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, our Destined for Victory message, it's time to pray. For years now, Destined for Victory has been committed to using the media to reach as many people as we can with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I asked Pastor Paul Shepard once to talk about why radio is so important, and we thought you'd like to hear what he had to say.
Well, I want to tell you that it's important to me as a discipler That my voice is heard, and it is used to help people grow in their knowledge of the Lord and in their faith walk with Him. Fact of the matter is, my voice doesn't sound like most of the other folks you hear on Christian radio. I'm well aware of that, and I'm really comfortable with that. I come from my own unique background, both ethnically and in terms of life experience. There are things I share, there are things I say, and there are the ways that I say them that are unique.
I believe that that perspective needs to be heard throughout Christendom. And so, while I'm so grateful for all of my heroes, your heroes are mine. I listen to the same people, the guys who have been on the radio for decades and have proclaimed God's word faithfully. I really do appreciate those guys. But I've learned not to be intimidated by them because I've got my own way of processing and own way of sharing and helping people.
To learn and to grow in their faith.
So it's quite intentional.
Sometimes I like to be really colloquial in what I say and how I say it because I'm just using who I am, and I think God wants to use that. He's the one who called me. I didn't call myself, He called me, and I believe He knows what He was getting when He called me into the ministry. And so I'm just trying to make a difference because the gospel really does change lives, and I believe I have a unique calling to help present the gospel from my own perspective. And I pray that that's resonating with listeners, and I pray that that means enough to them that they'll make sure my voice can continue to be heard right along with our other heroes who teach the gospel of Jesus.
That was Pastor Paul's mission, and it remains our mission today to bring timeless truth for a victorious life on radio, online, and on our free mobile app.
So today we're asking you to send a generous donation to Destined for Victory to carry on the mission of Destined for Victory and to ensure that Pastor Paul's voice continues to be heard. When you do, we've got a great thank you gift to share with you, our new 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 at least once.
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 Destin for Victory. And as summer comes to a close your gifts are very much appreciated, so that we can be sure to close out the rest of the year in a strong financial position. Thank you again for all you've done and for all you're going to do. You can give by phone by calling eight five five three three nine five five zero zero. That's eight five five three three nine fifty five hundred.
Or visit pastorpaul dot net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box seventeen sixty seven, Fremont, California, nine four five three eight. You ever been that a Dix it. You ever been that bound to some Compulsion, some desire, some besetting sin that just seems to have a grip on you and won't let you go for anything. I'm here to tell you that this story Preaches hope to you.
Prayer has the power to change circumstances, but it also has the power to change you. If you're struggling with addiction, If you're holding on to anger or bitterness, If you're overwhelmed by the guilt of past mistakes, there is hope. Like Peter, whose story continues today, you can escape from whatever prison you find yourself in.
So now, from the book of Acts, let's pay close attention to Pastor Paul Shepard's important Destined for Victory message: it's time to pray. Peter was guarded. Around the clock in four shifts. When it says four squads of four soldiers each. You know what that means?
That means. He had four guys, not everybody else, all the other guards in the prison, on Peter alone. There were four guards at all times. Four shifts.
So these guys work six hour shifts. Just guarding Peter. You get it? Twelve to six? He's got one set.
on him. Those four guys are responsible for watching him, keeping an eye on him 24 hours a day. Six hours one set, six hours another set, six hours another set, six hours another set. 24 hour shifts. What does that tell you?
That tells you that Herod. was serious about not letting Peter escaped. By the way, do you know why he was so paranoid about it? Because when you read earlier in the book of Acts, There was one time when they arrested him and an angel got him away. Harrod knew about that incident.
Harris said, not this time. I'm putting them in maximum security. Four guards, six hour shifts. Their job is to watch Peter.
So look at what We have going on here. Look at verse 6. That night, before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two guards. Watch this, bound with two chains. and senturies stood guard at the entrance.
Picture it. Guard on the right. Guard on the left. bound with two chains. between the two soldiers.
Centuries, because remember, there's four on him all the time.
So the other two are at the door. In case somehow he gets past the two in there. and gets out of the two chains. You see this situation? You know why this is here?
Because when you look at the bondages in your life. You're supposed to say I Can believe God for freedom. If this man can get free. From this kind of bondage. I can get free from whatever's binding me.
Two soldiers, two chains. Two centuries at the door. Deliverance in this case is impossible. Apart from a miracle. You ever been bound by anything that had such a grip on you?
That it seemed impossible. You ever been that addicted? You ever been that bound to some compulsion, some desire, some besetting sin that just seems to have a grip on you and won't let you go for anything? I'm here to tell you that this story. Preaches hope to you.
This story is here to say no habit, no addiction, no demonic stronghold, no dysfunction. I don't care how generational it is. I'm under a generational curse. No curse. Can hold you when Jesus has given you a key to set you free.
No sickness, no disease. It's impossible with God. I don't care what the doctor said. The doctor practices medicine. That's practicing.
But Jesus is the great physician. He's not practicing. Nothing can bind you when God has ordained your freedom. And God is able to break you out of anything that's binding you. I want somebody who is dealing either with an open or a secret bondage.
I've come to learn in my own experience and in the experience of many people I talk to, a lot of times Christians take the worst of them underground. Because unfortunately a lot of Christian people aren't able to handle it above ground.
So, you take the worst of you. I've got a secret addiction. I've got a secret issue. I really want to be free. I'm really talking to God about it, but I can't afford to let anybody know here's where I am.
Because unfortunately the people who ought to be the most open are sometimes the most judgmental. People who are saved by grace. Want to judge you by law.
So sometimes it makes you drive The worst of you underground.
Well, Jesus is here to let you know, you are free to call out to me. There's nothing you can say to me that, first of all, that I'm surprised about. Remember now, when you're praying, you're not giving God information. Prayer is not designed so God can say, Really? You don't say.
Looking at you, I'd have never. He knows. Everything you know, he knows everything you don't know. No. He is intimately acquainted with you.
There's a passage that says the very hairs on your head are numbered by the Lord. He knows how much hair you have. Those of us who are losing it, he knows how much you used to have. He knows what your count is down to now. If you bought some, he knows how much you bought.
Come on, somebody. Knows how much you bought. Got your weave count, your wig count. He's intimate. Acquainted with us.
We're not giving him information when we pray. We're praying to express the desire of our heart. We're praying to unload what we cannot handle. And when you are addicted, when you are bound, when you are caught up in something and have been snared by something, when there's a demonic stronghold, when there's a sickness or disease, whatever it is, you can call on God because He loves you and He says, Cast all of your cares upon me. And we've got to be a body where not only can we call on God in secret, but we can call on God with one another.
You know why? Because the Bible says there is power in agreement. Matthew 18, there's a verse that says: if any two of you would agree. As touching anything on earth, it shall be done for us of our Father in heaven. That means we got to learn to walk in agreement.
You got to learn to get in sync with other brothers and sisters who can believe God with you for what you're believing Him for. Because there's power in agreement. And so Peter is bound. Just like some of God's people today. He's bound.
He is in a situation where, unless God does it, it won't get done.
Now sometimes when we think of that That creates panic in the heart and in the mind of some folks who say, This is impossible. Listen, you are a child of God. Which means you're a child of the one Who doesn't have the word impossible in his dictionary? When you look at God's dictionary, there are various words, but impossible is not one of them. When you tell God something's impossible, he said, what in the world are you talking about?
Impossible. Do you know who I am? I'm the one who stepped out into nothing and said, let there be and there was. There is nothing impossible. With the Lord.
Peter's bound. Tightly bound because Herod was afraid. of what would happen If he just put him in minimum security, so now he has him in maximum security. He is not only in maximum security, he is literally tied, bound by chains. Guarded by two guards on the inside, two guards on the outside, then the general guard in the general population of the prison.
Which means if God doesn't do it, it's not going to get done. Look at what happens. Suddenly, verse 7, suddenly. You know, there's some suddenlies coming into your life. There's some that's why you just want to pray.
The saints are praying. Saints are over at John Mark's mother's house praying. Calling on God. Been doing it for days. Days they've been praying.
Listen, I'm not into this. You know, I have some folk who say, just pray one time and then just exercise faith and just believe it and claim it. You can if you're so inspired. If that's your level of faith, I won't fight you at all. But don't fight people who believe in persistent prayer.
Don't tell me I'm praying all the time because I must not have faith. If you had faith, you'd have prayed about it once and then it'd been over. You know what? One of the ways you gotta pray for me is. Pray for me that I have grace with people I want to tell to shut up.
We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message, so don't go away. You can listen to this broadcast on demand at pastorpaul.net. And while you're there, stop by our online store for some great Christian content. There are digital video sermons, books, DVD messages, all of which feature the teaching and preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. That's at pastorpaul.net.
If you pray persistently and you're still not getting answers, it's not always because you lack faith.
Sometimes, God is testing you to see just how faithful you're willing to be.
Now let's get you to the second half of today's message. It's time to pray. When you run into them kind of Christians who just want to give you that quick little formula for everything. Oh, this is all I do. I just pray one time and I just release my faith.
I just believe in it. I'm never thinking about it again because I know God has it, and He's going to deal with it. Same thing with people. If you're trying to lose weight, you get to people. I don't know what the problem is.
You just push away from the table and you just learn. Shut up! All right, I'll make it spiritual. In Jesus' name, shut up. You don't know what somebody's going through.
You can't give. them your little pets. Formula. If it works for you, work it. Don't put that on everybody else, especially when you have scriptural precedent to the contrary.
Don't tell me the people all throughout scripture didn't have faith. Don't tell me Jesus was giving me a formula to pray consistently and persistently because I didn't have faith. Not at all. Luke 18 is there to say, you pray until you get the answer.
So, if you have divine inspiration and you know you can pray once and you got the answer, then of course you don't have to pray again. There have been things I prayed about it once, I got an assurance from the Holy Spirit, it's done. You don't even have to ask anymore. You get that assurance, you go on and pray about something else, because that one is done. But if you don't have that You can call on him until you get your answer.
Biblically, you can do that.
So don't let some little super spiritual somebody Give you their formula. And so the saints have been praying for days. Remember, he's bound for days because Herod is waiting for the Passover to be over. The feast lasted seven days after the Passover was actually performed. And suddenly You don't know when your suddenly is coming.
So that's why you just want to pray. But you can know. In your life, there's some suddenlies coming. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared. A light shone in the cell.
I love this. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. Peter's asleep. Laying their sleep, chained up sleep. Head up against the wall.
Yeah. Angel hits him. Wake up! Get up. Chains fell off.
Peter's wrist. Watch how supernatural this is. The angel Hit Peter. But the power of God In the angel. When it touched peace.
Later. The power surged through his body. Hit his wrists and knock the chains off. Then the angel said to him. On your clothes and sandals.
And Peter did so. Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. The angel told him Question. What's up with the two guys? Say, well, they they probably sleep.
Could be he could have put him in a trance. We don't know what happened. Whatever it was, they were immobilized, either if by their sleep or whatever. They're immobilized. Put on your clothes and sandals.
Anytime the prisoner gets a chance to get up. And dress. Wrap your cloak around you, follow me. Peter followed him out of the prison. Not just the cell.
Out the prison. Meaning the two other guys. Outside. Who are supposed to be actively on duty. Are immobilized or whatever.
Sleep, whatever it is, God used it. But it wasn't luck. Peter just lucky. No, no, if you're gonna be a child of God, get lucky out of your vocabulary. Because when you are the child of the king, you don't need luck.
You have authority. They go out of the prison. Peter had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. Peter was so asleep, he thinks he's still sleep.
They pass, watch this: the first and second guards. Came to the iron gate. leading to the city. It opened to them for them by itself. This is God from start to finish.
The gate to the city flung open. Like an electric, you know, you go to some stores and what have you, you walk in front of that beam, and the door opens up. The gate to the city opened of its own accord. They went through it. When they had walked, and the angel walked them another block.
I'll go with you down the street to the next corner. Walk winning one more block. Then suddenly the angel Say I gotta go. See ya. Boom.
Now, I know some of you 21st century. Highly educated. Terribly rational people.
So, you know, I have difficulty. Believing in angelic beings and demons and things. You can have all the difficulty you want. Help yourself. Knock yourself out.
But we who are people of faith We know that the word of God says angels. are ministering spirits. That do the bidding of our Heavenly Father. And he assigns them at times to take care of situations for us. This is just one example.
Do you know that angels have not died? Because they live in the presence of God. When you live in the presence of God, when you get out of this body, you're going to live forever.
So state dangers are already in. You got angels that got two, three, five, seven thousand years' experience whenever, however long they've been assigned to people. You got an angel up there talking about, yeah, I got 7,000 years in. I remember that time and they all telling stories. You ever remember that?
I was the one went down there when Abraham needed it. I I I hooked Abraham up. I don't care which one he sends me. I just need some angelic help every now and then. Every now and then, I need somebody from another world.
to come get me over a situation in this world. And angels are ministering spirits. They come to do God's bidding. Angel walked him another block, then he said, I got to go back. Catch you later.
Bam. Left him. I love verse 11. Then Peter came to himself. All this happening.
Now he come to himself. He said, now I know. Without a doubt. That the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches. and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.
Listen. If you pray. God will move. Sure, you got mysteries? I got mysteries.
All the faith giants I know got mysteries, even if they don't talk about them. Sure, there are some prayers that don't get answered the way I want. But I am authorized to keep asking. Keep believing. Keep standing on his word.
Keep calling on his name. I got authority. I got a key. Sure, I've had keys that were stuck. I've had kids that you gotta jiggle.
What in the world? What's the problem? You don't throw all your keys away 'cause you got a bum key or you're not sure what's going on with a particular lock. I prayed for healing for my mother, and she died. What should I do?
Barrier! Come on now, let's get this straight. And celebrate the fact that she died in Christ. She's now in the presence of the Lord. But when it comes to the next sick person, don't say, Well, he didn't heal mama, I'm not going to bother.
No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna pray in faith believing. Use your key. Make sure that if the answer doesn't come as you desire it, it's not because you didn't pray. It's not because you weren't persistent.
It's not because you didn't believe. Thanks so much for being here today for Pastor Paul Shepherd's message: It's Time to Pray. 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. Don't settle for bondage.
This is the time to lay claim to it, and you got to claim it before you experience it. You gotta say it. I'm going to be free. In Christ, I am free, and I'm going to experience that freedom. And the here and the now.
Eternal life in the hereafter, freedom in the here and now. Make sure you're with us tomorrow in our Destined for Victory message, It's Time to Pray. But until then remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
