Making the Most of What You Have, Part 1 (cont'd)

Music playing Destiny for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. God is not hiding.

He practically shouts his existence from the mountaintops. Today Pastor Paul invites you to stop looking for significance and meaning in all the wrong places and in all the wrong people. Choose to be a servant of the living God.

Give your life away to Him and you will find the life you've always wanted. Stay with us here or stop by pastorpaul.net anytime to hear today's message or any recent Destiny for Victory message on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to the podcast at Google Podcast or Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Let's join Pastor Paul now as he shares today's Destiny for Victory message, making the most of what you have. Music playing Your purpose on earth is to serve God.

That's our job. Now we happen to serve a God who is so loving, so wonderful that He says, As you serve me, I will pay you. As you serve me, I will bless you. As you serve me, I will turn around and meet your needs and give you many of the desires of your heart. I will give you life to the full.

I will give you peace and joy and all kinds of blessings will flood your life as you serve me. But we are to serve His interest. We are purpose driven creatures. We were created for God's purpose is not our own. Years ago, I heard a presentation on the power of purpose.

I've memorized a number of the points. It impacted me greatly. Five of the principles shared in that message on purpose.

Let me share with you. The first is God is a God of purpose. God is a God of purpose. Secondly, everything God creates has a purpose that includes you.

That includes me. Since we are here, since God has brought us to the planet. He has created us for his own purpose. Everything God creates has a purpose. Third principle I want to share with you is if you want to know the purpose of a thing, don't ask the thing.

What's wrong with our world is that we have a lot of people writing books of philosophy and all of that. And basically what it boils down to is things trying to tell other things why they're here. But if you want to know the purpose of a thing, don't ask the thing.

Don't ask that thing and don't ask another thing. We're all created. How are we going to discern purpose when we are the created? The fourth principle is purpose is only found in the mind of the creator. So if you want to find the purpose of a thing, don't ask the thing.

Talk to the one who made it. And the fifth principle is purpose is the key to fulfillment. Now as that relates to your life, since you were created for God's purposes, God knew why he brought you to the planet. To glorify him and he knew the specific ways he wanted you to glorify him. If you want to know your purpose, you talk to God. You line yourself with his will.

You say yes to his will. You seek to discover his will because you're created for God's very specific purposes. And purpose is the key to fulfillment. We have people going around searching for fulfillment. And we're searching among all the wrong things. So a lot of people think I'll be fulfilled once I switch careers. You may or you may not.

There's a deeper question. The deeper question is when you get where you're going, where will you be and who sent you there? When you get where you're going in your life, where will you be? When you reach your quote unquote goals, where will you be?

And more importantly, who sent you there? I would hate to arrive at a destination only to find out that wasn't where I was supposed to go. I'd hate to live all these years and finally get somewhere and then discover you're not supposed to be here. I would hate to spend years developing a career I was not designed for. I would hate to spend years doing things that were not part of my God-ordained purpose. What you want to do is discover the will of the master for your life and to say yes to it and to surrender it.

Surrender to it. Listen, we are all servants, but servanthood is going to look different in all of our lives. There are some general principles by which we will all live, and I'll be covering those as we explore this parable. The way we use our treasure, the way we use our time, the way we use our talent.

But those talents and those elements are going to look different in our lives. The goal here is the definition for success. I know many of us have bought books on success and all of that.

If you had listened to this message, I would have saved you all that money. Library full of books, people telling you what success is. Here's success in a sentence. Success is discovering the will of the master and doing it. When you find out what the master wants out of you, you're his servant.

And he says, here's what I want you to do, and you go do it, do it with excellence and come back. You have been successful. People, listen, don't let other people tell you whether you're successful or not. They are not your master. Don't you let other people define whether your life is significant or not.

They're not your master. You don't get to define me because you didn't create me. You don't get to validate me.

I don't need your validation. I need to hear the Lord say, well done, good and faithful servant. And here's the thing about it. God can be pleased with you and all kind of folk can be mad at you. And when the people are mad and God is happy, guess what? You're successful. Success is discovering the will of the master and doing it. He's the master. We are his servants. I found that out as a youngster when I wanted desperately to do something else with my life other than to be in vocational ministry. I'm the son of a pastor. I love my dad dearly. His ministry was incredibly fruitful. God used him in significant ways. He's responsible for me being saved and discipled. I love his memory.

I thank God for him. And as I grew up, I really revered and respected him. But I didn't want to be in that kind of ministry because I saw his life. He was just giving to people and helping folks and we never knew when he was coming home for dinner and all that. And I thought that was the way every pastor had to be. I knew he was a good one and I figured, well, if he's a pastor, that's what every pastor ought to be like. And always taking care of folk, always running back out the door, phone ring, bam, he's gone back out, helping folks, serving people, preaching, meeting people's needs, all that.

And I said, that's cool for him. But when I grow up and get married, I want to be saved but I want to have a regular Christian life. I want to have a predictable job. I want to make good money but come home at a predictable hour.

I want my wife and kids to know when I'm coming home, I'm going to sit at the table with them. That was my plan. So I assumed you can't do that and be in pastoral ministry. I later learned that you can. And at that point, I said I assumed I couldn't so I was trying to find another way to serve God and not be in vocational ministry. And once I realized that God had given me a speaking gift and all, I said, okay, but if I can be a speaker without being a pastor, that'd be good. I can go do a little speaking gig, come back, be good.

Do that on the side. I'll have my regular vocation and then I can do that. Somebody need me to come speak, whatever, so I said, cool, do that.

And so I thought I had the plan all straight. Pastor in Kansas City called me and said, I heard you've spoken at your church and I heard wonderful things about how you're ministering to the young people in your own church. And we want you to come here to Kansas City and minister.

We're having a youth weekend. I want you to come and be the preacher for the youth weekend. I said, but I'm not a preacher. And the pastor said, yeah, but I heard you say yes, but I'm not a preacher. All right, well, if I don't bill you as a preacher, will you come? I said, all right, then call me the youth speaker. I'm negotiating, I'm in my teens, negotiating, trying not to be a preacher. So I find and they sent out the flight, sent me a flyer so I could see you speaker. All right, cool, I'm going to Kansas City.

Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday. By the time I got through Sunday, almost all of the young people in his church got saved that weekend. And he was driving me to the airport Sunday afternoon and he figured, you know, assignment's over. He can now tell me what he really thinks. He drove me to the airport and at a certain stoplight, he shook his finger in my face.

He said, look, I don't care what you call yourself. God's hand is on you to be a preacher and the sooner you say yes, the better off you're going to be. And then he kept driving. And he was right because I tried. I was all the way in the college trying not to be a preacher. But God, the pressure was coming down on me. Listen, let me tell anybody who's running from any aspect of God's calling on your life.

If God's leading you into a career that you particularly don't want to go into or leading you to start a business or whatever it is or leading you to get involved in some ministry as a volunteer, whatever it is, it's part of the master's plan for your life. And if you are running, take it from somebody who tried to run. It doesn't work. It doesn't work to run from God. Your arms are too short to box with God.

You can't do it. And I wouldn't have to tell you from firsthand experience had I read my Bible right. So I'm telling you, listen to me and if I'm not convinced enough, do what I should have done. Read the book of Jonah. Read the book of Jonah. You're trying to run from anything God's calling you to do. Jonah was a prophet who got an assignment he didn't like.

The assignment was straightforward. Go to Nineveh. No rocket science. Go to Nineveh. Wicked City wants you to tell them they better repent.

I'm going to come get them. He didn't like it. He didn't like it. Later on we find out in the book he didn't like it because he knew what God was going to do. He said they're going to repent.

God's going to forgive them. And I went to town acting like a fool telling these folks all these judgments coming and the judgment ends up not coming. I don't want to go through all that. I don't feel like going to Nineveh.

I got other plans for my life. When you are called to be a prophet, you're not going to have success or fulfillment until you prophesy. And you don't get to pick and choose because it's not your word.

It's God's word. 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 today. Give online safely and securely from our website, pastorpaul.net. Or give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again, that number is 855-339-5500. Have you ever had a dream in which you were trying to run from someone? It's what running from God looks like. You just can't get away.

Here's Pastor Paul with the second half of today's Destined for Victory message, making the most of what you have. So Jonah jumps on a boat, a ship, and tries to sail away. Sails in a direction away from the will of God. Here's the problem.

God made the water you're on. Listen. Listen. How are you going to sail away from someone who is omnipotent, all power, omnipresent, everywhere, and omniscient, all knowing? When you have a master who knows everything, can do anything, and is everywhere, give up. That's all.

Just give up. But no, we're just like Jonah, jumped on the ship, trying to sail away. So God just stirs up the water.

Stirred up the water. It got so bad, he's on a boat with people who don't know Jehovah. These are not Israelites he's on the boat with. They don't know Jehovah. These are people who are honest pagans. They just don't know any truth, haven't been taught it.

When they got through seeing that storm, they said, you know what? God's trying to talk to somebody. You know, it's bad when folk who don't even know God are given an altar call. People who don't even know God talk about, you know what? You need to go to church.

That's what you need to do. You ever had your heathen friends tell you you need Jesus? They said, somebody, God is talking to somebody on this boat.

Now, let's sing a verse of Just As I Am or something and see who want to come. The Bible says they cast lots to see who the culprit was. And the lot fell on Jonah. Jonah fessed up, said, yes, me, fellas, I'm running from God.

And that's why this trouble has come. And at first, at first, they tried to stick with him. These are some nice guys on the boat. They don't know God, but they got good hearts. I mean, these dudes say, no, man, we're going to try to help you. And the Bible said they tried to help the ship.

Make it. And they all tried their best, but it's futile when you're running against God. Finally, Jonah said, listen, I appreciate you all trying to stand with me, but the only way you're going to get where you're going is you're going to have to throw me over. They said, that's exactly what we were thinking. We're all sharing the same thoughts. We're there.

That's what we were thinking. They picked my man up, said, look, man, take care of yourself, man. You be strong. Don't let it get you down, man.

You're going to be all right. And they threw him over. Look at God. Look at the God you serve, the master you serve. The master, the Bible says the Lord prepared a fish to swallow Jonah whole.

Now, you people who are stuck on your intellectual ability to rationalize, that verse gives you a problem. Now, I've studied all of the various species, and there are some that are certainly large enough to swallow. I've seen these little specials on PBS, whatever. I've seen them, and there are fish that are indeed large enough, but the problem is the reason why we know this is just a myth is because there are no fish that are capable of keeping a man alive for 72 hours inside. So while they are large enough to swallow him whole, he would have died within minutes of suffocation.

Thanks for sharing. Here's what you don't understand yet. The text said the Lord prepared a fish. He made the water. He made the earth. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

The world and they that dwell therein. The Bible talks about he's established it upon the floods. He made the sea and everything in it, every creature in it, is the product of the master's handiwork. If he made the fish, he can remodel the fish.

Remodeling is an easier job than creating. All he had to do was install air conditioning. So he found some fish, installed air conditioning, and that was the fish that swallowed Jonah. You don't have to believe it if you want, but one day when you meet the master, ask him. And he will tell you yes, just like Pastor Paul said.

He installed the air conditioning, got it all hooked up in there, and this fish came along, swallowed Jonah whole, and the Bible says for three days he cried out of the belly of that fish. Some of us need to have our time of reconciling with the will of God right now. This is the time in your life to say, OK, God, you're in charge. OK, I'm going to stop running. I'm going to stop trying to pretend like I'm not a servant. And I want to live in fulfillment.

I want to enjoy my life. Therefore, I'm going to surrender to you. And he got it straight. Three days he cried out of the belly of that fish. And when the Lord knew his repentance was complete, his heart was transformed, then the Lord caused the fish to spit him up out on the shore. And I love what happens next. It says, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying, go to Nineveh.

I love it. Same word that sent him on the trip. Now, see, he could have gone to Nineveh the first time, saved himself the ship fare, saved himself all that storm, saved being tossed overboard, saved a submarine ride for three days. He could have saved himself all of that. He could have gone to Nineveh with his suit on, looking good, head just come from the barbershop, you know, fade just right. Everything just hooked up good, got his Stacy Adams on, everything.

He's good to go. Could have gone to Nineveh looking good. The sisters in Nineveh would say, well, praise the Lord. Look at this. You see that preacher just come through town, praise God.

No, no. Now he got to go seaweed hanging off of him. He doesn't look like anything. He doesn't smell too good. Listen, when it comes to your Nineveh, you can go clean or you can go seaweedy.

It's up to you. He's the master. He's in charge. He's not campaigning. The master has gone away.

And he has said, I'm coming back. And he's called us as his servants. Our job on earth is to please God. That's my mission, plain and simple. These days, a lot of folk write in their personal mission statements. Let me help you with your personal mission statement. Three words, to please God.

That's it. That's my calling on earth, to please God. If other folk are happy along the way, that's good. But when it's all said and done, I'm not answering to you. When it's all said and done, I'm going to stand before the master.

And one day I want to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. So I want to ask you to get it straight. Before we delve further into this parable, I want you to get it straight.

I want you to settle the issue of who's in charge. Settle the issue of why you're on earth. Don't try to dream up your purpose. You didn't create yourself. We're not here to dream up our purpose.

We're not here to try to make sense of, I'm trying to make sense of my life. You don't have to. All you have to do is follow the instructions.

Read your owner's manual. Talk to your creator. Follow his lead. Serve him with excellence. That's what life is about, to please God. The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, so we make it our aim to please God. That's what I'm shooting for in my life. That's what I'm aiming for in my life, to please God.

Jesus has gone away, but he's coming back. And so he called us as his servants. Our goal, our assignment, should we decide to accept it, is to please him. Faith is the confidence in what God has said to you.

Fear is confidence in the things you often say to yourself. If you find yourself in need of prayer today, if your search for significance has led you to all the wrong places, the Destined for Victory ministry team would like to join you in prayer. Just visit pastorpaul.net and use the contact feature to share your request with us. While you're there, be sure to sign up for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, yours at no cost or obligation. Well, sometimes life can get scary, as we all know. And if you've let fear get in the way of your faith, Pastor Paul has a great new resource to share with you today, his booklet, Trusting God in Scary Times.

If you find yourself focusing on what you see instead of what God says, if you're alarmed by the obstacles that stand in the way of living out your destiny in Christ, this booklet from Pastor Paul will be of great benefit to you. That's Trusting God in Scary Times, our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. And today is the final day of this special offer, so contact us right away. 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, our address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Everything you have belongs to God. It is his property. The parable says that the master called his servants and he entrusted his property to them. He didn't give them their property.

He entrusted his to them. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Making the Most of What You Have. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.