What does the Bible say about how to deal with our enemies? Find out on today's edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. But before we get to today's message, I'd like you to hear a conversation I once had with Pastor Paul, one that will really help you understand what our mission here at Destined for Victory is all about and what always will be.
Well, you know, when I think of victorious, my mind goes back. I'm a kid growing up watching TV in the '60s, so my mind goes back to the wide world of sports. Oh yeah, yeah. There was an announcer named James McKay, Jim McKay, something like that. He had this.
Classic line where he talked about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, and I love just thinking about how thrilling it is to be victorious. I I love in any game I'm playing. I want to be victorious. I tell people I don't care whether it's Monopoly or something really serious. I want to win, and in life we can win in Christ, and that's what the Bible tells us that we are victorious.
In Him and victorious means that we're following His lead, that we're letting the Holy Spirit take us where He wants us to go in life. We're saved by His grace, and then we're simply following His direction. And of course, the Word of God is so key to following God's direction because the Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And so, those who tune into broadcasts like Destined for Victory are really. Supposed to be receiving guidance so that we can walk in and live in victory, and that's what I pray is happening as people tune in day by day.
We say it every day: In Christ, you are destined for victory. And if you share our passion for seeing people grow closer to Jesus, our prayers that you might join us in that mission by supporting our ministry. When you give today, we've got a great resource to share with you—one that will help you better understand your calling in Christ and how you've been uniquely positioned to fulfill it. Introducing our latest booklet called "Before Qualified." If you've ever felt called to do something you didn't feel ready for. Contact us right away and request your copy.
This outstanding resource, called Before Qualified, gives you an up close and personal look at Gideon, a man called by God to be a mighty warrior long before he was brave enough to go into battle.
So, if you've been stalling on your calling until you feel capable, this booklet will remind you: God may not always call the qualified, but He absolutely qualifies the called. Again, it's called "Called Before Qualified." Our thank you gift this month for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory Media Ministry. You can give by phone by calling eight five five three three nine five five zero zero eight five five three three nine fifty five hundred, or visit PastorPaul dot net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box seventeen sixty seven. Fremont, California, nine four five three eight.
That's what you need to do with your enemies. Don't let them stop you from doing what God's doing in your life. Don't let them discourage you with their words or their hateful actions, because God is up to something good in your life. The people of God have always had to deal with detractors. Nehemiah, Elijah, the Apostle Paul, but instead of focusing on their enemies, they overcame them by leaning on God's provision and His promise.
On today's "Destined for Victory" with Pastor Paul Shepherd, you'll be reminded that no matter how many detractors come your way, you don't have to be discouraged. Because when there seems no way out, God always makes a way through.
Now, to today's message, I've got a new attitude. That's what you want. The Lord raised up the cops to be a blessing. They're supposed to be a blessing. Not all of them understand that.
You got to pray for some of them, but they're supposed to be a blessing to you. And so, it's reasonable if you need a mean dog for your context that you need a mean dog, get one. For years, I grew up with dogs, and we don't have one currently. But I've always loved it when my family of origin had dogs, and then my wife and children. We've had a couple of dogs since we've been together, and you know it's wonderful.
But most of the dogs I've had were those friendly kind of just member of the family dogs, and those are cool. But we made sure we were secure in other ways. But if you need a dog that's not saved, get one. (Laughter.) You know, because the last time I got a dog, that's what I wanted. I love the fact that my wife and I have known the Lord for many years, and that our children came to know the Lord at an early age, and all of us are walking with the Lord.
That's been a wonderful blessing to have a full household of faith. But when I got my last dog, I wanted him to be the one heathen in the house. I wanted him to be truly not saved at all. Just ready to bite at a moment's notice, and our last dog was a black lab. We called him Jet for Jet Black, and he was Jet.
Man, that dog was wonderful, but he was too nice. And I told Meredith, I said, "I don't like how friendly he is." She said, "Well, don't you want to be friendly with the kids?" And I said, "Oh, sure, want to be friendly with us, but anybody who's not a shepherd." I want a dog that look at me say, "You want me get him? " Cause I will jack him up. Just give me the word. That's what I wanted.
Jet man, Jet was so saved it was pitiful. He was saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Spirit. I mean, man, Jet, when you come over the house, he would beat everybody to the door, open the door. Jet just wagging. Praise God.
How you doing? Bless the Lord. How you doing? Come on in, man. Good to see you here.
Sit right over here. Why don't you pet me a while while we just fellowship? I'm thought, no, uh-uh. I want a heathen dog. But listen, Paul said, be on your guard.
Be reasonably prudent when people don't like you. Believe them. If people on your job are arrayed against you, plotting against you, you've got to understand. Say, Lord, give me wisdom as to how to counteract what they're trying to do. And you've got to be prudent.
He said, Timothy, be on your guard. Because there are real detractors when you are doing the will of God. I love the Book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. One of the things I love about it is that, of course, God raised up Nehemiah and gave him the calling to lead God's people in the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. And I love the fact that Nehemiah learned how to not just build, but he learned how to be prepared to fight.
And so, when you read the book of Nehemiah, he raised up; he was wise in building the people and giving them a mind to build, and they co-owned the vision of rebuilding the torn-down wall and all of that. They began to do the work, but when you get into Nehemiah chapter four, you see that at first some people ridiculed what they were doing. Two men in particular, a man named Sambalat and another named Tobiah. And at first they just ridicule.
Sometimes people just start by ridiculing you and trying to make you feel bad. And so they were ridiculed at first in the early part of Nehemiah chapter four. You just see him talking about, "Oh, y'all think you're building a wall? That's nothing. If a fox climbs up on that, he'll knock that down." Listen, you got to learn to let people run their mouths while you run God's business.
You got to let people talk. Their talking isn't going to change what God's doing in your life, and so let them run their mouths. But what they found out, Nehemiah did, was that after they ran their mouths, after they saw that the wall was going up and it was halfway completed, then they turned from ridicule to anger, and they became so angry that then they began to plot against this rebuilding project. And I love when Nehemiah got word. He had people who came back and told him these folks are plotting against you.
At one point, they came to him. Nehemiah is up on the wall, building, doing the work, and they're down there saying, "Come on, well, we want to take you to a meeting." They were plotting to kill him. Come on down. We want to take you to a meeting. And at one point, Nehemiah says to them, "I am doing a good work, and I'm not coming down." And I like that he didn't come down to tell him he's not coming down.
I like that he stayed up. That's what I want somebody to do: stay where you are. Don't let people bring you down. Don't get in the mud slinging with people. Don't start calling people out of their names.
Don't start getting sinfully angry. Stay where you are, doing God's will, and you'll see that God is up to something wonderful in your life.
So he stayed up on the wall and he called down. He said, "I'm not coming down. I'm doing a good work." They said, "You mean to tell me that you won't come? We have a meeting. We need you to attend the meeting." No, I'm not coming.
But it's really important that you come on down. Read my lips. Not coming down. The answer is no. Which part of no are you having a problem with?
Is it the in or the o that's bothering you? That's what you need to do with your enemies. Don't let them stop you from doing what God's doing in your life. Don't let them discourage you with their words or their hateful actions, because God is up to something good in your life. And I love it that in Nehemiah four, not only did he say we're not coming down, but when he knew that they were plotting against the project, he had half of the people working, while the other group of folks were armed and looking out for the enemy.
That's what you need to do in your life. Keep the work of God doing. Keep on growing. Keep on serving God. Keep on meeting with His people.
Keep on your focus on the things God has you focused on. But make sure that you are also watching and looking out for the enemy. The Bible says we've got to walk circumspectly. Is the King James word. It means as you walk with the Lord, you want to be aware of your surroundings.
Don't be ignorant of the enemy trying to slip up on you. Ask the Lord to give you discernment and sensitivity, so that you see what the enemy is trying to do, and you can counter. What he is doing, and God wants to give you victory in this area of dealing with detractors. And then Paul wrapped up what he was saying here in Second Timothy after he talked about his deserter and his disappointers and his detractor. Then he got his focus back.
He said, "You know what? The real key to my victory is that no matter who was or was not with me, no matter who tried to do something to harm me, he says the Lord has." Stood by my side. I love the fact that Paul left this world with a clear testimony of vision. He said, "I fought a good fight, I finished the course, I've kept the faith." And toward the end of Second Timothy four, he says, "The Lord stood by my side." I want to let somebody know that when it's all said and done, you're going to have victory because the Lord said, "I am with you. I will never leave you.
I will never forsake you." I began the good work in you, and I'm going to bring it to completion. The Lord stood by my side.
Some of you have got to learn to focus on the positive side of what's happening in your life.
Some of us are great at focusing on our trouble, but I want you to focus on God's provision for your trouble. I want somebody to make up in your mind you're going to be like Elisha was in the Old Testament. There's a point in Second Kings where Elisha was being used of God to warn the people of God. Against the attacks of their enemies, and every time the king of Aram would plot against the people of God, the Lord would give Elisha a word, and he would send word, "Don't go down that particular road because they're plotting against you." And the king of Aram just got upset. He called his advisors in one day, and he said, "Every time I set a trap for these people, it gets thwarted.
There must be a spy among us." Who is the spy? As if there was one, he was going to speak up. But one person said, "No, King. The problem isn't a spy. The problem is a prophet.
Those folks have a prophet over there, and that prophet is telling their king the words you speak in your bedroom. You know what? God has your number, and He has your enemy's number." Your enemies are not catching God by surprise. The Lord was giving Elisha a word, and he was protecting his people.
So the king of Aram got bold. He said, "Well, okay, if I want to defeat them, then I need to take out this prophet." So one day he sends his army against the prophet, Elisha. They show up. They surround the area where he is. And when you read that story, it's downright comical.
When Gehazi, who was Elisha's servant, wakes up that morning and looks out, I always imagine him opening the blinds and the curtains to let some sun in the house, and then he looks out, and he sees this army arrayed against them, waiting for the word to move in, and Gehazi panicked. Like some of you are doing right now in your life, when you see the enemy arrayed against you in some area of your life, he panicked, and he said, "Elisha, oh my master, get up, we are in trouble." And Elisha got up, and I love what happened. He got up and looked at the same scenario that Gehazi saw, but Gehazi standing there sweating. And Elisha is standing there smiling, and I can imagine Gehazi saying, "Now, Master, I'm not a humorless man. I enjoy a good joke, just like the rest of y'all.
But I don't see what's funny when you're about to be killed." And Elisha said, "Lord, open his eyes." Problem is, he doesn't see enough. He sees one set of things, but there's another set of things he's blind to. I want to let you know there's something you're seeing, but there's something else you're blind to. You see your enemies. You can describe your enemies.
You can describe what they look like. You can describe what they said. You printed out their emails. I come to let you know when you serve the Lord, God has a provision. For everything that comes against you, and so Elisha said, "Lord, open his eyes." And when the Lord opened Gehazi's eyes, he continued to see the enemy that was arrayed against him, the army of Aram.
But then he also saw that behind them was a host from heaven. God had sent a bunch of bad angels. God had sent a bunch of hoodlum angels. You know, they're not really hoodlums, but they're bad. God has sent some angels that came.
Now, is there a problem down here? And they were behind the army of Aram. In other words, the army of Aram think we're going to move in and attack, but behind them are some folk who said, "Y'all think you're going to attack." But we have another plan. I want to let you know that you got to stop looking at your situation through the eyes of the temporal and begin to see it through the eyes of the eternal. Paul said in Second Corinthians four that you have got to understand that these light.
Afflictions that you're dealing with are not to be compared to the glory that God has ordained for your life, and you're looking at what you're going through, but you're not looking at the fact that God has some glory behind what you're going through. Go head on through what you're going through, because it's going to get God some glory, and it's going to show you the power of your God. Your afflictions are light and momentary.
Now the problem is they don't feel light and momentary to us. It feels heavy to you when your enemies are taking you through. It feels awfully heavy. But God says, "No, that's just light." You say, "Well, light? What scale are you talking about?" When you call this light, God says, "Because this is a counterbalance situation, you're going through what you're going through, but I'm about to put the glory on the other side." It looks heavy when you just look at the affliction, but when I put the glory on the other side, the glory is not to be compared with what you're going through.
And I'm here to tell you, God has a plan for your life. That's why Paul was able to testify throughout his ministry. He was able to say, "Yes, we are persecuted, but we're not abandoned." Sometimes persecution comes against you. Your enemies are arrayed against you, but God says, "I'm with you." And if I'm with you, it's not going to be a fair fight. Because you know, when you have God on your side, I mean, that's not a fair fight.
And I'd be like, you know, having a little pickup game out on the playground somewhere, and you know, just your little friends, you know, we'll play some basketball, and then you try to pick the best folk you know, and then a couple of pro ball players show up, and just say they're on the other team. I had that happen, so I know. My best friend in my youth was a guy who had just signed an NBA contract, and we used to go to playgrounds sometime, and you know, we'd go places where folk didn't know him. And so you know, I get to be one of the captains, and so I pick him, and they didn't know what I had just done. And they're picking these other folk, and they think, "Oh, you know, he's the baddest boy on the playground," until Timmy got the ball.
I used to play with him. I used to train. I used to help him prepare, especially when he was getting ready to go to camp for the Atlanta Hawks that eventually signed him. And he would come pick me up at the house and let's go to the gym. I got the keys to this gym, and we're gonna play a while.
And so we go in this gym, you know, and we the only ones in this gym. And he said, "All right, I need you to help me train.
So we're gonna play one on one, full court." I said, "Excuse me." Full court. I'm shooting down there. You're shooting down there. And so I would try to, you know, hang at half court and just wait for him to come up. And he said, No, no, no, no, no.
I need you to guard me in the end. And so I go, Man, you're out of your mind. You know you're gonna buy me some food when we get through with all this, don't you?
So I'm guarding him, you know, doing my best little techniques I learned on little, you know, teams I picked up and all that. And he would say, "Now, when you shoot, if you make it any kind of way, rolling around the the thing or praying or whatever, if it goes in, you get the point." He said, "When I shoot, if it touches the rim, it doesn't count." I said, "Okay, cool with me," because he was training himself at another level. And he would shoot, and even if it brushed the rim on its way, and he said that doesn't count. He wanted to learn to just put it up at the right angle, where all you heard was swish. And I heard that a lot.
More than I wanted to hear. I mean, would be right up in his face, guarding, hands up. Oh God, help me. And he just art and let the ball go, and I turn around, swish.
Somebody like that's on your team—that's not fair. You know, you just playing, you know, Jimmy and them.
So when the game would get, you know, sometimes he would let it get tight just to get interesting and let them feel like they maybe are going to pull this off. And then after a while, we'd run one play, get a ball to Timmy and get out the way. Get in the ball, and I'd go over. I'd just be standing over there whistling and watch him embarrass people. I want to let you know, God has set you up.
Your enemies think they're going to have their way in your life, but God says, "Not so." That's why you can rejoice in the Lord always. When Paul wrote Philippians four, he said you got to learn to rejoice in the Lord always. He said, "I will say it again, rejoice." Then he said, "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." You know what that means? It means don't let them see you sweat.
I am rejoicing in God. I am not even gonna give my enemies the benefit of letting them see me sweat. I want them to know I can rejoice in the Lord because God has my back, and I want somebody to determine from today on I'm going to make the choice to rejoice in the God who has begun a good work in me and who promised He will bring it to completion. And I want to let you know, God is up to something good in your life, transforming and renewing your mind. And you need to learn to practice rejoicing and thanksgiving every day of your life.
And then he went on in Philippians chapter four, and he said, "You got to learn to think about the right things." He said, "Whatever is pure, whatever is right, whatever is of good standing, that's what you need to focus your attention on. Quit putting garbage into your mind, because whatever you put in, that's what you're going to react to.
So you have to start thinking on the right things and thinking about the solutions that God has given you in His Word and the promises you can hold on to. And I want to let you know that God says, 'I'm going to make you such a new.'" Kind of person that you will not even recognize yourself before long, because God is transforming us by the renewing of our minds. That is God's promise to you today. He will transform you moment by moment from now until the day of Christ Jesus, and conform you to the image of Christ, in whom you are destined for victory. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's "Destined for Victory" with Pastor Paul Shepard.
This message, I've got a new attitude. To learn more about our media ministry, or for more information about the special gift reserved for you when you make a donation today, please come see us at PastorPaul dot net. I want to talk to you in this message about the importance and the necessity of identifying and destroying the idols in our lives—the things that actually prevent us from honoring God and giving place and deference to God, and loving Him and worshiping Him and serving Him as we are called to do. He was a wimp who became a warrior, and his story comes your way next time. In our message, taking down our idols.
Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
