Trick or Treat? (cont'd)

Navigation system was on, address had been put in, and so what happened was after I shot by and I looked down and I saw recalculating, in a moment there were new directions on the screen. They were directions of repentance.

Oh, I'm going to help somebody if you let me. They were telling me to repent. What can a GPS teach us about our walk with Christ? Find out next on today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. In Psalm 119, verse 105, the psalmist writes, God's word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my pathway.

Well, He is our divine navigational system, a loving Father who shows us the way to go and gently leads us back to the right path if we miss a turn or get lost along the way. Today's message comes your way next. Stay with us for the next few minutes if you can or visit our website. Visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand anytime. That's pastorpaul.net. You can download the podcast there or at TuneIn or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, here's Pastor Paul, today's Destined for Victory message. Trick or treat. Back when they first started coming out, they were, you know, it was an option in certain cars. And these days, you can just get a portable one, just plug it into your cigarette lighter and you're good to go.

But when they first came out, it was an option, a rather expensive option in certain cars. And when I finally got to the place, I was past my escort season and all of that, driving a little hooptys, and I was finally able to get myself a nice car. I leased a car.

And when I was at the dealership, and they were showing me the hot car, I was like, I'm going to get a nice car. And they were showing me the options. They said, navigation system. I said, what's that? And he explained, oh, it gives you directions and turn-by-turn directions.

I said, oh, yeah, put that in there. And I got my first navigation system. I had never been in a car with one. But just hearing that description, I said, oh, that's going to be a blessing because I can now finally get somewhere without fooling with these people in their crazy directions. Because you know what it's like to have somebody trying to tell you how to get somewhere.

They know how to get there because they live there or whatever it is, but they don't know how to tell you how to get there. And I was tired for years. All of us have experienced folk on the phone. All right, now, you're coming over. All right, now, let me tell you. Now, when you get to that street, then you got to make a right. Now, there's not a street sign. There's not a street sign, but there's going to be a fire hydrant. And all of us have had years.

I had years of fooling with people like that, getting on my last nerve. And I said, finally, all I'm going to need is just an address. All I'll need is an address. When you start in on here, let me tell you, no, no, no, no, just give me the address. I will get there.

I promise you, I'll be there. And I was excited. And when I got the car, took delivery of the car, I remember getting in it, driving from the dealership home. I knew how to get home from the dealership, but I just wanted to experience the navigation for the first time because I had never been in a car with one.

And so I put in my address and hit start guidance. And this lady started talking to me. And I looked on the screen and it had a map of where I was. There was an indication of where the car was at that very moment. And it had a map of the streets around and it was pointing me where to go. And then the lady started telling me where the map was pointing me. And right at that moment, I said, Whoa, this is a good type of spiritual truth because the map is the word of God and the voice is the Holy Spirit. Map is the word of God. The Bible says in Psalm 119 105, thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my pathway.

In other words, it's designed to tell you where to walk in your life. And I looked at the map and it was pointing me the way and it had words of the street I was to go up to and the distance between where I was and where I was to go. And the lady told me go to El Camino.

And then I was head over there. And then as I was approaching that she said in point one miles turn left, and I look at the map and it was confirming what she was saying. That's the Holy Spirit in the word. They never work in contradiction to each other. You think you're getting the word from God and it contradicts the word of God. That's not from God. The Holy Spirit doesn't speak in contradictory terms to the word of God.

And so I was watching the map and listening to the lady and she told me where to turn and I turned and after I did that, then she gave me my next set of instructions and the map showed me where to go next. That was a spiritual truth because it reminded me that God's not going to give you to all the details until you move in obedience. You must want God's five year. Come on, you know you want God's five year plan for your life.

He's not going to give it to you. He's going to tell you what to do today. And he's calling you to faith and obedience today. He will get you where you ought to be in five years but right now his plan is to lead you step by step, turn by turn spiritual directions. And so I was enjoying it and I enjoyed it in all the days that I had that car.

I even learned a lesson one day that not only is God able to guide us by his word and by his spirit, but God also takes into account the fact that we're not always as obedient or full of faith as we ought to be. Because one day I was driving somewhere I had never been, navigation system was on, address had been put in and I was going along and they got me on my journey but I started enjoying my music. I turned it up real loud. I love music.

I have a large music library. I turned it up real loud. I was enjoying my music but my wife wasn't in the car so I could enjoy my music. When she's in the car all bets are off it has to be at a certain volume where I can't truly be blessed by it. And I can hear it and mildly enjoy it but you know I like to feel my music. And I can't feel it with her in the car because, honey would you turn that down?

Alright baby, yeah sure. And then she wanted to talk and my song's on, you know. After a while I just turned it off, said just me and you baby, what you want to say? Come on listen.

Oh so when I had those moments where I'm in there by myself I say yes sir, I turned it up and it was one of those days I was going somewhere, had it cranked up and apparently the lady told me where to go. And I wasn't listening. You see the spiritual lesson in that. There are times in our lives when we are preoccupied with other things. We are preoccupied with our own thoughts, our own feelings, our own desires and what have you and we are not being attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

And we are not being attentive to the clear directives of the Word. I wasn't looking at the screen, I wasn't listening to the lady, she was talking but I drowned her out with my music. Do you know there are times in your life when you are preoccupied and distracted by other things and you're not tuned in and God is speaking but you're not listening. And I had my music turned up and the lady had told me something and I didn't hear her and I just kept on going. But at a certain moment I had a feeling and I said to myself, that lady hadn't said anything. And so I looked down at the screen to get some guidance and I saw on the screen the word recalculating. And what they were doing was taking into account the fact that I had ignored the directive but they were still committed to getting me to my destination. And so what happened was after I shot by and I looked down and I saw recalculating, in a moment there were new directions on the screen. They were directions of repentance.

Oh I'm going to help somebody if you let me. They were telling me to repent. In other words they were telling me to make a turn here then go here. They were getting me back to a place where they could continue my journey to my destination.

And as soon as they showed up on the screen the lady started speaking and she said at the next traffic light turn left. And I said God I'm learning more and more about my walk with you. That even in those moments when I'm distracted or I'm disobedient you have not thrown me away. Now I have gone out of my way. I have burned more gas.

I have taken more time. I have to deal with the consequences of being where I have no business being. But you are still committed to getting me from where I am although it's a place of disobedience to where you want me to be.

And what I have to do is now repent and say you're right I'm wrong. I shouldn't be on this road and make the turn. And so they told me where to go and I love the fact that she didn't come on with an attitude. Just called me to repentance but didn't come on with an attitude.

Lady didn't come on. Now you know good and well you have no business over. Who told you to get on this road? See that's what's wrong with you. You don't listen to anybody. Didn't say it. She didn't say okay so fine. So since you don't want to listen to what people tell you why don't you just get there by yourself. We're just going to sit back and watch you.

How about that? Aren't you glad that God doesn't pester you? He convicts you. He convicts you but He doesn't condemn you. Jesus said I didn't come into the world to condemn the world.

I came that the world might be saved. So when He convicts you conviction is different than condemnation. He doesn't beat you up call you all out of your name. Conviction means He says you're wrong you're in sin.

This is not my plan you must repent and do it now. But it's loving it's redemptive in nature. He is trying to bless my life not curse my life. And I learned lots of lessons about the Holy Spirit through that system that if you follow the word and listen to the Holy Spirit you'll be guided into all truth and the Bible says that's one of the treats you get if you learn to walk in Jesus Christ. Paul says the first treat is God's partnership. Then he mentions the second treat which is God's power.

Now he mentions that by saying while he's asking these questions look at what else he says. He says verse three are you so foolish after beginning with the Spirit are you now trying to attain your goal by human efforts? Then look at what he says have you suffered so much for nothing. If it really was for nothing does God give you His Spirit watch this and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard.

He says not only should you be enjoying the benefit the blessing of God's partnership through the Holy Spirit but you ought to realize that you have no business trying to observe the law in order to be justified because God has worked miracles among you. Stay right here we're only about halfway through today's Destin for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Well we want to thank all of you whose prayers and financial support are helping Pastor Paul share the gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world. For your generous donation to Destin for Victory today we'd like to send you a study guide from InterVarsity Press called Fruit of the Spirit and I'll have more information about this great resource after the message today but you can call 855-339-5500 to make your gift over the phone right now.

That's 855-339-5500 or make a safe and secure online donation at pastorpaul.net and stay with us after today's message when Pastor Paul joins me in the studio but first let's rejoin him for the rest of today's message Trick or Treat. I'm here to tell you that you as a believer you have access to God's partnership through the Holy Spirit and you also have access to God's power and we serve a supernatural God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or even imagine. I know I have friends, there are people in the body of Christ who don't believe in present day miracles, I just feel sorry for them, love them and keep on going but I know that we serve a God who is still able to do any and everything to accomplish his will in our lives. God has not gotten old and run out of power, God didn't have a heyday, oh man you should have saw God back in the day boy, oh man he was something else back there.

No, no the Bible tells us that he is the same yesterday, today and forever, if he did it he can do it, if he does it now he will do it, God is able to exercise his power in the direction of accomplishing his will for our lives. And so he said God has worked miracles among you, let me tell you something, even a lot of people who don't believe in present day miracles it's because they have a certain, a very narrow definition of miracles but the fact that you're saved is a miracle. The fact that you are saved is a miracle. The fact that God reached you from where you were, from how jacked up you were.

Oh I know you, I know you got your Bible and all that stuff, you got your Christian veneer, you got your all of that stuff but I know, I didn't know you in your sins but it's probably a good thing. God brought all of us a mighty long way. He picked you up and turned you around, set your feet on solid ground. When you were lost and undone without God and his son he reached down his hand for you and I'm here to tell you that God, God has worked miracles in your life, not just to save you, he's worked miracles not only of forgiveness, he has worked all kinds of miracles. He has protected you from some of the plans of the enemy.

You say well I'm not aware of that, point made. If you knew what the enemy was trying to pull off in your life, if you knew how he was trying to trip you up, you'd be singing and shouting because he meant to take you out. The thief has come to kill, steal and destroy. Jesus said but I've come that you might have life and I have guarded you like a shepherd watches his flock and God has been watching over our lives. We've all had our mishaps, we've all had things happen, we all have mysteries, things Lord, why did you allow this to happen?

There are things that you won't understand in this life but I can tell you one thing that you ought to understand, God is a good God and he has been good to you. Been good to you, he's blessed you in many, many ways. And so the old saints, I grew up around, they said when they would pray they'd all say Lord we thank you for keeping us from danger seen and unseen.

Thank you Lord that you kept us when we didn't even know we were being kept. There was something that targeted us but you thwarted the plan by your grace and by your power. God has worked miracles, God has answered prayer in miraculous ways. In fact answered prayer is in fact a supernatural God interrupting the natural course of things in order to accomplish his will in your life. That's why you ought to learn to pray for what you want, ask for what you will. Now the Bible says ask according to his will as best you can determine that you need to make sure your praying is according to the will of God. Because God's not going to give you what is outside of his will. That will not be a blessing from God if you get something that's outside of his will he didn't give that to you.

You took that and we do that sometimes in our disobedience or in our ignorance we often will go and that's why you got to learn to surrender and follow him. If God's not giving you somebody as a spouse I promise you you don't want them. Come on now I've been passing a long time I've seen a whole lot of people go down this road trying to help you now don't force that on God. Look if God's not signing off on it what make you think you're going to pull this off? No no if the Lord is saying no or the Lord is not giving the confirmation through those people who walk with you those wise godly counselors who walk with you who speak into your life. If everybody's looking at you saying no this is not it this is not what we've been praying for. Believe them when people love you and they have your best interest at heart and they are trying to steer you away from something you seem hell bent on doing.

I promise you you're going to discover if you keep going down that road that they were right and you were wrong. And by then you are now in a covenant you had no business making. And yet it is a covenant. You don't get there is no 30 day trial. I got a priest of this generation people don't understand this.

Some of y'all weren't raised in church you were raised in your Bible so I got to help you. There's no 90 day return policy. There's no six months no financing. You're going to pay in every way. But I'm here to tell you that God is a God who will answer prayer according to his will and answer prayer means God has worked something miraculous. Don't pray little prayers in hell anybody can make that happen. You don't talk to a supernatural God about something you can make happen. If you can do it do it. If it's the right decision and you can make it God has given us some choices to make in our lives you make it you want to make everything spooky and spiritual.

You'd see a good decision and a bad decision. You don't have to pray. Good decision. If you had a crossroads there's a right way a wrong way a good way a bad way. No need of praying.

It's not a prayer point. God said walk in the way that I've laid out for you. But there come those times in life.

Where you say Lord I don't know how you're going to bring me out of this. I don't know how I'm going to get through this season. I don't know how I'm going to keep my mind. I'm close to going crazy. God I don't know how I'm going to survive my financial struggles. God I don't know how I'm going to put up with my children acting the way they're acting.

God I don't know how I'm going to stay in this marriage with this person acting like the devil. And you are genuinely up against the wall. I want to let you know that when our grace and our ability has run out God's is just beginning. And we have to learn at that point we can discover that our God is able to fulfill his word in our lives. Thanks for stopping by for today's message Trick or Treat. Before we wrap things up on today's Destined for Victory Pastor Paul Shepherd has joined me from a studio in California. Pastor we're encouraged that listenership seems to be up and people are turning to Christian radio. Turning to Destined for Victory for answers for the hope they're seeking. That's encouraging. I'm so grateful to know that that's happening.

People really are tuning in. We heard not long ago from a person who is sort of proudly agnostic. But it gives us an opportunity to simply share the faith.

I'm not an expert apologist. I try to learn as much as I can to defend the faith intelligently. But the one thing I rely on is the power of the Holy Spirit as he simply lets me share the testimony God's given me. That in the midst of times like these we have hope. Our hope is not in circumstances our hope is firmly rooted in Christ himself.

He is our hope. And I want to encourage people just put your trust in him you will never go wrong if you do. Thank you Pastor Paul. I'm reminded of Psalm 20 verse 7.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. You know there's a growing number of people who not only need to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ they want to hear it. And you can help through your prayers and financial support to Destined for Victory. For your generous gift to Destined for Victory today we'd love to send you by request a study guide from InterVarsity Press called Fruit of the Spirit. The book of Galatians lists nine qualities that make up the fruit of the spirit and this outstanding resource will walk you through all of them.

It's a great way to find out where your strengths and weaknesses may be so that you can go out and bear fruit in the lives of those around you. That's Fruit of the Spirit requested today for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Please call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.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. Once again, Destined for Victory Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. The more you know about who you are in Christ, the more you can walk in victory. Because if you don't understand the truth, you'll stay bound by false ideas and false pursuits. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul shares his message, Because of Whose I Am. Until then remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.