Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): It's called the law of the harvest and we'll dig into it next on today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Before we get things going, here's an important message we'd like to share with you. At Destined for Victory, we've always believed in the power of partnership. It's a core value Pastor Paul put in place years ago. I remember asking him to talk about the power of partnership, but also about the benefits. Here's that brief conversation.

Paul Sheppard: You're absolutely right. I think that we do need to underscore that it is a win-win situation when a person is not only a faithful prayer warrior to undergird us with prayer, but when they are faithful in supporting our ministry financially. There is a real benefit to them.

Because when you think about it, Jesus said in Matthew 6, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth corrupts and things get eroded and all that. He says you need to store up treasures in heaven. And if people say, well, how in the world do you do that while you're still living on earth? The answer is you support things that make a difference not only for time, but for eternity. And ministries like ours are making that kind of difference.

So you get to directly benefit as a supporter because Jesus is saying in essence, you share in the victory, you share in the fruitfulness of the ministries you support. And I know that to be true. God has blessed me over the years because of faithful listeners who stand with us every month. I can count on the fact that part of what they do is they sow into this ministry so that we can continue to preach timeless truths in a timeless way that's making a difference for people both in this life and preparing them for the life to come.

And there is no Pastor Paul or any of the other ministers that God is using without those who faithfully support them. To you, I say thank you so much. To others, I'm saying please prayerfully consider becoming part of that support team.

Guest (Male): When you decide to partner with us for as little as $20 a month, you'll receive a few thank you gifts, including one of our most popular resources, Pastor Paul's CD, "The Best of Let My People Smile." It's a compilation of some of his best and funniest moments, something the entire family can enjoy. Call 855-339-5500 or mail your gift and when you do, please let us know you'd like to become our partner. The address is Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

You can also sign up by selecting 'Become a Partner' at the top of the pastorpaul.net homepage. That's pastorpaul.net. Now, if you can't become a partner but would like to send a generous gift to the ministry today, we'd love to send you our latest booklet, "You are So Loved." For more information on this outstanding resource, please stop by pastorpaul.net.

The law of the harvest is you sow and then you wait for the Lord of the harvest to give you the results of your sowing. And in the meantime, in that place between sowing and reaping, it requires that you press through challenges, that you press through the things you don't understand.

As the saying goes, life is difficult. It's full of ups and downs and hopes and heartaches, but the secret to a joyful life is not the absence of challenges. It's the presence of the Lord. As King David wrote in Psalm 23, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for the Lord is with me."

On today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard, biblical wisdom to help you learn to handle adversity God's way. The message is called "Outlasting Your Challenges" and it starts right now.

Paul Sheppard: Quit trying to figure out who's in the kingdom and who's not according to what they're going through. Because sometimes you have to go through hell before you can get to heaven. And the fact of the matter is, we love sitting around talking about folk, and did you see what Peter did? Three times, I'm not talking about just once, three times. That's church folk for you.

And the fact is, God wasn't surprised. In fact, He predicted it. He said, "but I already prayed for you, you're going to be converted. Your failure is going to be your altar call. And you are going to go down into deep repentance, and when you come up, you'll be a new man."

When you're converted, strengthen your brothers. Because there'll be some things you can tell them about not putting confidence in the flesh that you can't preach that message tonight. But in six weeks, when you preach on Pentecost, you'll be able to tell them a whole lot of things. I want to let you know the confidence is not in you. The confidence is in the God who said, "I have begun a good work in you, and I will bring it to completion."

I just this morning finished a seven-part series from that very passage. God started what's going on in our lives. And He is the one who promised to complete it. He did not give the construction project that is your spiritual life for you to oversee. He said, "No, I am the builder on this project and I'm going to see to it that it results in full completion."

No confidence in the flesh because that will fail every time. Notice when the Bible then talks to us as believers about being strong, it always clarifies: be strong, Paul said in Ephesians 6, in the Lord. Don't be strong in yourself because your strength will run out just when you need some strength. Be confident, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

And that is how we defeat our enemies. Confidence in the Lord is what we must have. Don't throw away your confidence in the Lord and don't put it in yourself. And here's another thing, don't put it in other folk. Some of us have done pretty well learning the lesson of not trusting us, but some of us still have some lessons to learn about not trusting them. Because they can have great intentions, but they didn't promise to complete the work in your life.

You can have loving brothers and sisters, you can have people who stand with you, people who walk with you, but just when you need somebody, people have a funny way of not being able to come through for each other. And you don't have to vilify them. The fact is they weren't built to meet your every need. God refuses to let anybody be in your life who meets all of your needs because if they meet your need, then you wouldn't need the Lord.

And you wouldn't give Him glory. You'd be bragging about your friend all the time. They always come through for me, there's never been a time when they didn't come through for me. Keep on living, my grandma said. Keep on living and there'll be a time when you need people and they can love you, but they can't be there. We get happy when we know people love us because under normal circumstances, they'll come through for us. I love telling folk it's just like that song back in the '70s: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."

Ain't no valley low enough, ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you. We love that stuff. We love to know somebody feels that way about us. If you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far. Just call my name, I'll be there in a hurry, on that you can depend and never worry. No wind, no rain, no winter's cold can stop me baby, if you're my goal.

It's wonderful to know people feel that way about you. But life will set you up and have you in a place where after declaring that there's no mountain, no river, no valley that will keep them from you, life will see to it that there's a time you need them and they're on the other side of the mountain. And you can forget that song, they're not climbing that mountain to get to you.

They'll text you from the other side of the mountain and say, "Yo, I wish I could be there for you. You know I love you, you know you're my dog, right? But I can't be there. I'm a little tied up right now, but you be strong." Why? Because they can't always come through for you. You can't have confidence in the flesh.

And so we've got to learn that the confidence of which this writer speaks is a confidence that is firmly rooted in the God who began the good work in us. Don't throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. Then he gives us the second key to victorious living and to overcoming our challenges. First is confidence in Christ, and the second is the word perseverance.

Perseverance. Now, this is one our generation doesn't have a whole lot of context for because we live in a technologically advanced society which blesses us in many ways. Technology is a blessing, but there are some ways in which it is a curse. Here's why I say that. Because we are so accustomed now, technology's goal is to do things more efficiently.

God's goal for your life is to make it more effective. Efficiency and effectiveness are two different concepts. Efficiency is getting it done quickly. Effectiveness is getting it done right. And God knows what He's up to in your life, so He's the only one who can define right. And technology blesses us, it's wonderful, I love all the gadgets and what have you, it can make life very comfortable, but your God is not operating in your life according to the laws of technology.

He's operating in your life according to the law of the harvest. The law of the harvest is you sow and then you wait for the Lord of the harvest to give you the results of your sowing. And in the meantime, in that place between sowing and reaping, it requires perseverance. It requires that you press through challenges, that you press through delays, that you press through your questions, that you press through the things you don't understand, that you stay the course, that you stay focused.

In fact, the Greek word that is translated here in Hebrews 10 as perseverance is the Greek word hupomone, and it means to cheerfully endure. It means you not only endure, but you endure with cheer. Why? Because you know the harvest is coming. You're not worried about if it's going to happen, it is going to happen, but in the meantime, yes, there is a period of time where I don't see manifestation, I don't see instant things like I'm used to in this world of technology.

And you have to remind yourself God didn't promise me instant blessing, He promised me real blessing. And so heirs can afford to wait. As an heir is growing up, he knows what he's got coming. He can afford to wait while he's growing up. You don't have to worry about an heir, just by virtue of the last name, you know how hooked up that kid's going to be. But right now, their parent may very well have them working through college, even though the parent could pay for it.

Because the parent wants them to learn the lessons that they can only learn through cheerful endurance, so that when they get the windfall, they know how to handle it. You do know there are people who can't handle what God wants to do for them yet. They're not mature enough, they're not settled enough. And so God lets there be a period where there is a difference between the sowing and the reaping because He's got a lot to teach you so that when He blesses you, you can handle the blessing.

I know some folk who the worst thing that happened to them is a blessing, a windfall that came into their lives. They were not situated, they were not able to handle what was going on for them, and it took them off course. And so God says, "No, I'm operating by the law of the harvest." And I let you go through periods where you don't get instant results so that I can perfect your faith and I can teach you not only to endure, but to endure cheerfully.

That's what this word is, cheerful endurance, because you know there are some folk who endure, but their attitude stinks. Have you ever seen Christians? Not you, not you, but people on your row. Somebody on your row is enduring but they have an attitude that stinks. Look down your row and find out who it is. And while you're looking at them, please note that they are looking right back at you.

Cheerful endurance. Cheerful endurance. And we've got to learn that. God's trying to teach you, you can go through whatever He lets you go through while you're waiting on the promise to be fulfilled. And He wants you to do it cheerfully. Because He's not operating quickly, God's not out for quick results. He has the timeline in His hand. Sometimes when we say the blessing is delayed, the devil is delaying my blessing. Well, you can't really call it a delay because you don't have God's schedule.

You don't know when He ordained the blessing to come into your life. Remember the prophet Habakkuk said the vision is for an appointed time. And you didn't set the appointment. We've got to understand that as people of faith. Sometimes we go too far in our faith walk and we try to give God deadlines. You don't have His divine schedule. You don't know what He's up to.

Mary and Martha had enough faith to believe for Jesus to heal Lazarus because they were His best friends. So they said no problem when they saw their brother get sick, they said no problem, we'll call on Jesus. He'll be here, He's our best friend. Be right here, get you up. Lazarus, just hold on, Jesus will be here. They had plenty of faith or else they'd never called Jesus. They didn't have a lack of faith, they had a lack of a schedule. They didn't know God's timeline.

They sent a servant to find Jesus, who was a day's journey away. While the servant was traveling, Lazarus died. And later on we find out when Jesus gets the word, He knows the Father's schedule, He knows the vision is for an appointed time. And He said, "This sickness is not unto death." When He uttered the words, according to the timeline of John 11, when He uttered the words, Lazarus was dead. And Jesus said about it, "It's not unto death." You've got to understand circumstances mean nothing to God. They only mean something to us.

That's why you walk by faith and not by sight. So they had to go on and bury their brother. They went back to the house. If they were black, they ate chicken and potato salad. That's what we do after funerals. Look, I'm a pastor's kid, I went to many a funeral all my life. When black folk die, the chickens got to go too because we're going to eat. Because we're going to eat chicken and potato salad.

They'll put little green beans on your plate, little green beans, they'll give you a roll as you go down the row and they put the roll on your plate and you are hooked up. The old folk over in the corner slicing pound cake and sweet potato pie. Let me tell you something, none of this made sense to them. And four days after Lazarus died, Jesus shows up.

So we have to trust Him even when we don't understand Him, and we have to cheerfully endure. That's the lesson. While you're waiting on the harvest, while you're waiting on the manifestation, while you're waiting on the breakthrough, while you're waiting on what God promised, He says you've got to learn to persevere, to press through, to cheerfully endure. You have to recalibrate.

Because on your journey what happens is you reach new levels of challenge. Just like a boxer, when you start boxing, they don't put you in front of somebody really good because that wouldn't be a fight. So they put you in with a person with a similar record of inexperience. But as you keep winning, eventually you move up the ranks. And sooner or later you find yourself fighting people with an awesome reputation. That's a compliment. That means you've been winning enough battles where you caught the attention of people who can put you in the ring with a big fight.

I come to tell somebody you're standing against some big enemies, but that's a compliment. That simply means that they've been watching your record enough. You've been winning enough battles enough where there's a new devil for this new level. And all you have to do is say, "No problem," because the same God that brought me through these battles is going to help me get through this battle. And you recalibrate. You have a new normal. You can't fight rookies anymore, you're out of the rookie business.

All of your devils are big devils now. All of your enemies are breathing hatred and threatening your demise. That simply means you've been winning enough where you've attracted the attention of the enemy. And you recalibrate. I was at dinner with Bishop Jakes and a few other pastors. And one of the pastors was just crying on Bishop's shoulder and talking about the fact that folk hated his ministry so and they were just blogging against him and just doing all of this stuff.

And Bishop just sat there and he said, "All that means is it's time for you to recalibrate." And the other pastor said, "What in the world does that mean?" He said, "You just have to realize that at this level where you are, you have a new normal. And you're going through new experiences, new challenges." He said, "It's a compliment, you've got a new normal, you have to recalibrate." So what you have to learn to do is say, "Lord, give us this day our daily bread."

See, this day's bread is not like last year's bread, five years ago bread. Now you need something new to sustain you today. Lord, give me today what I need to fight the battle, to resist the enemy. Give me what I need to withstand what is coming against me. Give me this day my daily bread. Some people don't understand that, that's why marriages die. Because you've got to realize you're not married today to the person you walked down the aisle with. They've been changing, they've been developing for the better or the worse.

Help me to know who it is so that I'll stop trying to change somebody God hasn't called me to be the change agent for. Do you know that there are some Christians who think it is their job to change their spouse? Not your job at all. You've got to know who you're married to today. You've got to know what your challenge is today. You've got to learn how to win this battle today.

Stop trying to change your spouse. You're not the change agent in their life. See, men marry thinking women won't change. Meaning that attention you got when y'all were dating and all, you don't know, she was a sister on a mission. You got that attention because she planned for y'all to get married, you didn't know it yet. She planned for y'all to get married, so she knew your ego needed to be stroked, there were some things you needed some attention, you needed to know how good she was at making you feel great and wonderful and all that.

And so you thought you were the man. And you hung up, she called you on your job, you hung up, your boy said, "Who's that?" "Oh, that's my girl man, she jocking me all the time." But later on, you get married, kids start coming, she still loves you hopefully, but now her attention has shifted to some other areas. She starts nesting, kids are coming, now she's got to create the right environment, she's got to nurture this child. Next thing you know, you haven't heard all that little sweet goo-goo that she used to get on the phone every day.

You haven't heard that in a couple of weeks, but there's a kid you walk in from a hard day's work and there's a kid in the house who's been getting at it and they don't even have a job. And you walk in and say, "What up with this?" You marry thinking it was going to be idealistic all the time, not so. Men often marry thinking women won't change. Women often marry thinking men will change. They're in for a rude awakening.

Guest (Male): Have you ever been impatient with God, wanting Him to hurry up and deliver you from one of life's crises? Remember, we're told to love God, and the first thing we're supposed to be is patient. Thanks so much for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory message, "Outlasting Your Challenges." 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: How do you grow in your faith? You stay in the word, you remind yourself of the promises of God, you remind yourself of the goodness of God. You read what God says about Himself, don't spend time looking at what people have shown you by their poor examples.

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