I came to tell you, it doesn't mean it's over for you. One of the things about walking with Jesus is he's the God of all grace. He's a God who can cover the mess you made, and He's a God who can get you to a place He's destined you to be despite some of the mistakes you've made. Changing for the better doesn't happen by accident. It has to be done on purpose.
Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destin for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
Sometimes we bring pain on ourselves, but if you're a child of God, you have the power of the Holy Spirit to help you, to heal you, and to grow you. Stay with us next to find out how. Don't forget our website, pastorpaul.net, is the place where you can listen on demand to any recent Destined for Victory message, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. You can also subscribe to the podcast at Spotify, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.
Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, turning pain into gain. Gospel of John 16. Jesus is speaking beginning at verse 20. Here's what he says. Most assuredly I say to you, that you will weep and lament But The world will rejoice.
And you will be sorrowful. But your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman When she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come. But as soon as she has given birth to the child, She no longer remembers the anguish. for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
Therefore you now have sorrow But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice. And your joy. No one will take from you. And I'm using this passage just as a launching pad to help us discuss. the important topic Of dealing with pain, painful situations, painful circumstances.
Everybody has pain. In fact, in the opening message, I made a couple of points. The first is that pain is inevitable. I don't care how closely you walk with the Lord. Do not believe that there is a degree of faith you can walk in that will free you from pain.
And I also made the point in the first installment of the series that pain indicates that something has already changed, will soon change, or should intentionally change. The fact of the matter is, some change happens to us, has already happened.
Some change is about to happen, so you need to adjust yourself to what is about to happen, which may include some pain and some changes you need to intentionally make in order to get yourself positioned to experience a better quality of life. I talked about the fact that there are two ways people are typically motivated to make. Changes in their life. They're either motivated by positive vision, that's the positive way we make changes. You have a positive vision of what can be, and so that'll cause you to make changes.
And for some people, they don't change because of positive vision, so they have to be sometimes compelled by pain. I don't know if you've ever done it, but there are some folks who they know they need to make a change, but they don't really pull the trigger. But if that right painful circumstance happens. It'll push them to say, I got to do something. About it.
Some of you all still are reluctant to go to the doctor. Let me just pause and tell you, especially some of you brothers, but perhaps some of the sisters too.
Some are still reluctant to go to the doctor. I need to tell you in Jesus' name, make an appointment and go ahead on in there. I don't want them sticking me, and I don't want them. Look, let them get it done now because whatever it is they're going to have to deal with is only going to get progressively worse. If you try to ignore it, I thank you for that support.
I need some help because there's some folk who just want to believe. I don't need all of that. No, you do need to go in there. Brothers, there's a couple of exams that all of us need. There are a couple of exams all of us need.
Sisters have theirs too, but the women know about what they got to do, got to go get it checked out, and all that stuff. You all know the sisters are pretty good at keeping up with what they got to do, but these men, some of them, have the gift of being stubborn. And they just don't want to accept the reality. Let them go now. I don't want to, I know, I heard what they do.
Let them do it. I'm a man in my 60s. I found out in my 50s there was some stuff. My doctor said, All right, you wear, we got to do some things. I said, okay, explain to me what that means.
And as he explained, it didn't sound wonderful. But I said, we're going in Jesus' name. Going in Jesus' name. And I let them go where they needed to go and do what they needed to do. And they came back with a good report.
Pastor, you all right, but we're gonna have to see you a little later. I said, All right, one down, one to go. Then I went in for the other one. And I said, now you explain that to me too. And they explained it and they made it real plain, understandable.
I said, all right, all right. And I was just, listen, you got to get it done. Don't be like Gail in my youth group growing up. Don't close your eyes so the dog won't see you. She was scared of the dog.
She said, I closed my eyes so the dog wouldn't see me. Yeah. That's what some of y'all do in life. Quit closing your eyes, open them eyes, and see what you got to deal with so you can limit the pain you got to go through. And some changes have to intentionally be made.
So, what I want to do is just pick it up here and continue to help you understand. And let me just drop a quick word for those of you who are dealing with pain because of some things that you didn't handle right in your life. This message is going to be really for you. The next message in the series, I'm going to talk about folk who say, Pastor, I'm dealing with pain and I didn't bring it on myself. This just happened to me.
I was doing everything right. I was living according to the word of God. But this painful circumstance came. That's for you next week. But you need to hear this one and help encourage the folk who would say, I know I brought some of this on myself.
I hope some of you all are honest enough, even before I get through this part of the series, to realize there's some pain I could have avoided had I made better decisions and better choices in my life. Thank you for that honesty. Thank you for that honesty. I came to tell you, it doesn't mean it's over for you. One of the things about walking with Jesus is He's a God of all grace.
He's a God who can cover the mess you made, and he's a God who can get you to a place he's destined you to be despite some of the mistakes you've made. I love one of John Maxwell's sayings. One of his mantras is: sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. In other words, you don't have to lose. If you didn't win, at least learn.
So that when you double back around and have to deal with it again, you will win that time.
Sometimes we win, sometimes we learn. For God's sake, don't lose. You receive that word? Don't lose. I either win or I'm going to learn what I did wrong so I don't have to face it.
There's some things you go through and you should only go through it once. Say, I don't plan when you're finally over it, look back and say, I don't plan to see you ever again. I'm done with you. I know you. Yeah.
Through with you, not coming back.
So let's move on to a third point.
So pain is inevitable, and I talked about the fact that pain's either coming or it has already come, and you're going to have to make some intentional changes to limit it moving forward.
Now, here's the third point as I explore this idea of how of the choices you make. Here's the way I worded point number three: pain will lead to progress if we make strategic choices. choices. If we make strategic choices. And to make this point, I want to use a biblical case study of a guy named Esau.
To talk about him, let's go to Genesis 25. And let me just begin combing through a few things here, beginning at verse 20. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah. As wife. Pause right there.
Isaac, who's Isaac? That's Esau's daddy, Esau and Jacob's father. And we're going to talk about his son in a while, but first. What they're giving you here in Genesis 25 is the continuing lineage.
Now, of course, God made the covenant promise to Abraham, Esau's grandfather. God said to Abraham, I want you to pick up, go to where I show you. I'm going to make a great nation out of you. And through your seed, the entire world is going to be blessed. He was prophesying about Jesus Christ.
And so Abraham was given the covenant by God, and he struck out. And you know the story. I don't have time to go through that. Bottom line is: in order for that prophecy to be fulfilled, he's going to have to have kids, even in his old age. And you know that at first, he and his wife Sarai made a baby and called that baby Ishmael, because not Sarai, Sarai had to go and covenant with another woman, Hagar, and she said, I'm going to make you my husband's wife only for the purpose of childbearing.
And you know, that puzzles me. Just a woman who so wants to bless her husband with a child that she's gonna put another woman in his arms. I don't know that. I never met such a woman. But anyway, let's keep on moving.
Keep it on moving. I'm not preaching about that. You've heard me on that before. Because you know, most sisters will be like, Look, if God says we're gonna have a child, I am his girl. No, no, I'm not putting some little young sister in his arms.
Named Hagar can go somewhere. I'm gonna take care of this. You know that's how most of y'all would have done. I know I'm old, but if God said He's gonna do it, here's what He's gonna bless. I might help y'all out a little bit.
Go down to Victoria. Don't tell nobody, something like that. Y'all messing up. I gotta move. Please don't go away.
The rest of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring Pastor Paul Shepard, is coming right up. Jesus said, He is the way, the truth, and the life. 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. Mm-hmm.
Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message: turning pain into gain.
So, Isaac, here's what I want you to see. Isaac was 40 years old when he got married. Quick, quick word to the many, many unmarried men in the kingdom of God. Who tell me when I run into them and preach and ministering around the country? They tell me that they want to get married.
Because I see all these single men said, wow, how can so many men be single with all these women in the kingdom of God? And what have you? And I chat with some of them, and some of the ones I pastor, they're single, but they said they're going to get married.
Well, Isaac was 40 years old when he got married, and that was atypical in his day. Most people in this day got married in their teens. And they certainly were married by their twenties. And here was Isaac 40 years old just taking a wife. But thank God he got it done because this was part of the divinely scheduled lineage in order for Jesus Christ to get here.
I need to say to you, single brothers, I love y'all. Thank God for you. I love to see the men in the kingdom of God. But if y'all are going to marry, I need you to be moving in that direction. I'm just trying to help you now.
I just need you to be moving in that direction. Be proactive about it.
Some of y'all say you're going to get married. Let me help you out. You're going to have to ask somebody to marry you for that to happen. Please step up, find your wife. There's a scripture that says, he that finds a wife finds a good thing.
So go on and look for your good thing. Get to know some folk. Go out, you know, Starbucks, sit and chat, do something like that. Find, begin to get to know and prayerfully discern who you might want to link your life with. That's the way it happens.
God does not drop wives into men's laps. I have never seen that happen. Oh, I know guys who have a spooky thing of how God gave them a word of prophecy and he was going to meet. And I know that. I have a friend, God told him in a worship service: your wife is right over there.
And he looked over at a woman he knew all of his, most of his life. And And he said, and the l and the Lord said, That's your wife. He said, really? Bottom line, they married. And all of that?
But that doesn't usually happen.
Furthermore, if you are expecting that to happen, you're still going to have to do some work to make the marriage work. See a lot of folk hear a spooky story. That's what I'm believing for. As though God said, I've given you the perfect woman, and I'm giving her the perfect husband. God didn't say that, He just said, I'm putting the two of y'all together.
They still had to go, I know them personally. They still had to go through all kinds of changes. I have never met any couple that never had to go through any changes. I only knew one couple in my whole life that said, We've never even had an argument. I know a single married couple that said they never had an argument.
But I found out why. Because one day while on the phone, my dad was going to preach for this man's church. And the man told him, Oh, oh, Brother Shepherd, okay, so you're at the train station.
Okay, then I'll come and get you, and I'll take you to church. And my dad said, I heard in the background, you will do no such thing. Let him take a cab. Said the man got back on and said, Pastor Shepherd, what I'd like you to do. Never had an argument, now we know why.
She telling what's gonna happen. That's what's gonna happen. How you gonna argue with them when that's going on? Yeah. Bottom line is, brothers, you're going to have to be proactive.
Now, by the way, sisters, some of you all are naturally proactive too. Every now and then I run into women who say, Do I have to be passive? I'm not passive in any other area of my life. Do I have to be passive when it comes to this? No, if there's a man that you have interest in, you can make that known to him.
Don't be too pushy. I'm just a word of advice. Don't be too pushy, but be assertive and make yourself available. Show him that you have some interest, and let's see what he does with them hints. But the bottom line is, bro, you're gonna have to do something.
So I'm ready to do some more weddings, so y'all get about your father's business. Because we got them all. Oh man, the kingdom of God is full of these kingdom-first women loving God, serving the Lord, growing, getting their lives together, and building strong foundations in all the areas of their life. Most of them got better credit than you, everything. Get yourself together.
Find your wife. Amen. He was 40 years old when he found his wife. Go to verse 21.
Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his plea. And Rebekah his wife conceived. Let me pause also here long enough to just say something to married couples. If you want to have children, you are within your biblical rights to say, Lord, would you please bless us to be able to parent? Nothing wrong with that.
I want to see more married folk having babies. Cause the single folk are outpacing y'all. I just got some things I need to get off of me. And when I saw him in the passage, I said, oh, there it is. Yeah, if you want.
If you don't want to have children, you know, I'm not saying you got to. I'm just saying it's okay to say, Lord, would you bless us the way you blessed Isaac and Rebekah? Allow us to be fruitful. And so it is within your rights. At the end of the day, you have to give those kinds of things to the Lord.
If you've done all you can and it's not happening, talk to the Lord about it and just see what He will do. Amen. All right, now let me get on to the stuff I really want to cover in this.
Now, verse 24: when her days were fulfilled, so as a result of that prayer, Isaac asking the Lord to open his wife's womb, the Lord answered that prayer, and she's now pregnant with twins.
So, here you are, her days have been fulfilled, and she's ready to give birth. And it tells you about the birth of these two boys. One comes out red, hairy, garment, looking like a garment. His name was Esau. Afterward, his brother came out, and watch this: during childbirth, his brother's hand was on Esau's heel.
You knew there was going to be trouble right there. And his name was Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. Oh my Lord. When I study I preached these passages for years in different series and all.
When I was studying for this series and I came across that verse, it jumped out at me like never before. 60 having his first kids. I'm preaching this message in my sixties. I can't imagine. Toddlers running round my house.
I just can't. It just, I shook when I read it. I was, ooh. Yo, sixties just getting started? Oh, I could envision 60s kids running around as my grandkids.
Now that I can picture and have a smile on my face. But 60 is my first kids running around talking about daddy.
So, anyway, the the boys grew. Esau was a skilled hunter. a man of the field Jacob was a mild man dwelling in tents. Esau, look at this dysfunction. You think your family's the first dysfunctional family?
Look at this. Verse 28, Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game. Rebekah loved Jacob. Twins, daddy loved one of them, mama loved the other one. Dysfunctional.
You're supposed to love both your kids. You can have unique similarities to one of them. One can be more like you temperamentally, that sort of thing, but you're supposed to love them equally. It's okay to like certain aspects of a person. Like is fine, but don't cause that to compromise your love if one of them you can't relate to in terms of temperament.
Amen. And so it just shows you. But I love, that's why I love the Word of God because it tells us about real life people and how God worked in their lives. I am so sick of these Christians who are always looking at somebody's fault. Like, don't you know that's why you read your Bible?
Because you got some too, and there's somebody in there, there's something in there for everybody? This book is full of jacked-up folks. Tennessee to Revelation, jacked up people. That's why you need to read your word because it's going to tell you how God works through jacked-up people. That's good, because you're one of them.
You're jacked up that this might be different than somebody else's, but trust me, you got your own. If you still aren't sure you're jacked up, ask the people who love you: Would you tell me the truth? Is there anything about me that is a little bit off-kilter? They'll say a little bit. Oh.
The truth is we're all more than a little bit off kilter. Thanks be to God, whose mercy is new every morning. Psalm thirty four seventeen says that when the righteous cry for help the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their trouble.
So, if you need prayer today, our ministry team would be happy to join you. Use the contact feature at the top of our homepage at pastorpaul.net and share your prayer request with us. That's pastorpaul.net. And here's something else for you: a great new resource that will challenge you to persevere through life's hard times or through a past you can't quite forget. Introducing our booklet, Keep Moving Forward.
Drawing from Israel's transition from Moses to Joshua, this booklet will help you understand that God will go before you as your leader and your protector even when you are facing new challenges. It is a great resource for anyone who wants to be more fully equipped to move confidently into the future God has prepared. Again, it's called Keep Moving Forward and it's our thank you gift for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's eight five five three three nine fifty five hundred.
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. God will love you and he'll bless you. But some things you never get back. There are some mistakes you can't afford to make.
If you want to live your best life.
So you can't let passion Do your decision making. You can't let pain do your decision making. You've got to make sound decisions for your life. And that's next time in our message, turning pain into gain. Until then remember.
He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
