Jesus loves you better than anybody who has ever loved you. You know why? Because Jesus knew us at our worst. He loved us at our very worst. See, a whole lot of the folk who say they love you don't really know you.
Jesus doesn't just love you, he loves you anyway. Hello and thanks for being with us for today's Destin for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard. You know, Jesus doesn't love you because of your goodness. He loves you in spite of your badness. Through all of our ups and downs, and the times when we go sideways, the love of Jesus remains constant.
Today, we continue our journey through the book of Revelation with a close-up look at God's love, an unconditional, unwavering love that is beyond our human understanding. Online, you'll find us at pastorpaul.net, where you can listen to Destined for Victory on Demand. That's pastorpaul.net. Subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts, at Spotify, or wherever you enjoy your podcast. The message is called Jesus in high definition, and it starts right now.
Revelation chapter 1, beginning in the middle of verse 5, it says this. to him who loves us. and has freed us from our sins by his blood. and has made us to be a kingdom and priest to serve his God and Father. To him be glory and power for ever and ever.
Amen. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.
So shall it be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was. And who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom, and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus.
was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God. and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day, I was in the Spirit. And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. which said right on a scroll, What you see, and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus, Smyrna.
Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and among the candlesticks was someone like a son of man. dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash Around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow.
And his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze. Glowing in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double edged sword.
His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me. And said, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last.
I am the living one. I was dead. But behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death. and Hades.
It's just exciting reading the Word of God. Jesus in high definition. That's what we're looking at. We're discovering that here in Revelation chapter 1, you get a view of Jesus that is quite in-depth, very much like high definition is in today's technology. And you, you know, people are buying Blu-ray machines and so that you can see a film or an animated project in almost multi-dimensional ways.
And it's just wonderful to see what technology can do. But here in Revelation, you see Jesus in high death. We get to see the King of kings and Lord of Lords in all of his splendor. And we have spent three installments in this series so far looking at Jesus in high death. We ended in the last message looking at Jesus as the faithful witness.
As the firstborn from the dead, And as the ruler of the kings of the earth. And in the last message, I talked about Jesus being large and in charge, the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is not only a king, he is the king of kings, and he is the lord of lords. And Jesus is large and in charge. I don't have time to review, but thankfully, those messages are available.
Now, I want to pick it up here in the middle of verse 5 as we continue to zoom in and take a good, high-definition look at Jesus. Notice what is said here in the middle of verse 5: it says, To him who loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us to be a kingdom. and priests. Let me just pause right there. To him, number one, who loves us.
If you want to get a good view of Jesus, you will have to look at the fact that he is a loving Savior. Make no mistake about it, Jesus is the lover of your soul. Jesus loves you like no one else loves you. I don't care how good a love experience you think you've had in your life.
Some of y'all have this story. Oh, I'm telling you. The first time I fell in love. And all that. We write songs about it.
First time ever I saw your face. You know how we do. And we just romanticize it.
Sometimes it wasn't all that. We just making something. You know, much bigger than it really was. But you know, we can really, really push the envelope talking about some love, some love, the first person you ever fell in love with, or all of that kind of stuff. Let me tell you something: Jesus loves you better than anybody who has ever loved you.
You know why? Because Jesus knew us at our worst. He loved us at our very worst. See, a whole lot of the folk who say they love you don't really know you. I know that hurts.
I know that hurts. Pastor, you sent me out here to hurt my feelings. I know that hurts, but it happens to be true. Very often, people love you largely out of ignorance.
Now, there are some things they like about you and they love you because of, but there are other things if they're really going to love you, they're going to have to get good at loving you in spite of. Come on, let's be honest for a moment. The more a person gets to know you, hopefully, the more there are some things they really like about you. But if they're getting to know you, there are also going to be some things that make them say, mm. I didn't know I was getting into all this.
And so hopefully they still love you, but I'm telling you, nobody loves you like Jesus. Because he found you at your worst. And he loves us. The Bible is very clear that Jesus died for us when we were still sinners. Romans chapter 5.
In other words, he wasn't waiting to get us straight before he loved us. He didn't love us as projects. You know, I tell you all the time sometimes people will marry a project. They'll marry a person thinking, I'll get them changed, I'll get them fixed up, and so I will advance them some love. And they will have to earn that love through change.
You never did it, but somebody I know. You never did it.
Some people, advanced love. You know, it's advanced love because if you don't meet up to their schedule, They will send you a bill. You didn't come through the way I wanted to, and you will pay in some way or another.
Some of y'all have been through that. You know what I'm talking about.
Now, if you're sitting with the person who made you do that, I know you don't want to say amen. But you still know what I'm talking about. He loved us, and his love was totally undeserved. When we were sinners, he loved us. And not only was it undeserved, but when he gave it to us, it was unlimited.
1 John, in his first epistle, chapter 3, John says, Behold, now are we the sons of God. He said, What manner of love has the Lord bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God? He said, I can't believe that God gave us so much love that we are His children. We went from sinner. To God's own child.
Because of how much he loved us. And I want to say: if you are going through a lot of changes in your life, if you are a person who doesn't have a lot that makes you feel good about yourself, you are a person who has been beat up a lot through life, and people have told you what you're not, and you feel like you've always been in that left-behind crew. I've got good news for you. I don't care how they treat you in terms of relationships on your job or personal, interpersonal relationships. You might be the black sheep in your family, but you are a son of God in God's family.
And I want you to know: no matter who doesn't love you, when you think of how Jesus loves you, it ought to bring a smile to your face. Because the Bible says, if God be for us, who can be against us? If God loves me and you don't, I can say to you, oh well. Anyway. I'm loved by God.
Now, it doesn't get any better than that. If God loves you, you have no business hanging your head down. Feeling lousy about yourself, you are the object. Of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Who has loved us, he said, and freed us from our sins by his blood.
Look at that high-depth view of Jesus. He's a lover. And he is a freedom fighter. He has freed us. From our sins, we were held bondage in sin.
Sin had us by nature and by nurture. You know what that means? That means we were born in sin. Ephesians 2:1 says, You have he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Don't go away, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message featuring Pastor Paul Shepard is coming right up.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And that's why Destined for Victory is here, to share timeless truth for a victorious life. And to show as best we can that Jesus Christ is the only one who can give us that life. You can help keep these messages coming your way all year round by sending a generous gift to day.
Stop by pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. That's pastorpaul.net, or you can call 855-339-5500. Up next, the truth about the condition in which our condition was when we came into this world, and the truth about how Jesus turned things around.
So, with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, Jesus in High Definition, here once again is Pastor Paul Shepard. All of us, when you came onto the planet, you had no relationship with God through Christ. You were a sinner. You were not worthy of fellowship with a holy God. Sinners by nature.
Nature, when you show up. That's why there's no need of you pointing out some other folks saying, boy, they really are sinners. You know, they did that even Jesus' Day. Sinners called certain people sinners. They looked at vote and said, Now that's a sinner.
No, no. All of us, if you're on the planet before Christ in your BC life, You are a sinner as soon as you show up. You haven't learned how to send good yet. But all we need is a little time to take care of that. You are a sinner first by nature.
You're born alienated from God. That's all that means, which is why all of us need to be saved. Everybody needs to be saved because everybody's lost. It's just that simple. We come lost, we come alienated from God.
incapable of having fellowship with a holy God. And you're a sinner first by nature.
So don't think of sin first in terms of what you do or don't do. What you say or don't say, where you go, where you don't go. That's not what defines us as sinners. Initially, we're sinners by nature. And we don't know how to sin yet, but we're going to learn.
In fact, we learn pretty early because I contend these babies are showing you pretty early. And they don't know God. I always hurt the parents' feelings who have brand new infants calling my baby a sinner.
Well, the Bible called your baby a sinner, not me. And they're gonna show you in a minute. Yeah. In fact, sometimes when mine was very young, we had two children when we had a first child, and you know, we'd have her fed and burped and chains, and we played and what have you. And when we've done all our best, sometimes she's hollering.
And you look at the child and say, What's the matter? And one day, I don't know that it was God, but one day something came to me and said, The problem is, she's a sinner, frustrated because she can't sin yet.
Okay, I know that wasn't what was wrong with her, but. It made me feel better at the time. As sinners first by nature. But then, as we grow up and live our lives, we become sinners by nurture. And I've told you many times before, you see it very early on.
So I won't mess with you who have infants, but you know by the time they get around one and a half, two. Two and a half, three, three and a half, four. You see some pretty clear sin lines. Come on, somebody. They want that cookie you told them no cookies?
Till later on, I will tell you when you have a cookie, but that cookie is calling them. That cookie is calling them, and you leave the room or leave for I'm going to grocery, you stay here with your big brother, whatever, and what have you, and they leave, and nobody's in the room. And that cookie's calling, and they climb up there and get that cookie out of the cookie jar. Our at the pantry. And they ate the cookie, and you come back in, and you know something's wrong before you know something's wrong.
Because you see on their face the guilt of sin. You see the guilt before you know what the guilt is for. And they're standing right there, too young to know how to sin well. They're just learning. But they stand in there, ate the cookie.
And you look at them, and maybe you look over and see some crumbs on the counter or something, and so you're putting this together. And you say, did you eat the cookie? That I told you you can't have. Uh-uh. Eyes on wide.
Ah Sometimes cookies still on the mouth. Uh-uh, I didn't even know we had cookies.
So we become sinners by nurturing. You grow up and you just pick the brands of sin. That gets you where you think you want to go. And we become thieves, and we become liars, and we have bad motives, and we hate, and we, and all kinds of things are going on in your life. But Jesus, the high-def view of Jesus here is he saw all of us were bound in sin.
By nature and by nurture. And he came into the world to be the ultimate freedom fighter. And on that cross, he freed us from our sins. And now he is making us righteous. And I love it because God knows that we have a sin problem on two levels, by nature and by nurture.
So when Jesus came, He came to solve it on two levels. And now you are righteous first by nature. What happens the moment you accept Christ as your Savior and Lord, your sin nature. It's forgiven, and God replaces it and gives you a new standing in Christ. That's why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone's in Christ, he or she is a new creation.
God says, now I'm gonna make you righteous. I'm gonna give you a nature. That pleases God, that has right standing with God. You're no longer stamped with the nature of Adam, the first Adam.
Now you're stamped with the nature of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. And now I have a nature. Of righteousness.
So that means if I get saved, when I trust Christ as my Savior, if I trust Him as Savior one moment and die the next. I have right standing with God. I haven't had a chance to go to church yet, read my Bible yet, learn how to walk with God yet. But by nature, I'm righteous. Isn't that good news?
You can go from sinner to saint just like that. Because he saves us first. By nature gives us a righteous nature and then. He came to free us from our sins, not just the penalty of our sins. Then he says, I'm going to give you my Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is going to walk with you. and teach you how to live the righteous life. Because you spent all these years learning how to be a good sinner.
Now I'm going to walk with you and teach you how to be a good believer. How to trust me better. How to walk with me better, how to be sensitive to my leading, how to obey me. I'm gonna teach you. You learned a life of disobedience and self-centeredness.
Now I'm gonna teach you how to love me and love other people. And the Lord walks with you. And I'm so glad that He not only loves us, but He freed us from our sins by His blood. We're also told here that He has made us to be a kingdom and priests. A kingdom and priests.
Now, think about that for a moment. You say, What's so special about that?
Well, in the Old Testament, you would never see such a thing because, under the mindset prior to Christ, even in the Jewish community, the Bible is clear that you could be a king or a priest. But you couldn't be both.
So some saw David etcetera, were chosen by God to be kings. among God's people. And then there were others, Samuel and the like. Who are chosen to be priests? But those jobs, those responsibilities, those Those assignments were non-combinable.
You couldn't be a king. And a priest under the Old Testament economy. In fact, if you recall in 1 Samuel chapter 13, The first time God judged King Saul. It was because he tried to act like a priest. You remember that in 1 Samuel 13?
He was waiting for Samuel the priest to arrive so that he could offer the sacrifice to the Lord and the people could be blessed. But some of his army was flaking out and leaving, and he got scared and he said, Samuel's running late.
So he commanded, give me the burnt offering, and he offered up the burnt offering. He was the king, had no business usurping the role of a priest. And when Samuel shows up, he said, what in the world have you done? And he said, well, you were a little late. And the folk were leaving, so I I just went on and handled it.
And he said, You've acted foolishly. And because of this, The Lord is going to not establish your kingdom forever. In fact, the Lord is already. Chosen your successor. Why?
Because he couldn't be the king and the priest. God hadn't called him to be both. But guess what? When you zoom in on Jesus, you see that he has made you to be both a kingdom and a priest. What that means is, in the language of 2 Peter, we are not only a priesthood, we are a royal priesthood.
1 Peter 2, verse 9, he says, But you are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation, and you are a peculiar people. I've told you many times before, that means unique, not weird. When the Bible calls you peculiar, it means you're supposed to be unique, not like everybody else.
I walk with God. I march to the beat of a heavenly drummer. I'm not like other folk because I answer to God. I walk with Him. I love Him.
I live with Him. That's what makes us unique. Not weird. The Bible didn't call you to be weird. When you run into weird Christians, don't blame that on God.
And if you are a weird Christian, don't blame the way you act on God. You're messing up your witness. Being strange. If you're the kind of Christian, when non-Christians see you coming, they start praying.
Something is definitely wrong. When folk who don't even know God see you and say, Oh, Lord. Help me, Lord. No, it's not supposed to be that way. We are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
And we are to help attract people. To the grace and the love of God. But you and I are a kingdom and priests. We are royal. That means we have standing with God, and that means you're royalty.
God sees you as special. You're not ordinary. You are His child. And He has crowned your head with royalty because you share in the inheritance of Christ. The Bible says we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.
And we get to reign with him. Ephesians chapter 2. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places. And we get to rain. with him.
Yeah. Until Christ returns, we'll never be free from the presence or the power of sin. But if we put our faith in Him for salvation, we're already free from the eternal penalty of sin. That's the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Blessed be His holy name.
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Well, we have a great thank you gift to share with you today when you financially support the Ministry of Destined for Victory. It's our latest booklet, Clothed in Love, Seven Gifts for the Ones Who Matter Most. In this message, drawn from Colossians 3, verses twelve through fifteen, Pastor Paul challenges us to direct our best selves toward the ones who matter most. As you learn about seven powerful virtues - compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness - you'll discover what it means to truly honor your mother and how giving these gifts can transform your most important relationships. That's clothed in love.
Seven gifts for the ones who matter most. Are gifted to you today by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. You can give that gift by phone by calling 855-339-5500. Again, 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 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. Don't let anybody else light up your life. I've told you many times before: if you let anybody else light up your life, they're on the light bulb. Oh, you light up my life. You give me hope to carry on.
Uh-uh, don't sing that about a person. If they light you up, they own the light bulb. And that's next time in our Destined for Victory message, Jesus in High Definition. Until then, though, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
