The Bible is full of people who can relate to real life. When you read your Bible, it's not full of people who were perfect. It's full of imperfect people who learn to be honest. Read your Bible; it's full of honest, plain, what you see is what you get people. Of all the honest people in Scripture, the ones who were real about who they were and what they were feeling, Jesus was perhaps the most transparent of them all.
Hello and thanks for dropping by for today's "Destined for Victory" with Pastor Paul Shepard. Always a pleasure to have you with us.
Well, Jesus never sinned, so he never had to be real about his mistakes. But he was real about his feelings, his fear in the Garden of Gethsemane, his sadness at the tomb of Lazarus. The Lord was never shy about revealing his true self, and today you'll be encouraged to follow in his steps. Before we kick things off, though, let me remind you to visit our website, PastorPaul.net, where you can listen on demand to any of our recent messages, and get details about how to listen on demand at your favorite digital platform.
Now, let's get started with today's "Destined for Victory" message. Deal with how you feel. Jesus lived among people. He loved people. He hung out with them.
He said, "They that are whole don't need a physician. I've come to sick folks who know they're sick." Now he wasn't implying that there were people who were well. He was talking about the Pharisees who pretended to be well when they were the sickest of the whole bunch. And when you pretend, you become the sickest of the whole bunch. When you won't be honest, when you won't say, "Here's where I really am.
Here's what I'm really struggling with. Here's how I really feel," then you cut off your ability to experience the blessings that the shepherd has lined up for you. Jesus, we got to understand who he was. He didn't look like those pictures, and neither did he act the way many of you think he acted.
Some of you think Jesus was always well behaved and politically correct. You know he was just so kind of otherworldly, just so kind of heavenly. He was no earthly good. That nothing bothered him, nothing offended him. Jesus was emotional, so that he could relate to your emotion.
When it was time to be angry, Jesus was angry. Jesus was hurt at times. Jesus experienced the pain of betrayal. When Judas kissed him on his cheek, it broke his heart. Although he knew it would happen, it still didn't feel good to have somebody you've nurtured for years turn around and stab you in the back.
It hurt him. Jesus experienced real emotions. He was angry sometimes. You remember when he went into the temple area? It's recorded in Matthew twenty one and the other two Synoptic Gospels as well.
He went into the temple area and saw that they had turned the things of God into a place of merchandise and and sacrilegious shame. And what did he do? He didn't go in there and say, "Now, brethren, I'll use King James for those of you who think that's more spiritual." Now, brethren, this is not the way to behave in the Lord's temple. I would like all of you to stop what you're doing. This is really not what God would have you to do.
Jesus walked into the temple area, saw them selling doves and money changers there, disgracing that which was holy. And in our vernacular, he went off. Please, that's the only way I can explain it to you. He went off. Jesus lost it for a few minutes.
Read your Bible; it's right in your Bible. I don't care what translation you have; it can't make it any more tame than it was. The Bible says he kicked over tables, he knocked over stools, and he drove people. People out of the area. He didn't suggest they leave.
He drove them out. He was tossing folks. He said, "My house shall be a house of prayer. You've turned it into a den of robbers. Get out of here!" And he tore the place up.
I am sure his disciples took two, three steps backwards. Look at each other. Say he mad today. Jesus was angry when it was time to get angry. Jesus experienced pain.
When you see him in the garden, he looks at Peter, James, and John and says, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death." Imagine the Son of God saying, "Fellas, I feel like I'm about to die." The pain I'm experiencing, the grief I'm experiencing, facing calvary, facing torture, facing the prospect of allowing people that He created to spit on Him and torture Him all night, put Him into excruciating, painful places, and ultimately disgrace Him by hanging Him on the cross. Only the scum of the earth hung on a cross. And facing that, he said, "I feel like I'm about to die." And he said, "Can you just watch with me?" There was nothing much they could do, but he felt like he needed moral support. When you feel lonely, when you feel alone, Jesus can relate to you. And sometimes you feel lonely with people right there, and Jesus can relate.
He said, "Stay, watch with me." And he walked a little further and prayed. Fell on his knees. The Bible says he agonized until his sweat turned into drops of blood. When he went back to sleep, he can relate to you, trying to get people to support you and help you. And he's all right.
We got your back. And they're knocked out sleep. Jesus can relate. He was in all points tempted, as we, yet without sin, so that he could present us the hope that only comes through trust and faith in him. He can sympathize with us.
He's passionate about our lives. The Bible says he understands what you're going through. Jesus can relate to you. You don't have to ever feel like you have to be dishonest when you come with the real deal. Jesus can relate to where you really are, and he experienced life without sin, so he can promise you hope to get you from where you are to where he wants you to be.
And so, why be dishonest with a God who has a plan for your life, and with a God who is passionate about your life? Jesus can relate. See, the Bible is full of people who can relate to real life. When you read your Bible, it's not full of people who were perfect. It's full of imperfect people who learn to be honest, and they let God take their honesty and marry it to His plan, and to get them where He wanted them to be.
Read your Bible; it's full of honest, plain. What you see is what you get. People. Look at John the Baptist. The man was the kind of prophet who didn't take tea for the fever.
Man, this guy was serious. He lived out in the wilderness. He only came to town to jack people up. That's the only time he came to town. Read your Bible.
He hung out in the wilderness, out there eating grasshoppers and honey. And standing out there by the river, telling folk they better get baptized and repent. Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Out there calling the Pharisees names. I'm serious.
Look at it. Read your Bible. He saw them coming one day. Said, "Look at them, a brood of vipers, generation of vipers." Say, "Y'all are nothing but a bunch of snakes." Not only were you a snake, but your mama was a snake before you. Man was rough, calling people names, telling them they better repent, for it's too late.
And then one time, the Bible tells you in Luke chapter three, when he came to town, knocked on the palace door, asked to speak to Herod, and said, "I just came to tell you." Crunching on a grasshopper while he's talking, probably. I just came to tell you that you're living foul. It's not right for you to have your brother's wife. He confronted Herod Antipas because he had married his sister-in-law, who was also his niece. And John came to town just to tell you: not only are you in adultery, but you're in incest.
You're living foul. Turn around and went back to the wilderness. Man was cold-blooded. Listen, you have to understand. You didn't talk to the Herods and get away with it, and so sure enough, he finds himself later on in prison.
But let me show you how real the man is. Later on, he's in prison. It's recorded in Matthew chapter eleven. While he's in jail, awaiting execution, eventually he was going to have his head chopped off. But while he was there, he called his disciples to him.
And he said, "Go find Jesus, and ask him: Is he the one who we were looking for, or shall we look for another one?" Now, here's what's amazing about that: When you see Jesus finally launch his public ministry, it began by him going to Jordan so that John could baptize him. And when he came out there, John looked at him, and the Holy Spirit revealed to him who Jesus was. And he looked at him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." He so knew who Jesus was until he almost refused to baptize him. He said, "I am not worthy to do that." Jesus said, "Do it anyway. It's necessary for us to fulfill the Father's plan." In that moment, John knew exactly who Jesus was.
But when he's about to die, sitting in prison, his emotions have turned. His feelings have turned. See, you've got to learn to realize that your emotions are part of you. Let's pause right there for a brief timeout, but don't go away. The second half of today's "Destined for Victory" message with Pastor Paul Shepherd is coming right up.
Our mission at Destined for Victory is to preach timeless truth for a victorious life, but we can't do it without you, our listening friends and partners. To make a generous donation today, one that will help us share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people all over the world, please visit PastorPaul.net or call eight five five. Three three nine five five zero zero. If we want to follow in the steps of Jesus, we don't have to ask the question, "What would Jesus do?" All we need to do is read the Word and find out what He did.
Now let's get you back to the rest of today's message. Deal with how you feel. All of us are emotional. You might not be demonstrative like some other person, but you are emotional. And your emotions impact your life, and sometimes they make you feel unsure of that which earlier you were sure of.
And John said, "I know I baptized him, and I know I pronounced him the savior. But I, right now, I just I am about to die, and I want to make sure that I was right. Go ask him; is he the one?" And when John's disciples got to Jesus, Jesus knew that he was dealing with a matter of the heart, not a matter of the head. He knew not to just rebuke John. See, some of you are afraid to come to God because you think he's just going to come down on you.
But look at the way Jesus dealt with the humanity of John the Baptist. When the disciples came and said, "John wants to know, are you really the one?" Jesus didn't say, "What's the matter with him? He's the one who baptizes me." Tell him he needs to be ashamed of himself. God won't do you like that. He knows that there are times when you don't feel as sure as you once did, and He can sympathize.
So, what did Jesus do? Jesus said, "Just follow me," and had John's disciples stay with him that day while He healed some foe, while He set some captives free, released people from some bondage. And after they witnessed the power of God in His life and ministry, then Jesus said, "Now just go back and tell John what you saw. Let him answer his own question. It's not a question of the head; it's a question of the heart.
You ever been there where one time you're sure and another time you're not so sure? You can take your not so sure self to Jesus. He knows how to sympathize with you." We're human. We're uniquely human. We're just like Elijah.
One day, Elijah standing on Mount Carmel, calling down fire to prove that Jehovah is God. You remember that? The false prophets are bail out there, and he said, "You all go first." It was a showdown on Mount Carmel. He said, "You all go down first. Who's ever God answers by fire?
That's who's really God." And he let the false prophets spend all day long calling on a God who couldn't answer, cause He didn't exist. And the man Elijah was so anointed he was cocky. He stood out there said, "Call him louder. He must be sleep." See, I know what the problem is. He went on vacation.
You all picked the wrong day for this showdown. Your God is on vacation somewhere. I mean, just toyed with them. Until they cut themselves and tried to get their false god to answer them, and when they got through with their futile attempts, Elijah said, "Step aside," and he prayed a simple prayer. But the man had so much power with God until God instantly answered him by fire.
And the Bible says, after God proved who He was, then Elijah ordered all of those false prophets to be killed. And they were slain that day.
Now that's Monday, Monday afternoon or early evening when Ahab got back home and told Jezebel, who was really in charge, his wife. Oh, honey, you should have saw what Elijah did to your prophets. Jezebel called a servant and said, "Go find Elijah." And tell him, "May the gods do to me what just happened to those false prophets." If by this time tomorrow he's not dead, when Elijah heard that message, you'd have thought a man with that cocky anointing, standing on the mountain calling down fire, would have gotten a message like that and fallen on the ground laughing. You would have thought he'd have said, "Man, tell that woman I'll burn her up if she doesn't leave me alone." That's what you would expect for him to threaten her with what happened to them. But he's human.
He's like you and me. Monday, he's annoyed and cocky. Tuesday, after he got the word of the contract. My man packed his grip and took off, running for his life, and having a pity party as he went, feeling sorry for himself. You should hear the things.
Read it. The things he said. I'm the only one left. I'm the only one that's representing God.
Now they're trying to kill me. I ain't even doing anything, and they're trying to kill me. Having a pity party, and he told his servant at one point during the journey, "You stay here. I want to go off by myself." Why? Because he wanted to be depressed by himself.
He didn't want a little happy helper with him.
Sometimes, when you're trying to have yourself a real good pity party, you don't want anybody confusing you with the facts. You don't want anybody pulling out that little book of Bible promises, reading you the Word of God, trying to build you up into faith.
So he told his servants, "Stay here." The Bible says he went a day's journey by himself, feeling sorry, scared of Jezebel. Sat under a tree and prayed that he might die. You say that's ridiculous. Till you think about your own life, you've had the same kind of contradictions: high one day, low the next. Full of faith during one season, full of doubt during another.
Teaching people what they ought to do, then when it comes your time to do it, you're not so sure. And the Bible says Elijah was a man just like us. But here's what I want you to understand: that not only does God have a plan for our lives, and God is passionate about our lives, but this final verse tells you, verse 16 of our text, tells you that God has promises for our lives. It says, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us." In our time of need, you need to understand that God's plan and God's passion have produced promises, so that you can trust God with your real self. You can trust Him where you really are.
You can trust Him with how you really feel. You can trust Him with your humanity that doesn't always make sense. You can say, "Lord, I'm not proud of it, but here's the way I feel." Lord, I'm not proud of it, but here is what I'm stuck in. Here is the besetting sin that just keeps whipping me. Lord, I'm coming to you, and watch what it says.
It says, "Come with confidence." Where do you get the confidence from? You get the confidence from knowing. That when you get there, he's going to give you mercy and grace to help you in your time of need. There's nothing you're going through that God's plan doesn't cover. There's nothing you're going through that God's power can't overcome.
But you must come and approach him with confidence. You don't want to approach God in fear that he's an angry God and he's just going to whack you. No, no, he convicts us, but even in his conviction, there is redemption. Even when God says you've got to cut this out, he gives you the grace to say yes to his will.
So you come with confidence. You don't come in fear and trembling. You don't come like kids who have done something wrong before an angry parent and they don't know what's going to happen to them. Did y'all break my lamp? Uh oh.
Remember when you were a child, your sin, your wrongdoing—you knew you were running through the house when you were exposed to—and it has you feeling condemned, and you're wondering what's going to happen to you. Listen, the Bible tells you your heavenly Father—he does bring conviction, but even in his conviction, he is loving, and he says, "If you will be honest with me, don't come and tell me you are not who I know you are." Don't come and tell me you're not going through what I know you're going through. Come like you are. Bring your real self to me, because I have promises that fit who you are and where you are. And I promise you that when you come to me, you'll receive mercy and you'll find grace to help you in your time of need.
Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message. Deal with how you feel. It's always a pleasure to study the Word of God with you. You know, at Destined for Victory, partnership has always been one of our core values. Put in place years ago by Pastor Paul Shepard, I once spoke with him about not only the power of partnership but the benefits of it.
Here's that conversation. You're absolutely right. I think that we do need to underscore that it is a win-win situation when a person is a not only a faithful prayer warrior to undergird us with prayer, but when They are faithful in supporting our ministry financially. There is a real benefit to them because when you think about it, Jesus said in Matthew six, "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth corrupts and and things get eroded and all that." He says you need to store up. Treasures in heaven, and if people say, "Well, how in the world do you do that while you're still living on Earth?" The answer is, you support things that make a difference, not only for time but for eternity.
And ministries like ours are making that kind of difference.
So you get to directly benefit as a supporter because Jesus is saying, in essence, you share in the victory. You share in The fruitfulness of the ministries you support, and I know that to be true. God has blessed me over the years because of faithful listeners who stand with us every month. I can count on the fact that part of what they do is they sow into this ministry so that we can continue to preach timeless truths in a timely way that's making a difference for people both. In this life, and preparing them for the life to come, and there is no Pastor Paul or any of the other ministers that God is using without those who faithfully support them.
To you, I say thank you so much. To others, I am saying, please prayerfully consider becoming part of that support team. When you decide to partner with us today for as little as twenty dollars a month, you'll receive a few thank you gifts, including one of our most popular resources, Pastor Paul's CD, "The Best of Let My People Smile." It's a compilation of some of his best and funniest moments, something the entire family can enjoy.
So call eight five five three three nine five five zero zero, or mail your gift. And when you do, please let us know you'd like to become our partner. The address is destined for. Victory, Post Office Box Seventeen Sixty Seven, Fremont, California Nine Four Five Three Eight.
Now you can also sign up by selecting "Become a Partner" at the top of the PastorPaul dot net homepage. PastorPaul dot net. If you can't become a partner, but would like to send a generous gift today, we'll send you this month's thank you gift, our latest booklet, "A Miracle in the Midst of Madness." For more information about this outstanding resource, come see us at PastorPaul.net. And many of us have those things in our lives that need to be looked at, need to be confronted. You have to be willing to own who you are and where you are in life for the grace of God to have its maximum impact in your life.
That's next time in our message. Deal with how you feel, but until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
