When Destiny Seems Delayed (cont'd)

They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. That's Isaiah 40, 31, and this is Destined for Victory. Coming up next, Pastor Paul Shepherd returns to the story of David in his message when destiny seems delayed.

But first he joins me now from his studio in California. What are you thinking about? What is the hope that us as followers of Jesus will remember as we emerge from all of this? I'm committed to taking no day for granted. That's what I learned during this pandemic.

There's a passage in James chapter 4 actually that has really spoken to me in a fresh way. Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow we'll go to this city or that, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money. Then he said, why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. And he asked the question, what is your life?

And he answers the question, you're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Boy, if that was never driven home before the pandemic drove it home because we saw loved ones, friends who we expected to live long, prosperous lives. They're now with the Lord. And it reminds us that there is no guarantee for longevity. We all hope to live long and fruitful lives, but the reality is we've got to take each day for what it gives us.

The opportunity to listen to God's voice, to do his will, to follow his Spirit, because that's what's most important day by day. And even making daily plans, we ought to preface everything by saying, Lord willing, because none of us know what's around the corner. Yes, sir.

I grew up around Saints who, when they would hear you say you were going to do something, they would just tell us, especially when we were kids, they say, if the Lord wills, and then we'd have to put that in the sentence before they let us go. I think we've relearned that this year, haven't we? Yes, sir.

Absolutely. It's only going to happen if he blesses us with the life, health, and strength to do it. There's no doubt we've gone through some severe challenges in the past year or so, and we know life will bring more challenges in the future. With that in mind, Pastor Paul Shepherd has a booklet to share with you this month, Finding Strength in Tough Times.

You'll discover three lessons from David's years as a fugitive that will help you handle life's troubles in a way that prepares you for the promise God has ready for you. That's Finding Strength in Tough Times, a booklet from Pastor Paul, and our gift to you by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory today. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538.

Again, that's Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. Technology is a blessing, but it can also be a curse because God doesn't operate by the law of technology. God's not up to a quick work in your life. The best things God will bring are not coming suddenly, they are not coming quickly, but they will come to pass.

David had already been anointed to be the next king of Israel, but he waited 13 years before ascending to the throne. Today on Destined for Victory, Pastor Paul Shepherd shares three critical decisions that kept David in the center of God's will, decisions that will help us when we're waiting on God to lead us to our destiny. So now here's Pastor Paul with his message, when destiny seems delayed. One of the favorite tricks of the enemy when you're going through tough times is to get you to just pull off somewhere to the side of the road of your life and let the world pass you by and sit there and think sad thoughts and feel sad feelings and cry sad tears and go through your changes all by yourself. The enemy loves to say, you don't feel like going to church.

They all going to be singing and jumping and dancing and singing loud and all happy. You don't need to be around those folk. You know, when you want to have a pity party, you don't want to be confused by happy folk. When you want to have a pity party, you can only invite certain folk. You send doubt to go pick up all the folk for the pity party. You send doubt to loneliness house and you give them little instructions and doubt pulls up the loneliness house and instructions say, now you got to knock on the door and don't be discouraged if they don't answer right away. The lights going to be off because they're in there all by themselves. But go get loneliness, put them in the van, bring them to the party. Then drive over to anger and bitterness house, the twins. Now they're going to be fussing. Who that knocking on that door?

Don't make no sense. All this coming around here. The notes that don't pay them any attention. Just put them in the van, bring them to the party. Stop by fears house. The notes say, now you can't just knock on the door at fears house. You got to go to the window and show them is me doubt. Come on.

Put them in the van, bring them to the bar. You have all the wrong emotions. When you sit in home having a pity party.

You need to get where somebody can tell you God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or imagine. You need to let somebody speak the word of truth into your life. Got to stay connected. The Bible says do not forsake the assembling of yourself together with other believers. When you're going through tough times, that's not the time to stay away from folks.

That's the time to get up in the mix. Say, look, I'm going through. I need you all to pray for me. I need somebody to encourage me. I need somebody to help me. I'm going through a tough time but I am not going through it by myself. I don't care if you got to drive up to the church and blow your horn because you don't have enough strength to get out of the car. Just drive and blow till you get somebody's attention. Say, I'm trying to get in there.

Can you all please help me? Because the enemy will ride you during times like that. Till you don't feel like these people. Then they start telling you lies. They don't love you. Nobody cares about you. They're all doing their own thing. They're not worried about you.

The devil is a lie. Sure, you'll find some folk who are insensitive. You'll find some folk who have their own preoccupation. That's just called being on the planet. And welcome to earth.

That's all that is. You're going to run into some folk who are insensitive. Did you see that motley crew that showed up at David's place? The Bible says some of them were in distress. Some of them were in debt. Some of them were discontented.

That doesn't seem like a bunch you want to hang out with. But the Bible says they let David lead them. They all fellowship with one another.

And while David was ministering to them, they were ministering encouragement and support. And right there with him to let him know you're not by yourself. I know the king is after you, but we are going to arm ourselves. We are going to help you. When you need something and can't go out and get it, we'll run out and get it for you.

Listen, let me tell you. Stop looking for perfect people before you reach out for help. You're not going to find perfect people. But find folk who love God and love you and will help you while you go through what you go through if you'll help them go through their go through. That's the way it works in the family of God.

I get tired of these folk checking out the church to see if we are worthy enough for their membership. Not you. I didn't call your name. Why are you looking at me in that tone of voice? I'm checking this out.

I'm just watching. Looking for a reason to stay isolated. Looking for imperfection so they can say, ah.

I knew it. Listen, don't go looking for the perfect church for two reasons. Number one, because there is no perfect church.

Secondly, because if you find it and you join. What you want to do is find folk who love God, who say we might not be everything we're going to be. We're somewhere between promise and fulfillment. But we are on the right road. We believe in God. We're cleaning up our lives. We're saying yes to his will and we are on our way.

That's what you do. You look for folk who are heading in the right direction. You're spending your time looking for folk who have already arrived. You can't relate to them because you haven't arrived. But you want to get on the journey with folk who are heading in the right direction, who are believing God for great things.

I'm here to call somebody out of your isolation. Now, let me, before I get off of this point, let me tell you one more thing about this point, which is I'm not just saying that you need to be in church. Now, that is very critical. And if you are able-bodied and can in any way, you need to get into a healthy, well-balanced, Christ-centered, God-glorifying church. You need to do it. You need to be committed and connected.

Come as a consumer to see what they have to offer you. Come as a committed, connected person to be part of what God is doing there. But let me tell you something. It's not just about church because truth be told, you can go to church and be isolated. You can sit among all these folk and be in a world all by yourself. In fact, I submit to you that the loneliest place in the world is when you are disconnected in a crowd. See, when you're by yourself, at least you know you're by yourself. You're the only one in the room. So you get it. You look around.

It's reinforced. I am alone. But have you felt that keen aloneness of being all around people? They're smiling over here. They're chatting over there. These folk making lunch appointments. These folk in the same growth group. Over here, they work in ministry together. They're all just hanging out.

What'd you do this week? Girl, I told you. Did you see what I told you? You said, yeah. And you're just standing there thinking I wish somebody cared enough to ask me how I'm doing.

And the fact is there are people who care, but they don't know where you are until you tell them. Don't go away. We're only about halfway through today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. If you joined us late today or if you want to listen to any recent Destined for Victory program online, be sure to visit pastorpaul.net where you can listen on demand. That's also the place to find links to all of Pastor Paul's social media, including YouTube, where you can watch some of his best video clips. That's pastorpaul.net.

Now here is Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message when destiny seems delayed. You gotta be brave enough when somebody asks you, how you doing? You gotta be brave enough to not lie and say, oh, I'm fine. When you know you just got finished drying your tears and you don't know what next step to take, you gotta have the courage to say, would you pray with me? Would you just take a few minutes and hear my heart so that you will know how to pray for what I'm going through? And listen, if you run into somebody who is obviously in a hurry or obviously preoccupied, then don't say, see that?

That's it. They don't represent everybody. The Bible says, knock until the door is open, not only in prayer, but in reaching out to people. If this one seems a little preoccupied, perhaps my blessing, my encouragement will come from this one over here.

He had 400 to choose from who came to him. So if there's a bunch of them who can't relate to you, God will always make sure there's somebody who says, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. I know what you're going through.

I know what it feels like to go through that kind of pain. And they can walk with you through your valley. We can learn from this period that David maintained his consciousness of God's presence. He maintained his connection with God's people.

Finally, he maintained his confidence in God's promise. David realized that I must look to the Lord Himself until he brings my destiny to pass. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 26, he is talking to Saul. He says the Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness.

Now he's talking to Saul on the second occasion where the Lord delivers Saul into his hands. And look at what David says. He says the Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord's anointed.

And look at the next statement. He says as surely as I valued your life today, so may the Lord value my life and deliver me from all my trouble. I'm here to tell you, you got to look to God for your deliverance.

Because when it's all said and done, we can help one another, we can pray for one another, we can encourage one another, but we don't hold the key to your destiny in our hands. There is only one who knows what he's doing in your life. There's only one who has begun the good work in you. And he alone is going to take you from where you are to where he has destined you to be. And David says, Saul, I'm not looking to you to bring me to the throne.

I'm not looking for you to retire and for you to set up this transition. It's in God's hand. I didn't anoint myself the next king. God did it.

So the Lord knows when and where and how he will bring it to pass. And I'm just looking to him to deliver me from all of my trouble. I want somebody to make up in your mind that you're going to be tenacious and hold on to the promise of God. Don't you cast away your confidence. Hebrews 10 35. Don't cast away your confidence.

Why? Because it will be richly rewarded. But then the next sentence says, you have need of patience.

That after you've done the will of God, after you've lived your life in His presence, after you've stayed connected to His people, after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. He said, you need patience. Now we're not the patient generation. Very little in our life encourages patience. We live in an efficiency oriented time.

We love getting it done faster, more conveniently. Praise God. I've said over the years technology is a blessing but it can also be a curse. Because God doesn't operate by the law of technology. God's not up to a quick work in your life. Sometimes the best things you got to wait on them. The best things God will bring are not coming suddenly. They are not coming quickly.

But they will come to pass. And don't be worried even if things start getting worse. God knows when and how to reverse the worse. God knows how to deliver you out of your trouble. God knows how to put you at the right place at the right time for your appointment with deliverance and blessing. Don't believe me? Ask that little lady who had spent everything she had trying to get well. The Bible says she had wasted all of her money trying to get better and the physicians did all they could but instead she got progressively worse.

I want to tell somebody who's getting worse reports than you've ever gotten before. Don't you call the ball game yet because you're not the referee. God knows what he's up to in your life. That lady was standing there could have been full of despair and discouragement but she heard Jesus was coming that way. And the Bible says she decided I'm going to get in the press. Folk were pressed in around him while he was coming down the street and she got in the press.

Why did she get in? Because we're told she said to herself if I can just touch the hem of his garment why did she want to touch the hem of his garment? Because she is in a bleeding condition. She is hemorrhaging for 12 years. She is weak and anemic and pitiful but the Bible says she was considered unclean in that cultural time and not supposed to be out in public.

So she's got to be inconspicuous. But she said all I got to do is get to Jesus. I don't need a face-to-face appointment. I'm not calling Jesus secretary. I need to sit and talk to him. No, you tell him this is important.

No, no, she said I don't need a face-to-face with him. He got enough healing. He got enough anointing where if I just get behind him and if I get low and touch the hem of his garment. Do you understand that they wore robes in that day?

Do you understand? She's not talking about just reaching down and touching something. She's talking about getting down on her knees and touching the hem of a robe.

And she said if I can just get a hold of him. The Bible says as soon as she did it in the midst of a crowd Jesus said who touched me? And one of the disciples, I think I know who, said now all these people all around us we can hardly get down the street and you want to know who touched you. And he probably looked at one of the other disciples and just shook his head.

Sometimes I don't know about this guy. No, no, Jesus said no, you all don't understand. These other folk are just touching me because they heard my reputation. They're just touching because they want to be close to me.

They're touching, they just want to get close and have their cousin who don't know how to work the camera take a picture right quick. Just get in there. Come on Jesus, just me and you, just me and Jesus. Here, here, here. And the cousin fool around, wait a minute, now how you do the waiter?

Which button I push? Jesus said these are just autograph seekers, these are picture takers, these are folk who want to put their baby in my hands. He said but somebody touched me with urgency. Somebody said if you don't help me there's no help for me. If you don't deliver me there's no deliverance for me. If you don't heal me there's no healing for me. Somebody touched me and said God I'm looking to you. My hope is in you.

My expectation is from you. And Jesus said I know it was that kind of touch because when they touched me virtue went out of me. They made a spiritual withdrawal and I felt something leave me. And I'm not budging until I find out who it was. And the little lady, perhaps afraid that she had done something wrong, she said it was me.

But Jesus looked at her and he said daughter, she's the only woman in the gospels that Jesus ever called daughter. He said daughter, your faith has made you well. You held on to your destiny of healing until it came through.

And your faith has made you well. I want to tell somebody, don't you throw away your faith. You can throw away your timeline when, you know sometimes we had those deadlines, now Lord I would really like you to move by the end of the month. Come on let's be honest, you ever gave God a deadline and then the deadline shoot by?

He let it shoot by to see now what you're going to do? Are you going to trust me anyhow? Are you going to believe me anyhow? Your timeline's messed up so that you can get a hold of mine. You say well just tell me when yours is. He said when I'm ready. In the fullness of time.

You say that's not on my calendar, that's why. So that you can walk by faith and not by sight. I want somebody who's going through a challenging period, where you don't know what's going on. To understand that God wants you to maintain a consciousness of his presence. A connection with his people and a confidence in his promise. For everything God promised he will do. God is not a man that he should lie. Not the son of man that he should repent. If he said it, he'll do it.

If he promised it, he'll bring it to pass. If you are going through a period of waiting today, remember you are not waiting on God. He's waiting on you to grow, to mature, to be seasoned.

So that in the fullness of time you'll be fully equipped to achieve the destiny to which he has called you. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message, When Destiny Seems Delayed. To find out more about Destined for Victory, or our thank you gift for your generous donation today, be sure to stop by our website, pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net. I want to encourage some of you to get used to the fact that as God blesses you, your friends are going to get thinned out. You're going to find some people who can't rejoice with you when you rejoice. Don't be surprised when not everyone is thrilled when the Lord's hand is upon you. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Finding Strength in God. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.