Felt Needs Can Be Tricky!

I don't care what your appetite is telling you, it's a lie. Because whoever you're fantasizing about is not what you think they are. Fantasies are fantasies for a reason. They're not real. It's a fantasy.

It's a facade. Of all the decisions you've made based solely on emotions, how many of them were good decisions? Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Wherever you are, however you may be listening, thanks for making this part of your day. Emotions can often lead us astray. We feel angry or lustful.

We make a choice and in the end we regret that choice. Today Pastor Paul cautions us against the dangers of giving in to our emotions and our appetites and shows us a better way to live. Stay right here or visit pastorpaul.net to listen to Destined for Victory On Demand.

You can also download the podcast at Google Podcasts or wherever you subscribe to yours. But right now here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, Felt Needs Can Be Tricky. How many of you heard yourself say something your mother or father said to you? It's not that you intended to be your mom and dad in your kid's life, it's just that it came out. But when you stop and think, oh, that's what I heard all growing up. And you just pass it on. Some things are caught, not taught.

That's the best way for you to think of it. Some things are caught, not taught. Nobody ever taught you a cold. If you ever got a cold, it's cause you caught it. How did I catch it? Because the germ was exposed to me somewhere in my movements. It was a contact issue. It wasn't a deliberate, intentional choice.

It was contact. That's why you got to watch your environments all the time because you can catch something you never intended to take with you. That's why you got to watch who you hang with because I don't care how much you like certain aspects of them. If they are diseased in their spirit, in their relationships, if they got junk going on in their lives and you get too close to them, you can catch their stuff. And so some of y'all didn't cuss till you got with certain folk and they cuss so much that it became part of you because you hang with them all the time.

Next thing you know that you go with your safe cell blankety blanking. You caught it. You picked it up. So you got to deal with your issues properly. Esau made the mistake, first of all, of selling his birthright.

What happened? One day he comes in. Esau's a man of the open country. He comes in famished. He's been out hunting and all that.

It's a hot day. He comes back famished. And he says, I need some of that food.

And his brother Jacob is cooking right when he comes home famished. You know what? You got to be careful because just when you feel a felt need, there's always somebody cooking. Y'all know what I just said. I didn't speak in tongues.

You know exactly what I said. Watch your appetites. Watch your desires because there's always somebody cooking when you have a felt need in your life. And just when he comes in famished feeling like I'm about to die there, he smells this stew and there's his brother cooking stew. And he says, all right, man, look, I need you to give me some of that stew. And Jacob said, sure. Tell you what, I'll trade you some wonderful stew. Give you two bowls of it.

He didn't say that. I just threw that in. I'll give you all the stew you want if you give me your birthright. What's the birthright? What's the birthright? In Bible times, the eldest son was given the birthright by virtue of his birth order being the first male in the family in that patriarchal system.

He was the one designated to carry the family name and the family enterprise into the next generation. The other kids had their gifts and abilities fine, but they don't get the birthright. Only the eldest son gets the birthright.

He's got to carry dad's name and the enterprise of the family into the next generation. And what's the birthright means? It means if you have two kids, then the father would take what he is worth divided by three and give the one who gets the birthright two thirds. The other one gets one third.

You get that? So the birthright kid always gets twice what the others get, and that's the way you make sure that the birthright is carried on. Esau, they're twins, but Esau came out first.

Thus, he gets the birthright. Jacob never forgot that I was second in this two man race, never liked it, and here's his chance. Now I got him right where he's hungry. In fact, he come in talking about I'm about to die.

You got to watch your appetites cause they'll exaggerate on you. Now we all know what it is to be overheated on a very hot day, having worked too hard or walk too long or whatever, didn't hydrate enough. You know that feeling. We all know what it's like to feel like you're about to die. That's a feeling.

The truth is you're not about to die. You need shade and water. Shade and water will get you where you need to be. Then if you really need food after you get in the shade and water, now you can take your time and eat something. The need is not the same as the appetite presents. The appetite says I want.

The need is what you must have in order to survive. I came to tell somebody here who is smelling some stew somewhere in your life. That's why the Lord told me to come here today and because some of y'all are sniffing the wind and there is some stew that is fooling with your nostrils. Oh, I'm a priest before I sit down.

Some of y'all came here. You are just sniffing the wind. Oh, that and you know, and it smells just right. You ever had something you just thought it was the best ever?

It wasn't that that was the best ever. It's just that you ate it when your appetite called for it so strongly. And the fact of the matter is some of you all are listening to this message because the enemy is cooking, stirring right now. And you talking about, Oh, I need somebody who understands me. Some of y'all are married.

See my spouse. They work in my last nerve. Just when I need somebody to understand I'm going through the most difficult phase of my life and they don't care.

They just insensitive. But over there is something that you sniffed out and the enemy is setting you up to trade a lifetime of provision for a few moments of satisfaction. I don't care what your appetite is telling you. It's a lie because whoever you're fantasizing about is not what you think they are. Fantasies are fantasies for a reason. They're not real. It's a fantasy.

It's a facade. If you don't believe me, ask all the second married people, all the people who want their second one dropped off the first one because they weren't doing everything they wanted them to do and look at the rate of divorce second time around land. And if you want to do a study on third marriages and what you'll find is if you thought you were getting your fantasy, you were in for a rude awakening because fantasies are just that fantasies. Let me tell some of you who are sniffing stew in terms of an illicit relationship.

The one you got can never compete with a fantasy cause the one you got deals with reality and the fantasy never gets compared with reality just cause they treat you nice on the job. Well, see this person, when we have lunch together, anybody can blow your mind over lunch. That's not hard to do. Over lunch, you can be suave. You can be so all over lunch for just look like, now see, that's what I need.

So you got one home picking up your nasty clothes and another one looking good, smelling good on the job. Tell me. Oh, I came to help somebody and the enemy is setting you up. And that's what's going on with this boy. He feels like I'm about to die.

Truth is you need to get into shade. You need some water. And once you recover, then you can get something else.

And if you don't want this tricky cost way too much stew. Now you got a chance to walk in the house cause you're getting yourself back together and you can call out to your mother or somebody to help you and get you something. Coming up next, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message felt needs can be tricky with Pastor Paul Shepherd. If you've never stopped by our website, pastorpaul.net, I invite you to do so when you have some time. You'll find all of Pastor Paul's recent messages on demand, plus a host of great resources at our online store, including books and DVD messages.

You can also learn more about the ministry and about all the things great friends like you are doing through your prayers and financial support. That's pastorpaul.net. And be sure to watch selected video clips by subscribing to Pastor Paul on YouTube.

You'll find more details and links to all of his social media at pastorpaul.net. There's a time for studying God's word, there's a time for praying and fasting, and there's a time for running away. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, felt needs can be tricky. And so you got to learn that if you're going to be serious about living a quality life, you got to watch your appetites and desires. Momentary satisfaction is not worth years of loss, heartache, pain, grief, money, etc. Have any of you all found it out whether it was getting into a relationship you ended up having no business getting into, or whatever it is? Have you ever found out sometimes you can pay years for something that only took moments? Come on. You ever made a child with somebody over passion? And so while you had a passionate moment, there was a witness back there, don't worry about it.

Don't everybody look straight ahead. A passionate moment. I don't care if the earth shook and the mountains quite. I don't care if you had a moment of Oh my God, I never in my life had an experience like that. I don't care if you think it was all that. Guess what it is now over. If this is somebody you have no real relationship with, it was just both of y'all felt passionate at the moment.

Something was on the radio. And you just went for it. And it was just all that.

Later on, they come back. I'm pregnant. Now I hope it was worth it. You now owe 18 years of your hard earned money.

Hopefully you hard earning 18 years that was not the product of a loving couple committed to each other for life. It was the product of lust. God can give you grace to get through it, but you got to understand this. So you tell your children some things aren't worth it. Even if you're talking to the child who was the product of it, I'm glad I get to raise you, but you got to make sure you don't have to make the choice because what the truth is that there is nothing that can happen in a moment of passion.

That is worth the price. And I came to tell somebody it's time for you to take a look at the stew that you're sniffing because some of you are on the verge, but thankfully you're hearing this message before you make your final decision. Oh, but you don't know we now just have this and I feel in them and they feel in me. That's feelings. You can walk away with feelings. You can walk away.

Oh, I'm feeling you so bad. Oh, I want you so much, but I heard Pastor Paul. I heard Pastor Paul and he talked about this relationship without knowing us. It must have been God.

So tell you what I'm out of here. Oh, but I know I'm gone and listen and you don't have a whole long conversation because the more you talk, the more you're being pulled. Sometime you got to be like Joseph.

Remember Joseph in Potiphar's house, his Potiphar's wife was looking for him to seduce him. And once he turned it down the first time, the Bible says day after day. So you got to understand some folk are relentless when you turn them down. That turns them on. They say, oh, integrity. Oh yeah, I like some integrity that give me a chance to break it down better. Oh, y'all quit acting like you don't know what I just said. Y'all know it.

Oh, I love, I love a little test. Then they start working that wardrobe and that's what Sister Potiphar was doing. Day after day, the Bible says she kept trying after a while. Joseph was in the house cause he's the head servant. He got to be there.

That's his job, but he had hit her in another part of the room. Any y'all seen Joseph and he's somewhere had Some of y'all got to learn to hide. You got, I know you got pride. You got to go from pride to hide. That's what you got to do. I got pride.

I wish I could just stand up to her and say, no, I'm not going to do this, but sometime a good run is the best thing you can do. Get yourself in the wind. Get in that wind saints of God run in Jesus name. But look, have you ever noticed that's what Paul told his young mentee Timothy. He said, Flee youthful lust. He didn't say pray and fast that you might overcome youthful lust. He could have said that if that was the truth. That's not what Paul said. He says, son, run. He's not born yet, but by faith you need to become Forrest Gump. Run Forrest. Oh, that's what I came to tell some of y'all that I was going to get the priest the whole message. I'll do that next time.

Today, one word run. Get out of this situation that's being cooked up for you, whether it's a relationship or illicit moneymaking, you're being set up. If it's too good to be true, it's not true. Oh, you don't have to worry about working that low income job. I got you just do this and you can make all kinds of money. If that were true, they wouldn't be telling you they'd be making it because you got to look behind the thing because usually it is not the thing that gets you.

It's the thing behind the thing. I just said something. Y'all got to look deeper. If you want to live a life of integrity, you got to go deeper and look at what's behind what you're being offered. And so this boy sells a lifetime of provision for a moment of culinary satisfaction.

Now it's only mad time you're going to be hungry again and you no longer have the inheritance. Y'all got to stop believing these people. What's for you is yours. What's for you can be robbed. People make up these little theologies. If it's for you, that's you.

Nobody can know it. You can get it for a moment and you make a dumb decision like this boy made and you hand it off. Now we serve a God who's able to get you where you're supposed to be despite your dumb mistakes. And by the time I preach the next part of this, you'll see God brings Jacob out in a wonderful place and some of us have been brought out in wonderful places, but that never means what you did should have happened. I know people who have wonderful ministries reach so many folks. I know folk who can minister so well to abused people and give them breakthroughs and deliverance, but when you know their story, I know I'm thinking of a sister in a certain church. I preached and she was so powerful and anointed minister and other. So you know how she got there cause she married somebody. She had no business marrying and he beat her within an inch of her life for years. She barely escaped with her life. Now she ministers the folk and helps them out, but you don't have to get beat half to death so that you can help other people.

That's not a trade off you should be excited about. Well, you know, experience is the best teacher. It doesn't have to be personal experience.

How about you look at somebody else's experience and say, okay, that happened to them. They went through all that hell. Now they powerfully anointed. Is there an anointing without going through all that hell?

That's the one I'm interested in. You're going to go through some trials, but you don't have to get beat all the way up to be able to help other people. Look at these people who have been to hell and back. Learn some of the stuff you can learn to keep you from taking the same route. So I need somebody to know you're sniffing the wind. You're being set up and you're despising and mishandling what God has for you.

You don't have to touch a hot stove to learn that it will burn you. As Pastor Paul said today, experience can be one of life's best teachers, but it doesn't have to be your experience. Thanks so much for being here for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd.

To hear any recent message on demand, including today's teaching, felt needs can be tricky. Visit PastorPaul.net. That's PastorPaul.net. And remember, Destined for Victory exists only through the faithful prayers and financial support of friends like you. In appreciation of your generous gift today, we'd like to send you Pastor Paul's booklet, Trusting God in Scary Times. When the Lord told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away from the family home, what followed was a great deal of uncertainty and angst.

God had promised Abraham that he'd make a nation out of his firstborn son, but circumstantially, it looked pretty bleak. You may have times in your life when fear instead of faith tries to take the wheel. In this helpful resource, Pastor Paul walks you through Genesis chapter 21 and shows you how to rely on the faithfulness of God in the darkest of moments. That's Trusting God in Scary Times, our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. So call 855-339-5500 or visit PastorPaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And you can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. Again, the address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. If you need prayer today, the Destined for Victory ministry team would like to join you in prayer. From our homepage at PastorPaul.net, use the contact feature to let us know how we can pray for you.

And while you're there, be sure to ask for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, yours at no cost or obligation. If you're going to be the man or woman God has called you to be, he will not allow you to merely sweep unfinished business under the rug. You've got to deal with what you did wrong.

And here's why. Because there is no statute of limitations on properly addressing the wrongs we've done to others. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, handling your unresolved conflicts. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.