Something God Can't Do (cont'd)

For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. In just a few moments, Pastor Paul Shepherd talks about overcoming temptation in his Destined for Victory message, something God can't do.

But first, he joins me from his studio in California. Many of our listeners have wondered how we got our name, Destined for Victory. Let's talk about that for a moment before you share today's message. Well, I really take Paul seriously when he said God began a good work in us and he's going to bring it to completion, which means our lives are journeys. All of us are somewhere in our journey, not only of chronological time, but we're on a spiritual journey. I want to make sure that I help you navigate well on your spiritual journey.

I want to make sure that I help people avoid pitfalls where possible, or at least learn that they don't have to be fatal. I know what it is to have failure in my life, but I also know what it is that failure doesn't have to be final if people will put their trust in God, repent when they mess up, and let the Lord restore us and make us the people he's destined us to be. The fact of the matter is, if God be for us, it doesn't matter who or what is against us, we're going to get to that place of ultimate victory in Christ. Well, I know we say it all the time here on the program, in Christ you are destined for victory, but God said it and we believe it. We hope you do as well, and we hope you'll also help us reach others with this important truth. As you were able to give generously to the ministry today, we'll say thank you with a booklet from Pastor Paul that goes hand in hand with his message, junk removal for the soul. You'll be encouraged as you discover how to set aside some of the bad habits from your life before Christ in order to embrace the newness of your life in Christ. This is a booklet based on Pastor Paul's message, junk removal for the soul, and it's our gift to you by request as you give your generous gift to destined for victory. To do that, call us at 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, our address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. I got a question for you. If temptations don't come from God, where do they come from? Come from Satan. Satan. He is the one who hates our souls. He is the one who hates your relationship with God. He is the one who wants to mock God at every opportunity. God has given you a promise.

You'll never be tempted beyond that which you're able to overcome, but that doesn't mean it will be easy. We have a very real, very powerful enemy whose sole mission is to entice us to disobey God. And as you'll see today on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, he does so in three ways.

The same three ways he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Now, here's Pastor Paul with this message, something God can't do. Some of you are fighting with spirits before you ever got to church this morning.

Stuff just interrupting your peace and interrupting the flow of your life. And we're just constantly dealing with forces we cannot see. And those forces use people that we can see. That's the other thing. Demons are good at sitting on somebody's shoulder and telling them how to get on your nerves.

And they do it well. We're really wrestling against spiritual forces. And so temptation is instigated by evil spirits that tap into something in us to try to draw us away from God.

Let me make sure you understand it. Where's the first temptation in the Bible? Garden of Eden.

Come on, class, pay attention. Garden of Eden. Garden of Eden. Book of Genesis.

And what happened? Satan, in the form of a serpent, comes along. God has instructed Adam, I want you to enjoy, have dominion over all the earth, and particularly this garden where you've been placed.

And I want you to enjoy it and subdue it. He said, now, in the midst of the garden is this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, I want you to steer clear of that tree.

Clear instructions. So what does Satan slink up and do? He goes to Eve and says to her, let's talk about this tree that God said to leave alone. The first thing, brothers and sisters, you want to pay attention to is what's drawing you to what God said to stay away from. It's always something evil. Satan and the demons that work in his army are always trying to get us to fixate on something God said to ignore. That's the first step, and he's always the instigator. So he says to her, let's talk about this tree.

Why is he doing that? Because he knows that he can mock God if he gets her to disobey God. So temptations come in three forms. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. That's mentioned in 1 John chapter 2. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. John said, they are not of the Father. They are of the world.

Okay? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. It happened in the garden.

First, the lust of the flesh. She wanted to eat fruit. It's edible.

It's enjoyable. She wanted to eat. We all have natural appetites. You've got to eat at some point. Some of us ate too much a few days ago. Raise your hand if you're guilty.

Nah, don't bother. All right? Lust of the flesh. Everybody's got to eat. But the enemy points out the fruit that's on a tree God said to leave alone. Now, they're in a garden. There's plenty of fruit all around.

What does he do? He says, let's talk about this particular tree. Lust of the flesh. Then lust of the eyes. She looked at the fruit and saw that it looked great.

Looked great. You get tempted by things that really appeal to your flesh in that moment. Now, we think of temptation often as things like sexual temptation and temptation to steal, temptation to lie. But temptation comes in a variety pack. You can be tempted in all kinds of ways. Some of you are tempted to be bitter, tempted to be mean, tempted to be angry, tempted to be unforgiving.

Some of us are struggling with that right now. But all temptations fall into one of those categories. Lust of the flesh. Lust of the eyes.

You see. You see something that has appeal. Your eyes can get you in a world of trouble. Come on, somebody.

Your eyes can get you in a world of trouble. God's been telling some of you all to get out of debt once and for all. We've been teaching. We've been giving you God's Word on it. It is biblical.

It is sound. It's not optional like, well, money isn't really important. Money is very important. God talks about it a lot in the Bible. And God's been telling some of you to get out of debt.

And what is bothering you right now is the lust of your eyes. Because in this season, with all these commercials and all these advertisements, you know you're supposed to be out of debt and you know you don't have the money for a new TV. But you saw 60 inches. Super HD.

Whatever they said to appeal to your eyes. And then they said the price has slashed. And there you are now at Best Buy or at some store, Wal-Mart, Target, wherever you are, buying something you can't afford, lying with a piece of plastic. You're lying. Because the plastic pretends like you can afford it. But you don't have the money. And you're disobeying God, falling into that temptation.

And how'd you fall? Lust of your eyes. And then the pride of life. Listen, Pastor Paul don't control my life. He's up there preaching. I stop buying stuff just because he got to say. I'm a man just like, yeah, man, I put on my, you know. And I'm God's mouthpiece trying to help you live life to the full as Jesus promised you. And I'm giving you God's word and if you walk in it you'll be blessed. But now your pride is messing with you. And I had to do something just because he said it.

And so those kinds of things team up. And in the garden it caused the fall. Now, fast forward to the New Testament. What's a major temptation you see in the New Testament? You see it in the Gospels where Jesus, after he was baptized by John, was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Because he wasn't going to be equipped to minister with power and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit until the devil had had his crack at him.

So what's the devil do? The Bible says Jesus fasted for 40 days. And at the end of the 40 days, anybody who's been on a fast for any length of time, you know you want to eat. That's what you're supposed to do at the end of a fast. But the devil comes along to Jesus in the wilderness and says, Command this stone to be turned into bread.

The problem isn't eating after a fast. Jesus should eat. The problem is who's commanding him. And so Jesus, he tried to appeal to the lust of the flesh. He tries to tell Jesus, go on and turn this into a meal, even though it's not a meal right now. The problem is Jesus is not supposed to fall for temptation from the enemy. So Jesus responds with the word.

He says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God's mouth. So he passed the first part of the temptation, lust of the flesh. Then there's the lust of the eyes.

The enemy took him up to a high place and showed him the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. Lust of the eyes. What we see can get us in trouble. A whole lot of people getting in trouble in their lives over what they see. We who were little Sunday school children, they taught us, be careful little eyes what you see.

There's a father up above looking down, tender love, so be careful little eyes what you see. Because if you fixate on something that God doesn't have for you, the more you look, the more your flesh will draw and entice you in. See the enemy is the instigator, but what he pulls on is your flesh, your personal evil desire. That part of you that doesn't want to obey God. And the lust of the eyes often works with it.

And so you got to watch what you focus on because it'll lie to you. We'll be right back with more of today's Destin for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Remember, you can always listen to the broadcast on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

Also there on the website, you'll find a host of great resources in our online store. Marriage and family are under attack, perhaps like never before in America. But Satan has always waged war against husbands and wives and families because he knows nations fall apart when families fall apart.

Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destin for Victory message, Something God Can't Do. You're trying to be a good married person. You're trying to work out your marriage. And the enemy got you focusing on somebody else.

And then he lies to you about him. That's the perfect person for you. In fact, see, you missed your soul mate. Oh, I know I'm ringing doorbells. Y'all can just sit there.

I know good weather. Lord gave me this message. I'm ringing doorbell. You missed your soul mate. That's who you really should have married. So really, it's not going to be sin for you to leave the one you're with and go get that one because that's who you were supposed to be with in the first place. God's just swapping them out for you. And it's making sense to you because your eyes and your flesh have bought into a lie. Saints of God, be careful about lies. Don't buy a lie because when you do, deception comes. There are more Christians walking around thinking they're right and they're just as wrong as they know how to be because they bought a lie. Bought a lie.

God had this for me all along and I had to come on this job to meet her. The enemy's always lying. He's always telling you the grass is greener on the other side. Look at your old pitiful grass.

And look over there. Look how green that is. He won't tell you that's artificial turf over there. He's not telling you that's artificial turf. He's not telling you that if you water your grass, your real grass will look better than that false grass.

No, no. He got you fixated on something that God said to leave alone and your eyes have caused you to buy a lie. And that's what happened. The enemy tried to get Jesus to fixate on the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them. And Jesus had to respond again with the word and he had to let him know that thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shall thou serve.

And then the enemy wasn't finished. He came back one more time, told Jesus to cast himself down from that high place. For it is written, the devil knows the Bible too. That's why y'all got to stand in a church like this where the word's going to be rightly divided. Stick with this Bible. Stick with this pastor because I'm going to tell you the truth. Whether you want it or not.

Whether you like it or not. I'm not lying to anybody. Going to tell you the truth. I got your soul's responsibility before me. The Bible says that we who are over you in the Lord have to watch for your soul as those who must give an account. And if I got to give an account for you, you think I'm going to stand up here and lie to you? Because you want to lie? I wish the pastor would tell me to go ahead and drop this one off so I can get the one I really want. I'm not going to tell you that. If I start preaching against this book, you get up and walk out.

Because your job is to not be deceived. Walk in the truth because James ends this passage by saying God is the God of light. No darkness.

No shifting shadows in him. He's the God of light. God's trying to bring you into a good place. I need you to understand God's not trying to curse you.

He's ready to bless you. But the blessing comes through obedience. So watch your eye gates. Watch what you fixate on. Watch what the enemy whispers in your ear. And understand that temptation come to all of us. There's nobody listening to this message who is outside of the reach of temptation. It comes in all kinds of forms. You say, well I'm in love with my husband already, so the devil can't even bring anybody to me.

I'd just be like, oh please. You got to understand the enemy knows how to find the right moments. When you just had one of them dumb arguments.

Marry people, I need to hear something. Dumb arguments. You ever had a dumb... It makes no sense. You can't even figure out how did we ever get into this stupid argument. I think I got a witness somewhere in the house.

How did we ever get into this dumb argument? He doesn't come when you're on your honeymoon. He doesn't come when you're feeling all good. He waits till you're sick of each other.

Where you don't hardly want to see him. Much less say good morning to him. And he'll send you out the house and you're all frustrated. And he's whispering, you know, you deserve better than that. And you remember, you ain't never been treated this poorly. Your mama never talked to you like this. I'm trying to help you.

I'm trying to help you. It's in that context that the enemy then shows up. And he anoints somebody with an unholy anointing. And they come start talking to you and making you feel good. Then the enemy says, see, that's what I'm talking about. That's what you deserve.

Drop this turkey off. There's a method. So we have to learn to avoid temptation. How do you avoid temptation? 1 Corinthians 10.

You avoid temptation by realizing that there's no temptation taking you, but such as is common to mankind. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

Notice that. He will let you be tempted, although he didn't bring it. He does allow the enemy to tempt us. But he makes sure that there's a way of escape before he lets the enemy come. So you're in that situation I just talked about. You're feeling sick of your spouse, and here's somebody else making you feel wonderful about yourself. And your flesh is saying, you need to go in this direction. God has built in an escape. Guess what the escape is when the enemy's trying to get you to drop off your spouse and to pick up something you don't know what you're picking up. See, everybody who hits on you or you think they're hitting on you, you want to believe they're hitting on you, they're not doing it for reasons you think.

Furthermore, they don't know you, and you don't know them. Everybody looked good at work. They dressed up to come to work.

They got prepared to come to work. Life just happens when you're married. Life just happens when you're a parent. Life just happens. If you're going through money stresses, life just happens.

But those setups are designed to fool you into thinking there's something good you're missing. All of the blessings you need are in your real everyday life. I said all the blessings you need are in your real everyday life.

You don't need to introduce anything unknown to try to make your life better. What you need to do is find God's way of escape when you find yourself in the clutches of temptation and get out. Sometimes you get out by shutting your mouth. See, that's all you got to do, shut your mouth. Some folk would be way better off in life if they had just shut up.

But you started talking and you went in the wrong direction. Some of us would be better if we learned how to run. Just run. There are places in the Bible that say, flee temptation. You know what that means?

There's nothing prideful about that. You can't look cute while you're fleeing. But some of us, that's what we need to do, flee.

Just flat out run. I know some of you brothers, macho and all that, hell, nothing make me run. I ain't never scared. This ain't time for you to try to be a rapper.

I'm talking about you ain't never scared. This time for you to get in the wind. Run. Get out. Don't try to be cute, try to be holy.

Get out. Pray it as you go, help me Jesus. You don't believe me? Ask Joseph in the Old Testament. Sister Potiphar was looking for him in the house. And the Bible says, after he saw that she was trying to hit on him, he wouldn't be with her. So when he heard she's in one part of the house, Joseph is hiding in another part of the house. Now that's not cute, that's not macho, but it is holy. And he could hear Sister Potiphar, where's Joseph? Anybody seen Joseph?

Joseph in the laundry room, don't mind. You got to do whatever it takes so that you can pass your trials and you can avoid your temptations. Here's the good news, if you do it God's way, there are blessings that he has reserved for you.

That's why you got to pass the test. That's why you got to avoid the temptation, because God's getting ready to hook you up. He's getting ready to bless you, and he can bless you at every stage of your life. Some of you all are old, but you're not done being tempted.

You just might have a different set of temptations. But pass them, because God wants to bless you in your old age. I said God wants to bless you in your old age.

God wants to bless you to the moment you close your eyes and join him in eternity. And so my brother, my sister, whatever it takes, I need you to listen to this wisdom from James. Go through your tests, your challenges right, because God's going to use them to develop maturity in you.

Some of you have got to stop being half-baked turkeys. And start being somebody God can use in any situation. And then you've got to avoid the temptations. Tell yourself when you're tempted, God must have something really good for me. Because look how the enemy is fighting his hardest to try to get me out of God's will. God must be getting ready to bless me tremendously. Because look at how the enemy is pressing against every good thing in my life.

Tell yourself I'm going to do God's will by the grace he gives me. Amen? Thanks so much for joining us for today's message, Something God Can't Do. If you'd like more information about the Destined for Victory ministry or this month's special thank you gift, be sure to stop by our website, pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. There are hearers of the word and there are doers of the word.

God has called us to be both. Here's Pastor Paul. And read the word of God.

You say I'm too busy, you're not too busy. Just wake up and read it before you get showered. Wake up and read it before you bathe. Because you need the word more than you need anything else. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message. There's an app for that. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.