The Bible says, "Worship God, love people, use things." But some of us practice idolatry, and we end up worshiping things. We end up using people.
Sometimes we end up even using God. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The question is, where is your treasure? Hello and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Maybe it's your job, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your favorite sports team, but whatever it is that captures your interest, make sure it doesn't capture your heart.
Because if your hobby becomes a god, God may become a hobby. Before we kick off today's message, let me remind you to come see us at PastorPaul.net, where you can listen on demand to any of our recent messages, and also get details about how to listen on your favorite digital platform.
Now, let's get started with today's "Destined for Victory" message: "Taking Down Our Idols." She looked at the fruit, and it was pleasing. I mean, that fruit looked good. People call it an apple. The Bible didn't say it was apple; said fruit. We don't know what kind it was, but whatever was, it looked good.
And let me tell you something: sin can look good at certain times in your life. I know you are holy and all that, but come on, don't be so holy that you can't acknowledge truth. There are times when you can get in a season, in a frame of mind, in a certain crunch in life, and if you start beholding what God said to leave alone, sometimes it'll look awfully good. And so there she is.
Now she's bought the lie. She looks at the fruit; it looks pleasing. And the Bible says she ate and gave to her husband who was with her. One of the saddest verses in the Bible. With her.
Oh, pitiful, pathetic. Powerless, puny, spiritually impotent man standing there. Let his wife have a conversation with the devil. Shoulda stepped up. Shoulda stepped right in front of her and said, "I got this, baby." Stepped right up there.
I got this. Step right in front of her. You stand back there with your cute self. I got this. He should have stepped up, told the devil, "Yo, man, you got something to say to this family?
I'm your boy. What's up?" That's the time for your macho to kick in. You want to be the head, be the head spiritually and lead in the things of God and make sure the will of God is being done. God has called us, brothers. It's time for us to step up.
Time for us to step up and be the men God's called us to be. He should have stepped in there and let the devil know what was up. Instead, he's standing there, watching her have this whole conversation, just listening them back and forth. He's standing there, and then she takes, she sees it's good, she takes from the tree. He says nothing.
She eats, and then she said, "Oh, honey, this is good. Try some of this." Okay. What up with that? Our practices must be consistent with the word and the will of God. Number two, our passions, our passions must be brought into conformity to the word and will of God.
Now, with our practices, we tend to ask the wrong questions of what do I think about it? What do others think about it? When our passions are in play, we tend to ask the question, "How do I feel about it?" See with passions, you're dealing with the realm of the soul, the emotions, the psyche, the realm of feelings. And if you don't bring your passions, your feelings into conformity to the will of God, they will run you crazy. I came to tell somebody that our feelings, God made us soulish beings.
Your psyche, your emotions, can play a wonderful role in your life, can give your life range and perspective. But you cannot be dictated to by your passions. You must bring them into conformity to the will of God. Because all of us have learned by now, hopefully, that if you let them, they will drive you right outside of God's will. The world says silly things like, "If it feels good, do it." Are you kidding me?
Do you know how much trouble you can get into doing everything you feel like doing? Your feelings can't dictate your actions. Your feelings will run you into a world of trouble. If it feels good, do. Do you know there are days when your passions are running in the angry area and the mad anger, and you are sick of people and all that?
And just try doing what you feel on those days. There days, if you do what you feel like doing, you will end up not just in jail; you end up in solitary confinement. You can't be governed by your passions, your emotions, your feelings. You can't choose the people in your life by how you feel. Feelings are a nice feature of your life, but they're a horrible foundation.
They're not to be the foundation upon which we build our lives and the way we deal with other people, and we love romanticizing all the wrong things. I just felt I don't know it just happened. I just I just fell in love. I just. Oh, you didn't fall into something as profound as love.
Love is too profound for you to fall into it. That was lust. That was infatuation. That was something else. It wasn't love.
But we romanticize it. I looked across a crowded room, and although there were dozens of people in the room, when my eyes lit upon you, it was as though we were the only individuals. Everything else faded to gray, and I just saw you. And as my eyes gazed upon you, I knew that somehow I was beholding the person who. Would one day spend the rest of my life with me?
No, you didn't know that. You saw somebody; they look kind of good. You don't even know who that is. Don't know that name. Don't know whether they pay that bill.
Don't know whether they were raised like they had some sense. Don't know anything about. But you fell in love from across the room. Your passions. Cannot lead; they must follow.
Here's what the Bible says: You want to be in the will of God, and you want to destroy the idol of your personal passions. You can't ask the question, "How do I feel about it?" Because your feelings will take you in the wrong direction. You have songs that say, "You know, how can this be wrong when it feels so right?" Here's the answer: easy. It's easy for it to be wrong when it feels right, because the Bible says there is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. How can it be wrong if it feels right?
Easy. God said it's wrong is wrong. That it feels right, you have to take your feelings and bring them into conformity to the will of God. You'll say, "Yeah, that's how you feel," but here's what God said about it.
So we're going God's way, and you've got to bring them into conformity, or else they will drive you right outside of the will of God. And you can get so quickly out of God's will based on your feelings. You never know what hits you. Your felt needs.
Well, see, I just have some felt needs in my life, and and this will take care of it. No, God shall supply all of our needs once we are living in faith and obedience.
So we have to bring, we have to bring our feelings into conformity to the will of God. And really, when you think about it, you're used to living that way. You just don't realize it. You're used to not letting your passions control you, but you dictate where they are to go. In fact, you dictate what they are.
That's why the Bible says in Colossians chapter three: Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. The Bible says, "You decide that heavenly things are more important than earthly things. That God's will is more important than anything else in your life. That you set that, and He called it affections. He said, 'You make that the object of your affection.
Doing the will of God, loving God, pleasing God becomes the affection of my life. I love to love God. I love to do God's will. That's what Paul called us to do in the Word of God.'" Set your affection on things above, and when you think about it, you're used to setting your affections on things. Why do you like the sports teams you like?
Cause one day you decided that's my team. It's no more spooky than that. Love for that team didn't just pounce upon you. I couldn't help myself. I just loved them.
I just had to run out and buy season tickets. I just love them. I do. I don't know what happened. No, you decided one day that's my team.
It could be based on the hometown, or this is my alma mater, or or whatever it is. I like to color their uniform, whatever it is. One day you said, "That's my team." You set your affection, and then your passion followed. You know my philosophy. I don't do a single team.
I have a portfolio of teams. I diversify my portfolio because I want to have somebody to root for throughout the season.
So that's the way I roll.
Some people say, Pastor, you are so disloyal to your teams. No, I ride with them as far as they will take me. I grew up in Philly, so I'm always with the Eagles. At the start of any NFL season, that starts out one of the teams in my portfolio by virtue of having rooted for them throughout the years of living in Philly.
So I start out with them. I came to California in '89. About eight years later, the first 49er joined our church. I think it was '97 when the first 49er joined our church. Since then, a few have joined along the way, and what have you.
And so I added the 49ers in the '90s to my portfolio. And so I go with them. They're always in there, and I go with them as far as they will take me.
Sometimes the Forty Niners in the church come to me and say, "Pastor, you need to be more loyal to us." I said, "I'm with you, dog. I'm with you. I'm with y'all. I'm rooting every weekend. I'm praying.
God help 'em, bless 'em, anoint 'em." See, I ride with y'all as far as you will take me. But there are some seasons y'all don't take me too far. It's not my fault. I'm doing my job. I'm praying for y'all.
I'm supporting you. I don't fool with the team on the other side of the bay. Just so you understand, my portfolio—they are not in my portfolio. I have a few other teams in there. They are not in there.
But it's not my fault. None of them have joined the church. Not realizing this church, we have some folks who roll with them. They show up in church with their silver and black. They show up in here and they ride with them through thick and thin.
I mean, those folks stick with them. They they got that ride or die philosophy. They die more than they ride, but they still go on. Y'all, if you love them so much, tell them about the church.
Soon as they show up, a couple of them get saved. Come, bring them down. Meet me. This is Pastor Paul. Introduce you.
Once I know he's silver and black, I'll pray about putting them in my portfolio. But right now, I don't have anything to pray about. They just on their own. But I have different ones in my portfolio because I want somebody to root for all the way up to the end. We set our affections on the things we decide.
So the Bible says, "Set your passions, your affections, on things above, not on things of the earth." Our priorities, our priorities, must be consistent with God's word and His will. The Bible gives us our priorities. The Bible says, "Worship God." Love people, use things, but some of us practice idolatry, and we end up worshiping things. We end up using people.
Sometimes we end up even using God, trying to get Him to go along with a life that is misprioritized. I want to suggest to you that that's idol worship. I want to suggest to you that we've got to stick with the biblical order. God alone deserves our worship. He is the one to whom we give deference in all things.
Then we are to love people. You can't hate people. You don't have the option to hate people and be in the will of God. It's amazing how many Christians want the right to hate anybody they feel like hating, want the right to mistreat people, and somehow stay right with God. The Bible is too clear.
We are to do good to those who are not doing good to us. Why? Because they don't dictate or determine what's going to happen in our lives. Your haters are just your elevators, so you don't have to get out, bent all out of shape. Because all they can do is bring forth the will of God in your life.
If God be for us, who can be against us? And so you can't mistreat people because God says no. You can't misalign your relationship with things, with money, or the things money can buy, and be in the will of God. God says no. The Bible says, "What is it, profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?" You have to prioritize spiritual things above the money and things money can buy.
You're going to be in the will of God. The Bible says, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses." So the Bible says, "You cannot make a living without making a life." And a whole lot of people spend all of their time worshiping at the shrine of more. I need more money. I need bigger promotion. I need a better career path.
I need more. I'm climbing the ladder of success, and they haven't even stopped to realize that's not a ladder that God created. That's a ladder created by greed and selfish desire. Oh, God will bless you. God will bless you even financially and materially.
He's proven it down through the generations. He will bless you. God can bless the work of your hands and the work of your mind in tremendous ways. But first, He insists that we know that things are only to be used and not worshipped.
So the Bible calls us: you got to get your life in order. You can't think stuff is more important than it is. You never saw a U-Haul follow a hearse. You are going to check out of here one day, and you can't take any of that stuff with you. And so, the Bible calls us to get our priorities in order.
Worship Him, love people. It's about people. I know folk who have spent all their life, everybody in the house, trying to make a living and make a lot of money, and then they can't stand each other. Don't even have a godly relationship. And in a home that is very well appointed, because you got a lot of money and you spend it appointing a house.
But how many know, in the words of that great theologian Luther, a house is not a home. And I've seen people spend all their time earning enough money where they can buy a fabulous house, but in the house nobody can stand each other. In fact, I've seen them spend half their time accumulating the stuff so they can buy the house, and then once they fall out with each other, they spend the rest of their time fighting over the stuff in the house. Why? Because our lives are out of order.
We have misprioritized. Our priorities have become an idol. Because they militate against the will of God, and so we've got to get them in biblical order. And finally, our partnerships—partnerships must be consistent with the word and will of God. Here's a question to ask about every relationship in your life: Is this relationship in its current form pleasing to God?
Is this relationship in its current form pleasing to God? What you will do as you examine all of your relationships is you will find some of them are definitely not pleasing to God. His word is spoken too clearly by precept and principle against them, which means it either has to change drastically or it has to be discarded altogether.
Some of us have people in our lives. There's no other way to say it. They got to go.
Now let me be real clear. I'm not talking about your spouse. Got to be real clear, because I've learned over the years, folk can do some funny things with my quotes. I don't need anybody running up out of here telling me, "Ooh, that was my word." That was my word. Go running up in the house to somebody who didn't come to church.
I got a word today. The Lord spoke through Pastor Paul and said, "You got to go." Telling you right now, don't bust up in your house talking about I said. Has somebody come down here looking for me?
Now talking about your spouse. But some of us know there are some relationships that are so outside of God's will. People who have an ungodly influence and take us away from the will of God. And there's no need of deceiving yourself into saying I can get this straight. In some cases, you gotta go.
Jesus said in one occasion, if your right hand offends you, cut it off. You gotta make some drastic decisions to be in the will of God sometimes, and you gotta say no. To those things that will drag you out of the will of God, and the Bible is clear: bad company corrupts good character. You can't run with the wrong folk and get the right results in your life. I can look at your crowd and determine what's going on in your life because your crowd determines your course.
And so, some of us have some people; they just got to go. That's just the bottom line. In the words of that great theologian, Kenny Rogers. You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and in some cases, some of us got to run and get away from those things, those people, those influences that have become idols, taking us away from the will of God. Anything in our lives that God frowns on.
Has got to go. Why? Because you cannot make war with Midian until you make peace with God. You cannot be successful and victorious in your walk with God until every idol has been taken down, every practice, every passion, every partnership, every priority. Is lined up with the will of God.
God says, "I'm going to give you victory, but I will not compete with false gods. I will not compete with idols. You must identify them." Notice, Gideon was called to tear down an altar he didn't even build. It was his father's altar. But you got to get to the place where you say, if my father goes wrong, my mother does wrong.
If my husband or spouse or wife is not in the will of God, if my children go astray from what they've been taught, Lord, I'm going to do Your will.
Now a lot of people pick on Gideon because he tore it down at night. He didn't have the courage to do it in the daytime. He figured, I didn't build this altar. What would they do to me if they see me in the daytime?
So he waited for night. Don't pick on him. At least he tore it down. Gideon said, "God didn't tell me what time to tear it down. He just told me to do it.
I picked the time. I decided to do it on the graveyard shift." But he tore it down. You and I are called to identify our idols and take them down. It's the only way the will of God will be done in our lives. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message, taking down our idols.
It's always a pleasure to study the Word of God with you. Before we leave you today, I want to share a conversation I once had with Pastor Paul Shepard, one that will really help you understand what our mission 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, 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 fill 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, that's Called Before Qualified, our thank you gift this month for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory Media Ministry. Give by phone by calling eight five five three three nine five five zero zero.
That's 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. When you see the word of God describe those of us who are the people of the Lord, it's talking about you, and you will notice there are some things the Bible calls you that you might not yet be acting like, and all that means is you have a journey to take. That's tomorrow in our message.
Taking away our excuses, but until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
