Tap into God's Power, Part 2 (cont'd)

You don't have to stop getting high.

You just got to change what you're getting high on. Don't go to the lounge for that. Don't go to the bar for that. For what I'm talking about, you got to pull up to Joel's place. Joel's place. Because Joel's the prophet who said, in the last days, I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.

And be not drunk with wine, for that leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Have you ever had a power failure when you needed energy the most? When life throws a few punches your way and you have no strength to fight back, you need the kind of power that only God can give you. Today, Pastor Paul tells you how to flip that switch. Stay with us now or stop by pastorpaul.net anytime to hear today's message or any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

Also, you can subscribe to the podcast at Google Podcast or Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. But let's join Pastor Paul now as he shares today's Destined for Victory message, Tapping to God's Power. You need to go ahead and get high, but don't go to the club for that. Don't go to the lounge for that.

Don't go to the bar for that. For what I'm talking about, you got to pull up to Joel's place. Because Joel's the prophet who said, in the last days I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. We are too sober. We need to pull up to Joel's place and say, fill it up.

And when that mud goes, fill it up again. Because I need to be full of the Holy Spirit, full of His power, full of His presence, full of His leadership in my life. I can't afford it. Where y'all work, there's no way you can go there and be sober and get the will of God. You better show up drunk. I'm full of the Holy Ghost.

I got to fool with these crazy people on this job. Some of y'all need to get drunk before you go home. What I'm going home to, Holy Ghost, fill me up real good. Give me some shots, several shots, Holy Ghost, before I get back home. Because some of y'all came too sober and you know what you just left. And some of y'all feel like, Holy Ghost, if you don't fill me, I dare not go back.

I'm going to hurt somebody. Can't go to work until I'm high. Not on wine, not on alcohol, not on drugs. I need to be high on the Holy Spirit. That's what we're told here. Paul said, be filled with the Spirit.

Why? Because when you are full of the Holy Spirit, you can do things that you can't do otherwise. Do you know how it is that Peter, when you keep reading Acts 2, I can't take you through it in the interest of time, but when you keep reading, what you see is that Peter is the one chosen by God to deliver the message on Pentecost Sunday.

You say, what's significant about that? Peter was an apostle. Yeah, he was an apostle, but he was a scared one. You remember when Jesus got arrested? Before Jesus was arrested, he told Peter, he said, you're going to deny me three times. You're going to deny me. Peter was like, what you talking about? Man, I'm the only one that's going to be standing with you. Some of these other people you picked, I don't even know why you picked them. I know they're going to run away.

They're just a bunch of punks. That was Peter's attitude. He said, one thing you did right, Jesus, you picked me. Because I got you.

Yeah, it's right in your Bible somewhere. I got you. He said, you and I are going to go down fighting. I'm going to be with you back to back.

I got you. Jesus said, Simon, Simon. He called him twice. He's probably still bragging what he called him the first time. Yeah, call him again. He said, Satan has demanded to shake you up like wheat. You got to understand the Greek. We read, he sift you.

That sounds nice and proper. We're not talking about some little sifter. Satan asked for permission, demanded the right to shake. He violently shake up Peter's life. And Jesus said, and when you're converted, meaning God said, yeah, you can shake him up. Because God takes what the devil uses for evil and turns it around and makes it work for good. And so what Jesus was implying is actually a violent shakeup is coming into your life and God's going to let it happen. But instead of it serving the enemy's purpose, he hopes to separate you from your faith. And God said, I'm going to let him shake you.

But I'm praying for you that your faith won't be parted from your life. And that's exactly what happened. He was shaken. And one of the things that God exposed was he didn't have all that power and all that boldness that he thought he had, that he told Jesus, I'm going to go down with you no matter what. Three times that very night before that next morning's sun rose in the sky, three times Peter had denied knowing Jesus.

Because after they arrested Jesus, they went after his followers. And somebody said, that's one of them looking at Peter. Peter said, no, I never met him.

What you talking about? Get out of here. Another person, yeah, that's one of his.

No, I'm not. Then the Bible says the third one was a little girl who said, no, he's one of them. Peter said, you know what?

I'm going to get these people up off of me. So let me prove to them I don't know Jesus. He said, if you all don't blankety blank, get out of my blankety blank face, I'm going to put my blank. The Bible says he swore.

I hope you know that they're not talking about put your hand on the Bible. When it says he swore, that means he was cussing his head off. He said, I'm going to show them I don't know Jesus. He cussed so, I'm sure folks are like, oh yeah, I guess he don't know Jesus the way he. And afterwards, he was ashamed of himself.

The Bible says he followed Jesus to the cross, but he followed from afar. Why? Because he didn't have the boldness he thought he had. Have you ever had a power failure just when you needed power? You didn't have power in your life. Power failures are real things.

How you going to deal with a power failure? You got to be full of the Holy Ghost. Because the same Peter who on the night that Jesus was betrayed denied knowing him three times. And now, less than two months later, on the day of Pentecost, he is so bold, energized with the Holy Spirit that he starts preaching. And he preached so long, Luke wrote the book of Acts. Luke gives us a lot of the sermon.

Read Acts 2 when you get a chance. He tells you what Peter said. I mean, he's bold, standing up there, declaring all these wonderful works, telling the religious people that they missed God and all this.

Our man, he is preaching it clear. In fact, he preached so long, Luke stopped taking dictation. He gives us the gist of the message. Then there's a verse that says, Luke said, with many other words did he speak.

You know what that means? Luke was like, he like Pastor Paul. He preached a long time. I'm not writing all this down. With many other words, did he speak?

Why? Because boldness from the Holy Ghost changed him and took him from a powerless man to a man who would stand up in front of anybody and declare who God was. You and I need that kind of boldness in today's world. We live in a world where people don't even want you to publicly say anything about the Lord.

You have jobs. Many of them say, don't say blessed. I'm blessed. Don't say God bless you. You work for this company and we are a secular company and we'll send you to HR if you start talking that religious talk.

Now some folk can do all kinds of crazy stuff on your job. Nobody bats an eye. But I dare you to say something about Jesus and suddenly they're alarmed. And I'm here to tell you, we have to have a boldness. We have to be wise and win the souls. I'm not sending you to your job to be disruptive. But if the Holy Spirit tells you to do or say something, you can't back off because of what they think.

Because at the end of the day, you're not answering to them, you're answering to Him. And so being filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to get under that influence. We need to live under that influence. I grew up in Philly, but it's true of all a lot of urban areas, what my experience was as a child in Philly. We grew up with people in our neighborhood. We called them winos.

You all remember that? I'm talking about the old people now. Today that's politically incorrect. You don't call people things like that in today's world. I get it. So I'm not calling you a wino today.

But back when I was a little boy and didn't know better, we had folk in the neighborhood. I said, oh, there's Ned the wino. We did it. Stay with us. The second half of Pastor Paul Shepherd's message is coming right up. We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help Pastor Paul share the joy of the Gospel message with a growing audience.

Destined for Victory is supported entirely by friends like you. So please prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory today. Give online safely and securely from our website, pastorpaul.net. Or give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again, that number, 855-339-5500. If being filled with the Holy Spirit was illegal, would you be arrested for living under the influence? Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message.

Tap into God's power. Why did we call him a wino? Because every time you saw him, he was under the influence. And he wasn't under the influence of good, high-priced stuff. He went to the liquor store where they had the cheap stuff. Come on, somebody.

Oh, y'all stop acting like you never saw it. They had the cheap stuff. He could afford it on the little bit of pennies he had. And he would always have a brown bag in his hand.

Oh, come on, some of y'all. He held it toward the top because you didn't see it. But what was in the brown bag was a bottle of wine. And it had a skinny neck. And so he had the neck around the bag was his hand. And he was holding the neck. And every now and then he'd take a swig. And we called him winos because we never saw him sober.

All we saw was degrees of high. And let me tell you something. We need to be spiritual winos. We need to keep taking sips. Just stay high. Just don't allow yourself to ever get all the way sober.

You get sober, it's not going to go well in your life. Just keep on sipping on the Holy Ghost. Keep sipping on the power of God. Just believing God to do what only He can do. Be like Joel chapter 2.

In Joel's place he said, in the last days I'll pour out your spirit. God, just pour it out on us over and over and over again so that we never get all the way sober again. You and I need to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. As we deal with people, as we deal with their stuff, they're crazy.

You need to be under the influence. The Spirit of God is the one who can control our lives to the point where we don't even know ourselves. One of the things He can do is help you get through your temptations. Do you remember when Jesus got baptized by John the Baptist in the Gospel of Luke? Well, after He got baptized, Luke's Gospel chapter 4 says, He was led from that experience by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. But He was filled with the Holy Spirit. In fact, when Jesus was baptized, when He came up out of the water, the Bible says the Holy Spirit left heaven in the form of a dove and sat upon Him. That was symbolic of the fact that Jesus was filled without measure to the Holy Spirit. So when He comes out of the water, He is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness.

For what purpose? To be tempted by the devil. But God was already ahead of the devil. Yes, I'm sending Him to be tempted.

Why? Because He's got to be tempted in all points just like we are. And the Bible says He was in all points tempted like us. That doesn't mean every temptation you face He went through.

He faced every category of temptation and He shows us by the power of God you can overcome all temptations. John in his first epistle, 1 John chapter 2, there's a passage where it says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, they are not of the Father, they are of the world.

Well guess what? Those three categories are symbolic of categories all of us are going to go through. All of the sins we commit, have ever committed in our lives fall into one of those categories. The lust of the flesh, what your flesh wanted.

Come on. What your flesh wanted. Anything that was not God's will but your flesh wanted it. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes. How many of y'all have sinned based on your eyes? What you saw, the Lord is my shepherd, I see what I want.

Your eyes have gotten you into sinful trouble before. And the third category is the pride of life. Sometimes pride has driven us to seek things, to consume things, to be focused on things, to make decisions based on pride. Whenever you can't apologize and you need to apologize that's pride. Whenever you can't treat folk right, that's pride. Because if you were truly humble before God and empty of yourself you would be able to do anything God wanted you to do.

But how many know your pride will stand in the way. That's why it says in both James and in 1 Peter it says that God resisted the proud and he gives grace to the humble. If you aren't experiencing God's grace it's cause you're too proud. God resisteth the proud. Brothers and sisters, I can't afford to have God resist me. We all need God to give us grace. We don't need God resisting us.

Well how do you make sure he doesn't resist you? You humble yourself. You go low, say Lord have your way.

Not my will but your will be done in my life. And so Jesus was tempted in those three categories. Look at him in the wilderness beginning in Luke chapter 4. You find out he goes into the wilderness and the devil first gives him the temptation of the lust of the flesh.

What does he do? He tells him, hey you've been on this 40 day fast, you're good and hungry. Tell that stone to be bread and go on and eat it. There's nothing wrong with eating after a fast.

That's what you're supposed to do. When the fast is over you're supposed to eat. The problem was who was telling him to eat. We don't take our marching orders from Satan. And his flesh lusted for food after 40 days anybody would. But he said, no I'm not giving into the lust of the flesh. I will eat but I won't do it at the dictates of the devil.

Some of y'all need to learn that right now in your life. Sometimes God wants to cook up, the devil wants to cook up something for you and you need to resist it. Remember Esau back in the Old Testament? He had been out hunting and he was famished and he got back home and he was famished and he's about to pass out. And his tricky brother Jacob, y'all remember this story? Jacob is cooking stew. Esau comes, I'm famished man. You got to give me some of that or I'm going to die.

And here's how Satan does just like Jacob did. He said, well okay just give me your birthright first. Look there is no stew anywhere on the planet that is worth your birthright. I don't care how good a stew it is. Oh Lord, did you try some of that stew?

That's not worth your birthright. And some of us, especially some of us in today's world, we are selling out for stew. Selling out for stew. Stew comes in the form of that person you see at the gym and they hitting on you and looking at you and waving.

And your flesh is, ooh, mmm. Come on, see, stop looking holy, stop. You ever been at the gym and saw somebody and you know the devil is cooking up some stew for you. And saying just go ahead on and talk to them. They trying to speak to you, see, every time you come in.

Just go ahead and strike up a conversation. And you married or you single waiting on somebody and you can know whoever God is sending you, they ain't going to pick you up at the gym. At least not in an improper way. You might meet somebody but they going to act right, they going to live right, they going to say the right things and do the right things.

They not trying to pick you up. And so you just got to understand the devil has a way of cooking up stew when you hungry. And you got to learn to resist it and wait on God for your provision. I came to tell some single, yes, I know you want to be with somebody but what you looking at now is not God's will for you. That's not his plan. Why he getting ready to leave his wife. That's not God's plan for you.

So you wait for him to drop her off so you can be the next mess he make. And so you got to understand that when the lust of the flesh is in operation, you need the Holy Ghost to help you. In Jesus name, no. Then he gave him the lust of the eyes. You know the story there in Luke 4. He showed him the kingdoms of the world. He showed him the kingdoms of the world in an instant and the glory of them. What's he talking about? He's talking about the kingdoms under satanic control.

But they look good, they look glorious. And he said, I'll give you this if you will bow down and worship me. Lust of the eyes. And Jesus resisted that under the power of the Holy Spirit.

And then the last was the pride of life. Satan took him up on the pinnacle of the temple and said, if you're the son of God, cast yourself down because it is written. You know the devil knows the Bible too. Because it is written, he will keep your foot.

And Jesus resisted that and said, get behind me. Why? Because I don't tempt the Lord my God. I'm not going to jump off of here to prove that he'll protect me.

None of you should do that either. You don't go up on some bridge and say, God, if you are really God, I'm going to jump off and you make sure I don't die. No, you don't tempt God.

He didn't tell you to jump off. We follow his dictates. We don't follow the dictates of our crazy minds. I'm telling you, God will protect you when you're living under his influence.

Not when you're doing silly things. So the bottom line is the Spirit of God comes to blow wind into our lives. He comes to purge us and he comes to give us an influence we can live under so that no matter what happens in your life, you can stand the temptations that you're facing in your life. Jesus said, apart from him, you can do nothing.

But if you abide in him moment by moment, day by day, nothing will be impossible. You know, when we consistently abide in Christ and in his word, we will be more willing and more able to fulfill our highest calling, which is to share the gospel with the world. One of the best ways to do that is by partnering with Pastor Paul Shepherd and the Destined for Victory ministry.

In light of some severe challenges these past two years or so, people are coming to faith in Christ all over the world, and many of them through the Destined for Victory broadcast. As our way of saying thanks for your partnership of $20 or more a month, we'll send you a few thank you gifts, including one of Pastor Paul's most popular CDs, The Best of Let My People Smile. Call 855-339-5500 and find out more about how to become a Destined for Victory partner or to make your pledge. You can also mail your gift, letting us know you wish to become our partner.

The address is Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. You can also partner with us through our website, pastorpaul.net. Now, if you can't become a partner and would like to send a generous gift to the ministry today, we'd love to share with you a gift of our own, Pastor Paul Shepherd's brand new book, Lessons from the Vineyard.

That's Lessons from the Vineyard, our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift of $25 or more to Destined for Victory. I want to make sure everyone knows that Jesus came to not only save us, He came to set us free. Free from what? Free from any bondage that prevents you from experiencing God's plan for your life. If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Join us tomorrow for Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Live Free. But until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.