Prayer Matters, Part 2 (cont'd)

You'll only see the power of God when people get on one accord so that the electricity of the anointing can flow right down your road, right through your church, right through your fellowship, right through your ministry. There's no breakage in the flow of the power of God. And so God's serious about this stuff.

So you have to make sure your horizontal relationships are well managed. If a brother or sister in Christ sins against you, how should you respond? Find out next on this Friday edition of Destined for Victory.

Hello and thanks for stopping by. Well, the Bible has a step-by-step, easy to follow guideline about what to do when a fellow believer in Christ has done you harm. You'll find it in Matthew chapter 18. And today, Pastor Paul Shepherd takes you there. As you follow along, pay special attention to this timeless truth from God's Word, your relationship life can have a profound effect on your prayer life. Today's message is coming right up, but remember you can always visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand.

Pastorpaul.net. Now let's join Pastor Paul for today's Destined for Victory message, Prayer Matters. Do not talk to other people about your offender when you haven't talked to your offender about him or herself. That's what Jesus said. And if they hear you, you've gained them. It goes on to say, if they won't hear you, then find one or two others that by the mouth of two or three, every witness will be established.

What does that mean? So I already have tried to talk to you and you don't hear me, but we need to get this together because I'm offended and I'm trying to work this through so that you don't hinder my relationship with God. So I go find one or two others so that there are now three people who are trying to tell you the same thing.

You get it? Go find two or three. Now don't go find your two best friends.

Oh, I'm trying to help you. First of all, they aren't interested in your witnesses being your buddies. If you're trying to get the offender to understand, go find one or two objective people who they can trust. Go find a leader, somebody who doesn't have a personal relationship with you, but perhaps a spiritual relationship with both of you. Go find somebody who is in love with neither one of you, but they do want to see the truth prevail and they want to see the will of God done in both of your lives. And that's why if you can't find anybody else, go to your leaders and say, Hey, would you sit with me? I'm trying to get something reconciled, get something worked through and find somebody who is trustworthy and make sure that they are the witness and then they can hear the two of you and they can give some counsel. And it goes on to say that even if that doesn't work, take them to the church.

What is he trying to say? He's saying, do whatever you have to do because we have to walk with one another. We can't have these disjointed, dysfunctional things going on in church and see the power of God come. Power of God will not fall where you got junk that's undealt with. You'll only see the power of God when people get on one accord so that the electricity of the anointing can flow right down your road, right through your church, right through your fellowship, right through your ministry. There's no breakage in the flow of the power of God. And so God's serious about this stuff.

So you have to make sure your horizontal relationships are well managed. And just a quick word. I won't turn to this, but let me just say in first Peter three husbands, you're told, make sure you're in sync with your wife. If you want God to hear your prayers, that your prayers be not hindered is the language that Peter uses. You got to make sure you're dwelling with your wife according to knowledge and that to the best of your ability, you are in sync. Now y'all going to have disagreements and all that, but agree however you can so that there's no spiritual breakage.

If you can't pray with your spouse, something's wrong and you need to figure out what it is and get it straight because God's not trying to hear y'all praying separately and you can't come together and pray. That just came. That's not in my notes.

If you need that, take that. Don't try to be a spiritual wonder at church and not speaking at home. We'll come in here to my praise the Lord. God bless you. Giving people words of knowledge and encouragement and all this stuff.

One more reference. Let me take you to the Old Testament, which is what's referred to here in James five after he tells us the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous avails much. By the way, the righteous, please understand our righteousness comes from our standing in Christ. My righteousness is first positional and then it becomes experiential. You are a sinner first by nature and then by nurture. We're born in sin shaping an iniquity, so we're sinners first by nature, but when we grow up, as we're growing up, we start learning to practice sin. So you're a sinner by nature, then by nurture. How are you righteous?

First by nature. He imputes his righteousness to me. I'm first positionally righteous and then he teaches me. That's what your walk is about, learning how to live in righteousness because God is not trying to have you be one of these saints who glibly sins on a regular basis. Well, you know, God forgives.

Yeah, we know he forgives, but you're not supposed to be giving him something different to forgive every day. No, no, that's, that's presuming upon the grace of God. Remember grace, I talk about it often. Grace has two aspects to it. One is it is that unmerited favor.

We love talking about the unmerited favor. That is grace. God gives you favor and you don't even deserve it. Yes, thank God for that grace. But according to Titus 2, grace also has another function. That is teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. See, some folk don't want that part of grace. I just want him to keep on blessing my mess.

Not going to do it. And so you have to learn that righteousness is first by position and then by experience, first by nature and then by nurture. If you're not nurturing righteousness in your life, you have a right to question whether you even know the Lord.

The proof that you know him is that you cannot live in sin without conviction. And so he says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous, that's you if you're truly in Christ, that avails much. And then look at verse 17 of James 5. Let me wrap up this message with that then I'll get on to some other aspects of prayer in the coming messages. Verse 17, James 5. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. What's he referencing? He's referencing first King 17. I won't turn to it in the interest of time.

Let me just talk you through it. God sends Elijah to a king of God's people who is so out of order. Number one, cause he married the wrong sister. They have married the sister called Jezebel. You would only read your Bible. You know that's a problem because if you haven't read Jezebel in your Bible, you heard Jezebel enough to know that that's not a positive thing when somebody is referred to as a Jezebel. Well, here's the king of God's people married to the Jezebel.

Instead of being the king, he's supposed to be a king of righteousness, a king that honors God and obeys his word. Instead of that, he has married the sister who is really running things. He might be the king, but she's in charge. You ever seen a marriage like that? Not yours, not yours, but there are marriages like that. He can call himself whatever he wants, head of the home, all that. Just knock yourself or call yourself whatever you are.

I heard one sister say, well, if he the head, I'm the neck. I turn it where I need it to go. Stay with us. We're only about halfway through today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. 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 to listen to Christian radio like Destined for Victory. That's why your gifts are so important today. Give online safely and securely from our website, pastorpaul.net or just give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again the number is 855-339-5500. From the miraculous to the mundane, God's mercy never fails. It is new every morning. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. Prayer matters. Jezebel was the neck. She's leading God's people in idolatry and Ahab's letting it happen.

He's bought into her stuff, letting it happen. God sees from heaven and he will always respond. And in 1st Kings 17, God sends Elijah to Ahab and tell him, listen, you're leading people into disobedience. God is sick of it so he's judging the land because of your sin, because of the sin you're leading the people into so there will be no rain or dew for three and a half years. See when a true prophet speaks he's not trying to make something happen. He's just saying here's what thus saith the Lord. And it dried up for three and a half years.

You know the story. Then the Lord sends him by the brook and he drinks by the brook. God has ravens feed him because this is during a drought now.

And so the prophet is eaten and he's sitting there by the brook and he hangs out there for quite a while. But eventually the brook dries up. I came to tell you if your brook dries up, don't panic until you remind yourself that I serve the same God of Elijah.

And just because a brook dries up doesn't mean he's not going to take care of me. God will do whatever he has to do to take care of me. And so you got to believe God in a drought. Believe God when your resource dries up. When your job goes away. Believe God when your company folds. Believe God when finances are not looking good.

If you serve the God of Elijah, he cares as much about you as he did about Elijah. So what happens the brook dries up. That's the natural provision is now gone temporarily. The natural resource is gone and the ravens stopped flying in his meals. Cause you know the ravens that was the original door dash. That was the original door dash man and where it was will fly that food in there to that prophet. And one day the brooks drying up and he said, wow, okay, this is getting a little.

And then finally it goes to mud. He said, I can't drink anymore. And that same day the ravens stopped flying in and you know how Elijah would have had to feel.

Amen. Raven a little late today. All it meant is God is shifting your resource and he's okay, Lord, what does this mean?

Ravens not here, brooks dry, but you sent me here and I'm looking to you. God said, all right, get up, go to Zarephath as a widow there and I've commanded her. First I commanded ravens to feed you. Now they're off that assignment. I've now commanded a widow to feed you.

Why? Cause she's got to get a blessing and she can only get her blessing through obedience. So he sends her, I don't have time to walk you through that.

Read first King 17 when you get a chance. And here's the man of God saying feed me first. Here's a widow got a son to feed in the midst of a severe famine. And the man talking about feed me first. Now y'all know if a preacher show up at your place, you hardly got enough for yourself and preacher pastor Paul, pastor Troy show up to my, yeah, hook me up. It'd be like the devil is a liar.

Great big old robust man come busting up in my house. You need to go somewhere. No, that was a word from God. That wasn't a word of selfishness that was God testing her obedience and she passed the test, fed the man of God, the Lord supernaturally provided.

When your Brook dries up, don't worry cause God will supernaturally provide. Just make sure you are doing what he's told you to do and he will get you through your tough time. Now that's chapter 17 but then the Lord after the three and a half year period, the Lord sends Elijah now back to Ahab to say, okay, now what you got to say now that you've seen what God will do if you don't get in the center of his will. Long story short, there has to be a showdown between Elijah, the prophet of God and the false prophets of bail that Ahab and Jezebel have been connected with all this time and God says, all right, it's time for me to show up prophet.

Go and call him out and he called him out. Read first Kings 18 when you get a chance. I mean he was cocky under the anointing, downright cocky. He called him up on the mountain says, time we cut out all this stuff. If God is God, we're going to serve him. If bail is God, we're going to serve him. So we're going to have a showdown right here right now and see who's God. And he told the prophets of bail, y'all prepare the altar. We're going to have a sacrifice by fire. We're going to call on our gods and whoever answers by fire, that's the God that we are to serve.

And you know the story. If you've read it, they prepared the altar and the sacrifice and all that and they start calling on their false God and Elijah, he's so annoying. He's cocky when there's no answer. He said, y'all not calling loud enough. He must be in another room. Y'all better call real loud.

He must be on a vacation. I mean just cocky under the anointing. After a while, the false prophets were so desperate, the Bible says they start cutting themselves, trying to make their God answer. And when there was no answer and they all bleeding, then Elijah said, all right, now it's my time with my God. And he said, now the sacrifice is here, but that's too easy. He said, pour water buckets and buckets of water. If God's going to answer by fire, let's get him some water to have to deal with. Man, he was under the anointing, all of that. And they finally drenched it. There's this little mode of water around the sacrifice, all of this. And he calls on the God of heaven and earth. God answered by fire, burned up the sacrifice, picked up all the water. And then he said to Israel, now don't let those false prophets escape. Get them and kill them.

Why? Because in that day before Christ, the only way to deal with sin was to destroy the center. You better be glad you're under grace.

Now here's why I'm pointing this out. James said, he's a man just like us with all that anointing of chapter 18. Go to 1 Kings 19. Jezebel has heard that the prophets are slain.

She heard about what happened on the top of the mountain. As she said, may the gods do to me and even worse if by this time tomorrow Elijah is not dead. She put out a contract on a prophet. Now you would think with all that anointing that he had the day before, all that calling down fire, all that. You would think if you operate under that kind of anointing and you get word that Jezebel put out a contract on you, you would think he would say, you better tell her unless she plan to be burnt up, she better leave me alone.

And the hit men who show up, they better leave me alone. That's what you would think if he's operating that kind of anointing, you would think he's just drunk with spiritual power. Instead he heard, there's a contract I got on you. He's all right.

Thank you for letting me know. My man took off. Read it when you get a chance. He ran for his life. How do you run for your life operating in that kind of anointing is called being human. And sometimes we just don't understand that your personal way of viewing things can change and fluctuate circumstantially. God's not done with you just cause sometimes your humanity gets in the way. See, sometimes some of you all think you give yourself a grade depending on how blessed you think you are, how anointed you think you are, how obedient you've been. And you got to understand, yes, God calls us to obedience.

Yes, God calls us to walk in faith, but there are times when you are walking in strong faith and there are times when you are struggling in weak faith. There are times when you can believe God for crazy miracles and there are other times when you say, Lord, please help me just to get through another day. I know what it's like top right under the anointing one day and before too long you'll say it like Elijah said when you read a first Kings 19 that man ended up saying, tell you what, Lord, I'm a go to sleep. Do me a favor. Don't let me wake up here. I'm a go to sleep. Just take me on into your presence.

And when he woke up, he's, oh man, I've been there. Lord, come on, let's just be done with this guy. See, you're not in charge. I'm in charge. You can't take yourself off duty. I'm your commanding officer.

I'm the only one that can take you off duty. And so what the Lord did was he said, tell you what, look over there. He looked over there and there was food. He's in the wilderness now and he looks over and he sees hot bread and cold water. God hooking him up and God said, eat cause I'm about to send you on a journey and you're gonna need the strength. You who are trying to get God to cooperate with your plans, please understand he has no interest in your plans. He's interested in his plan. His plan for your life is what matters. And so you've got to learn to walk in obedience. Quit trying to get God to give you a grace pack for the next year of your life.

There is no grace anointing that will last a year. Here's comes in daily increments. Give us this day our daily bread.

Mercy is available morning by morning. I've often said when you're up late at night, tell me that I can't make it another day. Go to sleep. I've been there. I know what I can.

I, this is it. I can't do this. Go to sleep. All that means is you ran out of that day's grace.

That's all that means. I've run out of grace and mercy for the day. Do yourself a favor. Tell all the folk in your house, my mercy and grace have run out. I need all y'all to understand it's run out for the day.

I was good at 6 p.m., 7 p.m., but now I got no more. Y'all don't want to push up on me now. Do yourself a favor. Go somewhere and watch TV. Read a book. Pray and fast. Do whatever you got to do. Leave me alone. I'm telling you because that's the way it works.

He gives you morning by morning the grace and mercy you need, the strength you need. When it runs out, quit telling God you can't make it. Of course you can't make it. You ran out. Go to sleep.

Just lay down. Go to sleep and believe God that the next morning when you have to get up and get started, the mercy and the grace will be right there to see you through. You know, when you get right down to it, God has us here for no other reason than to worship God and to share his gospel with the lost. That's why Destined for Victory ministry exists because Pastor Paul Shepherd wants to introduce as many people as he can to Jesus Christ, the only name by which we can be saved, but he can't do it alone.

It takes people like you, men and women from all walks of life who are committed to praying for the ministry and offering financial support. And when you give your generous gift this month, we have a gift of our own to share with you, Pastor Paul's booklet, It Pays to Serve Jesus. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus tells us that all those who follow him will receive 100 times more than they give up. Yes, there will be tough times and sacrifices along the way.

You may have to give up a few things, some old habits, maybe even a relationship or two. But as you'll discover in this outstanding resource from Pastor Paul, following Jesus is always worth it in this life as well as the one to come. That's Pastor Paul's booklet, It Pays to Serve Jesus. And it's our gift to you by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory this month. Do that by calling 855-339-5500 and give over the phone or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Now you can also make a safe and secure donation on our website, PastorPaul.net. Come on somebody. Got a wonderful relationship. Everything's going. Y'all clicking on all cylinders. You pray.

Y'all sick of one another. You still pray. And that's what you want to learn to do. Be a person who prays all the time because God is ready to manifest his glory in your life. And so you need to develop an effective prayer life. All of us here at Destined for Victory hope you have a great weekend and that you'll join us again Monday when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message Foundations for Effective Prayer. Until then though, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.