Making the Most of What You Have, Part 8 (cont'd)

He's not asking you for what you don't have. He's saying, what do you have in the way of treasure? What do you have in the way of time?

What do you have in the way of talent? That's what I want to use for my glory. That's what I want to use to bless others and you will find that in that is the key for your blessings as well. In the Kingdom of God, the only ability you need is availability. Hello and welcome to this Monday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Thanks so much for tuning in. You know, sometimes we focus so much on what we don't have that we talk ourselves out of using what we do have. Today you'll be reminded that you don't have to be rich to be generous. You don't have to be an evangelist to lead someone to Jesus.

God has given you everything you need to carry out His will. And when you do, the life you bless most will be your own. As always, visit pastorpaul.net to hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. Also, you can subscribe to the Destined for Victory podcast at Spotify, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go to get podcasts. Now, with today's Destined for Victory message, making the most of what you have, here's Pastor Paul.

What do you have in the way of talent? That's what I want to use for my glory. That's what I want to use to bless others. And you will find that in that is the key for your blessings as well.

So focus on what you have, not what you lack. Those first two servants focused on what they had and gave God a full return on that. But did you notice what happened with the third servant? The third servant was given one talent, and God was not expecting him to come back with four or five. God just wanted a full return on the one.

But look carefully at what happened. The man who had the one talent, verse 24 of Matthew 25, he said, Master, I knew that you are a hard man. See, when people aren't given a return on his investment, they're focused on something other than doing his will. Look at what this man says. He focuses back, he throws off on the master.

How stupid is that? Well, see, I knew that you're a hard man. I knew that you harvest where, you know, you haven't even sown. I know that some of the stuff you do isn't so cool, as though that's logical, he says.

And so that's why I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you. In other words, he said, so my only goal was to make sure this didn't get stolen or lost. So I hid it.

Here it is. In other words, the master gave him a clean talent. He gives him back a dirty talent. And some of us have been doing the same thing. So God has sent this series along to say, listen, it's time for you to be about your father's business. God gave you money that he wants used for his glory. God gave you time. God gave you talents and he wants a return on that.

And thankfully, the master hasn't returned yet. So you and I still have time. We have time to begin to say, OK, Lord, from this day moving forward, I'm going to give you a return on your investment in my life. And God is giving us time to do it. So focus on what you have.

Don't focus on what you lack. And I want to wrap it up by saying God will reward your faithfulness. I want to let somebody know before I let you go that God is going to reward your faithfulness. It pays to serve God. I said it pays to serve God. Serving God is not burdensome, the Bible says.

It is not burdensome. It's not a heavy burden to serve God. It pays to serve Jesus. Because when you serve the Lord, he has a way of turning around and blessing you on the backside of your obedience. Now, you don't obey him just to get the reward, but you do obey him knowing that he rewards you. And the Bible says the reward that we have includes promises for this life and the life to come. First Timothy 4 says, physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things.

Watch this, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. That's First Timothy 4-8. What that tells you is that if you will serve God and give God a return on his investments in your life of treasure, time, and talent, the Bible says that as a result of that, God will bless you in this life as well as the life to come. In other words, if you'll be faithful, you will see that God will reward your faithfulness and not all of it is in the sweet by and by.

Some of it's going to be in the right here and now. And I'm glad I serve a God who says, I will bless you in ways that you haven't even thought about if you'll be faithful to me. That was the miracle that took place in the life of the Shunammite woman, who I refer to from time to time. In Kings chapter 4, there was a woman who was well-to-do and she was barren. She was a married woman who was barren. And in her day, it was a disgrace for a married woman not to have children and not to give her husband an heir.

And you know, it's so sad because in those cultures, they put all the responsibility and all the shame on the woman. Now, it could have been the brothers' problem. Are we there? Are we tracking? We got a mixed audience. I don't want to go where I don't have to go. You all feel me?

Okay, we're all there. Could have been the brothers' problem. He could have been the one needing to go get checked out. But in that culture, they put it all on the woman. And she'd be the despised one.

So here is a woman who has all the years of her marriage, never been able to give her husband a child, even though he may have had the problem. And as a result, in her culture, she's despised. But I love the fact that this woman didn't focus on her reputation. She didn't trip over women at the grocery store saying, mm-hmm, that's her. God is judging her.

All them years been married, doesn't have any child. It's some sin in our life somewhere. She wasn't tripping. She saw the women over there whispering about her. What did she do? The Bible says she focused on what she had, not what she lacked. What she had was money. The Bible called her well-to-do. When you see in the Scriptures a woman called well-to-do, she didn't marry money. She had it single. She had it when she got married.

That's what that means. She had the money when Brother Shuna met her. I don't know their names.

I just call them by where they live. So when Brother Shuna might have met her, she already had money. He better be glad he didn't have to sign a prenup. She already had the money. The day of that wedding, he's standing there bouncing on his toes saying, thank you, Jesus. He know he about to be hooked up. And although she didn't have a baby all the years of their marriage, she didn't focus on that. She said, Lord, what can I do with what I have? What I have is I have cash. And this man of God, Elisha, comes through town every now and then, and I want him to be blessed.

And I noticed that when he comes through town, he doesn't have anywhere to stay. So she said, I want to be a blessing to this man of God. She could have spent all her life talking about how she couldn't have a child.

She could have been bitter, but instead she focused on what can I do? And so she got, you've heard me tell the story. She got her husband to agree, let this prophet come and have dinner with them so her husband could get to know him and become familiar with him.

And it wasn't a threatening kind of situation. And once she saw her husband was comfortable with him, she said, honey, let's build an extension on the house so that this man of God can have somewhere to stay when he comes into town. And she built that extension on her house, and she was a blessing to him. And one of the times when Elisha was there, staying in his room, the Lord put it on his heart. He told his servant, go call that woman and ask her, now what can be done for you? There are some blessings you will receive when you don't need them.

Here's what I mean. The woman was content to just have been a blessing. She wasn't like, nah, I built this room for you. See, some of us miss our blessing because we're leaning on folks trying to get them to give us the reward instead of looking to God. I do what I do for God.

I'm not looking for a reward from you. There are times when people ought to honor one another and respect and you ought to be grateful when God uses somebody in your life. There are certainly appropriate ways in which you thank them and that sort of thing. But the point is, you ought to do what you do because the Lord is pleased with it. When you serve in a ministry, don't fall out and get all mad because they didn't give you a plaque. I don't believe I've been serving now for 18 months and nobody stood me up in front of the church and talked about what I do. Or maybe a ministry has a little appreciation time and somebody inadvertently left your name off. It's fine for you to call attention to the leaders, say, I know you all didn't mean it, but my name should have been on here. I'm part of this ministry team. They'll apologize.

Oh, I'm so sorry. And they'll make sure to add you. But I've seen folks, not you, none of you all. But I've seen people cop a serious attitude.

I've seen them leave a church over that. They didn't even recognize that I've been there longer than some of them people that were standing up there. And sure, they shouldn't have overlooked you.

And if you bring it to their attention, they'll apologize, do what they can to make it right. But your reward is coming from heaven. It's the Lord who sees you in secret.

He's the one who rewards you openly. And so this woman didn't need any blessing. She was just contented to be blessed. But the Lord who saw what she did for his prophet. He said in his own time, I'm going to bless that woman. So Gehazi goes and says, the prophet wants to know what can be done for you. And she said, I have a home among my people. Her response meant I can't think of anything that I want done.

No favor that I want him to do for me. Now, that's a miraculous statement. It shows you that she hasn't fixated on this barrenness that she's been plagued with all these years.

She hasn't fixated on that. You know, some of us, as soon as we'd have heard, can. We'd have jumped in with our request. Yeah, Tom, come lay hands on me. Yeah, I've been needing a baby for a long time. And that moment, she couldn't even think. She said that I have a home among my people. It's all good. Gehazi is the one that went back to Elisha and said, well, she said she can't think of anything.

But I know that she doesn't have a child and her husband is old. Right there in your Bible. Second Kings chapter four.

Now that's a problem. Up next, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd. We want to thank all of you whose prayers and financial support helped Pastor Paul share the gospel all over the world. Your donations do make a difference. So as God leads, prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory today. Have you ever felt like your gifts were insufficient to carry out God's will? Remember, in the hands of God, a little is always more than enough.

Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, making the most of what you have. She hasn't been able to get pregnant all the years she's been married and her husband is old. Now, if brother couldn't come up with anything earlier.

Now we've got a real situation. Because he's old in the days before Viagra. There's no little blue pills hanging out in his day.

But thank God we serve a God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or even imagine. So as soon as Elisha heard that there is something, even though she didn't bring it up, Gehazi brought it up. He said, well, go tell her that this time next year she'll be bouncing a baby boy.

And Gehazi went back and told her and it sent her almost into a panic. She said, oh, please, please don't get my hopes up. Don't blow smoke.

Don't tell me what you think I want to hear. That meant too much to me. I gave that over to God years ago.

I don't want to unearth that if you're just trying to tell me something. Don't give me false hope. But it wasn't false hope. It was a word from God.

Listen, God will bless you sometimes when you least expect it because you've been focused on just being faithful and the blessing sneaks up on you from behind. That's what happened with Ruth in the book named after her, the Old Testament book of Ruth. That's what happened with her when this Moabite woman had a sense that although my husband's dead and my mother-in-law's husband is dead, I feel connected to her. My destiny is connected to her. And although I've never lived there, never been there, I'm going back to Bethlehem with her. And Ruth goes among these people of God. She's a foreigner, but she says, I'm going to live here.

This is going to be my new life. And she goes out gleaning in the field just to take care of herself and her mother-in-law. She's not looking for an angle.

She's just looking to do what is in her heart. And the Bible says while she was gleaning in the field, it just so happened that the field she was in belonged to Boaz. And Boaz came home from a trip and saw her out there. And he said, who is that young woman? And his servant said, oh, she came back to town with Naomi and told the story of how dedicated she is to her mother-in-law, even though both of their husbands are deceased and how she's a Moabite woman. But now she wants to serve the God of the Israelites and how faithful she was and how diligent she was.

And it was in that context she didn't know it, but God was setting her up. Some of us sweating, some singles now sweating when I'm going to get married. Well, you be about your father's business. Serve the Lord with gladness. Do what you can do. Live your life. Enjoy your life. Don't wait for somebody to come light up your life. Tell you all the time, that was a song back in the day everybody had it in their weddings back decades ago, you light up my life.

No. No, God's not sending somebody into your dark life to light it up. Your life ought to be lit with God's purpose. You're doing his will.

You're serving him with gladness. I just need somebody to tell me I love you. Well, till they come, look in the mirror and say, I love you. I love you. You are right. You hang on in there.

Don't let this get in your head. You'll be strong. Wait for somebody to take me on a trip. Go with some fellowship with the singles.

Go with them. I went out there on one of the cruises, our single sponsor. Pastor, would you come and do a little ministry with us on the cruise? We'll pay for your cabin.

I said, I believe I hear God saying go. Did you all say a cabin with a balcony? Because, you know, I'm spoiled. That's the only kind of cruising I do. I need a balcony where I can lay out there and hear the water and the breeze blowing. They say, oh, yeah, we're going to get you a balcony. I say, yeah, God is sending me on with y'all. Meredith and I went out there and those singles enjoyed themselves. Don't sit up there, wait, I'm not going until I'm married, until I have a husband or a wife. No, go enjoy the world.

So when you're dating them, they're going to want to know that you've had a life. Who wants to go out and you're getting to know somebody for the first time? Well, what do you like to do?

Nothing. Well, where have you been? Well, you know, Atlantic City. I went to Vegas once.

No, you pitiful. Go somewhere. Get on a plane. Go somewhere. Enjoy yourself. So when they ask you where you've been, oh, I've been to the Caribbean.

Oh, what are your parts? Oh, I love Grand Cayman. Oh, I love it. And you have something to talk about. You look like a star they want to hitch their wagon to. They're not trying to hitch their wagon and drag you all over the universe. Be like Ruth.

Be about your father's business. And it was in that context that Boaz saw her. And then one day after they had the meeting and they were praising God that they knew Boaz because he showed favor to Ruth and Naomi.

Then that was the setup for the next step. Now Naomi comes to her one day and says, you know, he's a relative. And so he could be our kinsman redeemer.

And why don't you go and make the request? And she told her how to do it to be respectful and all of that. And God set it up. And the next thing you know, Ruth is married to this man of God.

And it was a divine appointment. Let me tell you, there are some blessings ahead of you that you're not even aware of. There are some provisions God has for you that you're not even aware of. God will give you favor in ways you are not even aware of. In this life, before you get to heaven, there are some things coming in this life. Because notice the master said, you've been faithful over a few things.

I'm going to let you come on and enjoy my happiness. And I contend that that begins here and now. There are some things God wants to do in your life and he'll bless you right here and now. And certainly when this life is over, there's a great reward. Paul said in 2 Timothy, the last letter he wrote in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he's writing his son in the faith, Timothy, for the last time. And he tells him, he says, listen, I want you to work hard in ministry. I want you to preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. The day is coming when people won't want to hear it, but preach it anyway, he says. And he says, as for me, the time of my departure is at hand. And I love what he says. He says, I fought a good fight.

I finished my course. I've kept the faith. He says, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. And all of us are working for that crown of righteousness. One day the Lord will reward us who have been faithful here on earth, doing his will, serving him, working in his name.

One day you have a reward coming that the world can't give you and the world won't be able to take away. And I'm here to tell you, it's time for us to commit to God. Lord, I'm going to be faithful to you. I'm going to give you a return on your investment in my life. I'm going to give you a return on my treasure. It belongs to you. I'm not going to fight with you, Lord.

You are my provider. I'm going to give you a tithe and anything else of the financial resources that you require of me. And I'm going to trust you that you will open doors and make ways, that you will help me to get out of my debt, that you will help me to get my life in financial order. I believe God wants to raise up in this day some more people who he can trust with wealth because it's going to take a lot of wealth to do the kingdom work we're called to do in our generation. As a pastor and as a leader of a radio ministry, I'm praying, Lord, find some of those faithful people who are being faithful over what they have now and bless them to be millionaires so that they can bless these ministries and we can get more done for you.

I'm actually praying for some of you all to get hooked up. But in order to be a candidate, to be a recipient of that prayer, you have to be faithful right now. We need to be faithful over our time and say, Lord, I'm going to give my time to you. I'm going to make sure that I have time for spiritual development, for ministry, and I'm going to trust you that with what remains, you're going to bless the work of my hands. You'll bless me on my job. Even in these hard economic times and gas prices going through the roof, I'm believing you that you're going to bless me. I'm believing you that you're going to see me through this famine, so to speak. And I'm going to use my treasures and my talents and my abilities.

I'm not going to focus on what I don't have. I'm going to focus on what I do have, trusting you that you'll reward my return on this investment. Well, thanks for joining us for today's Destined for Victory message, Making the Most of What You Have. Pastor Paul joins me now from his studio. And today we concluded our message series, of course, Pastor. And as you think about the last several days of messages, what are one or two things you hope we'll always remember from this series? Well, I hope the series has deposited the basic truth that our time, our talent, and our treasures are given to us as investments. They are not the end.

They are the seed that is to produce a certain harvest to the glory of God. And the day is coming when each of us are going to give an account of what we did. You know, a lot of people say, oh, boy, Judgment Day is coming.

Well, I think for the believer, Judgment Day in a lot of ways has been predetermined because of what Christ did on Calvary. Because I'm in him, I have nothing to worry about. But God does want me to give him a return. And I want to be able to say, Lord, I've done everything you called me to do in the life you gave me. And so I hope that people have walked away from this series with a sense of how to be sure to give God a good return when it comes to our time, our talent, and our treasure. Our time, our talent, our treasure.

They're not really ours, they're his, entrusted to us so that we will serve God and bless those around us. Thank you, Pastor Paul. Well, today we'd like to send a blessing your way, a new booklet from Pastor Paul Shepherd called He's Alive.

This great resource gives you four compelling reasons why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true. And it's our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can mail your gift to Destin for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, our address is Destin for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. And you know what? A lot of people spend their lives wanting to be fulfilled, but they have no idea how to do it. Well, I'm here to tell you, you will be fulfilled as you fulfill your purpose. That is, once your will syncs up with God's will. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, there is power in fulfilling your purpose. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.