God will not put up with us doing it our way. He will not tolerate that because he is the master builder. He has acquired us as his property, and you're going to do it God's way, or you're going to bring all kinds of trouble into your life. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.
So glorify God in your body. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, it may feel like it's your life to live, your body and mind to do with as you see fit, but we are stewards, not owners. And the sooner we begin living that way in total submission to God and His will, the sooner our lives will be better than we ever thought possible. Today's message is straight ahead. Remember to come see us at pastorpaul.net to listen to Destined for Victory on Demand. That's pastorpaul.net.
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Now, here's today's Destined for Victory message, God's property. When you're employed, or when you're a contractor, or even in Bible days, if you are a bondservant. You still had ownership. There was an agreement and an understanding. But that wasn't ownership.
Paul said, I'm a slave. We have to develop the slave mentality, not that our God is oppressive, he is not. But from our vantage point, if you want to really enjoy your walk with God and see the construction project of your life go on time. Everything just as God would have it, you got to get out of God's way. We gotta have the slave mentality that I don't have any options.
Now, see, many of my foreparents came to this country not by way of Ellis Island. Many of my foreparents and some of yours came under. The ship. Came as chattel. And when they got here, they were made to understand their wills were broken until they understood, you are not your own.
You can be bought and sold. Your family can be separated from you, and there's nothing you can do about it. The reason why some of us have all kinds of last names is because we were just called whatever they chose to call us. And when you were a slave in this culture or in any culture, it was true. You couldn't just wake up in the morning and tell the other slave, look, tell Master I'm a little tired today.
So I'll be out there a little later. I need to catch up on some sleep. How many know a slave had no right? to do any such thing.
Well, you got to understand in the kingdom of God, it's not that God treats us as though we're nothing. He says, I love you. I paid a wonderful price for you. I have a great plan for you. I'm going to make your life exactly as I've designed it to be.
But if you want that to go smoothly, you have got to learn to be what Paul and Timothy called themselves the slave of Jesus Christ. That means I get out of God's way. That means I come to the kingdom of God realizing it's not Burger King. Burger King used to have a slogan, you can have it your way. Y'all remember that back in the, way back in the day?
Decades ago, I'm talking to the older folk. Young folk never heard the commercial I'm talking about. They used to have this little song: hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders, donuts. Thank you, thank you. There's my help.
Hold the pickles, hold the letters. Special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us. Look at these Burger King folks. You see what I'm saying?
Now, that was Burger King's way of saying. You can get the whopper with no onions or pickles. We're cool with that. Just come on in and order it. That's great for Burger King.
But for the construction project that is your life and mine We cannot say to the master builder. Listen. Hold the the surrender. Don't tell me how to live my life. Give me some nice spiritual features.
But leave me alone. That is as preposterous as a slave saying to a master, I'm not working today. See, we got to develop the mindset. We got to let the word renew our minds.
So that we come into conformity to the will of God. What did Paul say in Romans 12:1? I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God. Which is your King James said reasonable service? And IV said spiritual act of worship.
Then what does he say? He says, and don't be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And we've got to learn to let God renew our minds because we belong. To him.
We don't call the shots. When you get saved, you surrender all. That's what God has called us to do.
Now, many of us are years into our salvation journey, and we're just now learning. God will not put up with us doing it our way. He will not tolerate that because he is the master builder. He has acquired us as his property. And you're going to do it God's way, or you're going to bring all kinds of trouble into your life.
All kinds of trouble in our lives. He wants to do it.
So. He owns us. Our time is not our time. It's his time. Just like a slave.
Slaves don't say, you know, I'm knocking off at 10. I'll pick it up tomorrow. No. The slave knocks off when the master says. Our time is not our time.
God tells us how to manage our time. He tells us how to spend some of it worshiping him. And he tells us sometimes that worship needs to be corporate. The Bible says things like: don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Do it all the more as you see the day of the Lord.
Approaching. What does that mean? That going to church is not optional for able-bodied believers? You go to church because God said, go to church, meet me in corporate worship on a regular basis.
So I don't say, well, you know, I go to church when I feel inspired. No, no, that's not the slave mentality. We go because the master says, meet me in corporate worship. There are some blessings I have for you that are only realized in corporate worship. Yes, we worship him every day, hopefully, privately.
And your time of prayer, and what have you, all of us ought to worship God every day. But corporately, we do it regularly. That's why we have weekly services. And you show up every week. You don't say, well, you know, I don't feel like it today.
No, no, no, no. You don't do that. Even in your contracted service, in your employment, you don't just arbitrarily say, I don't feel like it today. You do enough, I don't feel like it's. And they'll say, Well, we don't feel like you continuing to work here.
How about that? But again, we're serving God. We're serving the king of kings and the lord of lords. And it is our privilege to show up. And worship him.
But it's not an optional thing. If we build the disciplines of doing it because it's the will of God into our lives, we'll experience maximum joy.
So you do it. We were taught, some of us were Sunday school children, we were taught, you go to church on the Lord's Day. Never in my life heard my mother ask us, Do you feel like going to church today, honey? I never heard that question all growing up. What I heard on Sunday morning is y'all got 45 minutes.
Everything in the house. But the dog was going to church. I'm glad they put us in it so that later on, when I knew the Lord for myself. I already had the mindset. That this day doesn't belong to me.
And you know, back in old days, they used to literally call the Lord's Day. His day and there were things they wouldn't let you do that you could do Monday through Saturday. I never did figure out up with that. If it's not sin on Monday, Why can't I do it? And the saints meant no harm.
They were just trying to say. Set aside a day. Where there's certain things you don't focus on, instead, you stay focused on the Lord. They meant well.
Now we've come into greater light, and we understand that we don't have to get into bondage over it. But it is good to have the mentality, this is the Lord's day, and I show up to worship Him. My money, same thing. I was taught to tithe, not as a matter of the law. Tithing is not a law principle.
It was provided for in the law, but tithing predates the law. You go back to Genesis and you see Jacob saying, Lord, I'm going to give you a tithe of everything you do. in the way of providing for me. It was a way of saying for godly people throughout redemptive history, it was a way of them saying, Lord, I know that what I have is really not mine, because if I'm a slave, then what I have. belongs to my master also.
And so you teach yourself how to tithe. It's not legalism. People say, well, do you have to tithe?
Well, that's the wrong question. I don't have to tithe, I get to tithe. I get to say to God, I'll give a tenth of everything you give me first to acknowledge your lordship. And then I also realized that the other 90% is also yours, so I've got to please you. As I allocate that for the necessary bills and what have you, and I make sure that God is pleased with the way I spend it.
But I get the top 10% off the top. Goes to God as an act of worship. And never juxtapose that against grace giving.
Some people say, well, I don't tithe, I grace give. And what they end up meaning is I give what I want kind of based on how I feel or how I'm led.
Well, I know that you could be very sincere in that, but why put yourself through all that where you gotta get a divinely inspired number every time you want to give something? When you have a time-honored biblical principle that predates the law, comes past the law, that says, here's the way to begin acknowledging God's lordship over everything. Give Him a dime out of every dollar. As an act of worship to say, Lord, thank you. Don't go away, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring Pastor Paul Shepard, is coming right up.
Yeah. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's why Destined for Victory is here to teach timeless truth for a victorious life by pointing people to Jesus Christ. But we can't do it without your help, and that help is especially important during these busy summer months when donations tend to decline.
To connect with what God is doing through Destined for Victory and to make a generous gift today, please visit pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500. When you tithe, you're not giving God 10% of what's yours, you're keeping 90% of what's His. To learn more on the principle of submitting to God in all things, let's pay close attention to the second half of today's Destined for Victory message: God's Property.
Now, see, I was taught that as a little Sunday school boy, with a literally, we had a dollar allowance back in those days, and our parents didn't give it to us in a paper because they knew we'd go to the candy store. And come back with a bag for a dollar's worth of candy. And back in my day, you could OD on a dollar.
Some of y'all remember that? You could seriously OD, you show up at the candy store with a dollar. And all that five cents stuff in there. Seriously, O D. And so they gave us three quarters, two dimes, and a nickel.
And our parents taught us now when you go to Sunday school, put that dime in because that belongs to the Lord. And I'd look at the dime, wow, that's God's dime. But they were teaching us the principle.
So later on, when we got saved, it wasn't difficult.
Now, for some of y'all coming late to the kingdom, this is going to be a transition. You're going to have to get on the altar and surrender. Because you're not in the mindset. And you figure, because now you're not talking about a dime.
Now you're saying I got a $10,000 check. And they want me to take a thousand dollar down there? See? It hits you differently. I just got $100,000 after I sold that house.
I got $100,000. And they want me to give $10,000? See, it hits you differently. But if you believe the hundred thousand you got The little windfall you got is the Lord's because you're the Lord's. And you say, God, I want to honor you first because I need you to stretch this 90,000.
I need you to do some wonderful things with this 90,000.
So I'm not going to withhold. Worshiping you first, that's the mentality you have. In dealing with people, we're slaves of God. You know why God won't let you hate people? Because we represent him.
He says when you have conflict, when you have disagreements, when you have trouble, we're going through a season of very uneasy transition. But God's not going to give any of us the option of hating anybody. despising people and I don't talk to them no more and I don't You're not your own. God said, if somebody's acting like your enemy, whether they're a literal enemy or just acting, because sometimes your friends will do a good enemy imitation. You ever been there in your life?
Where you got friends who say, boy, you sure could have fooled me. And sometimes you go through seasons in your life.
Sometimes you go through seasons where your family acts like your enemies.
Okay, not you, but somebody on your role. Guess what? Whether it's family, whether it's people on the job, people in the community. People in the church. God says you love them because I love them.
You treat them right because that's my will. In fact, God will say, I'm not gonna bother you for what they're doing to you, I'm looking at you for how you respond to it.
So we don't have options to just. Burger King, our Christian experience. We have to do it God's way. Not only do it his way, but do it with an attitude that pleases him. Because, do you know it's possible to sometimes do the right thing with the wrong attitude?
Oh, I'm glad some of y'all got a witness to that. Because sometimes, well, we who are parents, you know first from your own experience. When you had parents. And there were things they tell you to do and you didn't want to do it and you huffed and puffed. And back in our day, they didn't even play the huff and puff.
Children got it made now. Y'all got it so made.
Some of y'all can do whatever with whatever attitude you want.
Some of us grew up where the huff and puff was gonna get called. My mother had a way when she'd be fussing, upset with us. She'd just walk through the house, just fuzzing about it. Y'all, children just make me sick. I don't understand sometimes.
What's the matter with y'all?
Sometimes I wonder if you're really mine. I just don't know. Just walking through the house. And I remember one day that she was doing one of those things, and I just didn't feel like hearing it. And I reached over and shut my door to my room.
Listen to all the flashbacks. Listen to all that. I shut my door, and I didn't mean to slam it. But it just got away from me. It got away from me and it slammed.
I heard her stop in the middle of a word. She was somewhere in the house talking to y'all, doesn't make me cheer. Bam's here, Doc. Then I heard footsteps coming toward my room. And I was already in Lord, have mercy mode.
Lord, look on my life. Why? Because they didn't want attitude. I'll never forget. A few years ago, my wife and I were babysitting two of the children of one of our associate pastors at the time.
He and his wife had to go out some special event. And so we said, bring the kids over our house. We love them and love hanging out with them. And so we had them and Meredith pulled out some of the toys and what have you that we had from when ours were younger and what have you. And so she and the kids were just having a wonderful time at our house.
House. Wonderful time. And toward the time where we knew their parents would be home, Meredith said, All right, now your mother and father will be here in a few minutes.
So let's gather up the toys and put them up.
So that when they're here, you're just ready to go. And the girl was a boy and the girl. The girl was enjoying herself so well, she said, I don't want to stop. This is fun. She kept on playing.
So we said, We know it's fun, and we're glad you came over, but your parents will be here. And so we reminded her of the situation. But she said, No, I'm having fun. I don't want to stop.
So finally, we had to drop our voices down in the bass range. You know, put some of that little heaviness in the voice. I know that doesn't happen now. I'm talking about the way we're old-fashioned. Don't worry, I won't traumatize your kids or anything like that.
But uh so we just had to let them know This is no longer a dialogue. I told you a couple of times what needs to happen now. You were a little slow getting it.
So we just change the tone to let them know this is no longer a dialogue. We are not asking you to consider the possibility. of exploring the feasibility of putting up your toys. Get those toys put up and in that closet. And we'll pull them out the next time you come over.
She finally got the message. But when she got the message, her attitude.
Well, still, I'm enjoying myself, and I hate that y'all are making me stop.
So she started putting them up. But at one point we heard her say, Well, I'm putting them up, but I'm putting them up rough. We had to just about go in the other room to keep from letting her see us laugh. It was hysterical. She wanted to say, okay, I'm forced to obey.
But I'm going to show you. By my very by the way I'm putting them up God wants our obedience out of a heart that says, yes, Lord. Your will I joyfully obey because. When you do what God has called you to do. You set yourself up to be blessed.
That's what we got to understand. The enemy deceives us. Whenever we get into disobedience, listen, I've been there. I know. When you get into disobedience, the enemy deceives you.
That's why Jesus said in one place in the scriptures: if you try to find your life, you'll lose it. See, if you think you know better than God, You'll see sooner or later. Our plans are never better than God's. It is when we get into Obedience from a heart of true surrender. That we experience God's best.
for our lives. I want to let you know, God is a finisher. He's going to finish what He started in your life. But in order to do it, we must realize we've been acquired by Him, He owns us. And he has put a fence up around our lives.
He owns us. He is beginning a construction. That's why not everybody can come into your life. A fence is up around the construction project.
Some folk can't come in. They don't even have a hard hat. Can't come into the construction zone. They got to stay out. But God is up to something.
Now when I continue this message Next time. I talk about the fact that not only is there The acquisition of the property, but then when the process really gets underway, you'll notice that with a construction project, it doesn't start up. It starts down. And next time we have to talk about excavation. When God starts digging stuff.
When you come in with earth movers. or in our case, flesh movers. And getting our fleshly desires. Out of God's way. It's painful and it's hard as it breaks into hard ground.
Thanks so much for spending part of your day here with us on Destined for Victory. Today's message, God's Property, is part of our teaching series, God is a Finisher. Look for it online at pastorpaul.net. While you're there, be sure to check out our online store for some great resources, including books and DVD messages from Pastor Paul Shepard. It's found at pastorpaul.net.
Speaking of great resources, we've got a brand new one to share with you today, introducing our latest booklet, Rising Above Offense. We've all been wounded from time to time, even by the people who love us most. But what does God say about how to handle these situations? You'll find out in Rising Above Offense, something I believe everyone should read. If you want to discover the right way to respond when someone offends you, if you want to learn all about the beautiful and amazing power of forgiveness, request your copy of Rising Above Offense when you make your generous gift to Destined for Victory.
You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-500, or visit Pastor Paul dot 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, nine four five three eight. Here, destined for victory. We believe in the power of prayer, and today we would like to pray for you.
Please use the contact feature at the top of our homepage, pastorpaul.net, and share your request with us. That's pastorpaul.net. Whatever was there at the point of the acquisition of the property is going to have to be dismantled, and to tell you the truth, demolished. In order for the new work to begin. And after you demolish what exists, you've then got to excavate.
That simply means you're going to start digging.
Now that's tomorrow in our message, digging deep before rising high. But until then, remember: he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
