Deal With How You Feel pt. 1

Paul Sheppard: It's okay to be real, to be honest. It's okay to be authentic. I'm concerned that there are too many of us in the body of Christ who in our effort to be our ideal selves fail to realize that we must start by being our real selves.
Guest (Male): When we deny who we are, we delay who we can become. Hello and welcome to another great week on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Well, God doesn't want you to get into the habit of condemning yourself. He never asks you to dwell on your sin, only to confess it. And as you'll see today, the Lord invites you to be real about who and where you are right now so that he can take you where he wants you to go. Before we kick off today's message, let me remind you to visit pastorpaul.net where you can listen to any recent Destined for Victory message on demand including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's message, Deal with how you feel.
Paul Sheppard: Hebrews chapter 4 beginning with verse 12. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let him hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin. 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. I want to talk to you from the subject, Deal with how you feel. And I want to present this short series of messages in an effort to help us understand that it's okay to be real, that it 's okay to be honest. That it's okay to be authentic. I'm concerned that there are too many of us in the body of Christ who in our effort to be our ideal selves fail to realize that we must start by being our real selves. There are people who are so anxious to get to that ultimate destination of having all of their issues resolved and all of their weaknesses dealt with and all of their besetting sins conquered and and all of that until they would rather get into a pattern of being dishonest and living in a fantasy world of denial rather than to say, Lord, here's where I am, but I'm believing you that you can deal with me right here and that you can get me from here to where you want me to be. I want us to become comfortable with the fact that it is God who has begun a good work in us and it is God who has promised to bring that work to completion so that you're going to get where God wants to get you, but you don't need to become paranoid on your journey. Now, please understand me. I'm not suggesting that we ought to become complacent to the place where we don't heed the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit, where we don't understand that the word of God is working actively in our lives to show us where we are and who we are and to bring conviction upon our lives. I want you to simply realize though that that whole process is going to be going on in your life and it is in fact a journey. I want you to know that life is a trip. Life is a trip and of course you can take that two ways and frankly both of them are correct. Life is a trip in the sins in which you're probably thinking of it now, but it's also a trip in the sense that it is a journey. You are on a journey with Christ. And he has made some wonderful provisions for you which I want to talk a little bit about as I move into this message, but we've got to understand that you're not going to get where he's taking you overnight. It is a journey. It is a process. And I'm concerned that more and more of us in the body of Christ are willing to be inauthentic and thereby pass up the opportunity to do some real growing in our lives. We would rather pretend to be who we are not instead of being comfortable with the fact that although we're coming short at this point, although we have some major problems or issues right now, we serve a God who has us on a journey. If you have any question that your life is a trip, you need only think of the fact that God gave you his spirit because it is the spirit's job to take the word of God and to help you to walk through life processing its truth, applying it to your life and applying it to the areas that need to change. The Holy Spirit has been given to every single believer as a personal comforter. Jesus said in John 14 as he was preparing to leave this earth, he said to his disciples, I'm going away, but I won't leave you comfortless. He said, I'm going to give you another comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will be with you and in fact will be in you. And the Holy Spirit, that Greek concept of a paraclete is one who comes alongside to help us. The Holy Spirit has been given to you to help you as your tour guide through life. Now, I don't know if you're like me. Some of you are probably more adventurous than me, but if I'm in a foreign country wanting to see the sights, I don't want to just get a map and show up in a foreign country and try to find my way around. I want a tour guide. I need somebody who knows what I don't know, who has been there, who understands the landscape, who knows all about the points of interest and can give me details and and all of that. I will gladly pay you, but give me somebody who can tell me where I am and show me what I need to see and get me around safely. And the Holy Spirit has been given to all of us to get us from where we are to where God wants us to be. And so I want us to learn that we can trust God's process in our lives. And I want us to learn that in order to experience the things God has in store for you, you must be willing to be real with yourself. You've got to start with the real self before you can get to the ideal self. You got to start with where you really are. I've told you before that anyone who is trying to get to a destination and finally reaches out for help and calls and says, Listen, I'm trying to get to your house. Can you please I'm so lost. Can you please tell me how to get to your house? What's the first question you're going to ask? Where are you? I can't give you generic directions. I've got to know where you are cuz if you're coming from the east, there's one set of directions. If you're coming from the west, there's another. If you're coming from the north, there's another. If you're coming from the south, there's another. As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. The Holy Spirit is your personal guide to get you through life safely and successfully accomplishing the will of God. But in the process, you've got to stay close enough to him so that you are comfortable acknowledging where you really are. Some of us don't understand that God can handle where you are, that God already knows it and he's waiting for us to become aware enough and willing enough to say, Lord, here I am. Now, I want to establish three basic points in your mind. I want to establish first of all the point that God has a plan for our lives. Now, please don't take that as a cliché. Understand how wonderful a truth that really is. God is the one who began the good work in you and he has a plan for your life. Jesus said in John 10 10, There is a thief who's come to kill, steal and destroy, but that's not me. I have come that you might have life, that you might have it to the full.
Guest (Male): We're going to take a quick timeout, but don't go away just yet. We'll be right back with the rest of today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Here Destined for Victory, we've always been passionate about prayer and today we'd like to pray for you. If you have a prayer request, please share it with us. Just click contact in the top menu at our website, pastorpaul.net. And while you're there, you'll want to visit our online store where you'll find some great Christian resources to help you grow in your faith including books and video messages from Pastor Paul. You know, God loves and accepts you just as you are, but he doesn't want you to stay that way. More about that now in the second half of today's message, Deal with how you feel. It starts right now.
Paul Sheppard: God's not going to leave you in the state that you're in. You who are going through changes, you who are dealing with some major issues, you who are experiencing some great difficulties and looking at some big mountains in your life, please know that they don't undercut God's plan for your life. When God looks at your life, he takes all of that into account and he says, I still have a plan for you. Your mess ups, your background, your issues, your problems, your besetting sins, your weaknesses, don't throw God off. You have yet to shock him. God has a plan for your life. Jesus said that plan is that you would have life to the full. And notice that he didn't say, if you start from a certain point, if you have a certain background, if you don't have certain issues, then God can give your life to the full. No, it's a blanket promise. The thief has come to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus says, I've come that you, yes you might have life. And you might have it to the full. But Jesus is depicted in John 10 as a shepherd. And what has to happen is if the sheep are going to be safe and secure and get into green pastures, which is the shepherd's agenda for them, they've got to stay close enough to him. They've got to follow his lead. Some of us are like sheep who go astray because rather than focusing on the shepherd, we focus on ourselves. You take your eyes off of the shepherd and you focus on yourself. And some of you, the problem you're having in your life and the reason why you have become inauthentic and dishonest and living in denial is because you have focused too much on things other than the shepherd. Some of us are too introspective for our own good. Some of us are busy trying to assess, where am I in my life? How well am I doing? You're comparing yourself to other Christians. Seems like they're all further down the road like I'm the only one that's lagging behind. You got to understand when you get in that kind of introspection, you are bound to lose sight of the shepherd. And that's when you begin to go astray. And you know, sheep are not known for being brilliant. Which is why the Bible calls us sheep. Spiritually speaking, we can be rather dumb. Come on. Let's be honest with ourselves. And when you become focused on yourself and fixated on yourself and woe is me and I've got these problems and I've got these issues and I don't know how things are going to end up and you develop those ingrown eyeballs where you're always looking at yourself, always assessing yourself, always trying to figure things out yourself. You don't know it, but you're like a sheep who is grazing himself right away from the rest of the flock. And the next thing you know, you're way off somewhere in spiritual left field. When if you keep your eyes on the shepherd, he's leading you into green pastures. And we need to understand that God has a plan for our lives and his plan takes into account exactly who you are. Let me show that to you from this text. Look with me at Hebrews 4 and 12. It says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Verse 13, Nothing in all creation and that includes you is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. You know what that means? That means that God knows everything there is to know about you. Why would we be inauthentic, dishonest and in denial when God knows about you, not only everything you know about you, he knows things about you you don't even know about yourself. The Bible says your whole life is uncovered. Not just what you do. Notice how deep the word of God penetrates. It cuts between soul and spirit talking about your inner self. It divides. It goes down deep. It deals with the thoughts and the attitudes of your heart. God not only knows what you do, he knows why you do it and he knows how you feel while you're doing what you do. He knows all the things you're wrestling with. He knows all the things you try to gloss over and pretend like they're not there. He knows how inauthentic your smile is sometimes. He knows how inauthentic your praise the Lord and God bless you is sometimes. He knows how inauthentic you're being when you won't come before him openly and honestly and say, Lord, here I am. I'm not proud of it, but here I am. He knows what's really going on. Why would we pretend in the face of a God who knows the truth? See, he knows you exactly this text tells you. He knows exactly what's going on in your life. And the beautiful thing is he loves you anyhow. God who knows you best loves you most. Now, people who don't know you that well love you a little bit. And if they knew more, I'm not so sure. But he who knows you best knows you intimately, who has to reveal you to you sometimes through his spirit. He loves you more than anyone else. And so we've got to become comfortable with the fact that God has a plan for our lives and that plan takes into account exactly who we are. Now, when you read the earlier part of Hebrews 4, it illustrates this by talking about Old Testament Israel that God through Moses delivered them from bondage in Egypt, but that he had a time getting them into Canaan, the land of promise. And why was that? It was because of their inability to trust him and to obey him that the same one who got us out of bondage could get us into Canaan. And many of us, just like them, they spent 40 years in the wilderness when in a matter of weeks they could have been enjoying Canaan. They spent 40 years in the wilderness, 40 years murmuring, 40 years complaining, 40 years focusing on themselves. Moses, we're hungry. God gave them food. Moses, we're thirsty. God, sweeten the water. Moses, we're sick of your leadership. We want somebody else. One thing after another, they focused on everything except trusting God to get them where he destined them to be. And they spent 40 years going around the same mountain, hanging out in the wilderness. It's just like some of us. God's gotten us out of sin by his grace, but getting us into that life of promise, that life of rest described in Hebrews 4 is a Sabbath rest, a place where you can relax and enjoy God's promises in your life. And many of us fail to go there because we're focused on other things and we're too unwilling to be authentic, to confess when we need to confess, to own our stuff when we need to own it and give it to God. And the result is just like with Israel who died in the wilderness and God had to raise up their children and send them into the promised land. Many of us are missing God's choice blessings for our lives because we won't trust him with where we really are. God's got a plan for your life. Now, secondly I want you to understand that not only does God have a plan for our lives, but number two, God is passionate about our lives. Look with me at verse 15 of this text. It says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin. Oh, listen. You need to understand that this verse tells you that God deliberately sent his son to live a life among us so that in addition to dying for our sins, he could sympathize with our trouble and our weakness. Jesus drank a full cup of the human experience deliberately, purposefully so that he could relate to you when you pray, when you say, Lord, I'm in trouble, he could relate to what it means to feel like you're in trouble. Lord, I'm in pain. He could relate to what it feels like to be in pain. Lord, I'm experiencing temptation. He could relate to what it feels like to be tempted. He drank a full cup of the human experience. Jesus lived an authentic life and the fact that he was the God man, fully God and fully man, he both experienced humanity and he did so without sin so that you and I could have a hope that God can take you from where you are to where he's destined you to be. And so Jesus is our example. That's why he lived a real life among us. And what you need to understand is that Jesus experienced real emotions. He was an emotional person. See, some of you have a false idea of Jesus. First of all, you have a false idea of what he looked like. When you look at that little picture with that little pitiful man with the white robe, that was not Jesus. Please understand that was somebody's messed up idea of what Jesus looked like walking around in little white robe, looking all prissy and somewhat effeminate. And just kind of gliding around, just looking a little spacey, a little out there, a little other worldly. That was not Jesus. That wasn't him. First of all, he looked nothing like that. He was bronzed by the sun. He lived under the Middle Eastern sun. He was a carpenter by trade until 30 years of age when he launched his ministry. And carpenters in his day didn't drive to pick up to the lumberyard and have them load the wood onto the pickup. The man cut down trees, not with an electric saw. He took an ax and cut down trees. Jesus had muscles. Got to understand now get the right picture. He had muscles. He didn't have that long blond flowing hair. He wasn't born in Europe. He didn't look like he just came from the hairdresser. And he got this little weak, pitiful, effeminate looking man with a white robe. No, no. That wasn't him. Jesus lived a real life among real people. He was a friend of publicans and sinners. He didn't stand out and look like holier than thou. He fit in among publicans and sinners. He wasn't the one white robe among all the black robes.
Guest (Male): Consider these words from 1 Peter 2 21. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. Sooner or later we'll all believers find themselves in a boat they didn't choose facing a crisis they can't explain. If that sounds like you, we've got a great new resource that can help. Our latest booklet, A Miracle in the Midst of Madness based on Pastor Paul Shepherd's teaching from Matthew 14, will help you understand God's purpose for sending his people into the storm. It's not to destroy you, but to grow you. This is a must read for every believer in Christ and it's our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. That's A Miracle in the Midst of Madness. You can give by phone by calling 855 339 5500 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 945 38.
Paul Sheppard: 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 are perfect. It's full of imperfect people who learned to be honest. Read your Bible. It's full of honest, plain, what you see is what you get people.
Guest (Male): That's tomorrow in our continuing message, Deal with how you feel. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.