Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. Coming up next, we move ahead in our teaching series, God is a Finisher. But first, there's an important message we'd like to share with you. Even though we say this all the time here on Destined for Victory, we can't say it often enough. Friends and partners like you are the lifeblood of this media ministry.
Your prayers and gifts help us reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But as you may know, summertime is always difficult for ministries like ours. And I asked Pastor Paul Shepard once if summer was always a tough time financially for Destined for Victory. And here's what he had to say: Yes, it is. And it's simply because people love us and they want to support us.
But sometimes we're so glad to be through the winter and the spring, and we're now in the summer and we're ready to take some vacation time and do some things that we've longed to do for months. We get to do it, whether it's travel or whatever, but I just want to encourage and remind our listeners that if we're going to keep on preaching the word throughout the year, then the support is absolutely necessary. Because I have found out that the bills don't take vacations, they keep coming every single month. And so we have to be ready to meet them with the finances necessary. And again, it's not about the money, it's what the money does.
Your giving allows us to keep on declaring truth that people need to hear. Day in and day out, month in and month out, so at every season, even in the summer, we get to keep preaching timeless truths if we have the financial support. I want to thank all of our partners, all of our donors, everyone who makes sure to meet the financial needs so that lives are changed, souls are saved, and people come to know who Jesus is and how important knowing him is in their lives. That's what it's all about: helping change lives by introducing people to the amazing grace and love of Jesus Christ. We can only do that with your help.
When you make a generous gift today, we have a gift of our own to share with you as our way of saying thanks. Introducing our brand new booklet, Rising Above Offense. Think about some of the familiar names in Scripture: Joseph, the Apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ. These and many others were mistreated and wounded, and not always by their enemies. Friends and family were sometimes involved.
Rising Above Offense was written to offer you some guidance about how to handle these situations. 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 855-339-5500 or by visiting pastorPaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And you can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.
Uh Unpacked. Baggage. Only leaves us in bondage. You cannot. Adequately live life the way God has called you to live it.
without dealing with your stuff. Because our stuff, we take it everywhere we go. And all you do is just cover it up.
Now, how foolish would it be? I'm carrying, I got all these pieces of luggage, and I spend my time trying to make sure people don't see it. It's futile, it's foolish! Imagine you're on vacation and you want to dress for dinner. You cannot change unless you unpack your bags.
It works the same way in our spiritual lives. Hidden baggage creates bondage, keeping us right where we are or making things worse. On today's Destined for Victory, featuring Pastor Paul Shepard, you'll be encouraged to confess your baggage to God and to others so that true healing can take place.
Now, here's today's Destined for Victory message: unpacking our personal baggage. Pretending your sins are in a different category, all unrighteousness is sin. We love acting like there are sin misdemeanors and sin felonies. When you go to your Bible, it'll tell you all unrighteousness is sin. If it's wrong, it's wrong.
You don't have to do one of the top ten horrible sins to be wrong. When I say something that's not true, I've sinned. In fact, the Bible said in Revelation 22, there's a verse that says, All liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. It's not talking about people who did some of the top ten most horrible things.
Well, you know, that's for axe murderers, no? If I say what's not true, if I take what's not mine, and sins are not only actions, sins are attitudes. Malice is sin. Backbiting is sin. Smiling in somebody's face, and when they walk away saying hateful things, sin.
Not an issue. Sin. Malice, sin, unforgiveness, sin.
So the world tends to deny sin. You can't get saved from what doesn't exist. In your mind. You will never say, Lord, I need you as my Savior if you don't believe you need to be saved.
So the world denies sin. In fact, America is a really strange place. This country was founded. On scriptural principles. The reason we are on this continent is because people wanted to get away.
from religion that forced them To be state-oriented in Europe, and they said, We want the freedom to serve God. Without the dictates of human stuff being imposed on us, we want the freedom, and so they built a country on the foundation of the word of God.
Now We want to enjoy the freedoms. But we want to deny the principles that they were built on.
So now you got folks trying to take the Ten Commandments off the walls of courtrooms. And then they want to go in there and demand justice. On what basis? Who said some things are just and some things are unjust if not God Himself? If you take God away, then who's to decide what's right and wrong?
So, you want judges to sit up and tell you something's right, something's wrong, and not have a standard by which to judge. Because we want to deny God. If we deny God, we don't have to worry about what he calls sin.
So they're trying to deny God. You got folk trying to say, we're no longer one nation under God, indivisible. They just want to be one nation indivisible. Good luck.
So, some people deny sin. You can't get help if you deny anything.
Some of you have heard me tell this story over the years, but others haven't heard it. Plus, I want to hear it again. One of the young people in the church I grew up in, her name was Gail. Bunch of us were out somewhere in Philly one night and Gail was deathly afraid of dogs. A dog was loose, saw us, began barking and running toward us.
Gail Froze. Just petrified. And she closed her eyes and she screamed. And we saw the dog was not a real threat. And so we just shoot him away and what have you.
But Gail stood there frozen. Finally, we said, the dog's gone. Come on, Gail. And she opened her eyes and came on with us. And somebody asked her, Now, if you are afraid of the dog, Why would you stand still And close your eyes.
She said, so the dog wouldn't see me. That's denial. That's denial. Some of us close our eyes.
So we don't see our sins and our sins don't see us. Denial is no way to deal with your stuff. But in the church, we tend to not deny because we believe the word of God. We believe that God is the one who decides what is right and wrong. We believe that God has a standard for our lives.
And so we have owned all of that. But as we begin to look at our stuff, many times it produces so much shame in us. That it's uncomfortable, and so the tendency is to cover. our sins. But covering our sins will never produce the freedom that Isaiah 61 talked about.
Undealt with baggage, unpacked baggage. Only leaves us in bondage. You cannot Adequately live life the way God has called you to live it. without dealing with your stuff. Because our stuff, we take it everywhere we go.
And all you do is just cover it up.
Now, how foolish would it be? I got all these pieces of luggage, and I spend my time trying to make sure people don't see it. It's futile, it's foolish. In life, you can do some pretty good covering at times, but there are other times you simply don't have that luxury. And your stuff gets exposed.
And it comes out. And so we got to learn that covering is not God's way. I mentioned this scripture last week. Let me give it to you again. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs, chapter 28, verse 13 of Proverbs: He who covers his sins will not prosper.
Please understand that, saints of God. He who covers his sins will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them We'll have mercy. In the New Testament, James said in verse chapter 5, verse 16: confess your sins to each other. Notice not just the God.
But to other people who are on the same journey. And pray for each other. Don't just talk to God about your stuff so that you may be healed. What does that imply? That there's certain healing that cannot take place in our lives.
Until we unpack this stuff in the presence of people, God has called alongside us to help us. Secret sins live in our lives. With things that most people know nothing about, but they're there. Things that produce shame, things that produce guilt. Things that produce fear that others will find out.
And a lot of us are afraid that people will find out who we really are because we say if they find out who I really am, they might not like me. They might not accept me.
Well, let's look at that. If they don't know who you are, what is it they like? They like who they think you are. Guess what? You're not liked on a legitimate basis.
If they like a lie.
So we have to learn. It's futile. To cover, and yet we do it. Many of us marry, hoping this person will never discover me. How futile is that?
Because if you're gonna live with somebody Day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out. Good luck.
Trying to get them to not see who you are. Life has a way of pulling off the covers, doesn't it? Life has a way of exposing. What is really there? And we've got to get used to being who we are and bringing who we are to God so that we can be in the process of becoming what He wants.
You who are single, don't marry the package. Oh, married a package? I've often illustrated it with a jack-in-the-box. The box looks good. You remember a jack-in-the-box when we were kids?
The box looks real good. They would have things on it that drew the kids' attention. It looks nice. Had that little crank on the side. But Jack was not the box.
Jack is who's hiding in the box. But as soon as you crack to do to do to do to do to do Did it then pop? That's Jack. You marry Jack or Jackie? You don't marry the box.
You marry who's in the box.
So when you're dating, you have to be discerning and prayerful and careful. Don't just date to impress. That's perpetrating a fraud. Get used to, before you look for a significant other to commit your life to the rest of your life, get used to taking who you really are before God and before other people so that the stuff is being dealt with. Don't date somebody's representative.
Most of us, that's what we do. We just get used to putting our persona out there.
So, people don't meet you, they meet your representative. They meet your customer service representative. And you know, there's a difference between that act and the real person. There are some people who are good at customer service. Watch them by themselves.
See how nasty and inconsiderate. And vulgar they are. But when they get to work, hello, how may I help you? Their friends come to the job sometime and say, Oh, no, you ain't acting like this. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message, so don't go away.
Remember, you can always listen to the broadcast on demand at pastorpaul.net. And while you're there, be on the lookout for some of the best Christian resources on the market, including books and DVDs that feature the teaching and preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. That's pastorpaul.net. Are you a prisoner to your own past, your own pain, your own sin? Jesus has come to set you free.
So let's get you to the second half of today's Destined for Victory message: unpacking our personal baggage. Until we get used to unpacking our bags in God's presence and with trusted people, we don't experience change. Jesus came to produce change. We saw that in Isaiah 61: real change. What happens is, until you unpack your bags, there is no hope for change.
The only thing you can do is rearrange. You rearrange what you want people to see at a particular time. That's not change. God has called us to be people. Who led him into those dark areas?
That's why Jesus came.
So in our bags, there are some actions that displease God. Secrets that we hope nobody will find out about, attitudes. That displeased God. Darkness in our hearts, motives that are ungodly in our hearts. You can have murder in your heart, and you've never even picked up a weapon.
Because murder is really not about the act, murder is about the murderer's heart. There are a whole lot of folk who aren't in jail who are murderers. They're murderers in their hearts. Jesus talked about that in the Sermon on the Mount. He talked about the fact that in our hearts can be murder.
He said, You've heard it said, Thou shalt not murder, but I say to you, If you have hatred in your heart. You've got the same problem. Ugliness that resides there, shameful things that reside there. In some of our lives, it is. We're dealing with baggage.
Shame that has to do with something that only occurred once. But it was major. It was life-defining. The shame is there. There are people who years ago they committed their most heinous act, whatever that might be.
something that deeply bothers them even now. I've ministered to people who are struggling, crying, wrestling now with something that happened 20 years ago. But you know what? Sin doesn't have a statute of limitations. You can't outlive shame.
You can't outlive guilt. See, in our laws, we have certain statutes of limitations. There are certain kinds of offenses which after a certain point you can't be punished for. There are certain kinds of suits that people can't bring against you after a certain time limit. That does not apply to sin.
Sin is there. And so some of us are wrestling with things that are years old, living in shame and guilt in our hearts.
Something that happened a long time ago. It's still there.
Some heinous crime, some cruel act.
Some secret, some lie, something that is still there, and you hope to God. That it will go away from your heart or your mind, but it won't. You've got to unpack it. Before the Lord. There are other people whose sins, because they are covered, they are also binding.
There are some sins that you can't shake to save your life because you refuse to expose them. And what happens is when you Are bound by secrets. You lock yourself in with your secrets.
So you want help and you cry out to God for help. But the word says, don't just talk to God about it. Find people who are on the same journey. And let them, because to tell you the truth, the only way to get out of that house of your life where you've locked yourself in with your secrets is somebody from the outside has got to unlock the door. That's confession.
That's what it's meant to be. And they'll say, come on. Let's walk this out. Let's deal with it. And I want to let you know that the Lord has a plan to set us free.
Some sins are recurring because they're hid. As soon as you expose it, The power of God will be available. to deliver you. What is binding you is the secret nature of it. And so you lock yourself in.
Secret sins can be in the past, secret sins can be in the present. Secret sins are often the rationalized ones. The lies, the gossip, the unkind words, looking down on others, you can have a sinful attitude. Conceit is sin. Where you think you are better than other people.
That's sin.
Some of your anger can be sin. See, all of us get angry. But not all anger is created equal. When anger is Proper, it is aimed at the right thing, the right person, seeking resolution. And you are angry appropriately.
The Bible says in Ephesians 4: be angry, but don't sin. Don't let the sun go down. While you're still angry, Give no place to the devil. What's it talking about? There is appropriate sin.
You're upset with a family member, a friend, a co-worker, or whatever it is, about a particular issue. You bring up that issue respectfully. But sincerely, honestly, here's what I'm upset about. Here's what I don't appreciate. Here's what needs to be dealt with.
And you bring it up. You bring it up at the right time to the right person for the right reasons. But when anger is sinful, You bring it up to anybody? Anytime. For any old reason.
And the Bible says that's sin. And so you can be sinfully angry. Envy is sin, jealousy is sin. Lack of compassion. You know, people who have no compassion, they don't care about anybody.
But themselves. They'd see you hurting, oh well. Shouldn't have done it. You see somebody out, genuine need standing on the corner. Can you help me?
You need a job.
So There's all kinds of stuff that we carry around. And this is just one set. Of baggage. The fact is, I got more luggage at the house. Not all of our luggage matches.
This is a nice Q set. It all looks. Organize. You can't organize your whole life. You bring up some stuff that looks weird, has nothing to do with this set.
Different colors, different shapes. different sizes, and we lug all that stuff around. not only a cent in our bags, unresolved issues. stemming from abuse. Abuse can leave stuff with you that you carry around for years and years.
People mistreated you. People deserted you. People molested you. People didn't treat you the way you should have been treated. That's life in a sinful world.
Don't ask life to be fair. It's not. Life's not fair.
So you come to the planet and stuff happens to you that shouldn't have happened. And it makes you carry things around. Family challenges, family dysfunction. Your brothers and sisters were liked more than you. And you carry that stuff around.
Here, y'all are grown. Can't even go to a family reunion without fighting. And you'd be surprised what grown folks are really upset about. That's not about what happened. At the barbecue.
It's about something that happened when you was nine. I remember what you had on. That stuff is still there. And it doesn't go away over time, it doesn't dissipate. But it has to be dealt with.
God says, I want you to get used to bringing. All of your stuff to me. The debris has to be taken to the appropriate place. What is excavated has to be taken to the appropriate place. In our lives, we bring it to God and we bring it to trusted brothers and sisters.
Who we're not trying to impress with our persona. We're trying to walk with them so that both we and they. can experience what Isaiah 61 talked about. Let me close by reading that again. I want you to begin to envision your life.
experiencing that. And next time, I'll begin to talk about what that looks like to experience this. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord, Jesus said, and Isaiah first spoke the words, is on me. Jesus was full of the Spirit. Because the Lord anointed him to to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me To bind up the broken heart. You have a broken heart today? Jesus said, I'm here to bind it up. It doesn't matter who broke it. He can bind it up.
He said, I'm here to proclaim freedom for the captives. Are you bound in some area of your life? He said, I'm here to set you free. I'm here to release prisoners. You're imprisoned.
By actions, attitudes, motives, misbehaviors, guilt, shame, you're in prison. He said, I've come, I got the key. I'm here to let you out. Thanks so much for being here today for Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, unpacking our personal baggage. To find out more about how you can help our media ministry continue to grow, or for more information about the special gift we've reserved for you when you give generously today, visit pastorpaul.net.
That's pastorpaul.net. We are looking at our lives as a construction project, a divine construction project, because Paul said, God said he began a good work in us and he will bring it to completion.
So we are God's construction project. That's tomorrow in our Destined for Victory message: Resolving Conflict God's Way. Until then though remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
