You've got to change your attitude about what you see.
Some of you all are looking at things and you're calling it what it is not. It is not something to harm you. It is not something to tear you down. It is God setting you up to be blessed. He was brash but bold, impulsive but loyal, flawed but fearless, and for a brief moment in time, he did something no one but Jesus had ever done.
Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory, where we feature the preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, Peter made his fair share of mistakes, but on this day, in the middle of a raging storm, he stepped out in faith. Coming your way today, a stirring testimony of what God can do when we keep our eyes on Him, and what happens when we don't. Before we get started with today's message, let me remind you to stop by PastorPaul.net when you get a chance. That's where you can hear any recent "Destined for Victory" message on demand, including today's. That's PastorPaul dot net.
Now let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's "Destined for Victory" message: "A Miracle in the Midst of Madness." You'd better learn that if you're going to live a quality life, there are times where you need to say, "All of y'all, get in the car and go somewhere." I don't know where to go.
Well, then take a walk. Go some. Get out of my sight. I want to look around and see nobody. I want to pan 360 degrees and see no one.
There comes that time when you need a loneliness. There's a difference between loneliness and a loneliness. Loneliness is an emotion. Aloneness is a state that can be very helpful. You got to learn how to take quiet retreats.
Get somewhere and spend some time, whether it's hours or days. I do both. I do hours, and sometimes I'll just go somewhere and I'll just take a whole quiet set of days where I don't want to do a lot of talking with a lot of people. There are times I need to just listen. I need to get quiet.
I need to be able to hear from God. I need to be able to regroup and rejuvenate. And you know when you had a good retreat, a good alone time, because you come back stronger. And we have to learn the value of that. You can't always be around people.
Find what rejuvenates you and go there. If it's a spot, Jesus obviously liked the mountainside. That's where he loved to commune with God.
Now I can't relate to him on that. I don't do mountains. I don't do mountains. I'm just not a mountain kind of guy. Every now and then I've been up there, of course, retreats and what have you.
But generally speaking, I don't do mountains because I'm a little preoccupied with the stuff that is with me in the mountains. That's why y'all who keep trying to get me to go with you on a camping trip, you are wasting your time, Pastor. Just come on, go with us. Oh, it is wonderful out there in nature. That's what I want to stay away from—is nature.
That's not good news to me. When you say, "Oh, there was a bear in the campground last night," that's not good news.
So I'm preoccupied out there. I don't do that well. If I'm going to hear from God, get me near some water. I love hearing the ocean. I love the water.
It speaks to me. I can spend hours not saying a word, but communing with God, listening to the water. Oh my goodness, it's where I go. But you find what works for you and work it. And Jesus was communing with his Father on a mountainside, and he didn't come into the fourth watch of the night because he wasn't finished yet.
Now, here's the lesson in this part of the story: learn from Jesus to not be subject to the tyranny of the urgent. Jesus knew they were out there panicking, but he chose: I'm not going to respond to their panic because they're all right. The father's gonna make sure they don't go down in this storm. He's not done with them yet. They're all right.
Doesn't feel great, but they're all right. I'm gonna do what's important. See, some of you all always cave into the tyranny of the urgent. Ringing phone, gotta answer. No, you don't.
That's why God invented voicemail. Come on, let me help you now. You don't have to answer the phone. Voicemail or get it.
Well, what if it's really an emergency? Then you can check it real quick, and unless they are dying, you can say, "Lord, be with them," and you stick with what's important. There are times when I don't cave in to what's urgent; I stick with what's important. That's what Jesus did. He knew they out there uncomfortable, but he was willing to leave people and let them be uncomfortable while he got rejuvenated.
He knew they weren't going to die, and you need to tell your relatives y'all not going to die.
So I don't have to come right now. Ah, you got it. I need you right now. I'm not playing. What is it?
Well, that's what I thought. I'll see you later. Click. Y'all got to learn to do it. You're being dictated to by spoiled people who are used to having you at their beck and call, and you got to help people understand.
No, no, I'm doing what's important, so we have to put on hold what you think is urgent. The third thing is that Jesus, when He does show up in the fourth watch, He's not late. You know why we say the Lord is late? The Lord is delayed because we don't have His schedule. God's never delayed.
When you go to the airport and you see the scheduled time of departure was one fifty-five, but then you see comments delayed, and then you see new time leaving at three forty. Oh my goodness! I got to sit here another hour and something because this flight is delayed. I know that's delayed because I knew when it was scheduled to leave. When I deal with God, I can't tell God you are delayed.
Cause he never told me when he was showing up in the first place, and God doesn't get delayed. Jesus wasn't late. He was uncomfortably on time. They were uncomfortable. He was on time.
They didn't like what they were going through, but he was on time. Listen, folk. We gotta grow up. We go through things we don't like it. You're saved, but you don't like it.
God, I wish you responded quicker. That's fine. You can say that. He lets you say that, but it doesn't make him move quicker.
So the people who raised us all taught us little simple things. I told you the generations before us they weren't as educated as us, but they had more wisdom. Got to understand the difference between wisdom and book knowledge. You got degrees. Your grandmama had sense.
Come on, somebody. My grandmother had since never did go to college—not one college anywhere in her life. That woman had since lived to be a hundred, sitting up ninety years old, eating sweet potato pie. My father would say, "Mama, you know you had no business eating that." She looked up, say, "It's bothering you? It's not bothering me.
You don't want frustrated over this pie. I'm enjoying this pie." As soon as you get out this room, I'ma continue enjoying this pie. What do you want? Had plenty sense. Don't need degrees to have sense.
My grandmother used to say, "Boy, I'm coming back from where you going? You think you know some? You on your way? You don't know what's up ahead of you. I know, 'cause I passed it on my way back down.
And those folks used to say little simple things that you got to learn to take with you." And one of the things they said is he may not come when you want him, but he's always on time. They could have helped me with this point. We call it late because we live in a technology age where you get everything quick. Y'all know the days when you couldn't get it quick. You know the days when you were going to somebody's house, they were going to actually cook because it was the only way you were going to have a meal.
They had to cook it now. There's all kinds of things, all kinds of options. Just throw it in the microwave, hit the button, walk away. Ooh, girl, I can't talk. I'm cooking.
No, you not. You button pushing. I can't talk today. This is my wash day. I'm washing clothes.
No, you not. Machines washing clothes. You took a load of clothes, put it in a machine, dumped in a little detergent, closed the lid, pushed the button, walked away. I'm a, I'm, I'm washing today. When the machine stopped, you didn't hear any more noise.
You walked on, still on the phone. I don't know. I could, all right, because I'm washing. I got to dry these clothes now. You don't have to dry the clothes.
You're going to take about one machine. You're gonna shake them a little bit. You're gonna put them in another machine, throw in a little fabric softener, something like that. Close the lid, push a button, walk away. Your grandmother, when she said she was washing clothes, she was washing clothes.
I saw my grandmother's little thing. It had these two rollers, and the thing would go between. Come on, some of y'all, and she would crank it, and it would go between there. When it came to drying, they would put it up on a line, let the wind blowing on it. Even if you grew up in the hood, sometimes they'd have a co-op.
They'd string it across the street. Pull my clothes over here, Mary. Mary, pull my clothes over here. It's a different day. Technology is wonderful.
Thank God for iPhones and iPads and all that. I'm preaching from my iPad right now. Technology can be a blessing, but it can be a curse if you think God is as concerned about your schedule as you are. Because God said, "I'm concerned about me teaching you what you need to know for the rest of your life." So I'm not going to show up at your beck and call. Because some lessons you learn while you're waiting.
Sometimes you learn that it's not going to kill me to wait. It's not going to kill me. In fact, it'll grow me up. It'll teach me. There are lessons you learn when you wait on the Lord.
And so Jesus was not delayed. They just didn't have His schedule. But sometime after 3 a.m. He goes to them, which means they've been in the storm for seven, eight, nine hours, at least seven hours, somewhere between seven and 12 hours. These folks are rowing, paddling, panicking, but the Lord knows they're going to be all right.
I'm not finished with them yet. They're going to make it through. I'm going to do what's important. I'm going to keep praying, and when he's done praying, he's ready now to go.
Now they have the only boat, so he's got to go see about. And so he does what he can do. If he made the water, he can walk on it. Don't go away. The second half of today's Destined for Victory message is coming right up.
We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help us keep this media ministry going. You've always been the lifeblood of this ministry, and we can't thank you enough. If you'd like to join us in our mission to preach timeless truth for a victorious life, please consider making a safe and secure donation at our website, PastorPaul.net, or give us a call at eight five five three three nine five five zero zero. Once again, eight five five three three nine five five zero zero.
Well, some people may ask, "How can you believe in God?" But the real question is, "How can you believe in anything else?" Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's message: a miracle in the midst of madness. At the end of the day, you have to decide: Do you believe God or don't you? I don't have a problem believing God. People don't back me off of God. I thought you were intelligent.
I am. Then, how can you believe in God? And my response is, how could I not? I live in an orderly universe, and you want me to believe it's intelligent to think nobody ordered it. I respectfully disagree.
I'm going to sound a little nicer than a scripture I could quote to you, because the scriptures were written in a day where they weren't worried about your feelings, and so the scriptures say, "A fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." I'm not going to call you that because I'm trying to win you to Christ. But if you happen across it, that is what the Bible said. Who have said it's hard? It makes no sense to look up in a starry sky, and an ordered universe, and to think that nobody bigger than you and I is responsible for that. How do living organisms come out of a bang?
That's not possible. Order doesn't come out of disorder. Just look at your house. The only way it gets ordered is somebody has to order it.
So you can't back me off and call me unintelligent because I'm a man of faith. I believe in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. To me, that makes much more sense than in the beginning, bang, and after billions of years, stuff started crawling out of the dust. First of all, my intelligence makes me say, well, where did the dust come from?
So you just can't back me off. I'm sorry. People have tried ever since I went to University of Pennsylvania back in the '70s. I had a professor who was determined. He was going to be a preacher, and he decided he really didn't have faith in Christ.
And so, since he was well educated in religious studies, he decided his mission was to turn people away from faith. And he was my first religion professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and he tried his best to wreck my faith, showed me every little reason why I shouldn't believe. And when he got through, I said, "My man, I want to let you know you can't wreck my faith. There are many things I don't understand. I have a whole lot of mysteries.
I have a whole lot of questions. I don't pretend to know everything, but I know that I know what I know. I know that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I know that that God wrapped Himself up in flesh, came into the world through the womb of a virgin named Mary, lived a sinless life, died a substitute. Resurrectionary death was raised a bodily resurrection, ascended back to heaven.
He sits at the right hand of the Father as my intercessor, and one day I'm going to spend eternity with Him.
Now you work out all the rest, but I know that much. And so you just can't back me off.
So I have no problem with Jesus walking on the water.
Well, I just don't understand that. Fine, you can believe He swam out there to them. I believe what the book says. He walked on the water. He created.
Now this is a storm, waves going up. Imagine now what they see approaching. This man going up as the waves go up. There he is coming. Imagine how they felt.
So the Bible tells us here they're already afraid because they're in this storm, and now they look out and here comes Jesus on the waves. And you know it's Mister. You know how it is when it's a storm. It's misty and all that. They're out there in the Sea of Galilee, and they look out and see.
And the Bible says they become more afraid because it's bad enough we're in a storm.
Now here come a ghost to mess with us. And I love Jesus. He said, "No, no, be of good cheer. Take courage. It's me.
Don't be afraid. God will calm your fears if you just let Him." He'd tell you, "I know you're feeling bad. I know you're you're not sure what's going on here, but don't worry about it. I'm with you." That's what he was saying. This is no ghost.
A ghost is something they thought that would come out there to harm them, some being that would come to haunt them or harm them or bring further destruction. Jesus said, "What you think has come to harm you is really just me setting you up for a miracle. You got to learn to see past what you have been scared of." And you got to learn to take courage. Jesus said, "Take courage. Be of good cheer." It means that the onus is on you.
You've got to change your attitude about what you see.
Some of you all are looking at things and you're calling it what it is not. It is not a ghost. It is not something to harm you. It is not something to tear you down. It is God setting you up to be blessed.
And you have to learn to call it what it is, not what it makes you feel like. He said, "Take courage.
Sometimes you got to take courage. You got to wrestle courage into your life. You got to talk to yourself. Take courage, my soul." One song said, "And let us journey on, though the night is long and I am far from home." You got to speak to yourself and tell yourself, "We're gonna make it through this. God's coming to our rescue." And I love Peter.
I know we pick on Peter a lot. But man, this is one of those times I think Peter came through, because Peter said, after hearing Jesus' words, he said, "Lord, if it's you, tell you what? I don't want to be the follower of a miracle worker, and I don't get to participate in miracles.
So if it's you, it's cool that you're out there walking on the waves, but I want to participate with you." He says, "So if it's you, bid me to come." Now he was smart enough to wait to get a word. He didn't just say, "Hey, Jesus out there, I'm going out there with him." Because if he had done that, if he had jumped overboard, you'd have heard a splash. He said, "Bid me to come. I need permission. You're in a miracle.
You're experiencing a miracle. You are a miracle.
Now I need you to authorize me to join you in the miracle." And the Lord said, "Come." In other words, Jesus was applauding that faith. See the other folks sitting in the boat, and you know there's something about people—they don't want to walk on the water, but they sure will look at you, and comment on you, and criticize you, and tweet about you, and Facebook about you. That fool out there on the water, but you got to understand— but they're not experiencing a miracle. You are. You got a word from Jesus.
You got out of that boat. I'm sick of y'all in this boat, sitting in here pontificating about storms and walking on the water and what you can and can't do. He said, "I want to go experience something." Somebody here ought to say, "I'm ready to experience more of God than I've ever experienced before." I don't want to believe something that I don't see God manifest in my life, so I'm going to put myself in a position where the Lord can give me a miraculous word and let me experience His power. He got that word, and he went out there. And sure enough, Peter's up and down on the waves, and he was doing good until he stopped and started looking.
Text says he looked at the wind. He saw that mist blowing past him. He saw the waves being tossed around him, even though he was walking on them. He began to think. He shifted his focus from the power of God to the fear of what he saw.
That is why, brothers and sisters, we are called to walk by faith, not by sight. If you are going to experience a miracle, you got to quit trying to figure it out and say, "Lord, I am just going to watch you do what you are doing." And as long as he had his eyes on God, he was experiencing miracles. As soon as he put his eyes on the wind, the Bible says he started to sink. But I love God, and I told you earlier in the message, God's not mad at you. Jesus didn't come stand over him while he's sinking, say, "See, you ought to be ashamed of yourself." See that I told you to come, which means you had the power to come.
Now there you go, starting looking around.
Now look at your gulping water and look at. Get that junk out your mind. That's not God's response when you sink, when you fail, when you get your mind on the wrong thing. God's not standing over you fussing. The text said immediately.
Jesus reached out his hand and pulled that servant to him. Why? Because for a while you experienced me in my power, and now you're going to experience me in my ability to save you. And rescue you when you get yourself into a predicament. I'm here to tell you, the Lord will teach you all kinds of ways.
And He pulled that man out of the water and put him in the boat. And when Jesus got in the boat with him, immediately the winds died down. And all the disciples, even the ones sitting there Facebooking in the boat, they realized this man that we serve is like nobody else. As soon as he got in the boat, the storm quit, because God was finished using it for His purpose. Your storm is going to die.
God's just using it for His purpose. Your storm is going to pass over. And when it did, they immediately began to worship Him and declare, "Truly, you are the Son of God." I'm here to tell you, you're going to make it to the other side. And when you do, you're going to be a worshiper like never before. You're going to understand that our God is great, and there is no one else like Him.
For now, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. For now, we know in part, but then we shall know even as we are known.
Well, today we have a very special gift to share with everyone that supports the ministry, and we think will be a great addition to the message you've heard. To tell us all about it, here's Pastor Paul's daughter and our executive director, Alicia Greer. I really love reading the booklets each month because I really find them to be edifying and timely, and I believe many of you do as well. And this month, the booklet is based on a story that I really find fascinating in the Bible, and not just a story, but a story progression, because Pastor Paul bases this teaching on the progression of. The feeding of the five thousand, going into Jesus walking on the water, and that is a story progression that I have found really fascinating in my walk.
When I read that section of scripture, especially what happens right after the feeding of the five thousand, and I've read it in different gospel accounts, man, it's really this theme of Jesus is doing miracles, and then there's testing miracles and testing, and I always can. Glean so much when I read that with the Holy Spirit in Scripture, and where my dad takes this series, it really highlights a similar point about how Jesus kind of tests our maturity after these amazing breakthroughs. But he goes somewhere so different, and I just love how different teachers of the Word like can dig into Scripture and find different revelation for us to glean from.
So this month. I hope you will enjoy the booklet that we're offering. It's called "A Miracle in the Midst of Madness," and I believe that you will be blessed. Thank you so much for all of your support. We're so grateful to you.
Thanks, Alicia. Again, the book that is called "A Miracle in the Midst of Madness," and it's our thank you gift this month. When you make a generous donation to Destin for Victory, you can give by phone by calling eight five five three three nine five five zero zero. That's eight five. Five five three three nine fifty five hundred, or visit PastorPaul dot net to make that safe and secure donation online.
You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box seventeen sixty seven Fremont, California nine four five three eight. Christianity is not about man reaching out; it's about God reaching down and saying, "You are lost, and you are hopelessly lost unless I rescue you." And God, through Christ, came to establish a relationship with us, rescue us, and bring us to Himself. That's next time in our message, Lessons from the Vine. Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. You are destined for victory.
