Get Your Shine On (cont'd)

If you would ask the average person who doesn't know Jesus what they think of the Christians in their world, most of them see a whole lot of judgment and they see very little in the way of good works. And it is time for us to quit being in the bad news business and it is time for us to just do the good works that Jesus and the Word of God talk about. You aren't saved by good works but you are saved for good works.

Hello and thanks for stopping by for this Monday edition of Destined for Victory. Ephesians 2 verse 10 tells us that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Part of the good work called to do is illuminate the world so that it might see Jesus a little more clearly. Today Pastor Paul Shepherd has a word of encouragement for you. It may be easy to look out into the world and curse the darkness.

We need to get better at turning on the light. Stay with us now or visit pastorpaul.net later to listen anytime on your schedule. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also download and subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get yours. Now here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, Get Your Shine On. God has called you to be a difference maker, to be a planet shaker. You are to be a world changer and you say oh I don't have a worldwide visible platform.

I'm not talking about having a worldwide one. Your world is what needs to be shaken. Your planet, the planet of your sphere of influence is what needs to be shaken. God will make a difference through you if you will just let your light shine. Now look at this passage again. Jesus said you're the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill, he said, cannot be hidden. He has placed us on a hill. God has placed you in conspicuous places in your life, in your lifestyle, in your sphere of influence. Begin to look at your life as something that God has strategically set up. You are not to be a hermit. You are not to be somebody who lives just me, my four and no more. That's not God's will for you. All I do is go to my job, I sit in my cubicle, I do my little work and of course now during the pandemic most of us aren't even working physically in other places of employment.

Some are but others of you are working right from home and so it is easier than ever for you to be just siloed and just focused on here's my little work and I send it to them and then I get my paycheck. No, no, Jesus didn't call you to do that. That's a means, that job is a means of a provision but your real work is to let your light shine.

God has called you to make a difference and to be intentionally a difference maker in the lives of people. He said a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. You are supposed to be conspicuous. I grew up in a holiness tradition where I often heard the saints saying things like Lord, hide me behind the cross. Hide me behind the cross. I'd hear preachers and they get up to preach and they say Lord, I want you to hide me behind the cross. I don't want to be seen. I want Jesus to be seen.

I know what they meant. I applaud the desire of their heart to not be in their flesh as they preached but I'm at a point now where I'm telling folks no, no, you need to be intentional about wanting to be seen. Why? Because Jesus said you're the light of the world. So yes, you should be seen. You shouldn't be in your flesh while you're being seen.

You shouldn't be acting carnal while you're being seen but for God's sake, the world needs us. Think of it this way, what is one of the titles given to saints in the Bible? One of the titles, one of the terms given to people who know the Lord, we are called the body of Christ.

Well guess what? If the world is going to see Christ, they've got to see him through his body because Jesus as a person is in heaven. And so if the world is going to see him, they've got to see him through us.

That's why we're called the body of Christ. We ought to want to be seen. We ought to be conspicuous. We ought to be known. You shouldn't be hiding somewhere scared of the world. You are in the world but you're not of the world. God calls you to make a difference everywhere you go for his glory.

City set on a hill cannot be hidden. Jesus said, nor do people light a lamp and then put it under a basket. If you're going to light a lamp, that's because you want illumination. You want light to spread as far as it possibly can spread. He said, so instead of putting it under a basket, you put it on a lamp stand.

It's time for you, my brother, my sister, to find your lamp stand and get on it and let your light shine. These are days where everybody's on social media and all that stuff, especially during the pandemic where we can't be physically with other folk. I know some folk are still out there defying sensibility and out there doing stuff in close quarters. I just look at them and just shake my head because it makes no sense.

The science is irrefutable. You have no business not social distancing right now. You have no business not wearing a mask right now. I don't know why you're scared.

I'm the one preaching. You have no business being ignorant right now. I know there's ignorant people all over the country.

I see them on the news all the time. But everybody under the influence of Pastor Paul's ministry, let me tell you in no uncertain terms, there is no point in you being ignorant. You ought to social distance. You ought to have masks. You ought to wash your hands. You ought to do all that you can.

Even with all of that, there's no guarantee, but at least your odds go way up if you will do the things you're supposed to do. And so the fact of the matter is we have no business being ignorant. But to the extent that you can, use social media. This is a good time to figure out how to do this stuff. I know a lot of folks spend their lives saying, oh, I don't know anything about these computers and these smart devices. I wouldn't know where to begin.

When now you're home, you got a whole lot of time to work through it and figure it out. And here's why. Here's why. Because in order to find your lampstand, you need to find ways to be conspicuous. And social media gives you the opportunity to be conspicuous. I see people, I still don't know what their marketable skill is, but millions of folks follow them online.

What could they do that would actually be valuable? The answer, some of them are called influencers. Influencers.

And when I first heard the term, I thought, I was born in 1957, so I'm a baby boomer. And so when I first heard, what's your job? Oh, I'm an influencer.

I thought, what? That's a job? An influencer?

But the answer is yes. Some of these folk now are influencers and they make more money being an influencer than I hope to make being a pastor. And the fact of the matter is, there are ways that people are putting themselves on lampstands and letting whatever they have to say be heard and the world is hearing them. And I'm here to tell you, my brother, my sister, you are the light of the world, so you got to find your lampstand, get on it, and let your light shine. Get your shine on intentionally in this world right now. The Bible here says that we are to get on a lampstand so that we can give light to all who are in the house, all who are on social media, all who are in our schools, all who are on our jobs, all who are in our extended families. Find a way to let your light shine. Get your shine on intentionally.

It's time for you to do that. Jesus said, let your light shine before men that they'll see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The fact that Jesus said we are to be intentional about doing good works. It is good works that'll help us point people to Jesus.

Your good works are part of you letting your light shine. It's time for the church to be in the good works business. I'm so tired of folk who want to be more holy, quote, unquote, holy than they want to be good.

Here's what I mean by that. Other folk are so busy looking at other folk, pointing out what's wrong with their lives, and they haven't taken the time to just be good. It is time for Christians to stop and realize if you would ask the average person who doesn't know Jesus what they think of the Christians in their world, be prepared to hear an unflattering answer.

Because most of them don't think much of us because when they look at us, they see a whole lot of judgment and they see very little in the way of good works. And it is time for us to quit being in the bad news business, in the condemning business, in the business of telling folk what's wrong with them, and it is time for us to just do the good works that Jesus and the word of God talk about. You know just like I do, we are saved by grace. For by grace are you saved through faith, Ephesians 2 and 8. That not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And then go to verse 10, and here's what you'll find. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared, watch this, in advance for us to do.

You and I are called to do good works. And that's part of letting your light shine. When you leave somebody better than you found them, you just did part of what Jesus called you to be light in order to do. You ought to leave people better than you found them. A lot of Christians leave you worse than they found you.

You ever run into those kind of Christians? I'm serious, have you ever run into the kind, you can be sick before they show up? By the time they come and then leave, you are sicker. You can be depressed when they first show up.

By the time they leave, you are suicidal. Something is wrong with Christians who don't do good works or let their light shine. Fact of the matter is, God has called us to be positive difference makers in this world. And I came to tell you, the time is now. Don't talk about letting your light shine one of these old days.

Quit threatening to be something. Oh, one of these days, I tell you, you're going to look at me, and one of these days, I'm going to really show you something. No, no, do it now. Now is when the world needs light, because now is a time of gross darkness. And you and I need to let our light shine right now. You're listening to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. He'll be right back with a second half of today's message, but first, an important reminder. If you haven't already, be sure to download our free mobile app so that you can listen to Destined for Victory right in the palm of your hand. The app is easy to navigate. You can even take notes on Pastor Paul's messages so they'll be there the next time you tune in.

Search Destined for Victory in the app store and download it today absolutely free. God is every bit as interested in rescuing unbelievers from the darkness as he was when he rescued you. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. Get your shine on. I want to tell you, let your light shine despite your personal challenges and personal mishaps and all that.

Here's something we need to be real comfortable with and be prepared to share with the world. Jesus doesn't want to come into our lives to make them perfect, to magically clean up all of our circumstantial problems. He doesn't come to be a genie in a bottle. You don't need Jesus to come and grant you your wishes. You need Jesus to come and make your life meaningful and cause it to conform to his divine purpose. All of us were created for God's purpose and Jesus wants to come in because the only way you can fulfill your purpose is to do it in relationship with him. There's no such thing as living according to your divine purpose without acknowledging the lordship of Jesus Christ.

It is time for you and for me to let our light shine. When you have problems, that's why you have Jesus in your life. Not so that he can wave a magic wand and release you. Sometimes God will use the trouble, but he'll still work things together for good. Romans 8.28 is one of the main reasons I walk with the Lord because Romans 8.28 is a promise you can really latch onto. It says, and we know that all things work together for good, not to everybody, but for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. You need to tell your unsaved friends and loved ones, I'm saved not because I don't have problems, not because I don't have mysteries, not because everything goes the way I want. I'm saved because by loving God, he takes everything that happens, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and he works it together for good in my life. I'm so glad that I serve the God of Romans 8.28.

I'm so glad I serve a God who even when I don't, I can't figure out what's going on in my life or in my world, God says, don't worry, I'm going to work it all together for good. I told you the first time I had a GPS in one of my cars, first time I had a car in the 1990s is when they first started putting GPS systems in some of the first cars. Now we all have them right, in many cases, right on our phones, smart devices and all, but back before then, in the 1990s, I got my first car with a GPS, a navigation system in it.

It completely blew my mind, but it taught me some lessons that I now realize are part of the reason why I love the Lord because God said to us, I will take everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and work it together for good. When I got my first GPS, I realized that because all I had to do was put in an address and I didn't have to know how to get there, that's what the GPS was for. I just typed in the address. I remember driving off the lot with my first car in the mid, I think it was the mid 1990s, had my first car with a Navi, and I knew how to get home from the dealership, but I wanted to try it out, and so I put my home address in there and I pushed start. My mind was blown that this lady started talking to me right in my brand new car. My mind was blown as she said, all right, at the light, turn left.

And I said, thank you very much, and I turned left and went where she went. And so she was talking me through it, and on the screen in the console, on the screen was a digital map, and she was telling me where to go, and the map was showing me where to go, and I started getting spiritual revelation. I said, this is why I walk with the Lord because the Lord is the voice. The Holy Spirit gives me the voice of direction, and the map gives me the word of God. And I said, I got revelation.

You need the word, and you need the Spirit. And so then I learned, okay, so it doesn't matter where I have to go. All I have to do is give her the directions. I don't have to tell her how to get there. Just put in my final destination. Her job is to get me there. The map and the voice will get me anywhere, and I got great revelation when that happened and been getting and enjoying revelation ever since.

It got even better one day when I was driving somewhere I had never been, and I really didn't know how to get there, so I was dependent on the map and dependent on the voice, and I was being guided for a while, but I had also in that car a premium sound system. Y'all got to understand that I am a musician in my heart. I know I've been preaching for decades, but before I was a preacher, I was a musician. I played for my home church before I ever became the associate pastor and later a senior pastor, and I love music, and music is all in me, and I have all kinds of music in my library, my digital library. And let me just go on and confess right now that it's not all Christian music. I have a lot of Christian music. I have a lot of praise and worship, have a lot of gospel, have a lot of inspirational, but let me just be honest. I also got some other stuff in there that is a blessing to me, and I enjoy my music.

I love jazz, and I love R&B and all that. I got some good stuff, and one day I'm in my new car, and I'm enjoying my premium sound. I'm going somewhere I've never been, but I stopped paying attention to the map, and I stopped listening to the lady because my music was up high.

My wife wasn't in the car that day, which meant I could play it loudly, and I was enjoying my loud music and my premium system, and the bass was booming, and the treble was high, and the mid-range was all in there, and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. The lady was talking, but I was not listening, and so after a while it dawned on me I hadn't heard that lady in a while. I hadn't heard that lady, and then I looked at the map, and I saw the word recalculating, and what I realized was if I had been paying attention to the map or had turned my music down a little and listened to the lady, they would have had me on another route. Where I was when I looked down was not where they wanted me to be, and I said, oh, wow, recalculating, and then I kept watching it. It was just a matter of a couple of seconds, and then it gave me a new route. What it was telling me was that you missed where we wanted you to go.

You ignored us, but we're still committed to getting you to your destination. I came to tell somebody one of the reasons we're children of light is because when we walk with God, even when we temporarily lose our way, doesn't matter, because God is committed to getting you and I to the place of our destination, and if He has to reroute you and recalculate, that's what He will do, but His will's going to be done in your life and mine if we will love Him and be called according to His purpose and let our light shine in this dark world. I just came to tell somebody, get your shine on. Whatever you do, my brother, my sister, in the coming days, in the coming weeks, and the coming months, and if God blesses you in the coming years, get your shine on.

Let your light so shine. Witness boldly to those that don't know the Lord. Worship enthusiastically. Speak to other people kindly. Love everybody sacrificially. Help others eagerly. Commit to things worth committing to and make it a very deep commitment. Think positively.

Dream boldly. Give cheerfully and live thankfully and get your shine on. Let God be glorified in your life.

Jesus loved the people who hated Him, served the people who scoffed at Him, and died for the people who killed Him. He's asking you and me to follow in His steps, to be a light in an ever-darkening world. As you may know, Pastor Paul has devoted his life to the advancement of the Gospel, to shining his light before men so that they might come to faith in Christ.

And because he knows so many of you share that desire, he'd like to invite you to help by sending a special gift today. Destined for Victory is a listener-supported ministry. So as God leads, please consider making a generous donation. And when you do, please be sure to request this month's special offer, Pastor Paul's booklet, Your Purpose is Calling. You know, God often uses other people to push us into fulfilling our God-given purpose.

He also uses challenges or crises to help steer us in the right direction. In Your Purpose is Calling, Pastor Paul shares three directives for anyone trying to discover his or her purpose. That's Your Purpose is Calling, our gift to you today, by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 to give over the phone, or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. You can also make a safe and secure donation from our website, PastorPaul.net.

Thanks in advance for helping keep Destined for Victory on the air. Part of walking with God is having a heart of love and compassion that results in you wanting to make the lives of other people better. And I want us to know that in all of our giving, we should give God's way.

That's the bottom line. The reason Jesus talked about it is because there is a right way to give. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd reminds us why we give is just as important as what we give. Until then remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.