We Are a Body, Part 1 (cont'd)

That's why we got to be a functional body, because we are not just called a body, we are called the body of Christ. And in the body is all the healing there ever was in Him. And we have the responsibility of being in this world what He was. When was the last time you needed someone's help?

Did you ask for it? Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. As Pastor Paul said a moment ago, we, the body of Christ, are called to be what Jesus was when He lived on earth. We have an obligation to reach out to those in need, to serve one another, to help one another, and to ask for help when we need it.

It's a great reminder of our calling in Christ to help others when we see a need, and then to ask for help when we have needs of our own. Today's message is straight ahead. Stay with us now or stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. Here is Pastor Paul now with today's Destined for Victory message, We Are a Body. I want you to understand that you should take heed to the wise words of Mama Jo. That's my next point.

Write it down. Take heed to the wise words of Mama Jo. You say, who in the world is Mama Jo? Let me think of all the women in the Bible. Mama Jo, Mama Jo.

Nobody's coming right because she's not in the Bible. She's in a movie called Soul Food. It came out in 1997, a movie called Soul Food. This was an old sister with her family gathered around her, around her table for Sunday dinner. Some of y'all don't know how it used to be back in the day, but some of us older folk in school, y'all, there used to be a time when families would have Sunday dinner.

Now, it's the only day of the week when dinner didn't happen at dinnertime. Come on. In traditional church life in the black church, we said it was dinner and it wasn't nothing but about 1.30, 2 o'clock. Come on, somebody.

I need some help up in here. 1.30, 2 o'clock, but that was dinner. The rest of the week eating that 1.32 was lunch. But on Sunday after we went to church, I'm talking about all the way church. My church was 8 a.m. early prayer, 9.30 Sunday school. 9.30 to 10.30 was Sunday school. Sunday school, 10.30, all the kids got out, everybody got out of their classes and the kids went to the store in my neighborhood.

I don't know what y'all did. In my neighborhood, you went to the store right around the corner from the church. There was an Asian man who opened up his store because the black kids were coming out after Sunday school. He said no need of not making any money Sunday morning when these little children can come around here. He opened it up and my God, we went around there.

He had everything behind the glass and we just looking at it, we putting our dirty finger on his glass. All right, I want some M&Ms. I want some now ladies. I want, come on some of y'all. I want some charms.

I want some life savers and oh yes sir. The whole Sunday school, we had to go in in shifts. They come out with theirs, then the next bunch go in. That man was making money hand over fist and then we go around, back around to church cause 11 o'clock church starts at 11 back in the day. We didn't have all this 830 and then 11 is the second service.

Wasn't no second service back in the day. It was service and that started at 1045 some churches hours was 11 o'clock. At 11 a.m. that's when Jesus was coming to church. Back in my day, he didn't show up at 830. Jesus came at 11.

Come on somebody. We knew Jesus was about to come cause the choir would come around. See y'all, choir would come around. They would come around a side aisle and then they would all, they'd all had their robes on and then they'd line up and the organist would strike whatever. There was many different songs.

Sometime we come this far by faith. Sometime we're marching to Zion and all kinds of things that they would sing. What a fellowship, what a joy divide leaning on. But whatever it was, they marched it in with their robes and it was always to the beat and then they come on in.

Come on some of y'all. Jesus just came in with the choir and we'd have service. Now back in that day it wasn't no, and I'm talking about my home church. Some of y'all might've gone to a nice little one hour church.

Bless your heart. We knew nothing about that. I didn't learn about one hour church till I was all the way grown cause all coming up, church wasn't hardly an hour. Sometime my daddy got happy and preached close to an hour by himself. And but first it was all this singing and all this praying and they'd read all the announcements and then all of that and the sick and shut in list and all that stuff went on. So when we got out, we got out. Service started at 11. Sometime we weren't out until one 30.

I'm talking about my church. And then we were going home to have Sunday dinner, Sunday dinner. Now that's what was going on in soul food. Mama Joe has her family gathered around her table for Sunday dinner and here's what she said on one particular occasion in the movie. She was talking about her family and their being not in step with one another, not in sync with one another, all these little spats and fights in the family. And so mama Joe going to get them straight and she said, one finger won't make an impact, but you ball all those fingers into a fist and you can strike a mighty blow.

Then she looked at him and said, now this family got to be that fist. I came to tell you something. If you want to get the revelation of the church being a body, you must understand the wisdom of what she said. You by yourself will not make the impact in this world that God wants you to make. You alone will not. I don't care how gifted you are. I don't care how special you think you are.

You by yourself, people who are wrapped up in themselves are a very small package. But if you find the power of synergy, just in the natural, if you find the power of synergy, you have something. But when you're talking about the kingdom, you're talking about spiritual synergy. You're talking about anointed synergy. When you take what you have and link up with what I have and link up with our brothers and sisters and together we take our gifts and we ball them into a mighty fist. That's what mama Joe was talking about. You take all these individual fingers by themselves.

They can't do anything. You hit somebody with your thumb and see what happens. You know, I got something coming for you. Come on.

That doesn't make any sense. Do it. I'm coming for you with my thumb. That doesn't have an impact, but I dare you to ball all those fingers up into a fist.

I dare you to get all the, your strength and energy in your hand put together and synergized. See some of y'all didn't used to fight, so you don't even know this analogy, but I need some folks, some former fighters to weigh in on this. I'm talking about some of y'all who won't mind saying before I got sanctified, I was a brawler. Before I got sanctified, I would go for somebody. I know I look cute and sanctified now, but trust me when I tell you there are few folk who still remember me from childhood.

Come on some of y'all. If they saw me today, they would flash back to when we were 11 years old and they said something about my mama or my father and I wasn't having it that day. And when I got through with them, they have never forgotten me.

I need some former brawlers to say, yes, I can testify that when a fist gets balled up with a determination to make an impact is going to change things. And I want to let you know that that's the way we have to be as the people of God. We've got to be connected and we've got to get our broken places healed.

So we're both connected and we're healthy. And when we strike a mighty blow against the works of darkness, things are going to change. You can do that in your life. You can do that in your individual life. Get some prayer partners.

So you know what? There's something in me that I need to go. I need y'all to come on and team up with me in prayer.

We're going to rebuke the devil. We're going to command him to get out of this area of my life so that I can be free to serve God, not only in your personal life, but in your family. You need to get some prayer warriors who can pray you through your family drama. Anybody listening this message have any family drama?

Your family goes through some stuff and you got to live with them. You got to deal with these people and you are ready to see some things changed. I dare you to connect with the power of kingdom synergy. I dare you to get some prayer warriors combining their faith with your faith. That's how the old saints who taught us how to pray.

That's how they did it. Sometimes they come over your house. They want to pray where the trouble is. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepard. To listen to any of Pastor Paul's recent broadcasts, be sure to stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. Pastor Paul joins me in the studio after today's message, right now let's join him for the second half of today's teaching, We Are a Body. Any of y'all ever seen those kind of old prayer warriors? We'd be over there Tuesday night. Come up in your house rebuking the devil.

Come up in there commanding the enemy. In Jesus' name, you have no authority. We are the children of God. In Jesus' name, we curse you and send you back where you came from. And in Jesus' name, sometime they come in there, there's some demonic activity in my house.

The saints didn't play that. This is my house. Demons can't live here.

They don't even pay rent. I'm talking about some folk who knew how to pray. I'm talking about folk who knew how to tell the devil where to go, drew him a map so he wouldn't get lost. Get out of here in the name of Jesus.

Oh, I've seen every kind of devil you can think of prayed against and rebuked in Jesus' name and I've heard them screaming out of somebody. I'm talking about what God can do through the power of kingdom synergy. We got to learn to sync up with other people of like precious faith. Don't take foolishness off the devil.

You don't have to do that. You don't belong to him. You are God's property. What does the Bible say about you?

Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. Some of y'all need to figure this out. You don't have to be scared of the enemy. You have no business being scared of the enemy. You have power and authority. According to the word of God, we who are in Christ, we have power and authority.

You say what's the significance of that? Well, authority means you have the legal right to do something. When a cop has a badge or something on their shoulder of their uniform, that tells you who they represent. That speaks of the authority. And you got to understand that means they have the right to confront evil. So a cop can be physically small and walk up to a vehicle driven by somebody 280 pounds and all of them are muscle. And they can walk up and they say give me your registration, your license.

Sometimes they say get out that car. And you say on what basis does the scrawny person tell the 280 full of muscles person to do something and expect them to do it? The answer is authority. Authority.

That means I have the legal right. So don't think about messing with me. Not because of who I am but because of whose I am. See that's what y'all got to learn about demonic forces. They might not like you but they have to respect you because of the authority you've been given by Jesus.

I have spiritual authority over you in the name of Jesus. I've cast demons out of people and they speak through the person and say you can't cast me out. I said somebody told you wrong.

Somebody told you wrong. I can cast you out because this person asked me to come over here and help them and synergize with them. They're sick of you. If you want to get delivered you got to hate evil. You know why some folks never get delivered? Because they have made friends with their bondage.

Let me tell you something that I want you to take with you through the rest of your life. God promises to deliver you from your enemies. Never in the Bible does he ever promise to deliver you from your friends. Some of y'all can't get delivered because it's your friend. The bondage is your friend. The addiction is your friend. Your bad attitude is your friend. You use it to get people up off of you.

You're not sick of you. You're sick of people but you got to get sick enough for you to let God authorize you to change yourself and then he will bring about his power for your deliverance. So authority you have that in Christ. The Bible says in John chapter 1 he came to his own they didn't receive him but as many as received him to them gave he, King James says power but check the Greek. It's a Greek word exousia which means legal right, authority.

To them gave he legal right to be children of God. So when the enemy of your soul says you can't cast me out so no no no I have the authority to cast you out. So all of us who are in Christ we walk in divine authority if we'll take it.

Now the problem is some folk have it but they don't use it. If the enemy can fake you out and tells you you know you know I'm not going anywhere I've been in your family for generations. I'm not going anywhere all of us are addicted that's just how we roll.

That's just how we do in the Wilson family in the in the whatever family that's how we roll. You got to have the authority say somebody told you wrong. I have authority to cancel this addiction right here right now. It will not go into my children.

It will not go beyond me because I'm walking in Kingdom authority. Now not only do you have authority which is good but every now and then the scrawny cop walks up to the car and the 280 full of muscles guy gets out sizes the cop up and decides I'm not doing anything you say. And I know I'm not giving you my license. No I'm not giving you my registration.

No I will not put my hands on the car. You can't make me. So they don't just send the police force whether it's highway patrol whatever it is they don't just send them out with a badge. You can't send folk into a world full of criminals with just if they give you any problem just show them the badge. You understand what I'm saying?

You're dealing with a world full of criminals. They don't care about you or your badge. So they send them out with Exclusia the badge but they also send them out with Dunamis. That's the other Greek word translated power Dunamis such as Acts 1 8 you shall receive Dunamis power when the Holy Ghost comes power that will break through the strongholds that the enemy has set up. They don't just send them out with a badge they send them out with a holster and there's all kind of Dunamis on that thing.

Come on there's a pistol loaded ready to rip on there they can stun you with Dunamis. They got a club they'll beat some Dunamis come on y'all they will wear you out they got all kind of Dunamis and you if you are a spirit-filled child of God you say how do I get spirit-filled tell the Lord you want the Holy Ghost to reign and rule in your life come Holy Spirit fill me with you. I thought I got filled when I got saved.

You need constant fillings over and over and over and over again. Be continually filled with the spirit. If I were you I wouldn't go to work till I was spirit-filled. That's what your early devotion is supposed to be.

Fill me up Lord I'm about to go in there with them fools fill me up. Come on somebody I need enough Holy Ghost to deal with what I got to deal with and if the devil jump up at me I need some spiritual Dunamis to take care of him. I want to let you know if you will walk in kingdom authority and power and you get that by making sure you have connectedness with others who when you're praying they're praying for you. You know why I'm able to preach so successfully because there are people who have pledged every time I know you're preaching they've told me over the years every time I know you're preaching whether it's at your home church or somewhere else I'm on some people's prayer list every day that when we know you're preaching we're praying. That's why I'm preaching with power it's not just merely what I do in my study it's not just merely what I do what I've learned how to communicate the gospel over the years yes all that's important but there's a spiritual dynamic that happens I can be half sick but put me in the pulpit and then prayers will just pick me up and make me go forth and give folk a life-changing word because there's the power of the body working together.

Thanks so much for being here for today's Destined for Victory message we are a body. Look for any of Pastor Paul Shepherd's recent messages online listen on demand at pastorpaul.net. Well we have a special resource for you this month titled Finding Strength in Tough Times but just before I give you the details and how to receive this as a thank you for your generous gift during these critical summer months Pastor Paul has joined me from a studio in California. Pastor we've all had some tough times during this past year and here's what we know from scripture though there will be more won't there? Tell us about this booklet and why finding strength in tough times is so important to everyone listening. Yes sir I don't know anyone who would argue against the idea that we have endured tough times over the past year and a half that none of us would have predicted I said it last year but I'll repeat it again when I went into 2020 I was so geeked about the idea of going into a new decade man I couldn't wait for the 20s to get here and I was so excited but boy three months later we were scratching our heads saying what in the world is going on and the bottom line is tough times have always existed we've experienced unique tough times over the past year and a half and there are going to be more in the future of one sort or another so the bottom line is I believe that we must take the word of God as our lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway one of the people who helps us do that in the word is a man we're all acquainted with named David because boy did he go through some tough times the very king he was trying to serve was trying to kill him and so in the book of first Samuel we read about David being on the run he's a fugitive from a man he's done nothing but love and it's not for days weeks or months he's a fugitive for years and all he's done is try to help this guy talk about tough times David went through them and he tells us how to get through them just by his very example so this booklet I'm really excited to share this month because I want people to understand there is strength we can find in our tough times if you donate this month I'd love to send it to you and I know it'll be a great blessing in your life that booklet is called finding strength in tough times and it's our gift to you by request for your generous donation to destined for victory this month speaking of tough times the summer months are always a difficult period for ministries like destined for victory your prayers and financial support are critical during this season of the year so as God leads please consider sending a generous gift today call us at eight five five three three nine five five zero zero or visit pastor Paul dot net to make a safe and secure donation online and if you prefer you can mail your gift to destined for victory post office box seventeen sixty seven Fremont California nine four five three eight again destined for victory box seventeen sixty seven Fremont California nine four five three eight you know you gotta make up in your mind that you want life change life change isn't gonna come easy it's not gonna be convenient you're not gonna wake up one day and say I don't know I'm not jacked up anymore no no everybody who goes from jacked up to the nest to deliverance to help to wholeness I'm getting better in that area of my life it's because they went after it that's tomorrow and pastor Paul shepherds message we are a body until then remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ you are destined for victory.