And let me tell somebody that you keep asking God to have his way, but he can't have his way because you are in the way. And as soon as you get out of the way through surrender and through saying, God, not my will but thine be done. You'll see a difference. in whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. If you want to impact someone's life, you may have to go out of your mind.
Hello, and welcome to another great day here on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, we've all tried to help people by speaking our mind, but it's only in knowing the mind of Christ that our words can have the most benefit. Today, we'll be reminded that when we move ourselves out of the way, people around us can see Jesus a little more clearly. Online, you'll find us at pastorpaul.net, where you can listen to Destined for Victory on Demand or subscribe to the podcast. That's pastorpaul.net.
Now, let's give a listen to Pastor Paul's destined for victory message: Knowing the Mind of Christ. I'll never forget. Perhaps you've heard me share the story before, but I want to hear it again. Let me tell it real quick. In 1989, when I first moved to California, within a week or two of moving here, I had to fly to Kentucky to fulfill an engagement that I had booked probably a year before when I was still in Philadelphia.
Sometime in '88, I had been booked to be the speaker for a youth. weekend, a youth convention in Kentucky. A number of churches were coming together into a youth convention. They were going to have several hundred young people there. And so I was booked to be the speaker.
And I had said yes to it, but after that, the Lord led us to California.
So, long story short, I had to go. By then, I was very nervous, and I was regretting that I had taken that engagement because at that point in my life, I was not accustomed to ministering to non-black people. I cut my teeth as a preacher preaching in black church settings. And preaching to black folk is different than preaching to white folk. It feels different.
It has different dynamics. There are different things. Black folk, you know where they are because they're talking to you the whole way. It's just black church culture is called call and response. They're very uninhibited in church.
And so they'll say, Yeah, go ahead, Pastor. Mm-hmm. I see you. Yeah, praise God. And that's how I cut my teeth, and I knew the dynamics, and there's a rhythm to black preaching.
And I was used to that. When you preach to white folk, I wasn't used to that because they just sat there and looked at me. I'd only done it maybe once or twice before 1989, and those two times I felt like I had failed miserably. Because I was preaching in my rhythm, but there was no rhythm. One of those settings where I had spoken in a predominantly white setting, Tony Campolo was sitting there through my service.
He was going to be one of the speakers in that convention too. And so he sat through my service. Afterwards, he came up to me. He said, That was a great message, but you preached it in the wrong place. He said, I know I'm a white guy who's the associate pastor of a black church.
I realized that. He was associate pastor of a black Baptist church in Philadelphia. And so I was aware of that. He said, and I had to learn how to preach to black folk, and son, you're going to have to learn how to preach to white folk. I said, all right, well, you need to teach me, because I don't know.
Fact of the matter is the Holy Spirit. was going to take me on a journey years later that I had no idea about. And he was starting out. As soon as I moved to California by sending me to Kentucky to a white youth convention. And I got there and I said, Oh, Lord, I want to be home.
We're trying to, you know, get used to the Bay Area and my wife, my two little children there. And I'm here this weekend in Kentucky with these folk I don't know how to preach to. And I couldn't wait for it to be over, and it hadn't even started. But you know what it did? It drove me to my place of prayer.
I prayed, I remember praying for a couple of hours before the first service, just trying to get my mind in gear. Oh God, now that I'm here, use me, Lord. And as I prayed, God gave me a burden for those young people. I didn't know them. I hadn't yet laid eyes on them.
But as I prayed, the Holy Spirit gave me a burden. He began to pray through me. He began to teach me, to intercede for them. And I started longing for them to know Jesus. And I prayed fervently and what have you.
And I prayed until I got a release from the Holy Spirit that it's going to be okay. And I went into the first service. And the Spirit was guiding me. I was just like Paul mentions here. I felt like I was weak, that I was in fear and trembling.
Went into that service. I didn't feel confident in preaching my sermon, and so I was following Him. And the Spirit, when you draw near to Him, you can receive from Him. You can receive from him. And I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me: preach your message, but at a certain point, I'm going to tell you to stop.
Because what I'm going to do really isn't about what you're going to say. I'm going to get you to tell them the truth and teach the truth of my word, but I'm going to move after that. And I said, all right, and I preached my message. It was all right, but you know, I was out of my element and what have you. I imagine I would have gotten fairly good reviews.
It was the truth of God's word. But afterwards, I heard the Holy Spirit say, all right, wrap it up, and call those young people to the altar. And tell them that I want to save them. And so I had an altar call, and I said, So, if God is dealing with you and you know you need the Lord, and you're not to go back to your home, your high school, the way you came here, God is ordained this weekend to change your life. And I want you to come.
If you know that God wants to do a work in you, I want you to come. And so, young people came and kneeled at the altar. The counselors came and prayed with them. I saw many of them crying and the tears streaming. I said, Oh, wow, praise God!
I didn't know it was going to be like this. Look at that. I mean, the altar was full of young people. Praise God for that. They got up, and a second wave came down.
And they were down there praying and crying, and what have you. And they got up, and a third wave came down. And I said, Well, look at this. It was because I got out of God's way. And let me tell somebody that you keep asking God to have His way, but He can't have His way because you are in the way.
And as soon as you get out of the way through surrender and through saying, God, not my will but thine be done. You'll see a difference. in whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. Because God has his own will, his own agenda. And he has the power to pull his off.
Long story short, by the end of that weekend, Most of the young people who came there unsaved went home saved. I'm sure there were a few that went home unsaved, but they were vastly outnumbered by that Sunday morning ending service. Young folk had torn up rock posters that they had brought to hang up in their hotel rooms.
Some of them had testified that they had thrown out drugs that they had brought to the youth convention. I mean God was moving. Not long ago, a young white man walked up to me at a Church of God convention and stuck out his hand. He said, Pastor Paul, I want to shake your hand and thank you. You may not remember this, but in 1989, you spoke at a youth convention in Kentucky.
I said, I remember it well. He said, Well, what you don't know is that I was one of those rebellious, hard-headed young folk who came to that convention. I had no interest in God or anything. I was just there because my parents had made me go. He said, but I'm telling you, I had a power encounter with God that weekend like I have never had before or since.
He said, It changed my life completely, and I want to let you know I am now a youth pastor calling other young people into the kingdom of God. I want to let you know it's not by might, not by power. But it's by God's Spirit. And the second thing Paul talked about in this passage is the fact that the Spirit not only gives power for effectiveness, but the Spirit reveals what we need to know. In verses 6 through 10, he begins to talk about the fact that the Spirit revealed, first of all, the message that not only Jews would be saved, but that Gentiles would be saved.
It was the Spirit who had to reveal that because the Jewish community had always believed that they were going to be the chosen of God exclusively. And if you were not Jewish by ethnicity, you were not going to be part of the family of God. And they didn't understand that right into the days of the early church. The early church was a distinctively, exclusively Jewish church. And they had no thought whatsoever that God would do anything but that.
But God has a way of revealing his secrets. To people who are open to receiving information from Him that He wants you to know. And God, in the fullness of time, shared it with Peter, shared it with Paul, and eventually shared it in the council of Jerusalem. And everyone came to understand eventually that God is saving not only Jews, but He's saving Gentiles as well. And that came because God revealed it.
You remember how He revealed it to Peter? Peter was on a rooftop one day. In Acts chapter 10, on a rooftop praying, seeking God, and God gave him a vision of all manner of beasts. and said, Peter, I want you to kill one of these and eat. And he thought it was a test of his Jewish orthodoxy.
And he said, no, Lord, I will not eat anything unclean. And God said, when I tell you to eat, get your fork and knife. That's the Paul Shepherd translation. Don't question me, don't second-guess me, even if it changes your paradigm or your understanding. If I'm the one speaking to you, listen to me.
Long story short, God was preparing him, and you know the story of how God had already orchestrated that he would be sent for from people from the household of Cornelius, and he would, for the first time in his life, darken the doorstep of a Gentile. He had never even been to a Gentile's home. Suddenly God has him there preaching his word. God gave him that information. The Apostle Paul received that same information during his time before he began his ministry.
He had that time where he sought the Lord in Arabia and he just let God speak to him. And that's how he got so much revelation and so much knowledge when he wasn't even one of the original apostles. It was because he let God speak to him. I'm here to tell you, God still has things to say.
Now, let me be very clear so that you know I believe essential Christian doctrine, and I'm not promoting something kooky. God's revelation to you will never supersede or contradict His written word. The written word is the final court of arbitration. Every revelation, every prophecy, every word has to line up with the precepts and principles of God's written word. It is divinely inspired.
And so, if you get a word and it can't be supported by this book, your word is not from God.
Well, don't go away. The rest of today's Destined for Victory message featuring Pastor Paul Shepard is coming right up. In John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Our mission here at Destined for Victory is to share that timeless truth, Jesus Himself, so that as many people as possible can be saved.
You can help keep these messages coming your way all year round by sending a generous gift. Stop by pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. That's pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500. Do you need a revelation today? God is willing to give you wisdom and insight, but there's often a condition to be met before He does.
Let's join Pastor Paul for the rest of today's message, Knowing the Mind of Christ. But I want to let you know that God is revealing truth. You know, a lot of folks, I've heard ultra-conservative theologians say, well, no, no, we cannot believe in extra revelation as if somehow we're adding to scripture. No, no, I'm not talking about adding to scripture, scripture is universal truth for the entire world. When God speaks to you, He will take the precepts and principles of Scripture, but apply it in a specific way to something you're dealing with.
It is not an addition to Scripture. It is the fulfillment of the promise that the Holy Spirit would lead and guide us into truth. And I want to let you know, God will reveal some things to you. God will speak to you about your work situation. He'll help you solve a problem on your job.
God will speak to you about how to deal with a problem in your church. God will speak to you about how to deal with your spouse or your children. God will reveal some things going on in their lives. I heard Beth Moore, a fellow broadcaster, radio broadcaster, on her broadcast recently, talking about a time when she, I think, was washing the dishes or something. I may have some of the details wrong, but I can remember the gist.
Whatever she was doing, God spoke to her in a moment in her spirit and said, Call your daughter because she, at that time, her daughter was driving with her boyfriend to another city. And she said, they are under temptation. They're in the grip of temptation. And I want you to pray for them and then call. And Beth said, I stopped what I was doing and began to pray and called them.
And my daughter answered the cell phone and she said, Honey, God just spoke to me and He said that you, and I forget the young man's name, are in the grips of temptation. Is that true? And she said, I heard my daughter put the phone down and say to her boyfriend, Mama said, God said, We're in the grips of temptation, and she wants to know: is that true? He said, a couple of seconds later, she got back on the phone and said, yeah, mama, it's true. They were, they were driving, and they're two upstanding Christian young people, but you know, having that aloneness and what have you.
And the enemy was beginning to try to entice them to indulge in some behavior that would not have been consistent with their Christian testimony. And the Holy Spirit wanted to give them some help. I want to let you know, you might not believe in that. You might think, oh, no, I don't believe in such revelation.
Well, thank God I do. Because God can solve some of your problems. God can answer some of your prayers. God can help you work through some difficult situations. The Holy Spirit can reveal.
He said that the Spirit searches all things. Even the deep things of God. The Spirit will search out some needs. He will search out some issues in your life. He will help you get to the bottom of some things.
Now, this is not to the exclusion of fellowship. It's certainly not to the exclusion of accountability. Be very clear, because you can get real kooky listening to only God. As you perceive his voice. And the safest place to be is in community with believers, so that as you share, here's what I believe God is saying to me, someone can confirm, someone can help make sure that you're staying on track.
I've seen a whole lot of well-intentioned folk get off. And after a while, they're too spiritual to even go to church. Because no one can speak to them except God Himself. I want to let you know that is not biblical Christianity. That is not what I'm endorsing in any way, shape, or form.
In fact, you need the body of Christ to make sure that you stay in the place God has for you. But I declare to you, there are those times, there are those moments when there's information you need that God already has. And he can reveal it to you. And people often say, well, how do you know God's voice? You've got to walk with Him, you've got to spend time with Him.
Jesus said in John chapter 10, my sheep know my voice. And a stranger they will not follow.
Now, if you want to understand what he's saying, just follow the analogy. How does a sheep come to know the voice of a shepherd?
Well, the sheep is born into the flock. And so from day one, the voice the sheep hears is the voice of the shepherd. They learn to tune their ear to that voice. They walk with him, they follow him, he feeds them, he nourishes them. There is constant interaction.
And the sheep comes to know the voice. And the proof is, if you go to a flock and you call them, you're just a stranger that shows up and you call them and tell them to come, they'll all be out there grazing. You call them, they'll look up and you say, come, or whatever the order that the shepherd usually gives, he can tell you the word he uses. But when it comes out of your mouth, they'll put their heads back down and go back to eating. Because the attitude is, like we said growing up, you ain't my daddy.
Any of y'all ever say that? We were usually saying that to a sibling, like parents had gone out somewhere, and you know, one of your siblings tried to tell you what to do. And we were quick to say, You ain't my daddy. I don't have to listen to you. And that's the sheep's attitude.
That's a foreign voice. I don't have to pay attention to you, but watch it when the shepherd comes out. And gives his unique call, they'll all respond. Because they know his voice. And I want to tell you, you and I are God's sheep.
And we've got to learn to know his voice. Get in his word so you know the precepts and principles of the word. Get in the word, and get the word into you. And then pray regularly. And then don't just do all the talking, but when in your prayer time and quiet time, let the Holy Spirit speak to you.
Let him reveal to you from the pages of Scripture things that he wants you to be focused on in this time in your life. As you pray your day and pray what's going on in your life, let the Holy Spirit speak to you about those things. Yield to him the control of everything you are trying to make happen. Take your coercive nature and your tendency to try to strong-arm things happening and give it over to him and say, Spirit of God, I want you to have your way. Use me and demonstrate your power and give your knowledge to me.
Teach me what I need to know. Whisper in my ear when I'm handling something wrong, Lord. and teach me to stay tuned to you all day. And I want to tell you something. If we will learn to walk in God's power and in the wisdom that He imparts to us, we will see that our lives will go to the next level of effectiveness and service for God because it is not by our might or by our power, but it is by the Spirit of God.
That lives are changed. If you want to do something significant, I'm here to tell you, according to the words of this wonderful apostle, you cannot do it in the power of your own flesh. You've got to do it by relying on Him. The Spirit will lead you. Romans 8:14 says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
They are the children of God. When you learn to be led, that's when you really move into sonship. Because you're learning to respond to the voice of your Father and do the things that He's leading you to do. And He will lead you into green pastures. He'll make your life a higher quality of life.
He'll make your service richer. You will have a greater impact for the kingdom because you are following the shepherd. And he will lead you through all kinds of places. He'll even lead you through some difficult times in your life. Read Psalm 23.
It's not just about him leading you beside still waters and into green pastures and restoring your soul. Thank God for that, and leading you in paths of righteousness for his namesake. But sometimes you find yourself in the valley of the shadow of death. Oh, but he'll lead you through those dark places as well. I want to let you know God will not leave you when you're in the dark.
He will not abandon you when you're in a valley that is scary and makes you feel insecure. I don't know what's going on here. God knows exactly what's going on there. And he knows that there's some lessons he can only teach us in the valley. There's some things we can learn about depending on Him in our valleys.
And so the psalmist said, Yes, I found out that even when I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I learned that I don't have to be afraid. You know what happens when a child is in a scary place, but they're walking with a parent, they tend to grip them harder. It's a feeling of insecurity and you respond by holding on. I got to hold on to you, God. All right, what's happening here?
And you hold on. And God teaches us to hold on to Him tighter. When we're in those valleys. And it says, we don't have to fear evil because he is with us. His rod and his staff.
Comfort us. You know what that means? That means that if there's some enemies around trying to pounce on the sheep, the shepherd has a rod and a staff. The rod can beat off jackals and beat off something that tries to grab one of the sheep. And the staff has a hook on it.
So one side of the staff could beat you, but the other side will help those sheep that tend to wander off. You know any like that? Look in the mirror, you might find one. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. There is no one righteous, not even one.
And yet, God loved us enough to send Jesus to pay that debt, to die that we might live. Blessed be His holy name.
Well, our mission at Destiny for Victory is to point people to the love of God and the good news of His salvation. To do that, you are needed, especially during the busy summer months when donations tend to decline. With that in mind, our Executive Director Alicia Shepherd Greer has an important message now to share with you. I hope you're excited for summertime. I know I am.
And for all of you who, like me, have kiddos out of school, may God's grace abound to you in this season. But I do pray that it's a fun time of bonding or taking a vacation, whatever it is that you may have planned.
So I just wanted to stop by and remind you to please prayerfully keep in mind ministries like Destined for Victory during this season. Pastor Paul would always do this, and the reason for that is giving tends to drop the most during this time of year.
So, I just wanted to ask you to prayerfully consider sending a special gift to Destined for Victory to help us continue airing these teachings during the often challenging summer months. And when you do, we're pleased to make available a special thank you gift in June. It's a video collection of Let My People Smile, and it's available to everyone who sends in their most generous donation of $25 or more. Thank you so much, and God bless you. Thank you, Alicia.
Let my people smile as Pastor Paul at his very best, combining biblical wisdom with his unique style and humor. You can choose from DVD format or a streaming link when you make your most generous donation of $25 or more in June. Visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. or call us at 855-339-5500. Once again, eight five five three three nine fifty five hundred.
Or if you prefer, you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. And I want to let you know that as was the case with the church at Corinth, it is also the case with many of us in the church in the 21st century. Where many of us have received Jesus Christ as Savior of our lives, but our lifestyle reflects worldliness. How to be in the world and not of it on our next Destined for Victory. I hope you'll join us.
But until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory. Yeah.
