Divine Hookups

And so I want you to understand Jesus came to give us favor. I'm entitling this part of the series Divine Hookups. Divine Hookups.

You know why? Because not only does God want to bless you with the gift of salvation, but there are other hookups He wants to give you. Just because He loves you like that. Eternal life is the best gift God can give you, but He wants to bless you in this life as well. Hello and welcome to this Thursday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, who is Senior Pastor Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Wherever you are, however you may be listening, thanks for making this part of your day. You know God very often places a condition on His blessings, but sometimes He blesses us for no reason at all other than He loves us. To illustrate the unconditional kindness and generosity of God, today Pastor Paul takes us to what was known in ancient Israel as the Year of Jubilee. Stay with us now or stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand.

That's pastorpaul.net. And here is Pastor with today's Destined for Victory message, Divine Hookups. But then also verse 2 of Isaiah's prophecy, chapter 61. So if you have a Bible with you, then please go there for me.

Here's what you'll find. Verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. Now we're going to skip down to verse 2 because we've covered the other things that He was anointed to do. Verse 2 says, He has anointed me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. We've been looking at the Jesus agenda in Isaiah 61 verse 1. We've been looking at the fact that Jesus came and was prophesied hundreds of years before His coming by the prophet Isaiah.

He came with a very specific mission and anointing upon His life and we just read part of it. The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He anointed Him to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Another way to put that phrase is the year of God's favor. The year of God's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Now let me explain briefly the day of vengeance of our God. Isaiah saw that the Lord was not only going to anoint Jesus to bring all of these wonderful things to pass, but he also mentions at the end of verse 2 that with Jesus comes vengeance upon the enemies of God's plan and purpose for all of our lives. Now the difference between the blessings that we see Jesus came to bestow upon us now and the day of vengeance is the day of vengeance is yet to come. There is a day when all of the enemies of God will experience the wrath, the vengeance of God. And so that day is coming, but it is not yet. However, the enemies of God are already under sentence. You know sometimes a criminal is sentenced, but they haven't yet begun to exercise that sentence toward that criminal. Let me tell you something. Satan and his demonic host are all under sentence right now.

They're still active. They're still messing with you because they are not living out that sentence yet. That's why you need to keep your theology straight. When you tell the devil you get mad, say go back to hell. He never been.

You can't tell him to go back somewhere he's never been. He's going there, but he is under the sentence, but he's not there yet. The Bible says he's roaming the earth realm, seeking whom he may devour. What the enemies of God are doing now is they already know they're under sentence.

They're just trying to drum up some company to go with them. And that's why you need to make sure you don't join them on their journey to hell. Hallelujah. You need to know you go to hell because I'm not going. I'm going to glory. I'm going to be with Jesus.

So it's all right for you to tell that's the one time you can say it and not be cussing. Tell the devil go to hell. Why?

Because that's where he sentenced to go. Thank God by God's grace. I'm not going. How about you? I never have to worry about it. People always say, well, what about hell?

I don't understand. How could there be an unquenchable eternal damnation? I don't know, but here's what I do know. I'm not going to be on the investigating committee. By the grace of God, I'm never going to know the answer to that question because I won't be on the committee cause grace has set me free and I am no longer condemned. I'm saved by grace through faith. If you don't have that testimony while I speak now, you can get it by the end of this message because I'm going to open up the opportunity for you to come and say, yeah, I want that too.

I want to know Jesus for myself. And so I want you to understand the day of vengeance is coming. It hasn't come yet, but the sentence was pronounced literally on the cross. When Jesus said it's finished, he not only finished our salvation, he finished the damnation of those who are against the will of God.

And so the day of vengeance is yet to come. But in the meantime, we who are the recipients of God's blessings are receiving some benefits. And we've been talking about what Jesus came to do.

And today I simply want to let you know one of the things he came to do is to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord or the year of God's favor. And so I want you to understand Jesus came to give us favor. I'm entitling this part of the series divine hookups. Divine hookups.

You know why? Because not only does God want to bless you with the gift of salvation, but there are other hookups he wants to give you just because he loves you like that. Now, I want you to understand that salvation is the most important gift that we all receive through Jesus Christ. Never, never forget that of all the many things God does to bless our lives, nothing will ever rival how important it is to be saved. Don't let anybody ever make you feel bad about being saved.

That sounds so old folksy. I'm saved. No, I'm saved and I'm glad about it. I'm saved because if you're not saved, that means you're lost. And of the two choices, I've been lost and I am saved, saved is better.

Anybody a witness to that? It is wonderful to be saved. It is wonderful to know that when this life is over, I'm going to be with my Savior because he saved me here. And thank God for salvation. No blessing you ever received from God will be more important than the gift of salvation.

Because Jesus said in Matthew 16 26, what does it profit a man if he gained a whole world and lose his soul? Listen, a lot of people are seeking God for stuff. Let the stuff be the byproduct of you being saved. But don't let it be your main focus because you could get stuff and still not have him.

Am I talking right? I know people who are very, very wealthy, but they're poor in terms of spiritual resources because they've not tapped in to the goodness of God towards salvation. And so you need to understand of all the blessings he'll give me. I'm just glad that first and foremost, he gives me the gift of salvation.

And I am in right standing with the Lord. Now above that, there is what is called in this passage, the year of God's favor, the acceptable year of the Lord. Do you know what that harkens back to in Old Testament history? That harkens back to the year of Jubilee. I don't have time to walk you through the year of Jubilee.

But if you want to read about it, you need to go to Leviticus chapter 25. And you will find the law of Moses laying out here is what was to happen in the Jewish nation during the year of Jubilee. When was that year? It was marked for every 50 years. It was seven Sabbath years times seven. And then on the year after those seven consecutive Sabbaths of seven years each, there was the 50th year. And that was proclaimed by God through Moses to be the year of Jubilee. And the year of Jubilee was a time when all kinds of blessings would come into the lives of God's people. Before I walk you through how it applied to Israel, let me just tell you God is a God who likes to bless in abundance. He's a God who likes to bless you over and above, not just to meet you at the point of your need, but sometimes he'll just bless you in some wonderful ways that you could not have anticipated.

The year of Jubilee was a year when things that had gone wrong are made right. And God is a God who loves making right that which has gone wrong. Now let me tell you something. God then is a God of, I want to describe it this way, divine hookups. Now that's a colloquial term.

That's a term that you find in certain communities, in certain situations, when people say, oh man, I got the hookup. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepard. To listen to any of his recent broadcasts, be sure to stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. And stay with us after today's message when Pastor Paul joins me to talk about his new full length book, Lessons from the Vineyard. It's yours this month for a generous gift of $25 or more to this ministry. But first, stay tuned now for the second half of today's message, Divine Hookups.

Once again, here's Pastor Paul. The hookup is when somebody gives you something, not just because you deserve it, in fact, not at all because you deserve it. It's because they like you or love you and they want to do something special for you. Now, having understood that that's what a hookup is, how many of you all have ever been blessed with a hookup by a friend or relative and somebody just gave you a hookup? That means you get more than the other folk get. For instance, you have somebody who works in the auto industry. I know some of the automobile companies have an employee price for the car that's different from the regular price for the car. And if you know one of them, they might be inclined to give you the hookup by letting you get a price for the car you wouldn't otherwise get. Any of you all ever got a car hookup? Let me see some car hookups. Oh, look at you all.

I need to know who you know. Sometimes someone works for a retail company, works for Macy's or whatever, and they can get a price different than the regular customers. And every now and then they have a certain number of people they can extend that benefit to.

It's a little perk for them. And so how many of you all ever got a retail, whether it's Macy's or Target, got a retail hookup? Let me see. Look at this. You all know some folks.

All right. So now you get what I'm saying. There are some things you get. How many of you all ever knew somebody? Maybe they were working for a concert or they were on the staff somewhere that was real popular and you probably weren't going to be able to go. But they had some tickets that they could give folk that weren't available on the public record. But the people who are in the know, they say, oh, I'll hold a ticket for you.

How many of you ever had somebody reserve a ticket for you at will call or something? And that was your hookup. Let me see some hookups at the concert. Yes. On and on.

I could do many more of these kinds of illustrations. It means that someone who knows you and wants to bless you takes their privilege and extends it to you. Let me tell you something. Our God is a God of hookups.

That's what I came to tell you. God is a God of hookups. The year of Jubilee was a year of hookups for the people of God. It was a year where God would just do what otherwise they would not be entitled to. But because of how good God is, he just hooked them up. Thank God for hookups. And I want to tell you that our God is that way.

How do I know? Because Matthew 711 says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? He says, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more will our heavenly father?

Do you know he is the ultimate parent? And if we know how to be good parents and bless our kids with good things, some of us really need to embrace that. Yes, I have blessed them sometimes when they did not even do what I had asked them to do.

Come on. You ever blessed your kids despite of the fact that they didn't always come through the way they were supposed to? You ever blessed your kids even though they didn't do all their chores? Back in the day, children did chores. I'm sorry, I have to bring it up to modern day. Back in the day, at least where I grew up.

Any of y'all grew up with chores? Anybody? Oh, good. Look at y'all. Okay.

Have some home training up in here. Had chores to do. Back in our day, children didn't get everything they wanted just because they were wonderful.

They got things because we were loved by our parents, but part of the way they loved us was they taught us how to do the things that would make us better as we grew into older people. Some of us got preached to while we were being raised. I'm not going to raise a bum.

Just not going to do it. I'm going to teach you how to do what you're supposed to do. And they would preach, especially if you did something wrong. The sermon sometimes was worse than the spanking.

I'm sorry. Back in the old days, there were spanking that you never saw or heard them. But back in the old days, they used to be spanking. It's abuse now. Back in my day, it wasn't abuse.

You got wore out. But the fact of the matter is sometimes we being evil did good things for our kids, even when they didn't technically deserve it. And look at what Jesus said. How much more will the Father bless us with good things because we ask, Daddy, will you bless me with this or that or the other?

And Jesus said, God is a God of divine hookups. Now, I want you to I want you to see how this worked on in the year of Jubilee when it came to the year of Jubilee. There were several things that happened for the people of Israel. First of all, prisoners and captives were set free. I came to tell somebody that as that was literally true for the nation of Israel during the year of Jubilee. I want to let you know that it is spiritually true of all who seek deliverance.

We've been talking about it in this series. And I want to remind you, do not settle for anything other than freedom, from anything that binds you and keeps you from doing the will of God or enjoying the blessings God has in store for you. Don't settle.

Don't let the lie permeate your mind. Don't say, well, you know, everybody in my family been bound like this. It's sort of a generational curse. I'm sorry, I'm not going to live under a generational curse. I'm going to live under a generational blessing. The blessing of the Lord is going to make me wealthy and rich and good things and spiritual things.

And then he'll bless me with whatever material things that I need as well, because our God is a God of hookups. Don't settle for bondage. Be free prisoners and captives were set free during the year of Jubilee. Slaves were released. If you're enslaved by anything in your life that opposes God's will.

I want you to believe for victory over that. No more enslavement. I am a child of God and I'm going to be free. I'm determined to be free. Now, let's be practical. Sometimes we're enslaved by things that we really don't necessarily tend to think of as bondage, but they are. One of the biggest ones in today's world is debt. I got my own amen.

You all know how I work. So let me throw in not only were slaves released, but debts were forgiven. Debts were forgiven during the year of Jubilee. People who were indebted, maybe because of the fact that they couldn't pay a certain thing, then a member of the family would be taken as an indentured servant to kind of make up for the fact that the debt hadn't been repaid.

But let me tell you something. In the year of Jubilee, if people were released from enslavement, we in the kingdom of God in the New Testament era, we need to realize we have no business being enslaved either. And so make sure you're going to get free. And one of the ways it happened is debts were forgiven. Now, if your debts aren't being forgiven by the companies you owe, I need you to believe that God is going to bless me to get out of this debt. He is going to bless me to get myself free from the entanglement of debt. And part of the way he does that is through the way he blesses you as you discipline your spending. See, that's where I was wondering how many amens were going to come there, because, you know, we live in a day where everybody wants to have supernatural debt cancellation.

If that comes, praise God and give a testimony and shout to the Lord the victory. But if your debt cancellation isn't supernatural, ask God to bless you with natural debt cancellation. Amen. It's the same principle as healing. Some healings come supernatural and are apart from medical science, although we love doctors and medical scientists who work to make sure we are healthy.

That's great. And sometimes you get healed apart from it and sometimes you get healed through that process. Either way, give God the glory. Never rob God of his glory. Thanks so much for being here for today's Destined for Victory message, Divine Hookups. Look for any of Pastor Paul's recent messages online on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. Well, I'm pleased to welcome in Pastor Paul, who joins me now to talk about his brand new book, Lessons from the Vineyard. Pastor, just a couple of times a year we come to our listeners and ask them to help us by making their most generous gift, and this is one of those times as we approach the end of one year and the beginning of another.

It's a time when our friends can help us finish financially strong, which of course assists us in properly planning and maximizing this ministry. And by the way, friends, as you are able to do that today with your gift of, let's say, $25 or more, Pastor Paul is saying thank you with a copy of his new full-length book, Lessons from the Vineyard. But Pastor, tell us about this book and why you believe everyone should get a copy of it.

I'm happy to be able to offer this particular resource because it allows you to understand that growing in the area of character is what makes us people whose lives are really making a difference for both time and for eternity. And I don't have to tell you that we have a world that is unconvinced about the reality of Jesus, the reality of the need for salvation and things like that. The best way we can witness these days is not only with our words but with our lives. And if we will become people who have ripe fruit of the Spirit in operation in us, if we are loving, joyful, have the peace that passes understanding, have temperance and patience and all of those things that are the fruit of the Spirit, if we are mature in those areas, I think that helps us be much better witnesses than if all we're doing is yapping.

The world really isn't impressed that much with what we have to say anymore. They'll be more impressed by the way we live out our faith. And so this book is written with the hope and prayer that it will help each of us really grow and mature in the area of developing Christian godly character.

That's what it's all about. At the end of the day, it's not what we say, but it's how we live that's going to impress the world around us. I'm reminded of how many people responded to Jesus when he lived on earth, not merely because of his teachings, but because of the way he lived to serve those around him. Again, this brand new book from Pastor Paul is called Lessons from the Vineyard, and it is our gift to you 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. You can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Once again, the address Destin for Victory, box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. That's the first way to be blessed is to so generously tithe an offering into the kingdom because if you give God of the first fruits, some of us are a witness that he will turn around and bless you in a crazy way. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Divine Hookups. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.