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 are 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. I'm sure you've heard it said before, but it's true every single time. The best stability is availability. Hello, and welcome to another great day here on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd.
Well, if you are a believer in Christ, there's a calling on your life. You may not always feel ready for it, and you may never feel worthy of it. But as you'll see today, that's exactly where God wants you. Remember, you can always visit our website, PastorPaul dot net, to listen to your recent message on demand, including today's. PastorPaul dot net.
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Now, from our teaching series, from Warrior to Warrior, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message. Taking to heart our calling. When I read the pages of Scripture, I see people like me, and before you get too happy, I see people like you. I see people who have a journey to take, who got to go from where we are to where God has called us to be. 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 are 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, so that He can accomplish His work in and through our lives. God chooses people like Gideon, chooses people like me, chooses people like you, because He knows that when He works in our lives, He can get a whole lot of glory out of us. God knows that when He takes us, as strangely human as we are, and does His work through our lives, everybody who knows us will say, "Now that had to be God." And God is intentional about choosing people like us. The Bible is very, very clear about that.
God knows who you are when He calls you. When you read First Corinthians chapter one, beginning at verse twenty-six, Paul says, "Take a look around and notice that there aren't many wise, there aren't many noble people who are called. There aren't many people who are up there in the upper echelon." He said, "Not many are in that category. There are some in the body of Christ, and they were distinguished even long before they came to Christ, and and that sort of thing." He Said, but look around. Most of us are just ordinary people, and he said God is intentional about that because He takes the base things and uses them to confound the wise.
Now he said, not many. He didn't say not any. There are some of you who are very noble and distinguished, and you come from a great pedigree, and you got, you know, you got a nice long list of credentials that you used to be very proud of. Just like the apostle Paul, who wrote that first letter to the church at Corinth, he was really in that category where you could say he was quite distinguished as an individual, as a Pharisee before he came to Christ. But even with When God chooses the wise and noble, He has a way of breaking them down, so that by the time God gets through breaking you down and showing you that with all your credentials and all of the things going for you, you too are strangely human.
In fact, if the truth be told, some of the most jacked up people on the planet are wise and noble. Because you have a public brand of success, but privately you got some dysfunction and challenges going on. And so, really, when it's all said and done, we're all in the same boat. I tell you often, don't categorize people just by their activity. We're all in the same boat.
We all desperately need the Lord. We need him every day of every hour of every day, every minute of every hour, every second of every minute. We need the Lord desperately. All of us, no matter where you come from, no need to thinking you're better off than somebody else. Without Christ, we're all on the Titanic, and you don't think you're better off because you're on the you're on the promenade deck.
If you're on the Titanic, you don't have any bragging rights. The whole thing is going down, and so we all need the Lord. And those of us who are aware of how much we need the Lord are in the best shape because we can then acknowledge our need for Him. And turn to him for help, and so I'm glad there are people like Gideon in the Bible because we can relate to them readily.
Now, Gideon, just by way of a little background, Gideon is one of several judges that God raised up in Israel's Old Testament history between the death of Joshua and the establishment of the kings among God's people. After Joshua, God raised up judges because the fact of the matter is, God never wanted Israel to have kings because He was their king. And so, while he had always used someone, he began with the patriarch Abraham, of course, to establish his covenant with Abraham. And then came down through the line. Eventually, he raised up Moses to lead people out of their bondage as slaves in Egypt.
And after Moses, he raised up Joshua, who got the people from the wilderness into the Promised Land. But after Joshua, God raised up several judges. One of those judges was this man Gideon, and the judges were to help govern the people of God. and And I tell you, this was a dark time in Israel's history. The era of the judges was quite a dark time because the people had forsaken the things of God.
In fact, there are two verses in Judges chapter two. That give you a clear, succinct picture of what was going on in this time in Israel's history. Listen to Judges chapter two, verses seven and ten. Verse seven says, "The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel." But drop down to verse ten, and you see, after that whole generation had been Gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.
So there's the picture. As long as Joshua and those people of his era who outlived him were alive, God was blessing Israel because they were walking true to His word. But what happened is, the generation following neither knew the Lord nor what He had done. Meaning Israel was not faithful to pass on a spiritual inheritance and to let their children know how important it is to not take where we live for granted. Here they are living in the promised land.
Here they are blessed of God. All the tribes have been blessed of God, had their own inheritance. You know, sometimes it's dangerous to be blessed because if you don't keep your eye on the one who blessed you with it. Your blessings can turn into a curse, and this generation after Joshua grew up, kind of taking for granted all that God had done, without knowing the Lord for themselves. And this is a lesson to us that we've got to make sure we pass on not just a financial inheritance and not just an inheritance of our family history and a sense of who you are.
You need to pass on a spiritual inheritance and make sure the generations following know everything this family has we have because we serve the Lord and we are true to His word. And I want to challenge us all over again. Make sure we're not raising a heathen nation. In our own household.
Now, we might not be able to make sure all of America and all of the world is saturated with the gospel. Of course, we're trying our best to share the gospel and and send and support missionaries and all that. But the one place you can control for sure is your own household. And we ought to make a fresh determination that, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord, and because that did not happen enough in Israel, a generation was raised up that neither knew the Lord nor what He had done.
As a result, in the years of the judges, Israel sank into apathy, apostasy, and anarchy. And it was a mess. It was not a good time in Israel. But I'm so glad that even when Israel was at its worst, God never left them. They were His people, and when you become God's people, He marries you for keeps.
He never left them when they were at their worst. He was with them.
Now, what he did with them was different than when they were at their best.
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Well, the Israelites would often go through cycles of sin and disobedience, and although God would discipline them, He never abandoned them, and He doesn't abandon us either. Let's catch you back to the rest of today's "Destined for Victory" message, taking to heart our calling. See, there's a formula, there's a pattern that runs very true right through the pages of Scripture, right through redemptive history. This pattern you see over and over again: when God's people are in obedience, they are blessed. When we are in disobedience, we are chastened.
It happens consistently, and that's the story of Israel throughout the pages of the Old Testament. When they were walking in obedience, there were certain ways God could bless them. When they walked in disobedience, like you see in this era, His presence was still with them, but His presence manifested in the way of chastening and discipline. Why? Because God wants to let them know you cannot be outside of my will and still be blessed.
When you're outside of my will, you bring destruction, you bring curses, you bring challenges into your own life. And he is letting them know that you will never prosper outside of my will. You and I need to understand that because the enemy of our souls is always trying to sell us some bag of goods that's outside of God's will. Always trying to say you will be happier if you make this decision. I know it doesn't go according to the Bible, but you will be happier.
Your life will be richer. You will have more money. You will finally have that mate you've been wanting to have, and God hadn't sent you anybody, and on and on. And he'll constantly sell you a bag of goods. But listen very carefully, men and women of God.
Whenever we go outside of the will of God to secure something in our lives, we have not brought a blessing into our lives. What we have set ourselves up for is the chastening of the Lord, and we're going to experience God's discipline. Every one the Lord loves, He disciplines to help line up our lives and bring them into conformity with His will. And you see that pattern throughout Scripture, and you'll see it here in this story. Verse one of Judges six tells you Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and here comes the chastening.
And for seven years. The Midianites just had their way with Israel. For seven years they oppressed them. For seven years they stole their food. For seven years they made their lives miserable.
Why? Because the Lord Himself has a vested interest in His people being chastened, not to destroy us, but to show us we will not prosper outside of His will. There is nothing good to be found outside of the will of God. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. You do not improve your life when you go outside of God's will, and because you're His child, He will see to it that chastening comes.
Chastening comes because He loves us, and whom the Lord loves, He chastens. God is the original parent who says, by virtue of you being one of my children, there are some things that are off limits to you. And when you go off limits, there's going to be a consequence. That was God's idea. We didn't make that up.
That's God's idea. God said, "You will not prosper outside of my will." Some of us were fortunate enough to be raised in homes where parents took that cue from God, and that's the way they parented. And they said, by virtue of your last name, there are certain things you can't do in this house. There are rules. There are regulations.
There are mandates for you. Everything is not an option for you because of your last name. You tried to act up enough.
Sometimes your parent would go out on the porch and let me see if this is still my house. Yeah, this is my house. They come back in. Yeah, this last I saw this is my house. Last I saw you wore my last name.
That means there's certain things you can't do. Don't tell me about the other kids. I don't want to hear what they're doing down the street. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? This is this is our house.
We are a household of faith, and there's certain things you don't do by virtue of your last name. And because they did evil in the eyes of the Lord, the chastening of the Lord came in the form of letting the Midianites just reign and rule and make their lives miserable. And apparently, it took them seven years to get sick enough of it to finally cry out to the Lord for help. But that's the point of chastening. Chastening is not to take us down.
Chastening is to help us see you won't prosper outside of my will. And when you get ready to truly repent, then I'll turn things around for you. See, that's the goal. A lot of people say, "No." When you chasten, when you discipline, sin, anger. No, it has nothing to do with anger.
It has to do with helping people to see you can't live this way and prosper. And so the Lord chastened his people, and they finally got to the place where they were ready to repent.
Now repentance is what God is looking for.
Now repentance—we must be clear—repentance is not okay. I'm sorry.
So you can say that easy.
Soon as the heat gets turned up, that can come flying out your mouth. I'm sorry.
No, I'm sorry is not repentance. How many have ever heard from your children or somebody who did you wrong or whatever it is? How many have have ever heard an empty "I'm sorry"? You knew it wasn't meaningful when it came out of their mouth, and the proof is nothing changed. Their attitude didn't change.
Their actions didn't change. Repentance is not "I'm sorry." Repentance is when you get it. I get it. I'm wrong. I get it.
I should not have done this. I understand it, and you not only acknowledge your wrong. Repentance is when you change your mind and you change your direction, and you begin now to move and live and speak and act in the way that you should have in the first place. That's repentance. That's what God is looking for.
Out of them, and that's what God is looking for out of us. He wants us to repent, to change our mind and our direction. And once that happened, once they cried out to the Lord for help, then God responded to their repentance by sending them a prophet. And the prophet came and spoke the word of the Lord to them. Look at what he said, beginning in verse eight.
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you, gave you their land. I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.
But you have not listened. To me, in other words, first they got a verbal spanking. God is about to turn things around, but He wants them to know. See, chastening is always redemptive in nature. He wants them to know what they did wrong.
He wants to make sure they get it, because He knows if I just turn your circumstances and give you deliverance, and you don't get it, you are going to go right back into the mess.
So first he sends them a prophet, and the prophet preaches to them and tells. Make sure they get it.
Some of us were parented like that. Every time I read those verses, I think about my mother. Every time I read, because your mother and some of y'all were raised like I was. When they were getting ready before they let you off the hook, you were going to get a verbal lesson. My mother would walk through the house.
Sometimes she wouldn't even stay in the room with you. Cause she's exhaling, she's getting it out. She's just letting it go. And sometimes she starts out in the room with you, but she's walking around the house still talking about what you did, telling you, "I do and do for you, children," and and look like you always just take it for granted. You just think I'm supposed to be here, like you got some sort of maid or something.
I don't know what's wrong with y'all.
Sometimes I, sometimes I wonder if you're really mine. I just don't. And part of your punishment was you just had to listen. Come on, some of y'all who were raised like me, you just had to listen for a while till she got it out. You just had to listen and put up with it.
And for God's sake, don't shut the door while she's talking. See, you hear all those flashbacks. You hear all that flashbacks. Whatever you do, keep that door open and just take that little verbal spanking. I did it one time.
There was one day when I just didn't want to hear my mother's mouth. There was one day I just said, "I'm not trying to hear this," and I reached over. I was in my bedroom, and she had started in my bedroom, but she was walking through the house. Proclaiming, and I just didn't want to hear it. And I just reached over and shut the door, and it slammed a little too hard, so that she heard it from where she was.
She stopped in the middle of the sentence. She had already made it down the stairs. She was on the first floor, but she heard that door shut. She stopped in the middle of the sentence. I heard her coming back up the steps.
My door flew open, and ladies and gentlemen, I promised God that if He would allow me to see the next day. I would never do that again. By His grace, I saw the next day, and I never did it again. But chastening, if it is true, if it is pure, if it is godly, it is redemptive in nature. He sent the prophet because He's getting ready to bless them and deliver them, but He wants to make sure they get it first.
The Lord will never leave you or forsake you, but He will discipline you. And when He does, it's always designed for your good and ultimately for His blessing and favor in your life. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's "Destined for Victory" with Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, "Taking to Heart Our Calling." If you haven't already downloaded our free mobile app, now's a great time to do it. Search "Destined for Victory" at the App Store and listen to these messages wherever you go. That's the Dest.
For victory mobile app, download it today. Absolutely free. Have you ever felt called to do something you didn't yet feel ready for? If so, we've got a great resource to help you navigate your way through what can often be a confusing time. Introducing our latest booklet called "Before Qualified." Inside these pages, you'll get 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 qualified, this booklet will remind you. God may not always call the qualified, but He absolutely qualifies the called. That's called before qualified. Our thank you gift today for your generous donation to Destined for Victory's 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 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Listen, when God places His calling on our lives, He establishes it by the counsel of His own will. God doesn't ask you or me what we're called to be; He tells us who we're called to be. When you meet the Lord, when He becomes your savior. The calling is built in to salvation.
As soon as you are born again, you are also called. In fact, your calling predated your being born again. That's tomorrow in our continuing message, taking to heart our calling. I hope you'll join us. But until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
In Christ, you are destined for victory.
