I'm deeply concerned about how arrogant many of my colleagues are and many of their churches are. where we have come to just treat with disdain people and things because they're not in our camp, whatever that camp is. And I just think that so dishonors the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can damage a relationship so quickly or so thoroughly as pride. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
You know, when you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you never once see him behave in an arrogant or judgmental manner, not even to those the world would call the worst of sinners. He never condoned sin, and yet he never condemned the sinner. This is an area in which all of us could use a little improvement, and that's where we'll focus our attention in today's message. Remember to come see us at pastorpaul.net to listen to Destined for Victory on Demand. That's pastorpaul.net.
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Now Let's pay close attention to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: the call to unity. How to achieve unity. In the recent messages, we've covered. The first two points um about achieving The unity that God has called us all as followers of Christ to walk in. And the first was to accept others as equals.
You can't. Can't walk in unity with people. while at the same time having this stiff arm attitude. Toward them. You've got to be accepting.
You've got to learn to embrace people for who they are and that they are. Subject to the love of God. They are the objects of God's love. How dare you reject somebody God loves? Paul said, Accept others whose faith is weak, Romans 14:1, without quarreling over disputable Matters and we covered that.
I can't go back in the interest of the ground I need to cover now. The second point. Is to allow for honest differences of opinion. And we looked at several verses in Romans 14 to establish the fact that we don't all see a lot of key areas alike as the family of God. We're a typical family.
Everybody in the family has an opinion about something that the others don't have. And so that's just called family living. Y'all know what Thanksgiving's like. Yeah. Come on now, you know what it's like.
Some families they look forward to their fights during Thanksgiving. Oh, we're gonna have a good one this year. You know, and they don't they don't think they dysfunctional, so If they're happy, just leave them alone. And they and they they love feuding and what have you. And in the family of God, we have things, and I covered, I talked about eschatology, and we disagree on what's going to happen at the end of time.
Some are premillennial, some are postmillennial, some are amillennial, some are pan-millennial. It'll all pan out. I ain't worried about it. And so be where you are. The Bible says, hold your Paul said, hold what you believe, but don't pass judgment on other people.
And so here we are. And we talked about worship styles and other things. And now I want to wrap this up by giving you the third point Paul gives us here in Romans 14. And here's the way it's worded: avoid arrogance. Avoid arrogance.
I am deeply challenged and deeply disturbed by how much arrogance there is in the body of Christ these days. God has blessed me to be a. A renowned radio and media minister by the grace of God. And so I'm on 400-plus stations here in the U.S. And we're listened to on through the website and other web outlets.
We're listened to on, I know of four continents that we have regular listeners. And so God has given me a platform to speak to a much larger audience than what I speak to locally. And I'm deeply concerned about how arrogant many of my colleagues. and many of their churches are. where we have come to just treat With disdain, people and things because they're not in our camp, whatever that camp is.
And I just think that so dishonors the Lord Jesus Christ. He prayed that we would be one and that we would be unified. John 17, listen to his prayer before he leaves the earth. I pray, Father, that you would make them one as you and I are one. Jesus, before leaving, said, make them one.
I'm now convinced he prayed that just so we would know that was the will of God. I realize that he, knowing all things, know that many of us were going to fight against it. Because we're too prideful and too arrogant. to submit to what he said.
So I'm going to walk through that in the remainder of this message. I want to talk about well, first of all, let me give you these verses, verse 4 and verses 10 through 13 of Romans 14. Romans 14, beginning of verse 4. Who are you to judge some one else's servant? I love how in your face that sentence is from the Apostle Paul.
Who are you to judge some? I can see him rolling his head. To their own master, servants stand or fall. And meaning, nobody's going to answer to you in the last day. You know who they gonna answer to, the Lord.
Now jump down to verse 10. You then, why do you judge your brother or sister, or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me. Every tongue will acknowledge God.
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves. to God. Therefore, let us stop passing judgment On one another. Boy, that is good. Paul gave us that under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
And all I want to do is spend the rest of this time unpacking just some ways that we need to check ourselves. There are many more than I would have time to speak of, but in the interest of this wrapping up this series, let me just give you several. First of all, I think we ought to learn to walk in grace and wisdom toward others in the family who have a different or a limited understanding of what God's plan is for their life, for their choices or for their lifestyle. It's our job to learn to walk in grace and wisdom.
Now, what do I mean by that? I mean the fact that. When you see things differently, or you might even see, no, no, the Bible is clear about that. Yeah, the Bible is clear about some things that people aren't walking in who have asked the Lord into their lives. Your job is not to say, you're not saved.
You're not the savior. How are you going to tell somebody whether they're saved? You say, but they need to clean up their act. They need to change their ways.
Okay, but don't they have the Holy Spirit? Don't you believe that the Holy Spirit comes into our lives when we become children of God? And if the Holy Spirit is in my life, He is perfectly capable. Of leading and guiding me into all truth. That's what the Bible said he would do.
Jesus said before he left in John's gospel, he said, I'm going to send you the comforter, the Holy Spirit. And he will lead and guide you into truth. God uses the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers as one of the ways he does that. That's why I got a job. My job is to lead people to Christ and then teach them to observe all things that Christ has commanded.
But that's a journey. How many of y'all got saved one day and your life was all What is supposed to be the next day? Every area of your life was just what it ought to be. Your actions, your attitude, everything was just like God. I mean, you were just walking sanctification.
How many of y'all were just, I mean, just ready for heaven? Nothing wrong. Nobody can spot my life, the old saints used to say. Nobody can spot my life.
Well, good. But what you need to do is have an attitude of love, if you want to be like Jesus, toward people who aren't as clean as you are. And I've learned to judge people not by how holy they are, but how tolerant they can be of people who aren't where they are.
So we got to learn to walk in grace and wisdom toward people who are limited in understanding of God's will for certain choices in their lives or for some issues that they're challenged by. I recently, one of my fellow, a world-renowned, if I called his name, everybody would know it, recently declared publicly that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not a Christian. Because of what he thinks about his lifestyle.
And I Course, I talk back to the radio. I said. Hey Doc, have you ever read Romans 14? Who are you? To judge someone else's servant.
How dare you! Use crew. Christian media. to malign somebody. You never knew.
I said it to the T V 'cause he wasn't in the room at the time. If I'm ever in the green room with him, I will say it. That's not your call. Oh, but the Bible is clear about some things.
Well, you're not the author of the word, nor are you the Holy Spirit who helps people. Take the word and apply it to their lives. And so we got to learn to walk in grace and wisdom. And to withhold this tendency some people have. to be arrogant.
I'll never forget when I first got saved in our teens. I was born in 57, so in the early teens when myself and my and my my friends were getting saved as young teenagers, we were real excited, you know, okay, man, we gonna 'cause gospel music was just hitting the kind of gospel music we like. With just hitting some Andre crouching the disciples. Oh, that was a big deal. Please don't go away.
The rest of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring Pastor Paul Shepard, is coming right up. In John chapter 8, Jesus said that if you abide in Him, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. That's why Destined for Victory is here, to teach timeless truth for a victorious life by pointing people to Jesus Christ. You can help. Stop by PastorPaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online.
That's pastorpaul.net. or call 855-339-5500. You know, Jesus never condoned sin, but He also never condemned the sinner. We're called to follow in His steps. Here's the rest of today's message, the call to unity.
And I remember Andre coming through Philly and We went down to see him and all that. Oh man, we're so excited. We got, and then Edwin Hawkins and them, oh, happy day. Oh, we were into something. And and so we we're in that That frame of mind, excited young, young teenagers just getting saved, get to church.
And you know, this is the this is the early seventies.
So this is Jackson 5. And I had a, me and most of my friends had a Michael Jackson type Afro. Yes, I used to have here Mike Michael. Michael Jackson Afro. I mean, it was out there.
I would, you know, we put Afro Sheen in it. Oh, y'all don't know anything about no Afro Sheen. Altrasheen and Afro Sheen. Don't perpetrate. Come on, old school.
Y'all help me. How many of y'all know about. Thank you, thank you, old school. Thank you. And I would play at it at night.
Wake up, put all that in. Go out. And it was glistening in the sun. And you know, the little young teenager trying to mackerel on all the girls, and they're looking at my afro. We got to church, me and some of my other friends who were getting saved.
and an old mother in the church. Said to us No, she said it personally to me. She said to any of my friends, she said The Bible says it's a shame for a young man. to have long hair. You need to cut that now that you've saved, you need to cut that off.
One of the old mothers in the church. My father was the pastor.
So I went to him. And said, Pop. Mother so-and-so said, the Bible said, I got to cut my hair because I'm saved now. I said, do I have to cut my hair for that lady? That's a just word.
I remember I asked him that. He said, No, son, no, son. She shouldn't have said that to you. I tell you what, because more of y'all. Oh, and so some of the girls who were just getting saved, one family in particular, the girls, their teenage daughters would come to church, and we're talking early 70s now, and the girls would come to church with micro-minis.
Now see, y'all did. All right, old school, I need y'all to help me because new school don't even know. How many of y'all remember micro minis and a thank you? Y'all look around, young folk. I'm not lying.
Micro minis. And these little these girls were getting saved. Coming into the church for the first time. And so the the dudes had our afros. And bell bottoms.
Psychedelic shirts. Oh, come on, y'all. Yes, sir. High boy collars. And the girls had minis and some micro-minis.
There was hair and thighs all throughout the kingdom. Hair and thighs throughout the kingdom. And the old saints didn't know what to do.
So, my father, being the wise pastor he was. One Sunday he said, After service, I want all the young people to go downstairs and what have you, help get ready, because those are the days we had dinner at church after service. Y'all go on down and start early. I need to talk to the old saints for a little while. And he put us all out.
I don't know what he said. But when he got through None of them messed with us. about our fashions. Or our hair, or or anything else. I'm sure now knowing Being a pastor all these decades, I think I know what he said.
Y'all get your mouth and your attitude off of these young people. They're getting saved. They're coming to know who Jesus is and give them a chance to grow. And to learn if they need to make some better decisions, the Lord will teach them, and I, as their pastor, will help them. But y'all better not run narrow child off from this church with your attitude.
Because they got up off of us, and as a result, we were able to learn and grow. Eventually the skirts dropped down. We kept our hair till the Lord gave the Lord have taken away. But I said be the name. Yes, sir.
You just go to the scriptures on that one. The Lord giveth, the Lord have taken away. And in those same days, again, gospel music started, and that's when I started learning to play. Because our church pianist only played what was in the hymn book. She read music only.
But these, the oh, happy day, and all that, the crouch songs, through it all, all that stuff, I had to learn by ear. And I learned it. I became the organist because I wanted to learn the music that our young people wanted to learn. We started a youth choir and we started singing those songs. And the saints told us, Y'all still got to sing the hymns with us.
But when it's youth Sunday, we're going to let you do a couple of your songs. And that's how we got started. But and but of course you needed drums.
Now we're talking in the days where churches didn't do drums. Most churches. There were some Pentecostal churches that did drums way, but we weren't Pentecostal per se, and our folks were used to hymns and. And straight lace, you know, road choirs and everything with straight lace. And so.
We had to we had to have some drums. And so Pop said, Yeah, one of the young men got saved and he played the drums at school. He said, If you can get a drum set, we'll let you play. And the school let him bring his drum set on the weekend so he could play at his church, and then he took it back. And we started And he said, Pop said, even my mother, my my His mom, his mother.
Henrietta Shepard. um was a deaconess in the church. And she sat right down there near where the drums were being set up. sat there, and listen that first time and she went to her my dad after service. She said, You know, son, when you've said that drums were gonna come into church I didn't know what I was going to do.
She said, but I have to admit, you're the pastor. And so I said, okay, pastor knows what he's talking about. She said, and I sat there that first Sunday. She said, I have to admit, I found myself patting my foot. But then she also went to my friend.
His name was Timmy, who was playing and she went to him afterwards and used some of that old fashioned Psychology She says, Son, I actually enjoyed your play. And she said, What I like is that you didn't get too loud. She was telling him now, this level was good.
Now don't turn it up. But it allowed a generation of us to be discipled. Cause we weren't run off. By arrogant people. That's the point I'm making.
And so we've got to learn to do that. We've we've The reason Destiny has sometimes you'll see us do weddings in the middle of our worship service. You know why we do that? Because I realized long ago I'm having to disciple people who didn't come from a background where they understood morals from a biblical standpoint. From knee high.
Many of them are just coming to understand that. As they come to churches. And until it comes up from the Bible in a way that makes sense to them, they still don't know it. And I found out in our early days of pastoring, people were coming to me, they were living together as husband and wife. would live unmarried.
I mean, raising families and everything, unmarried, and they were coming, getting saved. And I learned as I would get to a certain text and preach it to stop and say, Hey, by the way, here's why you ought to get married. If you have a person that you want to spend the rest of your life with, here's why you should do it. And I would stop and say, It's the will of God. I would read the passages where Jesus Himself talked about marriage.
And I said, Marriage is the will of God. Because a lot of people say, Well, it's just nothing but a piece of paper.
Well, it's a piece of paper you need to have. But I would say it without judgment. I would say it by teaching. See, in other words, I'm not throwing off on you. Y'all shacking up, you're going to hell.
That's not the point. I don't send people to hell. I didn't create hell. And hell, furthermore, was created for the devil and his angels. We have every reason to walk in blessedness.
Not in condemnation. And so I would stop and preach it, and I would find folk coming to me at the service. They said, Pastor, that's us. We have a whole family. We won't get right.
And so I started saying, well, listen, y'all are already living together and what have you. What you need to do is go get me a license, and I will marry y'all.
So you won't have to spend any money on a wedding. The saints are already here on Sunday. They used to be. And they're coming back by faith. I see them coming back.
By faith I see him. Oh, by faith in Jesus' name. Come on back to worship saints. And I said, You're right here, and we will be. Look, I said, You will have hundreds of folk witnessing your wedding.
Wouldn't that be cool? You tell folk, oh, my wedding, that was hundreds of people there. Cole, we did it right in service. And they said, and the first few took me up.
Some of y'all were in the early hotel years. And we were marrying people at these hotels all over the Bay Area.
Now that we're here on Albury Street, they come, they bring me the thing, but we get married. Do it. You know why? Because it glorifies God. And it lets your family and friends know you're serious about following Jesus.
And we do it without condemnation. There is no condemnation. those who are in Christ Jesus. But the word calls us up higher, and when it calls us, we ought to go higher. Thanks so much for being here with us on Destined for Victory.
Today's message, the Call to Unity, as well as any of our recent messages, are available on demand at our website, pastorpaul.net. While you're there, be sure to check out our online store for some great resources to help you grow in your Christian faith, including books and video messages from Pastor Paul Shepard. is found at pastorpaul.net.
Well, when Pastor Paul was teaching the group of messages we're airing now on Destiny for Victory, 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. That 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. But this month, in appreciation of your most generous gift, we'll send you this exclusive message as either a DVD or a 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. 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. What happens when there's a disagreement you can't come together? The Bible says you don't break fellowship.
Sometimes you have to park company. But you don't break fellowship. Join us next time for our continuing message, The Call to Unity. Join us to find out what it means to part company without breaking fellowship. But until then remember.
He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
