You're not going to live right in any era of your life. your life by accident. Yeah. You got to be decisive, not double-minded. Because James said, if you're double-minded, you're unstable in what?
In all your ways. The people who have the greatest impact for the kingdom of God are the ones who decide to be deciders. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. It's not easy to live God's way in a world so clearly opposed to it. We're bombarded by temptation, surrounded by a truth is relative culture, and mocked for trying to live as Christ asks us to.
Stay with us now to learn how to navigate your way through such a world and to find out how to be a decider, not a responder. Online, you'll find us at pastorpaul.net, where you can hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net.
Now, listen closely to today's Destined for Victory message: in the world, but not of it. How many know sexual impurity? is not for those only 55 and under. There is some AAR. RP mesh that you can get.
That you can get yourself into. I'm not speaking in tongues. You all know what I'm talking about. Age will change some things, but it doesn't change the whole situation. And you had to live right on purpose.
You young folk, we got a bunch of fit and young, beautiful, and pretty, and handsome young folk and young adults and all that around here. You can't go to the gym and just automatically live right. You had to have a prayer life in most of these gyms. Come on, can I help somebody? You gotta pay.
If you say, Pastor, help me, I'm trying to develop a prayer like go to the gym. You'll pray as much as you were Jesus Savior. Oh my Father, Lord. Help! You better be talking to Jesus.
Some of the stuff you're gonna see, and they're in the machine right in front of you. See, we got to be real about this stuff. You're not going to live right in any era. your life by acting. Yeah.
You gotta be decisive, not double-minded. Because James said, if you're double-minded, you're unstable in what? In all your ways. You can make an excuse for anything if you allow double-mindedness to set in.
So you have to set the bar. Like you set your thermostat. It is 68 now. I needed to be 72. You said it.
And you wait for it to conform to what you said. That's the way you got to live your life. I'm going to be virtuous by God's grace until I am married. They have shows now where they mock I just saw something on TV, they mocking being a born-again virgin. Mocking as if it's funny.
And you know people now believe you're not gonna live right, you unmarried folk? People don't believe it. They said, I don't believe that. When people tell you you can't live right, you know what that means? The only thing that means is they're not living right.
That's all they're telling you. I can't do it, and I doubt if you can do it either.
Well, you can by God's grace. But you gotta make up your mind. Just like he decided not to eat this food. You have to decide how to live a life that brings God glory. And here's the good thing about being saved.
And if you fall short, 1 John 2 said you have an advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous one. Don't you love being with God? He's got a plan and purpose and will give you the power to live it out. But if you fall short, you can go to Him and He said, I got you covered.
Now, what he won't cover is you then refusing to set up a lifestyle. where you won't keep coming to him about the same thing. Because after a while, you're gonna be like, okay, now I forgave you last week.
Now, what up with this here? Why are we coming back over the same thing? Instead of making the decision. To do what you have to do. to overcome those challenges.
This is good, you just don't know it. Decisive, not double-minded. The second thing we learned from Daniel's example here is that we must learn to be diplomatic. Not disrespectful. Diplomatic, not disrespectful.
What do you mean by that, Pastor? Look at verses 9 through 14.
Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel. But the official told Daniel, I am afraid of my Lord the King, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king. would then have my head Because of you.
Look at this, verse 11. Daniel then said to the guard, Please test your servants for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink, then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food. And treat your servants in accordance with what you see.
So he agreed to this and tested them for 10 days. Do you see the diplomacy?
Okay. He has already made up his mind he's not eating it. But he's got to convince this man. To let him do what's in his heart.
Now God gave the favor But what we have to learn is we have to work with God. By treating people with a kind of respect. We have to learn to be in this world but not mistreat folks because, see, I serve God. Y'all feel what I'm saying? I've run into arrogant Christians.
Who think that the fact that they serve God allows them to be disrespectful to the people they interact with. And I came to tell you: if we're going to win this generation for Christ, you're not going to do it disrespecting people. You're going to have to learn to practice diplomacy, is what I'm calling it here. In fact, I jotted down the definition: diplomacy is the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way. We have to learn to do that.
Every day on your job, instead of you just looking at folks and looking at them, all of them going to hell. No, some of them write your check. You hearing me?
Some of them are future converts, and you're supposed to help win them to Christ.
Some of them are people God has a very different plan for than they're acting like now, and rather than treat them According to the way they're behaving, why don't you treat people according to God's plan and purpose for their life? Why don't by your behavior you respect them and appreciate them for who they are and what they offer right now, even before they ever know anything about Jesus? We have to learn to practice diplomacy. You need to learn that not only in your job, you need to learn that in your home.
Some of y'all would be better off if you learned to treat your family better. Listen to the grunts and the groans. Because you can't be a Christian at church and a Hellion at home. That's not honoring God. You walk in the door and all your unsaved relatives say, oh Lord.
Now here she come. Fresh out of church. Hmm.
Something wrong with that picture. If people are sad when they see you coming, something is wrong. You're supposed to be a light shining in a dark place. Nah, we were having fun till they pulled up. They're supposed to enjoy seeing you come.
Because you are diplomatic. You've learned to deal with them in a sensitive, effective way. And there's a right way to do everything. If you don't want somebody smoking in your car, there's a right way to say it. Uh helping anybody.
Get that. Cancer stick out of here. You make dinner. No, because right now they're still struggling with it. They may want to be free, they may not.
Either way, you need to have a relationship with them. You may be the person that helps him understand this is not going to help you live your best life. But you'll never do it if you make them feel horrible about themselves. Gotta learn to be diplomatic. If somebody on my job is smoking the weed and they've started when we're having a conversation, I don't have to say, when you get through with all that mess, no, just stay outside of contact range.
Oh, I'm trying to help somebody. Especially some of y'all that came out of that. You don't need to be up in there talking about what you say? But you gotta learn. Learn to be diplomatic.
Learn to be sensitive yet effective. There is a way to be persuasive without being abrasive. Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. As always, you can hear any of our recent messages on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.
Listen and subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And we'd like to thank all of you who sustained Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help us share the gospel all over the world. To give your generous gift now, please visit pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500. How can you engage the world without marrying it?
Find out next in the rest of today's message: in the world but not of it. Once again, here's Pastor Paul. You can be persuasive without being abrasive. And we have to learn that that's the way to handle what could be sensitive situations. God knows in this world, you got to learn to be diplomatic dealing with the younger generation because they don't share our old values.
You have brands. I don't have any yet. Y'all gotta learn. You can't treat them like your parents treated you. It's not gonna go well.
Anybody learn that yet? It's not going to go well because it's a different day. And I know it bothers us when we see all this explaining and conversations about all kinds of stuff. We kids, it's difficult. It's difficult for us.
But we're going to have to ask God for wisdom. Yeah. Because they're not your kids, they're your children's children. You're going to have to get you some wisdom. Pray that God will help you.
Do like I. Just scratch yourself when you're not even itching. Just. Do the best you can. Yeah.
Years ago, I had an associate pastor with some young kids, and they brought him over to the house one time to be with my wife and I while he and his wife went on a date. And I said, Yeah, fine, we like the kids and we bring them on. And he brought them to the house and we pulled out toys that we had kept after our kids had gotten big and stuff. And we pulled out and they were having a wonderful time. And then the time came where he and his wife were supposed to be back to pick him up.
I said, all right, now mommy and daddy are gonna be back soon, according to the schedule, so we're gonna start picking up the toys. And we're gonna get things ready so you'll be ready when they come back. And one of them was having so much fun. She didn't want to stop. And so I explained the first time, I said.
Yeah. I said, I know, sweetie, you're having a wonderful time. And we're gonna have you come over some other time. You can play some more, but right now, we gotta get ready for mommy and daddy. And she got mad.
And I saw this anger and this anger got up in her voice. And I said, Jesus. Help me, Lord, help me. And so I just put a little bass in my voice. And I said, I know, okay, we gotta go now.
Put the toys up. And she heard that voice. And she got a revelation. You don't want to be able to do it. fool with this dude.
But she had to do something with that anger.
So we heard her say, my wife and I heard her say, Alright, I'm putting them up, but I'm putting them up rough. I said, that's fine, long as you putting them up.
Now some of us grew up where you couldn't even put them up rough. Come on, come on, some of y'all. Ref not gonna work at all.
Some of us would have got a whole leg. Thanks, sir. about your attitude. And get that bass out your voice.
So these days we got to be diplomatic. We can't take it all the way there. They're not your children. You who are teachers in schools and what have you, I'm praying your strength in the Lord. Because you know a way to settle this quickly, but that's the old way.
And that'll get you in more trouble. I grew up in public schools where you got swatted. Any yog, any yogra? Swat it. They weren't threatening.
They were popping. And paddling. They had a paddle. No. in two of my schools.
Bend over. That's the young folk traumatized right now. But as a result of his being diplomatic and saying, hey, why don't we do it this way? It allowed the official to take him up on that offer. And look at the results: verse 15 and 16.
At the end of 10 days, they looked healthier. and better nourished than any of the other young men. Who were eating the royal food.
So the guard took away the choice food once he saw it wasn't gonna be a problem, and he allowed them to eat only vegetables and drink water. Pray for diplomacy. Pray for wisdom. I've got to deal with this job. I got to deal with this situation.
And I want to do it in a way that doesn't cause me to compromise anything important to me, but also doesn't dishonor them. God will help you find a way. James said, if you lack wisdom, Knowledge is good, but wisdom is better. Knowledge tells you what. But wisdom tells you how.
Wisdom will give you the how-to where you can work things out. And one more thing, and I'll let you go. Number three: if you're gonna be the answer to Jesus' prayer, you wanna be disciplined, not detached. Look at verses 17 through 20. To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning, and Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
At the end of the time set by the king, he brought him in And the king talked to them, look at verse 19, and found none equal to Daniel Hannah. Hananiah, Michel, and Azariah, so they entered the king's service. Look at this, verse 20. Every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them. He found them ten times better.
Then all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. I want to wrap up by telling you: God has no problem with excellence. We gotta quit pretending like it's okay to be mediocre. Because God loves to bless us to be head and shoulders above. God wants to make you the head and not the tail.
God has no problem with you being a shining star on your job, in your vocation. Quit being part of the average crowd and decide by God's help, I'm going to be part of the extraordinary crowd. If you're going to work the job, you might as well be excellent at it. If that's going to be your profession, you might as well be excellent at it. If you believe this is what I'm supposed to do, give God the best return.
On his work in your life. I try to be an excellent preacher. Since I got called to preach when I didn't want to, then I ought to get up and work hard to prepare so that when I show up, it was worth your while coming out. That's my job, to be excellent at it. I don't want y'all ever leaving church saying he must have had a busy week.
He ain't put no time in that message. Uh-uh. I didn't do my job that week. I got caught up in some other things. I'm supposed to give God a good return, an excellent return on his investment.
and call in my life and you need to do the same thing. Notice God endowed them with what they needed to excel, but they had to combine endowment with endeavor. And a lot of us like to live on our endowments. And we don't get good at the endeavor. I just said something.
I don't want a doctor who crammed through med school. Do you? You don't be sitting up there your life in his hand and he over looking at a book. Tombella Oh I don't know, I had never seen this before. I'm jumping down off the table.
Pulling everything out. I'm going to get a second opinion. You over hemming and hauling. In the corner, my life in your hand. No!
I don't want a cramming doctor. I want one who sailed through. Learning everything they needed to learn. You ought to do that, whatever your discipline, whatever your area, it needs to be an area of expertise.
So that God can use you. Because if you will marry His endowment with your endeavor, You can be head and shoulders. I mean, isn't that something to aspire to ten times better? When the king talked to them, it was nowhere near the answers he was getting from those other rookies. They were all good looking and all of that.
But you got four guys ten times better than the other ones? You're going to give them different opportunities. And what What if The only problem between you And making the six figures or the seven figures you dream of making. What if the only difference is you haven't married endeavor to your endowment? You mean you're okay being poor 'cause you won't dig in?
You won't excel. You won't let God, who gave you the gray matter, give you the discipline. We taught our kids when they were in school, your job is to study and get good grades. I commissioned them. From young all the way through.
Everybody in this family has a job. Your job is to be an excellent student. And they learned, as kids, they learned when you're having a, we'd have our nightly devotion. And they would say, pray for me, I have a test tomorrow. And their mother or I would always ask, Now, did you study?
See, because if we pray for you about your test tomorrow and you didn't study, That's a different prayer. That's a mercy prayer. That's a oh God, have mercy. Oh Lord, pour out your spirit, Jesus. What does it mean to be in the world but not of it?
It means being diplomatic without being disrespectful, and being disciplined but not detached. Thanks so much for being here for today's Destined for Victory message featuring Pastor Paul Shepherd. You know, when he was with us, Pastor Paul had a great desire to use media to reach as many people as he could with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's why he loved radio and why he always wanted the media ministry of Destined for Victory to continue long after his preaching days were over. During one of our recording sessions, we asked him to talk about why radio was so important, and we thought you'd like to hear what he had to say.
Well, I want to tell you that it's important to me as a discipler that my voice is heard and it is used to help people grow in their knowledge of the Lord and in their faith walk with him. Fact of the matter is, my voice doesn't sound like most of the other folks you hear on Christian radio. I'm well aware of that, and I'm really comfortable with that. I come from my own unique background, both ethnically and in terms of life experience. There are things I share, there are things I say, and there are the ways that I say them that are unique.
I believe. That perspective needs to be heard throughout Christendom. And so, while I'm so grateful for all of my heroes, your heroes are mine. I listen to the same people, the guys who have been on the radio for decades and have proclaimed God's word faithfully. I really do appreciate those guys.
But I've learned not to be intimidated by them because I've got my own way of processing and own way of sharing and helping people to learn and to grow in their faith.
So, it's quite intentional.
Sometimes I like to be really colloquial in what I say and how I say it because I'm just using who I am, and I think God wants to use that. He's the one who called me. I didn't call myself, He called me, and I believe He knows what He was getting when He called me into the ministry. And so, I'm just trying to make a difference because the gospel really does change lives, and I believe I have a unique calling to help present the gospel from my own perspective. I pray that that's resonating with listeners, and I pray that that means enough to them that they'll make sure my voice can continue to be heard right along with our other heroes who teach the gospel of Jesus.
You can just hear the passion in his voice. He was clear in his mission, and that remains our mission now, to build upon Pastor Paul Shepard's legacy of faith and wisdom on radio, online, and through our free mobile app, and to use his messages to help shine the light of Jesus Christ in an ever-darkening world.
Now, we can't do any of this without your help.
So, today we're asking you to send a generous donation to Destined for Victory in honor of Pastor Paul's memory. And when you do, we've got a great new resource to share with you. It's called Overcoming Bitterness, our latest booklet based on some of Pastor Paul's best sermons. If you want to learn the keys of moving past the past, of forgiving those who have harmed you, so that you can press on toward your high calling in Christ, I encourage you to request a copy today. That's Overcoming Bitterness, our gift to you for your generous gift to Destined for Victory.
You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And as always, you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. I want you to know before I'm done teaching here that things that you haven't experienced yet, challenges that you haven't faced yet, troubles that haven't come upon you yet, God has already equipped you to handle them.
That's coming up tomorrow in our next Destined for Victory message. I'm equipped for this. Until then, remember: he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
