You and I have to learn that we've got to get our act together with people. God doesn't want you to be one of these kind of folks who say, oh, just give me Jesus and leave those folk alone. That's not balanced Christian living. That's not living that can please God. You can't please God without getting your relationships right with people.
If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, that hard but true saying comes from 1 John 4, verse 20, and it raises the question. What does it look like to live an authentic Christian life in our relationships with people? What did Jesus model for us in His own relationships? And what has He commanded us to do in ours? Today, Pastor Paul takes an in-depth look at the subject, examining the life of Christ and pointing us to the kind of relational life that would bring honor and glory to Him.
First, though, a reminder that you can listen to any recent message on demand, including today's, at our website, pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.
Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: being holy, being human. The verse is Luke 2:52. We won't read verses 41 through 52. In the interest of time, but this section that tells us about Jesus' early life gives us an important understanding. of some things.
And verse 52 says, And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. and in favor with God. And men. He grew. This text tells us in four ways: in wisdom, in stature, In favor with God.
and men. And we're looking at the fact that Given the limited time span that God gives us on this earth, It is important that we learn to live authentically Christian lives. Life is too short to be lived unwisely. We said at the beginning of this series that we only have one shot at this. Life is not a dress rehearsal, it's the real deal.
You don't get to say, oops, I made that mistake, but the show doesn't start till 8.
So I'll correct it between now and then. No, this is all there is. And therefore, God has given us His Word. What a wonderful gift. to not have to go through life without a guide, without a manual.
And so God has given us His word, and His Word is a lamp to our feet. And a light to our path, it will teach you where to go, where not to go. And Jesus teaches us by precept and by his example how to live life, though a relatively short span it is, to live it authentically, to live it wisely, so that all of us can leave this earth, being able to say what Jesus said when he left the earth, which is that it is finished. I've done the things God has called me to do. Of course, he had the most unique calling of anyone in history.
But all of us have a calling of some sort in our lives. Ephesians 2:10 tells you that we're God's workmanship. We're created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.
So we need to learn how to live wise lives. Specifically, I'm struck by the balance of Jesus' life. He wasn't all spiritual. And sometimes we who have genuine spiritual aspirations, and thank God for that, can make the mistake. Of trying to become so heavenly-minded that we don't focus properly on the earthly matters.
Now, of course, many more people are so busy living earthly lives until they're not worried about heaven. You don't want to be carnal, but neither do you want to be pseudo-spiritual or half-baked spiritual. You don't want to be one of those kooky Christians. You want to be one who lives balanced. And Jesus increased not only in his relationship with God.
Now, if you could only work on one area of your life, let it be your spiritual life. Because that will impact you for time and for eternity. But you shouldn't just work on one area, is our premise. Jesus increased in multiple areas of his life.
So we want to learn how to live in Christ-like balance. We've covered the first point, which is to cultivate a support system. We noted that Jesus very clearly in his life had a support system that would accommodate God's calling on his life. And you need to develop that. Secondly, we're looking now at the second point, which is to reconcile your relationships.
Jesus increased not only in favor with God, but he increased in favor with man. You and I have to learn that we've got to get our act together with people. God doesn't want you to be one of these kinds of folks who say, oh, just give me Jesus and leave those folk alone. That's not balanced Christian living. That's not living that can please God.
You can't please God without getting your relationships right with people. Please understand, the Apostle John said, how can you love God? And you don't even see him. But hate the folk you see all the time. He said, You can't do it.
It was a rhetorical question. You cannot truly love God and ignore your need to have the right relationship with God. With people. Jesus modeled for us having right relationships with people. He showed us by his example that.
You've got to know that God loves the people in your life every bit as much as He loves you. And He wants His love to flow through you. Into their lives. And so Jesus was a man not only of relationship with God, but he was a man of right relationship with others. The great commandment.
Tells us, Matthew chapter 22 tells us, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Now we love that. Yes, I love God. Don't stop reading. The great commandment says, and you shall love your neighbor. As yourself.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Don't just stop with God. Give me Jesus, lead the people, no. Let Jesus help you love the people. And let's be honest, it takes Jesus to help you love.
Can we talk here for Lua? Hope you're not in a hurry. Got a few things I won't drop off to you. You can't just ignore the people, and yet it's challenging to deal with people in your life. And you might as well be honest about that.
I've seen Christians who try to pretend like they don't have relational challenges. I can't relate to you. I can't relate to you. I have relational challenges. It's normal for you to have relational challenges.
Some people are easy to love. You know, sometimes you hear them introducing a person or honoring a person at a dinner at a banquet or something. Often you'll hear him say, So, this person is just so easy. From the moment I knew him, they were just easy to love.
Well, you can only say that about some folks. Isn't that right? There's some people, it's not that easy, it's challenging. You have differences, you have different temperaments, you have different perspectives.
Some people are rough around the edges.
Some people are special. Come on, come on. That's my word for them. They're special. They're special people.
Just, God loves them. Just special. And you know what? God does love them, and he commands you and I to love them. God says to us, in effect, I didn't ask you to focus on how special they were, love them.
Do what you can to be a blessing in their life. And so you got to have right relationship with God so that he can bless you to be able to have right relationship with others. Jesus was in right relationship. He knew the categories, the people in his life that the Father sent into his life were to fall into. He knew there were some people he was to minister to.
And out of love, he ministered to the masses. There were others he was to disciple. And so out of love, he ministered and taught the disciples, poured himself into the apostles so that they would know everything he could teach them. And then before he left this world, he said, there's so much more I didn't have time or I couldn't get through to you. But I'm going to send another comforter, the Holy Spirit, and he'll finish teaching you what I was trying to teach you.
And so there are people you minister to out of love. There are people you minister with out of love. And then thank God, as we made the point first, there are people who will minister to you. They'll be part of your support system. But all categories.
People in your life deserve love. Your relatives deserve your love and right relationship with them. And so we got to be reconciled. Don't try to be one of these Christians who's going around with secret hatred and resentment in your heart toward people and trying to praise over it and worship over it. Jesus told you in Matthew 5: God doesn't want that kind of worship.
Don't come to church mad as a rattlesnake. Just finish cussing somebody out and then come in, church, and lift up holy hands. That's not holy. That's not holy. You need to get your act together.
You need to pray. Learn to treat people right. The security people out in the parking lot, traffic folk who minister to you, help you find parking and help you get into the place.
Sometimes they tell me how they get chewed out outside.
Something's wrong. You don't come in here and worship and praise, and then go out there and show parts of your anatomy that are to be covered.
Something's wrong when you can't be polite to people. If you're having a bad day, everybody has a bad day, but you just know that's a day where you don't need to say too much. Come on now, let me help you here. You don't need to say too much. Jesus told you: love the Lord and love the people.
And every now and then we're short. Come on, let's be honest. Every now and then, this isn't my day for you. Still ahead, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepard, so stay with us. 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. We like to say that without you there would be no us, and it really is true. You are critical to our ability to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. For details on how you can pray for us or invest in our media ministry, please come see us at pastorpaul.net, or you can give now by calling 855-339-5500. You know, part of authentic Christian living means doing all you can to be reconciled in your relationships with people.
There will be conflict and hurt feelings from time to time, but the Bible shows us the right way to handle them. Let's learn more as we listen to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message: being holy, being human. Can we be real? We're talking about authentic living. This is in my day.
Some days I'm not you right now. But if they're there and you've got to have some interaction with them, then you make sure to be polite in whatever interaction you have. And if you need to limit it because you're not sure of how long you can take it, then limit it. Limited. But Jesus said it.
If you're worshiping and you know you have an unresolved issue with somebody, leave your gift at the altar. Go and be reconciled.
Now, reconciliation is the ideal, which means the two of you get on the same page. And so Jesus tells us: go, try to be reconciled. He teaches that not only in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5, but over in Matthew 18, he gives you some of the detail of it. If your brother or sisters trespass against you, go to him or her and show the fault to them alone. Meaning, if you're going to honor people the way God would have you honor them, you don't talk about them to party C, D, E, F, G, H, I.
Come on. Talk to B. B is the issue. You and I need to have a little chat. You got a minute?
Shoot them an email. Say, can we talk? When you get a break, can you give me a call? Here's the number where I am. Let's talk a bit.
Or let's do lunch, whatever it is. And show the fault. I'm having a little difficulty dealing with something you said or something you did or something you didn't say or something you didn't do. And you lay it out to them. And you put it out.
Jesus said, that's the way to handle it. Show the fault to him alone, to her alone. Why? Because the goal is not to expose them. The goal isn't to get other folk to feel bad about them.
Go and show. Go and show. When I was in kindergarten, we had show and tell. Those early elements, you all had show and tell. Show and tell.
And you would bring something from home and you would show it and you would tell. Jesus said, do that when a person offends you, trespass against you. Go to them and show and tell. Don't ask them to know. Have you ever seen, not you, but people I know, get mad at somebody, and then when it comes up in somebody, they say, they know what they did.
They know exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, the problem is Jesus didn't say assume they know what they did. And you serve Jesus. That means to love Him is to do His will, to obey His word. And He didn't say, assume they know what they did. He said, Go and show.
Here's what you did that I don't like. Here's what you said. That I don't appreciate. I resent being treated this way. Go and show.
You can be frank, you can be honest. See, a lot of folks have meekness mixed up with weakness. They think Christians are supposed to be weak. No, they're supposed to be meek. And meek simply means that you have power under control.
It's under control. That's where the meat comes in. But you have power. I'm not powerless. As a believer, if you offend me, I don't have to like it.
If you disrespect me, I don't have to like it. But Jesus said, the way to handle it is to go to you and tell you, here's what you did, and I don't like it. Go and show. And he said, if they hear you, if they repent, you've won them over, you're reconciled. And in Matthew 5, he said, if you know they have aught against you, they're carrying something against you.
And they haven't come and shown it, but you know something's wrong. You can tell when somebody changes up towards you. Things aren't the way they used to be. And then you go and say, What have I done to offend you? Can we talk?
I just want to make sure everything's clear. Every now and then you'll get somebody who wants to be in denial. And you see it all over their face. Because their face just contradicts what they're saying. You ever seen anybody looking at you straight and saying, nothing wrong?
Come on, everything's fine.
Well obviously everything isn't fine. Look at you. You need to see here. Where's the mirror? Look at that faith.
Everything's not right. Your face tells me you got a problem of some sort. Hey, but you can't make them come up with it. At least you've attempted to get reconciled.
Now, here's what you need to understand: reconciliation requires cooperation. You can't reconcile with a person who doesn't want to reconcile with you. But here's what you can do: you can make sure on your end, everything is clear. If a person doesn't want to talk to you, doesn't want to get down to business, doesn't want to acknowledge anything, God still blesses us with the ability to get it right on our side. And so sometimes you can release them if somebody's trespassing against you and won't acknowledge it.
See, don't think everybody's going to acknowledge it.
Some people will deny it the rest of their lives. And so you can either walk around with all that hurt or you can say, Lord, thank you for the gift of grace to be able to move on. See, I often teach that forgiveness is a two-sided coin because so often we hear only teaching about what you do when a person comes and asks for forgiveness. Then you're commanded to forgive. That's not all the teaching we need.
What do you do with those folk who don't want your forgiveness? They're glad they did what they did and would do it again. What do you do with those folks? You got to do something with them, and they're not coming, so I can't be stuck with no action. No, no, it's a two-sided coin.
If you ask for forgiveness, I'll freely give it to you. If you refuse to ask for forgiveness, I can release you in my heart anyway.
Now on your end, you're guilty before God. But on my end, all is clear because I've given you over to God. I've sent the offense away from my heart because I cannot allow that hatred, that resentment to become dried mud in my wings. God wants me to fly to some heights, and I can't have you keeping me down on the ground when God's calling me to the heights.
So I gotta get that junk out of my wings. Your abuse, the way you messed over me, the way you won't treat me right, you won't acknowledge that you don't handle our relationship right. Whether it's your marriage or your boss or your kids or whoever it is, don't let them get inside of you. Don't let them create what the old folks call bosom trouble. Don't develop bosom trouble over people.
Get them off to God. Give them over to God. Release them in your heart. Say, Lord, if they ever want to get straight with me, great. But if not, I'm sending the offense off to you.
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And let people know that they're alright with you. Let it be clear by the way you treat them, by the way you talk to them. That everything is all right. Don't put people on probation.
Come on, somebody. If you forgive them, forgive them. You ever seen not you, but people I know? Say they forgave somebody and they're still treating them funny.
Well now either you forgave him or you didn't. Don't forgive me on probation. Forgive me, but you got some little electronic thing you want to put on my ankle. No, no. If you've forgiven, which is an act of your will, you trust God for the grace to be able to release them, send the offense to Him.
If you forgive, then also ask for the grace to treat them right. And you know why you want to do that? Because you want your forgiveness of people to model your Heavenly Father's forgiveness of you. And when your Heavenly Father forgives you, he doesn't say, Yeah, but Alright, let's just see now. No, God doesn't treat us with suspicion.
The Bible says he takes our sins and casts them into the sea and remembers them no more. And you want your forgiveness of people to be a reflection of God's forgiveness in your heart. A wonderful example of that is in the gospel record after the resurrection. Remember how badly Peter messed up? Luke chapter 22, he bragging to the Lord, I'll always be with you.
These other folk are going to forsake you. You picked the wrong ones, but you did do one thing right. You picked me. I got you back, Jesus. I'm with you to the end.
I'll even die with you. We're going down together. We'll be in the same foxhole. We're going to go down together. Me and Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, Before tomorrow morning, You will have denied me three times. And it happened just as Jesus said, and Peter felt miserable. And he followed, even when Jesus was going to the cross, the Bible says he followed from afar. And he was ashamed, thoroughly ashamed of himself. failed miserably.
But He didn't know how wonderful Jesus was until after the resurrection. Jesus had given instructions to the women and said, Go tell my disciples. And Peter. To meet me in Galilee.
Now, the wonder of that is that Jesus wanted to make sure Peter knew he had not disqualified himself. because of how he denied the Savior. See, if Jesus didn't have it right, he'd have said, Go tell my disciples. If somebody would have said, Well, what about Peter? He said, Mm.
See, or if he was like some of us, he'd be like, oh no, uh-uh, Peter wants to, oh no, Peter wants to swear to people that he doesn't know who I am.
Well You can't have it both ways. If you're going to release them, release them. Said, go tell my disciples, and in case Peter's not sure whether he's still a disciple. I'll call him by name. When you find him, tell him, I gave a personal invitation.
Because you might well imagine they'd get to him and to the others and say, Jesus said, meet him in Galilee. And you would imagine, without that clarity, Peter would be standing there saying, Well, I guess that doesn't mean me. Because you know, all the people he's run into in life are probably like the people we've run into and dealt with, who, when you mess up, that's it. None of this three strikes you out. One strike will get it done.
I'm through now. I told you not to mess over me, didn't I? Told you not to mess over me. No, no. Jesus made it plain.
He said, Go tell my disciples and Peter. to meet me in Galilee. I'm so glad for that kind of grace. I'm the recipient of that. How about you?
God doesn't forgive me on probation. God doesn't. Give me one little shot at it. And I blow it and he looking at me cross-eyed the rest of my life. In fact, Going back to Luke 22, do you remember what Jesus said to him after prophesying that he would fail?
He said After You are converted. Peter, you're gonna mess up. Satan is going to shake you up, sift you like wheat. But I prayed for you that your faith won't fail. See, sometimes you fail, but your faith doesn't.
I messed up, but my faith is still anchored in the Lord. And Jesus said, I prayed for you, Peter, that your faith wouldn't fail. And he said, And when you are converted, strengthen your brothers. Do you know some people are better off? after they make a little mess.
Some folk can't be used too well because you're a little too stuck up. You're a little too out of touch with reality. You think you're all that. And so God hasn't let you go through some experiences where you realize: no, no, you're not all that, you're some of that. God's love for us as well as His forgiveness of us is unconditional.
who are we not to offer that same unconditional love and forgiveness to others? Let me ask a question. Have you ever set out to be a blessing to the people around you, but then felt like you had gone unnoticed or even underappreciated? We find just that kind of story in the Gospel of Luke. Martha is busy making preparations, but instead of helping her sister, Mary chooses 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 unmet expectations can turn even our best intentions toxic. He also shows us the difference between distraction and devotion. That's When Humans Attack, our thank you gift this month for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory Media Ministry. You can give 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. Do you know some people are better off after they make a little mess?
Some folk can't be used too well because you're a little too stuck up. You're a little too out of touch with reality. You think you're all that. And so God hasn't let you go through some experiences where you realize: no, no, you're not all that, you're some of that, but you're not all that. That's next time in our continuing message, being holy, being human.
But until then remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
