Lessons from the Pasture, Part 1 (cont'd)

If you've ever been looked at but not really seen, then stay with us now to hear what God sees. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Always glad to have you join us. In just a few moments, Pastor Paul shares his message, Lessons from the Pasture.

But before he gets started, he joins me now from his studio in California. Well, Pastor, we're entering a very critical time in the life of most ministries. It's always the case when we get to summertime, but this time I think people are ready to break out.

You know, the vaccine is more widely distributed, vacation rentals are booked at a record pace, the world is ready to get out of this quarantine. But there is a concern that ministries like ours don't end up forgotten. Why don't you speak to that for a moment?

Yes, sir. Every summer I have that concern and I say, okay, Lord, please help the people to remember that the bills don't stop in the summertime. The gospel is definitely free. I'm glad and I'm able to say to all of our donors, you don't have to even think twice about it. When you give to us, you're helping us reach others. Pastor Paul doesn't take a single dime of compensation from Destined for Victory resources.

My church takes really good care of me and I'm so glad that they do. And so I'm able to serve the audience through Destined for Victory without any charge to them. But while the gospel is free, the plumbing costs a lot of money. So even in the summer, I pray that our listeners will be faithful in their giving because the bills continue to come. And I want to preach all the way through the summer and let people know while they're enjoying vacations, the Word of God stands forever.

Yes, that scripture is from Isaiah 40, verse 8. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Thanks for that reminder, Pastor Paul, and for all you're doing to share the gospel through the Destined for Victory broadcast. Well, as you are able to stand with us financially during this critical time, we have a great resource for you today, two in fact, and we want to share them with you this month for your generous gift of $25 or more to Destined for Victory. The first is Pastor Paul's book, Why God Created Dads, an insightful and inspirational look at the subject of fatherhood through the lens of scripture. The second is the audio CD, A Tribute to My Dad, a message delivered by Pastor Paul following the death of his father.

Men and women alike will be inspired by these timely resources. That's Why God Created Dads and A Tribute to My Dad are gifts to you this month for your best donation of $25 or more to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And yes, you can mail your gift. The address is Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. I'll give you time to write that down again.

Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. I'm here to tell you that because we are called according to purpose, it does not matter who doesn't see you. It doesn't matter who doesn't recognize your abilities.

It doesn't matter who doesn't think you're qualified. When you are called of God, it doesn't matter when man overlooks you because God knows exactly what He's up to in your life. If you've ever been overlooked or underappreciated, then today's message may be just what you need to hear. Coming your way next, a timely reminder from the life of King David.

God not only sees you for who you are, He sees what can be through you. Now, here's Pastor Paul with today's message, Lessons from the Pastor. Don't just pursue your vocation, but pursue your calling as well. In fact, make sure your vocation doesn't hinder your calling. Some of you, all the time, every time you can work double time, triple time. You're always out there, always working, working, working.

Well, that's good to make a living, but the question is, are you making a life? And a life has to do with the calling of God, has to do with you making a difference in your family, and then making a difference in the lives of other people. So there's some God ideas for your life. Second lesson I want us to draw from David's early life. It's found in verses 5 through the beginning of verse 10. Now, note what happened.

Let me just paraphrase it. Samuel now is in town to consecrate, to anoint this next king. And so look at what Jesse does. He begins to trot out his biggest sons.

He trots out his oldest boy, Eliab. And even Samuel was impressed. Even the prophet said, well, this has got to be him.

This has got to be him. And the Lord spoke to Samuel and said, no, it doesn't. I'm paraphrasing. He said, your problem, Samuel, is you are looking at who you think ought to be the king. He said, you've got to change your perspective.

God doesn't make decisions like you make decisions. He said, you're looking at his height. You're looking at his appearance. But God is looking on the heart.

Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart, said that's not the one. So what does Jesse do? He trots out his next oldest son. And Samuel says, no, that's not him. Third son, no, that's not him. Fourth, no. Fifth, no. Sixth, no. Seventh son, no. Now, look at this.

Verse 11 said, is this all you have? Why? Because Jesse had ignored his youngest son. His youngest son wasn't even there.

Now, you read the context. It said he was told to invite his sons. He invited seven of his eight sons, rationalizing that the eighth certainly isn't going to be a king. Plus, I needed him to stay out there with those sheep. Point number two, lesson number two from David's early life. Don't worry about being overlooked. Don't worry about being overlooked. David was not even invited to this occasion.

He was completely overlooked. I'm here to tell you that because we are called according to purpose, because God knows what he's up to in our lives, it does not matter who doesn't see you. It doesn't matter who doesn't recognize your abilities. It doesn't matter who doesn't think you're qualified. It doesn't matter who doesn't want you in their inner circle.

It doesn't matter who doesn't want you on their team. When you are called of God, it doesn't matter when man overlooks you because God knows exactly what he's up to in your life. Now, this is good news because most of us, if not all of us, know what it is like to be overlooked. Have you ever seen somebody look at you and you know they don't see you? Looking right in your direction but don't see you. Have you ever heard somebody talk and you know they're not really talking to you? Have you ever seen someone looking at you while you talk and you know they're not listening to you? The feeling of being overlooked, the feeling of being ignored, the feeling of being disregarded, the feeling of being not taken into account, the feeling of not being taken seriously.

We all know what that's like. Sometimes it's in relatively minor ways. Sometimes it's in major ways. In minor ways, you can be talking to a spouse or to a friend and you know they're not hearing you.

Isn't that true? Every married man in this room, every married man listening to this message probably knows what it's like to have his wife talking to him in one of those exhale moments. And he's got other things on his mind or maybe he's trying to watch Sports Center and she's trying to talk. And so you know when you're young and early in your marriage, you think you're slick. So you think by looking in her direction every now and then throwing in a few uh-huhs, you think you got it. But all of us who've been married past that phase, we discovered at a certain point that doesn't work because your wife will give you a pop quiz.

Come on, talk to me, somebody. She'll give you a pop quiz and then you are trying to watch your Sports Center, whatever it is, and she's talking to you about the frustrations of her day or something going on in the family and what have you. And you're looking over and you're uh-huh, mm-hmm, yeah. And you're looking back and finally she will say, did you hear what I said? And early in marriage when you think you're sick, you say, yeah. And then the quiz comes, all right, tell me what I said.

And then some of y'all were dumb enough to say something like, you know what you said. We all know what it's like to feel overlooked, to feel ignored. I've seen folks look at me and know they're not looking at me. I've introduced myself to people and know that we really didn't connect. They just weren't there.

They were present and absent at the same time. Oh, but this lesson is encouragement to all of us. Don't worry about being overlooked. Man doesn't have your destiny in his hand. You are called of God. God knows what he's up to in your life and God will not allow his calling on your life to be ignored. All people might ignore you, but God will see to it that you end up where he has ordained for your life. I've seen it happen in my life over and over again because, you know, there have been seasons where I was really tripping over somebody who didn't pay attention to me, who didn't see what God was doing in me, who wouldn't give me the time I wish they would give me or the attention I wish they would give me. I've tried in earlier years in my ministry to be mentored by somebody who had absolutely no drive or desire to do it and I would go into all this questioning and all of this and feel bad toward them, but I've learned over the years if you just wait on God, you don't have to sell yourself to anybody. You don't have to make a case.

You don't have to come hat in hand trying to present yourself and get somebody to take up your cause. God knows what he's up to in your life and he will have you intersect with the right people at the right time for the right reasons. I'll never forget it happened when we first launched what is developing into a national radio ministry. The Lord, in the fullness of time, he decided that we were to branch out from just being on the single station in northern California to branch out to other radio markets and I sensed that that might be a possibility, but we knew that we didn't have the money or the expertise or anything and just waited on the Lord and one day a man in the radio business called me. We had developed a relationship across some years and he called and said, the Lord spoke to me and told me that I am to help you go on national radio and that was the confirmation and I said, all right, what do we need to do? We started meeting and he said, well, you're gonna need a media agency to represent you and they'll walk you through the ropes and what have you.

There's some very good ones and so you need to contact them and we got in touch with a particular agency that represents some wonderful national ministries. You would know them if I called the names of those broadcasts and what have you and we called them and we said, listen, we're gonna branch out. We're on a single station here in northern California and we're gonna branch out and we believe God's calling us to be on national radio. They said, all right, and so they took my profile, what have you, and they're representing ministries that are on thousands of stations and what have you. They said, man, I said, okay now, now how many stations are you on right now?

I said, one. And there was this silence as he tried to digest. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, who is Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Listen to the program anytime at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net, where you'll find a host of great resources in our online store. Well, God wants to do great things in your life, but sometimes the only thing stopping him is you. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, Lessons from the Pastor.

They didn't represent small ministries trying to get somewhere. They took the ones that were somewhere to take them to greater somewheres. And he said, I'll get back to you. How many know that when you're usually here, I'll get back to you?

That's not good news. And I began in my mind to say, okay, this isn't it. Oh, Lord, how are we ever going to do this? When they called back, the man said, we have never done this before, but we believe we are called to help you. We listen to your broadcast demo, and we believe you have a message the nation needs to hear, and we feel called to help you get there.

And they took a little one-station program under their wings. They said, all right, now you're going to need to go to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. I said, all right, where's that? I mean, I knew nothing. I'm a pastor.

That's all I knew. And they had to tell me where it was and where to show up. And I went in there, and man, it was the twilight zone. All these, you're just walking around, and you just walk past. And here come Chuck Swindoll past you meeting with three and four folk, and here come David Jeremiah and what have you.

And they just like, who's who? And I'm just walking around. I said, look at this. I wanted to walk around with an autograph book. But I knew enough to dig myself.

You ain't supposed to act like that over here. So I dug myself, and they set up meetings. We're going to set up meetings with some station managers and network managers so that they can be introduced to you.

And we'll give them a demo of your broadcast and tell them that you're interested in beginning to branch out. And so they set up these meetings. And the first set of meetings, I'm telling you, it was a humbling experience as kind, I mean, godly people. But they just, I wasn't on their radar.

They didn't know what a Paul Shepherd was and didn't care. They had many things on their minds. And so they come in in a little hospitality suite where we were meeting the people. And my agency would say, this is Pastor Paul Shepherd.

And he has a broadcast, and he's interested in branching out. We thought you ought to meet. And here's a copy of their, and what have you. And so they'd shake my hand. Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you.

Come on out the door. Then there was one gentleman, show you how God will take up your cards. One gentleman who owns a major network of stations walked into the hospitality suite. And they introduced us. And he looked at the card, little information card they had made up on me, and took the demo.

And he's standing there looking at the card. And he said, California. He looked at me and said, you're a California preacher? And I didn't know how to answer the question, because I thought, well, what is a California preacher?

If by that you mean a preacher who lives in California, yes. But I didn't know if this was a trick question. So I just said, ha, ha, ha, ha. I did. I just chuckled. Because I figured, I'm not answering this wrong, you know. Because if I say yes, I'm a California preacher, if that's something negative, he's walking out.

If it's positive, you know. So I just laughed. And so he chuckled back and shook my hand and left. And I told Ed Ware, I don't think that was a good meeting.

Show you how God can work it out. Sometime after that meeting, where I knew I was not on his radar, he was on a business trip to Washington DC. By this time, the Lord had opened a few doors. One was on the leading Christian station in the nation's capital. We're on at 6 AM, prime drive time in the nation's capital. People are in their cars early, getting around Northern Virginia and DC and Southern Maryland and what have you. And folks are in their cars. And God gave us that drive time slot and we were beginning to be heard in the nation's capital.

I got an email from folk in the White House and somebody said, there's a bunch of us in here working and we listen to you all the time to help us get ready for dealing with all of this. And God had strategically opened that door. Well, this man was on a business trip to DC, in his car early in the morning, turned on the leading Christian station, heard this dude preaching. He said, I said to my adult son who was riding with me and in business with him, who is that?

We need him on our network. Lo and behold, it was California preacher. He called the agency. They said, you will not believe it. They want you on. They are looking for a slot for you right now.

They are moving things and having meetings. You've got to get on the station. But you know what? God will not promote you till you're humble enough to not care what folks think about you, to wait and let God do. See, a lot of us cop an instant attitude.

We mad because somebody doesn't give us respect the moment they lay eyes on us. And you get into all that head rolling Z formation and you're going to miss all your blessings. See, I'd have messed around and missed my blessing if I took that attitude. Oh, no, I'm a California preacher. What are you doing? Wanting to hear me now?

Oh, no. I'm going to say I had the same anointing I had when he met me. See, I'd have missed my blessing.

I had to say, Lord, thank you that you opened his eyes to what you wanted him to do. Listen, don't worry when folk are overlooking you. They don't hold your destiny in their hands. God knows what he's up to in your life. It applies to every area of your life.

If you're on a vacation, don't sweat it. If you're on a job doing all the work and somebody else is getting the credit, God sees what you are doing and the Lord who sees in secret will reward you openly. Sometimes when you're being overlooked, that's nothing but a test. God's just looking to see if you can keep your attitude right, see if you'll keep on working hard or do you go calling meetings and trying to call folk on the carpet and call up some advocate group, and I'm not putting up with this. Sometimes God will tell you be still and know that I am God. I didn't tell you to fight this battle. When I want you to fight, I'll tell you to fight. Right now, I want you to chill. Be still and know that I am God.

Wait for me to work it out in my own time. This has to do with your vocation, has to do with your personal life, you trying to get somebody in your inner circle, are you single, trying to get somebody, trying to get on their radar? No, no, no, you're called according to purpose. You don't have to sell yourself to anybody. Your job isn't to go around trying to get on folks' radar. I mean, make yourself generally available. I'm talking about, though, just going to the extreme and worrying every time somebody doesn't really want to hook up with you. You all been seeing each other for a while, have a nice little godly platonic relationship.

Amen. See, because you're following the Lord, you're on the course of, you're a follower of Jesus, so it's a godly relationship, but you've been hanging out a while, and so you're kind of interested in knowing, gauging where they are. Okay, now let's just, you know, just want to kind of see what you're thinking. And when they start in on, well, you know, you're a really great person. Let me help you all right quick. I'm going to let you go, but let me help you real quick. When that's the leading sentence, you're a really great person.

You don't need to hear the rest of this paragraph. Can I help you right quick? That's all you can do.

You can cut them off right at that pass. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message, Lessons from the Pasture. If you'd like more information about Destined for Victory, or the special thank you gifts waiting for you as you give generously during these summer months, visit our website, pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. You got to understand this about God. God is wise enough to not send you until you're ready to be sent. God is wise enough to not reveal your gifts to the world until you're ready to be revealed. God does nothing before it's time. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd continues to share his message, Lessons from the Pasture. Until then remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.