What you have to do is believe God. That after I've worshiped God and taken care of my responsibilities with my family, the Lord will see to it that He gives me opportunity and resources where I can be a blessing to other people. When you live according to His plan, He'll see to it that you have enough resources to be a blessing. But you gotta have your priorities in order. If you are truly heavenly-minded, you'll do plenty of earthly good.
Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. Perhaps C. S. Lewis said it best Aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you'll get neither.
Coming up next, a message about getting our priorities in order so that we can best serve the God of heaven, and in doing so, best serve the people on earth. Remember to come see us at pastorpaul.net to listen to Destined for Victory on Demand. That's pastorpaul.net. You can also subscribe to the podcast of Apple Podcasts at Spotify or wherever you enjoy podcasts.
Now, here's today's Destined for Victory message. For Christ's sake, do good. The Bible says what you're supposed to do if you love God and you love people is do God in His name. Do good. You'll find that a lot of people can argue against what you think and what you tell them, but they have a tough time arguing against your good works.
Done in the name of the Christ who saved. You and who loves them. And so Paul said. As the Lord gives you opportunity.
Now, the fact is, every day of your life, God's going to give you opportunity. He says, I want you to understand we're called to do good. To all people, and especially those who are of the family of believers.
Now, I want to unpack that. And help you understand what that looks like. But before we get to practical ways in which we can do good, I want you to see the qualifying statement at the end of verse 10. It's very important. He says, You're called to do good to all people, but especially those who belong to the family of believers.
God has a principle, it is a pattern established throughout scripture. God is a God of order, He's a God of priority. Everything operates in order the way God has meant for it to be. And His order is always God first. Family second.
And then God will bless you to be a blessing to others.
So, you got to live in order. He says it right here: do good to all people. We're going to bless everybody. Don't step outside of God's priority. The kingdom pattern is always God first.
What's the great commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. He's first, then you love your neighbor. as you love yourself. And the Bible is always clear that that begins with taking care of your family.
Family, both in the natural and in the spiritual.
So we love God first. Before we seek to do good to others, we are going to bless God. We worship God. That's why we come to church. That's why we give our tithes and our offerings.
We do it as an act of worship. God, I love you. I don't try to sit around, you're the one giving me 168 hours a week. I don't sit around and say, I don't feel like going to church and worshiping God. What your feelings have to do with it?
He blessed you with the health and strength to be able to get up and go to church. Find yourself a place where people worship God in spirit and in truth, and gather with them and lift your voice to the Lord. In worship. I'm so glad that many of us have learned not only the discipline, but the delight. of corporate worship.
We got folks sitting around now. I don't feel like going to church.
Well, you didn't feel like going to work, but you went. And God is the one who gives you life, health, and strength.
So, you go and you worship God. I don't feel like singing. It's not about your feelings. It's one of the ways we worship.
So, we lift our voices. You don't have to feel like praying all the time.
Sometimes you feel like praying, sometimes you don't. But the Bible says, pray always. Even when you don't feel like it, pray. and worship and give the Lord glory. God first.
I give my tithe because it's an act of worship. You don't have to pray about it. Let me see what I, let me see. And you know, there are a lot of folks these days, well, you know, I just give whatever, you know, at any given time when I feel like it. That's not worship.
I said, that's not worship. Read your Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Worship was intentional. It was consistent. It was generous.
It was sacrificial. It was an attempt to say, Lord, you are Lord of my life. That's why tithing, don't try it.
Some people say, well, tithing's a law, we're not under the law. Tithing predates the law. Way back in Genesis, Jacob said, Lord, if you just keep blessing my life, I'll give you a tenth of everything you bless me with. It's a principle. I begin my worship of giving with a tithe, and then I realize that the other 90% belongs to the Lord, too, so I still have to please him the way I use that.
But you start with a temp. You don't have to pray about it, just move the decimal. It's not a prayer point. It's a math point. Move the decimal.
If God gave you a dollar, give him a dime. as the beginning act of worship. My mother taught me that literally when we were little kids and got a dollar allowance, she gave it to us in change. And she said, Now that dime belongs to the Lord. And take that to Sunday school and put that in.
And some of us were learning that as young children. And it was all right, but later on, we got our first little job, first little paper route, and what have you. Then you're getting yourself $85 and $122. He said, Now what I'm supposed to give now? She said, Just move the decimal.
Got $122. Just move it over here. What's that? $12.20. That's what you give to the Lord.
When he gives you a thousand, give him a hundred. You don't have to pray about it. I mean, pray about it. No, move the decimal. He gave you 10,000, give him 1,000.
The amen is going to start dropping off. He gave you $100,000. I'm getting ready to knock some amen's out. He gave you $100,000, give him $10,000. He give you a million, give him a hundred thousand.
He give you 10 million give him a million You move the decimal and say, Lord, you are the one who has blessed me. Nobody but you. gave me the ability to earn this money. And so you honor him. It's an act of worship, God first.
That's the way to live the blessed life. That's the way to sow to please the Spirit. You worship God first. And then the second priority. It's family.
And what's that about? Because you know, some folks say, Well, it looks like to me, you ought to just treat everybody alike. No, no, God is a God of order. He says, I don't want you going around blessing the world, and you don't even take care of your own kinfolk. I don't want you going around helping folk.
with their light bill and your lights go off.
So after you've put God first, given Him His tithe. Then the second thing you want to do is make sure your house is in order. Before you start helping people with your money, make sure your house is on earth. Before you start giving your time to ministry, make sure you give your marriage and your children some time. Before you put your energy into going, I'm a volunteer.
I'm going out here to help. Before you help strangers, help the people that wear your last name or live in your house. It's God's order. It's God's order. It runs from Genesis to Revelation.
It's God's order. You take care of business. The Bible lets you know that's his plan. It tells you you are to provide for those that God has placed in your life. You don't believe me, so I got to give it to you from the word.
1 Timothy 5, verse 8. If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Write in your Bible.
Well, what the Greeks say? Greek says what I just said. Take care of your family. You don't go out helping other folk and then Well, I'm gonna help somebody, some stranger. With my electric money, and I go home explaining to my wife, well, you know, I saw this family in need.
And so I gave him. The last money we had. And right while I'm talking, the lights go off. Paul said that doesn't glorify God. It's out of God's order.
What you have to do is take care of family and believe God that after I've worshiped God and taken care of my responsibilities with my family, the Lord will see to it that He gives me opportunity and resources of treasure, of talent, and of energy where I can be a blessing to other people. God will see to it. When you live according to His plan, He'll see to it that you have enough resources. to be a blessing. But you got to have your priorities in order.
You who are parents. Many of us, we've raised our children in our home. That's the ideal. But you know, as well as I do, many of you have had children, and for whatever reason, you do not raise them in your household. There's been a divorce, or you were single parents, and you never married.
If you are the parent, male or female, of children who walk this earth, God says it is your responsibility to see to it that their needs are met. Even if they don't live in your home, it's your God-given responsibility. to see to it that their needs are met. A court shouldn't have to tell you to take care of your kids. When it drops off, I'm going to keep on preaching.
Well, the court didn't order me. Nothing, court, I answer to a higher authority. God tells me to take care of my children if I brought them in this world. He will bless me to see to it that their needs are met, that there's a roof over their head, that there's food on their table, that they are clothed, that they have what they need, that they are prepared for education. You gotta see to it.
Got nothing to do with her. They're not living here.
Well, I don't like their mother.
Well, that's a personal problem. But God gave you responsibility over those children. And it's not just a male thing, sisters too. Y'all wanted liberation? You got it.
Go to work. God didn't call men to take care of their children. He called parents to take care of their children. And so you gotta do it. You gotta do it.
You gotta make sure family is squared away. That's the Bible principle. God first. And then he says, make sure you're taking care in this case of your spiritual family. Your natural and your spiritual family.
Deserve your attention and don't worry about it. God will give you the ability. and the resources to then be a blessing. even to those you don't know, to the strangers among you. But you gotta make sure you have your priorities in order.
Our church has always practiced that as a fellowship. Don't go away. The rest of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring Pastor Paul Shepard, is coming right up. Jesus said that if we follow His teaching, we would know the truth, and the truth would set us 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. Whether it's our children, our spouses, or our brothers and sisters in Christ, we serve others best when we serve God first.
Now, here's the rest of Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: For Christ's sake, do good. Our church has always practiced that as a fellowship. We have always done good to all people. We have outreachers spend millions of dollars reaching out to people. and meeting their needs, helping as best we can.
But we do not neglect the people among us, the family of believers. You've got to take care of family, just like the early church did. The early church, you see it in Acts 2, you see it in Acts 4. They understood that we are a family now.
Some of them have been disowned by their families who didn't walk with the Lord. But they got into the church, and the church said, Don't worry about it, we're your family, we got you covered. And they made sure the needs among them were met. We've always done that as a local church. And all the years I've pastored.
I have seen the value of making sure that the people among us who serve God, who are part of the family of believers here. That to the extent that we can, we can't do everything for everybody, but we do what we can as the Lord gives us opportunity. And that's been a long-standing practice all the years that I pass it. In fact, These days, there are six figures in our budget every year that's nothing but helping our people through tough times. Just it's what we do.
And you say, Well, I never heard y'all say that before because we don't blow trumpets about it, it's just being the family. The Bible says, when you see your brother or sister in need, how would you shut up your bowels of compassion and yet say you have the love of God? And so we've had to learn to have guidelines over the years. Get it structured, take care of the needy, not the greedy. You know, we've had to learn that not everybody in the church has pure motives.
Some folk come to the church to get over. Because they know church folk, you know, that live right, you know, have good hearts, and sometimes people try to exploit it. But we have found God gives us discernment. But we take care of one another. We did it.
Not only do we do it now as a large church with a big budget, we did it when we were a little church, when we had a handful of people. When there was a need among us, we did whatever we had to do. There were times in the early days, asked some of these early folk, I would take a second offering to bless somebody who was in need. I'd get up in church. Having during the week found out about some need and somebody is really in a major crisis and said, What can we do to help?
If you could help with this or that, boy, that would really be a blessing. And you know, back in those days, we had a little itty-bitty budget. We were believing God, but it sure hadn't manifested yet. And we had this little, little teeny. I was just glad to have a budget.
We had a budget, but there was no line item for helping people. And so in those days, I'd have to get up. In the service. And I did it on several occasions and said, Listen, there's a family among us that has a major crisis. I've talked with them this week.
It's a legitimate need. And so we're going to take a second offering. And everything you give in this second offering is going to go to help. These people, they're among us. I don't want to call their name, I don't want to embarrass them.
But believe, trust the pastor, this is a legitimate need. And we'd pass it again, and whatever we gave that second time, the church would write a check and help them with that need. And you know what? The world will be impressed when they see a church. That does more than preach.
If all you got is a hoop and a holler and a text. They're not going to pay you much attention. But when you live out the tenets of the faith, You catch people's attention. I'll never forget in the early days that was driven home to me. One Sunday, we had a family with a need, and it was one of those Sundays.
I was taking a second offering. These are the very early days, little group of folk in the theater we were renting for services. And in those days, we hadn't learned as much as we've learned now about reaching unchurched people and making sure they're comfortable in our midst. And we were just a little close-knit church, and we were used to what we were used to. And we liked to know who was with us.
And so, we, in those days, we asked first-time visitors not only to stand up, which we still do, and then we allow them now to be seated, we just applaud and thank them for coming. But in those days, we would ask visitors to tell us their name and whose guests they were. Because we were a little close-knit bunch, and we want to know who's here visiting us. We're glad to have you. Our hearts were right, but our method was messed up.
Because we learned that a lot of people were appalled. Cause you know when somebody finally got them to visit Now these strangers ask me to get up and talk. And we didn't see it from their perspective right away. We only saw it from ours. And we thought, we just want to know who you are, we love you.
So, in those days, we would ask people to get up. And that particular Sunday, when I asked for the visitors to stand and say, Would you just tell us your name, whose guest you are? We're really glad to have you. There was one lady who was the guest of one of our families, and when she gave her name, I heard this little buzz go through the small congregation. And she was, I didn't know it at that time, but she was a well-known author.
Best-selling novelist. A couple of her movies, her books now have been turned into movies. I know her now, I didn't know her then. And so they heard her name and they started buzzing and I'm standing there saying, what are they doing?
So we went on with the service. During meet and greet time, somebody ran up to me and said, Pastor, do you know who that is? I said, no. And it's all that's so-and-so. And she wrote such and such a novel, and all that.
And oh, she's a big, she's big. I said, oh great, glad she's here. Went on with the service. Preach my message, ended the service. But we are taking this special offering.
And this Woman came up to me. On the stage, I was breaking down my keyboard. Back in those days, I was leading the band and everything, man. You came back in the old days, man. I was a one-man show, boy.
I was leading the band, had a drum machine sitting up there and had my keyboard, and I'm singing in the mic, and then I run over and preach, and then all like that. I paid my dues, don't fool with me. Don't fool me. He's so, he thinks he's something. No, no, I paid my dues.
Get up off of me. I'm not trying to hear that. And so I'm up there, I'm plugging my keyboard and stuff like that. And she walked up and she said, Reverend, I want to let you know I really enjoyed this service.
So-and-so invited me. And you know, we live way out in the Black Hawk area. And so I'm just, I'm just, they've been trying to get me to come for a while. And I finally found this weekend and came in. And she said, I really, really enjoyed it.
She said, in fact, if I didn't live so far out, I think I'd come regularly. And she said, Do you know the thing that I was impressed with the most? I thought sure was going to be my sermon. I was getting ready to be humble, you know. You'll say, I was impressed with your sir.
I was getting ready to say, oh, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much. Bless you, Macha Ayoga. Man, I was getting ready to do that. She said, The thing I was impressed with the most.
Is that you take care of your people in need? She said I can't say I'm a Christian. She said, but I know God's been good to me. She said he's blessed me. With wealth.
And she said, would you mind? If I help you, help that family. He was a first-time visitor. Didn't know us from a can of paint. But she sensed a functional family of believers.
Who sought to do good. Especially to the household. of faith. And she wanted to get in on it. She said, I'm too blessed to sit on all this money.
And not, she said, is it okay? Yeah, imagine that, asking me, may I give an offering? And I said, certainly, certainly, anyone is free to give. And I knew that she didn't know us and I wanted to make sure there were no trust issues.
So I said, listen, most of our people just gave, you know, wrote their checks out to the church because they knew we were going to just deposit them and then write one check based on the amount of the offering and give to this family. But if you would like, I will give you the name of the individual and you can write a check directly to them. I did that because I didn't want her thinking. We were going to misuse What she was giving out of her heart. And I don't remember which way she chose, whether to write it to the church or to the individual, but I offered that choice.
And she wrote a check. I do remember her one check was bigger than the whole offering. And it was because of that check plus our offering. That that need was met. Let me tell you something.
People will be impressed. If we will be the church. And that means we do good. We seek ways to be blessings. We seek ways.
to lift people up. And it begins by living in biblical order, worshiping God first. Taking care of family, spiritual and natural family. Uh Then God will bless us to do good to many other people. strangers in our midst.
to his glory. When we love God and make Him our first priority, our capacity for doing good to others becomes even greater than it might have been. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message. Remember, any of our recent messages, including the one you heard just now, 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 videos from Pastor Paul Shepard. is found at pastor paul dot net.
Well, we have a great resource to share with you today when you make a generous gift, introducing our booklet, Give, Bless, Repeat. If you want to make giving a lifestyle, not only a periodic act of generosity, you'll want to get your hands on a copy of this outstanding resource right away. Pastor Paul Shepherd will challenge you to make doing good deeds a regular part of your life, and he'll give you some helpful keys to doing so. That's give, bless, repeat our gift to you today for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. 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. And if you need prayer today, you're invited to use the contact feature at the top of our homepage, pastorpaul.net, and share your request with us. Our ministry team is always happy to join you in prayer.
That's pastorpaul.net. But give him 10,000, give him 1,000. If he gives you $100,000, give him $10,000. If he gives you a million, give him $100,000. Don't have to get deep about it.
All of it is his. Just move the decimal. Quit praying. Move the decimal. And we worship God first through giving.
That's tomorrow in our continuing message for Christ's sake. Do good. Join us to be reminded of some of God's greatest promises, promises He's made to all of His children, including you. But until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
In Christ, you are destined for victory.
