The 5th Law of the Harvest (cont'd)

Abraham, without understanding it, got up and left, grabbed his kinfolk, said, Come on, we're going. Where are we going? I don't know, but the Lord's going to show us. And they took off walking, expecting God to show him where he was supposed to be.

That's what I'm talking about. We've got to walk in extreme obedience. What does genuine faith look like? How does God reward that kind of faith? Answers come your way next on this Tuesday edition of Destin for Victory. Hello and welcome to today's message with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Always glad to have you with us. God's Word gives us some wonderful examples of faith. There was Noah who built the ark before the rain. It was Abraham who took go for an answer even before he knew where he was going. And today you'll be encouraged to follow in the steps of those who have gone before. Stay with us now or visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand.

That's pastorpaul.net. Right now let's join Pastor Paul for today's Destin for Victory message, The Fifth Law of the Harvest. Remember, think back to Genesis 12. Remember when God first spoke to Abram? He wasn't even named Abraham yet.

He was still Abram. Remember what God said when his name was still Abram? He said, I am going to bless you and make you a father that can't even count. The nation that you're going to be the father of many nations, your offspring are going to be like the stars in the sky, like sands on the shore.

Your offspring is going to be tremendously multiplied, but I want you to get up from where you are and go to where I tell you. And what do you find in Genesis 12? Abraham, without understanding it, got up and left, grabbed his kinfolk, said, come on, we're going. Where are we going? I don't know, but the Lord's going to show us. And they took off walking, expecting God to show him where he was supposed to be.

That's what I'm talking about. We've got to walk in extreme obedience. The Lord said, get up and go. Abram got up and went. If people said, well, where are we going?

I don't know. The Lord's going to make it plain to us. That's the way you and I have to live right now. We got to let God be true to his word. The only way we'll know that he's true to his word is if we walk according to his word.

And so you've got to get up and go. Now, remember in Abram's case, the Lord said, I'm going to make you the father of many nations. When God said it, he didn't have the first child. Here's a man who has no children and God is saying, I'm going to make you the father of many nations, your offspring are going to be like the stars in the sky.

Now that makes no sense in the rational way of thinking. But we serve a God who doesn't operate according to the natural laws only. He presented us the natural laws for life on earth, but we're not limited to them because we serve a supernatural God and he can operate in our lives, not only by the natural laws, but by the super natural laws. And I want to tell you that God is ready to show himself supernaturally strong in your life and in my life. If you will say yes to him and lean in and listen to everything he says to you. Now, I want you to know that this principle applied to Isaac specifically about the sowing of seed.

So let me ask and answer a couple of questions. When was he to sow his seed? And the answer is during a time when nobody was reaping any harvest. God says, I want you to stay here, don't go running to Egypt, stay here. And the reason he tells him to stay there and he's going to send him to a specific place rather than let him go down to Egypt with the other folks is because God knows that he wants to bless him in a supernatural way.

So he is to reap a harvest even when nobody else is reaping a harvest. I want to say to you, some of you are looking for work. Some of you are feeling the financial pain of the pandemic. Businesses are shutting down.

Today I had to put some clothes in the cleaners and I put them in my vehicle and I drove to what used to be the cleaners and I pulled up, I said, wait a minute, it's dark. And I looked at the end of the window, there was not a counter, there wasn't a rack, there wasn't a stitch of clothes, the cleaners just shut up. It is non-existent. It's just an empty building.

I said, you got to be kidding. Businesses closing down all over the place. People going through all kinds of financial trouble and struggles.

The numbers of people who are filing for unemployment are astronomical. What do we do? Do we panic?

We, as people of God, we have to say emphatically, no, we do not. We lean in and say, okay, Lord, how you going to take care of me in the midst of this? And what do you want me to sow? What do you want me to do? How can I respond in obedience to your will during this season?

Yes, it's a pandemic, but our God is still in full control. And I want to tell somebody, do not get into doubt. Do not get into fear. Do not get into a horrible discouragement.

Yes, you can say, Ooh, man, it's getting really tight. Yes, it's getting tight, but we're going to lean in and trust God. And just like Elijah in first King 17, God's going to provide for you one of three ways, naturally, supernaturally, or by his using other people.

And he's going to do that for you. Now, naturally, God has blessed many of us with jobs and we're able to work through this pandemic. But if you're one of those who has lost your job, either early on, I just heard about one of our brothers today, before I started this service who has lost his job and all of that, listen, whether you are just freshly unemployed or have been for some time, let's not panic. God's going to provide for you naturally. If that job closes up, we're going to believe God for another job for you. And sometimes even while you're waiting on him to bless you naturally, he'll provide supernaturally. Some of you need to believe God to open doors you didn't even know existed, much less than it was going to be a door open. You didn't even know there was a door there and God will cause a door to fling open and there'll be blessings on the other side of that door. I want somebody to believe for supernatural provision. Some of us are going to experience what many of our parents and grandparents used to talk about.

Some of them lived through some tough times, maybe not a pandemic, but they lived through various tough times. And I grew up here and some of the old saints talk about God making a way out of no way and God blessing them. I know folks who said I'd open my door and there were groceries sitting out there. My door would ring and somebody said, God told me to drop this off for you. I'm telling you we're returning to such days because our God is the same God. He's not just the God of our parents and foreparents. He's the same God today and you can believe God to provide for you naturally and sometimes supernaturally, which is this fifth law of the harvest. Another way that God provides for us is through other people. I've told our church family, if you're in a tough time, don't just go through it. Tell us about it so we can partner with you in prayer and maybe while we're partnering with you in prayer, the Lord will speak to us and tell us we're supposed to be part of the answer to your prayer.

I'm not telling you what I think. I'm telling you what I've experienced. Some of you have heard me tell the story over the years of when I first got to California and was shocked by how much it cost to live in California and had taken a pay cut from Philly to come to California. I'm making less money and I'm now in a place where I got to believe God to pay unbelievable rent and you know that whole story. In Philly, I had a $200 a month mortgage in the hood.

Now I'm living in California and my first year, 1989, I had a $995 a month house to rent. $995 from $200 in Philly. $995 less money that I had in Philly and I say, what in the world have I gotten myself into? And the church couldn't pay me much. Half the money went straight to this lady whose house it was and the rest of that money for that month I had to pay everything out of that and every month there was too much month at the end of the money. Any of y'all ever been there? Too much month at the end of the money.

Money gone, but it's about the 23rd, 22nd and you got several days still. You got to get through. I've been there.

So when I'm preaching, I'm not just telling you what I think. I've lived that month after month saying, okay Lord, how you going to do this this time? And every month God provided. Sometimes there was something in the mail.

Sometimes there was somebody who squeezed something into my hand. God did it all kinds of ways because he knows that I was here to do his will and he said, if you take care of my business, I'll take care of your business. And I want to tell you something, just because you're not in vocational ministry and you're not a preacher doesn't mean you're not valuable. You serve God and you represent his kingdom no matter what your job is. Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepard. We want to thank all of you who sustained Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help Pastor Paul share the gospel with a growing audience. Destined for Victory is a listener supportive ministry.

And right now, as we continue to walk through a season of uncertainty, your help is needed now more than ever. In our current climate, people are more willing to hear and respond to the gospel than they've ever been before. So as God leads, please prayerfully consider making a gift to Destined for Victory today.

When you give, we have a gift of our own to share with you. Go to pastorpaul.net for the details and I'll tell you all about it after today's message. Philippians 4 verse 19 tells us that God will provide all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus, but he may not do it the same way every time.

Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, the fifth law of the harvest. See being a child of God is an identity every bit as important as what God has you do. So I want you to know, I don't want you thinking, well God took care of you because you're a preacher. No, no, he'll take care of you because you're the apple of his eye.

You are his beloved child and he is going to look out for his child. David said, I was young. He said, I'm now old, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken. And so I came to give somebody a fifth law of the harvest. If you will do things God's way, if you will sow God's way, he is going to take care of every need you have and he'll do it sometimes naturally, sometimes supernaturally, sometimes he'll do it through other people. So if you have a need, let the saints know. You're in a small group, hopefully.

If you're not yet in a small group, we want to get you in one. But meanwhile, call the office and let us know, Hey, a pastor said to share my prayer requests, have the saints. We have a prayer team.

That's what they do all during this pandemic. They're praying. They have prayer zoom meetings and they get together. We call out the saints names and we pray and we're believing God for you.

And so send in your requests. Here's what's going on in my life. Here's what I need y'all to pray about. And we'll take up the matter in prayer.

And sometimes I started to say, sometimes the Lord speaks to the prayer and say, you're supposed to be part of the answer. You know, my story from 1989, I needed a second car because when I got to California, I realized this isn't like Philly. You can't just jump on the bus and go where you need to go. This was a place you needed cars. And my wife had to get the kids around. They were five and three years old and they were starting school and my wife needed to be able to do that. And I was pastoring the church in East Palo Alto.

I'm living in Fremont. I had to go across the bridge every day. And so I said, Lord, we need two different vehicles. And so I said, God, just give me another vehicle. It doesn't have to be anything nice.

Just give me something to get around. And Lord, I'm believing you. And I'm praying that and believe in God for that.

And we're working splitting this car and doing the best we can. But I'm saying, Lord, please provide for us. What I didn't know was across the country, there was some folk praying and they had these weekly prayer meetings and one day while they were praying, the Lord said to one of them, you know, we need to start taking up an offering and we'll, we'll know what it's for.

Eventually. Let's just take up our often to every time we have a prayer meeting and they were taking up this offering every time they pray, it eventually got to $1,700. And when it got to $1,700, they said, you know what? One of them said, I believe the Lord wants us to give this money to pastor Paul.

Those folks call me from Philadelphia in California. They said, they told me the story of their little prayer group and, and said, we've been praying about what to do with this money. We got about $1,700 and we want to know, do you need this money?

That was the question. Do you need this money? I said to them, if the Lord is telling y'all to give me $1,700, listen to him. And I told them the story of how we needed a second vehicle and they said, Oh, praise God.

That's what it was for. Sent me a cashier's check for $1,700. I had $500.

I pulled together. So I had $2,200 and we're talking back before the internet. So y'all got it made you and some of y'all don't know life before the internet, but some us old heads can tell you that back in the day when you needed a car, there was no internet to go on. You went to the Sunday paper and you went to the section where folks were selling their vehicles and I found my $2,200 car right there in the paper. I drove it till it dropped. I drove it.

You've heard me tell it. I drove that, that thing until it was so raggedy and so pitiful until a mechanic across the street came across the street, saw me fooling with that car and said, pastor, just let it go. And I had to give it up, turn it loose. I had to say earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust with that car.

But I drove it until I couldn't drive it anymore. I just can't tell somebody, God knows where you are and I just need you to move into full radical obedience to God because he is going to bless you in ways that sometimes don't even make sense. And so the first point in this whole fifth law of the harvest you've got to understand is that God requires you to follow him in the specific directives. Here's the second principle about this fifth law of the harvest. It requires that you are willing to act, watch this word, counterintuitively. This fifth law of the harvest requires that you are willing to act counterintuitively. What do you mean by that, pastor?

Well, look at what happened with Isaac. Not only did he obey God by not going down to Egypt, but instead going where God told him to go. He also, here's the second part of it, he sowed when it seemed absolutely foolish for him to sow. He sowed when it seemed to make no sense. Why would you sow seed? Why would you plant crops in a famine?

It makes no sense. How are you going to water the seed? How are you going to get it to produce a healthy harvest? That is conventional thinking. But because God told him where to go, wherever God tells you to go, there's a blessing there. And Isaac is where God wants him and he needs a harvest, so the only way you can get a harvest is you have to sow. And I'll pick it up in the next message and talk you back through the four natural principles of the harvest. But first, I want you to understand this fifth law of the harvest means sometimes you have to act counterintuitively. Sometimes you have to do things that don't even make a little bit of sense. And in order for you to experience supernatural provision, you have to be willing to go against the grain.

Everybody's going to Egypt, I'm not going there. Nobody is sowing because they think you can't get a harvest, but Isaac said I need a harvest and the only way to get a harvest is you got to plant crops. He plants in a famine.

He plants when it makes no sense. You got to think of it in Noah terms. Back in Genesis, the Lord tells Noah, I want you to build an ark because rain's going to come and the only beings that are going to survive this great flood are those that are in the ark. And he builds an ark. When you think about it, he's building an ark in a world where there had never before been rain. God had made the waters, you had all the bodies of water, there was water on the earth, but there was no rain coming from the heavens. At that point, they didn't know rain, but God says I'm getting ready to flood this place.

And to prepare for it, you got to build an ark. Listen, if God tells you to build an ark when you've never seen rain, that's the kind of thing Isaac is dealing with. He's in a famine. He needs a harvest. The only way you get a harvest is you got to plant crops and he plants them. What's the Lord saying for you to do in terms of sowing?

I'll pick it up in the next message, but let me just sow the first thought into your mind. We sow principally three ways. We sow with our time, we sow with our talents, and we sow with our treasure. And God's going to be speaking to you about what you're supposed to do with your time during this pandemic.

And during any season, you're hearing this word. There are specific things God is going to want you to do with your time, specific things God wants you to do with your talents, and specific things God wants you to do with your treasure. And you've got to be willing to sow because those resources are actually God's provision for you. The law of the harvest lets you know that God will bless you, but only because you're giving him something to bless. If you use your time in the ways that God's going to want you to use it, he's going to bless you because of it. If you use your talents in the ways he wants you to use it, he's going to bless you because of your talents. And if you use your treasure in the ways that he's telling you, he's going to bless you as a result of your obedience. God has a general will that applies to all of us. Love him, love people, fulfill the Great Commission. But he also has a specific will for you, a role for you to fulfill in this world.

Find out what it is and do it, and then watch as God blesses you beyond all that you can ask or think. Thanks so much for joining us for Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, The Fifth Law of the Harvest. Listen to any of his recent messages on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

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You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Faith, real faith, biblical faith is based on what God says. When I walk by faith or when I live by faith, I'm taking God at his word despite what I see, what I hear, what I feel, what I think. Now my brothers, my sisters, let me tell you something, that's genuine faith. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message when faith encounters a famine. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.