Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: Love doesn't mean anything if it doesn't express itself. Same is true of compassion and mercy. I don't need compassion or mercy that's in your heart. I need compassion and mercy that gets in your hands and causes you to do something to help me.

Guest (Male): True Christian compassion does more than make us feel bad; it compels us to do good. Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. We see this time and again in the life of Christ. His love was an action, not a warm feeling.

To be a true disciple of Christ, we need to allow the belief of our minds and hearts to become the behavior of our hands and feet. Remember, come see us at pastorpaul.net to hear any of our recent messages on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. Subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Right now, let's get started with today's Destined for Victory message, "If It Ain't Broke, Break It!"

Paul Sheppard: Go with me, if you will, to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 14. And there, I'd like you to look with me at verses 13 through 21. When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so that they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish." "Bring them here to me," Jesus said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.

Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up 12 baskets full of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about 5,000 men, besides women and children.

I want you to help me introduce my subject. I'll begin it. It's a sentence and I want you to complete it for me. The subject of this message is, "If it ain't broke..." No, that's not the subject of the message. I knew you would think that's the subject of the message. I just wanted to make sure I had your attention when I got started.

My subject is, "If it ain't broke, break it." If it ain't broke, break it. This story tells us that at a certain season in the ministry of Jesus, he had just heard about the beheading of John the Baptist. If you're unfamiliar with that, you need only read the verses preceding the text, beginning at Matthew 14, verse 1.

And it tells you about the fact that John the Baptist, having offended Herod, was killed, was beheaded. You know, sometimes truth is offensive. And we must understand that we who walk with Christ are not going to be able to prevent offense in every case. Now, we should be careful to not offend people for wrong reasons.

We should not offend people because we have a bad attitude or because we are abrasive or unnecessarily callous as we talk to them about their lives or issues of immorality or anything like that. It's true and sad that many Christians these days are so holy until they're mean. And they seem to take great pleasure and joy in telling folk they're going to hell.

Well, hell is a reality, but it's a sad reality, and we shouldn't enjoy it. One of my mentors said when he was a young preacher, he was invited to preach at the church of a man he really wanted to impress. And so, he said, "I preached this real strong message and I was talking a lot about folk not living right and going to hell and I was just carrying on. I thought he would be really impressed."

After the service, this preacher called me in his office and said, "Listen, I can see God's hands on you and I'm sure you're going to have a great ministry. But let me give you a little advice as a senior, seasoned pastor. Can I give you some advice?" He said, "Oh sure, I would love to hear anything you have to say." He said, "When you preach on hell, don't sound so happy about it."

It's a sad reality. And the reality is that the wages of sin is death and eternal separation from God. But we shouldn't offend people by how abrasive we are or how unkind we are or how insensitive we are. However, that having been said, please understand that there are times when we will offend people just because of the truth itself.

And you can never apologize for being offensive because of truth. The truth ought to be spoken in love, the truth ought to be spoken with a heart to help people, but understand you won't be able to dodge the bullet of offense. There are times when just the truth itself is going to offend people. Jesus said that light came into the world and the darkness didn't like it.

And the fact of the matter is you're going to experience that as you simply walk with Christ and stand for Christ. You look at the growing hostility in our society against people who simply take their stand on the Word of God. You can believe any old kind of spooky, spiritual, crazy thing you want. Read these books, these popular books now that folk are writing about secrets and stuff like that that are not based in the scripture, and everybody will just gobble it up.

And why is that happening? Because your Bible told you it would happen. Paul said, "The day is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine. They will not endure sound doctrine. But rather, they will bring to themselves teachers who have itching ears," meaning the people have itching ears. They want to hear certain things.

And so they'll find folk who will teach and write and preach about the things that make them feel good. You can live any old kind of way you want and God will still bless your life. And so when you come along preaching the truth, saying, "Well, no, the Lord loves you and the Lord is kind and compassionate and gracious and forgiving, but he does have a standard by which we ought to live. He does define how we ought to live our lives."

And everything outside of that definition is called sin. And sin alienates us from God. And when you tell that kind of truth, people don't like it. And that's what happened with John the Baptist. All he did was tell the truth. He said, "Y'all not supposed to be sleeping together." And they didn't like it, and he lost his head for it.

Jesus, having heard about it, we're told in our text, gathered his disciples and said, "Let's go find a solitary place and just kind of hang out and chill out, regroup, get ready for what God has ahead of us." And the text tells us that as they got on their boat and began to sail toward another part of the region where they were hoping to find a little solitude and isolation from the people, it says the crowd followed them on foot.

So Jesus and his disciples get on the boat, but because they're on the Sea of Galilee, they can be seen. And either the people knew where they were going or they just walked and followed them. They were on the shore and followed wherever the boat was going. And the bottom line is we are told that when Jesus landed—verse 14 of Matthew 14—and saw a large crowd, there they were on the shore when the boat's coming in. They're standing there grinning.

Because they're now getting the proximity they want to Jesus, and they've got some needs. They've got some sick people among them that they want to have healed, and they have carried them or brought them to this place, and they want Jesus' attention. And the Bible says that when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them.

And although it is clearly his desire to spend a little time with his disciples in isolation, when he sees this large crowd and sees their hunger for what he has to offer, his heart is full of compassion, and he begins to minister to them. He's not going to turn them away because he would rather be alone. He understands that he has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

He understands that he has come to minister to their needs. And although his personal preference in this moment would be to have a little time of isolation, this is not a time for him to live up to the boundaries that he normally lives by, but this is a time when, seeing the need right there and seeing the effort of the people to come out of their towns and to meet him, the Bible says he has compassion and goes to work, beginning to minister to them.

In fact, James, in talking about God—James chapter 5, I believe it's verse 11—James says that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Full of compassion and mercy. And we are his disciples. We are his servants. We are his representatives. We are his ambassadors on Earth. So I've got a question before I get to the heart of what I really want to say to you. I've got a question for you. What are you full of?

Jesus is full of compassion and mercy. What exactly are you full of? Now, as you're gathering your own answer in your mind, I want to suggest that if I really want to know what you're full of, I probably wouldn't ask you. Because, you know, we have a way of re-characterizing ourselves. We have a way of putting a spin on self-reflection.

Guest (Male): Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. In case you didn't know, Destined for Victory has a free mobile app designed to help you stay connected, stay encouraged, and stay rooted in God's Word. Search "Destined for Victory" in the App Store and listen to these messages wherever you go.

Visit pastorpaul.net for more details or find out how you can listen to Destined for Victory on your favorite digital platform. What are you full of? Joy and hope? Anger or regret? Think about that question as you listen to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, "If It Ain't Broke, Break It!"

Paul Sheppard: So if I really want to know what you're full of, I'm not going to ask you. I'm going to ask the folk you live with. I'm going to ask the folk you work with. You students, the folk you go to school with. I'm going to ask the people you were raised with. I'm going to ask the people who spend time with you in ministries down in the trenches, doing things day in and day out when the large gathering isn't there, all the folk aren't there, the lights aren't on, there's no hype going on. It's just you.

What are you full of? I'm sure that for some of us, the real answers come back and they're not so flattering. Sure, some people would say of some of us, "Well, you know, he's full of anger, full of bitterness for some people, full of complaints, full of themselves." What are you full of? I want to suggest that as you walk with the Lord, say, "Lord, make me more like you, so that no matter how I am naturally wired, I want to live a supernatural life."

No matter how ordinarily wired I am, I want to live an extraordinary life. So I don't want to just be characterized by my temperament, but I want my temperament to be transformed by your presence in my life. Because there are some people who are more naturally compassionate than others. There are some people who you can get them to cry pretty quickly. They just see a need or see somebody hurting, they're quick to be compassionate almost by temperament.

In fact, you don't even have to know Christ to be compassionate on a certain level. There are some people who are just naturally that way. Even if you are naturally compassionate, you want to take on the spirit of Christ because he didn't just have compassion in his heart. The Bible says he had compassion and then he did something about it. And you want to make sure that you, like Christ, have a compassion that works.

And then there are some of us who don't even have the compassion naturally. Some of us see a need, and if the need doesn't impact us or anybody we really care about, the attitude is kind of "Oh well, hope everything works out for you." But if you want to be like Christ, Christ, full of compassion, stopped, saw the need, and he addressed it on the spot.

And we want to be like Jesus. Now, be sure you understand that compassion is an action word. It's not just something in our hearts. We can't be this breed of Christian—there are a whole lot of Christians who walk around talking about how much they love people, but the question is, how well do you express it? Love doesn't mean anything if it doesn't express itself. Same is true of compassion and mercy.

I don't need compassion or mercy that's in your heart. I need compassion and mercy that gets in your hands and causes you to do something to help me. I need a compassion and mercy that gets in your feet and causes you to go somewhere to help me. I need a compassion and mercy that's in your mouth that causes you to say something that will help me. Don't practice cheap compassion.

Compassion that doesn't cost you anything and doesn't benefit me in any way. Folk say, "Oh, I, you know, I really feel sorry for you." I don't need your feelings. I need your help. Don't go around feeling for people. Go around helping people. Somebody who's poor doesn't need you to feel bad. They need you to get in that wallet because how many know words can't feed me when I'm hungry?

Don't come to me talking about Jesus and I'm hungry and you know it and have money. Why don't you talk to me about Jesus over a meal? Let's do something about the compassion. The Bible says Jesus was full of compassion. He saw these people and he has a personal desire. His personal desire in this moment is to be isolated and to be alone and just kind of handle his own business. Nothing wrong with that.

But there come those moments in life when God gives you a divine appointment. This was obvious to Jesus as he lands, here they are pulling on the shore, and he sees this large crowd of people who are waiting for him. And he realizes in that moment, "I simply cannot afford to ignore them. My compassion won't allow that to happen."

We'll know we're becoming more like Christ when there are some instincts that are driving us that are very unlike the way we would normally be. When you find yourself becoming nicer than you are in the natural, probably means you're growing. When you find yourself becoming sweeter than you are, probably means you're growing. When you find yourself speaking more kindly to people than you used to, you're probably growing.

When you find yourself putting up with more than you used to, you're probably growing, becoming more like Jesus. Jesus had compassion and healed. Now he then begins to go among the people and touch them and listen to what's going on in their lives and minister to them and heal the sick among them. He goes to work and it takes some time because this is a large crowd.

So look at what happens. Verse 15 says, "As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.'" I love that because when I read that, I get the distinct impression it's getting late. Jesus has spent hours now in the crowd, ministering to people, healing them.

Evening is beginning to set. The disciples are standing there hungry. So they say to Jesus—they want to sound right, so they say—"Now Jesus, it's getting late. These people have walked in from these various towns, so they got to walk back home. This will be a good time to send them away so they can go get themselves something to eat."

I'm not so sure that implicit is, "We're hungry and until these folk get out of here, we can't go get something to eat." "Jesus, send them away and give them something to eat." But Jesus says, "No, we don't need to do that. You give them something to eat. We don't have to send them away. You're right, they need to eat." Implication is, "I know y'all want to eat too, but we're not going to send them away."

Because Jesus, being the master teacher he was, often took needs and turned them into case studies and illustrations that would teach his disciples important lessons. In fact, if you want to know that for sure, that I'm not just speculating about that, you need only read John's account of this story. This is one of the few stories in the gospel records that appears in all four gospels.

The feeding of the 5,000-plus is found in all four of the gospels. And if you want to know that what I just said is true, you need only look at John's account in John chapter 6. In fact, flip there real quick and here's what you will find. You will find that Jesus set up his disciples for this on-the-spot training session. The Bible says in John 6, verse 5, "When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, 'Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?'"

So Jesus actually asked one of them. Now, we want to feed these folk. I want to feed them. I don't want to send them away. Where are we going to get bread for them? And look at verse 6. It says, "He asked this only to test them, because he already had in mind what he was going to do." Jesus wasn't just figuring this out as he went. He knew what he was going to do, but this is a training for his disciples.

So he asked the question as a test: "Where shall we buy bread for these people?" Philip comes back with the natural, normal answer. What is it? That "eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have even a bite." Philip said, in other words, "We don't have the resources to meet this need. Good idea, Jesus. Nice that you have compassion, nice that you want to feed them, but we can't afford it."

"We don't have the resources. Eight months' worth of salary couldn't buy enough bread for all these folk to just have one small bite and then pass it on." So they're set up because they now are aware of the fact that Jesus wants to do something that seems impossible. So he has them set up. "I want to feed them." They said, "Well, we can't afford it." And it is in that context that he waits to see who is going to partner with the miracle that is needed here.

And one of the disciples, John's account goes on to say, another disciple, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up and said, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Now, the one disciple simply stated the obvious: "We don't have the money to feed these folk." Thank you so much for sharing.

The other one says, "Well, I went past just stating the obvious. I went and did a little inventory, a little search around just this group of people here. And all I found among them is one boy who has some fish sandwiches. He had five small barley loaves and two fish. He hadn't put them together yet, but that makes fish sandwiches. So all we found, Jesus, was two fish sandwiches with some leftover bread."

Guest (Male): You know, Jesus didn't simply live a godly life. He taught others how to live that way. And one of the things he said—in fact, the last thing he told us to do—was to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations. And whether you know it or not, you help fulfill that great commission every time you pray for our media ministry or send a special gift.

So thank you for all you're doing to help shine the light of Christ in an ever-darkening world. So let me ask you: Have you ever set out to be a blessing to the people around you but then felt like you had gone unnoticed or unappreciated? We find just that kind of story in the Gospel of Luke. Martha is busy making preparations, but instead of helping, her sister Mary chooses to spend time with Jesus.

In her latest booklet, *When Humans Attack*, Pastor Paul takes an honest look at this story to show us how unchecked frustration and unspoken expectations can turn even our best intentions toxic. That's *When Humans Attack*, a gift we'd love to share with you this month as our thank-you for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory media ministry.

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 you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: I'm here to tell somebody that God wants to work some miracles in your life, but they will require that you give to him what you're trying to hold on to. And know why you ought to give it to him: not only because he's going to work a miracle with it, but because in your hands, it's pitiful.

Guest (Male): That's next time in our Destined for Victory message, "If It Ain't Broke, Break It!" Until then, remember: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.