Prove It! Part 3 (cont'd)

You've got to know His Word. A lot of folks try to exercise a faith that allows them to claim whatever they want.

You can't do that. Faith isn't designed to get you what you want, it's designed to get you what God has for you. Hello and thanks for being here for this Monday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd.

Well, the name it and claim it brand of faith may be popular, but is it biblical? Should we make demands as though God is merely our benefactor, or should we make requests to a loving Father trusting Him to give us only those things that are best for us? Perhaps Jesus answered this question when He taught us to pray the words, Thy will be done, the same phrase He Himself prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion. Today, Pastor Paul offers a penetrating look at biblical faith.

Stay right here, or download the podcast on demand at PastorPaul.net, at Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, here is Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, Prove It. God is faithful to forgive you for those times when you have not done His will. And you know, there have been times when you didn't understand that God plans to change you, and you just kind of wanted fire insurance salvation. You just kind of wanted to make sure you were going to heaven, but some of us, until we really come to understand the love of God and the plan of God for our lives, that we just hope God will just take us on to heaven, and in the meantime, we want to do our thing all the way there. But you come to find out God has a plan for your life, and the Holy Spirit will convict you and keep pointing you in the right direction, and saying, this is the way, walk in it.

And every now and then, we have had those stubborn moments where we said, I know the way, but I don't feel like walking in it right now. Come on, be honest. You've had those moments. You had them all your life.

You had them with your parents as a teenager. You remember those times when they told you when to be in the house, but there was a party you wanted to go to. Come on, come on. Let's be honest here for a minute.

You can get a breakthrough if you'll get honest. There was a party you wanted to go to, and you knew good and well that party wouldn't be over at midnight. And they said, I want you in this house at midnight. And you said, all right, because you wanted to go to the party. That's the only reason you said okay, so you could get out the door. If you had said what you knew in your heart, which is that I don't plan to be home at midnight, you'd have never gotten out the door. So you said what they wanted to hear, all right, I'll be home. You went out knowing you weren't going to be home at midnight. And some of you even learned along the way that if this is one of my moments of disobedience, I might as well enjoy the whole party. Come on, be honest. Think back now.

Think back to where you were. You know, some came from various styles of punishment. And so, you know, I know there are different strokes for different folks, but some folks knew that what they were going to get in response to that disobedience was a spanking. Or some called it a beating. Some even called it a whipping. Do we have any whipping folk in the house who were whipped growing up? I know modern people just look at you like you're crazy. Whip, whipping?

Yeah, some folk right in this very room can testify and listening to this message on a broadcast or a CD or something can testify. Hands in the air, I can tell you about a whipping. And there were different styles and nuances to it. There were families that would make you go out and get a switch, they called it.

Look at the hands in the air. Make you go out and get a switch. You had to go out to a tree and get the instrument of your own discipline off of the tree. And you knew not to come back with a twig. Because you knew if you came back with a twig, they'd go out and get the tree and bring it in there.

And so if you knew that you had a spanking or a beating or a whipping in store for you, even those of you who are just going to have, you know, two weeks or four weeks where you were shut down in the house or whatever your punishment was, you knew what was coming. And so you figured when midnight rolled around, you're still at the party. You figured there's no need of going home at 1220. It's not like that's going to get me out of trouble. I told them I'd be home at midnight. So some of y'all decided I'm staying for the whole party.

Punishment going to be the same. See, this is the days before cell phones. They couldn't call you. Couldn't call you and bash you in front of all your friends.

I know you are not over there. That's what they would do now. If it had been this day, we wouldn't even got to do that kind of stuff. They'd have called you.

They said, don't make me drive over there. And some of us, if you understand that in the natural, then you can understand how much your God loves you. Because God knows your heart more than you know your heart. So God not only knows our disobedience, He knows what motivates disobedience.

He knows what's going on on the inside. And God has pre approved our forgiveness. But you got to notice so you can't say oh good, that means I'll do whatever I want with God, whom the Lord loves, he disciplines.

And you talk about a spanking, a beating, a whipping. God knows how to get with you. God knows how to deal with you about those areas of your life where He says I've been talking to you and I've been showing you my will and my plan. And He'll take your peace. He'll take your joy. He'll take things out of your life to let you know you can't be out of my will and life go right.

You're my child. When you're a child of God, you don't have the option of living any kind of way. God's going to get with you about that. He'll make you perfectly miserable if He has to. You'd be a Christian who can't get sleep at night because God's dealing with you about something. You know how much you love sleep. You need to get in the will of God.

So you get some sleep at night. Hallelujah. Where am I?

All right. We're talking about the promises of God. Salvation, forgiveness. God promised you His presence. He promised that He'd be with you.

I'm talking about just a sampling of His promises. You need to know that your God has invested in you some promises. And one of them is that He would be with you.

His presence would always remain in your life. In the Great Commission, we talk a lot about the first part of the commission where Jesus, before He left this earth and ascended back to heaven, He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I have commanded you. But there's another verse. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus said, I'm sending you into the world.

I want you to be difference makers. I want you to tell people about My love, throw out the lifeline, tell them they can get saved if they'll repent and turn to Me for salvation. He said, but I want you to know that wherever you go, I will be with you. Come to tell somebody who's feeling awfully alone in your life, God promised He would be with you. Now, you don't always sense, in terms of our sensory perception, you don't always sense God's presence, but you can know because His Word said so, God is always with you. His eyes are always upon you.

There's never a moment when God turns His attention away from His child. He knows what you're going through. He knows how you're suffering. He knows the questions that are in your heart. He knows the things you haven't even opened your mouth in prayer about. He knows you. He knows what's going on in your life. And even then, before you get your answers and your breakthroughs and all of that, I want you to know God is with you because He promised He'd always be with us.

He promised never to leave us. In your loneliest hour, you're not alone. And we can have those times where we feel awfully alone when people who said they'd be with us aren't always with us. Because people can't live up to that kind of promise. They want to be there for you, but we can't always do that because human beings sometimes get preoccupied with our own things.

And however much we love you, there are times when our issues trump our desire to help you. And so there will be people who let you down. Know that going in.

Know that. They mean well. Diana Ross said, if you need me, call me. No matter where you are, no matter how far.

Every now and then I pull out my oldies from the 70s and just pop them back in for nostalgia's sake and some of that good old music and I'll just pop them in. And last time I heard her, she said, if you need me, call me. No matter where you are, no matter how far, just call my name. I'll be there in a hurry on that you can depend and never worry. Sopranos come in nowhere.

No rain or winters. Now listen, she meant well. Bless her heart. But she couldn't always be there for whoever she was singing about. Your friends can't always be there for you. They can tell you ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough, ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you. But I promise you a day is coming when you'll be out there and they're saying, I'm sorry, I wish I could get over there.

But here's your good news. Although human beings are limited in our ability to be what each other needs, God says, I'm always with you. And when God's with you, he's not there as an innocent bystander. God never stands around saying, I wish I could help you. God with him is all the power, all the grace, all the peace, all of the resources you need to get through what you've got to go through. He promised his presence. He promised he would answer prayer.

He's given you and I the privilege of prayer. God has said in his word, Jesus said in John 15, 7, if you abide in me, folks, that's where we've got to get. We've got to get to a life that is rooted in a relationship with God.

That word abide means a domicile, a dwelling place, a home. If you are at home in me, not jumping in and out of the Christian mindset, I'm at home being a child of God. I live in Christ and Christ lives in me. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, he said, you can ask what you will and it will be given you.

Why can't he make such a bold and outstanding promise? Because when you abide in him and when his word abides in you, it purifies your heart and your motive and your desire. And in every request, the unspoken sentiment is I want to be in the center of God's will. And God is able to honor prayer that is offered in his will. And so he said, I want to give you the ability to pray with power and authority and to affect change in the name of Jesus. And so he has given us promises with regard to prayer. He has said that we can ask in faith, stand in faith and believe it. So we need to become people of strong faith. Understand, you don't serve a weak, puny, anemic God.

You serve a God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or even imagine. We're coming right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Remember, this program is always available on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net, where you'll find a host of great resources at our online store. How do you go strong in faith?

Well, find out next in the rest of today's message, Prove It. Once again, here's Pastor Paul Shepherd. And so you want to grow strong in faith.

How do you do that? You grow strong in the word of God. And then you take God at his word and you trust him to bring his word and his will to pass in your life. Now you got to learn as you grow in faith, that faith is rooted in the word of God. Faith comes by hearing. Romans 10 says, and hearing by the word of God. You got to know his word. A lot of folks try to exercise a faith that allows them to claim whatever they want.

You can't do that. Faith isn't designed to get you what you want. It's designed to get you what God has for you.

See, the word of God represents the will of God, literally the will of God. Say you had a wealthy relative who you were very close to, and they passed on, and you heard that there was a reading of the will. You'd want to show up because we had a good relationship, and this person had many, many resources. Perhaps I'm in the will. And you want to know because there would be an expression of their desire regarding you.

And you'd want to know that. Well, when you pick up your Bible, you're reading the will of God who is not dead, but alive to make sure that everything he promised us, he will give us if we will exercise faith and trust in him. And so you want to know his will. You want to become familiar with his word because as you grow in faith, you'll learn two principles. One is you can't claim what is not yours.

And so you want to learn that so that you don't spend time asking a miss, James called it, asking with the wrong motive or asking for the wrong thing. You can't just claim anything. There are those people who have misguided faith, and they just go around trying to claim anything. I just claim that car.

They'll ride through a neighborhood. I claim that house. Well, no, you want to know, is this what God has for me? Because if that's not what God has for me, I can't claim it.

It's not mine. When we were coming up as single people, teens, and then moving into our early 20s in my church growing up, some of the single folk who really wanted to get married started claiming one another. You just, you know, see somebody in the church, youth group, young adult group that you like, and you want to hook up with them and just said in Jesus' name, I claim them. I just believe God wants us married.

We would make such a wonderful team. So I claim you. You can't claim them unless they claim you back.

Right? That's the way it works. You can't claim me against my will. That's called slavery. That's not marriage. That's kidnapping.

You go to jail for that. And they meant well, meant very well. But you had to understand, I had about five sisters claim me. Not all of them were in our church. Some were different places around the country where I would preach, and they'd see me, you know, speaking in a little youth service. I was just beginning my ministry, and I'd speak of something, and they'd look up and say, oh, honey, boom, I claim him. And I found out that I had been claimed several times.

And whenever I tell this story, make sure to tell the people I wasn't one of the ones who claimed you. Now, she did want to get with her brother now. Let's not get it twisted.

Get it straight. It's not like I had any trouble convincing her to come on over on my side. But it's just that she had the right frame of mind. She realized that I need to sit back and see what he wants, and then I have the ability to respond, yea and nay.

And so when I knock, she opened the door. But you can't claim what doesn't belong to you. So you got to get your faith straight because you want to grow strong in faith, but you want to grow properly in faith. You can't claim what is not yours, but here's the other principle you learn.

Neither can you claim what you don't know is yours, which is why you got to get in the Word, get before God, so that the Word and the Holy Spirit can reveal to you the will of God for your life so you know what to lay claim to. And sometimes you are at a place where you've gotten a report, whether it's about a physical condition or whether it's about your career decision, and there's one report or there is a general consensus out there, but God says something else. I know people who, physicians told them they were going to die, but God in prayer told them and some brothers and sisters, they're going to live.

And guess what happened? They lived despite the report. I know people who somebody said this career is not for you, but God said it is what I've ordained for you. There are preachers. I know preachers who are told early in life you'll never even be able to speak properly, but God said I've ordained you to preach my Word, and they're preaching His Word because God's Word overrules anybody's opinion. Let God be true if it makes a liar out of everybody else. So I want to let you know that God has a plan and purpose for our lives, and He has given us wonderful promises. He promised to give us an escape route out of temptation. The Bible says there have no temptation taken you such as is common to man, but God is faithful. 1 Corinthians 10 13, I'm in the book.

God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you can stand, but will with the temptation provide a way of escape that you might be able to bear it. What that means is if God allows you to go through a particular temptation, now get it clear. The Bible says God doesn't tempt us.

We're drawn away of our own desires. God never wants to draw you out of His will, but He knows our frailty, and when we are drawn by our own desires out of the will of God, God loves you so much that He protects you from you. He says I will not even allow temptation to come your way. I won't let the enemy set you up until I make sure there is an escape route built in so that you can bear it, and you can know that when you're in the throes of temptation, God has given you an escape route because He wants you to succeed. God doesn't set us up to fail.

He sets us up to succeed. Now I said in the last message, and this bears repeating now that you've got to understand that you can't afford to shop at Temptation Mall. You don't hang out in temptation's neighborhood. You don't shop at Temptation Mall with the clearance signs up. Everything must go because all that is stuff that's not God's will for you, and you don't go in there.

Well, the sign said everything must go. It doesn't have to go into your life, and so you need to learn to thank God for the promise of escape out of temptation. He promised your power over the enemy. First John 4, for greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. He promised you that there would be a good outcome even in negative circumstances. It says in Romans 8, 28, and we know that in all things God is at work, and He will make sure to bring about good in the lives of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I want to let you know God's made you some wonderful promises, and the reason why He calls us to prove that we know Him is because He has resourced us. He has given us the ability to live a life that brings Him glory and honor through the promises. And He said, as He closes verse 4, it is through these promises that you are able to partake of God's divine nature.

What in the world does that mean? That means that Christianity is not you trying to be a good person because we're done before we start, if that's the case. Christianity means partaking of God's own nature. What it means is Christ comes to take up His abode in your life. Galatians 2, 20 says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Now, did you catch what Paul said there? He said, Christ is alive in me. In Colossians 1, 27, he said, it's Christ in you that is the hope of glory. You have hope because Jesus lives in you.

If it was just you and I, we'd have no hope. But because Jesus is in the picture and He's in our lives, we can partake of God's nature and we can draw on divine resources that God has brought into our lives to give us spiritual victory. I want to let you know that God has set you up, not for failure, but for victory. And He's done it by giving you exceeding very great and precious promises so that through these you can partake of His divine nature. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. But remember, when you delight yourself in the Lord, your desires very well might change. Thanks for joining us for today's message.

Prove it. Before we wrap up things here on Destin for Victory, Pastor Paul Shepherd has joined me from a studio in California. Pastor, this current series Prove It is proving to be a challenge to those of us who claim to follow Christ. So let me ask you, once we begin our relationship with Jesus, why is it so important for us to develop these godly qualities we've been studying together? Well, I think it's because as much as I enjoy the fire insurance aspect of being saved, by that I mean, you know, he that believes in Him won't perish in the fires of hell, but will enjoy everlasting life. And as much as I enjoy the fire insurance, the fact is, I know from the scriptures that God has called us to live quality lives here and now. So while I'm grateful for eternal life, we all need to be concerned about living the abundant life. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. Now, you know, in these days, when we hear abundance, we tend to think the three C's, cribs, cars, and cash. But the reality is, abundant life in scripture doesn't have to do with those things. God might bless you with a lot of wonderful toys and gifts and provisions.

But the reality is, it is the inner quality that gives us abundant life. And that's what this series is all about, teaching us to build the character that gives glory to God, and will help us be a blessing to people everywhere we go. You know, one of the ways we can be a blessing to others is by sharing the gospel with them, inviting them to accept the gift of God's salvation, as well as showing them how to live the abundant Christian life here on earth. Your gifts to Destined for Victory help Pastor Paul do just that with people all over the world. And as our way of saying thanks for your generous donation, we'd like to send you a book from Deborah Smith-Pagase called 30 Days to Taming Worry and Anxiety. Pastor Paul believes this will be a great resource to help you discover how to deal with the stress and stress life often tries to bring our way.

That's 30 Days to Taming Worry and Anxiety, our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. Of course, you can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, that address is Destined for Victory, box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Whenever you see the Bible talk about spiritual fruit or spiritual character traits, these are traits that the Holy Spirit cultivates in our lives with our cooperation. He doesn't do it apart from you. In fact, you can fight him on something. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Prove It. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.