Whenever God gets started, He never fails. Sales to complete. I want to let you know that's true in my life, and that's true in your life. What is happening in us is not a work that we came up with. It is a work of God Himself.
They call it the Apostle Paul's joy letter, and he wrote it, ironically enough, from a prison cell. Hello, and welcome to Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, today we begin a deep dive into Paul's letter to the Philippian church. As you follow along, pay close attention to a key principle that applies to every believer in Christ. God has begun a good work in you, and He will bring it to completion. Remember, come see us at pastorpaul.net to listen to any recent message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net.
This series is called God is a Finisher, and we'll be bringing it to you today and for the next three weeks.
So let's kick things off with Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, designed by God. Philippians chapter 1 verses 3 through 6. Read this way. Paul says, I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.
Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work. In you. We'll carry it on. to completion.
Until the day of Christ Jesus. And my subject is: God is a finisher. God is is a Finisher. Paul's letter to this church. is unlike his letter to many of the other churches he founded.
You'll find when he wrote to churches like Corinth and Ephesus and Thessalonica and Colossi, he was dealing with particular challenges and particular crises that they were going through. But when he writes the church at Philippi, there isn't so much a crises as he's looking for an opportunity while he sits in prison to just say to this church, You've been partners with me from the very first day. And every time I think of the saints in Philippi, I thank God for your partnership, for standing with us, for being part of what God's been doing in our lives, for not being ashamed of our chains when he was imprisoned and all of that. And he writes them a letter full of gratitude. In fact, many theologians call this letter Paul's joy letter.
It is bursting with joy and excitement. As he writes to them and expresses his love and appreciation. And almost in passing, almost. Parenthetically, he says, as he's saying, I thank God for you every time I think of you and I pray for you all the time with joy. And in passing, he says, And when I'm thinking of you, I am confident of this.
The tense for the word that was translated confident is a very definite tense. It means, I am absolutely convinced of this: that he who began a good work in you is going to bring it. all the way to completion. In writing this letter, then, what he does is he uses the fact that God has started something in their lives, and he wants to establish in their hearts and minds that you don't have to worry, whatever God gets started, he never fails to complete. I want to let you know that's true in my life, and that's true in your life.
That what is happening in us is not a work that we came up with. It is a work of God Himself. In fact, it started before you knew it started. Before the foundation of the world, in fact. God knew you would exist on this planet in this moment in time, and He had established some things about your life before your life ever came to be.
He knew what he wanted out of you before there was a you to get it out of. He started the work. A lot of us think and we say things like, oh, I'm so glad I found the Lord. I know what we mean. I'm not offended by the language because I know what we mean when we say, I found the Lord one day.
We came to know him as Savior and Lord. But let's get technical for a moment because it'll bless you. You didn't find him, he wasn't lost. God was not lost. We were lost.
We had no capability of ever getting our lives in order the way God designed them to be. We came to the planet jacked up. You gotta understand that about you and about me. We didn't just get jacked up along the way, we were jacked up in our mother's womb. Born in sin, the Bible says.
Shaping in iniquity. That runs counter to a lot of self-help philosophy these days. I am a divine being. I am an expression of. No, you're not.
You're a sinner that's lost. And when we get to the planet, we can do nothing but act outside of the will of God because we don't know God. And our nature is corrupt, and it is not obedient to the will of God. And so we begin to live our lives and express the fact that we have no relationship with Him. And when you came to realize that you needed a Savior, that was a work of God.
That was a work that the Holy Spirit was doing. He used various people and various ways to get that communicated to you. If I had time to pass the mic around, we could share the different ways that you came to realize: you know what, I need a Savior because I'm lost and I need to be saved. And the Lord used people, sometimes he used your upbringing, but some of y'all were raised pure heathen, and he couldn't use your upbringing. Come on, it's true.
And so he used whoever he could use.
Somebody on your job, somebody in your neighborhood.
Sometimes it was a cold call, knock on the door, somebody handed you a track. Whatever it was, it was all the work of God. He began the good work. In all of us. We came to know we needed a Savior.
We came to know there was a Savior who loved us so much that He had lay down His very life for our sins. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we could become the righteousness of God in Him. That was a work of God. And the work of God doesn't stop. When we get saved.
In fact In many ways, it's just... Getting started. And so, what happens is, we find that we are very much like a building under construction. As we begin to live for the Lord, that there's a whole lot. You're excited about being saved, but the truth is, we're saved and still messed up.
We're saved and still grossly out of the will of God in many ways. And so God's got to do a work. And it's kind of referred to in this passage as sort of like a building being under construction. He has begun it, it's not finished yet, but it is in the process. Thank God for being in the process.
It's better to be in the process than to just be an empty field with nothing being built, nothing being constructed. But God loved you and me so much that he said, I'm going to take you and I'm going to do a mighty work in you. And in any construction project, it begins with the concept. The concept predates the building. When you drive by a certain block and you see a fence up, and on the fence somewhere is the picture of something that doesn't yet exist, a building that doesn't yet exist.
And there may be a little drawing there, and then it'll tell you what this building is going to be. What you're looking at is the concept. It's the fact that the builder said, the owner said, In this spot, in a matter of months, or depending on how elaborate it is, in a matter of years. One or two years, in the case of some building projects, in the case of building some bridges, it could take five or seven or ten years. And in the case of your life and mine, The sign says I'm gonna need the rest of their life.
But the building. Is committed. to completing What he starts. And it begins with the concept. God has the concept about your life and mind.
He knows what he wants to make out of us. In fact, he calls us that in the same way that sign calls it the empire state building or whatever it is before it ever exists. God has called some things about your life and mind right now. When you read your Bible, you see God calling us what He has destined us to be right now. You can be like Gideon acting like a wimp, but God shows up through an angel and calls you a warrior.
That's because the sign says warrior. You're acting like a wimp. You look like a wimp. You behave like a wimp, but God said, I started something in you, and when I'm done with you, You're gonna be a warrior And I want to let you know the concept came from heaven.
Now that's good news because If you get that understanding, then the scriptures will make more sense to you. Scriptures like Romans chapter 8. We love verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good, not to everyone. Not to everyone. Don't be one of these people walking around saying, well, you know, everything works out for good.
No, that's not what the Bible says. As though that's some sort of universal Truism. No, the Bible says something very different. It says, and we know that all things work together for good to them. I said Well, who are the them?
Folk who love God. and are called the according to his purpose. Those are works of God. He is the one. Don't go away, we have more of today's Destined for Victory message coming up next.
We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and generous donations, gifts that help us keep this media ministry going. Summer is always a tough time financially for Destined for Victory, so please consider helping us keep sharing the gospel all over the world the whole year through by sending a special gift today. Make a safe and secure donation at our website, pastorpaul.net, or give us a call at 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500.
Well, God has promised to finish the work He began in you, and when He does, do you know what that will look like? Find out next in the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, designed by God. The Bible says in one place, we love him because He first loved us. You can't even take credit for loving God. We love him in response.
To his love for us.
So the them are those who love the Lord and are the called According to his purpose, you say, What does that mean? Keep reading. Verse 29 says, For those God foreknew, He also predestined. to be conformed to the likeness of his son. There's the end result.
You say, well, what am I going to be when God's finished with me? You're going to be the likeness of his son. We're going to be like Christ. John said, Beloved, now are we the sons of God? It does not yet appear.
What we shall be. But we know. That when he shall appear, We shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. That's the destiny of every believer.
That's the wonderful thing about the Christian race. It's a tie. Don't sweat Christians who seem to be farther down the road than you, who don't have the issues you have, who don't have the struggles you have, who don't have the idiosyncrasies you have, and ignore the ones who think they're better because of that. Because the truth of the matter is, all of us are having some things worked on.
Some are more conspicuous than others, but all of us are works in progress. And when we see him, we will be like him. And you're not going to beat anybody else to the finish line. We shall all see him face to face. And in fact, it is the work of God that is being done in our lives that makes us the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And then, verse 30 of Romans 8 says this: And those he predestined, that's us. He also called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified.
Now, you know as well as I do, we're not glorified yet, but look at it. He's calling you what you are by concept. I designate that brother, that sister, will be glorified. And it hasn't happened yet in the physical realm. But trust me, it is so.
God calls us what He has. conceived us to be before we ever literally become that. In fact, it is on the basis of those verses that you can really appreciate Romans 8.31. The next verse says, What shall we say to these things? If God Wee!
For us. Who can be against us?
Some of us give entirely too much attention to our critics. And to those who don't like what Uh whatever it is they don't like about us. And some of us are sweating our haters. Listen, you are the work of God. Even your haters work for God.
Because he will use their hatred. to position you, to put you in the place that he's destined you to be. Don't believe me? Ask Joseph. God used his own brothers.
To hate him. Imagine now, the whole family is called of God, all of them called. You gotta understand some of your haters are Christians. Don't consign them to hell because they don't like you. They're Christians, they're believers.
Some of the greatest battles I'm fighting are not from unbelievers. It's from believers. You gotta understand, that doesn't mean they're not in the family. It just means God will take their position, their point of view, their attitude, whatever it is. That is working, that seemingly is working against you.
God said, Don't sweat it. You're called according to my purpose. I got the design, I got the concept. And so he used Joseph's brothers.
Now understand, this is a family living in Canaan. Joseph is fourth generation called. First Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, now Joseph and his brothers. Fourth generation called to be his exclusive people in the earth. And God knows that my plan For this family is ultimately to get the Savior into the world.
And so God is thinking in generations. He's just using them, but he's thinking generations down the road. And God says, Well, I got to get them from Canaan to Egypt. How am I going to get them from Canaan to Egypt? Egypt is run by a Pharaoh who doesn't know God.
And so there's no natural progression for them to go from Canaan to Egypt. And so God says, no problem, I'll use their haters. I'll use his own brothers. When his brothers got through with him, First, they threw him in a pit. We're going to leave him there.
And then God touched one of their hearts, Reuben. He pulled him out. He said, No, we can't shed innocent blood. Let's just tell our daddy that an animal killed him. We see some merchants coming down the road.
Let's just sell them. And they sell him. Guess who they sell him to? Merchants who are on their way to Egypt. All Joseph's haters did was paid for his transportation to the place of destiny.
That's all they did.
Some of your haters, they don't understand it, but they are elevators. Your haters are elevators. What's an elevator do? Take you to the next level?
Next time your haters get to fooling with you, just say floor two, please. They say, What'd you say? Oh, did I say that out loud? I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Florida, would you push that button for me? I'm going up. That's all your haters can do, take you where God has destined you to be. They don't dictate where you go in the will of God.
So he said, What can we say to these things if God be for us? Who can be a gay who? Are you worried about that you have no business worrying about? Oh, it can be hurtful, it's painful, and all of that. Joseph cried a mini-tear, but in all of it, he was in the center of God's hand.
When we are rebuked and disciplined by God. We are in the center of his hand. I've come through a season where God has severely yet appropriately disciplined me for disobedience and sin. But the whole time I've been in God's hands. When you're his kid, you're his kid when you're acting right, and you're his kid when you're acting wrong.
You belong to him and there's nothing anybody can do about it. And you know, you know, when a parent that, well, their discipline has a whole different concept these days. But you know, some of us knew in growing up it included corporal punishment. I know it doesn't anymore. I know it doesn't.
Relax. I'm not saying it does now. I'm just saying in the old days It used to include Corporal punishment. And so, in the old days, they understood: even if I have to get you. You're my child.
In fact, I'm not getting you because I hate you, I'm getting you because you are my child. If you weren't my child, I would ignore you. you I'd let you kill yourself. I'd let you destroy your own life. But I gave birth to you.
Some of y'all can hear your parents saying that kind of stuff right now. They would take they would take a fit and go to telling you I'm the one who gave birth to you. My grandmother was worse than my mother. My grandmother would tell my father, he said, when they were kids, and she would start in on them. She said, I went down to death's door to bring you in this world.
You know, the old saints, they would really paint this horrible picture. I went down to death's door. I didn't know whether I was going to be living or dead when you got. And you think I'm going to let you come in this world and I pay all that price and let you act a fool, and I stand there and watch you, you got another thought coming. He said, then she would go to spanking them and she would talk about anger.
People say it's anger. No, my grandmother spanked my dad and them and would be singing a hymn while she was spanking them. Back in the old days. It used to even include corporal punishment. When you had to be severely disciplined and shown you can't act like this and be my child, I will not accept it.
And some of us knew that in our days. That's why our parents would take us out in public. In our day, they didn't mind taking us out in public. Today, there are a lot of parents who really got to get a sitter if they're going to go down to Macy's. They got to get somebody.
Because they just can't, they don't know what's going to happen with their child. And so they don't take them. And a lot of them say, you know, I can't take my child out. They'll embarrass me in public. A lot of us were taken out because if there was going to be any embarrassing going on.
Our parents were going to embarrass us. If there was going to be any. They were going to embarrass us. And when we were coming along, We would be out in the store or something. And if you saw some kid say, Mom, I want that.
No, no, you can't have that. Didn't come here for that. And come on down. They said, ah! And fall out and say no to everything.
In my day, I'm not talking about today, I'm talking about in my day. If we saw that in my day, And we were kids with our parents where we saw that happen. We just stopped and backed up. You're listening to Destined for Victory, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. Today's message, designed by God, is part of our teaching series, God is a Finisher.
Look for it online at pastorpaul.net. And when you're there, listen to more of Pastor Paul's teaching on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. You know, our mission at Destined for Victory is to share timeless truth for a victorious life and to do it all over the world all year round. But we can't do it without your help.
So, today we're asking you to send a generous donation to Destined for Victory. And when you do, we have a great resource to share with you, introducing our new booklet, Rising Above Offense. This is something every believer should read at least once. You'll discover how to respond the right way when someone offends you or does you harm. And you'll learn all about the beautiful and amazing power of forgiveness and what it unlocks in your life.
Again, that's Rising Above Offense. Request your copy today for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Give that gift by phone by calling 855-339-5500. 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, California, 94538. Don't sweat Christians who seem to be farther down the road than you. Who don't have the issues you have, and ignore the ones who think they're better because of that. Because the truth of the matter is, all of us are having some things worked on.
Some are more conspicuous than others, but all of us are works in progress. That's Monday in our continuing message designed by God. Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
