From Valley to Victory, Part 20

Welcome to Leading the Way, featuring the Bible Teaching Ministry of Dr. Michael Yusef.

He's the author of more than 50 exciting books, and he's the pastor of the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia. Social media. That's a great tool.

And it's one of Satan's most destructive weapons. People look at what their friends are posting only to be saturated with what seems to be a life packed with perfect vacations and perfect kids and perfect houses and perfect meals in perfect restaurants. And suddenly the definition of fulfillment and success are measured by a false reality. Well, today on Leading the Way, Dr. Michael Yusef takes you right into the pages of Romans chapter 15 for a look at how the Bible describes a truly fulfilled life.

Listen with me. Today I want to show you from the life of the Apostle Paul that when we pursue your God-given dream, and let me assure you, God has a dream for every one of you. God has a vision for every one of you. But when you pursue that God-given dream in your life, you're going to overcome obstacles. You're going to defeat any enemy. You're going to meet every challenge.

And you're going to be victorious even in the worst of your circumstances. Romans 15, 14 to 33. He shows us in those few words the power of vision for life. He shows us how to have joy in fulfilling God's purpose for your life.

He shows us the motivation which can only help us not just persevere but thrive in life. Regardless of the circumstances, first of all, Paul shows us here that it is the pursuit of that dream. It is the pursuit of that vision.

It is the pursuit of God's purpose for your life. It's going to be, first of all, self-sacrificing. Secondly, it's going to be God glorifying. Thirdly, it's going to be forever dreaming.

You never stop dreaming. And finally, constantly kneeling. In verses 15 and 16, you can see that for true fulfillment in life, you're going to have to have self-sacrificing. Secondly, verses 17 and 19, it has to be God glorifying. Verses 20 to 21, forever dreaming. And finally, verses 30 to 33, constantly kneeling. Let's look at them in the details now, okay? Self-sacrificing is a true, true, true secret for fulfillment.

Some of you already said, what are you talking about? I mean, everything I learned in school, everything I hear in the media, everything I see in the movies, everything in our culture says that fulfillment is get it all and grab it all and keep it all. That's exactly the problems, the reason we have problems in our culture is that we're going right against the word of God. In the New Testament, every believer in Jesus Christ is a priest. You don't need to go to a priest for confession because every man and woman, boy and girl, who surrendered their life to Jesus Christ, the New Testament said, you are a priest. Can I get an amen? Question, what was the greatest joy in the fulfillment of a life in Old Testament priest? Offering sacrifices to God, right?

Today, we don't offer lambs or grains or stuff like that, no, no, no, no. In the New Testament, we, all the priests are offering themselves to God, amen? And because every believer is a priest in the New Testament, therefore, every believer in Jesus Christ has a sacred call on his and her life. And now whether you're a shopkeeper or a doctor or a preacher, whatever your vocation might be, you have a sacred call. Can I get an amen? Whatever your vocation is, God is calling you to offer sacrifices to him on a daily basis. Not just once a year or certain occasions, every day.

Hear me right, please. Scientists tell us that the way we perceive ourselves is going to impact and determine the way we live. When I perceive myself as a member of the royal family, I'm going to behave like it. If you perceive yourself as a child of the living God who's going to inherit the entire universe with Jesus, you're going to live like it. When you perceive yourself as a man of God and a woman of God, then the devil has no right to come into your life and harass you.

And when he does, you can kick him out in Jesus' name. When you perceive yourself as a priest who will delight himself in living up to the calling of constantly offering oneself as a sacrifice to the Lord, you will constantly offer your time and your talent, your treasure up to the Lord as a sacrifice. When you perceive yourself as a foreign diplomat representing your home country, which is heaven, you are going to be very anxious to represent your home country well. Now whether you know it or not, this is how God perceives you. You see, this is how he perceives you.

Don't worry about how people perceive you. This is how God perceives you. He perceives you as a priest, as a man, a woman, boy or girl with the holy calling on your life. And therefore, it is time for the army of the living God to see themselves as God sees them, not as they see themselves. In verses 15 and 16, Paul's priestly duty was to offer God as a sacrifice with thanksgiving.

All of the Gentiles whom God used Paul to bring to the kingdom of God who moved from hell to heaven, from darkness to light. And your priestly duty, I don't know what it is, your priestly duty may be that you're going to sacrifice some comfort zone things in your places in your life in witnessing for Christ in a hostile community. Your priestly duty may be to give sacrificially to the work of God. Your priestly duty may be to give a word of encouragement to everyone you meet. Your priestly duty may be serving your family. Your priestly duty may be helping others. Whatever your priestly duty may be, it is your offering of a sacrifice to the Lord.

That's the first thing. Fulfilled life is self-sacrifice life. Secondly, a fulfilled life, look at verses 17, 18 and 19, is God glorifying.

Paul said, therefore, once that I'm a priest offering sacrifices to God, serving him with all my heart, bringing the offering to the Lord which is the souls of those who have been saved. Secondly, he said, therefore, I glory in my financial net worth, no. I glory in my real estate holdings, no.

I glory in my degrees and my accomplishments, no. I glory in Christ Jesus. Beloved, Paul accomplished so much.

Third of the New Testament has his name, at least a third, if not more. But he doesn't glory in any of that. Instead, he said, God did it all.

Although he used me and for which I'm very grateful, but he did it all. Beloved, listen to me. God must always get all of the glory. It is okay to brag about Jesus.

It's okay to boast of the Lord. Don't miss what I'm going to tell you. When you do that, you're going to be helped over the pitfalls of life. Let me tell you, I know those pitfalls that I'm talking about. It's going to help you stop playing the martyr mentality. It's going to help you from constantly falling into self-pity.

Oh me, poor me, why is this happening to me? Had Paul learned not to brag on the Lord, he would have said the following. Now don't find it in your Bible, I'm making it up, okay? He would have said the following.

I know human nature because I'm one of them. Oh, let me tell you about my experience in Iconium. I was stoned in Iconium. Man, because I stood firm, I got stoned. The truth is, everywhere I go, I got stoned for Jesus. Not stoned in the way you think about it, young people. This is stone with stone. You know what I mean, stoned. You know, dear old Barnabas, he always managed to save his pretty face.

Every time there's trouble, Barnabas is gone. Oh, but not me, I stood firm. I wouldn't flinch. In fact, one stone knocked me down completely. It would have killed the average man, but not me. I'm Paul.

When I got up from being beaten by these stones, I found that all of my companions, they cut and run, and I stood alone. But that's not how Paul saw it, right? That's not how he saw it.

That's not how he perceived it in his life. He gave God all, how many? All of the glory. He gave God all, how many?

All of the credit. In Galatians chapter 6 verse 14, he said, may I never boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in Romans, he said, to be sure, to be sure, God accomplished a great deal through me, but only through his power that he gave me in order for signs and wonders and miracles to take place.

To be sure, it's the Holy Spirit who accomplished his purpose in my life, but it's only his power that enabled me to do this. Beloved, listen to me, I know today's many a preacher, they brag about all sorts of things. Some brag about the power of their positive thinking. God bless them. Some brag about their communication skills.

Some who brag about the fact that they have power in their tongue. Whatever they say, it happens. We need to get back on the mourner's bench and cry to God instead of bragging about all of our abilities. For a fulfilled life, it has to be self-sacrificing. For a fulfilled life, it has to be God glorifying. Thirdly, verses 20 to 29, is forever dreaming.

Listen to me, God has a dream for you. God has a vision for you. And if you don't know what it is, you better stay on your knees until he gives it to you. Because he does have one for you, for each one of you. And you say, no, no, no, he gives this to the big preachers and the other. No, no, no, he has one for each one of you. You are his child. If you're his child, he has a dream for you.

And the moment you stop dreaming for God, you have died before dying. I want you to imagine with me, just for a minute, there's a pilot flying an airliner from Atlanta, Georgia to New York. And this particular pilot, when he gets up to 30,000 feet, he decides in his mind, I guess, he's going to show the passengers a good time. He's going to show them some sights from the air.

And so he takes the PA system and announces, he said, we are going to see some magnificent sights instead of landing on time. You ask, well, how long is it going to take? Well, I don't know.

Really? What are you going to do when you run out of gas? We'll land. Where? Well, I don't know. The nearest airport, I guess. What will be your final destination?

I don't know. I want you to imagine the nightmare that that flight is. But, beloved, listen to me. The truth is there are so many people who live their lives that way, just like that pilot. They don't know where they're going, they don't care where they're going, and they don't know when they get there. They just drift in life. I pray to God, not a soul listening to me whether around the world or here in this place would be in that boat.

They go here, there, and everywhere, but in reality they're going nowhere fast. I want you to contrast this with the Apostle Paul. He had a clear vision. He had a dream.

He had a goal. God-given dream. God-given vision. God-given goal to accomplish in his life.

What was it? To preach the gospel where it's never been preached. That's the big goal.

Verse 24. His ultimate destination is Spain. You say, why Spain?

Because back then Spain was thought of as the edge of the world. That was it. In order to fulfill this vision, this dream that God gave him, he said, I'll first take the offerings from the Gentile churches to take it to the Jewish church in Jerusalem because they're in desperate need, and it's a sacrifice thanking the Jewish believers for giving us Jesus and redemption. And so he said, I'll take that offering from the Macedonians and the Corinthians and all the other churches, and I'm going to take it to Jerusalem, and then I'm going to buy a ticket.

That's not in your Bible. But I'm going to go on a trip and go to Rome, and we can fellowship together, and then you give me some financial help and help me along the way to Spain. That's the goal. That's the dream. That's the vision. I want you to listen carefully because some of you are going to say, well, wait a minute.

What happened? Well, from the book of Acts, you find out things did not work out that way. It was not exactly the way he anticipated for the dream to be fulfilled.

But it doesn't matter. Paul knew that God was calling him to go to Rome, and from Rome, he's going to go to Spain, but it didn't happen that way. Instead of buying a ticket and going on a voyage, he ended up being the guest of the government, a prisoner, because when he went to take the money to Jerusalem, some rowdy bunch of non-believers turned against him, and I want to kill him, and then when he stood before the king, he said, I appeal my case to Caesar, and the king said to Caesar, you shall go. So he ends up in Rome as a prisoner, not as a passenger, and even so, as a prisoner, the ship got wrecked, where he was floating on the driftwood in the Mediterranean for days on end, and then when they landed, he had a snake that bit him, a venomous snake.

Literally, the people there, the local people thought he's dead. But God saved him through it all and took him to Rome. He arrived in Rome.

Question. Did Paul make it to Spain? Did Paul be fulfilled his dream, the God-given dream that he gave him?

Did Paul achieve his vision for life? Actually, some people say yes, he did go to Spain. Other people say no.

We don't have it in the scripture, so we don't know. Historically, you can go either way. Question.

Does it really matter whether he went to Spain or not? No. Does it really matter?

No. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. When God gives you a vision for life and he has a vision for every one of you, when God gives you a dream and a purpose for living, when God directs you and says, this is the way I want you to go, accomplishing your dream is not the issue.

Are you with me? It's not the issue. Moses has a dream to go into the Promised Land, but he never made it there, and yet that was his dream. He never accomplished it. David had a dream to build a great, wonderful, fantastic temple for God, for the worship of God on the hill in Jerusalem. Did he see it?

No. He gave his entire financial net worth for the building of it. He drew the plans for it, but he never saw it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter whether you accomplish the dream or not. You and I must understand things from God's perspective. We get into trouble when we keep it from our perspective.

I do this all the time. I fail miserably, trust me, when I don't see things from God's perspective, from the eternal perspective. And from God's perspective, it doesn't matter if you accomplish your God-given dream or not. From God's perspective, the important issue is how faithful you've been in your work toward God-given vision. My beloved friend, please listen. God is not interested in the destination as much as he's interested in your faithfulness along the journey. Can I get an amen? How many people give up their God-given dreams, their God-given vision, the moment they face opposition? Oh, God might not be in it. How many people live with memories of shattered dreams?

Why? Because they give up halfway through the journey. They give up the moment the first obstacle raises its head. How many people are spending their lives wondering what would have been like had they not given up the pursuit of their God-given vision, dream, and life? Paul understood the vital importance of pursuing God's dream for life, the vital importance of faithfully pursuing God's vision, the vital importance of pursuing your Spain and your Spain and my Spain are all different.

Listen to me. The pursuing of your God-given dream in your life may endure hardships. It may encounter obstacles. You may have to cross high mountains. You may have to walk through the flood. The important thing is that you continue the journey. I am absolutely convinced that there's a desperate need in this 21st century Christianity among God's people today is having a vision for life, is having God's dream for life, is endeavoring to accomplish great things for God.

Beloved, listen to me. The faithful foot soldiers of the cross, they need to invade the world instead of allowing the world to invade the church. The faithful soldiers of the cross need to overcome Satan's strongholds instead of giving him the opportunity to create more strongholds. The faithful soldiers of the cross, they need to dream of turning the world upside down. But instead, we sit in our comfort zones and we get lulled to sleep and the devil loves it.

He really does. You must understand that God is interested in your purposing in your heart. God is interested in the process. God is interested in your faithfulness and the step that you take each day. God is interested in your commitment that you make. God is interested in the sacrifices that you offer to him.

God is interested in your pursuit of his given dream and vision and purpose for your life. Fulfillment can be found in a life that is self-sacrificing. Secondly, God glorifying. Thirdly, forever dreaming.

Finally, constantly kneeling. At verses 30 to 33. Verse 30. I urge you, brothers, sisters, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Holy Spirit, to join me in the struggle in praying to God for me. Notice how Paul's prayer requests are so specific.

If you go on, it says basically two things. He said that he will be delivered from the unbelievers in Jerusalem and secondly, that he will make it to Rome. And God answered both prayers. Because people were taking prayer seriously. Beloved, sometimes when I hear people talk about prayer, particularly in the media and even among Christians, it's just like good wishes. Sometimes, you know, these prayers are an excuse. Honestly, sometimes I don't understand when people talk about prayer. Paul said, join me in the struggle of prayer. Prayer, my beloved friends, real prayer is often agonizing. Real prayer is often groaning. Real prayer, sometimes it's like a childbirth. I've never been through it, but I'm told it's very painful. Real prayer, God said to Ezekiel standing in the gap.

Have you ever stood in a gap? Do you know how painful that is? Real prayer is spiritually straining. Real prayer is self-denying, self-sacrificing.

Now, my beloved friends, get serious. If you want to be truly fulfilled in life, get serious about self-sacrificing. Get serious about God glorifying. Get serious about forever dreaming.

And get serious about constantly straining and kneeling in prayer. A challenge from Dr. Michael Youssef to experience a journey of fulfillment coupled with vision and hope for life. This is Leading the Way. Do remember that if you missed any part of today's message or parts of the series, From Valley to Victory, you can catch up by listening online for free or with the Leading the Way app.

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