It's All About Jesus

Politicians, the media, this group or that group. It seems everyone has an agenda these days. Today, on Destined for Victory, you'll see that God has an agenda too. Coming your way next, Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, It's All About Jesus.

But before we get started, Pastor joins me now from his studio in California. Here we are in the Christmas season. It's so easy to get distracted with how the world positions Christmas and even the circumstances of the last many months at which we've been living. But Pastor, I thought I'd ask you, what's on your heart this season?

How do we center our minds on the real meaning of Christmas? I started the series by asking people to reminisce with me. I said, let's think about some of our most memorable Christmases in years past. And then, as a true baby boomer, I walked down memory road to places the young people said, what in the world are you talking about? I started in 1978 and talked about a game called Simon that came out.

That was the big Christmas gift. I remember. 1978. And then I said, 1980, there was the Rubik's Cube. And only a few folks knew what I was talking about then. And then I said in 1983, there was Cabbage Patch Kids.

Oh boy. And more folks came alive as I talked about that. And then I talked about 1989. And I said, by then, stuff was becoming more technological.

There was an 8-bit handheld cartridge-based console called Game Boy. Before you know it, more than 118 million units had been sold in America. And then I said, just allow me one more old man memory. I said, in 1996, I was pastoring and I was amazed by this phenomenon called Tickle Me Elmo. I said, it's unbelievable that people lost their minds over Tickle Me Elmo. In fact, I talk about the fact that one of the rumors was that one parent paid $7,100 to someone who had bought an extra one just to make money off of it. And somebody who said, well, I got to get it for my kid. And the guy charged $7,100 and they bought it. Elmo, are you kidding me?

$7,100 for Elmo. And so I just told people, you know, we've been through all kinds of things, but let's always remember at the end of the day, and especially dealing with a worldwide pandemic that hasn't yet gone away. We still got to deal with the rest of this. We've got to remember in the midst of all of this, the one true thing we can rejoice in is the real meaning of Christmas. And it's not about our gifts, not about our toys. It is about what Jesus did and the grace that gave us that blessing of salvation. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Pastor Paul, thanks for those words of encouragement about the real reason for Christ's coming and the reason we celebrate the Christmas season.

Of course, it's the reason this media ministry exists to introduce people to the Savior of the world. As you help us do that today, we have a very special thank you gift to share with you. Introducing Pastor Paul Shepherd's new book, Lessons from the Vineyard. In Lessons from the Vineyard, Pastor Paul inspires believers to use their gifts to glorify God and bless others to become attractive as we bear godly fruit that brings honor to Jesus Christ and leads others to Him. That's Lessons from the Vineyard, a book from Pastor Paul and our gift to you by request for your generous donation of $25 or more to Destin for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And of course, you can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory at Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, Destin for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. As I kick off this series, I want to say today it's all about Jesus. That's the subject if you are taking notes. It's all about Jesus. I am absolutely convinced that in these closing hours of time, we must get back to the Jesus agenda like never before. Pastor Paul Shepherd calls it the Jesus agenda and he'll tell you all about it next as he shares today's Destin for Victory message from Isaiah chapter 61.

So let's join him now for his message. It's all about Jesus. Isaiah 61 and verse one.

Here's what it says in the New King James version of the word of God. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. And I want to talk over the course of these messages about overall the theme will be the Jesus agenda.

But I want to have some sub focuses along the way. And as I kick off this series, I want to say today it's all about Jesus. That's the subject. If you are taking notes, it's all about Jesus. I am absolutely convinced that in these closing hours of time, we must get back to the Jesus agenda like never before.

Now we're in the closing hours of time. I didn't make that up. The Bible lets me know that.

How does it do that? Well, first of all, we know that the last days began on the day of Pentecost back in the first century of the church's existence. Days after Jesus ascended after his resurrection, you know that he spent 40 days on earth after his resurrection, showing himself alive. And then before he left, he told his disciples, Now, I want you to go to Jerusalem, stay there.

Wait till you hear from me. And they did exactly that. And 50 days later, after that weekend where he died and rose again, 50 days later, the day of Pentecost hit. And here's what we were told in first in the prophecy of Joel. In the last days, says God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, Peter said this. What's happening now is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel. And we know the Prophet Joel said in the last days it was going to happen. So we can comfortably conclude the last days began with the day of Pentecost.

Where are we now? We are in the 21st century of the church's existence. And so over this period of time, we've been in the last days. Well, then, Pastor, how do you know that it's just not going to go on and on? Because Paul said in Second Timothy, in the last days, here are the things that are going to happen. And if you've ever read what Paul said would happen, he said perilous times would come. And then he begins to lay out.

And when you see what he laid out, you can check one phrase after the other. It's all happening now. So if the last days began at Pentecost, we're in the last of the last days. Jesus is soon to come. Folks, don't get comfortable because Jesus is soon to come. No, no, I'm not Harold Camping. I'm not a false prophet telling you when he's coming. Because no man knows the day or the hour. But we do know by the signs of the time, it's later than it's ever been before. I heard the story years ago.

I've always kept it in mind. A grandfather who was working in his clock shop had his grandson with him. And he was making the chimes sound. And his grandson, a real very small grandson, was learning to count by the chimes. And so the grandfather tricked him, made one clock chime 13 times. And he said to his grandson, all right, now what time is it? And the boy heard 13.

He knew it was supposed to go up to 12. And he paused for a moment and he said, Grandpa, I don't know, but it's later than it's ever been before. Let me tell you something.

That is true. I can't tell you exactly the day Jesus is coming. But I can tell you according to the signs of the time as given us in scripture, it's later than it's ever been before. And in these closing hours of time, it is time for us to have a renewed commitment to the Jesus agenda. Because at the end of the day, it's all about Jesus.

We got to get back to him. The church has gotten into a lot of things other than Jesus. I'm not talking about a particular congregation, just the church in general has really gotten caught up in a whole lot of stuff. There are a lot of nouns the church is focused on. You all remember when we were kids, they taught us what is a noun?

A noun is a person, place or thing. I came to tell you, there are a whole lot of persons, places and things that the church has gotten focused on. And we need to stop that and get back to focusing on Jesus Christ.

Because at the end of the day, it's all about him. We love focusing on people and whether it's your leaders or whatever, we make superstars in the church. And that is an insult to the God who made us the body of Christ. You should honor leadership, but don't put them where they shouldn't be. Honor leaders, the Bible says give honor to whom it's due. Those whose work is dedicated to preaching and teaching and their vocational and their ministries and all, they deserve a good living from the people they minister to. All of that is scriptural. But at the end of the day, don't make somebody a superstar in Jesus' church.

It belongs to him. And we've got to give him back his church. We're focused on people.

We're focused on places. I hope you know the church is not a building. Thank God for the wonderful buildings God blesses us to build. But at the end of the day, the church has nothing to do with the place called church. The building is simply where the church gathers.

But don't get hung up on the building. Some of the greatest worship experiences I've ever had were experienced in a place that wasn't even called a church. But we get into people, places, and God knows we get into a lot of things. The church just catches these fads and gets caught up in all kinds of stuff that has nothing to do with the Jesus agenda. And I'm here to tell you, we've got to get back to what's important to Jesus. See, I've been around church all my life. Notice I said been around church all my life. Some folks make the mistake of saying, I've been in the church all my life.

Let me just help your theology real quick. You haven't been in the church all your life. No one's been in the church all your life because you were born in sin shaping in iniquity.

Amen. So you've been around church. But if you truly know the Lord, one day you asked him into your life. That's when he baptized you by one spirit into the body of Christ.

That's the day that you came into the church because you were born again into the Church of Jesus Christ. But I've been around church folk all my life. I'm a preacher's kid, a pastor's kid.

I know. I know how church folk roll. I could get a Ph.D. on church folk.

And I'm telling you, not all of it is wonderful news. Church people can be a tramp for real. And so it is time for us to get back to the Jesus agenda.

I've been around them. See, I grew up back when when church was nine thirty to ten thirty Sunday school. Come on, some of your church. Nine thirty to ten thirty was Sunday school. And then there was a break. Ten thirty to eleven was a break in my church growing up.

There was a store around the corner owned by an Asian man. And but he knew that little black Sunday school was letting out. And so he was in that store by ten thirty because we were going to come around the corner and we were going to buy up some charms and M&Ms. And come on, some of your some of your in my generation, you remember when we had church clothes? You didn't just show up at church. We had church clothes. And when I was growing up, we actually wore suits and little preteen boys we had on suits when we went to church. But it was convenient for my snacks because you had all those different pockets. And so you put your M&Ms here and you put your charms here and now later stuck in here.

Oh, come on, some of y'all. Well, let me tell you something. That was the way we did church back in the day. And then we went back around the corner, got to be in there before eleven, because at eleven o'clock, that's when Jesus came to church back in the day.

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. Subscribe to our podcast to get our program anytime.

It's available at Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you get yours. Now, once again, here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message. It's all about Jesus. I'm so glad that the church has evolved and we've learned that we can worship any day, any time. And so now most of our churches have an early morning service in a later morning service. Oh, that's good.

Nothing wrong with it. But back in the day, Jesus wasn't showing up till 11. That was the way it was in our mind. So you had to be back in there because Jesus and the choir were coming in at 11. Come on, some of y'all remember the choir and the church I grew up in. They would come up the side aisle, come up the side aisle with their robes on, and then they would come stand two by two in the back. And then the organ and piano would strike up and they would start some way that love the Lord and let our joys be known. Or sometimes it was what a fellowship, what a joy.

Don't y'all mess up my message and start singing. But Jesus and the choir came at 11. So I know how church works. I know it backwards and forwards. And church has its way of doing things.

Not all of it is bad. But what we've got to make sure is that we get our focus squarely on Jesus Christ, because he is the savior of the world. He is the hope for a lost world. He is the one that will save you. He is the one that will deliver you. He is the one that will set you free.

Nobody but Jesus. And so we've got to be in the Jesus business in these closing hours of time. We've got to get back to him. We've got to make sure the world around us understands that it is about him. Now I want to just walk you through the first few phrases. That's all I want to do in the remaining time as I kick off this series of messages.

I want to walk you through some important things for us to think through. Look again at what is said here in Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. This is the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus ever came to earth. But Isaiah had a specific prophetic call by which the Lord not only showed him things to come, but gave him uncanny detail. In fact theologians often call Isaiah the eagle eye prophet. Meaning he had the ability to see far down the corridor of time, but what he saw, he saw very clearly. And throughout the prophecy of Isaiah you see examples of how very accurate and specific he was.

And this is one of those. He's saying the Spirit of the Lord is going to be upon Jesus. And it is going to be there because the Lord is going to anoint him to do several things.

What is the first thing he mentions? To preach good tidings to the poor. We know this referred to Jesus because when you get to the earthly days of Jesus about to launch his ministry. It's recorded in Luke chapter 4 for instance. What you find is that Jesus walks into the synagogue one day and when it's his time to read the scrolls he turns to the prophecy of Isaiah. He turns to this very passage and he begins to say the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the good news. And after he quotes some of that passage he closes the scroll and says this day that scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

It's happening right now Jesus said. And so we know that this is the Jesus agenda that we'll be taking a look at. It's important that we renew our commitment to proclaiming what does he say? Good news, good tidings but it's also translated good news to the poor. Let me talk you through a couple of those phrases. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me.

Pause right there. Church folk often talk about the anointing and many of them don't know what it is. And so folks say oh the anointing was all over them.

Well what is it? I don't know but they were anointed. Well let me help you understand. See my job in the body of Christ I am a pastor teacher. I believe in all of the offices God placed in the body are still in the body. The original apostles were unique no question about that but there are still people with an apostolic calling. There are still people with a prophetic gifting and an office to be a prophet. There are people who are evangelists and there are people who are pastors and teachers as offices in the body of Christ. I've been used in many ways in apostolic ways and in prophetic ways and I certainly have a heart for evangelism. But my real core offices are pastor teacher.

And so when you know that I'm going to stand before the people you know that my job there is to do permanent damage to people's ignorance. That's my job as a teacher. Pastor I love pastor because I get to shepherd people lead them in the things of God and I love pastoring. And then I love the fact that I have a combined office of pastor and teacher because not all pastors are teachers. And not all teachers are pastors. But God has gifted me and placed me in both offices and so I get to lead and feed. And as a teacher I'm not here to tickle people's fancy all the time. All there are times when I speak you'll be blessed. Oh I bless oh praise God wasn't that a good message. And there are going to be other times you say hmm. And I need you to just understand that that's all part of the calling. Because in doing permanent damage to people's ignorance you can't always make them happy.

Sometimes you leave them with grunts and groans and oh God help me. Because the word is supposed to get in your business sometimes. How you know you're growing and the word is never getting you under conviction. Don't ask your pastor to always make you feel good.

They can't do it. Sometimes they have to convict you through the word but if you just follow what God is leading you to you'll end up in a better place. And so we need to understand here's the anointing. In fact let me give you my working definition for the anointing. Because it's really important that people understand that the anointing is jot this down if you want to.

God's presence and power given to accomplish his purpose. What is the anointing? The anointing is God's presence and power given to accomplish his purpose.

You see it in the passage the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because. God never annoys people just because they want to be anointed. The anointing is always tied to a divine purpose. The anointing comes to energize and fulfill a purpose. So don't try to go around being anointed and doing nothing. The anointing comes and gives you a job to do.

See we love just woo they so anointed. And honey you need to go hit him because he's so. I've seen folks like somebody kind of spooky you know with their giftings. Oh I went to this meeting you need to go to this meeting because honey when he look at you you fall out.

Now all their friends flocking because they want to get looked at and so that they can go out. Bless your heart my question is when you get up what's different? I'm not interested in your esoteric experience for esoteric sake. You know I'm not saying you can't have such an experience but something ought to happen if the anointing is at work. See there's a difference between the anointing and your gift. We are often confused that people see gifted folk and call them anointed. They're not anointed just because they have the gift. Everybody has a gift.

Think of yourself as a conduit. God pours certain gifts into you so that you will go out and pour them out on others. That's all the time we have today but for more information about Destined for Victory.

Or our special thank you gift reserved for you when you give your generous year-end gift. Visit PastorPaul.net. That's PastorPaul.net. Jesus wasn't saying I'm anointed only for poor people as if he couldn't speak to people who were wealthy.

That wasn't the case. The emphasis on the poor was simply to say this good news you don't have to have much going for you. You can be broke, busted and disgusted but God has good news for your life. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul shepherds message it's all about Jesus. But until then remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ you are Destined for Victory.