Seeing Life from Heaven's Point of View

The worst thing you can do is to decide that what you think is right, because there's a way that seems right to a man or woman, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Just as sure as you decide I know what's right, without consulting God, you are on your way to destruction.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Friday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Thanks for making this part of your day. Well, consider how government agents are trained to spot counterfeit bills.

They never examine the various kinds of funny money. Instead, they spend all their time and energy learning every last detail of the real thing. By looking only at the truth for countless hours, the lie will be that much easier to see. On today's broadcast, a reminder that God's will for our lives is itself a form of currency. By spending our time looking only at His truth, His point of view, we'll be much more prepared to reject the half-truths that often come our way. Stay with us now, or visit pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to the Destined for Victory podcast at Apple, at Spotify, or wherever you get yours. Now, here's Pastor Paul with today's message, See in Life from Heaven's Point of View. Go with me to James chapter 1, and there we're going to look at verses 9 through 12 as we continue this series I began, and we're going to comb the book of James in its entirety for the wisdom that we find there. James chapter 1, beginning with verse 9, the brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position, but the one who is rich should take pride in his low position.

Isn't that interesting? If you're humble in humble circumstances, he says, take pride in your high position. If you're rich, take pride in your low position. We're going to get that figured out before I'm done. Because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant. Its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed.

The same way the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. I've entitled this part of our series, Seeing Life from Heaven's Point of View. The journey that we're on as believers, the journey of walking with God and becoming fully devoted followers of Christ is very much about learning to see life and to live life from God's point of view. And that's why it's so important that we invest quality time and attention in learning, hearing, and studying the word of God. That's why when you get saved, you can't just sit on your blessed assurance and don't read your Bible and don't come to church and don't let men who are called and gifted of God to open up the word of God and give insight, speak into your life.

You can't do that because the word is essential to this journey of living life from God's point of view. If we don't pay attention constantly to what God says in his word, we are all going to go to a default position of living according to what we think is right. And the worst thing you can do is to become a judge to your own self. The worst thing you can do is to decide that what you think is right.

Because the Bible is very clear, there's a way that seems right to a man or woman, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Just as sure as you decide I know what's right without consulting God, you are on your way to destruction. So the only way to live life the way we're called to live it is to check in with God's word and to make sure we are allowing it to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And so you're doing the right thing listening to the word of God. You're doing the right thing when you go to church, a Bible teaching, Bible believing church. You're doing the right thing when you study the word in private devotion or study it in small groups, home groups, whatever the case is.

You're always doing the right thing because what that's allowing us to do is to live a Bible centric life according to the word of God when it's rightly divided and rightly understood, it is God speaking directly to you and to me. So we've got to learn that the word is essential on this journey. So before you adopt any point of view about anything, check it out by the word.

Check it out by the word. That is something we've got to preach more and more today because we have such weird Christianity going on in today's world. We have people who have decided they love Jesus, they're glad he died for our sins, but they are going to make their decisions about their life in every other area and they're convinced that they're right.

And it's a dangerous way to live. We got people who say they're saved, love God, can't wait to go to heaven to see Jesus, living together and won't get married. And I'm like, what Bible are you reading?

Come on. What Bible are you reading? Because the Bible is clear on it. There are some issues where there are all these different points of view held by Bible believing teachers on eschatology, the doctrine of last things. We have some different views. Some folks see it this way. Some folks see it that.

Premillennial, amillennial, postmillennial, pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib. If you don't know what any of that means, you're better off probably. It's just a lot of theological hassling trying to figure out. We're really trying to grapple, but we're not sure about how certain things are going to happen in the end times. So you have these different points of view. But there are some things there's no debate about.

It's clear in the Bible. One is if you're going to live together in a sexual relationship where it's just a piece of paper, Bible said go get it. Trying to help you now. Bible says go get the piece of paper and let the pastor or wherever you go, let somebody who's authorized speak God's blessing into your life and be legitimately married. Then you can go.

Go for it. Do what you've been doing, but now you're being the will of God doing it. Come on. And now we're changing the definition of marriage in our society. Bless your heart. You don't get to do that except in your society. You don't get to do that in heaven. You can't send your changes up to heaven and heaven records, okay, this is now marriage.

Doesn't work that way. God's preaching like that now makes you a target because we have become the new bigots who all we do is believe what the word says. So you can call me whatever you want. I'll be one of those few standing on truth at the end because preachers are falling all over the place. I'm hearing my friends used to preach clear, sound doctrine.

I heard one on his broadcast the other day and he has caved any two folk who want to get married and God's going to smile on it. There's a Greek word for that, baloney. You can't and be in the will of God. We got to preach it according to the word of God when it's rightly divided.

So you don't have to worry about it. If you want a politically correct pastor, you're going to have to go somewhere because I've got to preach this book. This is what I've been called to preach. He said preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. He said the time will come when they won't endure sound doctrine. That time has come. But I got to stick with the word because at the end, he's not going to ask me, did I preach what y'all wanted? He's going to ask me, did you convey my word to the people? And I've got to be able to give an account. I'm not about to see y'all sweeping into the gates and I'm standing out there saying, uh-uh.

Not going to happen. Cuz need to make the city. So my point is check everything out by the word. We got strange philosophies that are infiltrating our churches now because we've thrown the word away and we've listened to some guru or somebody else. And check it out.

All the magazines that are speaking into your life, all the novels, all the self-help books, all these newfangled gurus, everybody who's got new enlightenment. Check them all out by the word. Check them out.

I know some of them are real popular. And sometimes they mix a little bit of truth with a little bit of error. Have you noticed that? It's not like all error. Little bit of truth, little bit of error, and you hear the truth part and say, well, okay, I guess that works out. No, when you put that together, you have a half truth. When you swallow and live by half truths, you end up living a whole lie. So we got to live it by the word.

Do it God's way in every area of our life. Check everybody who speaks into your life. Check them out by the word. Told you for years. Check Oprah out by the word. Check Dr. Phil out by the word.

Check all of them out. Everybody. Everybody's writing books. Everybody has spiritual enlightenment.

Everybody's talking about life change and empowering your life. And check it all out by the word and see if it agrees with the rightly divided word of truth. And when you come to church, check the preacher out by the word. That's how you'll know whether you're in a good church.

Because they're pointing you to the scriptures and they're rightly dividing the one they're pointing you to. And if you ever start hearing something crazy from this pulpit, can't be substantiated in the word, you might want to drop me a line and say, pastor, I wasn't clear. Did you mean what I thought I heard you say? And if I ever write you back, say, yeah, I got new revelation.

Get up and get out. I'm telling you that now while I'm clear. So if I ever get foggy, well, he told me. Because you need to sit under the word. It's the word that's going to bless our lives. God sees things differently than fallen man sees. So that's why there's a way that seems right to us.

But then there are other ways of death. And this concept of living life from heaven's point of view is one of those things where you just have to get used to the fact that God has a different perspective. And his is right. Ours is wrong.

We have to learn to adopt his. So this passage talks about even your socioeconomic status. Look at what is being said here. He is saying the brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. What high position? I can hardly pay my bills. And you're talking about I'm in a high position.

I can hardly make ends meet. Some of us are just trying to get the ends close enough to see one another, much less meet. And here's James talking about taking pride in a high position. What does that have to do with your socioeconomic status? He's saying God is looking at your status. And God wants you to know that although the world sees you as lower income or lower middle income or whatever category they're going to put you in, the reality is God is saying you're in a high position, not because of the way the world sees you, but because of the way I see you. Up next, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd, who is Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. We'd like to take a moment to thank all of you whose prayers and financial support help Pastor Paul share the gospel all over the world.

Your donations do make a difference. So as God leads, prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory today. You can give online at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500. Perhaps 20th century Christian apologist C.S. Lewis put it best, aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in.

Aim at earth and you'll get neither. That's what looking at life God's way is all about. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, seeing life from heaven's point of view. God says, when I look at humble people, when I look at people who don't have a lot to get distracted by, when I look at people who are willing to be faithful over a few things, he says, I see them as in a high place because when you're in that place and you can trust God with just the little that you have, you don't know it sometimes, but you're in a position to receive all kinds of blessings that he has in store for you.

Because you don't have enough to be distracted by and you're singly focused on serving God and doing what's right with what you already have and God calls it a high position. God loves to see his people in one state and say, I wish you could see it like I see it because you're in a different state. There's two of the churches in the book of Revelation he says that about. One of them in Revelation chapter two, the church at Smyrna, he says to them, I know your afflictions and your poverty. He said, but when I look at you, I see that you're rich. He said, he looked at a poor church in Smyrna and he said, yeah, the world sees you as an affliction in poverty, but I see you as very rich. Then when he writes the seventh church in the Revelation chapter three, the church at Laodicea, he said, you all say I'm rich, I've acquired wealth and I don't need a thing. He said, what you need to realize is that when I look at you, I see your wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. God looking at the same church as bragging about how much money they have and they don't need anything.

Next year's budget is already in the bank. And he said, but when I look at you, you are not in good shape at all. Saints, I'd rather see myself the way God sees me than to see myself the way the world sees me. Because if I get God's point of view, then I can make the adjustments I need to make so that I can please him. At the end of the day, life is about pleasing God. I've come to tell you, you who are people pleasers, you're going to have to get on the altar and say, God, deliver me from thinking people are all that.

That's the deliverance some of us need. We need to be delivered from folks, from what they think, from what they say, from how they're going to respond. If I do this, they're going to think that.

Who cares? Because at the end of the day, they don't have a heaven to send you to. They don't have a hell to put you in. At the end of the day, what they think does not matter. It's only what God has said in his word. And we got to get used to, some folk are going to be happy with you when you do the will of God and some folk are going to be sad, some even going to be mad. You have to learn to develop a theology of whatever, whatever.

I really can't hassle with you about how you think of me. I'm living to please God. I'm living to line up every area of my life with his will. And if God is happy and you're unhappy, you're the one that's going to have to make the adjustment. That's where we got to get to.

We got to get to the place where we're looking to say, God, what do you think about this? What do you see when you look at this area of my life or that area of my life? We will change on a dime if we begin to live our lives and see our lives from heaven's point of view. It'll change everything about the way you're doing if that becomes your goal. Lord, help me to see through your word how you view the way I'm making my decisions, the way I'm building my relationships, the way I'm investing in the kingdom.

Help me, Lord, to see everything from your point of view. So here James says, if you are in humble circumstances, meaning if you, socioeconomically speaking, you're not in great shape. Don't have a whole lot of money. Maybe low income job. Maybe don't have a car. You got to take public transportation. Maybe you have to rent a room because you can't rent the whole apartment.

Or you got an apartment, you really need a house, but you got an apartment because you really can't, at this point, afford a house. James says, if that's the case, you ought to take pride in your high position. What's your high position? Your high position is, from God's point of view, you're a prime candidate for his blessings.

You say, well, where do you get that from? Because God says he loves to take people who are low and raise them up because he gets the glory. Let me show you a scripture.

Put this up for me. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I want you to look with me at verses 26 through 29. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 26 through 29. Look at what Paul had to say about this business of how God chooses people.

He says, brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential.

Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. Do you understand what that means? He just said to the church at Corinth, look around. He said, not a lot of us came from nobility. Not a lot of us come from family that has generational wealth, for instance, or generational prominence.

Now, I'm telling you to read the word and rightly divide it. Notice he said not many. He didn't say not any. There are some people in the kingdom of God who come from an esteemed background, who come from notoriety, come from nobility, come from wealth.

That's great. His point is most of us aren't that. And to tell you the truth, those who are, when God gets through chipping away at their stuff, they end up feeling like they're in the category with the rest of us anyway. And he says, notice that God chose you because you weren't that much by the world's point of view, so that when he gets through blessing your life, people will look at you and say, now that had to be God.

Because we haven't earned it. You can look at us and then you look at where God takes us to and the two don't match up. You say, now how did she get that job?

Now how did he get into that career? Now how did this happen and that happen? And they begin to see that it can't be explained in human terms because the God we serve loves to take low things and elevate them for his glory.

He says, so just notice that. So listen, you who have gifts and God's blessing you and you use your gifts to bless people and all that, quit tripping. The reason God's using you is because you weren't much.

That's what we just read. Y'all don't have to worry about Pastor Paul's ego. Y'all got to see, when I preach out of town, I'm a big deal. Y'all don't know because I'm just Pastor Paul around here.

But trust me, when I'm out of town, I'm a really, really big deal. Sometimes folk been listening for years on the radio broadcast and I'm their favorite radio preacher. And so when I do radio rallies or preach at other churches, folk are running up to me, I'm signing books and signing autographs and taking pictures and kissing babies. I know y'all shocked. Pastor Paul? Yeah. One time I was somewhere preaching and some of our members were there on a trip.

I think it was Minister Bowers had a group there, I don't remember. But some of them saw me in another environment for the first time and I heard them say, he's famous. They had no idea. See, y'all just take me for granted.

But these folks. Y'all know I'm fooling around. Listen, the fact is, when you see that happening, you never have to worry about it because I know exactly who I am. I am somebody God picked up because he chose to and is using him for his glory. You've been listening to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd and his message, Seeing Life from Heaven's Point of View.

Thank you for spending part of your busy Friday with us. You know, we all go through times when we don't feel like doing the things we should or times when we do feel like doing the things we shouldn't. Pastor Paul Shepherd wants to help you see life from God's point of view by sending you a booklet based on his message, Junk Removal for the Soul. Each of us has a few habits from our old life that we need to set aside so that we can embrace the newness of who we are in Christ. Pastor Paul offers some practical biblical advice about doing just that in this booklet, our gift to you this month 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, CA 94538. I'll give that once again.

It's Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. And if you need prayer today, stop by PastorPaul.net and use the Contact Us feature to let us know how we can pray for you. That's PastorPaul.net. While you're there, be sure to ask for your free copy of Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement.

It comes at no cost or obligation. You got to understand, God sees things differently. And you got to stop thinking blessings have to do with your stuff. God can bless you in all kind of ways. He don't have to give you this fancy house. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Seeing Life from Heaven's Point of View. Until then, enjoy your weekend and remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.