Through Jesus, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise. See again, there's that word sacrifice. The first reason to go to church is not for what you're going to get. The first reason you go to church is for what you're going to give. It was King David who said, I will not sacrifice to God that which costs me nothing.
Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory featuring the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. You know, it's easy to praise God when life is nothing but blue skies and cotton candy, but sooner or later, praise is going to cost you something. In the tough times when the skies grow dark and the canti runs out, that's when our praise becomes a sacrifice. But as you'll see today, God has promised to give you something in return. Remember, visit pastorpaul.net, where you can hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's.
That's pastorpaul.net.
Now, here is Pastor Paul's destined for victory message. Have you paid your praise bill? We got a generation, unless we teach our children manners and what it means to honor and respect, they won't learn it. They're growing up in a world that's teaching them to distrust their parents. It's amazing the kinds of things that are happening in our society today, where there are agencies and organizations that actually think they gotta protect our children from us.
Now, to be sure, there are some situations, some abuse where we ought to always stand against that, and there ought to always be sensible, righteous principles and precepts by which children who need to be protected can be. But you know as well as I do, we've just gone stark raving mad now. Just lost our minds as a society, and your children, you caught them off the school, and they're being taught to distrust you and second-guess you. And I'm my own person, and they can't tell me what to do. On top of that, they have no manners.
And unless you teach your children manners, they'll grow up just as ignorant. And rude. I can't believe what I'm seeing in this generation. It just, I just, I have no frame of reference for it. Give a child something, they just look at you.
Like you were supposed to do that. Why are you still standing here? Don't you have something you need to be doing? I just can't relate. Pardon me, I know every now and then I exhale on y'all, but I cannot relate.
I'm doing my best. I just can't relate. It baffles my mind. It befuddles my imagination. The level of rudeness.
And parents just standing there. You give the child something and they don't say anything. And the parent might say, Say thank you. And the child just looks at you. And then the parents say, Oh, Lord, I tell you, I don't know what to do with this child.
And I'm standing there feeling like I'm in the Twilight Zone. What do you mean you don't know what to do with this? Send them over my house for a weekend. That's a weekend. You get them back Monday morning.
I'm not gonna beat up on your kid or nothing like that, but when I get through, they'll know something you didn't teach them. I just can't, I don't get it. It just, it amazes me, the lack of manners. And parents just knocking themselves over to give them everything they want, don't have to do any chores, don't have to do anything around the house, can be just as rude and disrespectful and then show up with a long Christmas list. Y'all know as well as I do that when we were coming up.
You couldn't act like that and expect to get something? You know as well as I do that they expected certain things out of you. And I declare, when you let your children know I expect certain things, they have a funny way of living up to expectations. Suggestions they ignore. Expectations is a different thing.
And you gotta let them know the way to live. You got to let them know something's right. You know, we had to say thank you for things we didn't want. Just straight up didn't want it. You saw it when they were given to you.
I don't want that. But you said that inside yourself. But you had been taught, take it and say thank you. We be riding home, Mom, do I have to wear this?
Okay. And you know, my mama would say, well, wear it one time so they can see you in it.
Now, I got to show up at church with this goofy shirt on. Folks, let me tell you something. There are certain things that are right. Having manners is right. Having respect for other people is right.
But the generation won't learn it unless we teach it. And they won't learn it unless we model it. And if they don't see us respecting and worshiping God, then they won't know what it means to do the same. And if they see you acting like you can take or leave God. then that will teach them the lesson that God must not be very important.
Because my parents deal with him based on how they feel rather than what they owe God. The Bible says we owe him a heart of praise and thanksgiving. Colossians 3:15 says, Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts and be thankful. That means live in a state of thankfulness. Get up in the morning saying, Thank you, Lord.
Thank you for another day. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to praise your name one more day. While you're in the shower, that's some good Thanksgiving time. While you're driving your car, give the Lord thanks and praise.
For the ability to get around, do what you need to do, give him thanks. You can always find something to thank and praise God for. It said, be thankful. Colossians 3:17 said, giving thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ, always living in that attitude of gratitude. In fact, 1 Thessalonians 5.18 says, in everything give thanks.
That means you just don't thank him for the things that you happen to like about your life. You learn to thank Him in everything. You thank Him on your miserable days. You thank Him on the days where you don't like what's happening. Don't take that out on God.
He is still worthy of thanksgiving and praise. And if you can't thank him because of your circumstances, you can thank him because you know he's with you in your circumstances. And the psalmist said, Even though I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I don't have to fear because I know God is with me and you owe him thanks and praise. And then Hebrews 13:15 says, Through Jesus, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise. See again, there's that word sacrifice.
It has to do with the deliberate giving to God. It reflects on the Old Testament practice of the priest bringing offerings to sacrifice them to the Lord.
Now, because we don't have a sin offering that has to be given, Jesus was our great high priest, and our sins have been paid forever. Don't think we don't have any offerings, we have the sacrifice of praise. In fact, may I say to you, that's the first reason you ought to show up at church. The first reason to go to church is not for what you're going to get. The first reason you go to church is for what you're going to give.
I show up as a priest to give God my thanks and my praise. He blessed me through another week, blessed me to get to another weekend, another chance to lift my voice and say, Lord, I thank you. That's the first reason you show up at church. You don't show up at church depending on who's preaching. Depending on who's preaching, I heard about the curbside checking outside.
Folk who won't even get out of their car, just drive up, push the button down. Uh, is he in today? I want to let you know you're delinquent on your praise bill. Get out of that car, get into the house of worship. You owe God thanks and praise.
You're a priest. Priests don't show up based on how they like the temple or what's going to go on in the temple. You show up because you got an offering to bring before the King of Kings. He either accepts it or rejects it based on the state of our heart. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to waste my time going to church and God wouldn't be pleased with me.
And so, the way to guarantee He's pleased is every time I come, I come to bring him my thanksgiving and my praise. And God has a funny way: when you come to bless him, he'll turn around and bless you. And you'll find it that when you come with the mentality of a priest rather than the mentality of a consumer, let's see what I'm going to get. Sit up and rate everything. Yeah, whatnot crazy about that song Yeah Lord.
Well, you don't understand it, but the one you're supposed to be pleasing is displeased. Because sometimes, even if you don't like the song, you praise him despite. The song. You praise Him despite the fact that you're not crazy about the message or the messenger. When you come with a heart of gratitude toward God.
He will be well pleased. And you know, when praise goes up, blessings come down. God just has a way of reacting to our praise by blessing us in unexpected ways. And I want to let you know that we have a praise bill that's due. We have to learn to praise Him.
Psalm 107 gives us reasons why we ought to praise God. Let me just run through them quickly with you and I'll be done. Number one, it says you ought to praise Him for His provisions. When you look at verses 4 through 9, they talk about God's provisions. They talk about God meeting some felt needs, some actual needs.
And you know as well as I do that God has met many needs in your life. There have been days when you say, God, unless you come through, I'm not going to be able to make it. But how many know God has never let the righteous be forsaken? God knows how to come through for his people. Praise him for your provisions.
You might not have the house you want. Praise Him for the one you have. Busy envying other folk, you can't even thank God for what you have. You might not be able to write a big check. There was a time when you couldn't write a check.
Praise him for what you have. For his provisions, he's met you at the point of your need, and I'll tell you something else: when you learn to praise him out of your lifestyle of gratitude, he'll not only meet your needs, but he'll start giving you some of the desires of your heart because you delight yourself in him. Um Praise him for his provisions. Don't go away, we have more of today's Destined for Victory message coming up next. But we want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support.
Gifts that help us keep this media ministry going. If you'd like to join us in our mission to preach timeless truth for a victorious life, please consider making a safe and secure donation at our website, pastorpaul.net. Or give us a call at 855-339-5500. 855-339-5500. God can deliver you from anything.
Sin, addiction, pride. Deliverance is the reward. Humility is the price tag.
Now here's the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. Have you paid your praise bill? Verses 10 through 16 talk about his deliverance.
Some of us need to praise God because He has set us free. You know you were bound in some area of your life. And God graciously sets you free. And I'm not just talking about people who are bound with some sort of addiction. They, oh, God, praise.
If you come out of drugs, I just heard the testimony of a young lady in our church the other day, and she talked about how bound in drugs she was, and now how she is enjoying freedom and deliverance in Christ and loving this life. God can set the captive free. Don't tell me you have to stay that way. It's a lie. God can set you free.
From drugs or alcohol or whatever it is, sexual addiction, whatever is binding your life and keeping you from enjoying the abundant life Christ died to give you, you can be set free. But let me tell you something, it's not just addictions.
Some of us, we need to thank God for setting us free from our pride. Full of yourself. When you get saved because God blessed you with the gift of a contrite heart, when you finally realize you weren't all that, You owe God thanks because not a whole lot of people who were formerly proud are going to be in the kingdom. Because you have to humble yourself before God to get into the kingdom. And there are people who think they are all that.
And God has to bless you. With some circumstances that break you.
Some of you need to look back and thank God for a time when you were broken. When your conceit was broken, you were an egomaniac. You had a pregnant ego that refused to give birth. And God had to break you. I want to tell you something.
You owe God praise when He broke your pride and allowed you to experience a contrite heart so you could get into the kingdom of God.
Some of us are bound by fear until Christ sets us free. Fear of the past, fear of our enemies, fear of circumstances, fear of negative reports, and God can set you free. The Bible says He's not given you a spirit of fear. but of power and love and of a sound mind. Thank him for his delivering power.
And then the psalmist goes on to say we ought to thank him for his healing. Verses 17 through 22 talk about God's healing power. I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but our God is a healer. He can heal supernaturally. He can heal through natural means.
It all brings him glory. And so, our God is a healer. If you receive healing as a result of medical science, the wisdom and the breakthroughs God has allowed them to have, give God praise for it. Give God thanks for it. The doctor is only an instrument.
God is the healer. And you give God thanks. And some of us know that you got a negative report from the doctor, and you had to go to heaven for a second opinion. And the doctor said, I'm sorry, we can't do what you wish we would do. You don't have a very good prognosis.
But some folks said, Thank you very much, but I'm going to go get a second opinion. He thought you're going to another doctor. You found your place of prayer and said, Father, in the name of Jesus, I'm looking to you. If you're ready to take me, I'm ready to go. But if you got more plans for me, I need you to be the doctor on my case.
And some folk can testify: not only has God healed me through natural means or through medical science, the wisdom God gave them, but some can testify he healed me supernaturally. God is a healer. In fact, I wouldn't be standing here telling you this truth if that weren't true. Because my father, when he was a very young man, still single, had a terrible condition that had him in such a state that the doctor said, Well, we're going to try to do an operation. And even if we're successful, which we're not sure of, we want to tell you now: even if we're not successful, you'll never be a father.
And he said he got the information that day. Later that night, he was going to a church service in a church that knew how to pray and call on the name of the Lord, and where they believed that God could not only heal through natural means, but through supernatural means if he desired. And he went to service that night. He said he was bent over in pain, could not walk, excruciating pain, and got to the church. They were ministering to the sick at that very moment, people in an aisle waiting to be prayed for.
And he said he came in, bent over, and two men, out of love and compassion for him, picked him up and brought him into the church. And they thought we're going to put him at the front of the line because he can't walk. He's in the worst shape of anybody in that line. And so they picked him up to bring him down to the front. Mother Davney, who was praying in a North Philadelphia church, looked up.
She was one of the people ministering, looked up and saw them getting ready to put him in the front of the line. She said, put him down. He was the announcer on their radio show. She knew him and loved him well. She said, he says he's called to be a preacher.
God is going to use him as a preacher.
Well, then let him exercise some faith and walk down here. Those old folk were cold-blooded, man. Goals. Those folk didn't play. Cold-blooded.
There he is, bent over, got to walk that creep down to the front of church. Everybody looking at him, you know how church folk do, everybody looking. All embarrassed and carrying on, she said, let him exercise some faith. And they just went on praying for the other folk till he creaked down there. He said, when I got within a few feet of her, she turned around and extended her hand toward me, never touched me physically, and said, Father, loose this man in Jesus' name.
He said, He sprung up, all the pain gone, and has been totally healed ever since. And if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here to tell you the story.
Some of us know God's a healer. He's not only a healer of body, he's a healer of minds. He's a healer of broken hearts. God can mend you back together again. Bitterness will kill you and destroy you, but if you'll give it over to God, He knows how to put you back together.
So, the bottom line is, the psalmist said, We've got to praise him for his healing. We've got to praise him for the peace he gives. Verses 23 through 32 talk about the peace that he gives. Talks about a raging storm and how they cried out to God, and in response to that, he calmed the seas. I want to let you know: he not only calms natural seas, but he'll calm the storm in your life.
Some of us know you were going through a time where everything around you was tossing and turning, but God spoke peace to your soul. Praise him for the peace he gives. And then finally, as he wraps up Psalm 107, he talks about praising God for his favor. Verses 33 through 42 talk about just the blessings, the favor of God. You know, when you walk uprightly before God, he'll just bestow favor.
See, the Bible says we ought to thank him, the first verse of Psalm 107, because of his goodness.
Some of us don't understand that. You don't get blessed because you're good. You get blessed because he's good. It's his goodness. You know, if you got what you deserved, it wouldn't be pretty.
But we thank him that he's been good. That's favor. God will give you favor, and favor is that X factor that you can't put your finger on, but everybody sees it. It's what happened to Joseph in the Old Testament when he ended up being the second in command in Egypt. That's favor.
You know why I know that's favor? Number one, he's not an Egyptian. He's a Canaanite. He came there as a slave. He's not a natural citizen.
How do you get the second best job in the country and you're not even a natural citizen? That's favor. Not only was he not a natural citizen, number two, he was an ex-con.
Now he wasn't an ex-con just did a little stint on a misdemeanor. He wasn't a little ex-con, did a little three, four months, little Martha Stewart time. Six months, whatever it was. No, no. This man, my man was in jail for somewhere between 10 and 13 years on a felony, attempted rape.
He didn't do it. But he was a convicted felon. But when God is ready to bring you out. Your past doesn't matter. When God gives you favor, Now, you know as well as I do, if Pharaoh sends a headhunter out.
to find the best applicant. for the second best job in the country. Second only to being Pharaoh, the headhunter's not gonna come back with a non-citizen ex-con felon. Who did hard time? But God Has a way of giving you favor.
God will give you a job you don't qualify for. God will give you money that'll make folk jealous of you. God will bless you in ways that others just sit back and say, mm. It's the X factor. I want to let you know we serve a God who is good.
And the bottom line is you're owe him praise. I want to encourage you to get your praise bill paid up. Put some on. Every now and then, just put something on your praise bill. Every day, just put some more on there.
In fact, bring it current and then start paying it in advance. See, when you get your money straight, then after a while, it's not about the due date. You just go in and knock it out of the way. And you gotta learn to do that with God. Praise Him in advance.
You're praying, you're asking for blessings and provisions and healing. Praise Him in advance. Just put something on it in advance. It's not technically due yet, He hasn't done it yet, but you're gonna praise Him in advance. I want to encourage you.
Pay your praise bill. Let everything that have breath Praise the Lord. For his goodness and his wonderful works. to the children of man. Thanks so much for spending part of your busy Friday here with us on Destined for Victory.
This program could not exist without the faithful prayers and financial support of listening friends and partners like you. You've always been the lifeblood of this media ministry, and it's because of you that we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people all over the world. We do hope you'll prayerfully consider sending a generous gift to day, and when you do we've got a great booklet to share with you as our way of saying thanks. It's titled 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 Shepard 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. Let's give, bless, repeat our gift to you 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 Pastor Paul.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. But I want to make sure we understand that there's power in praise. Praising God as a matter of lifestyle. Is something that I believe all of us who are followers of Christ. need to learn the importance of To be a praiser, not just sometimes, but a praiser as a matter of the way you live your life.
That's next time in our continuing message, Discovering the Power of Praise. Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
