The word of God says that when we wait upon the Lord, we will renew our strength. But that word "wait," well, it might not mean what you think it does. We'll dive into that subject and more next on today's "Destined for Victory" with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Today's program, by the way, is only made possible through friends like you, and we want to thank each and every one of you who have given to support this ministry. We're especially grateful for our legacy builders, those partners who have taken the step to support us on a monthly basis.
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Now, if you can't become Monthly partner, but would like to send a generous gift today. We'll send you this month's thank you gift—a great new resource from Pastor Paul called "Before Qualified." That's called "Before Qualified," an in-depth look at the life of Gideon. In our gift to you, by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. They that wait upon the Lord are those who have finally come to figure out: I can't make it without Him. That that's not just some little cute-sounding statement.
That is the reality of my life. That I need Him desperately. That I need Him every day. That I need Him every moment of every day. When Isaiah encourages us to wait on the Lord, we may think he's talking about time, as if God is asking us to wait for Him to act before we move forward in faith.
But that word "wait" in the original Hebrew text has nothing to do with time; it's relational, not chronological. Today's "Destined for Victory" message with Pastor Paul Shepherd is called "Taking Away Our Excuses," and it starts right now. They that wait upon the Lord are those who have finally come to figure out, I can't make it without Him. That that's not just some little cute-sounding Christian-sounding statement. That is the reality of my life.
That I need Him desperately. That I need Him every day. That I need Him every moment of every day. That I cannot get through a single day, and I certainly can't change my life unless I take my weakness and I give it to the God of strength. Until I take my incapabilities and give them to a God who can do exceeding abundantly above all that I can ask or imagine.
It is when I recognize my weakness that I can bind myself to God so inextricably until you hardly can tell me apart from Him because I'm holding on to Him. I'm interwoven with Him. I need Him every day. What's going to happen? Good in my life, God Himself is going to have to do it.
And I've come to tell you that that is exactly the place God was bringing Gideon to, and that is the place He wants to take you and I to. He wants to take us to a place where we recognize exactly what we cannot do. We recognize our weakness and our inability, so that we can then tap into God and His strength. If you want to see a New Testament illustration of it, a Gospel illustration of it, suggest you go to John chapter six. Don't turn that now, but note the passage and read it when you get a chance.
In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, the first thirteen verses tell you the story of Jesus deciding that there was a great multitude that he wanted to feed, and the Bible says that he decided he was always using life as a series of object lessons for. His disciples, and so he uses this occasion as a training occasion, and he leans over to one of the disciples and says to him, "What would it take for us to feed all these people?" And the text even gives us a commentary, and it says Jesus asked this question to test him because he already knew what he was going to do. Do you know that God already knows what He's up to in your life? That He's not making this up. He's not writing the story as He goes.
He already knows what He's going to do in your life. And so, when God asks you a question, it's not because He needs you to give Him the answer.
So when Jesus said, "What do you think? What would it take for us to feed all these people?" So the disciple whom He asked said, "Well, you know, I mean, pulled out his calculator." So you know, even eight months' worth of salary, eight months' worth of wages, wouldn't feed all of these people. Implication seems to be, the disciple is saying, "Well, you know, this is so many people that project would be so much, too much for us to handle, even if we had eight months' worth of salary to go buy food with." So Jesus has said, "Go get some food. Let's feed these people." And what has come back is, "We can't do it. We don't have enough money." Look at what God is setting up here.
He's got people, disciples, who are not much. He's giving them a task that is too great, and he says, "Well, what do you have?" And what they come back with is not enough. They say, "Well, we found a little boy, and he's willing to offer his fish sandwiches." Now I know you looked in John six and you said, "I don't see fish sandwiches in there." Look again. You will see that the boy had barley loaves. And fish, where I grew up, and where y'all grew up, don't even try it.
That makes for fish sandwiches. They haven't been put together yet, but that's just a formality, because y'all know we made it on many a sandwich, and your sandwich was made up of whatever it was you had at the time.
Some of us had fish sandwiches.
Some of us had wish sandwiches. I wish I had something in here other than what's in here, but I'm going to make this work. And they said we found a boy, and he's willing to give up his fish sandwiches, his bread, and his fish.
So the disciples, not much, are given a task too great. And what they have to work with is not enough. What do you do when you're not much, and God's calling is too great, and what you have to work with is not enough? You do what the disciples learned to do: give it to Jesus. They said.
Here it is. You said you want to feed them. You told us to get what we could get. This is it. Pitiful, but this is it.
Not enough, but this is it.
Nowhere near what we need, but this is it. And the lesson. They learned that day, and the lesson Gideon is in the process of learning, and the lesson God wants you and me to learn is that it doesn't matter that you're not much. In fact, God called you because you're not much, and it doesn't matter that the task is too great, and it doesn't matter that what you have to work with is not enough. It is for all of those reasons that God has you where He has you.
God has positioned you. God has put you in that corner. God has put you in a place where you can't be ingenious, where your ingenuity will not work here, where your know-how doesn't apply to this situation. God Himself paints us into corners where we cannot do it. And if you look at your life right now, you'll find some areas of your life where you are not much, and the task is too great, and what you have is not enough.
And I came to tell you that's because God sets you up, and He sets you up so that you would learn. Lord, I want to make a presentation of my life and what little I have to offer to you, and I just want to be available. God's not looking for your ability in this time in your life. He's looking for your availability. He's not interested in how great you are.
He already knows how great you're not. You got to understand that. You don't surprise God, which is why when you get in touch with your weakness, you're the last one in the relationship who's in touch with it. God was already in touch with your weakness. In fact, He knew more about you before He called you than you've learned since He called you.
And God puts us in a place where, where not much, and the task is too great, and what we have to work with is not enough, so that when He comes through, He gets all of the glory.
Well, if you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory, where we feature the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepherd. And stay with us; the second half of today's message is coming right up. One of the things we love to do for friends and listeners like you is to pray for you when you're in need.
So, if you have a prayer request, please visit PastorPaul.net and click Contact in the main menu of our homepage to share it with us. Our ministry team is always happy to lift you up in prayer. And of course, when you stop by our website, remember that's where you can listen to the broadcast on demand at your convenience. PastorPaul.net. Have you ever felt like you didn't have enough of something to accomplish God's will—enough strength, enough talent, enough resources?
Well, believe it or not, that's exactly where God wants you. Let's get you back to the rest of today's message, taking away our excuses. And so, what did Jesus do with those disciples when they brought to him not enough? He took not enough and worked a miracle with it. He blessed it, and then he began breaking.
He took some bread and he started breaking bread. And as he was breaking bread, God was supernaturally making bread. And then he would distribute what he made, and then he takes something that was left in there, and he started breaking that. And as he was breaking that, God was making more. And then he took it and distributed it.
And he kept breaking bread, and he kept making bread, and he kept distributing bread. He took the fish, and he was breaking fish, and he was making fish, and he was distributing fish. And you say that doesn't make sense. I don't see how that's possible.
Well, listen, this is not the time in your life when you need to start trying to figure a supernatural. Your God out. You will blow your circuits trying to figure out who God is. He is able. The Bible says to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine.
Do you know what that means? That means He is three levels above your highest capabilities of your imagination, exceeding abundantly above. My friend John Jenkins says it means that God says I can do beyond beyond. I can not only do beyond what you think. I can do beyond what's beyond what you think.
God is able to do more. Than you can possibly fathom, and so you've got to learn that when I am the weakest, that's when I really am the strongest. If I learn to take my weakness and give it to a supernatural God.
So the disciples found themselves here. They are not much task too great. What we started with is not enough, but we gave it to a God who works miracles, and now we find ourselves feeding thousands of people, and they fed them so much until there were leftovers. Everybody's full. Plates, baskets come back around.
Oh, I can't dig anymore. But. And they took up baskets full of leftovers. Started with not enough. Ended up with too much.
How does that happen? God enters the equation. And when God enters the equation of your life, of your relationships, of your finances, of your life's priorities, of your gifts and callings, your vocation—when God enters into your sins and your hangups and what you need to be delivered from—don't tell God what you have is not enough. He knows you're not enough. You're not much, and what you have is not enough.
And all He's waiting for you is for you to realize it, and then bring it. To him, and when you give it to God, you'll discover that God can take not enough and make too much out of it. And He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, Paul." And He showed that illustration years earlier to His disciples, and centuries before, He's teaching that lesson to Gideon. You said you're weak, and you come from a long line of weak folk, and I'm telling you that's exactly why I've called you. Because I know that when I work in your life, you will not rob me of my glory.
You will learn to be so hopelessly dependent upon me until you will always give me the praise for everything I do in your life. And then I love what happens after that. Let me just mention it, and I'll be done. After that, Gideon says, "Well, yeah, but I want to be sure. I love this guy.
There were times in my life when I was a little bit cynical about him. I'd read something like that, said, 'Man, he is so pitiful.'" But I've lived long enough to get in touch with my Gideon stuff. Have any of y'all lived long enough to find out how much like Gideon you really are? Here, he has had a full-blown conversation with an angel, and he says, "Yeah, but I don't know." He said, "I need a sign." And what we're going to find out is, and this isn't the last sign he needed; it's just the first of a few. He said, "I need a sign.
Let me go get an offering. I want to prepare an offering for you. You're here representing God, and I want to worship." He says, "Let me get an offering, and then I'm going to come back with my offering. And I trust that as I offer this to you, you will grant me a sign. And here's what I love.
The angel said, 'All right, I wait right here.' You need to understand something. God is so in touch with who we are until we don't offend Him with how jacked up we are." I want somebody to understand. That's good news. That God is aware that you still need proof after you've had an encounter with a supernatural being, and God doesn't get mad. The angel notice what the angel does not say.
The angel does not say, "Now I don't believe you." Hey, I came down here from heaven. When I left heaven, I was up there talking to Gabriel and them. Came down here on this assignment to fool with you, talking to you, and look at you—don't even know how to believe God. He didn't fuss at him. You got to understand: if you have a voice, a condemning voice, that's not God.
God came into the world through Christ not to condemn the world, but so that the world through Him might be saved. If you're being condemned, that's the voice of your adversary.
Now, the voice of God will bring conviction. Oh God will bring conviction. He will bring discipline into your life. But discipline is redemptive in nature. God is trying to take you from where you are to where He wants you to be.
And God is not condemning us. It is for us that He came. And so the angel says, "Okay, I'll stay here. Gets him runs, gets his meat, gets his stuff for his offering, comes back." And so the angel said, "All right, put the meat on that rock over there. Put it on there.
Pour the broth on it. Pour the broth. And then the angel took a staff and touched it, and fire came and consumed the meat. And in that same moment, the text says, 'And the angel disappeared.' How's that for a sign?" And then look at the humanity of Gideon. He's had a full blown conversation with his angel, but he wants a sign.
Goes gives his offering, angel gives him the sign of consuming the sacrifice, meaning that it was accepted by God, and the angel disappears. Then Gideon gets scared. He said, "Oh man, that really was an angel. I'm going to die." Read in your Bible. First, he says, "I need proof." He gets proof, and he's scared of the proof.
If I saw an angel, that means I'm not going to be able to live. And God had to speak out of heaven because angels gone now. And God said, "Don't be afraid. Peace be unto you. I'm not doing this to trouble you.
I'm trying to bless you, and I'm trying to use you. Don't get afraid, cause I am at work." In your life, and Gideon then built an altar, and called it Jehovah Shalom. That means the Lord is my peace. And I want to tell somebody, God is saying to you, you are in the most troubled time of your life. Your life feels like you're going out of this world backwards.
Sometimes you don't know whether you're coming or going. You don't know what in the world you're going through or how you're going to get through it. But God says, "Don't be afraid. Peace be unto you." I'm at work in your life to willing to do of my good pleasure and your weaknesses. Are crafted and custom designed to bring you to me in desperation, and it is in that desperation that you're going to discover exactly how great is your God.
Thanks so much for choosing to spend some of your valuable time here with us on Destined for Victory. Today's message is part of our teaching series from Warrior to Warrior. Look for it, and for more information about Destined for Victory online at PastorPaul.net. Once again, PastorPaul.net. And I'm glad the Bible has people like Gideon in there, and God is not ashamed to let us know in the pages of Scripture that many of the people He Did extraordinary things through our distinctly ordinary people.
The Bible is full of strangely human people, so that we can all know when God has a plan for your life and mine. He doesn't need us to have our act all together. He just needs us to be available to Him. That's next time in our message, taking to heart our calling. Until then, though, remember: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
In Christ, you are destined for victory.
