Promote the good news more than you denounce the bad news. There are things you take your stand against. There are things you denounce, and all this is wrong. But the good news is, Christ loves us, He died for us. The crowd was eager to begin throwing stones.
This was no metaphor. These were real weapons, and they were about to be used to kill a woman who had broken a sacred law. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Schepper. It was in this moment that Jesus taught us an invaluable lesson: how to love God's creation without sacrificing God's truth. He stopped her cruel and senseless execution, and he confronted the woman's lifestyle with these sobering words: Go and sin no more.
Today's message is straight ahead. Remember, you can always visit pastorpaul.net to hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. No. Let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, Improving Your Serve.
Take your stand. When people in your life are living in sin, you can love a sinner while hating the sin. It is possible. To love a sinner, I take my stand against the sin. I do not participate in the sin, I do not condone the sin.
But I can still love the sinner. In fact, that's the only way to reflect the love of God because that's exactly what God did with us. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. He did the best thing He could for us when we were in the worst possible condition. While we were sinners, while we hated him, he loved us.
And so, since that is what brought you into the family of God, it stands to reason that that is how God calls you to deal with the other people in your life. And so, sometimes we as believers struggle with: well, how do I deal with a child who is living so wild outside of the will of God? Yeah, sometimes you have to draw a line. Yeah, sometimes you have to put him out of your house. If they're not doing right, it's your house.
You get to have the rules. It's just that simple. I know it's outdated, but this just used to be, you didn't even have to talk about it before.
Now you have to stop and talk about it because people get under all kinds of false guilt trips, because people tell them, you know, all kinds of things. That money up there thinking, listen, the fact of the matter is, if it's your house, you get to set the rules. You get to set the rules. Your teens live in your house. It's yours.
You just rent them a room without charge. Your house. See, modern thinking, it's all about how they must have a sense of personal. Personal ownership. You don't own anything in here.
When the last time you paid the mortgage? No, this is my house. God called me to raise you in the training and instruction of the Lord. As I seek to do that, you are free to stay here.
Now if you ever get too grown to live here, You can't defy my rules and live here. You got one choice, move. That's old fashioned and um you know You heard it here. Because you won't hear it most other places. And you take your stand.
But you do that in wisdom. Because, unless you built, and when you've heard any of the parenting series, you know that the flip side of that is very important. The qualifying foundation is very important, which is you build a relationship where they have no reason to disrespect you because you're not a hypocrite. Mean you live a real life. When you come short, you apologize.
Just because they're your children don't mean you don't apologize. I came short. Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't treat you right. I didn't handle that correctly.
Please forgive me. And make sure that they don't have cause against you. And build a relationship based on love, based on good treatment, based on them knowing that you have their best interests at heart. Being involved in their lives. Don't just show up to correct, but be involved.
God gave you his children to train and instruct in matters of life, which means you have to be involved. Don't be more involved in making a living than making a life. Part of making a life is raising your children in a quality fashion. And so there is balance here, but the bottom line is sometimes foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, and you've got to take your stand. And say, no, not here.
Certain things you don't do by virtue of your address and your last name. And if you get so that you can't live by those rules, there's only one option. And you gotta you gotta roll. You have to understand this as you deal with relatives and co-workers who have evil, and sometimes they want to paint you into a corner where they act like the only way you love me is to authenticate what I'm doing. No, that's not the only way to love you.
No, no, if you're living in a lifestyle that is clearly against the word of God, I don't have to authenticate it in order to love you. Yes, I love you, but no, I am not going to your wedding to a same-sex person. I'm not going, not because I don't love you, but because that's not a wedding. That's not the will of God. The Bible clearly speaks to it.
I love you now. I will love you after your ceremony. But if your heart says not to go, then you explain I'm not called to go there. I know some Christians who can go, and they say, well, that's my way of demonstrating my love and support. But I also know others who say, in all good conscience, I cannot go.
Don't make it so that that means you're not loving them right. It doesn't necessarily follow. I can love you and say, no, I can't participate in that. But I'm not going to forsake you. I'm going to love you.
I'm going to pray for you. I'll come to your house. Don't be all self-righteous. Yeah.
So you gotta live this thing right. Holiness is practical. Because Jesus was practical. He loved sinners. He spent time with sinners.
Didn't he do it? In fact, the religious people That was a charge they leveled against him. They said, How is he going to be the Son of God? He hangs out with sinners.
Well, why was he doing that? Because he's come to the earth to call sinners to repentance. And how can he call them to repentance unless he builds a relationship with them, unless they know the good news? See, promote the good news more than you denounce the bad news. There are things you take your stand against.
There are things you denounce, and all this is wrong. But the good news is: Christ loves us, He died for us, He can cause us to conform to His perfect will. And the fact of the matter is, God's love is what transforms a life, not your judgmental attitude. And so even when you take a stand, do it in a loving spirit, do it with full respect, and do it knowing that you don't cut off relationships because you disapprove of what people do. And in this way, you can improve your serve of loving people without compromise.
And so, whether you're dealing with family members or friends or whatever it is, your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, take your stand. but love them unconditionally and sacrificially. And then the second pointer he gives us in the first part of verse 10 is to practice devotion. Look at what Paul says in Romans 12:10. He says, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
There's the word love again, but it's a different Greek word. Here, you're dealing with the Greek word phileo. In fact, the form here is Philadelphia, the name of the city I was born and raised in. Uh the city of brotherly love, it was named by faith. because it didn't turn out to be that.
Um turned out to be the City of Brotherly Shub, but um But that's the word. Phileo is the base word. Philadelphia. The idea here is that you have a devotion that is based on a bond, a family bond.
Now, this is an exhortation that has its primary fulfillment in our relationship in the body of Christ. See, some of these directives are general. They would apply to all relationships.
Some would apply to those in the body of Christ, and some would apply to those outside of the body of Christ. But here is one that applies primarily to the body of Christ because the bond. Brotherly love is based on having some sort of bond.
Now, we do have a bond with everyone in Adam. Technically, you could call everyone your brother and sister because if you miss them in Christ, you catch them in Adam. In that sense, we could be brother and sister, but there is a real sense in which the New Testament, when it refers to us as brothers and sisters, it's talking about our bond that's in Christ. In Christ, I have been made a part of the family of God. You are my brother, you are my sister.
And he says, when it comes to that relationship, be devoted to one another. Devotion is on the verge, it seems to me anyway, of being extinct. And I want to suggest that the word of God calls us to make sure that it never leaves this world because it continues to express itself in each of us. Devotion. Devotion is that bond that says, I'm with you.
Have you ever seen it in a family, a tight family? They might fight with each other, but you better not mess with one of them. From the outside, you have seen trouble. till you fool with one of them from the outside. Because they have a family bond.
They're committed to one another. I've seen dysfunctional families, and they fight with each other more than they fight with other folk. But When they fight with other folk, they make it count. You ever seen that? Make it count, man, and they will all gang up on you.
And you're not just fooling with one of them, you're fooling with all of them. That's a bond there.
Some of you have heard me tell the story of the Sutton family in my neighborhood growing up.
Some of you have heard that, others haven't, but I want to hear it again. Let me tell it real quick. I ran into such a family when I was a junior high school student. Had a friend of mine who was still in sixth grade. He was still at the elementary school that I had graduated from.
It was now in junior high. And I was a big deal to be in junior high, man. And so, you know, we had a different schedule, got out of school earlier, went to different classes, and I thought I was it in junior high. And I had a friend who was still in elementary school in sixth grade.
Well, he came home to the driveway we all played in after school, and he came home crying one day, and he's just talking about this guy who's picking on him. And you know, I'm now in junior high school. I'm like, no, no, we're not going to have that.
So I said, I tell you what, I get out early tomorrow, I'll be down to your school. And uh when school gets out, show him to me. And so I'm standing there, the school bell rang, kids start pouring out of the school. Eventually, his class came out, and I said, All right, Craig, show him to me, point him out to me. He pointed to a dude, and I walked up to him.
I said, Hey man, you been messing with my boy? This dude was smaller than me by several inches. And and younger. And he looked right in my face and said, yeah. And I thought, okay.
Not quite what I was looking for. But that's alright, you know. I sized him up quick. I can beat him down, it's no problem. But right while I'm doing that, he hauled off and hit me in my chest.
Hard And by then, I'm It's coming into focus. Why this boy is so bold? How can he be younger, smaller than me? And yet be so bold. But as I looked at his face, I realized.
Because he was a member of the Sutton family. He had the family resemblance. Don't go away, we have more of today's Destined for Victory message coming up next. We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help us keep the legacy preaching media ministry of Pastor Paul 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.
This is our calling in Christ to serve others as He did, to deny ourselves as He did, and to humble ourselves as He did.
Now, here's the rest of today's Destined for Victory message: Improving your serve. The Sutton family was a family that was known in my neighborhood for being a fighting family. All of them could fight. Mrs. Sutton could fight.
I'm y'all think I'm playing. She was one of those sisters who would get out in the street with house shoes on. and handle anything that needed to be handled. Um You know those matted ones with grease and stuff on them. Yeah.
And so I realize this boy is bold because. He figures even if he does beat me up And by virtue of his family, of course, I mean, he's got all his older brothers could fight. And so he probably learned some things, so he probably wasn't so sure he couldn't take me. I was sure he couldn't take me, but he wasn't. And it probably would have been a pretty good fight.
because of his confidence. But behind all of that, I'm sure he was thinking, even if he beats me, all I'm going to do is go home. And they'll see me a little beat up and ask what's up. And I'll tell them some dude came down to the school from Roosevelt Junior High School and beat me up. Then they'd have been at Roosevelt.
See what I'm saying? The next day, when I come out. And I knew both these older brothers. They would have mopped up the ground with me. I wasn't going to fool with either one of them.
I ran track in those days. I'd have hit the wind. That's what I'd have done. Tell you no lie, I wouldn't have tried to stand up to either one. See some of y'all just standing with it.
I'm going to just be a man. No, uh-uh. I've been peeping out the window. Y'all see them? I'd have my boys looking out.
Yeah, they out here in the back. All right, well I'm going out the front then.
So the bottom line was because I knew of their family reputation rather than to avenge this punch. I said. I didn't know the Bible verse at the time, but had I known it, I would have quoted it. Come let us reason together. And I talked to the boy.
I said, Look, man, don't need us getting into it. It's not about that. Why don't you leave him alone? You see, he's small, scrawny. I'm sure my friend was standing there like, come on, man.
You know why you won't pick on him? There's some other bigger dudes around here. You want to fight? Whatever. Don't pick on him.
He ain't doing anything to you. And I just straightened it out that way and he, you know. He's a cool. And we begged over and said, thank you, Jesus. Because all I could picture was myself being.
Beaten down. By one of the Sutton boys. And so you got to understand that this family bond can be very strong in the natural and certainly in the spiritual family. The family bond ought to be very strong. We've got to learn to be devoted to one another.
We've got to learn to be committed to one another. These are days when there's too much independent thinking, too every man for himself, for our own good. The reality is, I've got to stand with you. You've got to stand with me. And a lot of times people say, well, I'll stand with you as long as you're right.
Well, that's not good enough because there'll be times when I come short. I don't just need somebody to stand with me when I'm right. What am I going to do when I'm wrong? Who's going to help me? Who's going to say, hey, that's not right?
You need to change that. You need to dig yourself. They've got to be devoted enough to you, committed enough to you, that when you're right, I stand with you. But when you're wrong, I stand with you to help get you right. Devotion, I'm committed.
I'm here. We are family. There is a bond here that cannot be broken just by some disagreement. I want to challenge somebody: stop throwing everybody away in your life just because you have a disagreement. There's strife.
And some people just have the habit, not you, but people I know, are just in the habit.
Soon as somebody gets on their nerves, they just throw them away. Just throw away relationships. I'm done with you. No, no, I can't be done with you. You're my brother, you're my sister.
We're in the same family. You picked your friends, but you stuck with your relatives. Stuck with them. They're your relatives. They're born in, they're in just like you, or adopted in, they're in just like you.
It's legal, it's binding. I disown my son. That's your child. And just as it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. I can't disown you, my brother, my sister.
You're God's child. You're my father's kid. We're born again of the same spiritual seed. Incorruptible spiritual seed. God has begun a good work in both of our lives.
I can't toss you away because you're getting on my nerves or you're frustrating me. I've got to go back and get grace to deal with you.
Now to be sure, you got some special brothers and sisters. To be sure, in the body of Christ, you do. You have some that will really challenge you. But please always sober your thinking and make sure you realize that while some folks are special to you, it could be that you're special to some other folk. And so you temper it with realistic thinking.
But even when you're dealing with someone who's especially challenging, you have hard-headed brothers and sisters, you have those who are just narrow-minded, you have those who have all kinds of idiosyncrasies you don't like. But your devotion to them means that you remain steadfast in their lives. I'm going to be here. You can try to kick me out, but I'm here. We're in this thing together.
I'm going to pray you through. When I disagree with something about your life, we can talk about it. But even if you say, I don't see that, get out of my face, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm not going to throw you away. I'm going to still love you.
And I'm going to play the best role I can play as your spiritual brother and sister to help you become all that God has called you to be. And it is important that we behave that way in the body of Christ.
Now, you gotta notice that he says, practice, practice this, be devoted to this. In such a way that you're expressing brotherly love.
Now, love is an action word. It's an action word, so don't tell me you love me, and it doesn't reflect in your smile, your treatment of me. You're being willing to forbear me when I'm getting on your nerves. There must be an action. That's associated with any form of love, whether it is agape or whether it is brotherly love.
It is action-oriented. Love must have expression. We can talk too much about love in our hearts. Love in your heart isn't going to do people much good. It's the love that gets into your actions.
Just like when you come to church, when there are greeters or ushers, whatever a church may have, you expect that they don't just love you in the heart. It ought to reflect in the smile. We've got some great ones here that reflect the love of God in the way they smile. And I appreciate them so much because that first line of people that a stranger runs into will impact on their thinking about the family. You ever been to a place and say, well, if the ushers Or the greeters are like this.
I'm not sure I want to stay for the service. See, it's important. And just like that's true when it comes to those functions, it's true as we deal with one another. And again, you come short. There's grace, but let your coming short be the exception by God's grace and not the rule.
The rule is: I want to be able to express my love, to be kind. If there are people who have things about them you don't like, you can still be kind to them. And if they're in the body, they are as legitimate in the family as you are. See, we like to call people black sheep and that sort of thing in the family, but no. God says no, they're just family members.
I love them. Same blood. That redeems you, redeem them. Same promises that apply to you apply to them. God doesn't have favorite kids.
Now, God's one of those kinds of parents who can make you feel favored just by you hanging out with God and all that He's doing for you. And you know, you can really believe, oh man, God really, really is into me. That's because he knows how to love us that way. But if you check in with your other brothers and sisters, you'll find that they think the same thing. Just like those good old-fashioned grandparents and what have you, everybody made you feel special.
You thought you were the special one until you found out your brother thought he was the special one. Your sister thought she was the special one. Because they have that way. of just connecting with you. And God is that way with all of us.
And then He teaches us now: you're in my family, you reflect that bond. By forbearing Your brothers. In Devotion. And make sure that you do that. One of the ways you do that is to honor them.
is to honor them. You want to make sure that you honor them. Prefer them. Just be courteous enough. in the way you live, to have a after you attitude.
Have you ever seen, you know, that's almost gone from the world, but do you remember, you know, back when someone would hold the door and say, after you, I'm going in, but you can go first. I don't have to shove my way in. You know, or go in first, then hold it back. For you, there's a higher form of expressing respect and honor to you. Hold the door after you.
I'm going in, but I don't have to be first. And if we could develop that kind of attitude more as we deal with one another in the body of Christ. I don't have to have my need met first. I don't have to get my word in first. I don't have to, you know, have you focus on me first.
We're brothers and sisters. I can afford to have an after year. You kind of had it. Because I know that God's been so good to me, I'll always come out of head. If I'm last in the dealings with people, I'm still way ahead because of what God has done for me.
And so we learn to love people without compromise, and we learn to practice devotion as we deal with others in the body of Christ. Um Consider these words from the Apostle Paul. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
You know Destined for Victory could not exist without the faithful prayer and financial support of others, 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 hope you'll consider sending a generous gift today which is When you do, we've got a great booklet to share with you as our way of saying thanks, and it goes right along with the message you heard and proving your serve. When Jesus was here with us, His was a life of service to His Heavenly Father and also to us.
He gave his life long before he hung on that cross. Improving your serve will help you understand the keys to developing a lifestyle of service. Again, that's the booklet titled Improving Your Serve: 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 pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 17674. Fremont, California, 94538. I want to let you know that service comes at a price tag. It comes at a price tag of sometimes your personal comfort.
It comes at a price tag of your wallet or pocket book. You can't love people and see them in need and do absolutely nothing. That's tomorrow in our continuing message, Improving Your Serve. Until then they'll remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
In Christ, you are destined for victory.
