The Miracle Is in the House, Part 2 (cont'd)

A seed is meant to be sown because the only way God can take that natural principle he put in the earth, seed time and harvest, and supernaturally multiply from it, you've got to sow it. You can't keep looking at it.

You can't keep asking questions about it. The only thing you can do with a seed is sow it. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. As a man sows, so he shall reap. Hello and thanks for joining us for today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd.

Wherever you are, however you may be listening, we're glad you've chosen to make us part of your day. Coming up next, Pastor Paul takes us to one of Christ's most familiar miracles to teach us two critical lessons. Sometimes God will ask us to give him what little we have, even if it seems insufficient.

And when we obey him, he will do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could have asked or thought. Today's message is straight ahead. Stay right here or visit pastorpaul.net to listen to Destined for Victory on demand.

You can also download the podcast at Google or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Now here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message. The miracle is in the house. He's a kingdom man. Jesus is here to advance the kingdom. When you are kingdom first, I've talked about it for decades, I call it being kingdom first. When the kingdom is the most important thing in your life, that's what entitles you to supernatural seed multiplication. God is not going to multiply your seed if all you're going to do is take it and buy six Bentleys.

That's not a kingdom agenda. For what? Why? I got I got three houses.

How many you live in? You got to have some even if you had three houses, I got these and these I bought them for the kingdom. Now we're talking. I'm going to use them to help people in need. I'm going to set it up. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. Now you can get the attention of heaven. But if you just tell me this is my summer home and then when I don't feel like going there then I go over here and then I go over there and I go over there. God said that's fine.

Knock yourself out. But that has nothing to do with me. We must be kingdom focused and Jesus wants to advance the kingdom. He's been ministering these people.

This multitude has followed him. They're far from their homes. He said I don't want them starving on the way back home. Feed them. Churches have got to know that ministry must be full service. If you can't run a ministry to the hungry partner with one that does. Don't call people to your place only to hear preaching. If I'm hungry I don't want a sermon.

Come on somebody. I'll hear you better. You give me something to eat.

Where am I? You're messing up my sermon. All right. So look at it. He thanks God. He presents it to God. Then he distributes it to the disciples.

You all participate. Why did he start out asking them how are we going to feed these folks? He wants them to learn.

He's going to lead them in the world. They've got to learn to do what he did. He wants them.

So he said here. Here's some bread. Take it and distribute it. And so each of the disciples who are going to be left in the world years from now ready to help other people. They have to know well God used me to do it before.

He's going to use me again. So each of them took some and began to distribute. And they went out to all the sections.

And again you've got all these sections of folk. That's a big job. But notice God is just using Jesus to break bread and supernaturally make bread. Break it, make it. Break it, make it. Then the fish.

Break it, make it. Everybody end up with fish sandwiches. Not only did they end up eating a nice fish meal. Watch this. When all the distribution was over everybody had what they were going to eat for their lunch. Then he said to his disciples now gather the fragments.

Wait. What are you talking about fragments? God gave them so much more than they needed. I told you God was able to do exceeding abundantly above.

He gave them so much more. He said now gather all the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost. God didn't make it for you to lose it. That none is lost. Gather. Gather it up and fill 12 baskets.

How do you start with five barley loaves, two fish, end up with 12 baskets left over by those who had eaten. That's the God you serve. Now you either believe you served that same God or you don't.

If you don't then I guess you'll never experience it. I am sure some folk are going to heaven having almost believed God for nothing except salvation. I think there are going to be a whole lot of folk in heaven. All they ever believed for was to be saved.

After that they thought it was all on them and so they did what they could and that's what you get. You get the harvest that you sow. If you sow in unbelief, if you sow in it's got to make sense to your mind, if that's your life, everything's got to make sense, you're going to miss a whole bunch of miracles. But those of us who are simple enough, I didn't say stupid enough. I'm not stupid.

You're not stupid. We've been to school, got degrees, got common sense, got everything. But we're simple enough to say a God who can step out on nothing and say let there be and there was is able to do exceeding abundantly above. I'm there. If you're not there, you're not going to experience it.

I'm there. God can do it. I don't always know what he's going to do in certain situations like this prophet.

That's why you ask the question, what do you have? Let's see what God might use. But once you see that, don't limit God.

Don't say oh yeah, you know, I mean I know people used to believe that kind of stuff but that's a... No, no. God is the same. Same God. God hasn't grown old like us. You can't talk about God like well, you know, man, back in the day God used to be something, boy.

Oh, man. In his prime, oh, don't tell me. Man, in his prime, God was canning up. He's the same. I serve not a degenerated God, not a feeble God.

God doesn't have a cane, ride around in a scooter. That's us. We get old.

Our stuff starts falling apart. That's why you got to keep sending, the old folks said keep sending timber up because you're building a house not made with hands that is eternal in the heavens. Y'all don't have to believe it if you want to but I believe I still serve a miracle working God. Have you ever had your heart broken? Yes.

Has he not answered and you didn't know why? Yes. Are you perplexed?

Yes. And all of that's true but there is another miracle coming. What do you do when you believe of healing and they died? I bury them. Y'all say you believe in miracles and they died. What now?

Put them in the grave. And even in that, there's hope. There is hope, I said. When I'm burying you, I'm just burying what you couldn't take with you to where you are now.

We just dropping this off. You're going to reunite with that at the second coming. In the meantime, I know where they are.

So I'm crying because I miss them but I'm rejoicing because of where they are is so wonderful. So you got to understand we serve a God who is able to do much, much more than you can even imagine. So get your imagination out of God's way.

Because he can go past that more than you can imagine. You just keep being kingdom first and when you have a problem as a kingdom first person, you hold it up and say, Lord, here it is. What you going to do about this?

And find out if there's a seed that you're supposed to use. Coming up next, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, The Miracle is in the House with Pastor Paul Shepherd. PastorPaul.net is the place to go to hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. You'll also find a host of great resources at our online store, including books and DVD messages from Pastor Paul.

Learn more about the ministry and about all the great things friends like you are doing through your prayers and financial support. That's PastorPaul.net. And if you like what you're hearing on Destined for Victory, we know you'll enjoy watching selected video clips by subscribing to Pastor Paul on YouTube. To find more details and links to all of Pastor Paul's social media, visit PastorPaul.net. Well, you can walk in faith and still ask people for help.

Sometimes that's exactly what faith requires. Here's Pastor Paul with the second half of today's message, The Miracle is in the House. So he gives this woman three instructions I'm going to give you in the next seven minutes and I'm done.

First instruction, request what you need from those willing to help. Look at verse three. Then he said, go borrow vessels from everywhere. From all your neighbors, empty vessels.

Do not gather just a few. What's that about? That's God's getting ready to move, but you got to give him something to move on. God's ready to do the work.

You just got to give him some, you got to set the environment for the miracle you need. She needs the oil, which is her seed, to be vastly increased. Why? Because that is a commodity that is worth something. You don't just use it in your house if you have enough, you can sell it. It's a commodity. So you got to get something he can put the commodity you need in. You have the seed. He is going to meet the need from the seed, so give him a whole lot to work with.

Request what you need from those willing to help. When I was preparing this, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, tell the people that some of them are missing their own blessings because they think they're walking by faith and they're really walking in pride. Faith and pride are two different things. See, you can say I walk by faith, that's why I don't ask anybody for anything. And you have told yourself that's faith.

And I'm telling you that's pride. He baptized you by one spirit into the body. The body takes care of itself.

Come on, somebody. If I have a need and my body parts don't know about it, and I say, well, God's going to do it. He will through the body.

But again, it's seed versus out of thin air. You're about to lose your home, you're about to have your electricity cut off, and you're sitting in the dark talking about you living by faith, and you didn't tell your life group, pray for me. You didn't have to go there saying, I need y'all to take other offering from me.

Not necessarily. Sometimes you just mentioned to me and said, would y'all pray for me? And you genuinely need prayer partnership. And then see what God does from there. I told you when I got to California and learned quickly that you had to have two cars here, I drove one across the country, I quickly learned I needed a second one, and we had the two small kids.

Leesha was five and three. When we got here, they about to start school, we don't have much money, we don't have anything, just Jesus. And there was some folk praying on the other side of the country, and they were having a prayer meeting, people from different churches, and they said, we started taking an offering and we didn't know why. Eventually, the Lord told them to call me and asked that I need $1,700 that they had raised in their prayer meetings, and I needed a car. And I said, if the Lord is telling y'all to send me $700, listen to him. You've heard that story, they sent me that, I put 500 to it that I had here, I preached for a friend up in San Francisco, he gave me a $300 offering, and I had 200 from somewhere, and $2,200 got myself a Ford Escort back then. So Ford Escort, I had the second most raggedy car in the little church, I did not care, because I knew my day was coming. I drove that Escort till a mechanic who lived across the street from me and saw me fooling with it came across the street, said, pastor, let it go. Because it had been a blessing, and in essence, he said, but blessings have expiration dates on them.

I'm just telling you, don't walk in pride. Let praying people know, here's what I'm believing God for, would y'all pray with me. We got this building, and I was short of $300,000 to finish it out. We had already said we were moving in 4th Sunday in June, 2014. And we had given so much, people had done so well in the hotel years, we had sold and all that, and we had $300 worth of stuff, $300,000 worth of stuff we still needed to finish.

Wasn't y'all walking in 4th Sunday in June, and this light's still not there? I said, no. I said, Lord, we've come so far, but we got 300. I called my spiritual covenant brothers, all of them pastor churches and got money, and I called them. I said, brothers, I need y'all to pray, because I need $300,000. And they said, all right, we're going to pray.

I said, you ain't send no money? I thought they said, oh, yeah, we pray, but I just, we just sent. When I asked for prayer, them dudes prayed. But you know what?

That was right. God didn't tell them to help us, because we needed to learn something. He said, we're going to pray. And I had been to a meeting, pastor's meeting, and one of the sessions, they talked about how God will use people in your church to help you when you get to those places where you just need to get over a certain hump. And they administered it, and it was just weeks before, and I thought, why am I sitting through this session? I don't want to hear this. I needed to hear it. See, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. God had me there, and I didn't know why. So when the brothers said they were praying, they hung up. And I said, well, that's not my help. Then I said, you know what?

Maybe some destiny people is distributing to folks already there so they can learn. I got up the next Sunday. I said, we're $300,000 away from what we need. I asked my assistant, send me a list of the, I forget the number, top giving units in our church. Send me a list of a certain number of them, 20 or 15, whatever it was, top giving units in our church, whether it was couples or individuals. I called those people, said, do me a favor. The service was going to be right down here at the Marriott, two miles from where we're sitting now. Y'all, after service this Sunday, after the second service, we had 8, 30, and 11 at the hotel. After second service, would y'all meet me up at Albury Street?

I want to show you something. And I got that from that session I didn't want to be in. Called them, they all drove in here, up there in the lot. Came in, in here, it didn't look like this.

We were at that point just weeks from moving in. No carpet. This was, the stage was bare. You saw the wood. No carpet, nothing. We walked in here on dirty floor. You hear us crunching while we walked in.

I stood on the framed out steps here, and be careful so I didn't slip in. And I explained to them, we are $300,000 from completing this. I said, I know all of you are the best givers in the church.

And I'm not asking you to give any more. You've already given very generous pledges and helped us do. Because we had done, we had built two million dollars worth of worship center just on our own giving as a church.

Over and above the tithes. I said, I'm not asking you to give more, but I want to see if any of you have money you can lend destiny for 12 months. That's what I told them. 12 months, I promise you we'll give it back to you within the year.

I said, I need, if you can lend us 10,000, if you can lend us 25, if you can lend us 50, if anybody can do 100. And that week, by the next Sunday, I had $300,000. From destiny members who had already given, they just reached in their rainy day or something, because they believed their pastor who said, I'm going to get it back in a year.

They all got it back within 10 months. Don't walk in pride. Request the help you need. Number two, remove spectators and commentators from the situation. You know what?

That means preaching. I'm going to pick that up next time. I'm going to give you the last two next time, and then I'll get on to the next. Yeah, I can't rush through this one. You all sense that, don't you? Some of us got some spectators and commentators in our lives, and they're running their mouths, and they're making you miss your blessing. You got to put them out. Hey, when they come to your door, you just stand right in the frame. Hey.

And they're like, hey, they're trying to get in. Hey, how you doing? Hey, what's been going on? You're not coming in here bringing your doubt and unbelief and your opinion. That's next time.

Let's stand. We all need people in our lives to build us up, not bring us down, to strengthen our faith, not squelch it. Surround yourself with those kinds of people, and you'll be better able to demonstrate your faith in God when challenges come your way. Well, Pastor Paul and all of us at Destined for Victory have joined together for a singular mission to share the Gospel all over the world through these radio broadcasts and Internet broadcasts as well, and to take as many people to Heaven with us as we can. You can help by praying for this ministry and also sending a special gift today. In appreciation of that generous gift, Pastor Paul will send you his booklet, Caregivers Need Care To.

You know, some people are so busy caring for other people, their children, their older parents, a friend in need, sometimes they lose sight of the fact that they need a little help themselves from time to time. Well, this booklet is a welcome reminder that people like that need our assistance and our care. Again, that's Caregivers Need Care To, a booklet from Pastor Paul and our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destined 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 Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. Also, the Destined for Victory ministry team is always willing to pray for you anytime you need it. From the homepage of 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 believing for the supernatural, you've got to stop hanging out with mundane people. They don't know the supernatural. They don't know the power of God. They don't know how God can work. And if you let them look at your life and speak into your life, they'll send you away from faith. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, the miracle is in the house. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.