Here's an important announcement now from Meredith Shepherd. Hello, Destined for Victory family. This is Meredith Shepard, Pastor Paul's wife. This is the first time you're hearing from me since my beloved husband went home to be with the Lord. And I want you to know your prayers have carried me.
Your letters, your messages, cards, books, the ways you've reached out during these months, they've strengthened me through the shock and the grief in ways I can't fully express. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You know, Paul often said that he wanted to be the black J. Vernon McGee. He'd say it with that grin of his, but behind the humor was something deeply serious.
A vision to create a teaching library that would outlive him, that would keep speaking biblical truth long after he was gone. And that's what he did. For decades, Paul poured himself into buildings destined for victory. not just as a radio programme, but as a legacy. He wanted to make sure that timeless truth would be available to help people live victorious lives no matter what generation they're in.
That's why I'm talking to you today, because what Paul worked so hard to build needs your help to continue. Recently, we experienced a change in one of our major funding sources, and for the first time in this ministry's history, we're at risk of losing radio stations, of having to pull back from communities where people depend on this teaching. I don't want my husband's voice silenced. I don't want the work he dedicated his life to building to disappear because of funding. We need to preserve what Pastor Paul poured himself into creating.
So I'm coming to you, this family that's already been so supportive, and I'm asking. Will you help us? if destined for victory has encouraged you, Challenged you, or helped you grow in your walk with God, would you consider giving to-day? A monthly gift would especially help us stabilize our funding and keep Paul's teaching on the air in every community that needs it. You can give at pastorpaul.
net. And as our thank you, we'd love to send you Paul's hardcover book, Becoming an Excellent Steward, a collection of his last year of teaching that our family just finished editing. It's a beautiful reminder of his heart and his wisdom. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for standing with us.
And thank you for your generosity in helping to preserve this legacy. God bless you. Becoming an excellent steward is available today as our thank you for your best gift of $25 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 When you pray. Believe. and receive. Don't pray prayers you don't expect God to answer. Don't waste your time.
Praying in doubt, wavering. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard. Wherever you are, however, you may be listening, thanks for making this part of your day.
Well, for the past few days, we've been talking about the practical lessons we can learn from the Christmas story. The first one is this: God honors righteous living, as seen in the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and many others. Second, God answers prayers. We saw how the birth of John the Baptist was in answer to the prayers of his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth.
Well, coming up next, yet another important lesson we can learn from the Christmas story, one that we sometimes have trouble learning. When you get a chance, we hope you'll stop by pastorpaul.net, where you can hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net.
Now, let's listen to Destined for Victory's Message, Life Lessons from the Christmas Story. With our God, nothing is impossible. Don't call the game on God. He alone is the official. He alone is the referee.
He alone is the timekeeper. You have no business deciding what God can and cannot do. Ours is to walk by faith and not by sight. To petition him in faith, to position ourselves to believe and receive. When we have mysteries, to give those over to God, to trust Him that He knows what we don't know.
But ours is to be a life of faith. As well as a life of obedience. When you pray, believe. And receive. In fact, Jesus said in Mark 11, those very words: He said, and when you stand praying, believe that you receive.
Verse 24. And you shall have it. He went on, by the way, to say: and when you stand praying, forgive anybody. Who has trespassed against you? If you hold anything against anyone, some of us have to understand that unforgiveness will hamper your prayers.
And so you have to release people, release mysteries into the hands of the Lord, and trust Him that His will will be done. And then you can position yourself to believe and to receive. You understand that the Bible says that we are to be faith-walking people. Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith it is impossible to please God. Absolutely impossible to do it without faith.
Why? Because he that comes to God must first believe that he exists. And that he is a rewarder of those who diligently or earnestly seek him. See, you've got to walk by faith in order to please God. Pleasing God then is not just a matter of righteous living, it is that, but it is also a matter of walking by faith.
Trusting God. God is pleased when we live our lives depending upon Him, seeking His will to be done, opening ourselves to be vessels that He can use for not only ordinary, but for extraordinary things. And so you gotta learn to grow in faith.
So that your faith becomes strong. How does faith become strong? You anchor it in the word. Faith feeds on the word of God. Faith is our response to what God has said.
And so you want to know God's Word. Get in the Word. Get the Word into you. Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And you want to walk in faith because without it, it's impossible to please God.
You want to be like that little woman in Mark chapter 5 who had received negative reports from the physician. She had done all she can in the natural, which is what you ought to do with regard to the things that you need. If you need finances, get a job. Do what you need to do in the natural. Don't pray for provision and you won't even go to work.
Yeah. You don't sit and wait for God to drop it down from heaven. You do what you can do. You take the gifts and abilities He's given you, and you offer them back to Him and allow Him to bless the work of your hands. And while you're doing what you can do, you ask him to do what only he can do, to open just the right doors, to make just the right way.
But you have to understand: a faith-walking person, sometimes God will give them a job they don't even qualify for. You gotta learn to walk by faith and not by sight. And the same is true when sickness comes. This woman was sick in Mark chapter 5. The Bible says she had an issue of blood for 12 years, meaning she had a hemorrhaging condition for some 12 years.
No doubt she was just a little weak, pathetic-looking woman, just scrawny and anemic, but she had big faith. And she had done all she could, went to the physicians, allowed them to help her all they could. But the Bible says they could not get to the bottom of her condition. And instead of growing better, she got worse. And Mark tells us she also spent all she had in the course of being treated.
So she has a financial problem. She has a physical problem. No doubt she had a psychological problem because of the persecution. The Bible makes it clear that in those cultures, a woman with a hemorrhaging condition would be considered ceremonially unclean and therefore unwelcome in a lot of settings. And so she had been despised and rejected.
Ah, but look at the big faith of a little woman. The Bible says she heard Jesus was coming down the street. And she said within herself, She said, I need to confess my faith. There's nobody here who I can talk to. I'll talk to myself.
And she said, I believe that if I could but touch the hem of his garment. I will be made whole.
Now, it's interesting to me that she said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment, she understood I don't need a face-to-face encounter. I just need to get. to the man who has God's blessing for my life. I don't need personal attention. And so I'm not like Naaman.
You remember Naaman in the Old Testament? He was insulted when the prophet wouldn't come out and minister to him directly. Prophet sent his servant out there and told him, Go dip in the pool. And he got insulted, said, as prominent and important as I am, and he won't even come talk to me. No, no.
When you're walking by faith, you don't care who God uses. You just want the blessing. This woman said, I don't ever need to have Jesus look in my face. In fact, it seems that she was planning to come up from behind.
So I know that when she gets to him, she touches the hem of his garment. Whether she is down there because she was knocked down, or whether she's there because she chose to be inconspicuous so as not to be disturbed by the crowd telling her to get away. She just wanted to get behind him.
Now they're in a press, Mark tells us. They're going down the street in a press, meaning people are crowding in, trying to see and touch Jesus. You know, the autograph seeker types. Trying to touch Jesus. Ooh, here, hand Jesus my baby.
Let's take a picture. You know, that kind of thing. Those kinds of people were crowding in on the Lord. But this woman has a different agenda. She has the agenda of faith.
She says, if I touch him, I believe I'll be healed. And the Bible says she touched the hem of his garment, which means she got awfully low. And when she did that, We are told that Virtue went out of him. It was God's response to her faith. Virtue went out of him, and Jesus felt a different touch.
He's being pressed by all these folk, but he felt a different one. He said, Wait, wait, who touched me? And the next verse says, the disciples said, I think I know who the spokesperson was. One person speaking for the disciples. The likely one was Peter.
We don't know. He's not named. That's my guess.
Somebody spoke up and said All these people Touching us. We can hardly get down the street. And you want to know who touched you. And that sounds like Peter to you. You know, like, He's the kind of, you know.
My pop called it pitiful. When someone is pitying you and you're pitying them, that's pitiful. And Jesus often pitied him for his ignorance. And here he's pitying Jesus. What do you mean who touched you?
I mean, sometimes I just don't understand. Ah, but Jesus knew. This isn't just the touch of an autograph seeker. This is the touch of someone whose faith Is stretching out on God's word and saying, I believe that He will meet me at the point of my need. Don't go away, we have more of today's Destined for Victory message coming up in just a moment.
You know, for well over a decade now we've been sharing these Destined for Victory messages on radio, online, and in recent years with our free Destined for Victory mobile app. And we have listening friends and partners like you to thank for helping us create and maintain these platforms. You're the ones who provide all of our financial support, and we're so grateful for all you've done. As we approach the end of this year, your generous giving is needed now to help us finish in a strong financial position. To give generously to day, please visit pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500.
And when you call, be sure to ask about the special gift reserved just for you. In Hebrews chapter 11, we read about the members of the faith hall of fame. They not only believed God for their salvation, they also believed He was a prayer answerer and a promise keeper.
Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's message: Life Lessons from the Christmas Story. Oh, friend of mine, I want to encourage you when you pray, believe and receive. That God is faithful. Abraham did that. He realized that God was more faithful than he and Sarah were old.
And Zachariah had the same opportunity. But failed to exercise the same kind of faith.
However, God was good and gracious, and He's been good to many of us.
Some of us know God has answered prayer sometimes despite our lack of belief. Haven't you ever experienced merciful answers to prayer? You didn't even believe it yourself and God just showed up with the blessing. Our God is a merciful God. In fact, his mercy ought to inspire you.
to grow even stronger in your faith. I'm so glad that God doesn't reward us according to our actions all the time. There are times that He'll bless you in spite of yourself, not because of your faith. But the rule of thumb is you want to walk in faith because when you pray, you ought to believe and receive from the Lord. In Hebrews 11, you see a list of people who, that's all they did, was they stood in faith and they believed God.
That's why they're in the Faith Hall of Fame, if you will. You see, people there like Noah, right after verse 6, that says, without faith it's impossible to please God. You look at the next verse, it starts giving you some of the examples. It talks about Noah. The man had faith to respond to God's word.
What was the word? To build an ark.
Now you say, well, what's difficult about that? First of all, It is incredibly large. Second of all, it's not a vessel that you would expect to float. God didn't tell him to build a ship. He didn't give him the specifications of shipbuilding.
He said, build an ark that will accommodate all of the animals. I will tell you to put on there, you and your family, because I'm going to destroy this world by water because of the unbelief and wickedness of these people. And his faith responded and said, God, I believe you, even though that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Has God ever asked you to do something that just doesn't make sense? God ever asked you to give when it didn't make sense?
God ever asked you to commit to a ministry when it didn't make sense. God ever asked you to draw across the country when it didn't make sense. Just keep walking with God. He'll ask you to do some things. that your mind can't get around.
And you say, this doesn't add up. I don't get it. What is God doing here? But we must walk by faith. Not by sight.
Noah walked by faith, just started building. Man's hundreds of years old. Just started building. Believe in God.
Now God didn't tell them to build it by the seashore. You know, sometimes when you're not strong in faith, you want to have a little confirmation, a little help. You know what? Can I build it like right on?
So maybe if the tide is high. No, no. There come those times when you either believe God or you don't. Because there's no tide in the world that's gonna carry this thing. Either God's going to do it or he's not.
And he stood strong in faith and began to build. I want to tell somebody who's pondering whether you're to start that business God put on your heart or whether you're to commit to that ministry or missions work that God's put on your heart. I want to tell you something, there'll be no blessing until you act in faith. God's not going to send you additional words. You've already gotten all the confirmations He's going to give you.
Now, when you believe in God and you're seeking His will, wait to make sure you know what it is. But when you know what it is, don't get caught up in what I call the paralysis of analysis. Don't get caught up in, you get paralyzed by trying to figure it out. There comes a time when you say, I know this is God. And I'm going to reject the paralysis of announces because God asks you to do things that are impossible to begin with.
So no matter how you analyze it, it's never going to come out. It's always going to be silly. What in the world are you doing? This doesn't make sense. But God knows what he's doing.
When he speaks to you about a thing. And so Noah just began to build. I often picture this as the folk around him, now they're already wicked, which is why God is destroying the world and starting over. These people are exceedingly wicked, and so you know how much fun they would have made. of a little holy man Hundreds of years old.
Building this big monstrosity of a thing. I'm sure they were running bus tours. Just, you know, $6, get on the bus. We're going to take you by. Go see the crazy man.
When we get there, we'll let you get off the bus, go down and take pictures with him. You know folk thought he was crazy. Oh, but the day came. After he has been obedient. The Bible says after you have done the will of God, you gotta have patience.
So that you can receive what he's promised. Took him all those years, decades to build. But when he's done God is ready to move. Starts raining. Didn't matter what the forecast called for.
When God got ready, it started raining. And all those same folk. Running the bus tours. are now Seeing the hand of God in judgment. Let me tell you something, it always pays.
To say yes to the will of God. You want to walk by faith. You want to believe God when He speaks to your heart. You want to stand on his promises. Don't just sit on the premises, but stand on the promises.
Believe God. Be proactive about doing His will. If you will move out in faith, God will meet you at the point of your need. Zachariah's story tells us that God is serious about his people walking by faith. And Zachariah's punishment, thankfully, it was not going to prevent him from experiencing God, but it sure was a good lesson.
The angel said, You'll know it because you'll be silent and unable to speak until it happens. Because you did not believe my words, watch this one, which will come true at their proper time. At their proper time.
Some folks are wondering: well, now I've done, I stretched out on God, I did what He said. And I haven't seen the results that he promised. You got to wait on the time. See, there are seasons in the will of God. And when you stretch out in obedience and begin to do what He has put on your heart to do, you don't know the season for the reaping.
In fact, you don't always know what the reaping is going to look like. But you can know that God will be pleased. Whenever you respond to His word in faith. And the angel said that this is going to come to pass at the the proper time. And I love the ending of this section of the story.
People are waiting for Zachariah, wondering why he's taking so long. When he came out, he couldn't speak. They realize he had seen a vision. And he kept making signs to them. And finally, He returned home, they returned home, and after he and his wife became pregnant.
And five months remained in seclusion. Look at verse 25. The Lord has done this for me, Elizabeth said. In these days, he has shown his favor and taken away. My disgrace.
among the people. You got to wait on God, but at his appointed time. Everything he said. will come to pass. I want to encourage you.
That God answers prayer. And because he answers prayer, You want to, when you pray, believe. And receive. Let's stand together. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destin for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
Before we sign off, I want to tell you about a very special gift we'd like to share with you, one that is close to all of our hearts at Destined for Victory. Because during the final year of his life, just before being called home to be with the Lord, Pastor Paul preached an excellent series on stewardship, one that we have aired here on Destined for Victory. But now we've put it together in a hardcover book, and we'd love for you to have your very own copy as our thank you for your best gift of $25 or more today. The book is called Becoming an Excellent Steward. And inside those pages, Pastor Paul walks you through what it means to manage every area of your life in a way that brings honor and glory to Jesus Christ.
That's becoming an excellent steward, and it's yours today when you give your best gift of $25 or more to Destined for Victory. And you can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. eight five five three three nine five five zero zero. or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.
When it comes to Jesus, don't you call him a prophet? He's more than a prophet. I know, I love getting along with folk too, but I'm not going to lower him to a prophet so you can be happy. The Bible is clear. Jesus is not only the Son of God, but he is God the Son.
And that's tomorrow in our message, Life Lessons from the Christmas Story. But until then remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
