Developing a Lifestyle of Faith, Part 1 (cont'd)

When's the last time you found somebody weak and made sure they were strong before you left them?

When's the last time you found a bowed down head and you said and did things that lifted their head? Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Always glad to have you here with us. Well, a lifestyle of faith is built on two foundational principles, drawing near to God and holding onto the hope you profess in Christ.

But the building process doesn't end there. Today, Pastor Paul shows us two practical ways in which our foundation of faith can be carried out in the lives of others. As you follow along, remember when you build up someone else's faith, your own faith is always strengthened. Stay with us now or visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. And let's join Pastor Paul for today's Destined for Victory message, Developing a Lifestyle of Faith.

When you draw near to God, you then position yourself to hold to the hope you profess because you learn to tune in to God and hear what he's saying and get accurate about what God is saying. In this room is all kinds of music. You know why you're not hearing it? Because you're not tuned in. You have to have a receiver. It's being transmitted, but you don't have a receiver. As soon as you turn something on that has a receiver element to it and then tune to the right station, you'll get the right message. All someone would have to do is pull out a radio and tune to the right station. You can tune to what you want. Somebody else sitting next to you can pull out a receiver, but they tune to something else.

Both of you all are receiving, but not the same thing. One person can sit here and receive music from the 70s and right next to you, somebody can tune in and they hip-hop and everybody say, oh. They tuned in to old, now they call it oldies with rap. How's rap going to be oldies? That's how these folk were old. Yeah, that's old school rap. Rap's just been around for 30 years. How's something old school already? Old school rap.

Back when they was wearing the Adidas. Walk this way. Come on some of y'all, don't even act like you don't know. Walk this way, talk this way. Run DMC. Some of y'all had those glasses, big old ugly glasses. Don't you make me call you out?

Had Kangol caps. So you could be listening to that and somebody right next to you listening to opera. Same room and they enter the classical.

Now this is music. So it doesn't matter what you're tuned into and number one, we're called to draw near to God. Number two, to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. Don't let circumstances shake you loose from the hope you profess. God will do what he said.

And number three, let us consider how we may spur one another on. That's found in verse 24. Look at verse 24 of Hebrews 10 and you'll see that we're called to consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. King James uses the word provoke. Provoke. You know what provoking is. Pushing somebody in a certain direction, trying to get a certain response. Now we typically think of it in the negative because we all grew up with a sibling who provoked you or coworkers who provoked you or schoolmate who provoked you. Somebody who was always trying to push you over the edge so you would cross the line and they're still free from blame. And you all know you got professional provokers in your life. And it starts young in life.

You see kids on a road trip. They're bored so they're going to provoke a sibling. And they just keep putting their finger. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you.

Get up. Leave me alone. I'm not touching you. I didn't touch you. I didn't touch you. I didn't touch you. Provoke.

Trying to get you in trouble. We think of provoking as negative but it doesn't have to be. You can provoke folk to act right. Provoke them to love and to good works. You can challenge them to be better. That's what we're called to do. On our journey of faith, help somebody live better than they're presently living. That's what we're called to do. Consider one another to provoke.

Consider. That means take a look at your friends, your family, the people in your life. How can I help them get closer to where God wants them to be? How can I help them stop making some of the same mistakes and provoke them unto love and to good works?

Use your influence for good. So to provoke that doesn't mean to always throw them up against the wall. It means find ways to challenge them to be better than they are.

To do better than they do. Now that doesn't mean you try to live their lives for them. At the end of the day, you can't live people's lives for them.

Please understand that, saints of God. At the end of the day, people are going to be who they are. They're going to say what they're going to say but you can at least try to help them move in the right direction. I want some of you parents to understand that. Even if your kids are no longer small, they're now teens or tweens or one of those other categories and they're getting older and they're having more of a sense of self and frankly more bold with their defiance. They've always been defiant. Defiance has to grow up.

You know, little kids can be defiant. They just have their little ways. They know they can only go so far because the three homes that still have spanking, they might get a spanking. I know there's three of you covert spankers in here. You don't want folk to know because you don't want to get called on but I know there's some covert spankers in here.

They do a little pop at home. Now they don't try it out in public because folk will call the cops. Call the people on you and say, oh, she hit her child. I resent it when they first started calling it hitting. We grew up, it was spanking. But when I first started hearing people say, I saw this woman hit her child. I don't believe in hitting. And then they came up with the little sayings, you know, when you hit, you teach to hit.

I said, what happened with me? That's why they used hit because they knew they couldn't apply it to spanking. Hitting teaches people to hit others. I said, no, I grew up with spankings, not hitting.

And spanking taught me to sit down. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You all want to believe it's all negative all the time. You had the right to be wrong.

I'll let you have that. There is abuse. Abuse is always wrong. I stand against abuse. I, as a pastor, have gotten kids away from unhealthy parenting. So I know what I'm doing.

But when you just throw the baby with the bathwater, called all spanking wrong and inappropriate, you've gone too far. You don't have to believe that. That's fine.

You can be wrong. It's good. Spanking taught me to sit down. We grew up in a church where your parents didn't even have to do it. We're not going to try it. You can come to Destiny. Oh, I better not go to Destiny now because they all going to be popping my kid. No.

No, you can come. Destiny is a safe place for your kid because we have told our folk that's not your job. These are not the good old days. But in the old days, our parents didn't even have to sit with us. They could sit with their worship buddies, the folk they like to worship around. And we'd be over there in a little section with our friends.

But we're monkeying around, restless, not paying attention, getting a little loud or a little too demonstrative. And the first thing would happen while you were doing that, some fear would come over you and you'd look over at your mother. Because you know you're doing what you had no business doing. You look over at your mother and sometimes she was looking at you. If she wasn't looking, you go back to her.

But every now and then you check. And sometimes she was looking at you. And sometimes she would send an usher to say your mother said to look over there.

I'm talking about the old days. And your mother's looking at you and you look over there. And she has this face. She doesn't say a thing.

We're in the middle of worship. She hasn't said verbally a thing. But her face tell you everything you need to know. Her first face say if you don't straighten up right now, you better find somewhere else to live by benediction. Because it's not going to go well for you.

All that was in a look. And then the other thing is we had a community policing in our church. Sometime an adult sitting near you was sick of how much you were carrying on.

And they would pluck you in the head. And with me it was worse because they said you're the pastor's son. You know better. I saw a couple of my friends. I never got dragged out of service. But a couple of my friends got dragged out by an usher.

Just grabbed them by any piece of clothes they could find. All you young folk got it made. You think life is hard?

No. There's a good way to provoke. There's a good way to help people live a better life. So you got to make a commitment to draw near to God. To hold unswervingly to the hope. To consider how you can spur one another on.

Number four, there's a fourth directive which is to remain committed to meeting together. Look at what this passage says in verse 25. Hebrews 10 verse 25 tells you that you cannot forsake.

Don't give up. King James says forsake. Meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. But encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. I'm getting to that last part of the verse in a second. But right now look at the first part of the verse. Don't stop meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.

This is a commitment. If I'm going to live a lifestyle of faith, I better take every opportunity to worship God publicly as well as privately. Because look at biblical pattern.

Look at redemptive history. People who were people of faith worshiped God privately and publicly. In the days of the temple they went to the temple. In the days of the tabernacle they worshiped God from the tabernacle. Now in the New Testament dispensation they get together whether in homes, in the early church they hadn't built churches yet but you see them getting together in homes. Acts chapter 2.

The end of Acts chapter 2. They met daily in homes. Their schedule allowed them to meet daily. I always won't allow us to meet daily. Why would we even bother trying to get folk to meet daily?

We can't even get them to meet weekly. This is not my Sunday for church. Is it your Sunday for breathing? Well in him you move and breathe and have your being. He's the one that lets you get up. He's the one that lets you draw the breath where you say I'm not going to church today.

I don't feel like Pastor Paul today. And you ought to praise him privately and publicly. And publicly doesn't mean just praising him publicly with other folk you see on the TV. On the word channel.

Because not everything on the word channel is the word. And I watch a lot of my friends preach through their live streaming. And we're going to have live streaming in our church.

But that's not public worship. That's not getting together. Meeting together.

I can't meet with people through the internet. I know that the churches that do it do their best. They try to let people interact. They say amen online. Because they have little chat. Live chat. You see what happens with live streaming. And they have some churches have an internet pastor. Good to have you this morning.

And the person that said oh thank you pastor. All that's going on. You see the chat. Live chat going on. While the service video service is going.

They're doing their best. That's good for shut ins. But when you're not shut in you just end. Your happy hips need to be at church. Remain committed to meeting together. Don't give up meeting together. Well I had a rough week.

That's why you ought to be the first person at church. Say I had a rough week. This has been rough Lord. I need to get in your presence. I need you to pour out your spirit. I need you to refresh me. I need you to speak to me. I need you to revive me. I'm getting ready to hurt somebody. I'm going to catch a case Jesus.

If you don't come through for me. Get there. Worship him. Minister in prayer. And praise to him.

Remember when we get together it's not just about what you can get. It's about what you give the Lord who has given you everything. Your first order of business when you come to public worship is to give God your sacrifice of praise.

You'd understand it more biblically if you lived in earlier times. In the Old Testament dispensation sacrifices had to be made. Now the sacrifice has been made through Christ but there's still a sacrifice that remains.

What is that? The sacrifice of praise. Hebrews talks about that in chapter 13. The sacrifice of praise.

The fruit of my lips giving praise to him. That's your job. I show up to bless God before I get on with the rest of my day.

Before I get on I got to go to the mall. They got to sell. How dare you take God's strength and goodness and blessing. One who gave you the money where you can go figure out what you want to buy and you won't even stop by his house for 60 or 90 minutes or two hours. Some churches you all got it made. Some churches three, three and a half hours.

I'm not telling you what I think. I'm telling you where I've been. Three, three and a half hours. I've spoken at a four hour service. I was the speaker. I said Jesus when am I going to get up to be able to tell these folk what you told me to tell them? Singing and shouting and talking and sing some more and shout some more and talk some more. Take the first offering. Sing some more. Shout some more.

Take the second offering. Sing some more. Shout some more.

Now the praise dancers are coming up. And I'm sitting there. I'm thinking I'm the speaker.

I'm sitting there thinking is there going to be an intermission to this? I need to go back in the office and chill out for a while. I got to sit up there in the big chair.

It looked like a throne and you're just sitting there. And finally they said now we have a speaker. See these folk are worn out. They're not going to hear a thing I said. You all wore these people out.

Now they're going to sit there and look at me like you do something. Until church can be comical. First time I ever hooped in a church. They were used to hooping preachers. They had never had I guess a non-hooping preacher.

And I was a teaching preacher. That was before I ever learned how to hoop. I've hooped from time to time. But the first time I ever had to a church made me hoop.

I got to the point in my message when they figured this is about tune up time. And the dude jumped on the organ and he found a key. And he started that and the people started humming. And they literally made me hoop. I wasn't even planning to hoop. Next thing I knew I was Jesus.

Mary's baby Jesus. I'm sorry mother trail. I know I'm cutting up.

She said he is so crazy. But get together whether you have long service or short service. That's your church. You picked them now go.

And you got no excuse. You can get any brand of service you want. But once you commit to a fellowship do what they do. This is what my church does. It does long service.

If you got long then do it. Ours is pretty good. I think we're right in the middle. Then there's some churches real short. Whole thing 57 minutes. I've been there too. Priest of those. They tell you in the back room Reverend you have 24 minutes. And they're serious too. They're not playing. It's not a suggested time.

57 minutes the whole thing. Some of them give me a sheet before I preach there. I've spoken in places like the Crystal Cathedral back in the day. And they gave me a sheet. And you're going to be up at this minute. And I looked at the clock. It was that minute. And they were saying would you please welcome Dr. Paul Sheppard.

And I knew since I'm starting on time I better look at that clock. And be done. And the Lord taught me to do that. He said don't go in their house and disrespect them by saying I don't care what y'all say the Lord gave me four points and I got to say all. You show up at the wrong place like that.

That's going to be the last time they ever hear your name. Then later on the Lord had me speaking in arenas. And these big Christian meetings and you go in an arena.

I've spoken where the Chicago Bulls play and the Houston Rockets play. Spoken in there and all those seats and people in there. And they give you a time. And there's a countdown in front of you.

I don't care how way. I'm in third gear now. Two minutes, five seconds, four, three. You better figure out how to get out of that gear because you now got a minute 57. And the people are moving to their places.

They're ready for the next thing. You're through. You're done.

And I learned how to do it. I have never gone over in all those meetings so they can invite me back if they want to. Whatever your church does do that to the glory of God. Finally let us encourage one another. Same verse chapter 10 verse 25 of Hebrews.

We're called to do what Jonathan did when David was on the run from Jonathan's own father. A miserable season of life. It lasted 10 years.

Imagine being a future tip for 10 years from a guy you've done nothing but help. And he's trying to kill you. You're constantly on the run. Constantly looking out. Sleeping with one eye open. Hiding in caves.

Got to do whatever you got to do to survive. For years. And the king's own son Jonathan was in covenant with David. And he didn't know where he was but he found him. He looked until he found him.

And when he found him the Bible says he strengthened his hands in the Lord. He assured him you are the next king. That's why my daddy's so mad. But God's hand is on you.

Nothing's going to happen to you. And then watch this. He said and I'm going to be second in command to you. The amazing thing about that statement is Jonathan was the king's son so by all right he could have said I'm going to be the one who ascends to the throne after my father. But he knew God's hand was on David not on him.

And he had the sense enough to say you're going to be the king and I'm going to be second to you. Strengthened him. When's the last time you found somebody weak and made sure they were strong before you left them? When's the last time you found a bowed down head and you said and did things that lifted their head. See a lot of folk tell you lift up your head. That's not necessarily encouragement. We might have to deal with why my head is down. Come on I'm trying to help you now. You who want to be encouraged.

Even in church we got to learn how to minister to people. Stop barking at folk. Well I already came discouraged. You can't fuss me into a better state of mind. You got to lead me into the presence of God. You got to speak a word of affirmation.

You got to let me know reasons why I can lift up my head. And God will bless us to develop a lifestyle of faith if we'll follow directions like these. Pastor Paul Shepherd wants to encourage you today. Even the great heroes of the Christian faith made a few wrong turns. If you've gotten off track in your walk of faith.

If you've made mistakes that you can't seem to forget. It's time for you to embrace the grace. No matter what you've done you can never outrun the love mercy and grace of God and you can still live a faith-driven life that blesses the lives of everyone around you. Thanks so much for joining us for Pastor Paul Shepherd's message developing a lifestyle of faith. Remember you can hear this or in your recent message on demand just visit pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

Well as we navigate our way through some tough challenges in America and all over the world we're seeing the Destined for Victory audience continue to grow. Adversity very often brings with it a degree of spiritual awareness and growth and friends like you make it possible for Pastor Paul to minister to a growing audience. Thanks so much for lifting us up in prayer and making donations when you can. Today we'd like to lift you up in prayer. From the home page at pastorpaul.net click contact us and tell us how we can pray for you. While you're there be sure to ask for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement yours at no cost or obligation. And here's something else a booklet from Pastor Paul called Lessons from the Cocoon.

You know butterflies don't start out as butterflies they're caterpillars grounded earthbound but later on a transformation takes place and they take flight. Your life in Christ works the same way. In Lessons from the Cocoon Pastor Paul reminds you that God is at work in you even when you can't see it and in his perfect timing you will like the butterfly take flight because you were born to fly. That's Lessons from the Cocoon our gift to you by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 to give over the phone or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online.

You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory post office box 1767 Fremont California 94538. Your Christian experience won't work right until it becomes a lifestyle. If you're still just I'm saved I know I'm saved because I trust Christ for my salvation but it doesn't engulf me it doesn't permeate every area of my life then you haven't yet really made any headway in your journey with Christ. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message developing a lifestyle of faith. Until then remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ you are Destined for Victory.