In Need of a Super-Sized Blessing, Part 1 (cont'd)

Music playing Today's message is straight ahead. Stay with us now or stop by pastorpaul.net anytime to hear today's message or any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to or download the podcast at Google Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your programs. Let's join pastor Paul now as he shares today's Destined for Victory message in need of a super-sized blessing. Look at the generation that Moses was called to deliver from Egypt. You know all that God did to show them his power. Do you know why it was so difficult for Pharaoh to finally let God's people go?

Because God made it difficult. When you read it and it keeps talking about Pharaoh hardening his heart, there are times strategically in Exodus where it clarifies. It says the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.

You have noticed that? Every now and then Pharaoh would have given up and God said, nope, and hardened his heart. And suddenly Pharaoh became stubborn and said, I don't care what you do, care what plague you just sent, I'm not letting them go. Why would God say I'm going to deliver you from this bondage and then hardened the heart of the guy who's keeping you in bondage?

Why? Because he wanted Israel to know how great a God he was. And the way he could make them know how great he was is he had to give them a great deliverance.

So he kept showing Israel and Egypt who he was by sending plague after plague. Finally God stopped hardening his heart long enough for him to say, all right, y'all can leave. They left town.

We're talking about a couple of million folks. They left town headed toward the Red Sea. They find themselves with a wall of water, a sea of water, the Red Sea in front of them, and one more time God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And he says, we got to go back and get them.

We can't let all that free labor leave. And they pursued them. Israel, the folks in the back of the two million people plus camp, the folks in the back turned around and heard them coming. They said, oh, that's it now. We're in trouble. They began to murmur and complain. What they should have done is built an altar of adoration, said the God who sent all the rest of those plagues we just saw. I can't wait to see what he's going to do to them now.

That's where they should have been. But instead they showed that their hearts were full of unbelief and they murmured and said, Moses got us out here. Now we're going to get killed here on the side of the Red Sea. And God said to Moses, stretch out your rod. You know the story.

Stretch out his rod. And the Lord created a highway in the middle of the Red Sea so that they walked through and they didn't just walk through. They walked through on dry land. And Pharaoh's army tried to pursue them. I would have never been one of them. I've told you many times before, if I was in Pharaoh's army and I had seen all that their God had already done, it didn't matter that you're a heathen. Some things just make sense. You know, heathen had nothing to do with it.

People said, yeah, but they didn't know God. That's all right. I'm smart enough to say whoever been doing all that and then whoever just opened up this sea and created a highway in the middle of the sea, I don't know who that is, but whoever it is does not want me to catch them.

Can't, wouldn't you all have figured that out? So I had to pull over to the side of the road. I had to let all my crazy friends go on down there. Yo, man, see, are you going? You going?

Cool, all right. I'm not going, but Pharaoh will have you killed. I'd rather deal with Pharaoh than whoever did that. But they went and tried to chase them and they were drowned in the Red Sea. What does that generation do? Do they get to Canaan?

No. After God did all of that, they still don't make the promised land. Why? Because as soon as they got over there, they started complaining, building monuments of misery. Misery number one, where the water over here? Well, I drank some. I found a brook down there.

It's so bitter. You don't want that water. That's the nastiest water you ever had in your life. Complain about the water. God sweetened the water.

This is my side. Well, we finally got some decent water for change now. Now ain't no food over here. Where the food over here? They complained God gave them quail. First God gave a manna. He fed them from heaven. Manna means what is it? Every morning they got up and there was what is it on the ground? That's what it means.

And God sustained them. Some of y'all eating what is it right now? Right now. You don't have the job you want to have. You don't have the income you want to have. You're not living in the house you want to live in.

You're not driving the car you want to drive. But day after day after day after day after day economic downturn Wall Street down. They say it is going crazy every morning. What is it?

You sustain day after day. They got tired of what is it? We want some meat. God gave them meat.

They complained about that. You see what happens when you build monuments of misery? Whatever you pay tribute to grows. When you build monuments to misery you get real good at it. And misery grows in your life. And that's what happened to them. Misery grew. And that generation never reached the promised land.

Do you know God said fine since y'all don't have the faith to adore me and worship me and hold me in high esteem. I could get you to Canaan in a couple of weeks from the other side of the Red Sea. To Canaan they could have been there a couple of weeks from then they could have been building their homes. Possessing their land. Having a good time. Instead God said fine you all love the wilderness.

I'm gonna leave you here. For a whole generation. And 40 years those folk lived and died in the wilderness.

Because they built monuments to their misery. But what happened? God promised that he would take them in. God said fine but I don't have to take this generation.

You know what happened? The kids grew up. And they grew up, imagine growing up in the desert. That's where you grow up.

That's where you live. And the kids grew up and it's funny because they grew up living in the desert. But hearing stories of redemptive history to that point. About this great God who raised up Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. And Joseph is the one responsible for getting Israel into Egypt. But then after Joseph died there came a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. And he enslaved the people. They heard all of the history. So the kids grew up and said wait now.

If God is so good and so powerful why do we live here? We're not staying here. And when God raised up their leader Joshua. When Joshua said to them what Moses said to the first generation.

Their response was completely different. Moses said to the first ones God's ready to take us over. And they murmured and complained and talked about killing him. But when Joshua said God's ready to take us over.

They said read Joshua chapter one when you get a chance. The people said whatever the Lord tells you that's what we're going to do. We're going to obey everything you say Pastor Joshua. Because we know God's going to use you to take us to another place. In fact they said anybody who rebels against your word we're going to kill them.

That's serious followership. You know what and if we would kill not people but if we would kill discord. And if we would kill murmuring. And if we would kill complaining.

And we would kill rebellion against God's people. And say you can't act like that. You can't talk like that. You can't disrespect leadership like that.

You can't disobey the word like that. If we would check one another we'd all get to Canaan land. And I want to know is anybody but the Joshua generation tired of living in the wilderness.

I want to know if you're tired of being in the place where you've been for God knows how long now. And God says I'm ready to take you. But you're going to have to learn to shift gears and ask me for a super-sized blessing.

You're going to have to start asking me for bigger things. You're going to have to start leaning and depending on me like never before. You're going to have to shake the gates in prayer. You're going to have to hold the old saints called it and they got the language from the Old Testament. Hold on to the horns of the altar. You're going to have to say to God I will not let you go until you bless me. Because I need a serious blessing.

Notice J. Bez isn't asking for something trivial. He said I need my character changed. I need my lifestyle changed. I need to no longer be one who causes pain. I need to be a blessing. I want to live a quality life and I want to experience the blessings of the Lord. I want you to bless me Lord and super-size it.

Anybody need a super-sized blessing? If you do you got to make up in your mind right here right now I'm not letting my past dictate my future. Yes my parents lived in the wilderness but I'm not living in the wilderness.

I'm on my way to Canaan. Yes my mama named me after her traumatic experience and saddled me with that baggage. But I'm not carrying that anymore. My past is not going to dictate my future. Shake off. Shake off that victim mentality that some of you have. Shake it off in the name of Jesus.

Shake it off. Stay with us now. The second half of Pastor Paul Shepherd's message is coming up. But we want to take a moment to thank all of you who support Destin for Victory with your prayers and financial support. Gifts that help Pastor Paul share the joy of the Gospel message with a growing audience.

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

Again the number is 855-339-5500. When life's challenges come and they always do you have a choice to build monuments to misery or altars of adoration. The question is do you want to be made well? Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message in need of a super-sized blessing.

In the name of the Lord make up in your mind you're shaking it off. Don't be like the man at the pool of Bethesda. John chapter 5. Sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there was in Jerusalem near the sheep gate a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda.

And which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time. He asked him, do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Now just pause right there.

If you are serious about asking for a super-sized blessing, you want to first cast off your victim mentality. This fellow shows us what a victim mentality looks like. He's been in this condition 38 years.

He has been an invalid down. He knows what that life is like. He doesn't like it, but he's very, very familiar with it. That's not a problem. We get familiar with things that stay in our lives a long period of time.

This is a chronic issue, 38 years. Now understand the implications. The implication is he was not born an invalid.

John would have told us clearly. The Gospels make clear when there's a condition, whenever Jesus ministered to somebody who was in that condition from birth, you see it in the passage. When it gives us the length of time of the affliction, of the problem, that tells you that it happened in the course of living. You say, why are you pointing that out, Pastor? Because all of us have had unfortunate things happen in the course of living.

I mean, it's all trials. If you're born in a certain condition, it's still a condition. It's still a problem. If he had been born an invalid, it would be a problem. But he would have never known anything else.

Got it? So I'm not saying it wouldn't be a problem because it's all he knew. No, no, that would have been a problem. And there are people born blind, born whatever, and you read about it in the passage, and Jesus healed them. Or one of the apostles healed them in Acts chapter 3. Man who was lame from birth, healed. Still a problem.

Still they can call on God, ask for a super-sized blessing. But I'm trying to show you the state of mind this gentleman is in. He has been in this condition 38 years.

The implication is he's older than 38. We don't know, but at some point in his life, something tragic happened. Anybody in the course of living had something tragic to happen? That's why guys like this are in the Bible. Because for all of the things you would complain about, there's somebody in the scripture that says, been there. Because, you know, we love acting like we the only one. The only one, my friends that you see, you all don't understand.

You all don't understand. There's always somebody who understands. In fact, there's always somebody who say, oh, please. Okay, what you're dealing with, there is somebody who when you get through telling your little story, they say, I wish that's all I had to deal with.

And they mean it. There's always somebody worse off than you. There's always somebody in a worse predicament than you. Quit giving yourself the illusion of thinking your trouble is special.

Your trouble is common to man. Okay, what it is, sickness and disease, deformities in your body, whatever it is, financial problems. Used to be rich, now you're dirt poor. Job say, oh, please. Job would tell you, first of all, you've never been as rich as I was.

When you see what Job had in Job chapter one, you know what that translates into in our time? That's not translating into somebody got like a million and a half dollars. Now, that's good. I'd like to have that.

I'm not throwing off on that. But when somebody is a millionaire because they have more than a million dollars of net worth, that's great. But don't go around parading like you're rich.

The rich people in this world will write you a check for a million dollars and not miss it. I'm telling you, I got a ministry colleague. I sat down at dinner with him one time and we were just sharing stories. I was on the radio in his city and the priest at his church and very famous preacher.

You'd know him if I called his name. And we were talking and he said he was just telling me how the Lord will provide, encouraging me how the Lord will provide, you know, as you're starting in this broadcast ministry. And he said, one day I had a man call me and he said, listen, you know, I admire what you say.

I've seen you on TV, whatever, and I admire what you say. And he said, I think I'm going to send you a million dollars. He said, now, when I do this, I don't want you to write me. I don't want to thank you. I don't want you contacting me.

I'm not doing this for contact. He said, I'm not giving you any more money. I'm going to give you a million dollars and I want you to just take it and leave me alone.

True story. He said, in a few days, certified check for a million dollars came in the mail to his ministry. He said, just out of instinct, just what I'm used to doing, I picked up the phone and called him because I had his contact information when he sent the money. And he answered the phone and I said, this is so-and-so and I just want to thank you.

We received you again. He said, the man cut me off in the middle of the sentence and said, didn't I tell you not to contact me? He said, I'm hanging up and I don't want to ever hear from you again. Hung up the phone. And he was just telling me that people give for different things.

Some folks give out of their heart for love. He said, this man was probably giving us just a write-off. He was figuring out, I got $20 million I need to get out of my accounts. I need some write-offs.

What are some charitable organizations I can give to? He wasn't even sure he was a believer. So he just threw him a meal. And he said, he told me not to contact him again. And so I said to this pastor, who's my friend, I said, well, he told you to not contact him. I said, he didn't say anything about me. I don't even know if he knows about me.

But tell you what, since you can't contact him again, why don't you just slip me his information? We fell out laughing. So you can be rich, but rich is relative. You got two, three, $5 million. Some folks could blow that and not know where it went. It's like buying gum. You all see some of these athletes and say, man, look at that contract. Somebody wrote the contract. The athlete is rich. The guy who wrote the contract is wealthy.

The guy who wrote the contract, I heard one comedian say, the guy who wrote the contract is so wealthy that if he had the money that the athlete had, he'd jump out the window in depression. I'm trying to show you it's relative. So is your misery. Quit acting like you got the world's worst trouble.

I said, quit acting like the world is falling apart. People have survived throughout redemptive history far worse than you're going through. One touch from God, one intervention from God will turn their lives around. And how you going to get that intervention?

Well, that's what I need. I asked, I prayed about it. Yeah, but look at your attitude. If you don't have on a garment of praise, all you got is a spirit of despair. You haven't built an altar of adoration.

All you've done is built a monument to your misery. And then you want to pray and mad now that God won't bless you. You won't go to church. You won't worship God. You won't give him tithes. You won't give him offerings. You won't serve him with gladness.

You won't help anybody. All you're looking for is somebody to bail you out of what you're going through. And then you're mad at God because he hasn't come through for you. He doesn't love you enough to tell you that you jacked up. That's why you can't get help. You got to change the way you're looking at your life.

You got to quit looking at pools and people. Jesus asked the man one question. Do you want to get well? That's all he asked him. And you read what the man said. Well, see. You know, many of us have gone through times when we built monuments to misery. Maybe it's guilt or self-condemnation. Maybe we no longer believe we deserve God's blessing.

Don't buy the lie. You are a child of the living, loving God. And in Christ, you are destined for victory. You know, our highest calling is to share that gospel with the world. And a great way to do that is by pledging a generous gift to the Destined for Victory ministry so that Pastor Paul Shepherd can share the good news of the gospel all over the world. In light of some severe challenges these past two years or so, people are eager to hear about the hope we have in Christ and many are getting that message through the Destined for Victory broadcast. As our way of saying thanks for your gift, Pastor Paul will send you a copy of his booklet, Turning Your Test Into a Testimony.

That's Turning Your Test Into a Testimony, a great reminder that our challenges are very often the things that help us grow in our faith so we can encourage others who may be going through tough times of their own. Again, that's Pastor Paul's booklet, Turning Your Test Into a Testimony, our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory today. Call 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, CA 94538.

Again, that address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. Do you need prayer today? The Destined for Victory ministry team would like to help. Visit pastorpaul.net, click Contact Us, and share your request with us so that we can join you in prayer. And while you're there online, be sure to sign up for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, yours at no cost or obligation. Because I want to make sure you understand that God has a plan for us that is not going to be determined by what has already happened in our lives. In other words, you don't have to think, well, because this has been my history, my destiny can only go so far. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message in need of a super-sized blessing. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. And remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.