Jesus' Prayer for You, Part 2

So that when you have a stumbling point, when you have one of those power failures, the Bible says the righteous fall but they're not utterly cast down.

God will pick you back up and he'll say now go on and try it again and let my grace be sufficient for you. On the night before Jesus died for you, he prayed for you. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. On yesterday's program, Pastor Paul began to examine Christ's prayer for us in the Garden of Gethsemane. You'll find that message as well as any of Pastor Paul's recent messages on demand at pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net, where you can learn more about the ministry, contact us for prayer, or make a safe and secure donation online. As you follow along today, keep this in mind. In the moments leading up to his arrest, Jesus took the time to pray specifically for you and me.

And he did so in three specific ways. So now let's join Pastor Paul for today's teaching, Jesus Prayer for You. I come to let somebody know when you go through those times of uncertainty, God will pick you up. And he'll carry you. Sometimes he'll carry you through a whole season where you're so insecure, you're not praying like you are.

You're not reading the word like you are. Sometimes you're not even going to church like you are. You drop off the ministry scene for a little while because you're preoccupied with your own issues. I want to let you know God says, I still got you covered.

I've got you covered. Some of you can testify. You went through a little prodigal season doing your thing. Instead of letting trouble drive you to God, you let it drive you away from God. You took a little strike. God, I don't understand why you're not answering my prayers, why you're not coming through, why all this trouble's in my life. And you struck. You got your little sign. And you picketed God.

Till you explain everything to me, I'll just stand out here. And isn't it wonderful to know God's not like us? God's not vengeful. He says, oh, you want to strike somebody, huh?

No, he's not like that. He covers you. Jesus prayed that we would be protected when the enemy would try to pick us off during our tough times. He prayed that we'd be protected. He prayed that we would be protected and part of that would be that God would keep us and give us a peace that would take us through our tough times. I want to let you know God has promised you peace. Isaiah 26 and 3 says, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on him. So you got to understand, God promised you peace.

And when you're going through tough times, God will protect you, protect your heart and mind by giving you a peace that Philippians 4 and 7 says will pass understanding. You ever had a peace that you didn't even understand yourself? I ought to be going crazy.

Wait a minute, let me stop now. Why am I not losing my mind? And it's because of God's keeping power. He'll keep you in peace. It'll be a strange place where you say I ought to be in turmoil here, but somehow I'm being kept. Now, understand this peace is conditional.

It said whose mind has stayed on him. You got to keep your mind on the Lord and you got to say, God, I'm going to walk with you as closely as I can. But even when I go through those insecure times and I'm not doing all that I ought to do, I thank you that you're a God who protects me.

I thank you that you're looking out for me. I thank you that you're a shepherd who has a staff in your hand. And when I go running, I've told you before on Psalm 23, you know where it says thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

A shepherd has both. The rod will beat off the jackals and everything that tries to come against the sheep. But the staff is not only for the walking of the shepherd, the staff is for the protection of the sheep because sheep will go wander off from the flock and go on off somewhere.

And when you're going through your tough times, you're over here somewhere, not going to church like you're supposed to. And next thing you know, over here, wandered off somewhere in the corner of your life and you get caught in the thicket. The shepherd knows that the sheep will often wander off and he has to find them, but he can find them because he'll hear them over there. He'll say, uh-huh, they wandered off again. And he'll just listen for where the noise is. And he'll find them somewhere caught. The thorns are stuck in them and they're over there hollering. And he'll get that staff.

It has a crook in it, you know, and put it around their neck and pull them away from that dangerous place and bring them back into safety. Let me tell you something. He'll keep you. He'll keep you. He'll keep you in peace. I want to let someone know that you can't afford to let the enemy rob you of your peace. Jesus prayed that your peace would stay intact, even when your life is going through changes that you don't understand. God said, I will give you peace. Stay close to me. I will give you peace.

I love the language of Philippians 4. It says it'll guard your heart and mind. The peace will stand there like a soldier. And just because you're going through trouble, the trouble doesn't have to get inside of you. And the trouble is coming, but the trouble will only go so far because when it gets to your heart and your mind, if you're just letting God be God in your life, peace will stand there. And say, no, no, you can't pass. And the trouble said, no, no, I need to get into the heart. I need to get into his mind.

I need to drive her crazy. But the peace will say, no, not here. Jesus has provided for us. He has protected us and he has given us his peace. Not only has he given us that keeping power for peace, but he will keep you from falling. The enemy wants you to have a fall from your walk with God.

He wants you to experience that failure that would make you so ashamed until you walk away from the Lord. But God has a keeping power. It's mentioned in several places in scripture in Jude, verse 24, as the writer was closing the book, he says to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy to the only God, our savior, be glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ, our Lord before all ages now and forevermore.

Amen. So you got to see it says to him who is able to keep you from falling, who keeps you from falling? It's not you, it's the Lord. Now he's talking about a fall that would utterly end your walk with God.

He's not saying to the one who will keep you from making absolutely no mistakes in your life. No, no, that's not what the scriptures say. The scriptures are very clear that we are human and as humans, we're going to have those times of faltering. And if you don't believe me, just look at scriptures like Psalm 37 24 that says though the righteous fall, they will not utterly be cast down. What that means is there are times when you're going to stumble.

You might as well admit it. There are times when you're not going to measure up, you're going to fall short of God's plan for your life. There are times when you're going to surprise yourself. You will think you were further down the road, but that's because you don't realize that unless you're tapping into God's power every day, there are some things about you that will surprise you. And so there are times don't ever get the feeling cocky.

Don't ever act like you can live your life on cruise control. You're going to need God right up to the end. I don't care how old you are.

Don't tell me about your age. You're going to need the power of the Spirit until the day you die. You're going to need him to protect you, to hold you, to keep you steady. And you will have those moments of faltering, of stumbling. But I'm so glad in Christ failures are written in pencil. In Christ, your failures are written in pencil. They're not in ink because you're called according to purpose. You have never made a mistake that will cost you your entire walk with God.

You have never had a failure that will be a fatal failure in your life. Thank God that in Christ, your failure is written in pencil. And the reason why it's written in pencil is because the Holy Spirit knows how to come along with his eraser. And he'll come along and say, well, you learn from that.

So I'm glad you went through it. Now let's just erase here. And he erases so good. You remember when you were a kid, you didn't know how to erase too good. And so you would write over where you hadn't erased properly and it just looked like a mess. You remember that? Or God forbid when you were on the chalkboard. Oh, that was one of the things I couldn't take. When people were writing on the board and then they would erase, but they wouldn't erase at all. And I'm just sitting there.

Get it all. That just bothered me. Anybody else that just bother when you see the little bits of a word that used to be there, still there, now you're writing over top of it. And oh, Lord. I'm so glad God doesn't erase like that.

He doesn't leave all that mess and junk in your life. After you learn your lessons, after you repent, he comes through and wipes it clean. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd. To listen to any of Pastor Paul's recent broadcasts, be sure to stop by pastorpaul.net any time to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net where you can contact us for prayer or make a safe and secure donation to the ministry there online. And stay tuned after the message when Pastor Paul joins me from his studio in California. But first, let's join him for the rest of today's Destined for Victory teaching. Jesus prayer for you. And the reason why you're going to end up being a big blessing to other folk is because you learn some things that put you on the right track. And unless you share with them your testimony, they never know it. Because God will so position you where you are now strong, where you used to be weak.

In fact, let me tell you something. When metal breaks at a certain point, if you weld it correctly, it will break to the right and to the left. But it won't break there again.

Because if you put it together right, instead of leaving weakness and vulnerability there, you will actually create a bond that was stronger than the original. And let me tell you something, God knows how to do that in your life so that when you have a stumbling point, when you have one of those power failures, the Bible says the righteous fall, but they're not utterly cast down. God will pick you back up and he'll say, now go on and try it again and let my grace be sufficient for you.

And you got to get tired. You got to get tired of the experience of being a spiritual yo-yo. You got to get tired of up and down and say, Lord, I'm ready now for you to bring some stability into my life. You got to get tired of going through the same problems in your marriage that you are contributing to, blowing up over the same old things. Don't you know insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results? You keep having the same old argument, same old fight, same old trouble.

Get before God and say, Lord, would you help me to go to a level of grace that will surprise my spouse? Help me go to a place where they are used to me going off about now. And suddenly they just see me saying, all right. And I'm not talking about just all right, but with a really bad attitude.

Let me help you because some of you all say, oh yeah, I can do the all right part. No, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about all right and then your attitude is bad the rest of the week, freezing them out in Jesus' name.

I'm not talking about that. Well, you got to get tired of that and say, Lord, keep me. I keep falling in the same trap. Keep on arguing about the same thing.

Keep on nagging about the same things. You've not called us to live in this kind of turmoil. And even if your spouse isn't praying for change, you can change your marriage by getting before God and changing yourself and letting the Lord take you to a new level of stability. And so we've got to learn that he will keep us from falling into the same old pit, the same old trap. He'll keep you from falling and even when you have your fall, he'll make sure that that failure is written in pencil because Jesus prayed for our protection, that we'd be protected from the enemy. And he prayed not only for our protection, but he prayed that God would bring us stability into our life. And he used the word here sanctify.

He prayed first for our protection and he prayed secondly for our sanctification. Now, you might think, well, I don't know that word. That's a that's a tough word. But I submit to you that many of us know what sanctified means, even if we don't know, we know what sanctified means.

Let me prove it to you in just a moment. Many of you and I've given this illustration before, but let me give it to those who have not heard it. Many of you grew up in a home like I did where your mother had some China that was put up in a certain place. In some cases, they had a China cabinet. But if not in a cabinet, it was put away in a certain place.

And you knew and everybody in the family knew that this was not for ordinary use. You don't run in from school, want a snack, go to where the dishes are. There's no dish washed. And then you go to the China cabinet and grab a piece of your mother's China and put your sandwich on it. You didn't do that. If your mother saw you eating an ordinary sandwich after school, ordinary sandwich off of her China, she would lose the whole thing.

She'd lose it all. You didn't do that. This was put up because it was sanctified. Now, you get a picture of what the word means? Sanctified means cleansed and set apart. See, not just clean because you can clean ordinary dishes, but they're going to get ordinary use. Sanctified means cleansed and put up, set aside, not your ordinary, not your typical, not every day, not run of the mill, not so what. When a thing is sanctified, it is consecrated for a specific purpose. Well, now, with that in mind, look at what Jesus said here. And let me just begin to introduce this concept and I'll pick it up later. He says here in this passage, my prayer, verse 15, is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

Now watch this. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth. Jesus said, now they're not of the world, Lord. I'm going to leave them in the world, but they're not of the world.

Your problem is not that you live in a wicked world. What you need to do is say, Father, I need to experience what Jesus prayed for, which is that you will sanctify me. Don't take me out of the world.

Take the world out of me. God, I got to stay in this world. In fact, this is where you need me, but I'm not ready to represent you until I have been cleansed and consecrated for your specific purpose. And let me tell you something, my friend, God wants to sanctify each of our hearts and lives. See, you're not in as dangerous a place as you think. You think you live in a wicked world, and indeed we do, but the problem isn't the wickedness around us.

The problem is we've got to consecrate until the wickedness that's in us has been cleansed. Let me illustrate it. If you're in a pool, a swimming pool, or an ocean for that matter, the problem isn't how much water is around you. The problem only comes in if the water that's around you gets in you. I can swim in a sea as long as I know how to keep the sea out of me. Oh, you can't swim in all that water.

Sure you can. You got to know how to be in the water, but not let the water be in you. Didn't you learn that when you were first learning to swim? I remember when I was first learning to swim, and they had us in the shallow water because our fear was, you know, we're going to drown. But they said, no, you have to learn how to swim. You have to learn how to maneuver in the water, and you will find that you're very safe. And I remember finally learning how to swim, but I needed the security. All right, keep me in there because I need to know that if something goes wrong, I can plant my feet and stand up and my face is above the water.

You remember that? You just needed to know that, and you couldn't hardly learn how to swim until you knew that there was a safety. There was the safety of being in shallow water. Well, after they taught us how to swim, I remember the day of a particular exam where I had to swim across the pool at the deep end.

Because what they were trying to do was to get me to realize you have learned how to maneuver now, so the issue is not where you are. You don't have to be in the shallow water anymore because you've learned how to cross. Didn't you cross the pool down there in the shallow?

Yes, I did. All right, well, you can cross the pool here in the deep water. But in my mind, I'm saying, yeah, but what if something happens?

And they said nothing's going to happen. You have learned how to swim. You have the ability now to navigate in deep water.

And I didn't know it until I was forced to try it because I was taking a class and I was getting a grade in it, and I was trying to negotiate for another way. And they said if you want to get a good grade, you will swim from here to there in deep water. And I discovered when I had to that what I had learned kept me. And I remember as I was transversing that pool, while I was swimming, I was thinking, ooh, this water's deep.

I couldn't stand up here if I tried. I remember the feeling when I got out in the middle of it. And in my mind, you know what, if something goes wrong now.

And I made it safely because I had learned how to be in the water without the water getting in me. I want to let you know some of you are in deep water right now in your life. You're in deep places.

You're in perilous times. But Jesus prayed, number one, for your protection. And then secondly, he prayed for your sanctification. He prayed that the trouble that surrounds you would not get in you, that the turmoil that surrounds you would not get in you, that the unholiness that surrounds you would not be in you. God said, I've called you. I've separated you unto myself, and I now have a purpose for you that if you will tap into my grace and power, I will bring it to pass in your life. My friend, I want to let you know Jesus prayed for your protection and Jesus prayed for your sanctification, that you would become the person that he's destined you to be. I want to let someone know who is tired of falling, tired of going through the same old trouble, that there is a stability that is available to you in Christ.

You don't have to keep going through the same changes. God will bring you to a place where you find him making you steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Trust him that he's begun a good work and he'll bring it to pass. When you fall down, Jesus will pick you up. When you fall to pieces, Jesus will gather them up in grace and put them back together stronger than they were before.

Nothing can separate you from his love, not even your own mistakes. You know, many of us put some real thought into what we name our children, our businesses, even our pets, and I'm sure there are some of you who have wondered how we got our name destined for victory. Well, Pastor Paul joins me from his studio in California right now, and Pastor, before we leave today, why don't you take a moment and share with us why this ministry is called Destined for Victory. Well, I really take Paul seriously when he said God began a good work in us and he's going to bring it to completion, which means our lives are journeys. All of us are somewhere in our journey, not only of chronological time, but we're on a spiritual journey. I want to make sure that I help you navigate well on your spiritual journey. I want to make sure that I help people avoid pitfalls where possible or at least learn that they don't have to be fatal.

I know what it is to have failure in my life, but I also know what it is that failure doesn't have to be final. If people will put their trust in God, repent when they mess up, and let the Lord restore us and make us the people he's destined us to be. The fact of the matter is, if God be for us, it doesn't matter who or what is against us, we're going to get to that place of ultimate victory in Christ. Well, we say it all the time here on the broadcast. In Christ, you are destined for victory.

God said it, we believe it, and we want to share that with as many people as we can. But we can't do that without your faithful prayer and financial support. For your generous donation today to Destined for Victory, we'd love to send you a booklet from Pastor Paul called Lessons from the Cocoon. As you know, butterflies don't start out as butterflies.

They're caterpillars, grounded, earthbound. But later on, a transformation takes place and they take flight. And so will your life. 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 Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 to give over the phone, or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. You can also make a safe and secure donation from our website, pastorpaul.net.

Thanks in advance for helping keep Destined for Victory on the air. See, he's talking about the fact that we're called to be extraordinary, not ordinary. We're called to be different. Jesus didn't make the trip all the way from heaven down just to forgive us. He came to save us and to create a people who were set apart and who are not like everyone else in the world. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Jesus' Prayer for You. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.