You're in Training, Part 1 (cont'd)

What do you do when you hit your crisis? If you are going through a crisis today, God will deliver you, but first, He wants you to cry out for His help. When you cast your cares upon Him, He will sustain you.

Today's Destined for Victory message is straight ahead. Stay with us now or visit pastorpaul.net to listen online on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

Now with today's message, you're in training. Here's Pastor Paul. Moses says, the Lord led us all the way in the desert, even though they had no business being in the desert.

He led us for 40 years. Why? To humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commands.

You know why? Because He couldn't afford to take folks to the Promised Land who didn't know how to obey Him. He couldn't afford to do it. Why would God give you blessings and you live in disobedience?

Why would He do that? It wouldn't be a blessing. It would be a curse because you got over there and your disobedience would destroy you. So God would rather keep you alive in the wilderness where you have no enemies than to take you somewhere where there are enemies that are required for you to fight in obedience and faith. So if you have no faith, if you have no ability to obey, God will never take you over. And some of us are where we are and you can blame it on God all you want.

God said, I had nothing to do with that. You are where you are because you put yourself there. You are where you are because you dishonored me in the matter of money. You are where you are because you dishonored me in the matter of managing relationships.

You are where you are because you dishonored me. You didn't marry the kind of person I told you to marry. The Bible lays out for you the kind of person you're supposed to marry. You went and married somebody because of their shoulders. You married a guy because he had broad shoulders and that's the kind of look you've always had and he was cut and he had seps and beps and things and you got all excited. And God said, I would have blessed you with that little brother over there.

He a little bit on the wimpy side but I could have helped you give him a little swag, teach him a little something but no, you had to go get what you like and now you are stuck with what you got. God said, but I'm going to use him to train you. Because I got some blessings ahead of you. You got to pass your marriage test first.

Same thing with brothers. You just had to get the legs. You just had to get the breasts. You just had to get the Coca-Cola shape. You just had bottle shape.

You know, we used to say that growing up Coca-Cola but I don't know why they said that but growing up, I heard people talk about Coca-Cola bottle shape because the old one kind of went in. That just meant, you know, she was kind of, you know. You all get the revelation. So, and you just had to do that and you look in the Word and the Word says it's fine. She can be as fine as she is. God's not against good looks but God will teach you. The book is what's important, not the cover. Because you're going to live with that book and while that cover ain't going to mean squat to you. You had a right fight. You don't care what they look like. I'm saying, Lord, just give me the grace and I'll kill somebody up in here.

I'm not trying to catch a case over this marriage. God will use it to train you. You in debt because of you, not God. God didn't put you in debt. You put you in debt.

I said you put you in debt. God didn't teach you you had to have it now so just put it on the credit card and trust him. That wasn't faith. You blame that on faith all you.

I just believe that in 30 days, God don't know. You should have believed God for the cash before you went in the store. Here's the cash. Everything else is paid. Families needs are met. Children are taking care of you who don't live with your kids but you still got to pay child support. You don't pay child support because the state tell you. You pay that because God tells you. You made them take care of them. Yeah, but I don't like who my ex is living with now.

That's not her problem. God told you what to do where your children are concerned. After all your right bills are paid, all your responsibilities are handled and then there's something you want. You want to upgrade your TV. You want to upgrade your this or your that. Believe God for the cash so you can go in there, put it down, pay for it, walk out. You owe nobody anything except to love them. Believe in God to upgrade your car. Your car running fine but you listen these wrong messages and they tell you you're not in faith unless you're driving something luxurious. That's not the Bible.

Bible says he who can be faithful over a few things, be faithful over what you got. Drive it well. Take care of it.

Treat it like it's a benzo. That's what you got to learn to do. Look, you got to pass your hoopty test. Pass the hoopty test. Y'all trying to front. Y'all trying to swag.

Y'all trying to drive a benzo on a VW budget. Don't put God in there. God said, I didn't do that. I was going to bless you. I was going to give you perfect peace putting along. I'm not telling you what I think.

I'm telling you what I have done. In earlier seasons out here, I came out here and needed a second car because we moved out here. We figured out we weren't in Philly anymore. You couldn't just jump on Scepter and go all around the city. Here, you needed cars. She needed a car. I needed a car. I drove a nice car across the country. If I knew when I got here what I found out, if I knew it before I got here, I'd have left that car in Philly. See, y'all come pick it up. It's sitting on 17th Street because of the finances I ran into out here. We believe in God. I knew in that early season church was small.

Income was very limited. I knew not to come busting up. I'm the pastor. I need to be driving the finest car in the church.

I knew not to do that. God blessed us with a second car, blessed us with the cash. A little prayer group called us, said, we've been praying for you ever since you moved.

We get together in somebody's house and meet for prayer. We bring an offering every week. Lord told us to bring an offer.

We didn't know why. For months, they were getting an offer. Then finally, one night, they said, you know what? The Lord wants us to be a blessing to Pastor Paul with this money.

They were clear across the country. They called me and said, we've been... They told me the story of how they've been having this weekly prayer meeting and sending aside money. They said, it's now up to $1,700. They said, we're just trying to check, make sure this is God's leading.

We think it is, but we want to just check with you. Do you have a need for $1,700? I told them, put it this way.

If God is telling you all to give me $1,700, listen to him. I told them the story of how I needed a car. We had a brother in the church who knew about cars.

He was looking in the paper and shouting around. He went with me because I didn't know what I was doing. He went and checked it out, asked the right question, found a Ford... What kind of car was that, sweetie? Escort, Ford Escort, 1984 Escort for $2,200. I had saved up 200. These folks sent me 17 and then a brother, a local pastor called me and said, I want you to come out and preach my Sunday night service. I went up there and preached. They gave me $300.

Seventeen plus three plus two, $2,200. That's how much that car cost. Slapped it down, walked out, drove that car. Some of you all saw it.

Some of these early people saw it. Drove that car till it dropped. I drove that car till it, literally, my wife drove the good car.

That's the rule of marriage. Wife drives the better car. And so I drove that car till it dropped. The spring was coming through the driver's seat.

Something had burst in there and it was coming through, poking me every time I sat down. I just put a little mad or something over, just tried to... I drove that car, then it was acting up. I fixed everything on it. I drove that car till a mechanic across the street walked over and said, pastor, let it go.

I'm not lying to you. Let it go. I was thinking, but this is a blessing. But he was thinking, yeah, but blessings have expiration dates on them.

Let that thing go. And I'm here to tell you, I drove it, I passed that test so that we were positioned for what God had for us. You are training right now. And when I get into the next part of this message, I'm going to link the training concept to the discipline that he goes on and talks about that's in the heart of the text. But I'm just setting the stage for you now. You need to understand where you are.

Everything about your life is training for where you're going. You cannot ignore now looking too far ahead. For the joy set before you, you've got to make some decisions about how to endure what you're dealing with now. You got to have a better attitude now. You got to build your relationships better now. You got to settle your differences better now.

You can't be somebody so forward focused that you want to ignore now. You have to endure now. And we'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, who is 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, and there you'll also find a host of great resources at our online store. Now you'll want to stay with us at the conclusion of today's message. Pastor Paul will join me from his studio in California. But first, let's join him for the second half of this teaching. You're in training.

And I'm here to tell you that you are in training. Moses said in Deuteronomy 8, God humbled you and God tested you. He went on to say in verse three, he humbled you causing you to hunger and then feeding you.

So you don't hear that in today's pulpit. You hear you're not supposed to ever be hungry. But he said, number one, you all put yourself in the desert, not God. So while you were there, God set it up as a training course. And he intended he could have fed you. He could have had the food just laid out.

He said, No, I'm a wait till you get hungry. Teach you how to pray. Call on me. What do you do when you hit your crisis? Whatever the crisis is, what do you do if you do something other than call on God? If you do something other than get in the word, if you do something other than say, Lord, what would you have me do?

Then you haven't yet finished training. If you pick up the phone and call everybody you can think of to try to bail you out and you haven't even said, Lord. I'm asking you to lead me all the way through this desert. I'm asking you to walk me through this period. Show me what I'm supposed to learn through this period. God, I don't want to cheat on any examinations. I want to pass it all because I'm believing for next level. I'm believing for a harvest, but I want my harvest to be right.

So, God, I don't want to cheat this season. He caused them to hunger so that they would cry out to him and then he fed them with manna. Some of you all in a manna season now, you know what manna means? What is it?

It's what the word means literally. What is it? They woke up every morning and what is it was on the ground. And God said, don't hoard the what is it?

He taught them even through that. He said, don't store it up. Don't get in the welfare mentality. I better hoard this because I don't know. He said, no, no, I'm your source. Eat what I gave you.

Thank me for it. Act right. Treat folk right with the strength of it and then see what I give you tomorrow. And so they passed the manna test. So when they got to the quail, that's meat.

God said, all right, let me see if you're going to pass that test. Don't hoard it. Trust me to feed you. Don't store it up.

I'll take care of you. And some of them tried to store it up and disobey God. And he caused it to stink. Some of your blessings, what would be blessings, are stinking right about now. Because you refuse to honor God in this season. And I'm here to tell you that you are in training. And notice in Deuteronomy 8 forward says your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't swell during the whole 40 years. So know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord disciplines you. And I'll pick it up and talk about the discipline concept in the next part of the message.

He said even while they were in the wilderness where they had no business being God said, I made sure that you made it. Some of you all don't like where you are in your life right now. Some of you are in your life, your marriage, or you're dealing with your kids, or dealing with your college education, or your job, or lack of job, and you're looking for more income streams, whatever it is. You don't like your social life. You don't like the people in your life.

You got more enemies than you care to have. Whatever the issue is, God said, but notice with all of the stuff, he said, I'm making sure that you make it. Their clothes didn't wear out.

Their feet didn't swell. In other words, God said, I'm not going to kill you in the desert. I'm going to train you in the desert. Desert's no fun, but I'm going to train you in the desert so that when I take you into Canaan, you'll know how to act.

You'll know how to live. And I came to tell somebody God's got bigger plans for you than you can imagine, but he refuses to put you on the next level without you passing the test of this level. You are in training. You got to get your attitude right now. You got to get your giving right now. You got to get your loving right now.

You got to get your serving right now. And if you get it right now, God says your eye hasn't seen, your ear hasn't heard. It hasn't even entered into your heart what I prepared for those who love me. God's got big plans for your future. In every key area of your life, God has plans. You haven't seen the best of what God's going to do yet. You haven't seen it yet.

He's got big plans, but he'll never unveil them prematurely. You got to make sure that it's through faith and obedience and diligence and endurance that you press your way into the next level. Next level isn't something you can confess your way into.

That's what we're trying to do. I speak the next level. You can't speak it. You can't speak the next level. You enter in through obedience, through faith, through handling things right.

To use the financial analogy Jesus gave in Luke 16, he said whoever can be trusted with little can be trusted with much. What you doing right now? What are you doing? You're dealing with knuckleheads now on your job. If you can't handle that right, God's got some important people for you to deal with later. He's not going to take you to the important folks if you can't deal with these folks now.

What did God say through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 12, 5, I believe it is? If you run with the footmen and they've worn you out, what you going to do when the horses show up? You got to run with the footmen now.

You got to handle footmen. I'm just believing. See, where I'm going, I'm going to have to deal with people like this.

I beg to differ. If you think the next level is special people free, what you don't know is new level, new devil. New level, new foolishness. New level, new temptation. The next level is not just positive.

The next level has giants bigger than this one, has problems bigger than this one, and you're going to have to deal with things at a next level all the way around so God is training you now. So you got to learn to settle things now. You got to learn to settle your differences with people now.

You got to get your attitude straight now. You got to finally put an end to some of the drama in your life. Now, no more drama. You just got to decide.

No more drama. If you all need to be right and you need me to be wrong, just so we can settle all this, fine. I'm not arguing anymore. I'm waving the white flag.

Oh, come on. That's what you got to do. Some of you all got to wave your flag. You still fighting for your... See, you don't understand me. I'm a Johnson. We don't deal... All right, Johnson, you're going to be in the wilderness. You got to settle it. Let it go.

Give it to God. Jesus let people he could have killed with a look, with a wish. He could have wished them out of this world. And he let them slap him and beat him and spit on him and pull his beard out and thrust him with thorns, humiliate him. And the Bible says what he chose to do is instead of despising what he went through, he despised the shame of what he went through. He said, I don't care that this is shaming me, that this is humiliating me. I choose to not be humiliated. I choose to not let this make me feel bad. I choose to despise not the thing, but the shame of it. Some of you all haven't learned to despise your shame. That's all you're worried about is your image.

If I let these people get away with that, everybody will think I'm a punk. And in heaven, God will be saying, pass that test. I'm ready for you now to go to the next level in that area because you learned how to shut up. I grew up around saints who called it shut mouth grace.

I did. I heard the saints in prayer meeting. Saints, I want to thank you all for praying, but the Lord gave me shut mouth grace. As a little boy, I said, what? The devil is shut?

I grew up and found out. Shut mouth grace means the grace to shut up. When the devil sits right there and says, you know what you can say right now?

Because all of us know, you know what your enemies, you know exactly where you can hit them. And the devil sit right there and say, all right, they went there, say this. And then you say it.

And that same demon jumped right over there on them and said, oh, no, he didn't. Oh, okay. Oh, so it's like that. All right, say this. That's how there's a bunch of people in jail right now who thought they were going to live the rest of that day normally, got in some stupid fight and didn't allow sense to win the day.

And they messed around and killed somebody over an argument. Do you know what your holy self, you do the same thing? You know, you're not so safe. You can't shoot somebody.

You can't stab somebody. So you've got to learn to follow God. He's trying to teach you humble yourself. Thanks for joining us for today's Destined for Victory message, You're In Training. I'm pleased to welcome Pastor Paul, who joins me now from his studio in California. Pastor, we often hear from people who've been blessed by the ministry. And every time I hear one of those testimonies, I feel blessed myself and humbled because I get to play a small part in that. Talk about the importance of encouragement and the role it plays in all of our lives.

Often when we have our worship services and I have people pray, we usually link hands so that they're praying for the person to the left and the right. And as I end the prayer from a pastoral standpoint, I say to people, I want you to know that when you pray for your neighbor, you're inspired because when he answers your neighbor's prayer, he's in the neighborhood and he's going to bless you. And so we need to be encouraged that as we minister to other people, God is going to see to it that our needs are met.

So encouragement is important to give and to receive. Well, we're always looking for new testimonies to share with our listeners. So if you have been blessed by the Destined for Victory broadcast, we'd love to hear from you. From the pastorpaul.net homepage, click Contact Us and tell us your story. Again, that web address is pastorpaul.net. Also keep in mind that for your generous gift today, we'll send you by request a copy of Pastor Paul Shepherd's booklet, Creating a Relational Legacy. If that title sounds familiar, that's because it's the same title as the messages you heard earlier this month on Destined for Victory. Pastor Paul and his wife, Meredith, shared a three-part message about building and maintaining godly relationships. And this booklet is a great companion guide to these messages.

Today, we'd like to share it with you. That's Creating a Relational Legacy, our gift to you for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. Just 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, California 94538.

Again, that address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. And I want to help us understand that God is not going to graduate people who aren't ready. And so if you mess around and create a wilderness experience in your own life, I'm here to tell you God's going to teach you even in your wilderness. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd continues to share his message, You're in Training. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.