Following Godly Leadership (cont'd)

You can't come here and ask me to make you feel good all the time. I can't preach you happy all the time.

I have a job. I'm a spiritual parent. My job is to feed you and lead you in the things of God. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Hello and welcome to this Monday edition of Destin for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is like a faithful friend.

Sometimes it wounds us because it reveals who we really are, but make no mistake, it is far better than the alternative, the sweet lies of false prophets who preach a deceitful, feel-good Gospel. Today Pastor Paul reminds us how important it is to find sound, godly teachers and pastors who will lead us in all truth even if it sometimes stings a little. Stay right here or listen to the podcast on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

Now let's join him for today's message, Following Godly Leadership. I will spank from time to time or the old saints called it popping if you didn't need a full blown spank and they would pop you. Just pop, swat. A bunch of us were spanked and swatted. We didn't grow up crazy. We're sensible.

We got jobs, children, income. Our kids aren't abused. Don't tell me it teaches kids to hit.

No, it don't. When you do it right it teaches them to sit down. You're not going to be ready for this series, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. Teach them to sit down.

Sit your happy hips down. That's all. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. I'm against abuse so don't write me a bunch of emails with an article. Read this.

Don't send me that. I'm not reading it. I read all that stuff. I've heard all the stories.

I've heard it all and I'm not buying it. Sensible, godly parenting may include corporal punishment. That's why you're scared to take your children out in public. Scared to take your children out in public for fear they're going to embarrass you.

We were taken all over the city. Come on old heads. We were taken all over the city because our parents knew if there's going to be any embarrassing going on at all, I'm going to embarrass you.

You are not going to embarrass me. Come on some of y'all. When growing up, every now and then when we saw one of them kids who would like do that stretch out thing in public, we'd be at the store and some kid wanted the toy and the mother said, no, you can't have that. And stretched out on the floor and all of that. When we were kids and saw that, we just backed up. We just backed up cause we knew what was going to happen back in the sixties. That mother was going to say, no, you didn't stretch out on me out here in Woolworth.

Come on some of y'all. Woolworth. We didn't go to Walmart. There wasn't no Walmart.

There wasn't no Cartier. We went to F. W. Woolworth. Had a big red sign across the front of the store. Everything you needed, your mama took you to Woolworth. And the mother was saying, no, you didn't stretch out. And when she got through with that child in public, that child got up and got saved. Wasn't nothing left to do but give your life to Jesus.

God wore out in aisle three in Woolworth. She wasn't worried about somebody. There wasn't no cell phone. Wasn't nobody calling anybody. When I was growing up, we didn't even know there was an agency.

Child protective. So we didn't even know there was such a number. And if we had known it, it wouldn't have mattered because you know, back in the day, the parents were like, well, it's going to take them about 15 minutes to get to the house. First of all, you can't use my phone. You don't pay that bill. I'm simply saying, parents, you got to do your work.

And if you do your work, you'd be surprised. You don't have to do a bunch of swatting and carrying on. But I grew up in a day where folk weren't afraid of their kids. I don't care how grown they got. That's my child. Now you got to worry about people killing, stabbing their mother and all that.

They've lost their mind. I grew up with people. We had a little frail lady in our church. She had two sons. They grew real big, way over her. Her husband was dead. And she's a little widow. And the boys got a little too sassy for her at a certain point in their teens because they were real big and husky and all that. And she said to them one day when she got a little too sick of it, she said, let me tell you something. Before I let you sass me in my house, she said, I know you're big and tall. She said, I will climb a ladder and knock you upside your head. You don't sass me. I don't care how little I am or how big you are. That is not going to happen.

And we live in a world now where anything goes. Parents, get on your J-O-B. It's not just natural parenting, spiritual parenting. That's why you can't come here and ask me to make you feel good all the time. I can't preach you happy all the time.

I have a job. I'm a spiritual parent. A pastor is like unto a spiritual parent. You provide long-term spiritual care for your spiritual kids.

My job is to feed you and lead you in the things of God. It has nothing to do with chronological age. When God called me to be a shepherd, you can be 25, 30 years older than me or more. I'm still your spiritual dad for God's purposes.

So it's not a chronological age thing. That's why even in Catholic church, they have that understanding and the priest is called father because the idea is he's representing a position in your life that he is to guide you and lead you in the things of God. And I understand what that mindset is. Paul had the same mindset. First Corinthians chapter four, verses 14 through 17. He spent some prior verses kind of fussing at his kids in the church of Corinth because they weren't understanding really how they ought to behave where he was concerned and view him. And he said in verse 14 of First Corinthians four, I'm not writing this to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel. Watch this.

Therefore, I urge you to imitate me. He says you have all kind of instructors just like we have when you listen to Christian radio. Lots of folk can teach you some good sound word.

You ought to listen. If you get some good teaching on TV, there are several channels now that are dedicated to Bible preaching. Unfortunately, not all of it is Bible preaching.

There are many a time I turn on the word network and find no word. But I found the folk who actually preached the word. My friend Bishop Clark, he's on there Friday. I find them and I listen to them and let them speak the word into our lives. But he said, but they're instructors.

He said, I'm your daddy. Meaning God has called me to watch for your soul. So you can't just grab any old preacher. And he gave some apostles, I'm in the word, Ephesians four, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and then some pastors and teachers. And when God calls somebody to be a pastor, they're to watch for your soul. And so you got to learn to be just like kids got to learn the wisdom of being followers of their parents.

Christians have to learn the biblical wisdom of listening to the instruction of their father in the gospel and to receive all that God wants to say and do in your life through them. And he said, so imitate me. He said, and for this reason I'm sending to you Timothy, my son, whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. He said, cause I don't get to come there. Cause you know, he fathered many a congregation and he said, cause I don't get to preach to you and pastor you every week.

He said, I'm sending you my beloved son, Timothy, and he's going to remind you of how daddy does it. See the principle, you got to get past the principle cause we love despising leadership in this day. We love that he ain't nobody. We can hardly handle a president. We would never make it in a kingdom in a monarchy. We can hardly handle having a president if we don't like him or we're not in his party.

I wish I would. Well, I tell you what, when you get into his presence, you better stand up when he's about to come in the room. It's protocol. It's honoring the position, even if you don't like the person. And we have a hard enough time doing that without disrespectful, arrogant, self righteous stuck up selves. And it's why we don't get very far in going deeper in God because we despise authority and God is the creator of authority. I'm preaching.

Even if you don't know I am God created it. God didn't ask you what you thought about me. If he brought you to this church, it's because he knew I was to feed you something you need and you got to learn to get with the program and be an excellent follower.

Lord, you need to pull on the annoying God. When he stands up there, I want everything you got to give me through him. I got to get to another place in my walk with you.

I got to learn how to deal with this crazy household of mine. I got to learn how to, God, I want to hear from you through that vessel. If he has to rebuke me, it's okay, God.

Whatever it takes, that's when you can get somewhere. And we'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Be sure to listen anytime on demand at pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net where you'll find a host of great resources at our online store. Well, Pastor will join me from a studio in California after today's message, so stay with us for that. But first, let's join him for the second half of this message, Following Godly Leadership. Let me briefly give you three benefits of becoming an excellent follower here in this first principle of ancient wisdom.

One benefit is, following your leaders will prevent a lot of trouble and lifelong regrets in your life. If you listen and follow, you can save yourself so much heartache. Proverbs chapter 1, beginning at verse 23, let me read several verses. The wise man Solomon is speaking on behalf of wisdom. He says, if you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.

The reason why I can't feed some folks what they need is because they are full of junk and because they resent and resist authority. And wisdom here through the wise man Solomon said, if you had listened to my rebuke, I would have given you more. I'd have poured out my heart.

I'd have made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you. He's talking about wisdom's response to your rejecting it. Wisdom says then I don't have anything left to do but laugh at you and let you go on and make your bed hard. And he says when calamity overtakes you like a storm, disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind. When distress and trouble overwhelm you, then they will call to me, but I will not answer. They will look for me but will not find me. He says wisdom can't help you if you reject so much that you put yourself in an impossible situation.

Now here's the good news. When you repent in the spiritual dynamics, when you repent of any wrong, even rebellion and all of that, God will take you the path of restoration. There is nothing that will ever permanently separate you from the love of God.

You got to know that. But you got to repent and you got to acknowledge and you got to get yourself together. And he says since you hated knowledge, did not choose to fear the Lord, since they did not accept my advice, spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them and the complacency of fools will destroy them. Have you ever seen people who literally killed themselves with their foolishness and their heart, heartedness and their rejection?

Nobody does this to me and gets away with it. And all of that, instead of learning what they could learn and prevent all that trouble. You ever seen anybody just make their own lives miserable? And he said it's because they don't understand the role of wisdom. So when we learn to live our lives under the tutelage of those that God brings in our lives, not only our natural parents but our spiritual parents and mentors, people who God himself has brought into your life, if you learn to follow them, you'll avoid a lot of trouble. Secondly, following them will prepare you to experience good success. You know there is a success that is not good. That's why God said to Joshua in chapter one, if you do the things I'm telling you, he said then you'll make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. When God tells Joshua I want to give you good success, he's suggesting what the world calls success is not good. See we think you're successful when you become a multi-millionaire or a billionaire.

God says no, not at all. There are a whole lot of rich failures. You're not successful because you have money. When you see dumb bumper stickers like he who dies with the most things wins, how ignorant is that? They need to create one that says put right next to it he who dies with the most stuff is still dead.

Let me help you. God's not against things. He's never been against things. The Bible isn't anti-money. People say I don't read that Bible. The Bible says money is the root of all evil.

It does not. I've been in that book all my life. It says no such thing. It says the love of it is the root of all kinds of evil, meaning seeking money. People with no ethics, no character who only seek money, he said all kinds of evil springs from that. Every bank robbery springs from that.

Every heist springs from that. You see these people going into art museums and taking prices. Why would you take a priceless painting?

Where exactly are you going to sell that? Come on. People whose mothers have to say he is so stupid, but we got to learn that good success is what God wants us to have, not just success. He wants us to have good success. Wise pastors want to have good success. I was groomed in ministry. I'm so grateful by my spiritual and natural father. He was my pastor all my life until I moved to California. He saw God's hand on me. He told me later in life. He said, I saw God's hand on you a long time ago. I knew God was going to take you to some special places.

I knew God was going to make you significant. He said, and because of that, son, that's why I took you down the path I took you. When he trained me in ministry, he wanted to make sure I didn't think ministry was about making money, that even if it became my livelihood as it has been since 1982, he wanted me to make sure I knew it wasn't about money, that I had the right biblically to receive a living from ministry, but that I couldn't preach for money. I couldn't preach based on, well, how much they going to give me?

And so he would send me to these little places where he knew I wasn't going to get broke off. He sent me to these little churches, sent me to one church. I don't feel like preaching this afternoon, son.

I'm supposed to be over there and do their anniversary service. I don't feel like I'm going to call a bishop and tell him, you're coming over for me. And I said, all right, I'm a little young preacher eager to preach. And it's 3.30 over at so-and-so's church. And I walked in, and he taught me those principles, be on time, never be late, don't let the people, you know, just taught me the ethics of ministry. And so I show up about 3.25 for this 3.30 service, and I walk into this sanctuary. Hello, hello, hello, hello. And finally I saw a man walking through the, I said, excuse me, sir, is there a service here? I'm at the wrong place.

3.30? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They downstairs eating up, they'd be up. They down there eating chicken and macaroni and cheese and string beans and rolls. That's how we used to roll after church back in the day.

Come on, some of y'all. And they down there eating, and I'm like, I got to priest all these people full of chicken? They going to be asleep?

I'm already thinking, oh man, this is going to be bad. And finally they all came up, all 17 of them came up. And I'm like, why he send me over here?

Later on I learned. He wanted me to learn how to preach as hard to those 17 people. As one day, I preached in the stadium where the Bulls play in Chicago, where the Rockets play in Houston. I've been in those large arenas preaching, and he saw God's hand on me. He said, if you ever get to an arena and preach to 12,000 people, I want to make sure that you don't preach any harder to them than you preach to the 17.

I don't know how clear it was to him, but here I am. I've preached in some of America's greatest pulpits, and due to this day, where if I didn't have the right training I'd get a big head. Some folk, you know they haven't been trained because they get puffed up over next to nothing.

My daddy taught me I can't afford to let you be a novice where you get full of yourself when God gives you a little promotion. And so the first time I walked in there to preach at the Bulls stadium or the Rockets stadium, I said, Lord, look how far you brought me. I wasn't full of myself when I'm back in the green room with all these other national speakers.

We back there eating the little chips and stuff back there in the green room. I wasn't feeling myself. In fact, I walked around and saw these other people.

I wanted their autograph. Oh, that's Chuck Swindoll. I didn't even feel like I was one of them because I was raised right where you're not anybody until God puts his hand on you. And when he does, don't ever think it's you. I was taught that there's a treasure that God puts in a vessel. And I was taught to never forget what the treasure is and never forget who the vessel is. When you're blessed by me, it's the treasure.

I'm just the pot that God put the treasure in. So don't get stuck up. I used to run into stuck up preachers, especially when I was just in California and just had a vision trying to, ooh, I just want to do something for God. And I'd go to somebody with big mega churches and what have you and I'd go, excuse me, can you just lay your hand and pray for me? And I ran into some folk who were too busy. They could hardly pray for me because they're looking for the other all stars in the room.

Hardly looked me in the face. And I'm trying to get a little blessing. Do something, please, Jesus. I'm out here.

Please do something. But I live long enough to be in the green room with those same people. And now they're running up to me. Oh, shepherd. Oh, we listen to your brother. Oh. And I'm thinking, uh-uh, 12 years ago I tried to get you just lay your hands on me and you were too busy looking for the all star. Now you're running up to me. Call me Novocain. I am not feeling you.

I didn't say that. I just thought that's all. But it's taught me so that now when little rookie preachers come running up to me, I know what that feels like. And I know how to look them in the face and put my hands on their shoulder and say God's going to use you and be encouraged and don't let these tough times make you think that something's gone wrong. Just go through the process. Let me pray for you.

Let me lay hands on you. I know what that's like. And so that comes from learning the lessons of followership. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message following Godly leadership. Always glad to have you with us.

It's been said that people cease to think when they think they know it all. Well, Jesus was a lifelong learner and Pastor Paul wants to encourage you to follow in his steps. And speaking of encouragement, I'm pleased to have Pastor Paul in the studio with me. Your ministry to us each day on the radio and with the various online sources for Destined for Victory is so encouraging. One more thing you do, though, you feel very strong about this is the monthly encouragement letter that goes out to everyone. You want to say a word about that?

Yeah, absolutely. The one letter I feel strongly about making sure we produce every month is an encouragement letter. And so I take some time and based on some teaching of that month, and occasionally it's not related to the teaching, just something that God's put on my heart in that particular time, I write a letter to let people know not only are we preaching messages, but we're really trying to impact your life and help you with application. Because, again, our ministry exists to help people know God's son, apply God's word and fulfill God's purpose. And my encouragement letter is designed to help you know him, apply his word, fulfill his purpose. And so I feel strongly about it. And I want to encourage people who are not on our mailing list to please take a moment and let us know, hey, I'd love to get the letter. It's absolutely free of charge. There's no obligation for it.

No obligation at all. We will take care of the stamp and everything. All you've got to do is let us know. We can reach you. We'd be happy to send it to you. We can also send it to you by email. And it's important for you to be encouraged month by month.

And so please let us do that. Get in touch with us. Give us your email and your mailing address so we can get in touch with you on a monthly basis.

Well, the word encouragement means to give someone support or confidence or hope, sometimes all three. That's what Pastor Paul seeks to do each month with these letters of encouragement. Sign up today at pastorpaul.net.

You'll be glad you did. This program exists only through the faithful prayer and financial support of friends like you. And when you make a generous gift today, be sure to request Junk Removal for the Soul, a booklet filled with advice about setting aside some of the habits from your old life in order to embrace the newness of who you are in Christ. It's our thank you by request as you give your generous gift to Destin for Victory today. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation right there. You can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. And I'll repeat that.

The address is Destin for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. You reap if you sow, you reap what you sow, you reap after you sow, you reap more than you sow. That's an eternal law that God has put into effect. And so you do well and you live your life with an active respect for that law. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Respecting the Law of the Harvest. Until then though, keep this in mind as you enjoy your holiday weekend. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.