Remember, if you're sent to Africa, somebody got to pray for you while you're there. That's their ministry, perhaps.
Somebody's got to give to your missions organization so you have money to go. That's their part in it. Not everybody's called to go. If all of us were alike, only one of us would be necessary. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, the church is like the human body. It takes every part working together to be a healthy representation of Christ to the world. It's not always easy, but when we build up our Christian brothers and sisters, the church will be far better at reaching the world for Christ. Pastor Paul calls it the J-O-Y principle, Joy, and you'll learn more about it next. Remember to listen to any recent message on demand, including today's.
Visit our website, pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.
Now let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message, Living by the Joy Principle. These are days when even the church, if we're not careful, will become more and more cold and distant. My father talks about the days when they were one of the poorest families in the church. But his mother hated eating dinner after church with just her family. She was poor, husband never around.
On assistance, public assistance. Money limited. My dad had to drop out of school to support his mother and his siblings. And they had very limited funds. He said, but after service, I see her talking to somebody and says, Sister Milgram, what y'all doing after church?
Oh, we don't have any plan. Why don't you come to our house and eat? And my dad said he and his sister would be so mad. Yeah. Because they think we don't hardly have enough food for all of us.
He had a bunch of brothers and sisters. Don't have not here here she comes this the mildred and you know how greedy she is Yeah. Woo! Said, but back in those days, you couldn't say anything. You just smile when Sister Mildred come over.
Hi, how you doing? Hello? He said, then back in those days, you know, these days you have all these slogans, children first, and you know, how children-oriented the world is and what have you. And so they're always putting the kids. But back in those days, it wasn't children first.
Back in those days, he said, We're standing around, and my mother would offer the first of the food to the guests. And only after they fixed their plate could we come behind them. And he said, we've been standing there looking at how much they put on their plate. Woo! See, some of those old folk can tell you stories that would just make you cringe.
We take so much for granted in today's world. They can tell you stories. We worried about the drumstick, and did I get a thigh, a drumstick? He said, back then, we were looking at whether or not I hope I don't have to eat chicken feet. Come on somebody, y'all don't know Chicken feet.
Said those old folks knew how to work a chicken. Wasn't just the drumsticks and the thighs and the breath. They would cut up everything that could be eaten. They would take those feet and they would pluck the claws, pull the skin off.
Some of those old folks soak them in gravy. See look at some of y'all faces now. You can't even deal with it. But those were days when people had a concern for somebody beside themselves. And I'm telling you, folks, we got to go back.
To being concerned about building up and strengthening and encouraging and helping and supporting somebody outside of our circle. It's not just about you, it's about more than you. Meeting the need of being sensitive to their needs conscience-wise, being sensitive to their practical needs. All of that has to be taken into consideration if you truly want to live by the joy principle. Paul says, This is more than food offered to idols.
This is about making sure that you honor and respect the needs of your brothers and sisters.
Now, when he gets into 1 Corinthians 9, he gives another outworking of the principle. He talks about his rights as an apostle. He says, Now, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, I'll paraphrase it for you in the interest of time. He said, I could be like Peter and the other apostles, I could live off of the gospel. He said, It is our right to do so.
Those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel. I'll never forget, years ago when I was an associate pastor, a man from the church came into the office for something and he walked past my office and saw me sitting there. He poked his head in and said, How you doing? He said, Oh, you work here now. I said, Yeah, yeah, the church brought me on full time.
He said, Oh, I thought you had a job. Ah! Didn't understand that ministry is work. And that day I was, and at that time I was working ridiculous hours as an associate pastor under my dad. Bless his heart.
He wanted to make sure the church knew that I didn't get the job because I was his son.
So he practiced what I call reverse discrimination. What he put me through, he wouldn't have put an ordinary associate pastor through. He was so busy trying to convince the folk that I wasn't getting special treatment until I got poor treatment. Yeah. And I was working 12, 14 hours a day just serving, just doing, just visiting, just going.
My wife didn't know when she was going to see me. But those were the years where I had to prove faithful. I remember one time the trustees wanted to give me a raise, and he said, No, no, just keep it where it is. I said, I said, now what up with that? Ah!
Brother, can't get a raise up in here. But later he told me he wanted to make sure. That I proved faithful because he knew God's hand was on me. And he said, You gotta be faithful. Before God blesses you, you gotta let him prove you.
And those were those years when I was working so hard and trying to learn what it meant to serve God's people. And Paul's talking about that. He's saying, I have the right to earn my living through the preaching of the gospel. He said, but I've chosen to To be bivocational. I've chosen to be a tent maker.
Paul, rather than to receive the offerings of the people, which were the erites of the apostles, he said, I would rather make tents and have a job outside of that so that no one will ever be able to come with some lame excuse why they don't want to follow my ministry or hear what I have to say. He said, I made this choice.
Now, Peter didn't make that choice. You got to understand: God will place various callings and various sacrifices on everybody's heart. And everybody's different. Don't put yours on somebody else. I hated when somebody feels called of God to do something and it would be blessed, but time that gets thrown off on everybody else.
See, if you called to the mission field, then go. Don't come back and tell us all us going to hell 'cause we don't want to go to Africa. Yeah. Remember, if you're sent to Africa, somebody got to pray for you while you're there. That's their ministry, perhaps.
Somebody's got to give to your missions organization so you have money to go. That's their part in it. Not everybody's called to go. And you can take your blessing and make it a curse if you have a judgmental attitude. I've seen folk who feel called to poverty.
Praise God. If that's your call, then fulfill that call. Don't go around throwing off on all the folk in the church who have a nice car and a nice house. Oh, look at even. I just, I've seen folks walk church parking lots.
Look at all of this. Yeah. You can't spend folks' money with your mouth. Oh. God calls them.
Paul said in Romans 14: everyone to his own master stands or falls. What you want to do is operate in your calling. And I love Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 because he doesn't throw off on Peter. He just says, Peter and the other apostles live by the gospel. He says, not only they're right, but he said that's the way the Bible commands us to do it.
He said, but I've chosen to forego that and to be bivocational because it's my style of making foolproof of my ministry. And why does he do it? As in the verses we read, he said, I'm doing it because I don't want to hinder anybody from coming to Christ. He said, so I become all things to all men. that by all means I might win something.
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. Your generous gift to Destined for Victory today is especially helpful during these summer months when donations to the ministry often decrease. To make your gift, call 855-339-5500 or give safely and securely at pastorpaul.net.
Now, let's get you back to the second half of today's Destined for Victory message: Living by the Joy, J-O-Y, principle. Being considerate of other people. Churches need to do that. When I first got to this pastorate, I talked to the handful of people that I came to and said, you know what? We're going to reach thousands of people.
God has shown me that we're going to reach thousands for Christ who are unchurched right now, lost in a world of sin, but we're going to reach them. And I said, now, if we're going to reach them. We're going to have to make some changes. For their sake. And in 1989, I was in a meeting with about 40 members.
Talking about reaching thousands. And I said, we're going to have to understand that they don't have church clothes.
So, if we're serious about wanting to invite them to church, we're going to have to make it okay for them to dress more casually than we're used to dressing. I say we have to make it okay because they don't come. And some folk will use that as an excuse. I don't have anything to wear, no. I know how you church folk dress, no, I'm not coming.
I said Wouldn't it be nice if we had a church where when folk threw that excuse at us, We'd say no no in our church Just come on. Casual dress is as accepted as Sunday go to meet and clothes. That's what the slaves used to call it. I said, so let's start practicing that. Let's change the dress culture of our church in these early days before we have any visitors.
And I said to them, So beginning next Sunday, it's okay if you want to dress down on any given Sunday. You can dress up or you can dress down, your choice. And I thought that it was gonna take him a long time. Ha ha ha! Because in that meeting none of us had ever been to church.
With casual clothes on, not on a Sunday. I was standing there in my suit and tie. They were all sitting there. Men with their suits and ties, ladies with their pretty Sunday dresses.
Some had their hats on, just looking all Sunday-ish. And I said, but let's start changing it for the sake of people we haven't even met yet, but we hope to win them to Christ one day. And I thought it was gonna go down slow. The next Sunday, Yeah. I walked in that church.
It looked like Lincoln had freed the slaves all over again. Those folk look like free at last. Free at last. There's one of them. There's some of them.
Thank God Almighty. We're free at last. Women who had never worn slatch pants to church because tradition had said, dress in a skirt or a dress, don't wear pants in the church. But when I told them the Bible didn't say that, That's tradition, and you can waive a tradition for the sake of Christ. For the sake of reaching people.
And sisters were free. They started coming in there with their pants, suits, and what have you. They would be up singing on the first song, they were so happy. But we did it with other people in mind. Amen.
So that they would feel okay. And they began to come very slowly, but we had changed our culture in anticipation. Our services used to be over two hours long, and a lot of churches still have longer services. I speak in a lot of churches, and I'm very comfortable because I grew up in a church that had three-hour services. A lot of y'all moaning and groaning.
I say we have them. Man, when my dad pastored, you got out of church when you did. That's when you got out of church. Or when this gonna end sooner or later? Word of wisdom.
Don't have something on the stove when you get ready to come to church. That was in the days before churches had multiple services because you couldn't take but one without having a meal in between. And we did. You get up, go to Sunday school, then you go to church. We had about three hours' worth of church.
Then you go in the dining room and eat Sit around, fellowship a little while, and next thing you know, you're going back in the sanctuary for another service. Y'all got it made today, you just don't know. When I first got here, our services were over two hours. They were doing, I thought I was doing great. I'd cut it down by nearly an hour.
But one day we started looking at what we do. In our service, and we realized that some of what we did, I'm not talking about other churches, you feel free to take your freedom. But what we did, we were saying we want to reach as many unchurched people as possible. And we discovered that as some of our members invited folk and they would ask how long the service was, and they'd find out, oh, two hours, two ten, something like that. They say, Oh, I'm not coming for that long.
Yeah. Because the unchurched person would say, What in the world would you do in a church that long?
Now they would never wonder what you do at a ball game for three and a half hours. But we're dealing with a mindset.
So we said, let's take the excuse away. Can we find a way to shorten it without cutting out things that are really important? And we started cutting some of the fluff and things that we didn't really have to do out of our service, and we found more people were willing to come.
So, some of the church folks say, I'm tired of these short services. I want to go on and worship. We said, well, we're going to give you some worship time, but we're not going to worship all day because we're trying to reach people for Jesus.
So we'll find that delicate balance. And we did that, and we found more people who were willing to come so we could preach the gospel to them. You gotta think with others in mind. You gotta plan your ministries, plan your service, plan your prayer life so that it's not just focused on you. Don't just get into this.
These days, a lot of Christians pray bless me, bless me, bless me prayers all the time. Let me help you something. God will bless you if you will seek first His kingdom. And his righteousness. Don't spend all your time praying, bless me, meet my need.
Oh, God, save my children. Ask God to save whoever He will. Pray for your community. Pray for the people on your job. You can throw your kids in the list, but make sure you're praying about more than you.
Don't just pray the prayer, Jabez. It's a wonderful prayer. But some of us are way too caught up in that in today's world. Bless me, Lord. Enlarge my territory.
Fine prayer, but also pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And if you will think with other people in mind. If you will live your life with other people in mind, I'm telling you, God will turn around and bless you. Because you have decided to be a blessing. To somebody else.
We need to make up in our mind we're going to get outside of our self-focus.
Some of us are too focused on ourselves for our own good.
Some of us are too introspective for our own good. We're self-preoccupied.
Some Christians have ingrown eyeballs. And all they see is themselves and what they're going through. But I'm telling you, there's a blessing in letting God Bring you to tears over somebody else's plight. In the early years when I was praying and believing God, I got here and those early years when the church was real small, God would just send me walking through the sanctuary hours at a time praying for the lost. I taught our church to do the same, and we cultivated a real burden for lost people.
We learned to pray for people we had never met yet, hadn't run into yet, but we knew God loved them and wanted to save them. We knew they were bound in sin somewhere, and we would pray until we would come to tears and beg God to save them. To this day, our prayer ministry does that very thing. There are folks while service is going on are somewhere praying, oh God, speak to the hearts of the people because you got to care about somebody else. And you know what some of us have found out?
If you will pour out your life. Edifying others, God will make sure. That everything you need, he'll take care of. He's looking for folk who have their priorities right. God's not short of blessings.
He's still working miracles. He's still doing amazing things. He's just looking for folk who have their priorities in order. And if you care about the people God cares about. Then be assured that God will turn around.
And meet you at the point of your need. I want to encourage you to understand. That Jesus is to be glorified and others. Are to be edified. Find someone with a need and do what you can to meet the need.
Find someone who needs your sensitivity. and treat them with the compassion and respect. That would honor Christ in their lives and help them get where God's taking them. I want to challenge you to be a person who has a heart to reach out. To reach beyond your comfort zone.
As Bill Haybos calls it, to walk across the room. You know, if you've ever been at a social setting, it's amazing how, as people are standing in social settings, you look at the dynamics, and we tend to cluster in comfort zones. And I'm standing with the folk I'm comfortable talking to, and everybody's in there. And he says, The Lord one day challenged him: walk across the room and find somebody who looks like they need. To be pulled in.
and make them feel at home. And I'm telling you, if the church will take that walk across the room attitude. I will go out of my way to help somebody. I will go out of my way to encourage somebody. I will go out of my way to leave you stronger than I found you.
I want to tell you, God will honor it. And he will bless your life and enrich your life. Because you've determined that Jesus will be glorified. and that others will be edified. As you live your life.
Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message: Living by the Joy Principle.
Well, the summer time has officially arrived, and with it typically vacations and great family times. But summer is also a time when donations to our ministry typically decline. I once asked Pastor Paul about this time of year and whether it was a difficult time for Destined for victory, and here's what he had to say Yes, it is. And it's simply because people love us and they want to support us. But sometimes we're so glad to be through the winter and the spring, and we're now in the summer and we're ready to take some vacation time and do some things that we've longed to do for months.
And we get to do it, whether it's travel or whatever. But I just want to encourage and remind our listeners that if we're going to keep on preaching the word throughout the year, then the support is absolutely necessary. Because I have found out that the bills don't take vacations. They keep coming every single month. And so we have to be ready to meet them with the finances necessary.
And again, it's not about the money, it's what the money does. Your giving allows us to keep on declaring truth that people need to hear. Day in and day out, month in and month out.
So, at every season, even in the summer, we get to keep preaching timeless truths if we have the financial support. I want to thank all of our partners, all of our donors, everyone who makes sure to meet the financial needs so that lives are changed, souls are saved, and people come to know who Jesus is and how important knowing Him is in their lives. We're so grateful for friends like you who support our media ministry with your prayers and your giving. Today, when you make your generous summertime gift to Destined for Victory, we have a gift for you. Introducing our latest booklet More Than Conquerors.
You know, the Christian life is a victorious life and it doesn't happen by accident. It's your birthright, already purchased by Jesus Christ at the highest price in history. And yet so many believers live in defeat, selling their birthright for things worth far less. In More Than Conquerors, Pastor Paul uses the unlikely story of Gideon to outline the path from defeat to victory. If you want to understand how to take on a victor's identity and tear down the idols competing for your heart, you'll want to reserve your copy of this outstanding resource today.
That's More Than Conquerors Yours this month for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. Give that gift 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 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.
Now, let me help you understand the Christian race. Here are a couple of things you need to know. First of all, we're not running against each other. Really important to know that. The church has got to get out of the competition business.
I'm not in competition with you. I'm not running the race against you hoping to win while you lose. And that's tomorrow in 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.
