Developing a Lifestyle of Faith, Part 6 (cont'd)

So the question for you is going to be, through the rest of your life, what did God say about this? If God has a clear word on the matter, then you've got to follow that. No need of praying. No need of praying. God already spoke. Do what he said, even when it seems ridiculous, and you will see God's results take place. It was one of the worst battle strategies in the history of war.

It was also one of the most successful. Hello and thanks for being here for today's Destin for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Wherever you are, however you may be listening, it's always great to have you with us. Well, you may remember the Battle of Jericho, the seven-day march, the unified shout, the tumbling down of the great stone wall.

Like so many other war stories in Scripture, the Battle of Jericho reminds us that God's ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts. As you'll see today, sometimes he may ask you to do the ridiculous, and if he does, you'll have a very good reason for doing so. Stay right here or visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also listen to and subscribe to the program at Apple Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Now, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destin for Victory message, developing a lifestyle of faith. When your job calls you to do wrong, you say, I can't do it. I'm about justice. I'm not changing somebody's file unjustly.

I can't do that. I work for a just God. I really don't work for you all. You all are my resource, but God is my source.

I'm trying to put somebody in a position to be blessed. You better hear this word because some of you all want to go to the next level and you haven't gotten to the next level of obedience. We're always talking about the next level, and you haven't obeyed God on this level. You're disqualified for the next level until you get in sync. You've got to stand for what's right because it is right.

God is always on the side of right. And so on your job, they ask you to do something wrong, say, I can't do that. I can't have falsified information.

I can't do that. I'm a child of the most high God, and I've got to do things that are just. That's burning in me, so somebody here needs to hear that. Your job is going to compromise your faith if you're not careful. And you don't want to displease God. Forget displeasing your boss. You can just please your boss all day long, but don't displease God on your job. They administer justice.

Do what's right. Stand for what's right. So they not only conquer kingdoms, administer justice, they gain what was promised. Ask what you will. I want to encourage you as we wrap up this theme of faith.

I want to encourage you. The Bible said, Jesus said in John 15, If you abide in me and my word abides in you, go on and ask what you will. Some of you got to start praying for what you really want. Stop shortchanging God. Pray for what you want. Lord, here's what I want you to do. And believe him. You say, but am I going to get 100 percent results?

I don't know anybody who gets 100 percent results, but I'm a shoot for the highest percentage I get. Come on, don't let your mysteries dampen your faith. There are a lot of things. God, why didn't you do that? Why didn't you answer that prayer?

Why didn't you do that in the way I was expecting you to do? You're not going to get that answer, at least on this side. Maybe, you know, the old saints used to sing farther along. We'll know all about it.

I'm not so sure now. I think when we get to heaven, we're not going to have a bunch of mysteries. I think soon as we get in the glory, none of it's going to matter because the Bible says he wiped every tear away. Anything that would bring pain, any memory that would bring pain will be erased. So I'm saying that to say don't trip on your mysteries because they're only temporary, too.

So what you want to do is believe God for what you want and what you need. As I walked into this service this morning, I'm walking in and there's Moms McKean not being rolled in in her wheelchair. She's walking into the church. Just walking in, I walked up to her.

I said, look at you at the 830 service. Now this is the woman who the doctors, I was right there at Stanford Hospital when they said she was not going to live seven more days. They were calling us all in. She wasn't going to live seven more days and that was June the 12th, I think it was.

I'm preaching this at the end of August, late August. They said she was out of here before June the 19th. And here she comes walking into the church this morning because we asked the Lord to spare her so she could come in this church and see it with her church family. She not only came, she sat through all the dedication services, heard all the speakers. She said, all right, I'm ready for my pastor to preach. I got back up. I'm starting to preach again. And she's still here. I said, when are you going to let God take you home?

She just kind of hanging out, just enjoying the residual blessings. I need you to understand something. There's no need of you praying little cheap prayers. You won't know if it was God when it happens because it was too small.

It was too anything could have happened. I'm believing God to do stuff that blows everybody's mind. Let's say, wait a minute. That doesn't make sense.

Well, that's because he does more than we can ask or even imagine. And so you want to be among those people who are exercising that level of faith, gaining what was promised. It said who shut the mouths of lions is talking about Daniel, of course, quenched the fury of the flames. Talking about the three Hebrew boys escaped the edge of the sword and weakness turned to strength.

Oh, by the way, in weakness turned to strength. That's about Samson. You all got to know the Bible. If you see a picture of Samson and he's got muscles look like he was in a contest. You know, one knows Mr. Olympia contest, something like that. If you see a picture like that, say it's wrong.

It's a lie. Samson didn't look like that. He looked like a weakling. No one would have been astounded by his strength if his muscles had muscles.

You know what I'm saying? They just say, well, look, man, that dude, he stay in the gym. Samson looked like a couple of these brothers around here, just pitiful looking.

And make sure you're awake for the last 14 minutes of the message. But despite his average appearance, see, God can't get glory if he's looking like, well, you expect that out of somebody like that. But God gets a lot of glory when he looks like an average Joe. But when the Spirit of the Lord comes on him. And when the Spirit of the Lord came on him, he didn't grow muscles. It was God's strength. He kept looking ordinary, but God was doing the extraordinary through him. That's what you got to realize. God isn't going to change everything. He'll just get the job done.

And they wanted to know, I mean, they were obsessed. Where is his strength coming from? Because it's sure not in his arms.

Sure not in his chest. Where is his strength coming from? It was coming from on high. And so he was able to do what could not be explained. You need to believe God for the same thing.

Became powerful in battle, routed foreign armies. That would apply to any number of people, including Gideon, who he named. Women received back their dead, raised to life again, both Old Testament and New.

We see that happening. Here's what I want to point out before I wrap this up. Verse 35, in the middle of verse 35, the scene changes. Everything I just read were rewards of faith.

Conquering kingdoms, routing armies. Oh, we tore them up. All that, that's reward of faith. Thank God for the reward. But right in the middle of the verse, others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging. Still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed into. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. And what's the comment? They didn't have enough faith.

No, the comment is the world was not worthy of them. I need us to understand that so that we have a balanced faith. The second half of Pastor Paul Sheppard's message is coming right up. We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support.

Those are gifts that help Pastor Paul share the good news of salvation in Christ with a growing audience. Destined for Victory is a listener supported ministry. And as we continue to walk through some challenging times together, your support is critical because now more than ever, people are looking for answers that only God can give. So please give online safely and securely from our website, pastorpaul.net, or give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again, that number is 855-339-5500. When you give a generous gift today, we have a gift of our own to share with you. I'll tell you all about it after today's message. Well, it's easy to follow Jesus into victory. How about following him in his suffering? The servant is not greater than his master, he tells us.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, developing a lifestyle of faith. Faith isn't going to get you out of every jam. It's not designed to be a get out of jam card.

You whip it out. That's not faith, that's Batman. I'm talking about the old Batman. See, I don't go with any of this newfangled stuff. I just don't, I'm too stuck on the old. Even when they came out with all those new Star Wars and all that, I never went.

I didn't sense any anointing even in the commercials. Because I saw the three best they ever made. Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back, and the returns of the Jedi. That's what I'm talking about. Oh, Yoda. His ugly self, but he had power.

And the same thing with everything else they reinvented. Give me that old corny Batman that I grew up on. Saturday morning, high water pajamas, eating cereal, and watching. Come on some of y'all. Y'all old like me, you saw the original one. Saturday morning, eating cereal, watching Batman. Oh, he had everything in the world on his belt.

You didn't even have to worry about the trouble he had gotten himself into, because you knew he had something. This is my anti-reverse, this crazy stuff. Car looked corny, but I still wanted to see it. Go down the pole, we tried our best to find something in the neighborhood that could be like the Bat Pole. Adam West went down. By the time he got to the bottom, he had his mask and stuff on.

Where am I? Oh, yeah. So, you're not going to get out of every jam.

Why? Not because God can't do it. He chooses to get glory out of the trial of faith. See, the world, throughout Christian history, there's always been revival where there have been people willing to not only live for God, but to die for God. People who are not only willing to rejoice in him, but to suffer for him. And we got a generation that we have to preach this to, because we live in such comfortable environments here in the Western Hemisphere, in Christianity here in 21st century America. It's so comfortable for us that we have to understand we're going to go through some trials, and even when we go through our worst trials, it's not going to be as bad as it has been in times past.

For many others, and that's why we got to tighten up our accents. That's why when we get to build out a building, where we can worship God anytime we want, how dare we dishonor God, having done that for us, when there are people around the world today who are in jail. I have heard of pastors who are serving a 50-year sentence, and all they did was try to convene a church like this. And they're rotting in jails. But when people hear from them, they are in there with the victory.

Nobody's denouncing Christ. Nobody's saying it's not worth it to serve him, because they're not spoiled. They don't think God is some genie who exists to give them everything they want. They're saying that if I suffer for him, I will also reign with him.

That's what I want somebody to leave here saying. I'm going to believe for miracles. I'm going to believe for the supernatural. But when I have to suffer for being saved, when I have to suffer for doing right, when I have to suffer for going against the grain of the society, and saints is happening more and more. We are now being persecuted subtly, but I think it's going to become more prominent. And all we're doing is standing on the Word of God.

I've got pastor friends who are caving left and right. They're changing definitions because the world's changing definitions, and they're doing stuff because the world is doing it. And I'm going to be one of those few people standing who say, how dare I say that God's Word is something other than what it says. I don't care who doesn't like me.

I get letters every now and then. You're such a prominent person, and you're so magnanimous, and you have such a pool with people, and if you would just... And they fill in the blank, whatever particular agenda they want me to adopt. I've had people want to know, how progressive are you? I said, that depends on what we progressing about. I'm not going to progress past the Word of God. Not this pastor. You're the one that's going to do that.

I've got a list of places you can go because they're caving in. But right here, you're going to hear me preaching the Word of God. You know why? Because you all didn't call me.

Didn't call me. One day, I've got to stand before him, and he's going to want to know what I did with his Word. And I can't stand there and say, well, see what happened? So Paul said to his son Timothy, before he got his head chopped off, talking about the trial of faith. Paul, after he wrote 2 Timothy 4, some days after that, he went to Nero's chopping block, and they split his head open and killed him for his faith. Now, here's a man who had all kinds of faith, but at the end of his life, he dies in the trial of faith. We have to stop thinking that the reward is always good and the trial is always bad. No, no, if it's faith, if it's generated by faith, it is all to the glory of God. And one day, we're going to hear him say, well done. That's what I'm living for, saints.

That's what you've got to live for. So whatever trials you've got to go through, they're nothing compared to what many other saints in other parts of the world are going through. Quit crying over little elementary school trials.

I know they hurt us because we're going through them, but I mean, there are people around the world who are doing some serious suffering just for being saved, and you mad that somebody in the church looked at you funny. Oh, stop it. In Jesus' name, just quit it.

Just grow up. So what they look, some folks funny looking. That's the only look they can give you is a funny look. They looked at me funny.

Hey, funny looking, what they going to do? Rough today. But when you go through the trial, don't think it any less significant than when you get the reward. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Go through the trial. Just go through it to the glory of God. Lord, this getting on my nerves, but I'm going to go through this in a way that pleases you. These people are making me sick, but I'm going to go through it in a way that pleases you.

My spouse is dancing on my reserved nerve, but I'm going to treat them the way you want me to treat them. My job is acting funny. My change is strange, but God, I'm going to be poor in your name. That's what you got to do. That's what you got to do.

Make sure you pass your test. James 1 and 2, count it all joy. He didn't say pick out the little things that are joyful. He said count it all joy. Just when they were getting you mad, count it joy. Not that you're mad, count it joy that you get to pass a test of faith. I get to show God that I'm not going to let these people make me a thermometer because you made me a thermostat.

Did you miss that? See, some of you all are thermometers. Whatever the temperature is that others create, you just go with it. You indicate what's going on. When there's hostility in the room, you get hostile. When there's anger in the room, you get angry.

When somebody come at you, you come back at them. All that's fleshly. That's what the flesh does, but the Spirit wants you to be a thermostat.

You set a thermostat, and it stays there, and everything else around it has to conform to that. Some of us have to make up in our mind, and we have to sometimes tell other folks, I can't be sucked into that. I can't go with that. That's not who I am. That's not what God's called me to do. You all gossiping, I'm going to sit here and tell you you're wrong.

I'm not going with this. I'm not going, just let that lay. No, no, I'm going to tell you straight, and then I'm going to wait and see if you're going to change, and if you're not going to change, I'm not going to be around you all. That's what you got to do.

I'm a thermostat. People living immoral around you, you got to say, no, no, I don't roll like that because I got to answer to God. Oh, I'm not perfect. I've had my slips or whatever the case is, but I've decided I'm going to serve the Lord. Some of you singles, imagine how much glory God will get when they come hitting up on you, and all they want is the cookies. All they want is just take you for a little test drive. You all know what I'm saying. Sitting up here looking holy, you know exactly what I'm saying. Take you for a little test drive right quick.

They're not buying, but can I take it out around the corner? And imagine how much glory God gets. Not when he takes your sex drive. I had one single one time ask me, pray that the Lord will take my sex drive.

I said, I'm not praying anything like that. Take your sex drive. You might need the drives at some point in your life. I was like, God, take the engine out of this car. No!

He said, but what I will pray is that God will teach you to walk by conviction, to make your decisions by conviction. No, I can't do this. No, you can't take me out for a test drive.

No, I'm not available. This is not Famous Amos. This ain't a cookie shop. Told you many times, sex is part of the benefits package of getting married.

You got to have a job before you get the benefits package. And imagine how much glory God gets when you say, that's where I am in my life now. I'm determined to honor God.

I'm determined that from this point moving forward. No, I'm not a virgin. No, I've had my times, and now I'm a sanctified, regenerated virgin. I'm going to give myself to God until I get married. I'm doing a lot of these little private weddings and quick weddings and all that stuff because people don't have time for all this buying and picking out and all they've been holding out. I love seeing that.

I love seeing that. Y'all make me nervous when you say, we're getting married next year, 15 months from now. I'm scared. Y'all supposed to be burning.

How can you wait another 15 months? You make me wonder, where's the burn? I love it when no men come and say, all right, Pastor, we got to get this done. Oh, that's my boy.

That's right. Got to get this done. I'm ready to roll. Tell that girl, we don't need all that long. He spends a $10,000 gown. Get something with Velcro.

Just rip it off. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message, developing a lifestyle of faith. Stop by pastorpaul.net to listen to any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

Well, as we navigate our way through some tough challenges in America and all over the world, we're seeing the Destined for Victory audience continue to grow. Adversity has a way of bringing with it a degree of spiritual awareness and growth, and friends like you have made it possible for Pastor Paul to minister to a growing audience. Thanks so much for lifting us up in prayer and giving generously to make this ministry possible. Today, we'd like to lift you up in prayer. From the home page, pastorpaul.net, click Contact Us.

Tell us how we can pray for you. While you're there, be sure to ask for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, yours at no cost or obligation. And here's something else, a booklet from Pastor Paul called Lessons from the Cocoon. Butterflies don't start out as butterflies.

They're caterpillars, grounded, earthbound. But later on, a transformation takes place, and they take flight. Your life in Christ works the same way. In Lessons from the Cocoon, Pastor Paul reminds you that God is at work in you even when you can't see it. And in his perfect timing, you will, like the butterfly, take flight because you were born to fly.

That's Lessons from the Cocoon, our gift to you by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. You know why some of us are very slow in our spiritual development? Because we feed the body really well, but the spirit is starving to death. If you're going to go where God has destined you to go, you're going to have to feed your spirit as much or more as you feed your body. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul's shepherd's message, Born to Fly. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.