I want to ask you to examine your life. Are you? Putting yourself too much in the hands of people thinking that this is the way to be godly, this is the way to be like Christ, when in fact, It is not like Christ at all. He was intentional about creating his boundaries and expectations. in his life.
The word boundaries may sometimes bring with it a negative connotation, but some boundaries are healthy, and we find examples in the life of Jesus Christ. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard. We're looking this week at areas of our spiritual development that may be lacking. We began our journey on Monday, so if you've missed any message along the way, be sure to visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. Today, we'll take a look at the earthly ministry of Christ, where you'll discover that He had a clear purpose for every area of His life.
He was focused, driven, and intentional. and today you'll gain a better understanding of how to follow in his steps.
So let's pay close attention to our Destined for Victory message: Neglected Areas of Discipleship. In the last couple of messages, I've been establishing the fact that as. People who are Christians, we need to understand that to be a Christian is to be a follower. Of Christ. And we talked about the fact that in the first century the disciples got to literally.
Follow Jesus, and while we don't get to follow Him in that same sense, because He has ascended and is at the right hand of the Father, we are still followers in terms of observing through the pages of the Gospels His life and His lifestyle, and we are to be imitators of Christ and to truly follow the kind of life He lives.
Now, when we often talk about discipleship, we talk about certain themes which are very biblical and very important. But I've come to realize that there are some areas that we don't often associate with following Jesus. But as I study the gospel records, I realize that we need to build not only the values of Christ into our lives, but to really observe His lifestyle because that lifestyle supports a life in the will of God.
So, we've been looking at some neglected areas of discipleship. We looked at the fact that you've got to have a real, meaningful, authentic Prayer life. The fact of the matter is: if Jesus, who was God and man, needed to pray, all of us who are just man needed to pray. And so we need to have an authentic prayer life. We talk about the fact that we need to cultivate a personal support system.
Jesus, in order to manage his life in the will of the Father, he had a personal support system. Not everyone in his life played the same role. There were some people who he served, and he knew he was getting nothing back from them. And there are going to be people like that in your life. You give and give and give, and you've got to realize that is God's role for you to play in their lives.
But to support that, God will also bring into your life people who will bless you, who will help you, who will strengthen you. And we looked at the fact that Jesus had such people in his life, and you and I need to prayerfully say, Lord, help me to identify those persons who can come alongside me, who can serve as part of my support system. The third thing we looked at is the importance of reconciling relationships. Jesus made sure to keep very short accounts with people. That is to say, Jesus made sure that there was no ongoing problem in his relationship, even with his enemies.
So much so that when he hangs on the cross, we hear him say, Father, Forgive them. for they don't know what they're doing. And some of us struggle with unforgiveness, but if you're going to be like Jesus, you must understand that unforgiveness is not. an option for you. If we want to enjoy the forgiveness of God in our lives, and I don't know about you, but I do.
If we want to enjoy his forgiveness, if we want to know that our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future, then we must also marry to that the thankfulness that God has forgiven me and the determination then that I will. Out of gratitude to God, I will forgive everyone who trespasses against me. If God has forgiven me, Billions of dollars, trillions of dollars worth of sin. How dare I hold you for hundreds of dollars worth of offenses? I'm ahead trillions when I'm in Christ.
And so I don't care what you did. To betray me or to abuse me or to mistreat me, it is real, it is painful, it has consequences. But it does not merit unforgiveness.
So, you got to know that God says, first thing I want you to do is release your offenses and your offenders into my hands. That's what forgive means, to send away. And after you've done that, then you look to me and walk with me that I might bring healing into your life and allow you to move on. Because it is God's will for no one or no group of people who have offended you, who have betrayed you, who have abused you, who have mistreated you, who have lied on you, whatever they've done. It is not God's will for them to write the final chapter of your life.
God doesn't want them having the last word in your life. He is the alpha and the omega. That's what I love about serving God. He's the beginning and he's the end. He said, keep walking with me.
This isn't over yet. Keep walking with me. I know what they did. Come on, let's walk and talk about it. I know what they did.
I know what they said. I know what they promised you. And I know how they broke your heart and let you down. But I don't want you spending the rest of your life writing sad songs. I don't want you spending the rest of your life talking about all the pain they put you through.
It is real, and I will bring healing into your life. I will bring alongside you some folks who will help you heal. But you cannot try to justify. Unforgiveness. And so we talked.
about the importance of that. in the life of the follower of Christ. And then in the last message, We were talking. about creating appropriate boundaries. Jesus lived with a keen awareness of the people around him, whether they meant him good or evil.
Jesus knew exactly what was going on, and he put people in certain places in his life based on what he knew was going on with them.
So you find him saying to his disciples at one point: now beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. In other words, when you see people who have it in for you, Jesus said, be aware of them. Don't walk around clueless about people who hate you. Don't walk around clueless about people who have it in for you. I love the balance of following Jesus.
On the one hand, he says you got to forgive everybody when they trespass. On the other hand, he says, try not to give them a shot at you. Isn't that good? See, that's what I love about it. A lot of folks think that Christianity is sloppy or gopi.
You don't care, it doesn't matter. Mistreat me. I'm a doormat. Just walk all over me. No, no, Jesus didn't teach that.
Jesus doesn't want people walking on you. You're his child. You belong to him. He's got a high calling for you. And so there's a balance.
There are going to be people who are your enemies. There are going to be people arrayed against you. But Jesus says, beware. And as much as lies within you, Don't put yourself in a position where folk can just have an easy shot at you.
So he said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. Beware of people who have it in for you. You ought to know your enemies by name. You ought to identify them. You ought to know who they are.
And when people show you they have it in for you, believe them. and create appropriate Boundaries. We have to serve people. We have to get close in order to serve people. But people who do not want your service, they only want your demise, you have to build appropriate boundaries in your life.
And a lot of us are not enjoying the abundant life Christ has willed us to have because we have not learned how to draw lines and boundaries.
Some of us think it's unholy, unspiritual. to draw lines and boundaries, to tell people that's as far as you can go.
Some of us think it's not right to say, no, you can't call me 24 hours a day.
Some of us think no, that it's wrong to say, no, you can't speak to me like that, and I continue to call you and stay in touch with you. You don't put yourself in harm's way. When you know every time they talk, it's going to be the same old ragging on you, beating you down, trying to make you feel guilty, all of that. We had that conversation. We don't need to have that one anymore.
Oh, this is good, you just don't know it.
Some of you would be better off in your life once you start setting folks straight in Jesus' name. Create appropriate Boundaries. Not only with your enemies, You got to do it with your relatives. Got to do it with your relatives. Here is what I'm willing to do.
Here are the things that I'm willing to do for you, and this is where we draw the line. And you've got to create the appropriate boundaries and live guilt-free about it. Know that you're doing the will of God. Know that you are open to anything the Lord tells you to do. But I am not open to just being used and misused and abused by people.
And sometimes we enable people, inadvertently, we enable people. Parents, don't enable your children. Give them a hand up.
So that they become adults, responsible adults. If they live in your home after school, everybody in the family has a job. And when your kids are in school years, they have a job. Their job is to do well in school. And you tell them everybody in this family has a job.
And yours isn't earning money right now. Yours is going to school to actually learn something. And call them up to that standard. Do you know they won't go there if you don't call them there? You call them up, that's your job.
And here are the rewards for doing that job well. Here are the consequences for doing it poorly. If you're not giving your attention to study and doing reasonably well, not everybody's going to be a 4.0 student, I'm not saying that, but you ought to see diligence and effort. And where you don't see that, you have no business rewarding them with all the stuff they want. When they're not doing their job, because when they get out in the adult world, nobody's gonna reward them well for doing nothing.
So it's your job. to create the appropriate boundaries. and to establish the right expectations. and to make sure they understand that's your job. You do your job well, and there are some blessings, there are some rewards that go along with that.
And then, after they're adults, if you choose, I left off in the last message talking about the fact that I had the privilege of living in my parents' home until I got married. They said you can stay here after school, but you have to have either a job or be back in school. Not going to just lay around in Jesus' name. Come on. I see I have one of two options.
Get out there and get yourself a job, or be back in graduate school or somewhere getting ready for something, actively preparing for something. And then they gave me the privilege of laying there. You got to help out with the bills, you got to do this, lay out the expectations. You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. People got to understand that.
There's certain things I deserve. You got to negotiate. And they laid out the terms, and I accepted them. They were great terms. 'Cause rent is much cheaper at home.
Come on young folk, I'm trying to help you now. Rent is much cheaper at home than getting out here first, last, and deposit and all that stuff. Man, I had a good deal in my parents' house. I took that deal. I married out of their house.
I stayed there till the night before I said I'd do. Yes, sir. And it was a blessing. And then my dad. I ended the last message talking about how he established boundaries after that.
And I came in, I still had my key that I had had all my life. And I came in one time too many. Cause I was married now, had an apartment. And he said, Son, how'd you get in here? I said, well, you know, still had McKee, just thought I'd come see you and mom.
You know, I'm married now. Just talk, married, talk. He's all right, good to see you, son.
Now, before you leave, leave your key right up there on that ledge. Boundaries. Boundaries, he was saying, I love you, but this is not your house anymore. It's my house. What used to be your bathroom is a sauna now.
I did. I went upstairs. I thought I was going to the bathroom. I said, Mom! She said, yeah, as soon as you got married, your father called the contractor in here.
Why don't you let a brother just see if a marriage is gonna work or something?
Now, his point was: it's going to work. Repeat after me: it's going to work. Yeah. And by having those boundaries, you call people up to a higher level. You got to establish that.
Create the right expectations. Don't leave any guesswork in your life. Be like Jesus. He said, Here is what you got to pay attention to. Here is the way you got to live your life.
When people would try to establish his agenda for him, he would say, No, I must be about my father's business. I'm not up for grabs. You can just do with my life anything you want. And I love that about our Savior. And we have got to get good at that.
We've got to get good at understanding that appropriate boundaries and establishing expectations is a part of living like Jesus. And a lot of us are too unnecessarily vulnerable for our own good. And I want to help you understand. That if you're going to be like Jesus, You've got to have clear lines of demarcation in your life. In fact, when Jesus said about the worst, Thing that he experienced on earth, which of course was the persecution and the torture that led up to his crucifixion, he made it clear: he said, Nobody's taking my life.
I'm laying it down. In other words, I am living a very intentional life. I'm not subject to what any and everybody wants to do with my life. I am here to do the will of God. I want to ask you to examine your life.
Are you putting yourself too much in the hands of people thinking that this is the way to be godly, this is the way to be like Christ, when in fact, It is not like Christ at all. He was intentional about creating his boundaries and expectations. in his life. Let me move further. If you're going to be like Jesus, one of those neglected areas of discipleship is the importance of resting your body and your mind.
If you're going to be like Jesus and a follower of Jesus, One of the things we don't talk about much in spiritual context. Is the importance of resting body and mind? But I want to let you know if you're going to follow Jesus. You're gonna have to get some sleep. That doesn't sound spiritual, does it?
I need to be awake. I need to be.
Souls are dying. They died while he slept. And when he woke up, he ministered. He served because he understood. In this earth realm, I am subject to the conditions.
Of this body. And I cannot minister apart from Making sure I honor the needs of this body. Look at scriptures that you've always read and you probably never thought about this one aspect of it. Luke 8:22. One day Jesus said to his disciples, Let us go over to the other side.
You've heard sermons on this passage because it talks about as they sailed, the lake got stirred up, a great storm came, and the boat was almost swamped, and they were in great danger, and all that. You've heard that. I preach that, and you've heard other people preach that. Look at the passage again. Let us go over to the other side, Jesus says.
All right, we're going to take a journey. They all get in the boat.
So they got in the boat and set out. Verse 23 of Luke 8. As they sailed, He fell asleep. Jesus said, let's go on to the other side. Going to be a little wild.
This is a good time to get a nap. Why aren't you up there on the deck teaching them? You could be spending that time teaching them and giving them some truth. Jesus said later. Dropped his head back.
And he slept. Why? Because although He was full of ministry and full of help and full of blessing. He had to live with the restrictions of a body that could not go and go and go. without rest.
I want to say to some of you, super spiritual. Super productive. Super fruitful. Got so much anointing, you hardly know what to do with yourself.
So needed on your job, they can't imagine life without you. Unless you get some rest, they will experience life without you. Jesus fell asleep. I'm talking about my man slept cause this storm came up. And he was still asleep.
You see that? The other folk are panicking because the boat's taking on water. They seem to be in great danger. Verse 24: The disciples went and woke him. They had to tell him, you know we about to die, don't you?
And they said, Master, we're going to drown. He got up. and handle business. Rebuke the wind. and the raging waters.
and the storm subsided. All was calm. And he said, where's your faith? You're on the boat with me. I'm the one that said, let's go over to the other side.
Don't you know if I said, let's go to the other side, we're gonna make it to the other side? That's what you gotta realize. You've got to understand that he is the captain. of the ship of your life. And the captain is saying.
Every now and then, just take a chill pill. Can say it in those words. And understand that I'm going to finish the work I've begun in you, and you need to just flow with your greatest needs. And one of your greatest needs is to recognize that your life. As a parent, as a worker, church ministries in your church, whatever you do, all of that is subject.
To your being physically capable of doing it. And therefore You got the rest. You gotta rest. Your body. And rest your mind.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28: Come to me, another scripture we all know. But think about it again. Come to me. All of you who are weary and burdened, And I will give you rest.
Now we preach that as an evangelistic message, and that's a correct interpretation. Because it certainly is an invitation to the not-yet believer to come to Christ, lay down the burden of sin. And take on his holiness and take on his righteousness. All of us should do that.
Now is the day of salvation.
So Jesus extends the invitation to you. If you don't yet know Him as Savior, come and lay down into His lap your burden of sin. But it's not just an invitation to the unbeliever. He says to all of us who are following him: Come to me when you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. You know, we live in a culture here in America in which almost every institution has launched an all-out assault on the truth about Jesus Christ.
The educational system, the political system, the entertainment industry. His gospel and he himself were being attacked on all sides, every day, every hour, every minute. That's why listening to friends and partners like you are so important, especially during the busy summer months when donations to the ministry tend to decline.
So, today we're asking you to prayfully consider making a generous donation to Destined for Victory. When you do, we'd love to send you our latest booklet, When Humans Attack. Have you ever set out to be a blessing to the people around you and then felt like you had gone unnoticed or maybe underappreciated? We find just that kind of story in the Gospel of Luke. Martha there is busy making preparations, but her sister Mary chooses not to help because she's chosen to spend time with Jesus.
Pastor Paul takes an honest look at this story in his booklet When Humans Attack, showing us how unmet 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. That's 855-339-5500.
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. You got to understand that your body and your mind can only take so much. Got nothing to do with how much of God's power you have. It has to do with whether you are learning from Jesus how to unload stuff that you weren't built to carry in the first place.
Be listening next time in our continuing message, Neglected Areas of Discipleship. But until then, remember: he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
