Hello and welcome to another great day on Destined for Victory featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. Coming your way next, we wrap up our teaching series, Drake Talk for Singles, with today's message: Priorities for Victorious Singles. For years now, Destined for Victory has been committed to using 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. Here's 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. It remains our mission today to bring timeless truth for a victorious life on radio, online, and on our free mobile app.
Now, we can't do any of this without your help.
So, today we're asking you to send a generous. Donation to Destined for Victory. When you do, we'll be happy to send you our brand new booklet, Grown-Up Faith. This will challenge you to move beyond childish or immature habits and begin to embrace the kind of maturity that honors God and blesses your life. I believe this practical biblical guide will help you stop living on impulse and start living with greater wisdom and purpose.
Again, it's called Grown Up Faith, and it's our thank you gift today for your 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 or mail your gift to Destined for Victory. Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.
Do you have friends who make you? a better person. At the end of the day, You need in your inner circle only people. who are making you better. People who you would say about them, I'm better off with them in my life than without them.
Not everyone who kisses you loves you, and not everyone who hurts you hates you. Today on Destined for Victory, featuring Pastor Paul Shepard, we'll talk about the importance of surrounding yourself with people who love you, even if it sometimes hurts a little.
Now, let's start with Pastor Paul's destined for victory message. Priorities for Victorious Singles. Not everything is a grinning matter.
Sometime to love somebody, you got to look at them eyeball to eyeball and say, You are wrong. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You better get that straight now. You got to rebuke them redemptively. You're rebuking them to pick them up, not to knock them down.
You're rebuking them because you want to help them get straight. And the Bible says such Wounds can be trusted. When a friend cuts you, they're cutting you to heal you. Like a doctor, when he cuts you in surgery, he's not cutting you to hurt you, he's cutting you to heal you.
Now the cut might hurt. But it's meant ultimately to heal. There's a difference between the cutting utensil that a doctor has in his hand and the cutting utensil that your enemy has in his hand. Your enemy has a knife. Waiting for you to turn around so they can stab you in your back.
But a friend will cut you to your face. They're cutting you to heal you. Do you have people who have permission to rebuke you? Do you have people who know it is your job when you see me wrong? Don't you entertain that?
Help me get that straight. That's what you need because it's not about kisses versus rebuke. Not everybody who kisses you loves you. Asked Jesus when Judas walked up to him. Not everybody who kisses you loves you.
And watch this, not everybody who has hurts you. Hates you.
Some folk hurt you to help you.
Some folk hurt your feelings real good. But it's out of love. The best people in my life have been the people who have shook their finger in my face. And said, you know better than this. And you got to get this straight.
Redemptive rebuke. If you need everybody in your life co-signing your mess. You gotta grow. Because some of the best people in your life Will frown at you when you need a good frown.
Next one is in Proverbs 27, 17. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Do you have friends who make you a better person? At the end of the day, You need in your inner circle only people. who are making you better.
People who you would say about them, I'm better off with them in my life than without them. If you're in my inner circle and I'm no better, Because you're in my inner circle. You shouldn't be. You're in the wrong place. You probably need to be in some other category in my life.
Doesn't mean I got to throw you away altogether, but I got to take you out the inner circle. I only need in my inner circle people who are sharpening me. Iron sharpening. I need folk who are making me better. I need folk who, if they ever left my life, I would be devastated.
Because of what I get from them. I need the people who are the good investments. They pay me more than they cost me. That's what you need to know.
So ask. These questions, as you evaluate your interpersonal priorities, have the courage to make the adjustments. You don't necessarily have to have a conversation. Just make the adjustment. If it requires a conversation, then go on and have it.
If somebody says, you know, it looks like things have changed between us. Is everything all right? Then don't blow smoke, tell them. Say, well, everything's fine, but you're right, things have changed. I've been reevaluating some things, and I just, you know, I wasn't as comfortable as I needed to be.
With you playing the role you used to play, with the access you used to have. And so I still respect you as a person and wish God's best for you, but I really have had to make some changes and let them know. I don't have to lie to you. No, you're not where you used to be in my priorities. Love you, though.
Just let people know, life is too short to play games. Interpersonal priorities. Let's talk about just briefly financial priorities. Financial priorities. If you're going to live with maximum enjoyment, if you're going to be the person God's called you to be, Single folk in particular, but all of us in general, you gotta get your money straight.
You gotta quit. Being funny with your money. It's not going to make for the kind of life God wants you to live. Financial priorities have to get ordered. God is the one who gave us stewardship over whatever we have, whether it's a little or a lot.
And God has a plan for how we are to manage it. What's a steward? A steward is somebody who manages somebody else's property. That's the first revelation all of us have to get. Your paycheck isn't yours.
You're stewards of that which God assigned to you.
Now, the question is: how does He want you? To use this? What does he want you to do with this? When you get that revelation, You can begin to turn your life around because a whole lot of us have abused money. What is abuse?
Abuse is the combination of two words: abnormal use. And we just combined it in our language into one word abuse. Abnormal use. If you don't know the proper use of a thing, you will use it abnormally. That's abuse.
A lot of us practice money abuse. A lot of us think money is to be spent. Period. Get it, spend it. That's money abuse.
God gave you the money for four reasons. First, He gave it to you so that you could sow into the kingdom. Everybody who was blessed in the Bible started out with their money sowing. Sewing. Look in Genesis chapter 4, way back in the book of beginnings, Genesis chapter 4.
Both men had resources. In those days, they didn't even have currency in the way we have it now. But theirs was in the form of what they raised.
So Abel had cattle, and Cain had fields. Both of them reaped a harvest. What does Abel do? Abel first sows. He takes.
The first fruit of his cattle. and fat portions of it. And he sacrifices them in praise to the Lord. He sows first. What does Cain do?
The Bible says about Cain, in the course of time. He gave the Lord.
some of the fruit of his fields in the course of time when he got around to it. He gave to the Lord. That's how some of y'all do, and you keep wondering why you're not blessed. And you get around to when I get around to here come the offering back.
Well, we don't pass them, but you know, you've been to churches where they pass them. Oh, here come the offering. All right, let me see what I got. Oh, Lord. That's why you're not blessed.
Your very attitude. You go to them churches where they're holding the bath and they're watching you while you come around, and you're putting a 20 in, digging in for change. Wondering why you're not blessed. Y'all got 1750 in there? You need to understand something.
The first thing you're supposed to do with God's money. is so it. The tithe is the way we begin to say, Lord, thank you for entrusting this to me. The tithe is the first 10% of it. Lord, I'm giving this back to you in gratitude.
And I'm trusting you to bless the 90% that you've entrusted into my hands. And so you sow it. First thing you do is sow. Second thing you do is, for many of you who have. gotten yourselves into debt and that's 90 plus percent of us.
Gotten yourself into debt. The second thing you do is to begin to get yourself out of the debt you should have never gotten into. Because we should have been living Present tense based on what God has given me now. When you incur debt, you know what you've done? You have spoken for money you haven't made yet.
That's what debt is. I've spoken for money I haven't made. That's what a credit card is when you pay installments. By faith. I'ma pay y'all one day.
You can't be blessed like that. You got to learn that if you use a credit card, and I do, you use it for one reason only: that's the convenience of not carrying a bunch of cash. Before that due date. they will have all this money because all it was was a substitution of cash I already have. Ooh, it's gonna get quiet.
That's all right, I showed up with my own amen. I got internal encouragement going on. Preach on, Pastor. Inside, I'm saying, go on, priest. Say that, doc.
Say that, doc. Y'all get as quiet as you need to. As long as you're letting the Lord speak to you. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message. Don't go away.
Remember, visit pastorpaul.net to listen to the broadcasts on demand. And when you stop by, be sure to check out our online store where you'll find books and video messages that feature the teaching and preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. That's pastorpaul.net. You can also subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.
Sometimes the ones that love us most may hurt us most. They confront us, challenge us, all to help us grow in our faith. Let's get back to the second half of today's message. Priorities for Victoria Singles. When you got into debt, you were already out of God's order.
He didn't call you to do that. Only thing it makes sense for you to finance is some major purchase where it's just going to fit into your regular budget. and it's going to appreciate such is your home. Good investment. Most of us can't buy house cash, you get a good rate and all that, and you pay it over time because it's an appreciating asset.
All this other stuff is depreciating. You're investing money you haven't yet made in something that's going down. But since most of us have gotten ourselves there, After you sew, second thing you do. is you begin to shrink debt. These are all SS.
Number one, so number two, shrink debt. You begin to shrink debt. There's some great plans. Dave Ramsey and others have some great plans. How to shrink debt.
Dave Ramsey calls his the snowball method. And just go to his resources or other people, they all tell you the same thing in different ways, and they'll help you shrink your debt.
So you sow, you shrink debt. Number three, you save. Notice you haven't gotten the spending yet. Telling you, this is why we're so messed up. is why our money is funny.
Because we spent first And you're supposed to spin fourth. You so you shrink debt. You save. I don't make enough as it is. Save a little bit of that.
Especially if you don't make enough as it is, might as well save a little bit of that. What you're doing is teaching yourself not all of this is for right now.
Some of this. is for later on. It's a principle. It's a principle. It runs throughout scripture.
You sow If you've gotten in this into debt, which most of us have shrink the debt. And then say, put something aside. And the more you work the first three, the more you'll be able to put aside. And then fourth, you spend wisely. Spend wisely.
Now, you know, we've been way out of order. I can't afford to tithe. My car note is $473. Do you do hear what you just said?
So you're getting $473 a month. For a car that's depreciating. Get you the same place the hoop that used to get you. But now it's about your image. I got sick of that hootie.
Driving up, looking like that. Everybody looking at my car. You look at her all you want her. Pay for.
Now I can roll any way I want to roll, but I'm talking about a mini a year.
Well I had I told y'all I had the second worst car in the church. I did, I promise you, I had the second worst car in the church. I was so glad for that sister whose car was more jacked up than mine. Dude, I put up. Putting as I come.
But it was a blessing. I got that car from prayer. I got that car saying, Lord, we live in California now, and we need cars in California. Because I had come out here from Philly. In Philly, you jump on Scepter, you could roll.
You didn't need a car. But out here, I found out my wife needed one. I needed one. Because we had to head in two different directions. And I pray, Lord, bless us, God.
God bless us. He's supernaturally provided.
Some people in a prayer group. A couple of thousand miles from here, they were praying, and the Lord told them, put some money together and send it to me. And they called me up, said, We got this money, $1,700. And we believe we've heard from the Lord that we're supposed to send it to you. Do you have a need?
And I told him: if the Lord is telling y'all to send me $1,700, listen to him. And they did. Sent me $1,700. I went and preached at a church locally for their Sunday night service. They gave me $300.
I had $200 of my own. I put that $2,200 together. And a friend of mine who was in my church at the time, a grad school at the time, I'm talking about the early days in California. And he took me out and saw his car. He said, Yeah, Pastor, this will work.
$2,200, this is a good deal. Bought it. Drove it till it dropped. I did, I drove that car until a mechanic across the street. Walked across the street and said, Pastor, let it go.
Yeah. I promise you he did. He saw I was trying to hold on to this. He said, Just, just take it from you. Just let it go.
Why? Cause there's seasons you can't beat cute.
Some of y'all trying to be cute and this ain't cute season. I got 22s. I'm rolling on 22s. No, no, there are times when you got a putt on 13s. I've lived it, I've done it.
Putting up, that must be pastor. They hear me before they see me. That must be pastor coming. Listen to all that. That's all right, but when I got out, I was paid.
Yeah. You keep that firmly in mind and say, Lord, help me to discipline myself, help me to defer gratification. He'll bless you to dig yourself out of that hole. I'm a witness. He'll get you out.
It won't be overnight. You didn't get yourself in overnight. But even if you got yourself in quickly, which most of us, it doesn't take long to get in debt. How many know you can get in debt just like that? One wrong trip.
to the wrong places. And you load yourself up for years. Singles, get your money in order.
So, you can go and do what you want to do. Whether you get married or not, that's not the issue. You want to live life to the full, you want to be able to get up and do whatever God tells you to do. You won't be able to take any trip you want to take.
Something you want to support, you can just write the check. Bam, it's done. That's what you want to do. A group of folks that, hey, we're going on a cruise, want to go back. When y'all going?
Got the money, let's roll. You need to be up there, you don't need to be sitting around there. How much is the inside cabins?
Now, if that's the best you can do, go on with the inside cabins. You still enjoy the rest of the ship. But I want you to get to a place where you can get an outside cabin. You got a window you can look out I want some of y'all to get to a place where you can get a balcony. See, I'm a professional cruiser.
My wife and I, we cruise, I mean, they owe us money for the way we advertise for them. We are professional cruisers. We cruise once or twice every year. You haven't experienced a blessing till you get out there on the balcony. Oh.
Oh, that balcony, you did. Trust me when I tell you. Just that water sound, God is all in the water. I just go out there and sleep. Sleep just come on you.
Where am I? Oh, two more priorities. I gotta hurry up. Physical priorities. Since your body is the only vehicle that will get you through this experience on earth.
You've got to prioritize getting it in better condition. It's just the bottom line. It's not necessarily about vanity. You just gotta. Take better care of yourself.
In order to have the strength. to do what you need to do. That's really what it comes down to. And it'll pay off in other ways as well. It'll pay off in vanity.
You tend to look better the better shape you're in. That's just the way it is.
So although you're not doing it for vanity, folk will compliment you. Just because your body starts looking more like it was really designed to look when we all of us lit trust me, I've been way, way overweight. And I know it's a difference when you start getting it together. I'm halfway to my goal, but even at this halfway point, people who haven't seen me for two years say, Pastor? Yeah.
Now that's right. That's right. Nothing wrong. Go on and show off a little bit. I've been working hard.
That's right. Shoot. When you see me on that treadmill huffing and puffing. I want this to pay off. I want y'all to have to take a double take.
That's the long and short of it. Singles, this is, you gotta take care of this body, it's the only thing that'll get you through this life. If this one comes apart, you can't get a replacement. Oh, they've replacing little bits and pieces of it. But the bottom line is, this is all you have to work with.
So, take better care of it, and it'll bless you just in terms of increased energy. Let me tell you something: when you get in better shape, your energy level improves. Your mental capacity. You can get through these tough days better. Because I've been on both sides.
When you're going through a tough day and you're way overweight or way too unhealthy, eating too much junk food or whatever it is that you're doing, and you're going through the tough seasons of life anyway, and then on top of that, your body's not cooperating. That's a bad gig.
So get the work done. No magic, no formulas, you can't rebuke fat. I tried. You can't rebuke it. Name of Jesus.
I rebuke this fat. No, it doesn't respond to a rebuke. Mind responds to weight watchers. Points. It responds to the treadmill.
It responds to a half gallon or more of water a day. You don't need to drink water. You're drinking too much other stuff. Drink water. Amen.
We're so glad you stopped by for today's Destined for Victory message: Priorities for Victoria Singles. To find out more about Destined for Victory's mission and purpose, or about the special gift reserved for you when you give generously today, please come see us at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. Well, if you try to be someone other than yourself, you'll end up being neither. Here's Pastor Paul.
Don't be insecure. You are a you on purpose. Quit trying to be an imitation. You are an original. God made you a designer original, a destiny original.
Don't you die a copy of something else. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepard shares his message: moving towards maturity. But until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
