In order to do The will of God, you're gonna be serving the needs of people. You're gonna be giving out. And one of the things you learn from Jesus is that he not only gave out, but he had the wisdom to receive what he needed so that he could continue to have resources to give out. You can't pour Jesus out unless you get Jesus poured in. Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destin for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, Pastor Paul calls them drainers and fillers. The drainers are the ones who need your help. The fillers make sure you have the help to give. You need both to live a balanced Christian life. We'll take a look at the example of Jesus today to find out what that kind of life looks like.
Be sure to visit our website, pastorpaul.net, when you get a chance. That's where you can listen to any recent message on demand, including today's, pastorpaul.net. Today's Destiny for Victory message is called Being Holy, Being Human, and it starts right now. The second chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Verses forty-one through fifty-two.
All right, Luke chapter 2, beginning with verse 41. If you have it, say I've got it. Every year, Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the feast according to the custom. After the feast was over, while his parents were returning home, The boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.
but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, They went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days, they found him in the temple courts.
sitting among the teachers, listening to them. and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, They were astonished. His mother said to him, Son, Why have you treated us like this?
Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. Why were you searching for me? He asked. Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house? But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Then he went down to Nazareth with them, and was obedient to them. but his mother treasured all these things in her heart. Note verse 52, if you will. And Jesus grew in wisdom. and stature.
and in favor with God And men. Today I'm talking about The fact that Jesus is our example. in how to live life correctly. If you want to know what your life ought to look like, Study the life of Jesus. And we learned from him the fact that you can please God.
You can accomplish God's purpose for your life. But you can't do it unless you learn to live your life wisely. The fact of the matter is, we've established that we only have a short lifespan. We don't know how long we're going to live.
Now, in the case of Christ, he lived 33 years. And even if you live to be 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years compared to eternity, it's just a moment. And for that reason, because of the brevity of life, it's important that we learn how to live life right. We establish the fact that life is not a dress rehearsal, it's the real deal. This is all you get.
You're not getting a second chance. And if you blow it, you've blown it. And so it's important for us to learn how to live life correctly.
Now, the premise is that Jesus, being our example, Increased, we're told in Luke 2:52, in wisdom, in stature. in favor with God and men. A lot of Christians. Are accustomed to growing in favor with God. We're accustomed to spiritual development.
We hear a lot about that. A lot of sermons from people like me, pastors and teachers in the body of Christ, are aimed at helping persons develop real spiritual discipline and to experience real spiritual growth. In your life, indeed, that is the most important way to develop. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his soul? Or, what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Indeed, knowing God is the most important thing.
However, I want you to note that Jesus didn't just know God. But he increased in other dimensions of his life. And my premise here is that you and I must learn that life isn't only about spiritual development. And I want to make sure that we are becoming people who can live a life that truly pleases God and that truly accomplishes His will. And in order to do that, you've got to have Christ at the center of your life, but you must also allow Him and His Word then to dictate to the other areas of your life.
So, Jesus didn't just increase in favor with God. But he also lived a wise life. And what I'm sharing is just some very practical, nothing profound, some practical information about how we can live like Jesus in terms of what I'm calling balanced living. Do you know people who are unbalanced people who are so spiritual, but when you look at other areas of their life, they're really messed up? I know folk who pray but don't clean their houses.
I know folk who sing songs and worship well. But they don't have a good family relationship.
Some of them don't work well on their jobs.
Some of them, sinners, can't stand to see them coming. Because they're not nice people to be around. Anytime you say you know Jesus, but when folk who need Jesus see you, they say, oh, uh-uh, no. Anytime you make people start running. I want to suggest you are living an unbalanced life.
And we want to learn from Christ. How to be What I'm calling authentically human. He was authentically human. Jesus was very comfortable in his skin. He was the incarnation.
He was God who became man. He is all God and all man. But he was comfortable being a man. The Bible says he was comfortable around people who didn't yet know God. And so it was because of his balanced living that he was able to finish his course, to finish his assignment, and go back to heaven, having won our salvation and having set an example for us in terms of how to live your life.
And so I'm offering some practical keys for Christ-like balance, how to have balance the way Jesus had balance in his life.
Now, I'm currently talking about the first area of that, which is to cultivate a support system for your life. One of the things you note when you set out to live a life of wisdom, like Jesus did. Is that you need to create a support system because, in order to do the will of God, you're going to be serving the needs of people, you're going to be giving out. And one of the things you learn from Jesus is that he not only gave out, but he had the wisdom to receive what he needed so that he could continue to have resources to give out. The way I described it in the first message is that there are drainers in your life and there are fillers.
That's the language that Richard Swenson, a Christian physician who wrote a book called Margin, that's the way he puts it. He says, some people and some activities are drainers. And so if you're really going to live a balanced life, God would want to help you bring into your life people and activities that are fillers.
So if you don't have fillers, after a while you don't have any resources to deal with your drainers. and you start giving to them out of a deficit.
Now, look at it in financial terms. If you keep writing checks and don't have money, That's gonna be a problem. And when it comes to dealing with our emotional life, the same is true. And the reason why so many Christians don't have a true testimony of victory in every area of our lives is because we've been given out of a deficit. And that's why some of us are depressed.
That's why some of us are angry. That's why some of us are mean. That's why some of us don't treat people right. That's why some of us are under stress and we're fatigued and frustrated and all the rest of it. Because of this lack of balance.
This lack of balance. And so you've got to identify. The drainers and the fillers in your life. And you have to make sure that you're allowing God to help you with this business.
Now, as I entered the last message, I was talking about the fact that Jesus identified people. We don't know what activities would have been fillers for him. The gospel record doesn't tell us. But we do know at least six people who were his fillers: Peter, James, and John, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, all identified in the scripture as people that Jesus actually sought out to spend time with them. These are the kinds of people who find you weak, but they leave you strong.
The kind of people who nurture you, being around them makes you feel better, stronger. You've got to find those people in your life. Do not allow yourself to believe: well, if I'm truly spiritual, then I treat everybody exactly the same. No, no, Jesus didn't do that, so you shouldn't. He loved everyone and he ministered to people as God gave him an opportunity to minister to them at the right times.
In fact, Jesus didn't always minister to people. You will find when you study the gospel records that there were times when he knew he needed to get away. And he made himself unavailable. And we'll get to do the same. I'll get to that.
But I want you to know that there are some guilt trips you can get on as a believer to feel like, well, if I truly love the Lord, then I will treat everyone exactly alike. No, no, Jesus had people that the Bible describes as his friends, as people that he sought out. And that's because these people served to fill his life. And I was discussing the fact that we've got to find the fillers in our lives, both people and activities. And you've got to know yourself.
My wife and I are very different. If she wants to get filled, you know, she can deal with people in the right settings, right circumstances. She loves folks, ministers to them, and all that. She'll go to conferences and things where she really knows she's going to get the kinds of things she wants. But when it's all said and done, when she has had a draining day or a draining week or whatever and seeks to be filled, she looks for solitude.
She wants to curl up with a book. and get on the couch and she wants quiet.
Now when I want to be filled, I can have preached. Several messages taught at a conference and all of that. But soon as I get a meal and what have you, I'm looking for: okay, where are the people who are gonna do the things I wanna do? I am activity-oriented when it comes to filling, and she is solitude-oriented. And we had to learn our differences because early in our marriage we would fight about that stuff.
Cause I'd be ready to go out and hang, and she's like, Why isn't home enough for you? I provide you with a nice home, nice and peaceful and loving. You got a loving, sweet wife here. Why do you always want to run out? And she didn't get it.
And one day she was reading a book and it clicked for her. As that particular book that wasn't Swenson's, but another book that was describing differences and how important it is to understand the people in your life. And she said, Oh, I get it. She said, The right people fill you, but people usually drain me. It's a temperament thing.
I can deal with them in the right setting, right circumstances. She's loving and all that. But generally speaking, she seeks solitude when she needs to be replenished. And I want to get with the right folk. Not everybody.
Now you can't get with everybody. But they're right here because some people take advantage of it. They see you out in a social setting and they want to drain you some more. Not you, but people I know.
So, you have to know who you're dealing with. And you got to know yourself and be comfortable in your own skin. And we got tired of fighting about it and fussing about it. And finally, it dawned on her.
So she learned to send me off with her blessings. You know, if I need the people in order to feel, go ahead on, baby. And she let me go. And we're out there playing cards, acting simple, whatever we're doing. And she's happy where she is because I've taken the noise away from her.
See what I'm saying? And you gotta understand that. There are people who are drainers, there are people who are fillers. There are activities that are drainers, there are activities that are fillers. And if you're going to live like Jesus, You're going to have to know that you need to cultivate a support system for yourself.
None of us is capable of just being all spiritual and having everything you need to live a successful life in the will of God. It's not all spiritual. You've got to develop a wise life, and part of that is cultivating your support systems. Think about your life, even as I speak, and think about the things that drain you: how much you have to give, whether it's to family, whether it's on your job, whether it's in ministry. Whole lot of churches make the mistake of not teaching people this element.
Whole lot of us pastors, we're guilty of not teaching a well-rounded enough gospel. And the result is sometimes we make people feel guilty if they're not always serving. But the reality is you can't always serve. Because after a while, what you have to offer isn't what people need. Because there comes to be that point of diminishing returns.
Where your role where your nerves are frayed. And at that point, you don't need to try to minister to anybody. Cause all of them about that far from getting on your last nerve. Come on. And see, you'll mess around and think, oh see, I haven't prayed enough.
It's not necessarily about prayer. It is about knowing when is enough.
Now, I'll talk more about that. But first, I want to just make sure you understand the importance of a support system. And that means both activity and people. Jesus had the support of loving friends that he trusted, that he knew would do him good. You can think of so many other biblical examples if you take the time and do it.
You think of Jonathan. He was that for David. David had a friend that the Bible says he loved him as he loved his own soul. You know, in this day, you gotta make things real clear. This wasn't a sexual relationship.
These were men who loved each other dearly. They were godly men. They were platonic in their dealings with one another, but they loved each other dearly. The Bible says Jonathan loved David as his own soul. They were tight.
And Jonathan and David walked in covenant with each other that they would never do each other harm, only good. And you see their relationship develop beginning in 1 Samuel 18 and throughout. You see their relationship develop. And what a blessing Jonathan was to David. Even in times of crisis, when Jonathan's own father saw, was tripping.
That's not a Hebrew word, but that's what he was doing. He was tripping. He was jealous of David because as David's anointing grew, as God's hand was on David as the next anointed to lead Israel, God had already rejected Saul in his heart. Although Saul was still on the throne, he was rejected of God. David, on the other hand, God has destined him to be the next king.
And Saul saw David's star rising, saw the anointing on him, saw people starting to sing little songs about David. And he didn't like it. And he began to terrorize him. He began to strategize against him. Eventually, he began to plot to kill him.
But because Jonathan was so committed to David, he took David. as his covenant partner even against his own daddy Saul. And there's one point when David is on the run. And Jonathan finds him. He's a fugitive, but Jonathan finds him.
And the Bible says he strengthened his hands in the Lord. You need some people and some activities that strengthen you. That makes you equipped, better, able to do what you gotta do. When Jonathan found David, he was discouraged. He's running, he says, Your daddy's gonna kill me.
And Jonathan said, No, he's not going to kill you. God's going to keep you alive. You're the next king of Israel. God's not going to let you go out like this.
Now, the thing that's so wonderful about that is that Jonathan, being Saul's prized son, would have been the next in line for the throne. But Jonathan is so committed to the will of God and to his covenant friend that he's not vying with David for the throne. He says, you're going to be the next king. I will be second in command to you. And so I came to get you strong.
I came to tell you to lift up your head. I came to help you dry your tears. I came to let you know that God has begun a good work in you and he's going to bring it to completion. And when Jonathan left David, David was strong again. You need some Jonathans in your life.
Or you heard my message, lessons from the Boston Marathon. My friend and mentor of many years, Gil Thompson, ran the Boston Marathon twice. First time he ran it in the 80s. He did not complete it. When he ran it several years later, he completed it.
And once I was asking him what the differences were, and he mapped out for me a few strategic differences. But the last of them was he had an experienced marathon runner in his church. And she said, Pastor, I've run this many times. I run it every other year, and this isn't my year to run it. She said, but what I'm going to do is, I will have some food prepared for you at a couple of key points in the race.
And I will give you a banana. She said, trust me on this, Pastor. When you get to certain mile markers, I'll have someone call out for you and just run over by the crowd, and they will hand you the banana. And he took a word for it, he wanted to complete it. And he corrected the other mistakes.
And so he said, I got to the first of the points in the race. He said, and I was on E. I mean, I was really, I had hit the wall. And he said, just about that time, I heard somebody say, Pastor. And he said, I ran over and saw one of my members waving.
And he said, I ran by and they handed me a banana. And I ran on. And he said, you know, I thought a nice gesture, but you know, it's a banana. But this lady who set this up was an experienced marathoner, and she knew what it would do for him. And he said, listen, I'm telling you, it was anointed.
It was anointed. He said, God was in that banana. Gave me strength. I ran on. And he said, Then, several miles later, I think it was at about mile 18, when he hit another wall.
And she knew that's where he would hit it. And this time, instead of having somebody else there, she was there herself. And she said, Pastor, when he got there, he said, I was on my last leg again. And I ran over and saw her. He said, but instead of just handing me a banana, she came under the rope.
And she said, Pastor, here's your second banana. You're doing great. And although this isn't my year to run it, I figured if you got this far, I was going to make sure you got to the end.
So let me run on in there with you till the finish line. And he says, she ran with me. From, I think this was mile 18 all the way to the finish line, 26.2 miles is the marathon. And she ran, said, While we're running, she's just encouraging me. Oh, Pastor, I'm so proud of you.
Doing good. What have you? And she just running. He said, She wasn't even hardly sweat. She just gone on, just carrying on.
And I'm out there just huffing and puffing and praying. Oh, God, help me. But. She was there to strengthen him. You need a banana person.
No, no, no, no, no, no. You need some bananas, and you need some banana people. To get where God wants to take you. Yeah. Moses had Aaron and Joshua.
King David had Jonathan. Jesus had Peter, James, and John. Who is your banana person? Who are your fillers? Remember the words of Solomon, Two are better than one, for if one falls, the other will lift up his companion.
Do you need prayer to day? If so, please visit pastorpaul. net and use the contact feature to share your request with us. Our ministry team is always happy to lift you up in prayer. Have you ever set out to be a blessing to the people around you, but then felt like you'd gone unnoticed or underappreciated?
We find just that kind of story in the Gospel of Luke. Martha is busy making preparations, but her sister Mary chooses not to help because she's chosen to spend time with Jesus. In our latest booklet, When Humans Attack, Pastor Paul Shepard takes an honest look at this story to show us how unchecked frustration and unspoken expectations can turn even our best intentions toxic. He also paints a beautiful picture of the difference between distraction and devotion. That's When Humans Attack.
A gift we'd love to share with you this month is our thank you for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory Media Ministry. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. eight five five three three nine fifty five hundred. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. Or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767.
Fremont, California, 94538. The Bible has something to say about making sure that you don't allow relationships to be mud in your wings. Because, in order to go with God, you're going to have to fly to some heights, and mud in your wings won't let you go. And so, you're going to have to learn that it is a God priority for your life to reconcile relationships. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepard's message: being holy, being human.
Until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
