Thinning Out Your Crowd (cont'd)

See, y'all got to get rid of these fair weather friends. You can't use fair weather friends. I don't need you when the weather's fine. I can have fun all by myself when the weather's fine. I need some stormy friends.

I need some I'm going through hell backwards friends. I need some folk who will walk with me through the valley of the shadow of death. Hello and welcome to this Thursday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, who is Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Wherever you are and however you may be listening, thanks for making this part of your day. Well, most people, from your fans and followers on social media to some of the people closest to you, will be there when your life is nothing but blue skies and rainbows.

But how many of them will stick around when it's raining outside? Today, Pastor Paul encourages you to take stock of your inner circle and, if necessary, make it smaller. Stay with us here or stop by pastorpaul.net any time to hear today's message or any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also download or subscribe to the podcast at Google Podcasts, at Spotify, or wherever you go to enjoy your programs. But let's join Pastor Paul now as he shares today's message, sending out your crowd. Sunday morning, if you were with us opening day, we had three services. The church side didn't require three, but you know how looky-loos come when you're doing something. And so I figured, so we accounted for the looky-loos and so I said, let's do three services so everybody can get in.

The faithful worshiping saints and the looky-loos can all get in. And so that's what we did, had three services. The second service, moms is wheeled in in her wheelchair right through that door, sat right over in here, had the biggest smile on her face you ever saw. We worshiped, had a good time worshiping. I preached that message that day. I preached a message entitled, this is a sign. And I went to the Old Testament passage when they took the boulders out of the Jordan and set them up and created an altar on the banks. And they said, this is so when our children grow up and ask us, what's that about?

We'll witness to them and tell them God opened up the sea so we could come over here and we'll make it a point. And I said, walking in here, this is a sign that when folk were preaching my eulogy and writing off my ministry and all of that, that God has said, I am not done. And I preach you sitting in a sign.

This is a sign that God says when I do a thing, it gets done and it doesn't matter who likes it or who doesn't like it. How in the world do you keep a church going? Forty-four months you don't have anywhere to go. And we met in five buildings in forty-four months, five different cities. That's called how not to start a church.

No hotel was available for us to go, so we were in the wilderness. So I preached this sign from that same narrative in scripture. When God brings his people out, he makes a testimony. And mom sat over there grinning at the end of the sermon in the second of the three services. Since she was sitting there, I said, look over there, you're looking at a miracle right now. And I told them that there she was sitting, told the story how God had kept her alive.

Now here's the rest of it, that they didn't get to hear that day. Not only did God keep her alive for June 22nd, he kept her alive for the fifth Sunday, June 29th. She sat right over there June 29th. She sat there every Sunday that July, every Sunday that August, every Sunday that September, every Sunday that October. She didn't get too sick to come to church until sometime in November. She didn't stop coming to church till sometime in November. She wasn't up to coming to church but was still alive home. Into December, I was about to go out of town for some ministry assignment, told my driver, drive me over to mom's McKeen's house. I just need to go in there before I go and take this trip. Walked in, talked to moms.

By then she's not communicative and all that. And I said, well, pastor's here. I just want, I'm here checking on you, but look like you'd rather go be with Jesus for Christmas this year. I said, if that's what you want to do, I'm all right with it because we've seen this miracle. And if you want to go be with the Lord, moms, you go on. I kissed her and left there and she died later that week.

God gave her six month extension past what the doctors had said. Oh, I came to tell you, we serve a God who is able, but what you got to do is find you some echo-ers. Find your echo, the echo principle. How you going to get that business started? How you going to get that project funded? How are you going to raise decent kids in a crazy world where they're not being taught any morals? Whatever your vision is. I told you, parents better get a vision because if we don't raise up sensible children, the whole thing is shot. Y'all see how crazy these people are now and they raising crazy kids. Traits of the parents become the tendencies of the children. And we got all these crazy people having children and their kids going to grow up and say, I'm going to show you crazy.

And some of y'all don't have a big vision starting a business or changing careers in your mid-years or whatever, but even if your vision is as simple as I want to raise decent kids and grandkids, you're going to need partners. You're going to need people who will echo with you. People who will raise them the way you want them raised. If they babysitting for you, they're not going to say, well, mama gone, so here's what we're going to do.

I need echo. You know my rules. You know how I raised my children. And so when I'm gone, I want you to echo that.

Come on somebody. Years ago, one of my associate pastors was raising decent kids and they had good restrictions and marriage. And I will babysit the kids while they went to celebrate something and they went out to dinner and brought their kids over to my house and the kids were playing and all, but at a certain time I knew their parents were supposed to be back. I said, okay, y'all need to pick up these toys and put them in that basket right there cause mommy and daddy getting ready to come back. And they were having so much fun that they didn't want to stop. And I said, all right, now the mommy and daddy get ready to come up.

Y'all got to put up these toys and they didn't want to stop. Finally, I put a little of that bass in my voice. See, y'all got to understand, I grew up back in the day where there was base. I know y'all don't believe in base anymore, but I grew up in base days.

I dropped my, I said, okay, now it's time to put this up. See, he was an echo. He was a mentee and learn everything from me.

He wanted them to get some pastor and Paul in them. So all right, now you could tell the older one discern this don't sound, it doesn't sound like he's asking, is it, will we please consider the possibility? This dude don't come from that generation. I wasn't going to pop him anything, you know, cause I didn't ask for permission to that.

I wouldn't have done that without and I'd have left them to that anyway. But see, cause we grew up in days where you got popped. What's a pop? It's not a spanking.

A pop was a single indication. I know, I know y'all is abuse now. I know.

I heard all y'all's experts read all your books. It's abuse. Now in my day it wasn't abuse. It was a pop. I need some folk who knew the power of the pop, the power of the pop. They're not going to be wailing on you all day long. They're just a single pop to let you know you are at the end of this rope. It's not going to go well for you from here.

So I didn't pop anything. I just put that base in there and finally the oldest one started cooperating and putting this stuff up. But I heard her say, I'm putting them up, but I'm putting them up rough. I don't want to conform, but I don't think I want to fool with this dude, but I'm putting them up rough. I'm going to let you know I don't like this. And I was like, you can put them up rough.

Just put them up. Echo, you need some echo is in your life. Here's the way we're going. Let's do this and do it right. Amen. Stay with us. The second half of Pastor Paul Sheppard's message is coming right up. We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support gifts that help Pastor Paul share the joy of the gospel message with a growing audience.

Destined for Victory is supported entirely by friends like you. So please prayerfully consider making a generous gift today. Give online safely and securely from our website, pastorpaul.net. Or if it's easier, give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again, the number is 855-339-5500. In order to do God's will, you need people in your life who will pick you up when you fall or even keep you from falling in the first place. Here's Pastor Paul with the second half of today's message, thinning out your crowd. Second principle is the effort principle.

Effort principle. I won't read the verses. You already heard them.

Verses 12 through 15. You heard them talk about how they were going to respond. You heard them talk about how we're going to help you get this done. And they put great effort into the follow through.

See, a whole lot of people talk a good game, but you need you some follow through people. In verses 12 through 15, you see them talking about, we remember what Moses said to the folks who were going to stay on the east side of Jordan. Remember, two and a half tribes didn't go over into Canaan because they found land on the east of the Jordan that was perfect for them. And they asked Moses, can we stay here?

And here's what happened. And it's talked about in those verses. Moses at first said, how dare you all think you're going to drop out? And they said, no, no, listen to us. We're not saying we're not going to help you all get the promised land possessed.

We're just saying we want to settle our families here. Then our fighting men will go over. In fact, it says we'll go on point, you military people. We'll go out first. And the two and a half tribes fighting men said we will be on point. So if the enemy is shooting, they'll shoot us first. We will make sure that we fight with you until all of you have your possession.

And then after that's over, we'll go back and join our wives and children. That's effort. They fought not for themselves, they fought for somebody else.

You need to find a people who will practice the effort principle. See, y'all got to get rid of these fair weather friends. You can't use fair weather friends. I don't need you when the weather's fine. I can have fun all by myself when the weather's fine. I need some stormy friends.

I need some I'm going through hell backwards friends. I need some folk who will walk with me through the valley of the shadow of death. I need some people who are going to be there thick or thin. I need people who are going to be there when the money is funny and the change is strange. I need some folks who are going to be there when it doesn't look good. I'm not popular.

Things are going well. I need those folks who will roll up their sleeves and say, let's get this done. That's what you need in your life. If you're going to fulfill God's plan for your life, stop fooling with these fair weather people. Call their self friends. I know what Zuckerberg meant. He had to come up with something for people who are going to connect with you on your social media, but I sure wish he had found another word cause the Bible defines friends and it's not Facebook people. My friends are not my Facebook people.

Those people on Facebook don't know you from a can of paint. Tell my day your friend, I dare you to need them. My friends, when I call them and say, yo man, I'm in trouble. They drop what they're doing and say, what do you need me to do? I'm not telling you what I think.

I'm telling you what I've lived. What do you need me to do? Just give me a word.

It is done. You need those folks cause they're going to be times while you're growing your business or raising your kids or doing whatever is in your heart to do. They're going to be times where it doesn't look good at all.

The prognosis doesn't look favorable. All kind of stuff is coming against you. Do you know when you go to fulfill God's purpose that the enemy himself takes up arms against you? The devil doesn't want you fulfilling your purpose. He wants to mock God at every turn. If he can get you to be discouraged and stop doing what God's put on your heart to do, that's a win for him.

You will have opposition like you never believe and once you decide, you're going to do the will of God in your life and you need some folk who will stand with you. Sometimes you get weary in well doing. The Bible says, don't get weary in well doing, not of well doing. We don't get weary of doing well, but you do get weary while doing well and the Bible says, be not weary in well doing for in due season, but so you need the people who are going to help you get to your due season because when you get weary, every now and then you're a Moses getting weary and as long as Moses had his staff lifted up, the people who were fighting against the enemies of Israel were winning, but whenever his arm would get tired and it would fall down, then the enemy started winning the battle and so a couple of folks near Moses found that out and they rushed in and Aaron got on one side and her got on the other side and they lifted up his hands so he couldn't hold them up himself, but they had a hand. You need some Aaron's and some hers who will say, I know you're tired, but I got you because all you got to do is keep your hand up and keep that staff up and God's going to bring you through this mess. You ever met somebody who refuses to let your hands fall because they're going to get up under you and I will prop this up.

That's how I'm here. I had some folk who said, no, you're not going to give up. No, no, we're not going to let what the enemy is prophesying come to pass. We got you and you better find your I got you people in your life. You need a friend who loves at all times, a brother who is born for adversity. You need people who when you tell them the worst thing you can tell them, they'll say, oh, I'm so sorry, but we're going to get through this. I'm telling you what I've been through.

So sorry, so disappointed, but right now we're going to get you through this. Some of them I could tell what they didn't say is I'm going to hurt you later. Any of y'all grew up, see we grew up in days where we did dumb stuff as kids. You remember when you were threatening somebody, they could even be across the room and you couldn't get to them. We would ball up a fist and put it to the eye. Any of y'all did that?

Was that just me? You look at somebody and say, you put your fist up to their eyes, to their mouth. That mean I'm a bust you up. I have friends who were doing that to me, but they said, we're going to get you through this first.

We're going to hurt you later. That's what you got to have. You got to have people who say, no, no, job one is to get you through the tough time. You need people you don't have to lie to. When they ask you how you're doing, you're going to tell them the truth. The people who mean the most to me, if I ask them how they're doing, I don't ask that question easily. When I asked you how you're doing, I don't want to hear blessed and highly favored.

Boy, I will hurt you. You better tell me how you're doing. My dad was going through the worst season of his life. He said, I was losing my mind.

I didn't see how I was literally going to make it through the night. He said, I was wrestling, tossing, turning, going through the worst trial of his life. We were kids. When he told this story, this was the time when we were all kids.

We were nowhere near teenagers. We were all younger kids in the house. My mother, he said, and my wife told me, said, honey, you're just tossing and turning. Me and the kids got to get up in the morning. Why don't you go in the back room with all that? He said, so we got up, went to the back room of the house so that we kids and my mom wouldn't be disturbed. He's just up two, three in the morning just agonizing and crying and saying, God, I can't make it. I'm losing my mind.

I can't make it. And all this stuff. And he said, Lord, you're going to have to speak to me. And his phone rang. And the person on the other end was Ben Reed. He wasn't a bishop then, became a bishop after a while, but they were just pastoral friends. In fact, they called each other their pastors. And he said, Ben was on the other phone.

He pastored in Detroit in those days. And pop picked up the phone, say hello. And he said, bishop said, hey man, what's going on? And he said, well, what you mean?

It's 2 30 in the morning. Do you mean what's going on? He said, Ben said, look, I was in a dead sleep and the Lord woke me up and told me to call you. Now what's going on?

He said, pop began to pour out his heart and tell him what was going on. And they got through that night together. You got to find folk who aren't just friends cause Facebook calls them friends. You got to find the partners who will walk you through the Valley of the shadow of death and make sure you come out on the other end. They will put in great effort. You got to find people who practice the echo principle, the effort principle.

Finally, who practiced the exclusion principle. I'm not going to take long. It's just that last verse, verse 18 of Joshua one. Did you notice what they said? They said, not only are we going to do all this to help you, but whoever rebels against your command doesn't heed your word. We going to kill them.

You see that? We going to put them to death. See that's old Testament. Y'all can't do that. Literally disclaimer. Let the record show pastor didn't send folk away from church. Have me up in front of just Judy.

I'm trying to show you the principle. They said we will totally exclude from the inner circle of what's going on. Anybody who's a rebel and that day they could do it by literally killing them and our day you have to kill their influence. You kill the naysayers influence. You don't give them a place. Do you know a gossip needs somebody to gossip to? You have to be the person who they come to understand. They don't play that.

You can't come to them talking any old kind of smack and they just listen. What? Say what? Oh my Lord.

Tell me more. You have to be the person to say, no, stop. I'm not having this conversation with you. You have a problem with so and so. I'm sending you to so and so to straighten it out. You and I are not going to get into cahoots talking about somebody who's not here to defend themselves.

You and I have to find the exclusion principle. Find the people who will say, if we see somebody is not acting in your best interest, we will cut them off. We will do what we have to do so that God's work in your life will succeed. Are you passionate about carrying out God's will for your life?

Surround yourself with friends who will practice the echo principle, the effort principle and the exclusion principle. If you find yourself in need of prayer today, the Destined for Victory Ministry team would like to join you in prayer. Visit pastorpaul.net and use the contact feature to share your request with us. While you're there, be sure to sign up for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, which comes at no cost or obligation.

Well, sometimes life can get scary. If you've let fear get in the way of your faith, Pastor Paul has a great new resource to share with you today. It's his booklet, Trusting God in Scary Times. If you find yourself focusing on what you see instead of what God says, if you're alarmed by the obstacles that stand in the way of living out your destiny in Christ, this booklet from Pastor Paul will be of great benefit to you. Again, it's called Trusting God in Scary Times and it is our gift to you this month by request or your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Call us at 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, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, our address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. You let the devil tie your past to your future? My history is what it is, but my destiny is what God said it's going to be.

Oh, I came to tell somebody something. I can't change my history, but I'm going to experience my destiny in Christ. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, God Will Provide. But until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.