Don't ask him how to bless you this week. Ask him how to make you a blessing. Because I'm telling you folks, those who present themselves to be used are those who can expect to be blessed. If you cling to your life, you will lose it. But if you give your life away for my sake, you will find it.
Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard. With those words in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus drew a map that leads to the joy-filled life. In the kingdom of God, self-improvement begins with self-denial. It is in giving and giving liberally that we receive all the best God has to offer. On today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard, a message that will encourage you to be humble.
To even be self-forgetful and to use the gifts God has given us to bless the lives of everyone around us. Online, you'll find us at 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 closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: Unwrap your gifts and give them away. You gotta learn to put him first, put his kingdom first. Thy kingdom come, Jesus taught us to pray. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. I'm putting the kingdom first.
And then God will take care of me. That story of the Shunammite woman I often refer to in 2 Kings chapter 4 is a story that illustrates it beautifully. Here was a woman who was barren. She was a married woman who was barren. And in her day, it was a disgrace for a married woman to have no children.
And they reflected on the woman, not the man. It was so unfair. Because if she's barren, it might not be her problem. Bruh man might have a problem. Are you with me?
Don't make me get more plain than that. We have children in here. Are you with me? You got me?
Okay, he might have an issue. Back in that day, they didn't have these medications and things. Come on, work with me, work with me. He might have had a problem, but the woman was the one reflected on. And here is a woman dealing with the ridicule of society.
And yet. She is looking for a way to be a blessing.
So the Bible says this woman from Shunam was well to do. Meaning, she learned how to operate in what I often refer to as her circle of influence. Instead of saying, here are things I can't do. I can't make myself get pregnant. Instead of focusing on that and becoming bitter about that and preoccupied with that, she said.
God, what can I do? People are talking about me and ridiculing me and saying I'm cursed by God, but I just don't believe God's cursed me. I believe there's a way He can still make me a blessing. And she saw the prophet Elisha coming through town. Every now and then, and she got it in her heart.
I don't have a child, but I do have money. The Bible says she was well-to-do. When the Bible says a woman is well-to-do, that's a very deliberate statement. It doesn't mean she married into money, it means her husband married into money. When she was coming down the aisle that day, my man was standing there saying, Thank you, Jesus.
He saw all his bills paid. He saw. Business about to pick up. And she Got it in her heart to be a blessing by building an extension on her home. She went to her husband.
I always talk about the wisdom she operated in. She went to her husband, even though she had money. She said, honey, I'm thinking about building an extension on the home, which in that day meant building on the roof. That we might bless this prophet, this man of God. I want to have him into the house so we can meet him and both feel comfortable with him.
She had this all lined up in her mind. But she got the cooperation of her husband because she wanted to be a blessing and she wanted peace in her home. I wish more married people would learn. Let's find the ways to create peace in our homes. There's enough turmoil out in the world.
Let's talk until we find points of peace and compromise. Don't just because you had the money, don't just have the contract. He came home and the contractor's all in the house. That's not operating in unity. Talk this through.
Here's what I'm thinking about doing. Is that all right with you? What do you think about it? You know how some of y'all would have done the contracts, it would have been. And if the man had said anything at all, baby, what's all this about?
Don't even want to hear you. Not you right now. This is my money. It came out of my account. This is not about you.
No, no, let's operate in unity. Men do the same thing. Don't come home from Best Buy with some huge box. Spending up major money, and you know there's challenges in the family. You may have worked out in your mind a rationale as to how this can happen, but she needs the peace of mind and the security to know we are a team and we are making these decisions jointly.
I know you don't like it. You wish I'd go on to the next point, but I'm here. Find peace. This woman, she said, honey, what do you think about it? And she let her husband sign off on it.
Now, she knew in her heart she was building that room. And you sisters aren't slick. We know that you already have things figured out. But I often say to women, at least pretend like the man has something to say about it. Give him the impression that he is party to this.
Be wise, honey. What do you think about it? She often says she probably took him up on the roof and just said, Now, where do you think we should build it? On this side or over here? Give him a little some decision to make.
Let him stand there. The sun comes in over here, so I think we put a. Oh no, no, no, no. I mean, if you put the window right here, then see when they come in, and the sun can be right there. She had already figured that out, but she said, Oh, honey, that's a good idea.
Thank you so much. Wow, I married such a smart man. I'm telling you the truth. And he'll be down by the city gate talking about, yeah, yeah, I decided to build an extension on the house. Beautiful!
You know how we do, we'll brag about anything. He down there with his buddies talking about how he building an extension on the house. That's all right, because she got what was in her heart, which was to be a blessing. And so They built this extension and invited the prophet. Whenever you're in town, would you honor us by staying here?
This is your room. And one day As he was enjoying his room. God put it on his heart. This woman has given herself To be a blessing, now I'm gonna turn around and bless her. And God put it on the prophet's heart.
Call that woman and ask her what you can do for her. And when he called for her, his servant said, The prophet wants to know what we can do for you? She said, I have a home among my people. In other words, when you learn to live with the orientation of I want to be a blessing, at a certain point, you stop thinking so much about you. See, can't be a whole lot of amen'cause we got to go there before we can amen it.
But I'm telling you, and some of us can testify: if you will surrender and say yes to God. Then, after a while, you worry less about your comfort and your sense of: am I being blessed? Am I getting everything I'm asking God to do in my life? And you say, God, I'm just enjoying the fact that you choose to use me to be a blessing to somebody else. But you got to know this about God.
You can't beat Him giving. And when you give him his name, he'll always turn around. and bless you on the back side. And so she said, I have a home among my people, meaning I can't think of anything I want to ask for. But the servant Said, well.
Elisha, I know that she is. Barren, and her husband is old. That qualifies as a problem. And so God anointed Elisha, and he spoke these words by the Spirit. He said next year, this time.
You'll have a baby boy. That had to be one of the closest desires of our heart. But she chose not to focus on that because it was something she couldn't do anything about. Instead, she chose to be a blessing, and now God is saying through this prophet, and I'm going to bless you because you've been a blessing. I want to tell somebody that if you will just say yes to God and say, Lord, I am going to unwrap my gifts and give them away.
I'm telling you, God will speak to you, He will speak through you. And God will glorify Jesus in the process.
Now, the next thing I want you to know is that, as Paul says here, the gifts have variety to them. See, our God is a God of variety. When you say, okay, Lord, I want to be used of you, don't expect that it's going to look the same way in you that it looks in somebody else's life. God might give you a gift of teaching, but don't say, so that means I'm going to be just like Pastor Paul. No, I operate in the way God has gifted me.
The best thing you can do is operate in the way God has gifted you. Because have you ever seen anybody trying to be somebody else? That's pitiful. You gotta find how does God want to use me Because there's variety. Look at what Paul says in verse 4 of chapter 12.
There are different kinds of gifts, but it's the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working. But the same God works all of them in all men. And then what happens is, through the rest of the chapter, he mentions some 14 different gifts.
And then in a couple of other places in Paul's letters, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, he mentions even more gifts.
Sometimes, folks, you hear folks referred to as the nine spiritual gifts. No, no, there are many more spiritual gifts than those mentioned in Scripture. Meaning that there's any number of ways God might use you. In fact, I don't believe all of the spiritual gifts are even mentioned in the Bible. I don't think that's the intention of the Holy Spirit when He gave us His word.
But rather, there are samplings of the gifts here. But I tell you what, if you'll just open yourself up to the Holy Spirit, just watch and see how He might use you. But know that it's going to be different, perhaps, than the way it looks in someone else's life, because God has shaped you uniquely. You know what God will do? He will use your temperament, He will use your personality, He will use your background, He will use your experiences.
All of that will be blended together as you exercise your gift.
Some of us are loud. God can use loud folk. Aren't you glad about that, loud folk? And watch this.
Some of us are quiet and genteel. And God has gifts for them. Because power doesn't require noise.
Some folk think that it's not powerful unless it's noisy. But no, some of the most powerful people I know speak very softly. Still waters often run deep. Don't ignore quiet folk. Cool.
When they speak. They often have something to say. that you really need to hear. Power doesn't always require noise. When you flip a switch in a room that's properly lighted and wired, you flip the switch and you get power, but no noise.
And I want to let you know that God has wired some of us. To be loud, if you're loud, be loud for Jesus. Let the Holy Spirit use you with your rowdy self. That's right. Don't be ashamed of who you are the way you're wired.
Some of y'all, I mean, we know you're coming. You enter a room mouth first. We hear you before we see you. You know what I'm talking about? You ever run it?
You got some of those folks? If you're having a party or something, you got to invite some of them. They will lighten things up. You know, you how you gonna have a party, a bunch of quiet folk all sitting around? Everybody just sitting there in their little plate and just looking?
No, break it up. Get some loud folk, get some quiet folk. Temperaments, we're all different. Personalities, we're all different. Backgrounds, we're all different.
God knows how to use each one of us. Look at the apostles. God raised up what you would call a motley crew. I mean when you see those folk that Jesus picked, You say, what was he thinking? I'll tell you what he was thinking.
He wanted to show us I can use anybody who yields themselves to me. I can use the Peters. The rough, rugged fishermen? Out there making his living on the water, pulling in those nets of fishing. Peter was one of those no-nonsense folks.
Impetuous, always speaking everything he thought. You knew what Peter had on his mind because he said it. You have people like that in your life? You never have to worry about what they think because you will hear it. In fact, you'll hear it more often than you want to hear it.
And that's the way Peter was. Look at him in the Gospels, always telling you what he thinks. Lord, up on the Mount of Transfiguration. Oh, Lord, it's good for us to be up here.
Now, that's a pretty good statement. Then he went too far. Let's build three tabernacles. One for Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Since they've come out of eternity and they're standing here talking to Jesus, wow, this is wonderful.
Let's build three tabernacles. Let's start a religion up here on this mountain. And Jesus, in essence, God from heaven in essence said, Peter, shut up. Here's what God really said. He said, This, pointing to Jesus, this is my son, hear him.
I didn't ask you to get creative about what to do about Moses and Elijah being up here on the mountain. What do Peters mean, no hondages? They think what they think, they do what they do. They are who they are. You gotta learn to love people like they are.
Some of us are so miserable because we're not going to be happy until everybody is suiting us. That's an exercise in futility. Your family's going to be who they are. And if you let it keep working your nerves, oh well. Because you can't change them.
And Peter was who he was. Jesus didn't just pick Peter's, he used him, he also picked John's. John was a soft-spoken Melodramatic. Deeply feeling, man. One time you see John laying on Jesus.
At supper, they would dine, they would sup, and they would sort of be in a laying posture on their side, and that's the way they ate. And you see on one occasion, John is just, he's finished his eating and he's just laying on Jesus. very secure in himself and very affectionate. And so he's laying on Jesus. And you know the Peter types don't like that.
You know, if you're a Peter type person, you see something like that, you bet. Get up! What is this? Jesus, why don't you tell him to get up? It's bad enough 13 of us hanging out together as it is.
Hey.
Now he gonna lay on you. Would you please tell him to get up? No, no, Jesus knew. This is my disciple who feels deeply. He's going to take good care of my sheep because he feels deeply.
See, he knows who he's dealing with. He had a tax collector. Matthew was a tax collector. Do you know tax collectors in Jesus' day were not your friendly IRS person? In Jesus' day, a tax collector was a turncoat.
Was someone who was thought to have sold out his own people for the Roman government. And he lived large by profiting on the oppression of his own people.
So tax collectors were hated. But Jesus chose one. And said, I'm going to show you that I can transform a person's heart and I can use them anyway. I want to let you know, whoever you are, however you're wired, whatever your background, God wants to use you. If you come from a goody-goody background, God can use you.
You one of those never-never land people. You never did this, you never did that, you never did the other. God can use neverlanders. As long as you understand your righteousness is as filthy rags, I need to trade it in for the righteousness of being clothed in Jesus Christ.
Okay. Then God can use you. And God knows He can use those of us who got in here, and we know good and well, it's nothing but grace that got us in the kingdom.
Some of y'all not even tripping at all. You know exactly what the deal is. If it weren't for the Lord, I wouldn't be here. I was a mess walking. But God picked me up.
Turn me around. Place my feet on solid ground. I'm here by grace. I'm saved by grace. I'll never have anything to brag about because it's all grace.
You're in touch with your stuff. You know who you are. We can pray for you about some things, but tripping isn't one of them. We know that you'll always understand. That is only by God's help that I am here.
But God wants to use you. And so there's variety in the ways that God will use you. And when you look at the list, you see there are all kinds of spiritual gifts. These days, unfortunately, people fight about them. And I think the church ought to quit fighting about things God gave us to bless people with.
So, certain folks insist there's certain gifts that are no longer operating. That means they won't operate in your life. Because you have a theology that says these gifts are no longer there. I respect that. I respect your right to believe that with your whole heart.
But you need to respect those of us who say, no, we believe that every gift that was in the body of Christ is still in the body of Christ. And therefore, we want to humbly make ourselves available to God. To be used of Him. And I refuse to fight with people about spiritual gifts. I'm too busy wanting to be used of God.
Let's not argue about holy things. Let's present ourselves to God. As vessels who are fit for his use. And in that way, Jesus Christ will be glorified. I want to ask you to open your heart and open your mind to the possibility of unwrapping your gifts for the purpose of giving them away.
This week. Here's the question this week, Lord. How do you want to bless somebody else? Through me. Not how do you want to bless me.
Don't ask him how to bless you this week. I want to ask you to ask him how to make you a blessing. And then take it from this week into the following week and into the following week until it becomes your normal posture to say, Lord, use me, before you say, Lord, bless me. Because I'm telling you folks, if you'll understand that those who present themselves to be used. are those who can expect to be blessed.
Because God likes blessing us. As we focus on Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. The original disciples came from different backgrounds, had their own set of strengths and weaknesses, and as you heard today, they had unique personalities. God used all of them, from doubtful Thomas to impulsive Peter, and He'll use you too. You don't have to be perfect, just be willing to be perfected.
Before we leave you to day, Meredith Shepard has a very important announcement that may impact the future of Pastor Paul's legacy teaching on this station. 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 today? 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. Thank you, Meredith. Becoming an excellent steward is available today as our thank you for your best 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.
Some of your blessings are on reserve until you give somebody else their blessing. And I don't know about you, but I don't need any of mine held up. I need everything God's got for me. Therefore, I'm very anxious to give it away so that I'm empty, Lord. I've given all the gift you gave me.
Now, hook a brother up. That's next time in our continuing message: unwrap your gifts and give them away. Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
