I'm preaching to a bunch of folk full of potential. And so, yes, you got potential. You got your ingredients. But my question is, but are you willing to follow the instructions so you can become what God says he's made you? A recipe won't do you much good if you don't follow the directions.
Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, if God has asked you to do something, He has already equipped you to do it. He has given you all the necessary ingredients. He's written down the recipe for success. The question is: will you follow His instructions? Stay with us now for today's message or come see us at pastorpaul.net to hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's.
That's pastorpaul.net.
Now, let's listen closely to our Destined for Victory message: Let Courage Take the Wheel. Five. Grease and flour. The bunt pan. Oh wait a minute.
I didn't bring any grease. They said, well, you better go get some. You supposed to grease it. Don't put it in the dry. Yeah.
And think you're gonna be able to get a cake out of it. Cause you're gonna have to cut that cake out of there. You're gonna have to have surgery. All right, so I got to go get some grease. And flour?
The pan.
Now I'm halfway through. That's five. of the ten. Number six. Spoon the batter.
Wait, where batter come from? Batter came from all that Stirring. You were wondering why you've been going through what you've been going through. That's because God's making something bad out of your life. Making some batter.
The fruit of the Spirit is important because other people are supposed to eat from what God has done in you. And so God is creating something edible in your character, in your life, in the way you live your life. And so you got to make sure it's better. Y'all were laughing when I was just saying I'm going to put all the ingredients in the bunt pan, and rightly so, because that's not where they go. They go into the bowl.
And the bowl is where all of this comes together and is a batter.
Okay, I get it. Spoon the batter into the pan. Oh, look at this and jiggle the pan. To even out. The batter.
You'll know when you're done. With all the spooning and the jiggling. Because you'll have an even Cake.
Some of y'all are so lopsided. You're high in this area of your life. You pitiful in this area of your life. If you look decent in this part of your character, you need some prayer and deliverance in this area of your life. All lopsided.
That's cause you haven't been jiggling. I can't tell somebody, you got to get your jiggle on. Tell your neighbor get your jiggle on Wait a minute.
Now seven. Place into a cold oven. Wait, what? The instructions for this particular. Cake.
Say Don't Place it. in an already heated oven at first.
Now you have to talk to these people. Cause I see some of y'all are disturbed by this instruction. I don't understand why. Every cake I've ever made, I preheat the oven.
Well, bless your heart. I didn't write the instruction.
So I'm not changing the instruction.
Now if you want to take it upon yourself and think you know better than the people that created the recipe, you go right on and knock yourself out. But I came to tell somebody: when it comes to God, never second-guess what He tells you to do. If the Lord told you, To put it in a cold. Yeah. Take that heat out of there.
Wait till it gets cold. And then insert it on the middle rack. Not the lower rack, not the highest rack. Insert it. on the middle rack.
Then Turn The oven. to 300. and 25 degrees. After your even doubt. Batter.
In the bunt pan. Listen to me, I'm a cook. It's evened out. It's well mixed. It's on the middle rack.
Of a cold oven? And once it goes in, I close the door. I set it for 325. All right, now what y'all want me to do? You got to leave it there.
For an hour and twenty to an hour and thirty minutes. Or until a toothpick That you insert into the center Comes out. I can't tell some of y'all you too doughy. You're too doughy. You're too full of batter.
God can't get what he wants to get done in your life. Because when we pull out. the two pick there's your flesh just hanging all off of the toothpick. Number nine. Yeah.
Let In the pan. For a few minutes. Before removing. to finish cooling on a cooling rack. Wait, what?
I gotta have a coolant rack? They say yes. And you want to leave it. It's been baked. You think you're ready to go.
But it said just l let it Cool. Tell your neighbor, chill out.
Some of y'all dripping and running and ready to get something done. And God said, just wait. Oh, you're going to be ready to eat in a while, but just wait. Sure. Number ten.
Serve. And enjoy. That's number 10. After you've done everything. Everything else.
After you've let it cool for a while.
Now you can serve it up.
Now, your ministry will bless somebody.
Now, your business will bless somebody.
Now, what you do on your job will help somebody.
Now, God is ready to use you to make a difference in this world. You are here to make a positive difference in this world.
So, you gotta get yourself prepared to do that.
Now you know. Why, Paul said, Timothy, You Have got To stir it. Yeah. The stuff's in there. But you're just a bunch of walking ingredients.
And you're not blessing anybody. You're full of gifting, you're full of faith, but you're not blessing anybody. Nobody's life is being helped because of you. No one's, their life is in a better place because of you. You just walking around with all this potential.
I'm preaching to a bunch of folk full of potential. And so, yes, you got potential. You got your ingredients. But my question is: are you willing to follow the instructions so you can become what God says He's made you? What's Timothy's problem.
He hasn't taken the time. to follow God's instruction. And one of the instructions is stir it up. And then verse 7 tells him why it's crucial that he follows that instruction. Because verse 7 says, For God has not given A spirit of fear.
Now, where's that coming from? Timothy. is noted for being phlegmatic. Timothy is one of those laid-back Not go-getter types. He's not used to being at the front of the line.
He's not a strong natural leader.
Some of us are strong natural leaders just by temperament. You show up and you're ready to lead something. You have a little room full of kids in a daycare or something. All you gotta do is look a few seconds and you'll see who's the leader.
Some kids not interested in the following y'all. I'm doing my thing, and usually, one of the little shy kids will come over and see what they're doing. But some are just natural leaders. You don't have to ask them to take charge, they just instantly do it. Come on, any strong natural leaders in here, just be honest.
Nothing wrong with being a strong natural leader. That's part of what God made you. And so you don't need probably this same instruction. That's why you've got to read all the instructions because there's stuff in this book for you. Strong natural leader, you've never been afraid of anything.
You so much of a leader, you're crazy. Come on, I need some of y'all to just, yeah, Pastor, there have been times, me and my strong personality, I just did the dumbest stuff ever. Can I see some honest hands? I have made some stupid decisions with my strong natural leadership ability. Welcome to the club.
Been there, done that. I know what that's like. Strong natural leader by temperament. 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.
And we'd like to say thank you to all who sustained Destiny 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.
Now, with the rest of his teaching, Let Courage Take the Wheel, here once again is Pastor Paul Shepard. One period of my life I was working for an auto leasing company. I was running the accounts receivable department. And um and a friend of mine and I, we at that age where we think about getting married, and so we got our salaries, but we need some extra money. And the boss at the company said, I'm tired of paying the repo fees for all of these uh professional repos.
Y'all want to make a little extra money? And me, Mr. Strong Natural Leader. I'm in Philly. I'm in Philly.
And something told me to say, Yeah, what we need to do. And he said, I'm gonna give you the keys. I'm going to tell you the uh address where these cars are. They're not paying it, so we gotta go take it. And if you and your boy For every car you pick up for us, we'll give you X number of dollars.
He was undercutting the professionals. and using our youthful stupidity Against us. And so I'm single. And I'm young, go get her. By this time, I know I'm a married sister M, so I'm putting together the money for the ring because I want to hook her up, like for real, for real.
Y'all get it?
So I need the little extra money. And so my friend and I Go out at night. We usually leave my house ten, ten thirty. And we drive to these various addresses. And we're gonna see if we can get two cars.
Tonight. And so I drove to places and I'd see the car. And I see it's right. Buy the house. And I said We looking in the window.
From the street. Uh I don't see anybody moving around in there. I think we can do it. Hi. And so One would sit in the car.
With the motor running. And the other would slip up. Put it in. And we said we hope they don't have any third-party alarm on this. We hope the car that the key five that came with the car is all that there is, because by using the key, we would disarm that.
But if they have a third party alarm in there, I don't have what it's gonna take to disarm that. And so praying as I go. I told him, keep that car running. Because if I open this door and this car starts screaming, You start rolling, I'll jump in. Long story short.
We live! Yeah. We repossessed several cars. Never got shot at one time. That was nothing but grace.
God said these boys are so dumb He said, I've made Paul a pastor. He doesn't know it yet. He doesn't know what his life's gonna be like. He doesn't know I'm gonna have him ministering all over the world. He just knows that I'm in his life and he's trying to make money so he can buy his girl a ring.
That's all he knows. He doesn't know that some folk are sitting in their house with the gun right by them.
So God said, I'm gonna have to protect him. I can't tell somebody you made it this far only by the grace of God.
So, some of y'all don't need this exhortation. You don't never have a spirit of fear. Like one rapper said, I ain't never scared. That's the way some of y'all are. You live your life.
I ain't never scared. And so I need to tell you something. And some of y'all, I'm not scared. But there's other folk in here, like Timothy, who if you're going to get the will of God done, you're going to have to realize you got to let courage take the will of your life. You got to stop threatening.
One day I'm going to do what's in my heart. It's in there for a reason. The good man and woman, out of the good treasure in their heart, have to bring forth good things. Don't wait for it to just pop out. You gotta stir.
It together, and you got to be courageous enough to set it out there and make it happen. Said God hasn't given you a spirit of fear. What's he giving you? He's giving you the spirit of power. I can't tell somebody you got power you haven't accessed.
Because you haven't stepped out in courage yet. You don't use the power until you need the power. And until you step out, the power will never manifest.
Some of y'all say, I've never experienced the power of God. It's because you haven't done anything that required the power of God. But I dare. You to step out and do what you can't do in your flesh, and you're going to find that the power of God, the dunamis is the Greek word, the explosive power of God is there. You're already saved, so all you got to do is let the Holy Ghost have full control.
Some of y'all are scared, I don't know what it says to be spirit-filled. That means give Him the wheel and let Him take you where He wants you to go.
Sometimes, for some folk that are open to it, he'll take over your language and he'll give you an additional way to pray other than in your native tongue. And you don't know it because you haven't stepped out in enough courage where you needed some assistance in prayer. But God's going to do the work in your life.
Some of y'all need to see the power of God is available to you. Not only that, but you got to operate in love. He said, He didn't give you a spirit of fear, he gave the spirit of power and of love. You know what that means? You who don't like a whole lot of folk, and you think at this point, there's a lot of people I'm not going to minister to because there's only a handful of people that I actually like.
Let me help you understand something. God's not baking a cake in your life for you to decide who you like and who you don't. God is gonna bring some folk. Once your cake is ready, you are gonna be eaten from by a whole lot of different folk. People you would never walk down the street with under normal circumstances.
God's gonna give you a whole ministry to them. You're going to be able to facilitate their needs. Why? Because you are Jesus on earth. You can't afford to be hand-picking who you want to bless.
Jesus found anybody in need and he blessed them. Folk came to Jesus just as they were, all kinds of jacked-upedness in their life. But Jesus loved them. He didn't just love the up and in. He loved the down and out.
And he's gonna make you love him too. That's why some of y'all got to finish baking 'Cause you still got attitudes with too many people. God's not going to release you on the world till you don't care who you bless. One more thing and I'm done. He gives us the spirit of power.
Of love. Oh And of a sound mind. I looked at the Greek to find out what's the best synonymous phrase for it, and it's self-discipline. I'm giving you power. I'm giving you love.
And I'm going to give you the ability to discipline. Yourself. I'm going to give you the ability To do the work of preparation when you're antsy and want to jump out there and make something happen too soon. I'm going to give you the ability to defer your gratification. I'm going to give you the ability.
To say, oh yeah, my blessing's coming, but it's not coming until I've sown first. I gotta do a whole lot of sowing, and then after I've done that, then God's gonna bless me to reap. And just when you say, I wish, Lord, I wish you'd end this season, he'll say, Don't get weary. In well doing Far in Do you know you don't get to pick through season? You don't get to say, look like to me it's due.
No, it's not due yet. God will let you know when the season comes because you'll see your season shift. Anybody ever stuck with God long enough to watch him shift your season? I was going through hell for too long, but eventually he shifted my season. I can't get it.
Thanks for joining us for Pastor Paul Shepard's message: Let Courage Take the Wheel. As you know, summer is always a tough time for ministries like Destined for Victory. Donations tend to plunge during these few months, and our faith is tested from time to time. Over the years, I had the privilege of asking Pastor Paul his thoughts on the subject, and here's what he had to say. It would be great if your mortgage company or whoever you pay your housing bill to would say, hey, it's summer and I know you got things you want to do.
So that's not going to happen for you and your family life. And it doesn't happen for those of us who are broadcasters of the Word of God. The stations we broadcast, the platforms that we use, they require that we support them financially every month. And for that reason, we need our listeners to be supportive of us. We don't have the ability.
to broadcast without Thinking about paying the bills. That's where our listeners, that's where our donors come in. As you consider the fact that 12 months, every month without fail, we need your support. We appreciate the fact that you'll think of us during the summer and realize that the bills are still coming and the word of God still needs to go out. And thankfully, we're able to reach some people on vacation or wherever they happen to be, even some of those who aren't normally listeners, and we're able to reach them with the word of God.
So thank you to those who help us. And I want to challenge more and more listeners. Would you become partners with us? And would you remember us, even if you're not a monthly partner, in the summer, think about us and drop us a line and put a check in there or contact us with the online platform of giving and say we want to make sure that you continue throughout the year, including in these summer months. Thanks for thinking of us this year.
Well, as you give generously today, we have an outstanding resource to share with you as our way of saying thanks. It's our brand new booklet, Overcoming Bitterness. Based on some of Pastor Paul Shepherd's best sermons, this message will show you key strategies to remove bitterness from your heart. As you follow along, you'll gain strategic insight into ways to cultivate hope and reclaim the joy of the Lord. Again, that's Overcoming Bitterness, a helpful booklet for anyone who still struggles to let go of past wounds and press on toward his or her victory in Christ.
Request a copy today 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. You can also mail your gift, as always, to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. God is not just making up what He wants to do in your life on the fly.
God is not saying, well, okay, we're getting some things done, but I'm still sketching out the plan for your life. The reality is, God knew what He wanted out of you before He ever sent you to the planet.
Now that's tomorrow in our next Destined for Victory message: getting bitter or getting better. Until then, though, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
