We got a generation of Christians who have candy store fixation. They just think God is a cosmic Santa Claus and he has come to just give you everything you want. And you got folk trying to claim promises and leave off the condition. God will always keep his promises, but more often than not, there's a condition attached. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
You know, the revelation of Jesus Christ tells us more about who He is than it does about when He might return. He is the King of Kings, the Alpha and Omega, the One who died so that all of us, including His murderers, might live.
So we should be encouraged to not only worship Him, but to trust Him. take him at his word. But as you'll see today, when God makes you a promise, it almost always comes with a condition or two. As always, you're invited to come see us at pastorpaul.net, where you can listen to any recent message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net.
So let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: Jesus in High Definition. You remember when Moses saw a bush? Burning and it wasn't consumed because you would expect the fire eventually to go out since it wasn't among all these other bushes. A standalone bush that was burning and burning and burning, and God did that to attract Moses' attention. And Moses said, Let me go turn aside and see what in the world is going on with this bush.
And you know, he ran into God, had to take his shoes off, and God began to describe himself to him and told him, I've called you to go, and you're to go to Pharaoh, tell him, let my people go. And so he was shocked by all of that. But at a certain point, Moses said, Now, If I go to Pharaoh, I know Pharaoh. Pharaoh is a bad boy. That's the Paul Shepherd version of the Bible.
He's a bad boy. I've been there. I was raised in the palace. I know Pharaoh up close and personal. If I go to somebody like him.
and tell him somebody told me to tell you. To let my people go. He's gonna have a problem.
So he asked the Lord. Who shall I say sent me? And what did the Lord tell him? He said, I am. That I am.
Tell him the I am sent you. You get it? Don't tell him that I was sent you. Don't tell him that I will be. You just wait.
You just wait. Uh-uh. Tell him that I am the eternally present one. The one who was here before Pharaoh was in the eye, and in the heart, and in the mind of his parents. I am.
God is the eternally present one. See, we're accustomed to thinking of things that run a course. We're accustomed to things that have a beginning. And have a middle, a prime, and then they're on the downside, and eventually they die. That's all we know.
We live in a finite world. And everything we are familiar with has a beginning, a middle, a peak and an end. But not our God. God didn't have a prime. Where you can say about God, oh man, I tell you, back in the day, boy, God was something.
Oh man, back in the day, boy, God would tear things up. No, no, no. When you're talking about God, he is the eternally present one. You're the one getting older. We're getting older.
We're the ones who live in this locked-in space called time. And we have a beginning, and we grow up, and at some point you hit your prime, and you're as good as you're going to get in some ways. All of us have a time when you look the best you're gonna look. On the planet. That's it.
I tell young folk, when you think you are as fine as you're going to get, take your pictures then. That's the time to take your pictures.
So later on, when folk don't believe you used to be the bomb, you can whip them out and show them. Look at that. That was me. See, we're the ones. That are in this progression.
We're in this time that is causing swift transition to take place. And so, you know, we're the ones trying to hold on older folk. I'm in my middle ages, and I now know what that's like. Where you just think back to times you were stronger, and you were younger, and you were more virile, and you had more energy, and you could do more things. And that's fine.
Go on and look back. And, you know, if you're a grandparent, brag to your grandkids, you know, and pull out your old pictures, they see you leaning against the old car, looking all sharp, got your suit on and hat and everything, looking all, and the little kids say, oh, that was your granddaddy. Yeah, that was me. It's fine to do all of that. But you gotta understand.
That's why the Bible says, teach us to number our days. That we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Why? Because as you move on, you gotta learn to be wiser. Because you're not always going to be as strong as you once were.
You're not always going to be as handsome or beautiful as you once were. But you ought to have more wisdom as you move along. Because come on, you might as well be honest. Back when you were in your prime, and some of you young folk are just heading to yours now, and some of you are right there. But listen, when you're in that state, you might be physically in the best shape of your life, but there's a lot more you have yet to learn about how to live life.
Because some of us who have come through that season, and we're in the second half of our life, in the third quarter of our life, and some of us are in the fourth quarter of our life, and some of us are in the final two minutes, the two-minute warning. The two-minute warning has come. If you're not familiar with football, when you get to the end of the game, there's what they call the two-minute warning. and you take your automatic time out. And whatever else you're going to do, you got two minutes to do it.
Yeah. And some of us are in the two-minute warming, but wherever you are, when we look back, we realize that there are some things we learned along the way that we wish we had known earlier. Because some of us, when we were looking our best and strong and young, and pretty and cute, had your little figure, all that stuff.
Some of those days, you were jacked up in your head. You weren't as smart. You weren't as wise as you are now.
Some of us look back and see some of the mistakes we made and said, Lord, if I could get that time back. Cause you know some of us were young and cute and dumb Come on, you might as well be not about everything, but some areas of your life. You were just dumb. You just thought you knew more than you knew, and you thought you could get away with more than you could get away with, and you thought things would be different. And you have learned, in many cases, the hard way.
And so, even when you're moving on later in the years, the Bible says, Teach us, Lord, to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Lord, teach me the worst fool is an old fool. You've had time to learn something by now. You've had time to gain some wisdom by now. What are you doing, old, and still stupid?
You oughta know something by now. My grandmother used to say, Boy, you better listen to me. I'm coming back from where you're going. You ought to know some things by now. You ought to decide there's a better way to get your life lived.
And you don't want to try to count on being young and being strong.
Sometimes wisdom is much better than strength. Because wisdom will help you to live the way God wants you to live your life. But my point is that we are used to that. We're locked into that kind of understanding. We're used to thinking of things having a beginning and a middle and an end.
And so, wherever you are in life, number your days. God, make me wiser as I live my life. Don't ask God to make you cuter. Do the best you can. Stay cute as long as you can.
And you know, do your best. Go on, even if you're in your middle years and what have you. Go on, hopefully, you got a little more money now. You can put together your outfits just right and compensate. You know, when you were young, you could throw in anything, still look kind of halfway good.
You know, young folk just can look crazy and look good sometimes. But, you know, those of us who are moving on alone, we gotta coordinate. We gotta take some time and get this together. You got to get it together. You got to make sure.
That you're just working it out just right. Still ahead, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepard. Our mission at Destined for Victory is to serve you and all of our listeners by sharing timeless truth for a victorious life. And one of the reasons we're able to do it is because of your prayers and financial support. you're invited to prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory today, call 855-339-5500 to make your gift over the phone or give safely and securely at pastorpaul.net.
Well, as we grow older, we may gain a little weight and lose a little hair because people change. But Jesus doesn't. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let's listen closely now to the second half of today's message: Jesus in High Definition. And you have some options now in this day that'll help you.
You can go to the store and get some vitamins to help you with your energy. And you can pop the right pills, and God has blessed the pharmacist to learn the wisdom of what is here in the earth that can be used to help you, and you can get stronger and have the energy to do what God wants you to do. You can get because of all the modern things we have now. If you are losing your hair and want some more, you can go buy some. You can buy some if you want to.
Now, when mine started going years ago, I was frustrated. Lord, have mercy. Because, you know, I used to have a big head of hair. In fact, back in the day, I had an afro. Had an afro, big, beautiful afro.
Back in the day when we would braid it up at night. Let me just tell you about my culture. You think back to yours, back in my culture, we would break, because Afros were in at a certain point. The Jackson five and all of them. We were in, and I'm the age of Michael, so Michael and I both had our big afros.
And you know, those are the days when you would put the grease in there to make it shine. You either got Afro-Sheen or ultra-sheen. Yeah. Yeah. Now you from other cultures, you'll have to tell me what you did, but we did Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen, and we would put that in there and what have you, and then you would braid it at night.
And sleep on it like that, then you'd wake up in the morning, get your pick, and pick it out. And if you did it right there, and then you would make sure you go to the barber, and he couldn't cut it off, he just trimmed it so they had a nice.
So you had that nice round shape to it. Oh boy, and when you got it right and it was glistening in the sun and it was shaped just right, we'd go out and the women would just have to pray. Because we were looking good. We knew we were looking good. But I live long enough to find a hole developing in my afro.
And after a while, once somebody said, once I was losing my hair, they said, You're going to go, you know, buy something, get one of these, you know, hair pieces or something, go to the men's hair clubs. I said, no, I read the Bible and it helped me. It said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I got my pictures from when I had it.
That's good enough for me. Y'all messing up my message. Where am I? Teach us to number our days. That we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
But with the God we serve, The HD view of God is he doesn't have a prime when he's at his best, and after that, it's downhill. God Is eternally who he always was and who he always will be. He is eternally is-ness. He is the eternal I am. I took a little sampling when I was studying and putting this message together.
I sampled some God is passages. Let me just throw one at you. God is not a man that he should lie. Nor a son of man that he should repent. That's in Numbers 23, verse 19.
Talking about what God is, this one tells you what God is not. He is not like you. He is not a man, meaning a person, not the gender, but humankind. He is not a person. That he should lie or The Son of Man That he should repent.
In other words, God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't deceive. God doesn't speak what he does not follow up on. The eternally present God. is full Of holiness and righteousness and integrity.
So he has no ability to lie. He is not a person that he should lie. That means when God says a thing. He's not trying to make it happen. He's not hoping it will happen.
Well, you know, if everything goes right. I'm working on something right now, and if I can pull it all together. No, that's your uncle. That's your uncle. That's not God.
That's your uncle back when you were a kid. You know, your uncle, I'm coming by and pick y'all up, I'm gonna take you to the amusement park. And you standing by the door. Yeah. You don't know whether Unc gonna show up or not.
And then later on, he called, something came up. Tell the kids I'm sorry. God is not a man. That he should lie. He's not the son of man that he should repent.
If God says it, he's going to bring it to pass. If God promised it, it is so. God is so much Who he is that God can speak. in the future about things that haven't even happened yet. God can talk about something like it happened already, and in fact, in this world, it hasn't yet come to pass.
Because God, when He speaks, it is so. We serve the same one who stepped out into nothing and said, Let there be. And there was. And God is able to talk about things that have not yet manifested, as if they have already manifested, because when it is in the mouth of God, when it is in the mind of God, it is so.
Now, here's the problem we have serving a God like that. We serve the infinite God, but we're finite people.
So when God speaks, We put it often in our terms. And first of all, we're concerned about the scheduling of it. But if you notice, if you walk with God for any amount of time, God has a way of telling you, giving you a promise. In His word, or giving you a promise in your time of prayer and devotion, and He'll speak something to you and you hide it away in your heart and you believe it, but you've got to understand you're dealing with the eternally present one, and time is not an issue with God. God doesn't operate by time, He operates by purpose.
He operates in the council of his own will according to his own purpose. Here's the problem: you and I don't have his schedule. We don't know. See, the Bible says things like in the fullness of time. In the fullness of time.
And you don't know when the time has filled up. Which is why your Bible tells you you must walk by faith. And not by sight. You gotta walk by faith, not by your calendar. You got to walk by faith, not by your feelings.
You got to walk by faith, not by anything else other than the word of God. If God said it, he'll bring it to pass. And we have to walk by faith. and obedience. One of the things you got to realize when God makes you a promise, if there are conditions attached to the promise, make sure to pay attention to the conditions.
Because we got a generation of Christians who have candy store fixation. They just think God is a cosmic Santa Claus and He has come to just give you everything you want. And you got folk trying to claim promises and leave off the condition. You can't do that. And so I've heard people over the years: well, you know, the Lord said He'll give me the desire of my heart.
Well, he did. But back up first. And read what he said, leading up to, and I'll give you the desires of your heart. Here's what he said: I've already read it, John chapter 15: if you abide in me. That means live in me, dwell.
It's the word for domicile, where you live, your residence. If your residence is in me, If you live in me and my words, Live in you. Then you can ask what you will. And it'll be done. Why?
Because you are so rooted in the word of God, which is the will of God, until you're immersed in God. I don't want my way, I want your way. If you abide in him and his words abide in you, you can ask what you will. And that promise is true.
Some people say, well, the Bible said, The Lord gave me the desires of my heart. Back up. Delight yourself. In the Lord. And he will give you the desires of your heart.
Same principle as in John 15. If you delight yourself, if you immerse yourself in who God is, if you're excited not just about what He gives, but who He is. If you delight yourself in who God is, Lord, I just love you for you. Then he will give you the desires of your heart. When you love on God, when you immerse yourself in him, when you flatter God, when you compliment him, Lord, you're just wonderful.
I just can't get enough of you. You make God give you the desires of your heart. He loves to be acknowledged for who he is. And he'll give you the desires. Of your heart, I've heard people say, Well, you know, the Bible said, I don't have to worry about anything in my life, and because the Bible says, A thousand fall in my side, and ten thousand in my right hand, but it will not come nigh me.
I read that Psalm 91, but back up. He that dwelleth In the secret place. Of the Most High. Shall abide Under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my God, in Him will I trust.
See if you're not abiding in the secret place A whole lot of things will hit you. It won't just fall at your side, it'll fall on you too. Because you're not abiding in that secret place where nothing can harm you, because I am hidden with Christ and God. And so you have to understand, we serve the eternally present one. And I want you to know that our God is not a man that he should lie.
He is not the son of man that he should repent. You can trust God. You can trust God more than you can trust anything or anybody else. You can trust. God.
You can put your hope and your trust and your faith in him. Because he is the eternally present. Why? You know, the reason the Lord has not returned is because He loves the world so much that He wants to give everyone time to repent. To profess their faith in him.
So that He can take as many people to heaven with Him as He can. That's what we want to do here at Destin for Victory. The last thing Jesus told us to do was to make disciples of all nations.
So today before we let you go, we want to share with you a conversation I once had with Pastor Paul Shepard, one that will really help you understand what our mission at Destined for Victory is and what it always will be.
Well, you know, when I think of victorious, my mind goes back. I'm a kid growing up watching TV in the 60s, so my mind goes back to the wide world of sports. Oh, yeah. There was an announcer named James McKay, Jim McKay, something like that. He had this classic line where he talked about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
And I love just thinking about how thrilling it is to be victorious. I love in any game I'm playing, I want to be victorious. I tell people, I don't care whether it's monopoly or something really serious, I want to win. And in life, we can win in Christ, and that's what the Bible tells us, that we are victorious in Him. And victorious means that we're following His lead, that we're letting the Holy Spirit take us where He wants us to go in life.
We're saved by His grace, and then we're simply following His direction. And of course, the Word of God is so key. To following God's direction, because the word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And so those who tune in to broadcasts like Destined for Victory are really supposed to be receiving guidance so that we can walk in and live in victory. And that's what I pray is happening as people tune in day by day.
We say it every day, in Christ you are destined for victory. Our prayer is that you will live the victorious Christian life today and every day, and you'll help us share that message with those who need to hear it. When you financially support the ministry, we've got a great thank you gift to share with you. It's our latest booklet based on Colossians 3, verses 12 through 15. It's called Clothed in Love, and it will challenge you to direct your best selves toward the ones who matter most.
Pastor Paul Shepherd points you to seven virtues compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness, and about how giving these gifts away can transform your most important relationships. That's clothed in love's seven gifts for the ones who matter most are gifted to you today by request for your generous gift 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 right there online.
You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767. Fremont, California, 94538. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, you will find another indication of who our God is. There, you will find in verse 24 that our God is a consuming fire and a jealous fire. God.
And then in that same passage, in verse 31, you will find that he is a merciful God. And that's tomorrow in our continuing message, Jesus in High Definition. Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
