Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That's Matthew 11:28, and this is Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Before we get going with today's message, we've got an important reminder to share with you. As you know, summer is always a tough time for ministries like Destined for Victory, and this summer has been no different. I once asked Pastor Paul to help us understand all this a little better, 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 skip a payment." 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. 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 bills.

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

Guest (Male): We're so grateful for friends like you who already this season have supported our media ministry with your prayers and charitable giving. But if for some reason you meant to give and the busyness of the season has distracted you, today would be a great day for you to make your gift. When you do, we have an outstanding resource to share with you as our way of saying thanks.

You may remember the story of Mary and Martha from the Gospel of Luke. Martha was busy preparing the 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 his booklet, "When Humans Attack," drawing a clear contrast between 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 visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, P.O. Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.

You've got to understand that your body and your mind can only take so much. It has nothing to do with how much of God's power you have. It has to do with whether you are learning from Jesus how to unload stuff that you weren't built to carry in the first place.

Paul Sheppard: We could all use a little breather from time to time, the kind of rest found only in the arms of Jesus Christ. But one of the reasons we often get weary in the first place is that we load ourselves down with things we were never meant to carry. On today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard, an important reminder about letting go of our unnecessary baggage because some bags don't fly free. Now, let's get started with today's Destined for Victory message, "Neglected Areas of Discipleship."

You've heard sermons on this passage because it talks about as they sailed, the lake got stirred up, a great storm came, and the boat was almost swamped, and they were in great danger and all that. You've heard it. I've preached that, and you've heard other people preach that. Look at the passage again. "Let us go over to the other side," Jesus says. All right, we're going to take a journey. They all get in the boat. So they got in the boat and set out. Verse 23 of Luke 8: "As they sailed, he fell asleep."

Jesus said, "Let's go over to the other side. Going to be a little while. This is a good time to get a nap." Why aren't you up there on the deck teaching them? You could be spending that time teaching them and giving them some truth. Jesus said, "Later." Dropped his head back and he slept. Why? Because although he was full of ministry and full of help and full of blessing, he had to live with the restrictions of a body that could not go and go and go without rest.

I want to say to some of you super spiritual, super productive, super fruitful, got so much anointing you hardly know what to do with yourself, you're so needed on your job they can't imagine life without you. Unless you get some rest, they will experience life without you. Jesus fell asleep. I'm talking about my man slept because this storm came up and he was still asleep.

The other folk are panicking because the boat's taking on water. They seem to be in great danger. Verse 24, the disciples went and woke him. They had to tell him, "You know we're about to die, don't you?" And they said, "Master, we're going to drown." He got up and handled business, rebuked the wind and the raging waters, and the storm subsided. All was calm, and he said, "Where is your faith?"

You're on the boat with me. I'm the one that said, "Let's go over to the other side." Don't you know if I said, "Let's go over to the other side," we're going to make it to the other side? That's what you've got to realize. You've got to understand that he is the captain of the ship of your life. And the captain is saying every now and then, just take a chill pill.

Understand that I'm going to finish the work I began in you, and you need to just flow with your greatest needs. One of your greatest needs is to recognize that your life as a parent, as a worker, church ministries in your church, whatever you do, all of that is subject to your being physically capable of doing it. Therefore, you've got to rest. You've got to rest your body and rest your mind.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, "Come to me," another scripture we all know, but think about it again. "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Now, we preach that as an evangelistic message, and that's a correct interpretation because it certainly is an invitation to the not-yet believer to come to Christ, lay down the burden of sin, and take on his holiness and take on his righteousness. All of us should do that.

Now is the day of salvation. So Jesus extends the invitation to you. If you don't yet know him as Savior, come and lay down into his lap your burden of sin. But it's not just an invitation to the unbeliever. He says to all of us who are following him, come to me when you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Then he says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me."

It is a process that extends past your giving him your sin. All of us ought to be on a journey of learning from Christ how to live the life free from the burdens and the wearisome conditions that bring many of us down. He says, "Come and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. You will find rest for your souls." Not salvation for your souls. That's one of the things you find in Christ.

He says, "I want to not only give you the gift of salvation, I want to teach you how to walk, how to live in a Sabbath condition." So that Sabbath is more than physical time for you, but Sabbath is a condition that your soul lives in. He says, "If you learn from me, you will find rest for your soul." What's my soul? My psyche, the area of the intellect, the will, and the emotions.

Do you know that much of what's going on in our lives that's troubling us is soul trouble? A lot of us think it is conditional. But you can handle conditions differently if you let him teach you how to find rest for your souls. He says, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Now, let's look at our lives. There are a lot of us who are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, but if the truth be told, we are carrying soul burdens that are entirely too heavy for us to bear.

You've got to understand that your body and your mind can only take so much. It's got nothing to do with how much of God's power you have. It has to do with whether you are learning from Jesus how to unload stuff that you weren't built to carry in the first place. The fact of the matter is some of us have never stopped to examine all this stuff that's heavy on my heart, heavy on my mind, things I'm always thinking about, things I'm always worried about, people I always have on my mind.

Ask yourself the question, is this God's will for me? Does God want me carrying these folk around like I'm doing? Does God want me dealing with burdens too heavy for me to bear? And if the answer is no, then you've got to understand Jesus says, "Bring those things to me." Imagine your life as one of these big tractor trailers, and you've got stuff in your trailer that's weighing it down.

Have you ever seen a truck been out on the road and seen a truck when it hits an incline and it's carrying a heavy load? They get all the way over to the right and sometimes they put on their flashers. And they're just groaning. You hear them shifting gears. Just trying to find a way to make it. Little light cars just flying by, zoom, zoom. But they're groaning, trying to make it up this hill.

A lot of us are just like those trucks. We're over on the right side. People enjoying life in Christ, enjoying a freedom from unnecessary burdens. Now, life is always going to have its challenges, but he said, "My yoke is easy." He said if you learn from me, you will have some challenges, but you can handle them because I'm with you. But until you learn that, you'll be over on the side of the road and you'll be finding a gear, trying to find a gear.

Anybody ever live that way? Just trying to find a gear. Your friend sees you, everything all right? That's not the way to live, straining and groaning. Christ didn't die for you to go through that. So his invitation here is come to me, pull over all the way on the shoulder. Let's you and I go in this trailer and see what's in here and see who put it in there.

And if I didn't put it in there, that's a burden that you shouldn't be bearing. You should cast that on me. Meaning some of us, if we're truly going to follow Christ, we have some people and some situations we have to unload because Jesus didn't put them on you. Some of y'all got your relatives all in the trailer. We open it up, they're all in there, "Hey!"

Guest (Male): In case you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. And 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 main menu of our homepage to share that with us. And of course, when you stop by our website, remember that's where you can listen to the broadcasts on demand at your convenience. That's pastorpaul.net. Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, "Neglected Areas of Discipleship."

Paul Sheppard: I'm trying to help you with neglected areas of discipleship. Jesus is saying, "I didn't put those folk on you. I died for them. I didn't call you to die for them." Because if you die for them, all they'll do is be in there fussing about which of your stuff they're going to get. I've been pastoring a long time. I have seen people carry their relatives and other people's burdens, and then they go to the hospital and then they die.

And those same relatives who killed them, I'm the only one at the hospital. And they're laying there, either dead, just died, or they're trying to die. And the relatives aren't there standing by. No, they are out at the house somewhere. Let me tell you something. Jesus said, "Learn from me. Learn from me. I didn't put it on you. Don't carry it."

Have the strength to be able to unload it and say—that's why the Bible says, casting all these cares on him, because he cares for us. So you've got to have the determination to unload these things and say, "Lord, here's my cousin and them. Here's my husband, you know how he acting, Jesus. Here's my wife, she's tripping, Lord. My kids, I don't even know what to say about them."

Come on, trying to help you unload this trailer. Here are the people, all the people who are trying to get me to help them with their bills. I helped them for a little while, but now I sense, Lord, that I'm not giving a hand up, I'm giving a handout. I think you're calling them to higher responsibility. It's going to hurt my feelings a little bit to say no the first time, but help me to do it, Lord.

When you get through—it's a process. When you get through with that process and get back into the truck, you'll be surprised how different the ride is. Because Jesus said you'll know you're getting there because your load will be getting easier. Because Jesus said, "My yoke, the one I'm putting on you, is easy. My burden is light." There are challenges in living with the Lord. There are going to be difficulties, but he says they're manageable because you and I are linked up.

Oxen who share a yoke. We're city folk, so we've got to kind of get the picture. Oxen who share a yoke. And Jesus says the reason why it's easy and light is because you don't have to carry it by yourself. I'm in there with you, and the things that I've really called you to do, I am your helper and together we can pull the load. I want to encourage you to examine the trailer of your life.

Because some of us are carrying things Jesus did not authorize us to carry. Your soul can only take so much. In fact, much of what goes on in our bodies, we are told by medical scientists, are a reflection of things going on in the inner man. Your body tends to catch your soul's diseases. So that not always, but in many cases, if you have enough burdens, enough stuff you're carrying that you're really not able to handle well, it starts showing up in your body.

You start having pains and aches, and you start having insomnia, and you start having these things that happen. And you say, "What in the world is going on?" And your body is simply reflecting the fact that there's some more stuff in the trailer that needs to be dealt with. That's why you've got to understand Jesus says—I love how he doesn't relegate this to something else. Spirituality is not an area of your life and then you figure out how to do the rest.

Jesus says it's all-encompassing. Come to me with all of your stuff, not just your spiritual needs. Come to me with your family struggles. Come to me with your psychological issues. Come to me with the stuff in your past that still haunts you and still weighing you down. Bring it all to me. Bring those folk who are hurting you. You don't know how to deal with them, but I know how to deal with them.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and he says, "And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart." God's not going to beat you up. I'm gentle and humble in heart. Some of you are constantly dealing with this sense of you're not good enough, and that's not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't beat us up.

When he convicts us, he points out, "Here is what I want changed in your life." It's very directed. And even in the midst of his rebuke, you sense his love. The Bible says whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And you sense his love even in the discipline. So you who are being beaten up, always feeling like you're not good enough, always feeling like you'll never measure up, those feelings aren't coming from the Lord.

They're coming from old messages, maybe you got them from a parent who didn't reinforce the right things inside of you. And you need to let the word of God transform your mind and your heart. You've got to understand that the word of God is the transforming agent in your life. If you got all the messages growing up that were wrong, you will sometimes project them onto God, but they don't belong there.

Because God doesn't beat his kids up. He convicts, he disciplines, he chastises, but it's redemptive and it's merciful. It's full of mercy. If you're not experiencing the mercy of God, you're missing it. Because your God is a merciful God. Your God is a God who has it in for you in the right way. He has it in for you for blessing.

He has it in for you for encouragement and strength. God isn't walking around with a belt waiting for an excuse to whack you. That's some of you who grew up with people who were abusive. Because corporal punishment—there were two forms when we were growing up. There was appropriate corporal punishment. I thank God I was the recipient of some of that—appropriate. But I had friends who were just flat-out abused.

We didn't know it back then because they didn't call it that. It just called you got a whopping. But when we look at it now, I had some friends who were just abused. Their parents would just whack them just almost for very little reason. You've got to understand when you come to Christ, you don't have that kind of parent. You have a loving Heavenly Father who even when he is bringing you to higher places and convicting you of some wrong attitudes and actions, he says, "I have a plan to take your life higher."

I'm not going to burden you. I didn't save you to bring you down. I saved you to lift you up. I saved you to take you to higher heights, places you could never go without me. And he says casting all of your cares on me because I'm the one who cares for you. Let the Lord teach you how to live a different kind of life. Rest your body. Be okay when you need to quit. Be okay.

I've got to knock off now. I can't talk to you now. No, I can't counsel you now. This isn't a good time. I need to rest my mind. I need to rest my body. So that when I come to you, I'll really be there. I'll really be able to help you. I'll really be able to minister to you. I'll really be able to serve your needs. There has to be an anointing to be able to say when is enough.

Because if you don't do it, my friend, you'll find that your body and your mind will simply cave under the load. You will implode. The pressure will just be too much. And I've seen good people, godly people just break under a load that God really didn't want them to carry.

Guest (Male): If you find yourself weighed down with burdens today, here's an encouraging reminder. All the Lord requires of you is to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Make that your focus and leave the rest to him. Thanks for being with us for today's Destined for Victory message, "Neglected Areas of Discipleship." 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: I'm finding more and more believers who are holding on to things that God says, "Would you please give that to me? Would you please give those folk to me? Would you please give that job situation to me and cast it on me because I care for you?"

Guest (Male): That's next time in our message, "Neglected Areas of Discipleship." But until then, remember: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. You are destined for victory.