Living by the J.O.Y. Principle pt. 4 (cont'd)

Paul Sheppard: We don't get to vote on righteousness. Righteousness is what God says it is. This is not Burger King. You don't get to do it your way. You don't get to customize Christianity.
Guest (Male): Your way might taste a little bit better, but God's way is better for you. Hello and welcome to another great day here on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Well, for the past week or so, you've been learning all about what Pastor Paul calls the JOY principle: Jesus first, others second, yourself last. It's not the way we would choose to do it, but when we do, the Lord brings us to a level of joy that could not otherwise be reached. If you've missed any of the messages along the way, stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. You can also subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Now, let's listen to Pastor Paul as he shares the final installment of his Destined for Victory message, "Living by the JOY Principle."
Paul Sheppard: You don't get to customize Christianity. This is not a smorgasbord. You can't go around—you know how some of you eat at these buffet places? Because you get to pick and choose exactly what you want. You go in, you pay your money, and then you go to the various stations. You get what you want, and you leave alone what you don't want. Some people, that's the way they want to treat Christianity. Let me tell you something: you can't do that with the word of God. You can't grab the things you like and then leave off the things you don't. You've got to eat the whole thing. There are parts of the Bible that make you rejoice, and there are parts that make you pray. Come on, somebody. He said some of them sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to live like pagans, to do any old thing they want and to try to force it on God. But God will not accept that. Then verse 8, he says, we should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and one day 23,000 of them were judged of the Lord because God has a plan for our sexual life. It will never be changed, no matter what laws they pass or don't pass. I don't care if they have common law. Well, now it's actually common law marriage, so you can live with someone, and you can actually get benefits and not be married. God said your shacking is sin. It's fornication. Well, what's a piece of paper? Something you ought to have because that's God's plan. Doesn't matter how much you watch "Desperate Housewives," adultery will always be sin. They'll dress it up and make it look good on TV, but it's still sin. Homosexuality is still sin. Not God's plan for our sexual life. We don't get to call the shots; it's in here. It beat you to the planet. He said they got into sexual immorality, and they were judged as a result. Then verse 9, we should not test the Lord as some of them did. What does that mean? That means that they got into grumbling, murmuring, and complaining. Here God provided for them supernaturally. He has brought them out, and they are still murmuring. Let me tell you something. God's done too much for every one of us in here for us to complain as much as some of us do. He's done too much. He's been too good. God has blessed you in ways that are unbelievable, and it is sinful that we still murmur and complain against the goodness of the Lord. We are looking at what we don't have yet, looking at the things in our lives we don't like, still wanting God to do more and more and more. He's done so much for you that if he never did another thing, you could spend the rest of your life praising him for what he already did. You know God's been good to you. You know he's opened doors for you. You know God has made ways for you. God has answered prayer. God has met your need. God has brought you into a family. God has given you people to love you and take care of you. God has done all kinds of things in your life. Those are the blessings you're aware of. Let me tell you something. There's a bunch of blessings you're not even aware of. There was an accident you didn't know was going to happen, but God said not so. Praise him for blessings that you know about and the ones you don't know about, because he's been good to you. He has blessed you in so many ways, and it's time for us to be people who have an attitude of gratitude. It's time for us to be people who use this negative example and say, God, I will not be the recipient of your love and grace and power and provisions and spend my life complaining about what you haven't done yet, prayers you haven't answered yet, or things that you haven't corrected that I want you to deal with. I'm going to spend my life thanking you and praising you for what you've already done and believing you for what you will do. The Bible says they tested God with their murmuring, with their grumbling, with their constantly pointing out what is not yet. It says they offended God, and we are not to test the Lord. He says don't grumble because some of them were killed by the destroying angel. I want to let you know that all of this has to do with the need to dethrone self. We've got to take self off of the throne. We've got to get self out of the driver's seat because your flesh will never point you in the direction of the will of God. Paul said in Romans 8 that your flesh is enmity against God and always will be. You have to crucify the flesh. You have to dethrone it. You have to pull a coup d'état. That means like when you see some country where a minority group gets together and overthrows the government, and they run the king or the president out of the country, and he's got to go somewhere in exile because they just took over with force. You've got to let the Holy Spirit lead a coup d'état in your life against your flesh and overthrow the works of the flesh and say, "No, Jesus is enthroned here. To God be the glory in my life. I will be sanctified, set apart for his use." Self has got to get off the throne. Do you know that self is a bigger enemy than the devil? A lot of us are worried about the devil, always preoccupied with the devil, always fixated with the devil. Do you see the devil every time you turn around? Listen, spiritual warfare is real, but some of us just need to stop it. The devil's not picking on you nearly as much as you think he is. "I tell you the devil is so busy." Yeah, he's busy, but not doing all the stuff you've given him credit for. You ever run into these folk? Not you, but somebody on your row. These people see the devil every time they turn around. "I couldn't get to work. The devil got in my car; it wouldn't even start." The devil didn't get in your car; you didn't change your oil. Demons have better things to do than mess up your car. Some folk are just too devil fixated. Listen, we do have to be sober and vigilant. We have to be aware of what the enemy really is doing, but he's a defeated foe. When you walk in who you are in Christ, you don't have to worry that much about him. The Bible says be sober, be vigilant because he is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But when you know who you are and whose you are, the next verse says whom resist steadfast in the faith. When you know who you are, and the devil comes roaring in your life, comes roaring and bounding towards you, you say, "Stop right there. Don't come another step. Now get out of here." When you know who you are and you walk in the power of God, you don't have to worry that much about him. You want to be sober, you want to be alert, you want to see his attacks and the traps he lays for you, but you don't have to be preoccupied because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. But here's your real challenge. Your real challenge is the enemy in me. Your flesh is a bigger challenge than the devil will ever be because you can rebuke the devil, but you can't rebuke you. You have to kill you. If you rebuke your flesh, it'll rebuke you back. Come on, your flesh will tell you, "I don't know who you're talking to." That self-will, that stubbornness, that determination to have my way—my way or the highway. You've got to crucify the flesh. That's what he's saying here. You've got to follow the example. You've got to see that the flesh will destroy God's work in your life. You've got to get flesh off of the throne. Then if you want to be sanctified, not only decide to win and discipline your mind and body and dethrone self, but number four, deal with temptation correctly. Look at what he says, verse 12: "So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall." Paul says the most dangerous situation to be in is when you are assured of your stability, when you kind of have it on cruise control. He says when you think you're standing, that's when you want to watch out. Some of us grew up—if you've been in California all your life, you won't fully understand this the way someone who has grown up in places where you had an icy and snowy season, or if you've been up in the mountains during the winter and you've run into snow and ice. Then you'll know. There were times when coming out of the house after there'd been precipitation on the East Coast, where there wasn't a clear sheet of ice on the pavement, but you knew there'd been precipitation. If you came bounding out of the house, walking like you normally walk, just come out, "Alright, I'm going to school, see y'all later," you have had the experience of falling in a way that not only is humiliating, but it hurts. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about where your foot goes out from under you. The rest of your body follows it. You land on one side of your hip, a bone you didn't even know was there. You hear it crunch. Your elbow hits the pavement, and you are in serious trouble. If somebody saw you, you feel foolish. It didn't happen because you don't know how to walk, but because you weren't careful. The kind of fall that Paul is alerting us to here is not the product of immaturity. It's the product of carelessness. When a baby's learning to walk, they're subject to fall because they haven't got it down yet. They're just learning. They've been used to being carried. They showed up just chilling out in the womb. Then they came out, and folk have been grabbing them ever since, taking them everywhere they go. When you finally sit them down and start getting them to walk, it's going to take a little while. That's the product of immaturity. They're just learning how to do it. You know how babies do; they just stand there. They're just impressed that they're standing up. They stand there wobbling, and they look at you and grin. You've got to give them time. They've got to get this together. After a while, you say, "Come on, come on." They are looking at you and they are smiling, but they can't get it together yet. Finally, they take that first step of faith, and they try to take another one. You remember those days, some of you have those babies in that season right now. They'll take a step or two and they'll fall. You don't panic. It's just part of it. Make sure they're on something they can fall on without hurting themselves. It's going to be a while. But after a while, they'll be walking everywhere. You wish for the days when they couldn't walk. Now you've got to guard your whole house. You've got to take everything that was low and put it up high. But when you're grown and have been walking for years, the challenge is being careful because it is your self-assuredness that will set you up. When we get sure of ourselves, we don't pray as much. We don't read the word as much. We don't depend on God as much. We don't check in as much with others who can keep you focused and steadfast in what God's calling you to do. That's when you have to be careful. He says take heed that you don't fall. Then he tells us something. Look at verse 13: "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." Temptation has a way of seizing you. You ever be walking with God, and temptation—it can be a person, place, thing, priority, focus, anything—can tempt you away from the will of God? Anything, as you are on the road going where God's taking you, can be a billboard that says, "Next exit. Come on over here." No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. Look at the next sentence: "And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." This is a marvelous verse. You know why? Because God didn't do the tempting in the first place. James makes it clear in James chapter 1 that we're tempted when we're drawn away of our own lust. It's that flesh. That flesh wants to do things God says no to. That flesh wants to get you involved in people, places, things, and priorities that God says no to. It is that flesh that is drawn away and enticed. But look at what God says as to how to deal with it. God has set us up to win, not to lose. Oh, I love the Lord. I love the fact that he has positioned us for victory. God's not in heaven just saying, "Well, alright, now let's see what you're going to do." God says, "No, no, no. I saved you for you to win. And here is my plan for your victory. Now when temptation comes, when you're drawn away of your own lust and enticed," he says, "Here's what you do. "Understand that first of all, I would have never let that temptation come your way except it had to go through me. I didn't create the temptation, but I have to approve it." God says it has to come by me because I have to look at it and make sure there is a way out. God says, "I won't let you be tempted above that which you can bear, but I will make sure that there is a way out of it." So what you have to learn to do is to walk carefully before God, not take too much for granted, and trust God every day. When temptation comes—and temptation's going to come in everybody's life—and your temptations, remember I always tell you, they are custom-made. Custom-made. The enemy of your soul knows you. The demons that have followed your life know you well. So that's why they're not going to interact with you often, but when they do, they try to make it count because they know you, and they have customized temptation to fit the specificity of your taste. If temptation comes and it doesn't do a thing for you, the devil didn't send that. I give the illustration of a person. If somebody comes hitting on you, trying to get you into an illicit relationship, and they do nothing for you, the devil didn't send them. The devil won't send you somebody and you look at them and say, "Oh, please. No, you didn't push up on me. No, you are not up in my face. I walked in here to grab a sandwich and you're trying to hit on me instead of taking my order? I know you'd better take my order and shut up." The devil didn't send them. That's just somebody taking a shot. You'll know if it was the devil because you have to pray. Come on. You know it was the devil. Person, place, thing, priority, whatever it is. If temptation comes your way and you say, "Oh, no. Oh. Alright, wait a minute. Let me get my mind together. Alright, boy, hold on. Oh, Lord. Come on now, I need you right now. I need some help, Lord. I'm not playing. You've got to show up right now." But remember what this passage says. It'll bless you through your life. God is faithful. God doesn't desert you in your moment of temptation. God doesn't pull away. That's when he stands ready. The Bible says he is a present help in trouble. When you're in trouble, where's God? He's right there, because he's a present help. If you'll just find his escape route—now you've got to learn to do this—you don't sightsee in temptation's neighborhood. You don't go to temptation mall and sightsee. Window shop in temptation mall. "I'm not going to buy anything. I'm just looking." These Christians, they try to act like they're just praying about things and staying in touch with the world. All they're doing is being sucked in. Sitting up watching any old crazy thing on TV, saying, "I'm just trying to stay up with what's going on in the world. I tell you, this world is something else." No, you're playing games with yourself. Sitting up watching stuff, looking at any old thing, saying, "I tell you, isn't the devil busy, huh? Mmm." You've got to learn to say, "God, you are so faithful to me. You've begun such a good work in me. And you're so faithful that you make sure I can get out of whatever trap the enemy tries to set for me. Lord, I'm going to sanctify my life. I'm going to be set apart that you might cleanse me and that I might be available for your special purposes." Determine that as you live your life, Jesus will be glorified, others will be edified, and you will be sanctified.
Guest (Male): Jesus first, others second, yourself last. That's the JOY principle in a nutshell. In many ways, it's the key to Christian living. Before we close out our time today, executive director Alicia Greer has a few words to share with you during this critical time in the ministry. Alicia?
Alicia Greer: Thank you to all of our faithful listeners and supporters for tuning in and being blessed by these teachings. We're so encouraged and grateful for your continued partnership with this ministry. Your generosity has set us up well heading into what are typically our more challenging summer months. One question I often get is, how can I support the ministry? We've made it easier to find the answer. We've updated our donate page at pastorpaul.net/donate with all the ways you can contribute and partner with what God is doing here. We're excited about these offerings and hope you'll take a look. Thank you again for your dedication to these teachings. I remain hopeful and confident that God has great things in store for Destined for Victory in the days ahead.
Guest (Male): Well, as you heard Alicia say just now, we are committed to continuing to bring timeless truth for a victorious life through Pastor Paul's teaching for many years to come. But the truth of the matter is we can't do that without your help. And your help is especially needed now. When you give today, we have a great resource to send you as our way of saying thank you. It's our latest booklet, "More Than Conquerors." The Christian life is a victorious life, and it doesn't happen by accident. It's your birthright, already purchased by Jesus Christ at the highest price in history. And yet so many believers live in defeat, selling their birthright for things worth far less. In "More Than Conquerors," Pastor Paul Sheppard uses the unlikely story of Gideon to outline the path from defeat to victory. If you want to understand how to take on a victor's identity and tear down the idols competing for your heart, you'll want to reserve your copy of this outstanding resource. It's called "More Than Conquerors," and it's yours this month as our thanks for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 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.
Paul Sheppard: The only way to experience real life in Christ is what the old saints called surrender to the will of God. You've got to give up your personal pursuits so that the will of God can be expressed through your living. And let me tell you something, until the fight is won by the Holy Spirit, you lose. See, this is one of those paradoxes: he who would love his life really needs to hate it.
Guest (Male): Well, if you want to live for God, you have to die to self. Join us next time for our Destined for Victory message, "Death Before Life." Until then, though, remember: he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.