It Will Be SO Worth It! Part 1

Music Playing Every time Satan tries to deceive you, here's a truth you can count on. The only good life is the God life. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Wherever you are and however you may be listening, thanks for making this part of your day. But when you come to faith in Christ, God may ask you to give up a few things.

A bad habit, an unhealthy attachment to the things of this world, maybe even a relationship. Today Pastor Paul tells you why a relationship with God is well worth that sacrifice. Stay right here or listen online anytime at PastorPaul.net. You can also download the podcast at PastorPaul.net, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get yours. And stay tuned after the message when Pastor Paul joins me in the studio. But first, let's join him for today's message.

It will be so worth it. Music Playing I want to start at Mark 10 verse 29. If you have a Bible, go there with me. The Gospel of Mark chapter 10 verses 29 and we'll also look at 30. So Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels who shall not receive a hundred fold now. In this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.

That's the punch line. If you give up these things for my sake and the kingdom, Jesus said, you will receive a hundred fold the same things. You're going to receive them with persecutions and then at the end of it all, you're going to experience eternal life. So I'm going to talk to you about the fact that if we will learn to live a life of complete surrender to God, we can expect that the promise Jesus just made will apply to our lives. He says, I'm going to call you to give up some things for my sake and the kingdom, but as you do it, you can expect to receive a hundred fold the same types of things. You're going to have persecution with it, but at the end of it all, you will be blessed with the gift of eternal life. So I just want to let you know you got some stuff coming.

In fact, I've entitled this message. It will be so worth it. I came to tell you it will be so worth it.

What is the it? It is your surrendering your life completely into the hands of God. I want to let you know if you do what Jesus says to this young man, it will be so worth it.

It would have been worth it in his life had he said yes to the Lord and it will be worth it in your life if you say yes to the Lord. I came to tell you that surrendering to Jesus might feel scary to the flesh, but it is the best way you and I can possibly live our lives. I want to let you know that a lot of churches have done us wrong when they have talked about coming to Jesus and being a follower of Christ as a mere result of you praying a quick prayer.

There are a lot of folk who make you think if you want to pray a quick prayer, we sometimes call it the sinner's prayer, and ask Jesus into your heart that that will entitle you to all kinds of things. I came to tell you that's not what Jesus himself said. Jesus didn't promise you all of this if you pray a prayer. He said if you give me everything, if you surrender completely to me, if you say yes from your very heart about everything I ask of you, you can experience the very best that I have. He refers to it here as a hundred fold all the things that I'm asking you to give up, to surrender to my will, for my sake, he says, and for the sake of the kingdom of God. If you surrender, you can expect to receive all kinds of blessings.

I'm here to tell you that the Lord is in the blessing business and he has all kinds of things for you. Getting saved and being a follower of Christ is an upgrade. It is an upgrade like you could not imagine outside of Christ. Talk about an upgrade, giving your life to Jesus is an upgrade.

It is making things far better. I want to say that because I want to defy what the devil has told you, that getting saved and becoming a follower of Christ is really going to mess up your life. That's why there's some people who think, you know, maybe I get saved one day but I don't want to do that right now.

I want to live my life first. Do you know you're under deception when you can say something like I want to live my life and then just before I'm so old I can't do nothing else, then I'm going to try to quickly get saved so I can punch my heaven ticket. You are deceived, my friend, because that's not biblical followership at all. You don't come to Jesus because you've eked all of the sin you can possibly eek out of your days and the devil will tell you that's the good life and I got to give up the good life so I can get saved.

No, no. The good life is the life of surrender to Jesus Christ. The good life is the life where you say yes to him, no to the flesh, no to the devil because the flesh and the devil will take you down the road of destruction. I came to tell somebody there is nothing good in sin. If there was some good in sin, God would leave you in it. Sin is not a good life. Sin feels good. There are pleasures, the Bible says, in sin but have you ever noticed what comes after the pleasure?

There's a paycheck. The wages of sin, the paycheck of sin is death. Sometimes it's natural death but all the time it's spiritual death. It is the destruction of things that are good and there is nothing good and godly about living in sin.

The Bible says the good life, the high quality life, the HQ life is the life wherein God gives you righteousness, peace and joy, where God gives you purpose and fulfillment, where you have peace in your heart and joy in your life, where you don't have to be outside of God's will to enjoy your life. In fact, you realize that that is deception that is taking you down the wrong road. I came to tell the devil he is a liar. Look at what he said back in the beginning. He said to Eve, now let's look at this tree. Why is God telling you you can't eat from this tree? You know he trying to hold you back, don't you? You know he trying to cut off your joy.

He want to always put his thumb on your happiness. Let's talk about this tree. Let me tell you, the real reason you ought to eat from this tree is because God knows the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open, you will become like him.

You won't have to answer to him, you will be like him. And he beguiled Eve to the point where she listened to those lies. Have you ever listened to lies that sounded good? Now I need you to take a few minutes and just be honest with yourself. But have you ever run into somebody who has the gift of lying?

There are people who have the gift. They can make a lie sound so good. And the devil is the father of lies, so you know he's the best liar there's ever been. And he made this deception sound so good and told her the day you eat of this, God said you would die, forget that.

When you eat this, you'll really be alive because you'll in fact be able to know everything and you'll be able to make your own decisions and you won't have to answer to him. So don't let him hold you back, Eve. He trying to keep you from being every woman. Because Eve, you are the original every woman. It's all in you. Long before Chaka Khan come along and sing it, long before Whitney Houston pick it up and sing it, you are every woman, Eve. And you need to just go on and live your life.

And the more he talked, the more it sounded good. And the Bible says she ate. Y'all call her the apple. The Bible didn't call her the apple. It said fruit. We don't know what the fruit was, but y'all call it whatever you want. It's fruit. She ate it. And the saddest verse in all of your Bible is the next one. And she gave to her husband who was with her, standing right there.

Hadn't that been a problem forever? Spiritually passive men need to be spiritually alert, spiritually on point. Spiritually vigilant, ready to take on the devil. Men who ought to be standing at the door of the home when the devil come with his lion package. Trying to give a delivery. The man's supposed to be there. You got macho.

That's the time for your macho to kick in. We're coming right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Sheppard, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Listen to the broadcast on demand at pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net where you'll find a host of great resources at our online store. Do you want to live the most joyful life possible? Actively seek the will of God and follow it. There's no better place to be, no more joyful place to be than right in the center of God's will. Let's join Pastor Paul for the rest of today's Destined for Victory message.

It will be so worth it. You see the devil's delivery truck pull up in your driveway. You supposed to step up. No, baby, I got this. Go to the door. Devil ring the door. I got a package for y'all.

Man's supposed to be standing there. What's up? What's this? Where'd this come from? Who sent that?

Well, the devil was slick. He didn't put his return address on it. Well, I don't take stuff I don't know where it comes from. Oh, I'm preaching already.

Oh, wait a minute. I'm going to get to this, but y'all got to stop taking stuff and you don't even know where it came from. You don't even know where it's coming. Somebody sent me something.

Come on. You got to know who's sending you something. You got to be vigilant. Just like I do as a pastor. I don't read everything coming to office because they've been over the decades of pastoring. There have been folk who want to shoot at me from the dark.

They are spiritual emotional snipers. They will put either a phony name and address for the return or they'll put nothing there and they think I'm stupid enough to open it up and let them fill me with the garbage, the toxic message that they have. My staff knows you don't put a letter in front of me. Y'all remember the old fashioned way. You couldn't give the general food from somewhere.

He didn't know where that came from. So there was somebody who ate it. Look, I'm a general in God's army. You can't just hand me letters from folk trying to shoot at me. The devil's after me. And so my staff know. You look at it. If it's suspicious, you read enough to figure out whether this is a legitimate message or not.

If it's not legitimate, I don't need to hear about it or see it. Straight in the trash. Amen, but in the early days when I was my own secretary and had to open up everything, you know, I first got to California. I was the secretary. I was the receptionist.

Hello, may I help you? I'm calling for the pastor. Is he there?

Yes. Hold on. I put you on hold.

I get back on. Hello. That's the way you start out in ministry.

You can't be cute when you're just starting out. But now that I got other folk to do it, y'all answer the phone. Y'all pick it up. Y'all read it.

I'll pray your protection. And they get mad because they've all experienced, I don't believe what they said. I don't believe what they wrote.

I don't believe. I know, but that's part of why you get paid. You just got to take it. You just got to stomach it in Jesus' name because there's some hateful folk out here and the devil is at the bottom of it all. And so we need to learn how to handle messages from the enemy.

Don't receive that in. God has a good plan for you, so don't let the devil mess it up. So in your life, when the devil comes around to tell you that you need to be doing this or that or the other out there, don't worry about what the church say. They blame it on the church.

The church doesn't define doctrine. God gave us his manual, the word of God. Don't ask me to love you and lie to you.

I heard that you are positive. Yes, I preach a positive message. And the positive message includes you need to stay away from sin because sin will take you down. And so we had to be faithful and true to the word of God. And so I want to let you know the best life is the life of compliance with the will of God. In that, you will find righteousness, peace, and joy and all the things you need. Purpose is found in the mind of God. Your fulfillment is found in the mind of God. Everything the devil says is good.

He's a liar. It might feel good, but how many know everything that feels good doesn't have a good result? See, they used to say back when I was young, back in the seventies and stuff, people would say dumb things like if it feels good, do it. All us old heads have heard stuff like that.

We just come along. If it feels good, are you out of your mind? Do you know how much stuff feels good that you better run as far and as fast away from as you possibly can? Not everything that feels good you ought to do. Some things feels good, so don't do it.

It feels good, so you know it's a trap. The wages of sin, they might have a pleasurable moment, but the wages of sin is death. It is a gift of God when he gives us eternal life. We need to understand obeying God gives us a promise. He says, if you obey me, I got blessings that he describes as a hundredfold that I want to bring into your life. Now, with that premise, I want to take you back and walk you through this passage. So, go with me now back up to verse 17, Mark chapter 10 verse 17, because we're going to learn what it is you have to do to experience what I'm describing as that which will be so worth it.

Verse 17 of Mark's gospel, chapter 10. Now, as Jesus was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? So, Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one that is God.

Pause right there. First of all, look at this encounter. Look at the fact that an impressive person approaches Jesus in an impressive way. Why do you say this guy's impressive? Because in the three different synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we get from each of them a piece of information about the young man that causes me to describe him as impressive. Matthew's gospel tells us he's young. Luke's gospel calls him a ruler, and all three synoptic gospels refer to him as wealthy.

So, thus, we commonly hear about him. He is a rich, young ruler. How is that for impressive? Rich, young, in charge. How's that for your social media profile? I'm rich, I'm young, I'm a baller. Come on. Y'all come on into the 21st century.

Come on into urban vernacular. Rich, young ruler or rich, young baller. Rich, young, in charge.

How impressive is that? How is that for people living a fantasy life? What do we value more than being young? You got folk who old still calling themselves young. Let me prove it. How many folk are young that are listening to this message right now? Raise your hand if you're young.

Look around. Do you see the deception? Now, see, some of the smarter folk, I saw some of my aides that said, Pastor, I ain't falling for that.

I'm not falling for that. I'm so glad they've learned what I had to learn. I fought for my youth as long as I could. I kept calling myself young as long as I could.

After a while, I had to give it up. Here's what I say now. I'm young at heart. Oh, that's what I say now. I'm young at heart.

That you can't take from me. I'm going to be an old man trying to say, but I'm young at heart. Hallelujah.

You all might have to help me walk, but I'm young at heart. Thanks so much for being here for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Today's message, it will be so worth it, as well as any recent message from Pastor Paul, can be found on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net, your online home for the Destined for Victory ministry.

Now, before we wrap things up on today's program, Pastor Paul has joined me from his studio in California. Well, here we are at the beginning of the year, Pastor, and this is always a time for reflection, maybe setting some new goals. Are you ready for a new year after 2020? I can't wait to get into 2021.

Boy, this has been some year. Tell our listeners what God has put on your heart as we start 2021. Well, as we begin the broadcast year, they'll hear me open with a couple of messages where I'm just kind of setting our focus and helping us to realize that we must keep eternity in view. And I go back to the resurrection of Christ.

The reason why he was raised from the dead was to give us life abundant and eternal. And I set our focus there. And then you'll hear me begin to teach on the matter of prayer, because if we're going to get through 2021, we're only going to do it through prayer. We've got to get through the rest of this pandemic and all of its fallout, and it's going to take prayer. And we need to make sure prayer is always firing the winning shot, saying, Lord, we don't have the power, but you have the power to help us get through this.

And so I'm looking forward to helping people refocus and helping us center ourselves in things that are most important. Prayer and keeping an eternal perspective are among them. I'm reminded of the words of 20th century Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. Aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in.

Aim at earth and you'll get neither. Thanks for that great reminder, Pastor Paul, as we head into a brand new year. This is one of the reasons why we hope you'll start the new year off by giving your most generous gift to Destin for Victory so that we can continue to help listeners all over the world refocus their perspective on Jesus. And when you give this month, Pastor Paul would like to send you a copy of his booklet, It Pays to Serve Jesus.

Consider the words of our Lord in the Gospel of Luke. Truly, I tell you, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times more in this age and in the age to come eternal life. Well, this is a promise from the very mouth of God. And as you dive into this resource from Pastor Paul, you'll be encouraged to remember that every promise God makes is a promise God keeps. Again, the booklet is called It Pays to Serve Jesus and it's our gift to you by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory today. Please call 855-339-5500 to give over the phone or mail your gift to Destin for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

You can also make a safe and secure donation from our website, pastorpaul.net. Rich, young, in charge. That's who comes to Jesus. He's rich, he's young, he's a baller. That's what his Instagram says, his Facebook says, his Twitter says. Just a picture with him grinning.

Rich, young, baller. So he comes to Jesus and an impressive man, rich, young ruler, comes to Jesus in what I consider a very impressive way. He runs to Jesus. He ran to Jesus, but ultimately he walked away. His story comes your way tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, It Will Be So Worth It. But until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.