Being Holy, Being Human pt. 1

Paul Sheppard: If you want to know what it looks like to live a life that pleases God and to do His will, look at Jesus, for He came for the express purpose of doing the will of God, of pleasing His heavenly Father, and of fulfilling His divine call and purpose.
Host (Male): If you want to know what Jesus would do, study what Jesus did. Hello and welcome to another great day here on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Whether you're listening on radio, online, or on our free Destined for Victory mobile app, thanks for making us part of your day. You know, Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. Don't let the math fool you. He was all God and all man all at once. Today, we continue studying some of the life issues we can learn from Jesus. Settle in for what promises to be an eye-opening message, one filled with practical application for you and for all of us. Remember to stop by pastorpaul.net to listen to any recent message on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. Or you can subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy podcasts. Now, let's listen to our Destined for Victory message, "Being Holy, Being Human."
Paul Sheppard: Luke the second chapter beginning with verse 41. If you have it, say, "I've got it." Every year, his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, speaking of Jesus. When he was 12 years old, they went up to the feast according to the custom. After the feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days, they found him in the temple courts sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them, but his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Jesus is our example in every aspect of living. I've said that on a number of occasions in the past, but it bears repeating now. If you want to know what life ought to look like, look at Jesus. Jesus is a model, is an example, is the example for our living. If you want to know what it looks like to live a life that pleases God and to do His will, look at Jesus, for He came for the express purpose of doing the will of God, of pleasing His heavenly Father, and of fulfilling His divine call and purpose. We know that He fulfilled that call. He said on the cross, "It is finished." The work that He came to do in redemption was done. When He rose from the dead three days later, He said, "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." He was, if you want to use the term successful, Jesus was successful in a way no one had ever been in history before then. The problem very often with us is that we have a faulty definition for success. But success, to put it very simply, is discovering the will of God and doing it. Whatever God has called you to do, if you do it in a way that pleases Him, you have been successful. In our culture, we often measure success by things like the size of a financial portfolio, or whatever it may be, an address, or maybe a career. But success is doing the will of God, and Jesus is our example in that. What I want to call your attention to, though, is the fact that Jesus got the will of God done in a very limited span of time. Jesus lived 33 years on this earth. He was out of here. He never hit a midlife crisis. He came, he did the will of God, and he was gone. And what that tells you is you can leave your footprints in the sands of time. You can get the will of God done in your lifetime. It is possible to leave this earth having accomplished what God sent you to earth to do. The other thing it reminds you of is the brevity of life. Now, the Father was done with Him. He didn't die a natural death a second time after His death on the cross. The Father raised Him up, and from there He ascended back to heaven. But the reality is He only lived 33 years on earth. He lives forever in heaven to intercede for us, but He only lived 33 years on earth. And that tells you that it doesn't take a long time to get the will of God. Good news for us because we don't necessarily have a long time to live. You don't know when you're going to check out of here. Even if you get to live to 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years old, when you compare it to eternity, you'll be out of here in a moment of time. And so I want you to understand that because life is short and Jesus lived a short but completely purpose-driven life, we need to look at His life and find out how it is that we too can be successful in the true biblical sense. And I want to suggest to you that one of the things we're going to learn from the life of Jesus that was a key to His pleasing the Father and fulfilling His divine call and purpose is that Jesus lived a balanced life. And we see that in Luke chapter 2, verse 52, where we're told that Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and men. I want to talk to you about the fact that sometimes in the church, we are guilty of talking only about spiritual development as if that is the only key to success. But I want to suggest to you that if we would really be successful, we need to follow Jesus' example. And in following Jesus' example, we can know from this verse and from everything we learn about Jesus in the Gospels that He did not only focus on spiritual development. Now, this is going to be a revelation really for some of us because sometimes in the church, we think life is all about the spiritual connection between us and God through Jesus Christ. Now, let me affirm that is the most important thing. That is to be the center of your life. In fact, life doesn't begin until you know Christ. The Bible says he that has the Son of God has life. He that does not have the Son of God doesn't yet have life. You have existence and because of God's grace and mercy, you have the opportunity to open your heart and receive Christ into your heart. But until that happens, you're existing physically, but you're spiritually disconnected from God the Father. And so life truly begins when Christ comes in, and that is the most important thing. In fact, if you could only get one area of your life straight, it ought to be the spiritual area, because once you know Jesus, you are set for eternity. You can die the next moment, and you'll go into the presence of God and there you'll enjoy Him for all eternity. But if we truly want to follow Jesus' example, I repeat, we must realize that He wasn't all spiritual. Jesus wasn't so heavenly minded He was no earthly good. In fact, Jesus, we're told, purposely increased in other areas of His life in addition to His spiritual development. We are often guilty of ignoring or neglecting the other dimensions of our humanity. Have you ever met Christians, not certainly you, but people I know, who are all spiritual, all spooky? Everything gets run through a spiritual filter. They pray about stuff they just ought to do. Are you getting a picture of some folk? "Well, I have to pray about it." No, you don't. Clean your house! Get your car fixed! You're on the side of the road, you don't have to pray, call AAA! There's some comical ways in which it happens, and you and I both know there are also some not so funny ways in which it happens, because you probably know some people like I do who are praying when they ought to be raising their kids. People who are reading their Bible when they ought to be with their spouse. People who are dealing in spiritual things and neglecting some very important human things.
Host (Male): Now is a great time to take a quick timeout, but don't go away. The second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Sheppard, "Being Holy, Being Human," is coming right up. All of us at Destined for Victory want you to know how grateful we are to you, our listening friends and partners who financially support our media ministry. We love and appreciate you not only for your generosity, of course, but for the positive eternal impact your gifts are having around the world. To make a generous donation today, please visit pastorpaul.net or give us a call at 855-339-5500. Well, God is still in the miracle business, but if you want him to act, you may have to stop trying to do life on your own. Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message, "Being Holy, Being Human."
Paul Sheppard: I want to make sure that we are truly growing in Christ and that doesn't just mean growing in spiritual development. That's part of it and that is to be the center because when Christ is truly enthroned in your heart, He can then dictate to the other areas of your life. But we've got to understand that He does have a plan and purpose for the other areas of our lives. If we neglect them, we are not truly walking with Christ, truly following Him, because if you follow His example, He will teach you how to live an authentically human life. He'll teach you what authentic humanity really looks like because people who get all spiritual become unbalanced and that doesn't promote true spiritual development. What happens is that ends up promoting inauthentic living. When you get unbalanced, what happens is you end up deciding that life is all about these spiritual matters. And so when the other areas of your life are neglected or ignored, it starts showing up in your life. But if you're only focused on spiritual things, there comes to be—have you ever seen people where there's this disconnect between who they are on the inside and what they act like on the outside? And so if you don't truly follow Christ, you move into inauthentic living rather than authentic living and it ends up making you—the Bible word is a hypocrite. What is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is one who is an actor. That's what the Greek word means when you see it in your Bible. Hypocrite is an actor, literally an actor. The hypocrite was the person who read his lines behind a mask on stage performance. They put on a mask, another character other than who they were. And they read their lines as another person, acting. Well, when Jesus describes that, He describes that as not the way you want to live real life. If you want to see a play, go to a play. Don't live a play. Don't pretend to be who you are not. And inauthentic living pushes us in the wrong direction. But following Jesus will teach you how to live a proper human life. Because let me help you with something. You're going to be human the rest of your life. You're not graduating to divinity. That's cultic teaching, that's not Bible teaching, that's not Bible doctrine. It's certain cults who believe you can become a god. The Bible says all you can do is be a follower of God. All we'll ever do is be His children. In heaven, we'll be His glorified children. We're not becoming God, never will be. And so what you have to do is get good at being human, to do humanity God's way. And sometimes Christians just despise humanity and we want to opt for some sort of spiritual existence that we're really not prepared, really not built to live. And that's why you see so many hypocrites. People who don't understand that growing in Christ ought to help you become more comfortable than ever in your skin. I don't have to divorce humanity to follow Christ, because He was all God but He was also all man. And His humanity was an example for you and for me. So knowing Him is utterly important, please understand that. Mark 8:36 tells you very clearly what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. And verse 37 says, "And what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" That's very important, that's to be the center. But that's not to be the total essence of your life. And so we must learn, rather, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Getting to know Jesus sets you up to learn how to live life. It's the beginning, it's not the end, it's the beginning of wisdom. And I don't know about you, but I'm interested in getting better at life as I live it. I want to get better because life is short and you don't get a dress rehearsal. You know, this is it. Dress rehearsal, you get to come out on stage and put on your costume and do it, and then somebody can still correct you. "No, no, that's not your line. No, no, you're supposed to be staying over there." Life, have you noticed, isn't a dress rehearsal? This is it. Boom! You're on stage. That's it. You get several acts and then you're out of here. That's it. You don't even get to enjoy the curtain call. Isn't that the truth? Think about it. If you're in a play, at least you come back out and the people are applauding and you bow, what have you. This is it. And when you go, hopefully they'll celebrate your life, but you won't even see it. Good thing, because sometimes you know how folk will do. They'll tell lies at your funeral, your memorial service. And you'd be in heaven with attitude if God let you see what these folk are down here doing. "No, she is not crying. All that hell she put me through. No, she is not." Fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And I want to suggest to you that life is too short to live it unwisely. We've got to get better at life as we go along. We have to learn to do life better, in a way that truly pleases and glorifies God. So I want to help you to understand that each of us should develop a prayer in our heart. "Lord, teach me to live life better. Teach me not to ignore the other areas of my life. Yes, I want to continue in my spiritual development. Yes, I need to have a prayer life and read the word and go to church. I need to serve in ministry. I need to share my faith with the lost." Truly those are very, very important things. But, Lord, in order to facilitate that as the center of my life, teach me how to live a balanced life, so that I can accomplish your will in the same way that Christ accomplished your will when He was on earth. And so I want to help you to look at just a few keys to Christlike balance in your living. Just some thoughts that are on my heart I want to share with you to help you with Christlike balance, to get comfortable with the fact that not everything is addressed through prayer and Bible reading. Depending on what area of your life you're looking at, there are clear scriptural examples, but there's some wisdom that we need to apply to our lives. Let me give you an example. If you want to live a Christlike balanced life, you want to cultivate a social support system in your life. Did you not know that Jesus, although He was the Son of God, all God, yet all man, was one who knew better than to be a lone ranger? Now, if anybody could have pulled off being a lone ranger, it would have been Jesus, because He's God. But Jesus came to this earth and knew that in order to fulfill the purpose of His Father, He needed to identify a social support system. He knew that His message would be to humanity, His service would be to humanity. He knew that life was not just about Himself, it was about other people. And He also knew that the Father would use other people not only for Him to be a blessing to, but for them to be a blessing to Him. Now, there are some Christians who think—in fact, they sing songs—"You can have the whole world, just give me Jesus." May I suggest to you, I know what we mean when we sing that. It's one of the verses in "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus." You who grew up in church, you've got to go back for songs like that. "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. The world behind me, the cross before me." Remember that? And then there was another verse that said, "You can have this whole world, just give me Jesus." I know what we mean, but in a literal—let's just be literal for a moment—in the literal sense, you need more than Jesus, because Jesus needed more than Jesus. So if Jesus needed more than Himself, what chance do you think you have making it through life and doing the will of God without cultivating a social support system? Let me just show you how it played out in the life of Jesus. Jesus had several categories of people. He ministered to the masses, the whosoever will, those who came, those who followed Him, those who sat on the mountainside as He taught. He ministered to the masses. He ministered to people when they came saying, "Son of God, have mercy on me." He ministered to them. He gave of Himself. He poured Himself out in ministry. He ministered to the masses. He trained the 70. There's one point at which it says He sent 70 people out two by two. And He trained them and He taught them how to serve, how to give of themselves, how to follow His example. And then you understand that He mentored the 12. He mentored the 12. He took those 12 that He specifically called. He knew that they were going to be the apostles, they were going to form the foundation for the early church. And so He, in a very special way, spent time with them. They walked with Him, they followed Him, and He mentored them. But let me tell you something else. He also had people in His life who were those people that you would identify as His friends. These are people that He wasn't just giving to, but these are people who were giving to Him. Dr. Richard Swenson, in his book *Margin*, refers to these kinds of people as fillers versus drainers. Everybody who is truly serving, especially if you've found your niche in ministry and you are doing the thing God has called you to do—and even if you're not formally serving, if you are a person who gives of yourself, on your job, in your home to your children and your spouse, and what have you—if you volunteer maybe in the community, and especially if you are involved in ministry in a church or para-church ministry context, you are familiar with the fact that giving causes you to be drained.
Host (Male): Thanks so much for being here for today's Destined for Victory and Pastor Paul Sheppard's message, "Being Holy, Being Human." If you haven't already downloaded our free mobile app, today's a great day to do it. Search "Destined for Victory" at the App Store so you can listen to any of our messages wherever you go. Have you ever set out to be a blessing to the people around you but then felt like you had gone unnoticed or underappreciated? We find just that kind of story in the Gospel of Luke. Martha is busy making preparations, but her sister Mary chooses not to help because she's chosen to spend time with Jesus. In our latest booklet, *When Humans Attack*, Pastor Paul Sheppard takes an honest look at this story and shows us how unchecked frustration and unspoken expectations can turn even our best intentions toxic. He also paints a beautiful picture of the difference between distraction and devotion. That's *When Humans Attack*, a gift we'd love to share with you this month as our thank you for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory media ministry. You can give that gift by phone by calling 855-339-5500. 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.
Paul Sheppard: In the literal sense, you need more than Jesus, because Jesus needed more than Jesus. So if Jesus needed more than Himself, what chance do you think you have making it through life and doing the will of God without cultivating a social support system?
Host (Male): That's tomorrow in our continuing message, "Being Holy, Being Human." I hope you'll join us. Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.