In the words of Blaise Pascal, Happiness is the motive of every action of every man, even those that hang themselves. Coming your way next on today's Destined for Victory, Pastor Paul Shepard points us to the only true source of joy. That message is straight ahead. But first, I've asked Pastor Paul's daughter and our executive director, Alicia Greer, to share some exciting news with you. Alicia?
I'm excited to announce that in June, we are offering for the first time a new compilation of Let My People Smile on video. One of the things that many of you really love about my dad's teachings is that he makes learning enjoyable. Even when the subject matter is convicting, he finds a way to deliver God's word without watering it down at all, and yet still make it funny, down to earth, and relatable. And if you think about it, that's such a rare combo to find these days.
So thank you so much for continuing to support this ministry.
So I hope you enjoy this collection of lighthearted teaching clips from his latter years on video. It's available as a thank you gift to anyone who sends in their most generous donation of $25 or more only in June. 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.
And for the first time, we're making it available on video. You can choose from DVD or watch it from a streaming link when you make your most generous donation of $25 or more in June. Your generous donation is especially appreciated as we head into the busy summer months when we typically see a decline in giving. To invest in our media ministry we've got several options for you. You can visit Pastor Paul dot net to make a safe and secure donation online.
You can call us at eight five five three three nine five five zero zero. That's 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, nine four five three eight. He said, Beware of covetousness, beware of greed, beware of never having enough, beware of that thing that constantly drives you and never allows you to be satisfied and stop and thank God for what He's already done for you.
Money, power, relationships, the things we pursue are only a means to an end. What we really want is to be happy, to experience the true joy we read about in God's Word. On today's Destined for Victory, Pastor Paul Shepard helps us understand that the things with the greatest value in life-joy, peace, hope-can only be given by God. and can only be attained by pursuing God.
So, let's get started with today's Destined for Victory message: Living by the Joy, J-O-Y, principle. Let me ask you, what are you living for? What's the thing that makes you wake up in the morning? What gets you going as you start your day? What is the driving force?
of your life. There are a lot of people who live for pleasure. That's the driving force. Of their life.
Now, I believe pleasure can be a wonderful feature in the house of your life, but woe be it to the person for whom it is their foundation. You can't build your life on pleasure. You're building on sinking sand because you were created to glorify Him, not to pleasure yourself.
Now, pleasure is a wonderful feature. Having fun is a good thing. More Christians ought to have fun. I'm tired of sour Christians. Folk look like they've been sucking on a lemon.
In the name of Jesus. Who's gonna get saved looking at you? They don't want what you have. If anybody ought to be joyful, it ought to be a child of God. If anybody ought to be excited about living, it ought to be a child of God.
Pleasure, have fun, enjoy yourself. Find that which can make you happy and enjoy your life. Be your own CEO, chief enjoyment officer. But don't live for pleasure. Let pleasure be a feature of a life that glorifies Jesus Christ.
Find things you can be passionate about and do them. I drove up here in a motorcycle this morning. I'm in midlife. Pray for me. I know I'm not young anymore, but something told me: go on, get yourself a bite.
But let me tell you something. Pleasure is a wonderful thing. Whatever it is you enjoy, some of us are action-oriented. As long as your actions glorify God and don't hinder the witness for Jesus Christ, go on and do your thing. Whatever it is that gives you joy and pleasure.
Do it to the glory of God. Paul said in Colossians 3:17, whatever you do in word or deed, Do it in his name. Pleasure is a wonderful feature, but it's a poor foundation. Have you ever seen people who just live for pleasure? Their life is driven by pleasure.
They recreate all the time. Let me tell you something. You ought to have something of substance that you recreate from. You can't live life. Life isn't a perpetual vacation.
Your life is designed to have meaning and purpose. God designed you to do His will, and as you do His will and exhaust yourself in His service, then pleasure becomes one of those ways that you replenish yourself. That you might continue to do the will of God. But don't let pleasure drive your life. You ought to be kingdom first, which means Christ is first, not your pursuit of pleasure.
Some folk live for pleasure.
Some folk live for prosperity. They are always trying to get to that next level. They are always trying to buy that next house, always trying to get that next investment to take off, always constantly pursuing the bottom line, growing the portfolio, looking at what they can acquire, looking at a fortune they can amass. At a certain point, you want to make sure that whatever you have, first of all, it doesn't have you. Then, secondly, you want to make sure that whatever you have that God blesses you with, you know why He gave it to you.
You also want to know how much of it he wants you to give away. Oh, somebody doesn't like that. Because the American dream talks about you getting, it doesn't talk about you giving. Which means a Christian can't pursue the American dream. You have to pursue the kingdom vision.
Kingdom vision is different from American dream. Kingdom vision says whatever God gives me, I'll glorify Him as I utilize it. I will share with the needs of others. I'll make sure I wear this world like a loose garment. That's what the old folk taught us to do.
And they didn't have much, but what they had, they said, you gotta wear it like a loose garment. Be ready to slip out of it at any point. You can't be weighted down. God might call you at any point. And so you have to be ready to go.
And let me tell you something.
Some folks live for prosperity and it drives them. And Jesus warned us in Luke 12: He said, Beware of covetousness, beware of greed, beware of never having enough. Beware of that thing that constantly drives you and never allows you to be satisfied and stop and thank God for what He's already done for you. He said, beware of that. And then he gave us the reason.
He said, for your life does not consist in the abundance of things you possess. Oh, in America, we need to be reminded of that probably on a weekly basis. Your life doesn't consist. There's no life in things. There's no life in the figure on your bank statement.
No life in it. And if you don't know why God's blessing you, it won't be a blessing, it'll be a curse. Because prosperity has to be coupled with purpose. Divine purpose. And Jesus went on to tell a story there in Luke 12 about a man who was so busy amassing his fortune, so busy building bigger barns to house his harvest.
He never once stopped to honor God and he never once stopped to meet other people's needs. And he certainly didn't stop to ask God, why did you give me this in the first place? He was busy acquiring and amassing. And Jesus said, your soul will be required of you. You're going to die.
And then whose will these things be? You know, if all you do is amass and gather, all you're going to do is leave it here one day for folk to fight over. And you mess around and don't get your act together and don't get your business lined up and your will straightened out and all that, and you'll be in the hospital dying, not even dead yet. And your relatives won't be seeing you. They'll be at the house fighting over what they're gonna get when you go.
I'm not telling you what I think, I'm telling you what I've seen. I have been at the hospital when no relative was there, and this person is there about to cross over the Jordan River. I'm the only one helping them cross. Because the other folk are busy plotting and planning. Let me tell you something.
There's no life in stuff. Get stuff in its proper place in your heart and in your mind. Make sure you understand that you can't afford to let stuff drive you out of the will of God. Have what God blesses you to have, but don't let it have you. Don't let it keep you from doing the will of God.
Let it cause you to do the will of God. Let it prosper you for kingdom's sake. And I'm telling you, if you don't get this straight, you'll be one of these fools. I told you years ago, I saw a man in the magazine, it's burned into my consciousness. I'll remember it the longest day I live.
They had a picture of this man's burial site, and there was his favorite prize Cadillac. When he knew he was dying, he set it up that they would create an extra large grave. This is back, way back before environmental concerns would have prevented such a thing. And the man was allowed to build an extra large grave, and his last wish was that he was buried in his prize Cadillac. And there he was, they took a picture of it, sitting at the wheel of the car, dead as a doornail.
Sitting at the wheel of the car, and they lowered the whole car into the ground. and threw dirt over it. A car is made for driving.
So I have a question. Where is he going? Foolish. Utterly foolish. But let me tell you something.
If we're not careful... We can be foolish. In the way we live, if we pursue pleasure rather than Christ, if we pursue prosperity rather than Christ. And then some people live to please other people. If you live for people, I'm here to tell you a couple of things.
First of all, it's an exercise in futility. Because people are a moving target. You try to please them. And you'll never get to a place where it's fully done. You can only please them for this moment until they have the next set of demands.
And if you haven't learned this about people, let me help you. When people see you cooperate with them, they'll give you more to cooperate with. When people see that they can push your button and ring your bell, and that they can cause your strings to dance, they will manipulate you as long as you allow it to happen.
Some of you all right now don't have joy because you have people manipulating your life, practicing witchcraft on you. You know witchcraft, you don't have to ever go to a seance to practice witchcraft. Do you know you don't have to ever read a book of spells to practice witchcraft? Witchcraft is anything that manipulates people against their will. And let me tell you something.
Witchcraft is noted in Galatians 5 as a work of the flesh. Not a work of demons. Read it in the works of the flesh that Paul lists in Galatians 5, among those things, envy and strife, and all of that, he says witchcraft. He's not talking about somebody with a pointy hat. He's talking about people who manipulate others.
out of their fleshly desire to control folks.
Some people can manipulate you with their attitude.
Some girls are so good they can manipulate you with a look on their face. You ever met him? And you can tell that that look means you better do something different, or else you are in trouble with me. In case you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. Stay with us.
The second half of today's message is straight ahead. One of the things we love to do for friends and listeners like you is to pray for you when you're in need.
So if you have a prayer request, please visit pastorpaul. net and use the contact feature to share it with us. Our ministry team is always happy to lift you up in prayer. And of course, when you stop by our website, remember that's where you can listen to the broadcast on demand at your convenience. That's pastorpaul.net.
We often think people or things can be our source of joy, but God not only has a better way, He has the only way. Let's get you back to the rest of today's message, Living by the Joy Principle. Let me tell you something. God hasn't called you to jump through people's hoops. You're called to live according to divine purpose.
You're not called to do what everybody around you wants you to do. You're called to live the kingdom first life.
Now, when you read your owner's manual, when you read your Bible, the Bible will tell you how to regulate your relationships. You get your orders from the Word of God. God will tell you, husband, how to be the right husband. God will tell you, wife, how to be the right kind of wife. God will tell you, child, how to honor your parents.
God will tell you, parents, how to deal with your children. God will tell you how to be a good employee or a good employer. God will tell you how to be a good friend. It's all right here in the Bible. You don't need somebody manipulating you.
Let God tell you how to order your relationships. See, if you please God by doing his will, here's what you do: please God, and then see who's happy after that.
Some folk will be just fine because you're honoring them, you're doing what God wants you to do in their life, and they're just fine. But manipulators. Won't like it. When they can't make you do what they want. But just make up in your mind, I'm going to please God, and if you don't like it, oh well.
May the Lord help you deal with it. And you got to be at peace.
Some of you desperately need a peace in your life that'll come when you get out from under the tyranny of pleasing other people. I'm telling you something. This is a problem that plagues many of you. God wants to break you free from the control of being a people pleaser. Because the Bible says you ought to want to be a God pleaser.
Serve the Lord with gladness. And there is a joy in being free from any expectation that God hasn't co-signed. If you've never lived that way, try it. Just focus on, Lord, what do you want me to do in this relationship? Lord, what do you want me to do in this area of my life?
God, I want to please you. And so, when God tells you how to deal with a person, God tells you in His Word how to address some of the crises in your relationship, then you follow His lead. But you will be free from the need to please people. Because guess what? Despite how they act and despite how controlling they may be, they don't have a heaven to send you to or a hell to put you in.
So, you don't have to worry about them. Because one day you're going to stand before the King of Kings. And the Lord of Lords. Jesus Christ is the one you want to focus on. Kingdom first living.
As you live your life, determined that Jesus will be glorified. Because verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 8 calls him Lord. I want to let you know that Jesus Christ is Lord. You know what that means? That means you don't get to vote on whether he's in charge.
We in America, we got to get this thing straight. I don't know why we think everything is up for debate. We're still trying to figure out whether God can be in charge of America. Let me tell you something. Whether or not we ever allow God into public life, whether or not we shut Him out as some folk are working so hard to do, get God off of the money and get under God out of the pledge of allegiance and get God off of the walls of courtrooms in terms of the Ten Commandments, we can do all of that we want.
We have not affected one change because when it's all said and done, God is still supreme. And I don't know where we get off thinking that we can vote on God. Jesus is Lord. He is Lord. He's not trying to be Lord.
He's not campaigning for Lord. He's not going around kissing babies, trying to get y'all to vote him into Lordship. Jesus is King of kings, and he is Lord of Lords. And you don't have to take my word for it, but I pray the Holy Spirit will convict you of this truth because the Bible says in Philippians 2 that one of these days every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall confess.
That Jesus Christ is Lord. Try to be an atheist if you want to, but I pray the Holy Spirit will bring you to this knowledge before it's eternally too late. Because one of these days, if you don't repent, You will find yourself on your knees. Saying Jesus Christ is Lord. But then they'll be in judgment.
And you need to fall down now. And declare and affirm his lordship in your life.
So that rather it be in judgment, it is It can be as Lord of your life every day. Let me tell you something. Jesus is to be glorified. That is the reason why you ought to wake up in the morning. To say, God, I give you this day.
I give myself to you. I want to be on the record. God, give me the boldness. Give me the power of your spirit to boldly proclaim who you are, to represent you well in this world. Help me to be that peculiar person that is talked about in 1 Peter 2 and 9.
The Bible says we are a holy nation, and then it says we are a peculiar people. That's the King James word, peculiar.
Now that doesn't mean weird. If you're weird, don't blame that on God. Deal with your own weirdness. Let somebody help you straighten that out. That'll be a hindrance to your witness.
But you want to be someone who proclaims The glory of Jesus Christ. And you're peculiar as you do so. You stand out because you stand up for Christ, you're on the record. You're out of the closet. You are a child of God.
You serve Him everywhere you go. On your job, you don't really work for them, you work for Him. You work for him. That'll make you stand out when you're working for him. Everybody else is working to see.
Is the supervisor looking? No.
Well, then let me do what I want. But the child of God is saying, no, my supervisor is looking all the time. Looking all the time. He sent me to this job to be a good witness.
So, first of all, I have to give these people a good day's work. Also, I don't want this. Give them a good day's work. If they don't want me surfing the net during work hours, except maybe on lunch, then I have to stay off the net because I want to serve God. And I don't want to get written up in Jesus' name.
Some folk listen to the broadcast. I hear from all the time, oh, I listen on the job. And I know many jobs allow people to listen to the radio as they're doing what they're doing. I'm so glad that I'm blessed to be able to come not only into homes on the broadcast, but on the jobs. I've heard from folk who everybody in their department stops and listens to the broadcast when it comes on their station.
I just pray that it's a job that allows them to do that. Because if you're listening to the word of God, I'm giving you a word right now. Do what they want you to do. Or else you will be fired in Jesus' name. Then you'll be writing me, Pastor, pray for a job.
Well, I pray for a job, but were you faithful on your last job? Because you want to honor God everywhere you go. You're a student, honor God on the campus. You're there to serve God and you're there to learn. Because that will glorify God.
Don't be there to get a diploma, a degree. You're there to learn something. Come out knowing something in Jesus' name. That he can use you in a profession, don't just barely make it through. No, as little as possible.
Because nobody wants to go to a Christian doctor who doesn't know anything. That's not the time. You ought to have a prayer life, but it shouldn't be with a patient sitting up on the table. Came out of med school, barely passed your way through.
Now you want to set up a Christian practice, and you don't even know how to help heal the people. And they're sitting on the table, life in your hand, and you're over in the corner looking through a book. Talking about, oh Lord. I believe these are days when we ought to stand up and stand out for Christ. Be the best at what he's called you to be so that you can honor him.
Use your sphere of influence to glorify his name. But you glorify him not just with what you do and what you say. You glorify him. Every moment, because you want both the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart. to be acceptable in his sight.
We are called. To glorify Christ. And the first part of this principle is to determine that as you live your life. Jesus will be glorified. that you will be a kingdom first.
Believer. that you'll serve God. with everything that's within you. Thanks for being with us today on Destined for Victory: Living by the Joy, J-O-Y, principle. To find out more about Destined for Victory's mission and purpose, or about the special gift reserved for you when you give generously today, please come see us at Pastor Paul.net.
That's Pastor Paul.net. Determine that as you live your life, you will, number one, make sure that Jesus is glorified. Number two, make sure that others are edified. And number three, make sure that you are sanctified. I call that the joy principle, J-O-Y.
That's tomorrow as we continue our message Living by the Joy Principle. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
