It's All About Jesus (cont'd)

Jesus wasn't saying I'm anointed only for poor people, as if he couldn't speak to people who were wealthy.

That wasn't the case. The emphasis on the poor was simply to say, this good news, you don't have to have much going for you. You can be broke, busted, and disgusted, but God has good news for your life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Hello and welcome to this Friday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd.

The good news of the Gospel is this. Anyone can receive salvation in Christ Jesus. You don't have to have wealth or status.

You don't have to have lived a reasonably good life. Anyone is welcome. All are invited. Today's Destined for Victory message is straight ahead, but be sure to visit pastorpaul.net anytime to listen to Pastor Paul's recent messages on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

Also, you can subscribe to the Destined for Victory podcast at Spotify, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your programs. Here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, It's All About Jesus. I don't know, see some of y'all have been around, but some of y'all know those churches with those little 330 services. Sometime it was an ushers day and what have you in 330 and all that. I showed up at one of them because my father told him, I can't make it, but I'm going to send my son. And so I went over there.

It was over in Jersey. I crossed the bridge from Philly, drove over there, pulled up and saw all the cars and stuff. So people are there. But I walked into the sanctuary at 330, which is when the service is supposed to start. And there wasn't a soul in the sanctuary. And finally a man came walking through. I said, sir, is there a service here? He said, oh, yeah. I said, was it supposed to start at 330 or did I get the timer?

He said, oh no, 330. He said, oh they downstairs eating, they'll be up after a while. And sure enough, in a matter of 10 minutes or so, folks start coming back up from that basement where they had, some of y'all know about basement churches down there. Well, when the morning service was over, they all went down, had chicken and potato salad, green beans. Sometimes they bless you with macaroni and cheese.

Oh, come on some of y'all. And if it was a real good special dinner, the old folk over in the corner slicing pound cake and sweet potato pie. And when those folks got through, they came upstairs. Now I got to preach to 17 chicken laden people.

They fool, they say nine. And I'm supposed to say something. I went back.

I said, yeah, pop. That was some experience. He said, I knew it would be. But he did it intentionally because he said, I saw God's hand on you when you were young. I knew where he was taking you.

I couldn't afford to let you think this would be about you. I had to make sure you understood it's about Jesus and it's about the people he sent you to minister to. And he said, if they don't bless you sometimes, don't worry because Jesus will reward you himself. So I need you to understand that we've got to get back to the Jesus business, the anointing and the gifting two different things. We've got to be like Jesus who was anointed. Remember when Jesus was baptized in water by John the Baptist? That was the moment of his anointing. When he's standing in the water, the Holy Spirit left heaven in the shape of a dove, lid on his shoulder, and the father spoke out of glory and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

What was happening? God was anointing Jesus so that he could go about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil and accomplishing the purpose for which he was said. We've got to understand that the anointing must be present if people's lives are going to be changed.

And so we need to be aware of that. Now, let me also not only focus on the anointing, but look at what he was anointed to do. He was anointed because he was to preach good news or good tidings to the poor. Why is it mentioned the poor? Because in Bible days especially, the poor did not expect any good news to come their way. And so Jesus wasn't saying I'm anointed only for poor people, as if he couldn't speak to people who were wealthy.

That wasn't the case. The emphasis on the poor was simply to say, this good news, you don't have to have much going for you. You can be broke, busted and disgusted, but God has good news for your life. We've got to learn that about our God. He loves everybody. Sometimes the church gets into the big shots and caters to the big shots. That's not the agenda of Jesus.

Jesus looks for anybody who is open and hungry and thirsty and willing to receive. That's who he wants to bless. Because some people are so well off, they're satisfied already. And so you can't get some people to hunger and thirst for righteousness because they're already satisfied with stuff. But if you find some people who have hunger, whether they are wealthy or not, whether they're well to do or not, those are the people that you can minister to. The good news can be proclaimed to them.

Now, notice it's good news. Some of us in the church have got to get back to the Jesus agenda, which means we've got to do what he did, what he do, preach good news. There are churches, they specialize in bad news.

I don't know if you've ever been to some, but I can recommend some for you to go check out. And they spend the whole service talking about sin and talking about how wrong people are and how messed up people's lives are. And their favorite phrase is, you're going to hell. You ever met those kind of Christians? They might as well get T-shirts because that's what they say, you're going to hell.

Let me help you. That's not good news. So why are you telling it? You need to tell the good news. But see, but pastor, there is a reality of hell.

Yes, there is. And it was not created for us. It was created for the devil and his angels. But folk are going to show up there if they reject the good news.

But how are they going to know if they rejected what you never told them because all you gave them was bad news? I'm with you. I grew up in holiness and you'd hear things like this, holiness is a hell.

OK, I get it. But my holiness doesn't determine what God's going to do for me. I'm called to live in holiness. But on the journey, God is not judging me.

He's not keeping score. How many sins I committed this particular week. Y'all got to get that eternal insecurity out of your spirit. I'm secure in Christ. Now, he calls me to sin not. First, John, Chapter two, I write to you that you sin, not comma. And if you sin, you have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. See, that's what we hold in this people. We all heard that you sin, not period.

No, there was a comma there. And if you sin, you have an advocate. They didn't want to tell that part because they thought folk would would start taking that as license. If you are looking for opportunities to sin, something's already wrong on the inside of you. And so you can know your heart is right, because when you come short of God's plan, you can't live there in peace and contentment.

God is going to be dealing with you because he has a plan and purpose for your life. We got to get out of the bad news business. I'm sick of seeing Christians. They go find a march or or, you know, a gay parade or something.

And they go on our street and then we go get us up and go get us a sign. You're going to hell. If you're going to take the time and do a sign, at least put good news on it. Good news is because of Christ, you don't have to go to hell. The Lord loves you, has a plan for your life. Give him your life and watch and see what he'll do. That's what we've got to tell people.

It's good news. If you're bound with habits, the Lord can break them. But he loves you before he breaks your habits.

That's good news, because we all need a love that doesn't require us to always do everything right. And we love going around looking at people's sin manifestations and rebuking them. I need to help you understand I want to see real revival break out in these closing hours of time. And I want to be in the center of it. I'm just like that Bishop Paul Morton song. Lord, if you're doing anything in this season, don't do it without me.

I want to be front and center in whatever you're doing in this season. I want to catch revival right at its core. I want to see God do some manifested miracles that accomplish his purpose.

The only way that's going to happen is if we will get focused back on Jesus, because we got people who are focused on everything but Jesus. We all have unsaved relatives. We all have unsaved friends and family, associates and neighbors.

We all have them. So let's give them some good news. Stop going around looking at the people in your life and your family and looking at, oh, they're still drinking. First of all, they're not going to hell because they drink.

They need to be delivered for their own sake. And so God can accomplish his purpose through their lives. But get your theology straight. Quit picking on people's sins. Number one, you used to be a sinner.

That's the first thing. When Paul lists this, that, the other are not going to inherit the kingdom, then he said, and such were some of you. And when he said some of you, he didn't mean, but some of you weren't sinners. No, he just meant all of you were some of it and some of you were all of it.

So you need to understand, we need to quit picking on people. Furthermore, let's get real honest church folk. Many of us have a drinking problem.

It's just not alcohol. Anytime you're going to mess with them because they can't get started without a brown bag and a bottle. And many of you can't go to work till you had two, three cups of Starbucks. When I start lying, tune me out. Soon as I tell the first lie, tune me out.

In fact, get up and walk out soon as I start lying. You know good and well. Now, why are you going to pick on the person who has an alcohol problem and you have a Starbucks or Seattle's best problem?

Both of y'all got a drinking 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. As we look toward the end of the year, we're praying that the Lord allows us to finish in a strong financial position so your donations do make a difference. As God leads, prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory today. You can give online securely at PastorPaul.net. That's PastorPaul.net.

Or call 855-339-5500. Believers in Christ are called to live holy lives, not in order to earn salvation, but because we already have it. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, It's All About Jesus.

Why are you going to pick on people's particular vices? If you want to start picking on sins, look at your life. We're no longer sinners by designation because of Christ. We're now judged righteous. He has imputed his righteousness to us before we get our act together. So you are not named a sinner because you're now in Christ, but you still have sin in your life. Oh, see, I don't like it when you say it like that, Pastor. So what you want to call it, a struggle? An issue. Let's just be honest with ourselves.

There's no future in fronting. Why am I going to pick on you for some vice in your life? You smoking all the time?

I heard the saints growing up. I heard them say, you sucking on that cancer stick. But some of you, especially when you're going through a certain trial, some of us can't walk past the refrigerator without getting something. I don't see anybody walking out, so I guess I'm not lying yet. You know, we can go through some seasons where food becomes your friend, where you're not eating for health. You're not eating for strength. You eating cause it's there. Come on.

Don't even try it. You know good. Well, you've gone through seasons where you eat causes there cause, man, that food in the right season can just enfold you like a blanket.

You just pile up a nice plate and you said that sometimes you're not even really hungry. Oh, see that. See, see, they all go perpetrating the fraud. You know, it's true. The fact of the matter is, we have to understand that Jesus is the subject. We can't make the subject our righteousness.

He calls us to righteousness, but that's a journey. And so you need to understand that we've got to get back to preaching good news instead of bad. We've got to get back to stop emphasizing things that don't matter, such as what people wear to church. We've got to let folk come as they are. You got to understand something.

You can't clean fish you haven't caught. Catch them first in the net of the gospel, then love on them. And while you're loving them, let the Holy Spirit develop a relationship with them. So that the word they hear and the Spirit of God can speak to them about their life is not your job. Some of you all want to be the fourth person in the Godhead and tell people how to live their lives. That's not your job. Like I said, first of all, you don't have all your act together. What you going to try to be somebody else's Holy Ghost for?

We've got to learn. It's not about clothes. Some churches are high church style and dress up. Like I said, we grew up with church clothes.

We grew up with we knew these are the things you wear on Sunday. That's a different day. You try to put these little kids in these three piece suits now. See what happened. So quit it. The old days are gone. Let folk come as they are.

If we want to win them, we got to get them in first. I can hang. I can dress. When I preach in certain settings, I'm real dressed up, real formal. Sometimes I preach in a robe. If I'm in the right setting, I have my clergy collar.

If it's the right setting. But trying to reach unchurched people, I have learned no need of me doing that. I'm just talking about me. I'm not judging anybody else. And but I've learned that's not my job. I can't do that because I need to make sure these people are in a position where they can hear the word and my clothing isn't a distraction.

So where I pastor, I always welcome people. If you dress up, we're not outlawing being dressed up. If you want to be dressed up, knock yourself out. Sisters want to wear a nice hat and all that.

Knock yourself out. Nobody going to judge you. But don't look down on folk when they come dressed casually.

Men can wear suits and ties. I did that for years. And then I figured out just like my preaching style change. I can I can hoop when it's hoop in time. But the Lord taught me early in my pastoral journey. I made you a pastor teacher.

To teach people is to cause them to learn. And so I want you to emphasize your teaching gifting, which will cause them to learn because sometimes hooping gets them so inspired that they're not always learning. I'm not against hooping.

Literally, my best friends are hoopers. I'm not against it at all. And God uses it mightily.

Folks, get safe. I'm simply saying I choose to operate in a teaching mode. I use you can see I use my humor as part of the way I engage them so that I can feed them good news.

And so I'm not about to change just to satisfy what other folk want to do. If it's dress up occasion, I'll do it. My pastor, Bishop Copeland, the first time I saw him conduct a communion service, I said, Oh, my Lord. He came down the aisle with all this garbon and the big thing in his hand. He looked like the pope. And I said, Oh, Lord, my my pastor is a pope. Because years ago, I asked him to be my pastor.

I believe every pastor would do well to have a pastor. And he called me up that day. He's all Oh, Pastor Paul's here. Come on up here with me, son. And now I'm walking up there and I'm looking less dressed than I am right now. And I'm walking up there.

No, he is not calling me up here on this day. And I got to stand next to the pope. But I found out it's not about clothes. I preach places where the pastor has torn jeans, raggedy clothes, but he's teaching a generation.

And we got to quit focusing on stuff that is not the issue. I was teaching this principle at a pastors conference I was leading and a lady came up to me during the break time. She said, Yeah, but pastor, we had a lady who came to our church recently and she didn't have many clothes on at all.

And pastor, she was so well built and most of it was out. That's what she said to me. And she says, I hear what you're saying. She says, so we handed her a cloth and she put it next to her on the chair next to her. And she says, so now what do you do in a case like that? I said, well, the cloth you handed her probably didn't go with what she had on.

I was being facetious. I said, the fact is, you all need the love on her with the hope that she'll come back. Because only if you make her feel welcome enough to come back, will you see that God is able, if he saves her and cleanses her from the inside, if she gets under the right environment of love and acceptance, the Holy Spirit has a way of teaching her how she ought to look. And all you need to do is pray your husbands through that service. You intercessors go, Father, in the name of Jesus. I know he want to be a man of God.

Oh, Lord, strengthen him, help him. Well, Pastor Paul said it today, this life is all about Jesus. And as his followers, we need to point others to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A great way to do that is to partner with Pastor Paul in the Destined for Victory ministry to help him share the hope we have in Christ with as many people as we can. All it takes is a monthly pledge of $20 or more, donations that will be used to help Pastor Paul share the gospel all over the world. And as our way of saying thanks for your partnership, we'll send you a few thank you gifts, including one of Pastor Paul's most popular CDs, The Best of Let My People Smile. Call 855-339-5500 and find out more about how to become a Destined for Victory partner.

Make your pledge over the phone or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. You can also become a partner from our website, pastorpaul.net. But if you can't become a partner but would like to send a generous gift to the ministry today, we'd love to share with you a gift of our own, Pastor Paul's new book, Lessons from the Vineyard. In this book, he inspires believers to become attractive to others so that we can glorify God by bearing godly fruit. That's Lessons from the Vineyard, a book from Pastor Paul Shepherd and our gift to you by request for your generous donation of $25 or more to Destined for Victory. And I came to tell somebody, if you cannot live effectively for Christ, you can't witness effectively, you can't have the character change and the inner transformation that you need unless the Holy Spirit is not only in your life, but you have allowed him to fill your life. We need the Holy Spirit like never before. That's next time in Pastor Paul's message, tap into God's power. But until then, enjoy your weekend and remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.