Moving On with Passion (cont'd)

The enemy of fulfillment is past achievement.

You missed that, I gotta say it again. Sometimes the enemy of fulfillment is past achievement. Sometimes we sit back and kick back and say, well, you know, I've done pretty good to this part of my life.

Well, pretty good is not going to get you to fulfillment if you dwell on it. So Paul said, you need to let go of what's behind you. A painful past can bring depression.

A successful past can bring complacency. Both can keep you from faith and from your destiny in Christ. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, who is Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Thanks for spending part of your busy Friday with us. Well, I don't know about your past, but whether good or bad or somewhere in between, Pastor Paul wants to encourage you to neither revel in it nor wallow in it. Instead, leave it behind and press on towards your high calling in Christ Jesus. Today's message is straight ahead, so stay with us or visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also listen to or download our podcast at TuneIn or wherever you go to get your podcasts. Now, let's join Pastor Paul for today's Destined for Victory message, moving on with passion. So what is the one thing you can and should and will decide to do right now? Paul said, one thing I do, and then I love this. He said, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward. Some translations say straining toward what is ahead. He said, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Forgetting, he says, what is behind me and then straining toward what is ahead of me. I like that because sometimes the enemy of fulfillment is past achievement.

You missed that. I got to say it again. Sometimes the enemy of fulfillment is past achievement. Sometimes we sit back and kick back and say, well, you know, I've done pretty good to this part of my life.

Well, pretty good is not going to get you to fulfillment if you dwell on it. So Paul said, you need to let go of what's behind you. Now there's some things that are behind us that are negative and hopefully you are committed to letting go of those things. But I want to suggest to you, sometimes you have to let go of your positive accomplishments. Sometimes you have to let go of the good things, not to the end that they were somehow wrong, but to the end that if I'm going to press and strain toward something else, I can't be focused on what's behind me.

And I want to encourage somebody. It's time for you to decide. You are going to join me in being a person who journeys toward fulfillment. Higher is calling you. Better is calling you. And it's time for you and I to answer that call.

The call is coming, but are you going to answer it? For some of you, you're being called to spiritual development, higher spiritual development. For some of you, your walk with God needs to firm up. Your time in God's presence needs to be strengthened. You pray every now and then, but you need to become a person whose lifestyle is characterized by constant conversation with God. And what you're going to see is as you draw near to Him, the Bible says it, when you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you. You say, I think it's time for me to grow spiritually.

Yes, it is time for you to do that. So you have to initiate that growth. Higher spiritual development is calling. For some of you, higher emotional development is calling.

What do you mean by that, Pastor? I mean, sometimes there's a difference between your chronological age and your emotional age. It doesn't matter how old you are chronologically. The real question is, how old are you emotionally? That is, how mature are you emotionally? Are you still fighting petty fights now at this age in your life? Are you still hassling with things you should have stopped fooling with a long time ago? When you have arguments, are you still arguing with the people in your life over the same old petty nonsense that you have dealt with for years and years? At a certain point, you got to grow up emotionally. Paul said, when I was a child, I thought, spake and act like a child.

Time for me to grow up and put childish things behind me. Some of you need emotional development. Some of you need relational development.

Your relationships are still immature. You still fall out with people that God wants in your life. God sends some people in your life to sharpen you. The Bible in the book of Proverbs talks about iron sharpening iron, and in that same way, we're supposed to sharpen one another. Some of y'all are still dull because you won't let the people in your life sharpen you.

Say amen when you can. I know what I said is just right, and you need to let folks sharpen you. Some of you need to develop educationally. Some of you, the education you have was fine for the seasons in your life to this point, but what's in your heart, what's in your mind, what will take you to fulfillment is going to require you to take some new courses or to get another degree or to do some new online training, whatever it is. Some of you are going to need to enter into a brand new career, and it might not be convenient or comfortable, but if you've got enough passion, that passion and knowing it's part of what God has for you can drive you toward success.

For some of you, it's career development that higher and better is calling. For some of us, financial development is what we need in our lives. Some of us need to finally get our finances in order.

Fact of the matter is you've been too broke or too in debt for too long. Wouldn't you like to have the joy of your bills not preoccupying your life? Wouldn't you like the joy of knowing bills are paid, ends are meeting, my ends hang out all the time, I'm reducing debt? Wouldn't you want the joy of eventually being able to say I'm debt free? Well, higher is calling, better is calling. Question is, are you going to answer the call? Now, of course you know.

In order to experience financial fulfillment, it means you're going to have to delay gratification and do the things that we're taught to do by all the gurus who are teaching us the principles of financial discipline, but I promise you, if you will engage them with truth, you will experience higher and better in your life. And so that's the first point in this series is to call you to a place of passion. You got to decide, I want it. I want different. I want higher.

I want better. And so I'm going to higher ground. I'm not staying in the lowlands of desert living like that first generation. I'm going to Canaan. I'm going to claim mountains. I'm going to slay giants.

I'm going to do something for God that will be extraordinary. I grew up in a hymn singing church and one of the hymns I love is called Higher Ground. The first verse says, I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day, still praying as I'm onward bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Another verse says, my heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears dismay. Though some may dwell where these abound, my prayer, my aim is higher ground. The Course says, Lord, lift me up and let me stand by faith on Heaven's table land.

A higher plane than I have found. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Somebody is ready to say, I want to go to another place in some key area of my life.

I'm not going to settle. I want to excel. And if you'll do that, I believe God's going to bless us to experience higher ground and to experience fulfillment. For some of you experiencing fulfillment means that you're going to finally start exercising your spiritual gifts. Every believer has a spiritual gift or several of them. And some of us sit on our gifts and never exercise them. God didn't give you gifts so that you could leave them lying dormant. Gifts are to be exercised and that's God's plan for your life right now.

And so it's time for you to discover them and it's time for you to exercise them. For some of us, fulfillment means you're going to become one who comes alongside people and help them fulfill what God wants to do in their lives. I want to say some of you seasoned citizens, God is calling you at this season of your life to be a Naomi to some Ruth. You are to be a spiritual mama or an emotional, safe person for some younger people, whether male or female.

You're supposed to help the generations coming along and you are to help them succeed. Just like Naomi needed to be there so that when Boaz married Ruth, there was some older woman in their life who could help them in the raising of that child. God used Naomi to be a blessing to Ruth and to Boaz.

God blessed her to be the matriarch of a family that eventually brought to the earth. Because you remember, when they got married, they had a baby named Obed. And when that baby grew up and got married, he had a baby named Jesse.

And Jesse grew up and got married and his baby was named David. I want to tell you, God has a plan that you don't even know about. And some of the people you're supposed to come alongside are going to be world changers. Some of them are going to be planet shakers.

They are going to be difference makers. And you can be party to that by coming alongside and strengthening some people. And so I want you to know, fulfillment for you might mean being a blessing to somebody else. Stay with us, we're only about halfway through today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd. We want to thank all of you whose prayers and financial support helped Pastor Paul share the Gospel all over the world. And as we find ourselves still fighting our way through a season of uncertainty, your support is even more critical today because in times of crisis, people are more willing to have conversations about Jesus or listen to Christian radio program like Destined for Victory.

That's why your gifts are so important today. Give online safely and securely from our website, pastorpaul.net. Or give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again, 855-339-5500. And when you give your best gift this month, we have a special gift of our own to share with you. I'll tell you all about it after today's message. Sometimes God blesses you for no reason, but in order to change your destiny, you very often have to ask God to help you make changes to yourself. Here's Pastor Paul with the second half of today's message, Moving On with Passion.

It is time for us to stop thinking survival and start thinking let's thrive and do the things God has called us to do. But in order to do that, I alluded to it earlier, I've come back to it now, you're going to have to be willing to change. And I told you, change is not something many of us are known for, but it is something God wants us to do.

What about you? Let's talk about your personal development. What areas of your life personally need to be changed for the better? While you're changing financially and emotionally and relationally and all that, what about your personal development? What about you could use improvement? If you say, I think I'm doing pretty good actually, do yourself a favor, ask somebody to tell you, what do you think about me could stand some improvement? Now, don't just ask any old body, ask somebody who loves you enough to tell you the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.

Think about it. Ask somebody who will say, no, no, I really want to know because if I'm going higher, I don't want to just go higher educationally or financially or whatever, I want to go higher in my personal character development. I want to become a better, stronger person. I don't want to get old and get mean as I get old. I don't want to be cantankerous as I'm aging. So, tell me about myself.

Have you ever asked anybody and really wanted to know, would you tell me the truth, what are some of my weak areas as you see me? And be willing if you find a taker, if you find somebody who is willing to answer the question, do yourself a favor and listen to the answer. Be prepared if they say something like, well, you're kind of rude and you really need to work on being nicer. Now see, if you fly off when you hear that, you're not ready to change. You have to be willing to say, okay, all right, I hear you, thank you for sharing that with me.

I'm going to pray about and I'm going to let the Holy Spirit develop the fruit of kindness in me because we just covered a series with the fruit of the Spirit and one of the fruit is kindness. So, if you're rude right now, you need to aspire, you need to say part of fulfillment for me is becoming a kinder, gentler person than I've ever been. Or let them tell you, well, you know, you're quite impatient. You used to have patience but you aren't very patient anymore. Some of us, that's where we are right now, used to be patient but right now we're very impatient. Sometimes the seasons of your life cause you to lose some sensitivities. I know people who used to be patient but maybe they went through some challenges, some struggles in life and right now they fly off very, very quickly.

If that's you, let somebody love you enough to tell you, you are too impatient. Some of you can tell you're too impatient just when you're behind the wheel of your vehicle. Some of you just are terrors when you're driving.

The driving public can't handle you very well because you are just insistent on everything going your way and you're blowing your horn excessively and you just are a terror. You need to let somebody help you identify that need to become more patient in your life. Some of us have areas of our psyche that are dysfunctional. Some of us have baggage we never dealt with in our past and we really do need to deal with it.

I want to help you understand something. When you have issues in your life, issues don't just go away cause you get older. If you have undealt with issues in your life, they're still there.

In fact, here's what happens. When you've had trauma in your past, when you've had unresolved conflict in your past, even if you have some relational challenges that really sent you into a very negative headspace, you were abused, you were treated wrong, sometimes if you don't deal with that stuff properly, you carry it into your future hoping it'll go away but it doesn't go away. Let me help you understand. Emotional trauma doesn't dissipate. The fact of the matter is if you were ever traumatized, the inner you is still traumatized until it gets properly addressed and I've met traumatized Christians, saved, sanctified but you push the right button, you crank and Jack will come out the box and when Jack comes out the box, you know why that is? Cause Jack is in the box. It's just that simple.

The only reason you fly off or you behave in a way that folks say, I was so shocked, I had never seen that from her, I didn't know he could be that way. Well, it was always there, you just never saw it cause the right things didn't bring it to the surface. The fact of the matter is if you got issues, those issues are still there until you deal with them and that's why God wants to bless you in this season where we're deciding we're gonna go higher.

Don't just go higher circumstantially and financially and educationally and all of that, go higher in character development. If you got issues that never got dealt with, believe me, God wants to raise up some people in the body of Christ or a godly counselor who can help you work through them. In fact, sometimes you can get help from a counselor who's not even a Christian. In the same way, you can have a successful surgery with a doctor who doesn't know the Lord. There are atheist doctors who can really get you healed physically speaking because they're using the principles of wisdom God put in the earth and they're taking advantage of godly wisdom and just cause they're not acknowledging God doesn't mean God can't use them to bless you and get you better. Well, if you know that about your physical condition, let me assure you the same is true about your psychological condition. So you need to find a good counselor or a good friend and let them help you work through some stuff. I have counsel with people trying to show them their issues and they flare up and get mad at me. Don't get mad at me, I'm trying to bless your life. And if you don't want to get well, promise you I can't make you get well.

You gotta wanna get better. And so some of us need to say, Lord, I'm tired of being dysfunctional in this area. Bring a new person into your life and you think the problem is the new person.

No, when you've had five unsuccessful best friends and all of your former best friends are no longer in your inner circle, you used to have five really good friends and well, where are they now? Oh, now I don't deal with any of them. Do you know the common denominator is you? What went wrong in all those relationships? Oh, in your mind you wanna believe this one was too angry, this one was too jealous, this one was too this.

No, the common denominator was you. And it's time for you to say, Lord, turn the spotlight inward and help me see myself for who I really am. Some of you are out of control in some areas of your life, but the fruit of the spirit is self-control. So it's time for you to decide, I don't wanna go higher in some external ways, but I'm still petty internally. I don't wanna look good and really have ugliness in my spirit. You ever seen somebody who's good looking on the outside, they're vogue on the outside and vague on the inside.

Fact of the matter is it is time for us to decide, I wanna get better. I wanna be a person who is rich on the inside. That's what Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6. He ended his first letter to Timothy saying, oh, by the way, Timothy, as you minister to the wealthy in the body of Christ, and there are wealthy people in the body of Christ, always have been, and Paul said, warn them that are rich, that they don't put their trust in uncertain riches, he said, but more importantly, warn them to be rich in good works. It would be great to be rich in money as long as you're also rich in good works and you're willing to share, Paul said, and ready to give and let God use those resources for his eternal purposes.

But we need to be people who are rich on the inside. In fact, I contend if you wanna be more financially strong, that's a good aspiration, but make sure you're getting rich on the inside too so that God knows he can trust you with riches. I used to tell the Lord when I drove the second worst car in the church, I said, God, I'm gonna be faithful in this season because I'm believing you for more, and when more comes, I wanna be able to handle it, so I'm gonna be faithful in this season. And some of you need to decide, I'm gonna get every area of my life shaped up now so that when God takes me to hire, when God takes me to my Canaan land, I will be able to enjoy it. To change where you're going, you sometimes have to make changes to yourself. And as Pastor Paul Shepherd said just now, true and lasting change, the kind of change God wants to work in you and through you, always begins from the inside out.

Well, right now it may seem like the worst of times, but from God's perspective, these could very well be the best of times because it is in times of chaos when people are often more willing to embrace the cross and God's will is that all would come to the knowledge of repentance. As we continue to walk together through this season of uncertainty, let us be a safe place for the lost to land. Let's choose to love them into the kingdom the way God has loved us. One of the best ways you can do that is by becoming one of our Destined for Victory partners, a group of people who give at least $20 a month to keep these radio and internet messages airing the whole year through. As our way of saying thanks for your partnership, we'll send you a few thank you gifts, including one of Pastor Paul's most popular CDs, the best of Let My People Smile. So call 855-339-5500 to find out more about how to become a Destined for Victory partner. Make your pledge right there over the phone or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. You can also become our partner from our website, pastorpaul.net.

Now if you can't become a Destined for Victory partner but would like to make a donation today, we have a special year-end offer for you. It's Pastor Paul Shepherd's DVD message, Refocus, a sermon in which he offers three guidelines to help us work through the challenges we're facing here in 2020 and encourage us to continue fulfilling God's purpose in our lives. Again, that's Pastor Paul's DVD message, Refocus, our gift to you by request for your best gift to Destined for Victory this month. The only way to be prepared, to enter into higher, to enter into better, to experience what God has for you is you're going to have to deal properly with the fact that some things in your life don't remain there and you need to deal properly with losses. That's Monday and Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Properly Addressing Pain and Loss. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.