Digging Deep Before Rising High

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 gonna start digging. Think of your life as a construction project.

You have a concept. you acquire property, and that's when the real work can begin. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destin for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.

Well, in spiritual terms, God had a concept for your life long before you were born, and He bought you with a price, which means you're His property. Today, you'll learn about the first step in the actual building process. As you follow along, remember: as it is in construction, so it is in your spiritual journey. If you want to go up, you have to start by going down. Today's message is straight ahead.

Remember to come see us at pastorpaul.net to listen to your recent message on demand, including the one you're about to hear. That's pastorpaul.net.

Now let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: digging deep before rising high. The first chapter of Paul's letter to the church at Philippi. And we're looking at verses 3 through 6. Paul says this, 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. Here's verse 6: Being confident of this, That he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. Until the day. Of Christ Jesus. And we've been exploring this passage and looking at the wonderful truth that it is God Himself who has started a good work in our lives.

And He promises through the Apostle Paul. Paul said, I'm absolutely assured, I'm thoroughly convinced that the God who began the good work is going to take it all the way to completion. And so we've been looking at our lives as construction projects that God is up to something. We looked in the first installment of the series at the fact that the concept, every construction project begins with a concept. It doesn't begin with anything you can see.

It begins with a concept in the mind of the designer, the architect, the creator. And when it comes to your life and mind, the good work began in the heart and mind of God. The Bible says, before the foundation of the world, Jesus was the lamb slain for our sins. God knew. He wanted to save us before we ever got here and knew we needed to be saved.

It is so wonderful to know that God loved you so much that He had a plan to redeem you before you ever knew you needed to be redeemed. And He began the good work in us, and so He is the architect of the concept. That's why everything works together for good because we love Him and are called according to His purpose. You can do a lot of things that seemingly will spell disaster in your life, but truth be told, if you're called of God, God is going to take everything and make it turn around and glorify Himself. And so, God is up to something in your life.

Then, in the last installment of the series, we looked at the acquisition of property. If you're going to have a major construction project, once you have a concept, you have to have somewhere to execute it. And so, a designer of a physical building, a skyscraper, let's say, a company wants to build a skyscraper, they've got to acquire the land. In order to do it.

Well, in spiritual terms, the Bible says that we have been acquired of God. We looked at the scriptures that tell us we belong to him. We are actually God's property. He saved us and he redeemed us and has called us his own. He owns the deed to your life and mine.

We belong to the Lord. We are his.

So much so that Paul said in the first verse of Philippians 1, he called himself a slave of Jesus Christ.

Now, that is not to conjure images of oppression because when it comes to us belonging to God, he did not save us to oppress us. Thank God he saved us to set us free. Set us free to do his will. Set us free to live the way he has called us to live. But Paul said, from my vantage point, I am so surrendered to God, I am his slave because I belong to him.

Now, as we continue to explore this concept of our lives as a construction project, we come now to a third important step in a major construction project. Not only do you have to have the concept and the acquisition of property, but now I want to talk to you about the fact that there must be demolition and excavation. I knew you would groan on that. You gotta tear some things up. If you're going to have a major construction project, because 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 and you're going to start breaking up ground and you're going to start dealing with debris and you're going to start moving things out of the way so that you have a nice, clear, excavated land where you can lay a foundation. And guess what, my friend? God is doing the same thing in your life and in mine. When we are called according to his purpose, when we come to him for salvation and he saves us by his grace, how many know there's some things that God says have to change in your life?

He is up to a brand new project. He said, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. Old things have passed away and all things have become new.

So there's some stuff we got to deal with. And it begins with demolition.

Now, I don't know if you've already noticed it. But if you haven't, just as you begin to understand this concept, you'll see that it's happening in different areas of your life. Because the construction project that is our lives doesn't go up in one phase. God is phasing in all sorts of dimensions of His will and His plan for our lives. That's why you and I have to keep growing every day, every week, every month, every year.

It doesn't matter how long you've been saved, you'll never get to the place on this earth where you can say, I'm a completed construction project. Guess what? We're all going to be completed at the same time. John said, It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we'll be like him. We shall see him as he is.

In the meantime, there are going to be phases and dimensions of what God is doing in our lives.

Now, what is God's goal? Why is excavation and demolition necessary? It's because He plans to make us a testimony to the world of His goodness and grace. He wants, God wants people to look at your life and mine who have known us. And to see such change in different areas of our lives, that they say, you know what?

That had to be God. Cause I know her. I know him. And if they have become that way. That had to be God.

That's what God wants. I'll prove it to you from the scripture. Look at 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 10. 1 Peter 2, beginning with verse 4. Peter says, As you come to him, the living stone, talking about Jesus.

rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious to him. You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says, See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. That's God's plan for your life and mind.

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. What does that mean? That simply means Jesus is who God said he is, whether you believe it or not. Said, there are those of us who believe, and he's a precious stone to us.

But just because you don't believe doesn't make him not Lord.

So that's why the Bible says one day everyone will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus. And verse 8 goes on to say: a stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall, they stumble because they disbelieve the message, which is also what they were destined for. But you, look at verse 9, but you are a chosen people. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. What is the point?

Look at the next phrase. That you may declare the praises of Him. who called you out of darkness. Into his wonderful light. Why is God doing everything he's doing in your life and mine?

It is so that you will declare the praises of him, so that our lives are a testimony. Of the goodness and the grace and the power of God. That's what God is up to. God wants to declare his glory through your life and mine. Declare is a very interesting word.

The word translated declare here in NIV, if you have King James, you'll see that you might show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness. Declare or show forth comes from the Greek word exangelo. It means to tell out, to proclaim abroad. To publish completely. In other words, God isn't doing anything inconspicuous in our lives.

He wants to do such work that everybody who knows us marvels. that God is up to something. 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 financial support, gifts that help us keep this media ministry going.

And if you'd like to join us in our mission to take the gospel to all corners of the globe, please consider making a safe and secure donation over on our website, pastorpaul.net, or give us a call at 855-339-5500. 855-339-5500. God didn't save you to put on a fresh coat of paint and clean the windows. He saved you to do a total renovation.

Now let's get you back to the rest of Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, digging deep before rising high. You and I are to be living epistles. You know why? Because your relatives, some of them, aren't going to read the Bible. You do know that.

Some of your coworkers aren't going to read the Bible.

Some of your neighbors aren't going to read the Bible.

So God says that's all right. I will make you a living testimony of the same truth that's in the Bible.

So, if they won't read the Bible, they will read your life. They will look at you. They will say there's something different. She didn't used to have that kind of patience. He didn't used to have that kind of love.

I remember a time he'd have clocked somebody, and now he just says, God bless you. I remember the time when they were living in all kinds of degradation and sin and had all kinds of besetting sins in their life, and now they've straightened their life out, and that area of their life is clean and pure by the power of God. That's what God wants to do in all of us. to declare His glory through our lives. He wants to show us off.

We are to be exhibits. of his grace. See, God can afford to show off. He's the only one in the universe who can show off and it's appropriate. When we show off, we're tripping.

Yeah. Cause we're not all that. Where's some of that? And what little we are, that's by God's grace. You know it's true.

But God is all that. And so when God wants to show off, He is perfectly capable and He has all rights to do it. And He wants to take your life and mine and make them exhibits of His transforming grace and power. That's what God is up to. And since that's his goal, it's no wonder.

That the construction project that is our lives necessitates demolition and excavation. That's why you can expect major shake-up when you walk with God. See, when you come to Christ and you don't really want Him, you just want a religious feeling, that's not true salvation. And we have a lot of people in this generation who don't truly know the Lord. They just go to church.

And they just want to add a little churchy dimension. to their life. If you want to add a little religion to your life, Don't come to Christ. Because he didn't come to establish religion and to make you a little bit different than you are. He bought you.

So that he could transform you. He bought us so that he could make us people whose lives renown to the glory and honor of God.

So now that you're saved, don't be surprised that God puts the fence up around your life and begins in different phases to work on different areas, totally changing things. And it's going to begin with demolition. I don't know if you've seen it yet, but you will notice that God will bring great big wrecking balls and begin to destroy things in your life. And you know what? God doesn't ask permission.

He doesn't have to ask anybody's permission. He just brings the crane in with the great big wrecking ball. And if you've ever experienced it, he'll just begin tearing things up in different areas of your life. And you begin to experience it and say, what in the world is happening? Look like my life is falling apart.

That's accurate. It is coming apart because God says some things have to change here. And he will bring major change, major shake-up in your life. He will begin to bring destruction, things you used to have a little bit of peace and could kind of tolerate. All of a sudden, you see that God will not allow you to carry on business as usual.

And they began to tear things up. You know, when a demolition is going to take place, they tell you today that it's going to be knocked down, and you better be out of there by then. They're not asking you, they're not taking your temperature and seeing how you feel. They're coming in and they're going to tear it up. They're going to blow it up.

They're going to do whatever it takes in order to clear what is so that the process of excavation and hauling away can begin. And I want to tell somebody: don't be surprised that you're in a season in some areas of your life where you're experiencing demolition, where you're experiencing implosions, where your life is caving in, where things are coming to a crisis point.

Sometimes, the best thing that can happen in the life of a child of God is God will implode that life. God will begin to make things collapse so that we get down to the essence of the truth that God bought us to transform us.

So demolition takes place in the life of believers. God shakes things up. And brother and sister, when God shakes it up, That's a serious shaking. There's no minor tremors with God. There's no little minor, you know, I think that was an earthquake.

You ever had that? We live here in the Bay Area and every now and then you say, Wait a minute, what what was that? A little tremor, maybe, and you look on the news later on and you see it was a 2.3 or something like that. A little just, I thought I felt something. Trust me, God's not sending a 2.3 into your life and mine.

I've never experienced a 2.3 from God. But I have experienced 9.7s. Anybody, anybody but me, ever had God? I mean, when He gets through. Is because he's serious about the work he began in us, and it's going to create a major shake-up.

Demolition is going to take place.

Now, not only is demolition going to take place. But then There's gotta be excavation. What is that? That means that after you've knocked down what was there, see, when the Lord saves us, He takes us just as we are. The only way you can get saved is just as you are.

Please understand, getting saved has nothing to do with becoming religious. If you could become the person that pleased God in yourself, Jesus would have stayed in heaven.

So, don't be surprised when you come to Jesus jacked up, that's the only way you can come. And guess what? Don't feel embarrassed because all of us came jacked up. The only way you get saved is you come just like you are. All of your issues, all your besetting sins, all of the strongholds in your life, all the stuff that's wrong, all the dysfunction, and you bring it to God.

So, demolition is going to be part of that process where He begins to knock down some of those things that were in your life. And after Demolition, there's a whole lot of stuff on the ground.

So, what do they do when they're going to build a major skyscraper? What do they do after they've torn down the building that existed on that land? Then you begin to see these giant machines. Bulldozers, earth movers, they have these huge blades and they come and they scoop things up and they put them into dump trucks. And you see, sometimes when they're going to build a major skyscraper, I've seen trucks with two dumps attached to them lined up down the street, waiting to be filled with debris.

So that they can haul it away. I want to tell you something. God is in the business of not only demolishing things in our lives, but He's in the business of having us haul away some debris, some junk, some stuff out of our lives. In the Bible, you'll see an example of it when you see God talking about idols being removed from among his people. In the Old Testament, it was often in the form of idolatry or idol worship.

And God would say, although you're living among these idolatrous people, you shall not have any idols in your life. And if his people, which they often did, got into idol worship at different seasons in the Old Testament, you would see the word of the Lord come and he would say, I want you to remove all of the idols from in the midst of you. Let me tell you something. You and I don't live in the same type of idolatry, but I want to let you know: idolatry is in a lot of our lives. Why do I say that?

Because here's the definition for an idol. Any practice. passion, priority, or partnership That we submit to, that we give ourselves to. Even though it's contrary to God's will, is an idol. Let me say that again.

Any? Practice. Any passion, any priority, any partnership that we submit to or give ourselves to, even though it's contrary to God's will, that's an idol. They make it plainer. If you're doing stuff.

Whatever it is, and you know It's not the will of God. But you're doing it anyway. Anybody but me ever been there? Thank you for a few honest folk. And those that didn't raise their hands, let's pray very hard for them.

Anything you're practicing, anything that's characterized your life. Oh, you might have explanations and rationalizations, and you just got to understand the unique circumstance that I find myself in. No, God says I don't have to understand that. Because I'm God. I bought you.

And I want it out. Any practice? The Lord doesn't merely want to freshen you up a bit. He has come to do a deep cleansing from the inside out. It can be painful at first, but the rewards of His salvation are more than worth the sacrifice.

Thanks for spending part of your day here with us on Destined for Victory. This message, Digging Deep Before Rising High, is a part of Pastor Paul Shepard's teaching series, God is a Finisher. Look for it online at pastorpaul.net. You know, Destined for Victory could not exist without the faithful prayers and financial support of listening friends and partners like you. You are the lifeblood of this media ministry, and it's because of you that we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people all over the world.

And because the busy summer months are always a tough time financially for the ministry, we're asking you to prayerfully consider sending a generous gift to Destined for Victory today. When you do, we have a great new resource to share with you: it's a booklet, Rising Above Offense.

Now, this is something every believer should read. 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.

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 to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. I want to tell you something.

God is in the business of not only demolishing things in our lives, but He's in the business of having us haul away some debris, some junk, some stuff out of our lives. That's tomorrow in our continuing Destined for Victory message: digging deep before rising high. Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.