All lost. Everybody in the world, which is why you have no business looking down on people, because everybody needs the same grace of God. And but for the grace of God, there goes you. In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty.
In all things, charity. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, that saying is believed to have originated with a Lutheran theologian in the 1600s. At its core, it suggests that while Christians should agree on fundamental doctrine, We should allow for diversity and individual conscience in less central areas of faith and practice. And most of all, we should love one another the way God loves us. I hope today's serves as a great reminder that we're all sinners and all in desperate need of God's grace and mercy. Remember to come visit us at pastorpaul.net, where you can hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's.
That's pastorpaul.net.
So let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: the call to unity. You gotta find How to walk in unity with people, you have. Differences with. I talked a little bit about that in part one, so I'm giving you now some solutions. The first solution is accept others as equals.
In other words, the first thing you have to do is stop feeling superior. What makes some people so out of sync with God is they act like you gotta be wrong 'cause I'm right. And that's not what Paul said. He said, sometimes a thing is disputable. It's not like it's cut and dry.
Some things are essential beliefs. Who Jesus is, I consider essential. For me to walk with God and please Him, I need to acknowledge that He so loved me that He sent His Son, and His Son so loved me that He gave His life, that I might be redeemed. That's an essential for me. Don't ask me to unify with someone who wants to deny God.
Nothing that you curse God, you curse the church, you curse Christ Himself.
Now, sometimes you feel like cursing the church.
Now, let's just be honest.
Sometimes churches are different people and not in a good way. But you gotta love God even if you don't always understand his people. It is essential to know who Jesus is. It is essential to accept his finished work on the cross. But there are so many things we divide about because we want to be right, and if I'm right, then everybody who doesn't see it my way is wrong.
And we got to stop that. Accept others as equals. You know why you accept them as equals? Because we're all in the same family and we all got there the same way. Do you know how you got into the family of God?
Not because of how you were brought up, not because of the particular church you went to. You are in the family of God, if in fact you are, because one day the Lord touched your life, showed you his grace, and you embraced it. That's how you got in. You're not special enough to be in by yourself. None of us are saved by our own merits.
If it is left up to you and I, we're all lost. You know what? We're all lost. Everybody in the world, which is why you had no business looking down on people, even out here. Who are very different, life all jacked up, lifestyle is crazy, all of that.
You have no business looking down on people. Because everybody needs the same grace of God. And but for the grace of God, there go you, whatever the evil is out there. When you see a mass murderer, but For the grace of God, there goes you. See, some of y'all from Never, Never Land, even in my sins, I never.
Did certain things I don't understand. Even in my wildest experiences in life, I always had a sense of morality, and I always had a good for you. Congratulations. Even when you were lost, you weren't buck wild. Good for you.
Now what did that marry to? You were still lost. You were still lost. You just didn't wile out like somebody on your row. Look down your road.
There was somebody on your road, they were wilding out for real. They were just straight up. Buck Wild. I know y'all don't want to admit it because you saved, sanctified, filled, the mighty, burning holy. I know that, but y'all know good and well, some of y'all will, but wow.
Some of y'all, your family and friends from school, when they hear you in church, you like, you what? You gotta go. The church But now she's sitting up here looking sanctimonious. Yeah, but for the grace of God, that was you. In other words, all All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And the wages of sin is death. Doesn't matter whether you are a quote-unquote good sinner. What is that? You need salvation. Because we were born in sin, shape and iniquity.
I've told you all that he is. We're sinners by nature, then by nurture. You come wrong, and then when you grow up, you learn how to sin, and you pick the brands of sin you like the best. And you get good at 'em. Look at your little center kids.
Yeah. I know you hate to think, my child, he's talking about my child. Yes, I'm talking about your child. I'm sure your child has some great qualities, and you need to nurture those and make them feel wonderful. But come on, let's just be real.
Till your child gets to know Jesus, your child is straight up a sinner. They just haven't learned how to sin real well yet.
So when they two and they know they weren't supposed to eat the cookie and you said, No, no, the cookies are that I'm not giving them now and and they decided they wanted you had to go to the store. I'm gonna get this and a big brother was somewhere in another part of the house and not monitoring and you went to the store and you were told that the youngest, you can't have a cookie until after dinner. But the youngest wanted a cookie. What the youngest do? You gone.
Ain't no supervisor in here. Get the cookie. Eat the cookie. Hear your car pulling up. Oh Lord.
And they gotta get it together. But they're a sinner, they're young, and they're inexperienced in sin, and they don't know how to do it right. And then you walk in and you see the lid's not the way you left it. And you see Crumbs on the face. Did you eat that cookie?
Uh uh Told you. Sinner. Crumbs right there. I didn't even know we had cookies. We all get in.
By the same way, the blood of Christ, the love of God that sent his son, he gave his life so you and I could be saved. Everybody who is saved is saved because of that.
So what Do you have that makes you think you can reject People God's love has accepted. If God's love accepted me, how dare you try to reject me? And if you reject me, that's a reflection on you. That's not a reflection on me. Accept others as equals.
Paul said, some folks' faith is weak, but they're still in the family. There are some people who don't know what you know. They don't know all of your doctrine. They haven't been to classes or whatever, so they don't know. And they live in, some folks save and still don't have their lifestyle act together.
How dare you try to not accept them? They're saved even if they're ignorant, even if they're unlearned, they're still saved. Because if you get in the body you get in by the new birth Of accepting Christ as your Savior. My family learned that you've heard this story for years, but I got to tell it again for the new people, and because I want to hear it again. My family learned this when I was a teenager.
We lived at 180 East Walnut Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19144. And My mother called an emergency family meeting. Set us down at the table, the dining room table. It was a nice table, a chair on one end and the other, and then the broader side, two chairs on each side. She had four children.
Horace Jr., Patricia. Paul Gwen That was it. And so two of us sat on one side, two on the other. My mother sat at this end, my dad sat at that end. My mother, who had called the family emergency family meeting, Came and took her chair.
She looked Down Deject it. A little confused. My dad looked proud. She lifted her head and said, Well, we thought it was time to tell you all. that in several months you're going to have a new brother or sister.
I was fourteen years old sitting. There. A Gwen was the youngest. She was ten. Then we had our two older siblings, a couple of years older than me.
One two years older than me, one three years older than me. I was 14. I looked at these people. I don't know what my other. I never asked my other siblings what they thought.
I thought, what's the matter with you people? Have we taught you nothing? You gotta be kidding, a baby? As old. as y'all are.
I was 14. My mother Was about to turn that June, this was somewhere in the first half of the year, that June she was going to turn 40. My Dad was About to turn later in the year, but before the birth, 46. She was going to be 40 when this kid came. He was going to be 46.
She was dejected. He was proud. He was like, that's right, Jack. Mess with me. I'll show you something, boy.
I know I preach, but I do more than preach. That was my dad. He was proud as he could be. I was just I was like Really? We got such a wonderful family.
We can all fit in this car. It's good, it works. What's the matter? Why are you doing this? Here's my point.
It wasn't a voting meeting. They didn't call us around so we could all decide. Would you all like to have another sibling? You get it? No voting.
This was an information-only meeting. We're telling you what will happen. pin. In months.
Somebody's coming. Sure enough. In October. Kenny showed up. We happened to like him as we got to know him.
We happen to accept him. As an equal. Here was the point. Whether we accepted him or not. He was in the family.
And some of you all can imagine And as a of an infant of a 40-year-old mother? If there was gonna be any favoritism. Come on, somebody. We, the first four, were going to get the short stick. Please 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 us 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 at our website, pastorpaul.net. Or give us a call at 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500.
Well, right before his ascension, Jesus prayed for unity in the body of Christ. He took oneness among his followers very seriously, as should we.
Now, here's the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. The call to unity. When my dad died in 2008, All three of his sons spoke at the funeral. The two sisters didn't want to say anything. They were there, but we, the two of us were pastors, and we co-eulogized my dad, my brother, and Uncle Horace.
We were his co-eulogists. Kenny wasn't preaching yet, but he had remarks. And when Kenny got up, he said, I just want to make it clear to everyone, large funeral. I am the favorite shepherd child. I wanted so much.
When I got up to do my part of the eulogy to dispute that. But there was no evidence. He knew what he was talking about. Because he grew up Like I said, when he's born, I was just less than two months from turning 15. I I practically helped raise him.
But He didn't have to go through what we went through, the first four. He never knows what it is to have that thing on the refrigerator held up by a magnet with chores that you got to do. I never saw his name up there. He had a different upbringing altogether. I would look at him and say, If I had thought To do some of this stuff.
May the Lord have mercy. On my soul. It was just a different error. You got to understand in the body of Christ. We don't all see things alike.
We don't all worship alike.
Some folk like a certain style of worship, some folk like another style, and all that. And I'll cover as I get to these other points, I'll lay out many of the differences that we tend to divide over. There are some essentials. There are some things that you got to believe if you're going to walk in true fellowship according to the Word of God. But where something is not clear-cut essential, you've got to give grace and space.
And so we'll learn how to do that. But the first thing is, people have just got to learn that at the cross, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We're all in the same standing. There's no big I's and little you's in the kingdom of God. We're all the same with Christ.
And therefore, we have to learn to accept one another. Years ago, it's no longer in print. I probably need to revise it and put it back out. I wrote a book when I saw what he did through me at Abundant Life in the Thousands. He fulfilled the promise that He had given me years before that I'm going to make you a soul winner and a discipler because that's been your heart ever since you entered ministry.
And it was. And we were winning souls every Sunday and for years. And we were discipling people, and God was moving, and all this diversity, and especially when they came from different backgrounds, they'd all want it the way they wanted it. And so folks said, Why isn't you know, we're black, so we want black music. And the white folks say, Well, we need some inspirational music.
And so we had to have a gospel choir and an inspirational choir. 'Cause you can't monopolize.
Sometimes the special before the message was one of my members who had a folk guitar, and he would sit on a stool and sing, and some folk would get blessed as Toby sang and played. And some they would get blessed and other folks sitting there like, mm. I know I ain't come to church for this. Yes, you did. come to church.
After a while, I started telling the church: when you come to this church, guaranteed there are gonna be Sundays you are very happy. There are gonna be other Sundays you leave saying, mm. Because that Sunday, what happened blessed somebody else. And you had to tolerate it. That's the way we did it.
I had to teach people how to handle black folk who get, quote unquote, happy in church. Come on, some of y'all know what I'm talking about. I grew up, and there were saints we would go home as kids and say, ooh, Sister Bradley got happy today. And what that meant is Sister Bradley was screaming and whooping. Oh.
She was carrying on. We call it getting happy. And so, when the diversity came, some folk would come and see, you know, that. And I had people who were like prominent in the, I had doctors who were well known in Northern California. I had a CEO.
One day, there were some Silicon Valley CEOs on the cover of Time magazine. One of my members was on the cover. And I didn't even know he was a CEO. Cause when he came to church, he didn't act like you know who I am, right? And it's good he didn't act that way because I wouldn't have cared.
Because I never courted anybody for money all the years I led that church. When I found out I had a couple of millionaires that was nice But I hoped they listened to the word and gave according to what God wanted them to give. It wasn't my job to court them for their money. Because if I court you for money, then I got to give you favors I can't give the poor folk. And cuz don't roll like that.
Everybody in this church is going to get the same treatment because it doesn't matter what you have or don't have.
So we had the Silicon Valley leaders, we had the physicians, we had the attorneys, and all the big shots, we had the professors from Stanford. Told you the Barkers, that room is named for Dr. Barker and his wife. He was a celebrated Stanford professor, came to my church and joined. And of all the things, he said, I think I won't be an usher.
I said, really? He said, yeah, yeah, I think that's what I want to do. And he joined a professor, joined the usher board. And I was having in those years a lot of Stanford students. I see Bethany back here.
She was one of them, the Stanford students. She played for the women's basketball team, and I pastored some of their coaches. It was amazing what God was doing. And so the students started coming in droves. And it was all because God was teaching us to accept people because they came in through the same root, the blood of Jesus.
So, all the students who thought they got rid of all the professors during the week, they show up, and Dr. Barker told me right this way. It was crazy. When Clinton was going through that, when they were putting him through, you know, all the Monica Lewinsky stuff, and he was they were doing them special trials and all, and Kenneth Starr was the leader of that. Kenneth Starr's daughter came to Stanford, join my church.
So when we would have the parent weekends, I'm preaching to Kenneth Starr. I'd I'd go in the office like, I don't believe what I just did. And he comes stop by the office. Oh, that's good. Keep preaching the word.
He knew the Lord, I didn't even know. And the next year, Chelsea Clinton came to Stanford. And one Sunday, I showed up back then. When it started growing in that little warehouse, we had to have three morning services: 7:30, 9:30, 11:30.
So one Sunday, there were these dark vans outside when I pulled up. And One of my men said, Pastor, Secret Service is here. I said, I ain't doing it. Yeah. I did not do a thing.
I don't know what they're looking for, but it's not in this church. Yeah. And he said, no, no, Pastor, Chelsea's coming to the, I think, the second service that day, and they thought they wanted to come check this out.
So they're going to want to meet you. I said, bring them in. I met them and what have you. And they stayed there, and her and her friends came. And Chelsea Clinton sitting there listening to me preach the word of God during the second service.
I said, This is the weirdest church I've ever seen in my life. Guess what? It wasn't weird. It was a reflection of what God said: if you preach my gospel, I will draw people.
So, you need to understand, you got to start with acceptance. You don't have to like somebody's politics, their lifestyle, whatever. You start with acceptance. Even if you think, well, they need to clean some stuff up, they need to get some stuff together. That's fine.
If God wants to do the cleansing, His Word has the power to do it. You don't start with rejection. You start with acceptance. You can't how you gonna clean fish you haven't caught?
So accept people As equals, if they have professed Christ as their Savior. And then. The Great Commission says, then teach them to observe all things. We're going to teach the truth now. I'm not going to compromise truth.
But I'm not going to be judgmental because I'm not the judge. I'm going to teach his word and put it out there and say, let's walk by the word. And whatever you do or don't, that's between you and the Lord. And so we're going to have to learn how to be people who accept one another. Thanks so much for being here for today's message: The Call to Unity, featuring Pastor Paul Shepard.
You know destined for victory could not exist without the faithful prayers and financial support of listening friends and partners like you. You've been the lifeblood of this media ministry since its inception, and it's because of you that we can continue to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people all over the world. We hope you'll consider sending a generous gift today, and when you do, we've got a great message to share with you as our way of saying thanks. When Pastor Paul was teaching his final series at Destiny Christian Fellowship, he stopped right in the middle of it, 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. And this month, in appreciation of your most generous gift to Destined for Victory, we'll send you this exclusive message as either a D V D or streaming link. Again, that's sometimes you have to encourage yourself. One of the last messages Pastor Paul ever preached, and it's only available right here for your most generous donation to Destined for Victory.
Please give that gift by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-50500. 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.
Well, that's all the time we have today, but be sure to join us next time for our continuing message: The Call to Unity. Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
