how tricky this family is. Seven years later, he says, "All right, I worked for you seven years to the day." Laban said, "Well, come on, let's get ready for the wedding feast." They set up the elaborate wedding feast. They would feast for days in Bible times.

That night came where they were going to consummate this commitment. It was dark and romantic in the chambers and they already introduced the bride into the chambers. He came in and he lay with her all night. Next morning, he woke up and there was not Rachel. There was Rachel's older sister, Leah. Jacob ran out of the tent, said, "What did you do?"

Tricky Laban said, "Oh, you mean I didn't tell you? You can't marry my youngest without marrying my oldest first." He said, "I know you wanted Rachel, but you got to follow custom. That seven years was not for Rachel, that seven years was for Leah. You want Rachel, huh? That's another seven years."

Folks, I'm telling you what goes around comes around. The Bible calls it the law of reciprocity. You will reap what you sow. You better be careful what you're putting out because you're going to see it again. The Bible here shows Jacob that you can't con a con man.

So now he thinks he has paid off the layaway and she's back on layaway another seven years. This problem existed in Jacob's life over a period of 20 years. We are told that for 20 years, Jacob couldn't go home for fear of his brother killing him. During that 20 years, he married Leah, he married Rachel, and he had 12 kids. Finally he gets to the place where he says, "I wonder when this is going to end." God speaks to him. I'm telling you, God's love for you is greater than you think it is.

Guest (Male): If you want to be encouraged today, read 1 Corinthians chapter 13. When you do, replace the word "love" with the word "God" because God is love. Meditate on that truth and on that passage of scripture, and you just might get to know God in a whole new way.

The last thing Jesus told us to do was to go out and make disciples of all nations. To get that job done, it takes all of us working together. So right now, during the busy summer months when donations to the ministry tend to decline, we're asking all of our listening friends and partners to prayerfully consider making a generous donation to Destined for Victory. When you do, we'll send you our latest booklet, More Than Conquerors, as our way of saying thank you.

The Christian life is a victorious life, and it doesn't happen by accident. It's your birthright purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet so many believers live in defeat, selling their birthright for things worth far less. In More Than Conquerors, Pastor Paul Sheppard uses the unlikely story of Gideon to outline the path from defeat to victory. If you want to understand how to take on a victor's identity and tear down the idols competing for your heart, you'll want to reserve your copy of this outstanding resource today.

That's More Than Conquerors, yours this month for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. Give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. Again, 855-339-5500. Or visit PastorPaul.net to give. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, P.O. Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: I want to tell you that before you try to make things right with people, you must make things right with God. One of the classic mistakes people make who have abused, who have hurt, or who have mistreated others is you try to reconcile with them as if they're the key. God's plan is, "No, you get right with Me, and then let Me lead you in the process from here."

Guest (Male): That's next time in our continuing message, "Dying To Get Right." Until then, remember: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.