We love efficiency, but God loves effectiveness. And in order to make you effective, sometimes he is going to make you go through stuff that for a long time you don't understand. And out. Afterwards it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Hollywood doesn't always get it right, but in this case the silver screen struck gold.
Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destin for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. Today, you'll be taking a ride in the Wayback Machine all the way back to 1984 and to a movie that teaches us what can happen when we handle the trials of life the way God wants us to. Remember to pay us a visit at pastorpaul.net, where you can hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net.
Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: becoming an excellent steward of our trials. God is intentional. about not making it easy on you. We're not crazy about that, especially these modern generations. They're not crazy, they want things to go easy and convenient.
God is not about your convenience. I just need you to know that. He is not the God of technology. He gave us the wisdom for technology, but God operates by the law of the harvest. The law of the harvest is: you reap if you sow, you reap what you sow, you reap after you sow, and then if you've done that successfully, you reap more than you sow.
That's the law of the harvest. God is into that.
So he's not in a hurry. He's not about efficiency. We love efficiency, but God loves effectiveness. And in order to make you effective, sometimes he is going to make you go through stuff that for a long time you don't understand. And out of Afterwards, it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
I'm right in the book. That's what Hebrews tells us. God will deal with you and He'll send you through some tough things. And Hebrews says, and when He did it, He's treating you as sons. See, the ancient idea was dads made their sons.
men who could take up the family enterprise. And all of that.
Now, sisters, don't feel counted out. It's just giving us the old pattern of things where the son was had the responsibility for taking the family business into the next generation. But now, all of us are sons of God in that sense. And so, sisters, I want you to know: for this purpose, you're a son. And God's gonna make you go through some hard things like old-fashioned fathers made old-fashioned sons go through hard things.
And frankly, it's not just when you think about it, it's not just the old-fashioned father-son motif, it is also the master-apprentice motif. In Bible days, when you wanted to master a particular thing, you found a master and you became his or her apprentice. I want to learn what you can teach me. I want to learn how you do what you do so that I can master what you now master. With that in mind, I decided the best way to help you get this, what we're being taught in verse 3, is to take you to the movies.
Two movies in particular. One came out in 1984.
Some of y'all young folk weren't even born. 1984, I sat up in the theater and watched it.
So did many of my old school friends. And then the second version of it came out in 2010.
Some of y'all sense where I'm going already. And the tiger who sensed it, tell the folks what the title of the movie is. The karate kid. The karate kid. In 1984, Daniel and his mother.
Move to California from New Jersey. And help me, thank you, sis. They moved to California, Southern California, where they were going to start a new life. Daniel had a passion for martial arts, but hadn't had the chance to begin learning it in New Jersey. But now he's in California.
That passion is still there in him. And so he gets to California and quickly finds out that he has some bullies. In his school and neighborhood, they don't like him, and these are people who know karate. Because they go to a school and they have a master who isn't ethical. He only knows how to perform karate, but he doesn't know the philosophy behind it.
He doesn't know that in ancient times it was for defensive purposes. And so he just uses it and teaches people to use it just to be big and bad. And all of that.
So the boys who were in that start messing with him, and eventually he has a real conflict with them because, at first, you know, he tries to give them back a little bit of what they hand out. But when you're dealing with a bully who knows his stuff, then they really came down on him. And one day, in particular, they beat him up pretty good right outside of his apartment complex. But that's when Mr. Miyagi shows up.
Mr. Miyagi worked there at the complex. He helped around there and all that.
So he saw what happened. And he fixed the boys' bike and he patched him up. And when they really attacked him big time, he jumped in and took care of the boys. And so Daniel looked up. He was hurting so bad he could hardly do anything.
We looked up and saw that Miyake was the one who had come to his rescue. And so as a result of that, they develop a little relationship. And then Daniel wants him to teach him karate. At first, Miyagi said, No, no, no. Why do you want to learn that?
Oh, I want to, you know, I want to give no, no, no. And he begins to teach him the philosophy and the mindset. Of it. But eventually He realizes, yeah, it would be a good idea. To teach Daniel not only The moves of karate.
But the methodology and the mindset. of karate. And so he tells him at a certain point.
Okay? I promise Teach karate. That's my part. You promise, learn. I say You do.
No question. That's your part. And then he said, deal? And Daniel said, Alright.
Now he's just committed to what Miyagi said. He said, I'm going to teach you. But You've gotta do. Everything I say No question. I showed up to tell you This ain't no shout message.
Because some of you all want what God has for you. But you haven't put yourself in a position To say, Lord. I want the best of what you have from me.
So, I'm going to listen to everything you say. And I'm gonna do it without question. But the Holy Ghost is saying to you, deal. And it's up to you to say, all right, Lord. I'll do it.
See, some of y'all still wanna learn karate on your terms.
Some of y'all want to be mature on your terms. You can't grow up and you can't master anything God wants you to master until you do it on His terms. He is not going to give you all of the blessings he has for you, and you've done none of the growing.
Now let me make it clear. You don't mature just 'cause you're getting old. Old is old. Mature is a process. Everybody gets old.
All you gotta do to get old is not die. You older today than you were yesterday. You're older today than you were last year. You're getting older, and some of us aren't getting any more mature. In fact, some of us are going in the wrong direction because the older we get, the more comfortable with our immaturity we get.
Oh, yes, no, this is coming for you. This is absolutely coming for you. The word is coming for you. Don't get mad at me. I'm the mailman.
You're reading out the same Bible I'm reading out of. Don't come for me unless I call for you. This is just the way the word of God is speaking to our hearts. If you want what God has, God says, I'm not interested in blessing a bunch of immature folks. I'm going to bring you to maturity.
Cause that brings me glory, God says. And so he says, I say, you do. No question. Don't go away, we have more of today's Destined for Victory message coming up next. But we want to take a moment 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.
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 at our website, Pastor Paul.net, or give us a call at 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Have you ever felt like God was putting you through something that made no sense? Stay with us now for yet another reminder that with God, there's always a perfect purpose for everything He does.
Now, here's the rest of today's message: becoming an excellent steward of our trials.
So the first assignment Was wash all the cars. And y'all remember that yard full of old cars that that Miyagi had. Wash all the cars, wash them all. Then Wax them all. Daniel began to protest.
Like some of us. You're going through half a difficult trial. and you're already protesting. And God should tell you, you haven't seen anything yet. I got a whole lot more.
We're just starting.
So he had to wash all those cars, wax all those cars. And when he started protesting, Miyagi said, remember deal. And he had to learn to shut up. Which is where some of y'all are now. You got a whole lot to say.
to God, to people. And God is saying, shut up. Because the deal is, I'm going to teach you what you need to know. I'm going to give you what I want you to have. And your promise is to do what I say, no question.
And with the waxing, he couldn't just wax. He had the wax on right hand. Wax off left hand. Breathe in through nose. Out through mouth.
And he showed him how to do it. Wax on. Wax off. Breathe through nose. Out through mouth.
Not just one car. All the cars. When he got through with that, Next day. All right? Saying the floor.
Y'all remember out there in the garden, he had all this walkways and Sand the floor, the whole floor. And Daniel looked and the floor went here and there and around. Sand the whole floor. All right. He sands at, finishes at night.
All day processes. Night, I'm gonna give you two good hours, God. Then I got stuff I need to do. He worked him all night. Up to the night.
He finished that night. And then Miyagi said, Come back 6 a.m. Start early. Came back the next day. with an attitude Miyake said, Paint the fence.
The whole fence. And he looked up, and all where those walkways were. were fences. Wooden fences Daniel Grudgingly did the face of all those fences, And when he got back to Miyagi, he said, All right, I finished. Miyaki said both sides.
And Daniel just dropped his head. And said not yet. I had to go back out there. And do the other side. That's where some of y'all are.
You've done some of what God said. And you want that to count. And God said, That's not all I said. And after he finished the Second, the backside of the fence. Miyagi Said Come back in the morning.
Start early. Same thing he had told him before. In the morning, Miyagi wasn't there. But there was a note And paint. The note said Paint the house.
Daniel, look He had to be thinking This man To teach me karate. And he got himself a slave. I want you to know, by the way, when your New Testament says you're a servant of God, it actually says you're a slave of God. Just thought I'd let you know. Not a servant who can kind of come and go as you want.
You're a slave of God. When Miyagi returned. From fishing. You've been painting the house. He been fishing.
He come back. I'm trying to remember, did he even have any fish with him when he got back? I don't remember that. That detail. But he had been out fishing.
When he comes back. Daniel is angry. Complains that for four days he's been treated like a slave. And he's ready to quit. That's it, man.
I'm tired of this. Then Miyagi said. Corrects him. Stands him in front of him. And begins to show him.
What this was about. Miyagi said, Show me. Sand the floor. And he did that. And then he said Show me wax on, wax off.
And he did those moves. Show me. Paint defense. Because Miyagi had told him how to do the strokes. Don't just slap it on.
And he showed me paint the fence. Then he said, show me paint the house. Then He began to show Daniel that everything he had been doing was setting him up. To learn. to master Karate.
And he began firing At him. Attacking him. And Daniel was blocking him. With what he learned. How many of y'all Are mad at what God has let you go through.
Feeling like he's been unfair to you. When all he's really doing is testing you To see if you are ready. For what's ahead of you. I'll never forget the years my father put me through. the paces in ministry.
Because I remember feeling this way like This dude I joined his staff as an assistant pastor to assist him. But he is acting like, okay, you got it. You got certain things. There's certain things you shouldn't do. Stay away from this.
But you do all these. And he had that man worked me. And I'm telling you, and I was a newlywed too. When I became his full-time assistant pastor, it was 1982, the year we got married. I became the assistant pastor of my dad's church in March of 82.
I got married May 1st of 82. I'm a newlywed and this dude is putting me through the paces. I'm working 12-hour days routinely. I mean, just one thing after another, and after another, after another. And he just, he didn't fish, but I don't know what he was doing.
He was doing something. But it wasn't in that office. Um I remember the times when I would get mad. One time I said, Pop, we got to talk. And I went to the house where he was 'cause he wasn't at the office.
Went up on the third floor. We sat and talked and I just I said, Pop, I'm I'm angry. I will never disrespect you, but I'm angry if I sound. Disrespectful, forgive me ahead of time. I don't intend disrespect.
He said, I understand. I understand you're emotional, he said, gone. and say what you have to say. And so I respectfully lit into him. I did.
And I told him. What I I had been doing, and how he hadn't backed me on some things, and how he was making certain things harder, and how he was criticizing me publicly about any little thing I didn't quite do right. He was just really, I mean, there was a period of time when part of the church announcements was what I did wrong that week. That's the way it felt anyway. I'm dead wasn't literally, but that's the way it felt.
He might as well have said, so this was my dumb Sunday of this week. And I'm a I'm A married man. Yeah. And so there were a few things that he realized, yeah, I probably should have done that differently. And he apologized for those.
Most of it, he just looked at me. Cause, like, some of that stuff he wasn't apologizing for, he did it on purpose. And so I got it out. You say, you good? All right, going back to work.
When y'all see me on worldwide. Radio and podcasts, and all this stuff now, and my ministry, God's used me to reach thousands for the kingdom and all of that stuff. When you see that, that didn't come from nothing, that didn't come from chilling out, that came from sand the floor. Paint the fence, wax on, wax off. Do what I told you to do.
So, y'all who got a big attitude with God. Go ahead and tell him what you think. Like Daniel did. But don't expect him to apologize to you. Cause Miyagi knew what he was doing.
And God knows what He's doing in your life. You know, if God was small enough for us to understand, He wouldn't be big enough to worship.
So the next time you're wondering why He's putting you through a test of your faith, consider it all joy, because in Christ you're destined for victory. Shortly before Pastor Paul went home to be with the Lord earlier this year, he was teaching a group of messages about stewardship, a series we're airing now on Destined for Victory. But right in the middle of it, he took a one-week detour and inserted a special message that was weighing heavily on his heart. The message is called Sometimes You Have to Encourage Yourself. It's filled with practical advice, and as he always did, he delivered that message with his signature humor and down-to-earth style.
Now, this message has never aired before on Destined for Victory. It's not available anywhere else, but right here, right now. And this month, in appreciation of your most generous gift to Destined for Victory, we'll send you this exclusive message as either a DVD or a streaming link. Again, it's called Sometimes You Have to Encourage Yourself. And it's one of the last messages Pastor Paul ever preached, and it's only available right here for your most generous donation.
You know Destined for Victory could not exist without the faithful prayers and financial support of listening friends and partners like you. You've always been the lifeblood of this media ministry since its inception, and it's because of you that we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people all over the world. You can give right now by phone, by calling 855-339-5500. That's eight five five three three nine fifty five hundred 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.
A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her. and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm.
all the days of her life. When Pastor Paul Shepard read that verse from Proverbs 31, he wasn't talking about excellent wives in general, he was speaking of someone very special to him. Join us next time to find out who it was and our message. worth far more than rubies. Until then remember.
He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
