Here's an important announcement from Destined for Victory's Executive Director, Alicia Shepherd Greer. Pastor Paul's media ministry is at a crossroads, and as executive director and as his daughter, I am sincerely asking for your help. When my father went to be with the Lord earlier this year, you all showed such tremendous support, and we are so grateful for each and every one of you. But recently, we experienced a change in one of our significant sources of funding, and that change has led to a deficit.
So we need your help to keep Pastor Paul's teachings on the air. Every December we do a special fundraising push. But this year, because of the deficit, it's especially important.
So we're asking you to prayerfully consider giving a gift over and above your normal amount to help us keep this teaching legacy alive. And what's so special is that this month we're offering a special thank you gift. It's a collection of my dad's last year of teaching in the pulpit, and it's called Becoming an Excellent Steward. The family just finished up edits and now it will be going to print. We wanted to make sure it truly captured his voice and it came out beautifully.
I spent my dad's birthday weekend reading the entire book and it feels like a book of his best biblical life advice, so I know it will bless you. You can make a donation and request the book by visiting pastorpaul.net. Thank you so much for standing with us and keeping this mighty man of God's teaching legacy alive. God bless you. Thank you, Alicia.
Becoming an excellent steward is available today as our thank you for your best gift of twenty five dollars or more. Your gift will help us address the current financial deficit and keep Pastor's teaching legacy alive on this station. Please don't forget about the brand new book based on Pastor Paul's final messages. It's called Becoming an Excellent Steward, and it's reserved for you when you make your most generous year-end gift of $25 or more. Your generosity will help Destin for Victory through the current financial deficit and keeps Pastor Paul's teaching alive on this station.
More details are available at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net, or you can make your best year-end gift now by calling 855-339-5500. 855-339-5500. Uh Yes, God loves us. Yes, his grace abounds in our direction.
But you got to understand something. Grace doesn't just come to constantly cover up the same old mess. Grace comes to teach us how to live on a higher level. The birth of Christ is not merely an historical fact, it's a beautiful story, one worth listening to again and again. And with all good stories, especially the true ones, we have several lessons we can apply to our own lives.
That's the focus on today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard. The message is called Life Lessons from the Christmas Story, and it starts right now. I want to talk about life lessons from the Christmas. Story. We are moving into that season of the year.
Where we celebrate once again the historical reality of the birth of Jesus Christ. This is a time when Although our society around us is criminalizing Christmas, they still want to have a holiday. And so they just tell you, well, don't say Merry Christmas, that'll offend folk. But let's just say happy holidays. And folk want to have a holiday for no reason.
We know that this season is about the birth of Jesus Christ. I've said across the years: if you don't want to acknowledge that Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, was born in a manger. Came into this world by God's divine will. If you don't want to acknowledge that fact, go to work on December 25th. You're not off because of a winter holiday.
There is no winter holiday. No more than there's a summer holiday, or a spring holiday, or an autumn holiday. This is about Christmas. You can't even say the word without acknowledging Christ. And so these are times when we, as people of God, can and should celebrate.
Christmas, because we know the real meaning of the season. We know what it is all about. And we need to keep Christ in our Christmas. Make sure in all that you do, you keep Christ at the center of your season.
Now, many believers have differing views on how much we should participate, and there are those that say we shouldn't do anything of the commercial variety, and there are the no trees and no trappings kinds of approaches to Christmas. And I think in the body of Christ, we ought to learn to accept others without passing judgment on disputable matters, according to Romans 14.
So, if that's your position, God bless you. Hold it with all sincerity. But don't pass judgment on those of us that have trees and candy canes because we are not denying the Lord who bought us by celebrating in that fashion. And so we can all get along if we will just learn that not everybody sees everything the way you see it. But here's the thing I want to say, especially to parents who are new to faith and often will get questions about things like this.
And, you know, some say, well, should I? I have young children, and of course, they want to enjoy some of the trappings with regard to Santa Claus. What should I do? Because I don't want to be untrue to God or to Christ. And I've often told them through the years, this is my word of advice, take it or leave it.
But I've often said, I see no problem with having that. Again, if it's not against your conscience, having the Santa Claus story and trappings as part of the way you acknowledge the season. But I've always encouraged parents to put Santa Claus in the right category. Put him in there with Little Red Riding Hood. Put him in there with the other fairy tales.
Nothing wrong with it. We've all enjoyed fairy tales across the years. And even if you want to go into more detail and talk about St. Nicholas and then talk about the evolution of the idea of Santa Claus from the historical figure St. Nicholas, help yourself.
Do whatever you want. But I don't have a problem with Santa Claus as long as you let the children know here is one of the stories that has been told down through the centuries, just like the three bears and the three pigs and all of them. Throw Santa Claus right on up in there. Because you know, they can still enjoy it, even though it's a story. You know, children have a marvelous way of getting into it.
You remember how you did it? I wasn't upset when I found out Little Red Riding Hood wasn't really going through the woods. I just enjoyed the story. She was on her way to grandma's house. The wolf got in there and messed things up, but I wasn't disturbed.
And so I encourage parents to do the same thing when it comes to Santa Claus if you choose to go in that direction and let the children know here is one of the stories. And if you want to go to the department store and sit on his lap and tell him what you won't find, just understand that when you see the stuff under the tree. At least, here was my approach when mine was young. I got it from my daddy. My daddy said, I'm not about to let y'all believe that somebody broke in the house and left this stuff.
I worked too hard. I went through too many changes. For that to happen, no, no. When y'all look under that tree, don't say thank you, Santa. Look in my direction.
Yeah. You wanna leave little cookies and something? Give them to me. That was his approach, and I just adopted that. My children both enjoyed the trappings and also knew that their parents were responsible for blessing them on Christmas Day.
And for us, we just kind of blended it all together. But whatever you do, keep the Christ in. in your Christmas. And one of the ways you can do that is to familiarize yourself with the real story of Christmas. The real story of Christmas is not a story about Santa Claus.
The real story of Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. And so I've taken different approaches through the years to talking about this story. This time, I want us to look at the story, and as we just review the historical account surrounding the birth of Christ, I want us to also learn some life lessons, some things that we can take away from this historical account and apply to our own lives. Consider Luke chapter 1.
Now, Luke was a physician. He wrote meticulous detail, and I really appreciate his account of the birth of Christ. In fact, if you'll notice, he doesn't start with the birth of Christ, but he starts with the birth of the forerunner of Christ, who was John the Baptist. And he says here that in the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zachariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abiah. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.
And look at verse 6, both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. That's the first life lesson I want to take away from this review of the historical account. Of Christmas, and it is this: life lesson number one: righteousness matters to God. Righteous living, rather, matters to you. to God.
Notice that the people chosen by God to bring John the Baptist into the world are spoken of as people who were upright. People who were righteous in the sight of God. I want you to know that righteous living matters to God. There is such a thing as righteousness. We live in a day of situational ethics, of personal sovereignty, of people wanting to believe: well, what I believe is right is just as valid as what you believe is right.
We all pick our own right, we all define our own right, and then we do what's right in our own eyes.
Well, there's a problem with that, and that is that there is a creator who established not only the principles that you see in the world of science and physics and established all in creation, but that same God established and decreed that certain things were right and certain things were wrong. And if you go around trying to define your own reality, the Bible says there is a way that seems right to a man. But the end thereof are the ways of death. And I want to let you know that God has established that which is right and that which is wrong, and those principles beat you to the planet.
So, you don't have the luxury of going around saying, Well, this is my reality just because it's wrong for you. Don't put your ethics on me. I didn't put mine on you. God put them on you. And when God puts them on you, you can't take them off.
The Bible says that it is appointed once to every one of us to die, and after death, the judgment. Why is there going to be a judgment? Because God has decreed that we are to give an account of our lives. And the Bible is very clear that God will judge us according to His standard, not according to ours.
So we need to familiarize ourselves with the fact that there is such a thing as righteousness. The Bible uses the phrase the righteous 163 times in the NIV. Another 67 times you see the word upright. Another 37 times you see the phrase, a righteous man. God cares about righteousness, and He chose people to bring John the Baptist in the world who were not living raggedy lives, sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes almost level to the ground.
He chose people who made up in their minds we're going to honor God by living right. The text said that they followed the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly.
Now, whenever you see that word, it's not talking about sinless perfection. But it is a powerful word because it means that you are living in excellence according to what you know and understand and what God has called you to at that level. It's like getting A's in a certain grade. If you're in sixth grade and you get straight A's, you're doing as well as you can at that point. There's more to learn.
There are things you don't know, there are things you don't understand, there are things you've not yet perfected. But you are good as far as you've gone. That's what blamelessly means. It means that we are tracking with God as He leads us down the path of righteousness, teaches us how to walk away from those things that are not His plan for our lives. You are following Him as He leads you.
And the Bible says these folks followed the Lord in righteousness. They did so blamelessly. I want to let you know that righteous living matters to God. A lot of times in our day, we talk so much about our blessed assurance until sometimes I wonder if blessed assurance doesn't turn into blessed presumption. And we begin to assume that I can do anything I want, because after all, God loves me.
And God protects me and God covers me with His grace and mercy. Indeed, He does. May I affirm what the Bible teaches? Yes, God loves us. Yes, His mercy is everlasting.
Yes, His grace abounds in our direction. But you got to understand something: grace doesn't just come to constantly cover up the same old mess. Grace comes, according to Titus 2, to teach us how to live on a higher level. In fact, God covers you and God helps you to recover from your mistakes so that you can begin to move away from them and not get caught up in them any longer. What did Jesus say to the woman who was caught in the act of adultery?
Well, first of all, those old hypocritical Pharisees had no business dragging her out there without the man. But you know, if you get religion and not Jesus, you are liable to be a hypocrite. And they were hypocrites, and they went and grabbed the woman, and they said, Now, Moses' law said to stone her. No, it didn't. The Bible said stone adulterers, plural.
You can't commit adultery by yourself. I know you smart and all. But you can't pull that one off. You can't commit adultery by yourself. So what'd they do?
They went and grabbed the person that they knew they could bully. They waited till that man left. They better had. I wish they would have got in his face. He'd have took care of all of them.
They waited till he left, dragged a little innocent woman out there. And what did Jesus do? It's marvelous. He said, all right, fine. Y'all want to have a stoning?
Well, whoever is without sin, cast the first stone. Unless somebody was out of touch. He stooped down on the ground. And began to write. Do you remember that?
He began to write. We don't know what he wrote, but whatever he wrote took care of business. Because those folk leaning over to see what he was writing, the first man leaned over. Jesus knew something about him, wrote. And that man walked away.
Jesus looked up at the next one, smoothed that out, roast some more. But notice what he said after all of her accusers was gone. He said, Woman, I'm not here to condemn you. Aren't you glad God doesn't condemn you when you fall short? Aren't you glad that with God, He's not the God of a second chance like some folks say, He's the God of another chance?
Because if he was only got a second chance, well, we're still in trouble. We blew a second chance a long time ago. But here's the point. Look at the balance with which Jesus loved her. He said, I'm not here to condemn you.
But he said, go and sin no more. In other words, God wants you to follow Him out of your life of sin and disobedience into a life of faithful obedience. And He leads you, and all you have to do is follow Him. And the Bible says you can do so blamelessly. You can become consistent at saying yes to God when He deals with you about the issues that are going on in your life that are not pleasing to Him.
And I want to let you know that God has an amazing love for us, but that love is not meant to cover the same mess over and over again. God has called us to be righteous people. God has called us to be people who live an upright life. Not people who have a constant excuse for why we are the way we are. But he has called us to being upright people.
People. And so, when it comes to this matter of righteousness, know that it's not just about God's love for us, but it is about our love for Him. See, a lot of folks want to talk about how much God loves us, but the question is: well, how much do you love Him? And Jesus said clearly: if you love me, keep my commandments. Show your love by the way you respond to the dealings of the Holy Spirit in your life.
And so we've got to do this because God has called us to be upright. And the fact of the matter is, the obedient life is the life God blesses. There are some blessings that are only available to those of us who are in the place of obedience. It's not a matter of God loves obedient people more than He loves disobedient people. He loves all the same.
See, we live in a world that gets that confused, even in child raising principles now. It's so amazing. People are so smart, they're dumb. They're so educated until they're stupid now. And things that used to be taken for granted, now you have to fight tooth and nail to make the point.
And one of them is: people talk about this business of, well, if you love your children, then you don't love them based on the conditions of how obedient they are. No, I agree. You don't love them based on their obedience, but there are certain things that are only available to the obedient. The way you love the disobedient is you teach them, you model for them, you encourage them, you equip them, and when they do wrong, your love has to reprove them. That's the missing element today.
We don't like that. No, no, no reproof, no rebuke, because you're giving them a complex. There's a Greek word for that, baloney. Giving you a complex because you know what I told you to do when I was leaving this house and came back, and you didn't do it? I'm not giving you a complex.
You better be glad I'm not giving you something else. And you can't reward disobedience. It's not a question of love. They're not in the position to receive the best you have for them because they don't understand yet that this is a two-way street. And that because I love you, when I call you to a lifestyle of doing your chores, of having rules, of having a curfew, all of my rules are in your best interest.
You don't even understand it, but I do. I understand that I'm loving you when I tell you to come in at a certain time. I'm loving you when I tell you to get your homework done before you turn the TV on. I'm loving you. It might not feel like love.
Well, if you love me, I could watch TV all night. Burnt, wrong answer. I love you, and yes, you can't watch TV till you finish your homework. No inconsistency in the message. Don't listen to these crazy people.
No inconsistency in that. It's not that your love is conditional. Your love is unconditional, but your love has to meet the need of its object. And if the object is in disobedience, Or defiance. Then love has to direct them in the right direction.
Why? Because your job as a parent is to train them up in the way they should go. Your job is to release into the world somebody who has some sense. Don't put your crazy kid on society. That's not your job as a parent.
God gave you a job of correcting, instructing, loving, affirming, all of it together. People talk about privacy. The children have a right to privacy. I'll give you as much freedom as you can handle. But when I see you can't quite handle it, you can't get it.
Uh And I haven't stopped loving you. You see, it's not a question of love. And when it comes to this business of obedience, obedience, even in God's economy, brings certain blessings because you're in a position to receive God's best for your life. In case you ever doubted whether God wants the best for you, consider this. God left the sweet fragrance of heaven for the stench of a stable.
He abandoned the riches of His glory for sandals and sawdust, and ultimately a sacrificial death. And He did it because you are loved. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message: Life Lessons from the Christmas Story. To find out more about Destined for Victory's mission and purpose, or about the special gift reserved for you when you make your generous year-end gift, please come see us at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.
God put principles in the earth to bless our lives. And Mary qualified because she was righteous. Elizabeth and Zachariah qualify because they are righteous, not because they're more loved. But because they have said yes to God's way. And that's next time in our Destined for Victory message: Life Lessons from the Christmas Story.
Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
