So a lot of us think Christianity comes in a do-it-yourself kit. And we think, well, I got saved and so my job now is to try to live the right kind of life. I want to let you know the Bible says no. You are not asked to try to be a godly person because if we could be godly on our own power, Jesus would have never come. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, but there's also another kind of faith, the assurance of things you already have.
Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. You know, many Christians routinely ask God for things He's already given them. It's not a lack of faith, it's an underdeveloped faith. one that stems from a lack of understanding. Today, we want to help you gain that understanding so that you will be confident that you've already been given the tools to live a life that honors God.
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Now let's listen in to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message. Prove it.
Now, look with me at verse 3 of 2 Peter 1. He says here. God's divine power has given us everything we need. For life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory. And goodness.
His divine power, look at that, has given us everything we need.
Now, Peter is encouraging people who are going through some difficulties they've never experienced before. And Peter's saying, right off the bat in this letter, I want you to know that God's power has made available to you everything you need. To get successfully through this life and to do it while pleasing God. He says, God's given us everything for life and godliness. Meaning, you can live the life God has called you to live.
Because God's power, His divine power, has made it available to you. Please be encouraged to know, my friend, that God is the one who has guaranteed your spiritual success. That will take the load off of your shoulders when you understand it. Here's why. Because a lot of us think Christianity comes in a do it yourself kit.
And we think, well, I got saved, and so my job now is to try to be a better person, to try to live the right kind of life, to try to, in the words of Spike Lee, do the right thing. I want to let you know the Bible says no. You are not asked to try to be a godly person. You know why? Because.
If we could be godly on our own power, Jesus would have never come. If we could pull off Christianity. By ourselves, if you could just say, you know what, you just need to straighten up and act right. You just need to live right. You just need to stop lying.
You just need to stop stealing. You just need to stop sexual sin. You just need to stop having bad attitudes and murmuring and bitterness and unforgiveness. You just need to cut it out.
Well, if we could all be forced to cut it out, Jesus would have stayed in heaven. But how many know? He was hung up. For our hang-ups. He was hung up on that cross because you and I couldn't live right on our own power if you held a gun on us.
Isn't that the truth? If you held a gun on us, you couldn't make us live. Oh, we could straighten up certain little areas. But you know, if you try to defeat sin in your own power, it would be like trying to stop. Oh.
A wall full of holes and water is pouring through them. But with your fingers and toes And mouth. And yet there are holes everywhere. And so you can stop up this hole, but the water is going to shoot through this one. And that's the way sin would be if you were trying to live for God under your own strength and power.
You can really, really work hard and strain and try to do right in this one area of your life, but some other area is going to show that you're alienated from God and have no ability to reflect His nature.
Well, here's the good news. Jesus never asked you. to try to muster up the power. To live the way he called you to live. You know what he asked us to do?
He asked us to get to know him. Did you see what Peter said? He said, God has given us the power to do everything we need for life and godliness through. Our knowledge of Him. If you and I will say, Lord, I want to get to know you.
Deeply personally. Intimately, I want to walk with you so that your power is transferred into my life.
So that your glory becomes manifested in my life, that power will enable you to do what you can't do by yourself. And Peter knows this better than all of us. Because Peter knew what it was to have a bad power failure. Y'all remember? You remember Peter?
The same guy who just wrote that. is the guy who told Jesus on the night that he was betrayed. I don't know why you picked some of these disciples. Because They aren't the kind that can handle what's about to go down. See, they knew that the forces were gathering, and it was only a matter of time before Jesus was going to be apprehended.
And Peter He is so out of touch. He's trying to console Jesus. And Peter says, look.
Some of these folk are getting ready to leave you, Lord. I just thought you ought to know I don't want you caught off guard.
Now he's talking to God wrapped up in flesh. I don't want you to be caught up guard.
Some of these people are going to forsake you because you picked the wrong button. What you should have done, this is implication, it's not in the text, but it's implied by his attitude. What you should have done is pick me first. And let me help you. Pick a better crew than you picked.
He said, but I got good news, Jesus. Although they're going to forsake you, I got your back. I'm your man. When it goes down, It'll be you and I. Back to back defending ourselves against every enemy.
They will have run off. They'll be hiding behind a rock somewhere. But I'll be there back to back with you, ready to defend your honor. Jesus looked at him and said, Simon, Simon. I often say he called him twice because Peter was probably still bragging.
Simon Simon. He said, Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat. Said, but I prayed for you. And my prayer, I didn't ask the Father to not allow you to be shaken up because the shake-up is actually going to do you some good. When you are self-confident, when you think you can do everything God wants you to do in your own power.
You need a shake-up. And how many have had, you don't have to raise your hand or indicate it, but you'll know in your heart. That all of us sooner or later Got to a place where you had a power failure. Where your desire and your ability were miles apart. You wanted to do God's will in a certain area of your life.
You wanted to have the right attitude against those people who hurt you. You wanted to live right morally. You wanted to stop lying. You wanted to not take what didn't belong to you. But in a moment of crisis, You had a power failure.
And there you were with your Christian self. Big Bible and everything. And that's what happened to Peter. Peter not only denied Jesus, but as Jesus predicted, He denied him three times. Three times.
I don't know him. A little bit later, they said, no, no, no. That's one of his followers. Peter said, listen. I don't know him.
In fact, The Bible says on the third time he swore. that he didn't know the Lord. Power failure. Oh, but Jesus had promised. I prayed, not that you wouldn't go through the shake-up, because you need to shake up.
I prayed that your faith. wouldn't be separated from you. I prayed that what would be shaken would be your self-confidence. I prayed that your pride would be shaken. I prayed that you would not know which way was up for a while.
But I also prayed that your faith wouldn't fail. And I want to let you know that if God lets you go through a terrible time, Where you Don't have the power you need. As long As God blesses you to hold on to your faith, you can make it. And Peter has a testimony that says, I had a power failure, but my heart was with the Lord. And so Jesus was arrested.
Jesus was tortured all night. The next day, Jesus was hung on a cross between two common criminals. He died. And three days later, he rose again. When he rose again, he said to the women, Go tell my disciples, watch this.
And Peter to meet me in Galilee. He named him because he wanted to make sure if Peter thought he had disqualified himself. He wanted them to be able to say, no, no, Jesus called you by name. See, because Peter was a, well, you know. I blow it.
I did all that bragging and then I didn't come through. I know Jesus is sick of me. How many know? God loves you. Ridiculously.
God loves you so well. Until when, by human standards, there would be no hope of you. Being redeemed. Because people would be through with you. How many know God loved you?
He paid too much of a price to throw you away. You can have failed miserably. But he says, I've got a plan. to give you power. But it's through The knowledge of Of me.
Now, I want to talk to you a little bit about this word knowledge, because this is the key to understanding the passage, and this is the key to you and I tapping into the power of God so that you can live the life God's called you to live. He said it's through a knowledge of God.
Now the word knowledge is found a lot in the New Testament. And there are different Greek words that are translated knowledge. That's why you can't just have an English translation. You've got to have in your Bible study library some tools that will help you discern what was the intention in the original language. Because Greek, which is the language of the New Testament, is a much more precise language than English.
English, we have words like knowledge that can mean a number of things. We have words like love. You know that can mean a number of things. But when you look at the Greek, you wouldn't have just the one word love. You'd have phileo.
Or you would have agape. You see what I mean? You have specific meanings, and then you can hone in on here's what. The writer intended. Same thing with knowledge.
Now, the word here. Is a word that means to know thoroughly and exactly. And this would be Juxtaposed against some of the words translated knowledge that would mean to be acquainted with. or to know about. Let me give you a classic example.
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three three nine five five zero zero Now, for more on the power of faith, let's get you back to the second half of today's message. Prove it.
If you go to Acts chapter 19 you will see that there is a story there of these fellas, it's one of the comical stories in your Bible. There is a story there of some fellas Who decided They wanted to be exorcists. Because they had heard that the Apostle Paul Had the ability to do what Jesus had done. Which is to cast demons out of demonized people by the power of their words. And by invoking, in the case of Paul, the name of Jesus.
So look at this: Acts 19, verse 13.
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches. I command you to come out. Seven sons of Skiba, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. Look at verse 15.
One day. The evil spirit answered them. They ran up on the wrong fella. One day the evil spirit answered them and look at what he said. Jesus, I know.
And Paul I know about. But who are you? In in this passage in that one verse I want you to see That there are two Classic examples of how the word knowledge is used differently. On the one hand, the demon said, Jesus, I know. Greek word gonosko.
It means I know him personally. You know why demons know Jesus personally? Because when Jesus hung on the cross, Paul said when he wrote the church at Colossae, every demon was stripped of his authority to do what he wanted to do.
Now he was subject to what Christ wanted him to do because on that cross, Jesus triumphed. Over every evil spirit. And that's why you, as a child of God, by the way, don't have to take stuff off of the devil. If you will learn to walk in your authority, when the devil tries to present into your life that which is not God's will, you don't have to go around like other folks saying, I didn't want to, but the devil made me. Because he doesn't have that kind of authority over you.
When you learn who you are in Christ, you can tell the devil where to go and draw him a map so he won't get lost. Why? Because of Jesus. He said, Jesus, I know. Gnosco.
It's the same word. That you find in 2 Peter, excepted in 2 Peter, it has a prefix that means to know exactly. to know thoroughly. But this is a personal First hand knowledge, Jesus. I know personally.
You don't have to tell me about Jesus. I know Jesus. It would be like you knowing. Members of your family that you're very close to, if you're married, knowing your husband or wife, or if you know your children very intimately, I GNOSCO. I know them, I know what they'll do in certain situations, I know what they'll say, I know what their values are, I know what their weaknesses are.
See, you can say, I know Paul Shepard. Because you heard me preach, came to the church. And so you could go say, and we met one day.
So you could say, oh yeah, I know him. But if you ask my wife. Does she know me? She'll probably start chuckling. Because it's like, well, how much time do you have?
See? Intimacy, when you've been around a person long enough, seen them through a lot of different circumstances, you have a level of knowledge that's far beyond the average person. And you have friends who other people, you hear them talking about them, and you say they don't even know what they're talking about. That's the way you and I. Are encouraged to get to know Jesus.
Get to know Him so well that His power becomes yours, that His divine nature. Bleeds over into your life that you walk with him so closely until what he wants for you, he is able to just dispense that power to you because you are available to him through a living, working relationship. Jesus, I know. But the demon in Acts 19 also talked about knowledge when it said, came to Paul and he said, Paul, I know about. I know about.
In other words, this particular demon and this man had never run into Paul personally, but had heard of his reputation. The demons knew you don't want to fool with Paul. See, in the world, some of you all, Don't understand that the spiritual world is as real as the natural world. In fact, if God were to open our eyes and let us see, Into the spiritual world right now. I think some of y'all would be up out of here.
If you could see what's going on in the heavenlies, Angels guarding over this service, this time of preaching, and demons trying to get at people and get your mind full of other things. If you could see the demons plotting. For you. In different areas of your life, if you could see them huddled over in the corner, saying, uh-huh, that's here. And when she leaves from church, we need to meet her at the house.
And you know God does you a big favor by not letting you see it. 'Cause some of y'all can't even handle a horror movie. You know you can't handle demons.
Well, here's the good news. They know whether you walk in authority or not. Even if a particular demon has never met you personally, this lets you know your reputation can precede you. You can walk so that demons in your community, demons in your family, hanging around your family, that is. No I said, hanging around, I corrected it.
Don't go home down and past the said. Y'all are nothing but a bunch of demons. No, I didn't. Pastor said there are demons hanging around Your family. But they can know She's the most prayerful one in this family.
She walks with God. He believes the word. He stands in faith. She walks in authority. They can know you.
And I would suggest you Ask God to let you have a level of relationship with Him. Until you have a reputation in hell. Until demons know they don't want to fool with you. Because you walk with God In spiritual authority. And here's my point.
You can know about Jesus. Or you can know Jesus. And it makes a world of difference. And I want to encourage you: if you need power, God's got power. If you need victory, God's got victory.
If you need the ability to do the things God's called you to do, His divine power has made that available to you. But It's through the knowledge of him. Not the knowledge about him. You can't say, well, I know about Jesus because I've been. Going to church.
Well, yeah, you can come to church and learn about Jesus, but you've got to say, Lord, I want to know you for myself. Not only in the forgiveness of my sins, that's where it begins. But now I want to know How you walk with me day by day. I want to know, Lord, how you give me power to hold my tongue. Oh, we're coming to that.
Not in this message. I want to know how you'll give me the power. To be nicer to people than I am. I want to know how you give me the power to have control in areas where right now I don't have any control. Through the knowledge of Jesus, you and I, Peter says, we can tap into.
Divine power and be partakers of God's. Divine nature. It's through the knowledge of God. I want to encourage you to go before the Lord in prayer and to say, Lord, I'm going to say. I want to go on a quest.
to get to know you. I want to get to know you intimately. I want to get to know you. in how you will make my life. correspond with your plan and purpose.
And Lord, I won't rest. Until I have An exact and thorough knowledge of who you are and what you'll do in my life.
So glad you stopped by for today's Destined for Victory message, Prove It. If you joined us late, or if you want to hear the full message one more time, visit pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.
Well, I'm sure you've given good gifts to your friends and loved ones, and as the Bible tells us, God loves a cheerful giver, but He also instructs us to make giving a lifestyle, not only a periodic act of generosity. In our brand new booklet, Give, Bless, Repeat, Pastor Paul Shepard challenges you to make doing good deeds a regular part of your life. He'll show you how to give wisely. How to help those in need without enabling them. And He'll remind you of God's divine order for all things: God first, family second, others third.
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Let me tell you something, my friend. A weekly is not enough. You can't just show up and hear a little bit about Jesus, pray a quick prayer, and be victorious Monday through Saturday. You're gonna have to walk with him every day of your life. and let him change who you are.
That's tomorrow in our continuing Destined for Victory message, Prove It. But until then remember He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
