So it's one thing to put off the old in your life, in any area of your life, but it's another thing to be fully prepared. to put on the new and the way we prepare to put on the new We are told here is we have to have our new way of thinking to. develop. If you want to change the way you behave, change the way you think. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to the image of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. But what does this look like in day-to-day life, and how can it help us put on the new self? Answers come your way next. But if you can't stay with us, be sure to visit pastorpaul.net. That's where you can listen to any recent message on demand, including today's.
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Now, let's listen closely to Pastor Paul's Destined for Victory message: The Process of Becoming New.
Now we move on. And look at the second step or the second stage in this journey of becoming new. And Paul calls it: here's the way I'm putting it: developing a new way of. Thinking. That's what I want to talk to you now about because that's what the Apostle Paul tells us.
You can't just put off the old without developing a new mind, a new attitude, a new way of thinking about how you move forward. Just give me some time to unpack that here, and then you will see without that step, you can't go from old to new and be successful. If you could, Paul would say it's a two-stage process. Put off the old, put on the new. Notice he didn't say that.
He said, put off the old, and then you've got to change the way you think. The attitude of your mind. Before you try to put on the new. Let me unpack that for you. It's the same thing Paul said to us in Romans chapter 12, verse 2.
We are all familiar with verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you do what? Present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. King James says it means your spiritual act of worship. Surrender is an act of worship, Paul said in verse 1.
And you present, don't make God, don't have God try to snatch it from you. You present yourself as a sacrifice. Is what he said. Verse 2, though, is very much as important as verse 1. Verse 2 is the key to this whole concept we're talking about today, developing a new way of thinking.
Look at verse 2 of Romans chapter 12. Do not conform to the pattern of this world. But do what? But be transformed how? By the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is: His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
You can't just do it, he said, by presenting yourself as a sacrifice. You then have to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. He said, that's the only way you're going to approve and attest what is God's will, His good pleasing and perfect will.
So it's one thing to put off the old in your life, in any area of your life. But It's another thing to be fully prepared. To put on the new. And the way we prepare to put on the new, we are told here is we have to have our new way of thinking. to develop.
Let me illustrate. You know, truth runs parallel. I've said that off and on over the years. It bears repeating now. Truth runs parallel.
When you see a truth in the spiritual realm, it has parallels in other areas of your life. Truth just runs parallel like that.
So you find the truth, you find the principle because principles are solid. Practices are many, one saying I've loved over the years: practices are many, principles are few. Practices often change, principles never do.
So you've got to find a principle. When you find a principle, that's like hitting bedrock. And you can find ways to apply that in Different ways.
So, this is a principle Paul gives us: before you try to go from old straight to new, you got to change your mind first.
So let's apply that since it's a principle and it runs parallel. Think about it in a couple of ways. Think about it in terms of money. You can't solve your money problem. If you have a spending problem, if you have a lack of discipline problem.
You might think you need to hit the lottery. I see people. Have you ever been in 7-Eleven? You see folk over there in that little machine. I was in there the other day, Alec.
I mean, they were lined up for the little machine.
So they can take money they already don't have. And over there trying to hit Oh, if I can just get these numbers to hit. You don't need a hit. You need a renewed mind. Why?
Because if you did hit. And you don't have a renewed mind. You now have more to misuse. You do know that all money does is gives you the opportunity to show who you really are. That's all it does.
So, broke folk have some problems you don't know because they don't have enough to show you they got problems. If you want to see somebody how jacked up somebody is, let them get a hold of some money. And see how they misuse it, misappropriate it. How they make wrong decisions with it. And then we pass that junk on to children.
And we have generations. of people who have a poverty mentality. The problem isn't money. The Bible doesn't.
So I heard somebody say, the Bible said money is the root of all evil. No, it doesn't. Paul said to Timothy, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It's loving it. Money is a wonderful slave.
It's just a horrible master. When you renew your mind and get money, you tell the money where it's really supposed to go. And you handle it right. If you have the renewed mind that Paul is talking about here, you would handle it right. I told God when I first got to California, and you've heard that story in 1989.
I left a good job, associate pastor of a thousand-member church in Philly. My dad was a senior pastor. I left here, left there, coming out here to chase this dream. I landed with 34 members. And a smaller salary.
And they told me, Oh, but Pastor, when you said I I met with them before I accepted the call and shared this vision, I said, The Lord said thousands are going to come before He's done with my ministry. And they said, So they said, Well, this is all we can pay you right now. But when those thousands come, we're gonna hook you up. They use my vision against me. I said, that's lame.
Soon as God fulfills that word, we're going to hook you up, Pastor.
Meanwhile, here you go. $24,000 a year. was what they gave me in 1989. 24,000 a year. I was at 2,000 a month.
You tithe, I couldn't afford not to tithe. I had to believe God every day of my life. And the fact of the matter is, I told God through those years, you've heard my story, I had the second, for a while there, I had the second worst car in the church. Folk driving into that one to the parking lot, all the cars were better except one than mine. We had one sister whose car was more jacked up than mine.
I was so glad. I didn't want to be the pastor who had the worst car in the church.
So it was a little better to have the second worst car in the church. She with me to this day. She said, you so lame. I said, I don't call your name. And the fact of the matter is, I told God in those years.
I'm going to pass this poverty test really faithfully.
So when you're ready to give me the prosperity test. I will be able to pass that too. I did tell him that. I said, Lord, I'm going to be faithful over these few things because I'm looking for the many.
So don't y'all run up on me when you see me driving right. I I'm I paid my dues. I was faithful in the lean years.
So just on my, I remember there was a period of time where I pastored folks who came from a lot of different traditions, and some of them felt like pastors were always supposed to be real simple in lifestyle and all that. One brother saw me in that season, he saw me, I was driving an Audi. And um And he saw, and he wrote an email that week and said, Pastor, I saw you get in your car after service. I had never seen you after service. And you drove away in this big sedan, this Audi, and I was troubled by it, he said.
So he sent an email, so I sent one back. I said, I'm so sorry you were troubled. I drove it, and I wasn't troubled at all. You trouble by yourself, bruh. I pray that God will help you with your trouble.
And I told him, I also said, problem is you came in the wrong season. If you had been here a few years before, when I was driving the second worst car in the church, I said you'd have been awfully impressed. Yeah. Look at this man of God putting up here in a 1984 Ford escort. A Ford Escort bought it for $2,200.
This is I'm talking I'm talking pre-internet. When you looked in the paper. There was a section. Come on, old people, don't leave me by myself. There was a section.
And one of the brothers, one of the graduate students who came to church in Stanford, and he knew cars real well. I said, find me something. I got about $2,000. He looked through there and he said, Let's go check this out. And we went to meet that man with the escort and he looked it all up and down everything.
He said, Pastor, this dish your car. I said, All right, there we go. I drove that thing till it dropped. I'm not lying. I drove that car, the spring was coming through the driver's seat.
I had to be faithful. Let's pause right there for just a moment. We'll be right back with the second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepard. You know, fulfilling the great commission is not something any one person or any one ministry can do alone. God has commissioned pastors, teachers, and missionaries to do their part, but He also encourages listening friends and partners like you to do yours.
And we're so grateful for what you've done in His name. Your prayers and donations reach people all over the world with the love of Jesus Christ. Let's keep that momentum going and let's do it together. To make a safe and secure donation online, go to pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500.
Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's message: the process of becoming new. We had one nice car that I drove across the country from Philly. And we had one nice car, but we had my wife and two small kids, so she had the nice car. That was one of the rules of marriage. She had the little kids to take care of.
She had the nice car. I'd see her going by looking real good. I'd say, God bless you. And I had that 84 Ford escort. Spring started coming through the driver's seat, sticking me while I'm trying to drive.
But you got to be faithful.
Some of y'all trying to wear $100 hats on nickel heads. You gotta be faithful in the few things.
So, if you get money and you don't renew your mind, all you're gonna do is mess it up. Look at the statistics of how many people hit the lottery big, and they're broke today. Why? Because they didn't know How important it is to transform, renew your mind. And they don't live by the word, the word will automatically teach you the kind of values you need in order to truly prosper.
See, the Bible talks about prosperity. It talks about, for instance, in Joshua chapter 1, there's a verse that says: if you obey God's word, keep his commands, you will have good success. You know what that means, that there is a success that is not good. You can have money and it's not good.
So, you've got to understand that truth runs parallel. If you get money and don't change your mind, you're going to be messed up. Yeah. Priorities right. Grown folk, teach your children.
I'm so glad I was raised early on. Honor God and do right and don't try to live beyond your means. It'll come, but... But practice delayed gratification. And then you've got to learn how to discipline your life in that area.
Another parallel example would be late weight loss. A lot of y'all like me have had weight loss journeys off and on through your years. If you are a person that that Has ever lost weight? You should know if you don't also renew your mind. Oh, I'm glad for this help.
I'm glad for this help. If you don't renew your mind, you can take Jenny Craig, Nutra System, whatever it is you choose to take, and it'll work for you while it's a program. You follow the program, it'll get you where you're going. But if your mind doesn't get renewed, how many of you all, like me, have known what it is to? to see the weight reappear.
Oh, I need some help. See y'all. And you'd be like, where did you come from? It reappeared. Why?
Because The mind wasn't renewed. The program was followed. But the mind renewal will help you deal with things like what are the triggers. that have you eating emotionally. rather than intentionally eating certain things.
How many of you all like me during COVID? Which is still with us, but especially for me, the first two years. Of COVID so shocked my system. Y'all heard it. You were part of our church.
Well, some of you are new, but the folk who were with us in March of 2020 when this thing first set in. I was shocked. I was like a deer in headlights. I didn't know what it was. What do you mean I'm a pastor who can't meet with my people?
I've been a pastor since my 20s in Philly. What are you talking about? I can't. Meet with my people. That's what pastors do.
And I found myself, like everybody else, preaching to a camera. And it was I said I said it's horrible. First, they wouldn't even let us come to church. I remember here in the Bay Area because we were the first place in the country that had stay-at-home orders. That first happened here.
And they said, don't leave. They practically put us under house arrest. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And my son-in-law has got a camera, and I'll set it up with the internet, and you're gonna be saints can watch you on the camera. I said, I don't see them.
They looking at me, I guess, but I don't see them. And there I was in my living room for a few weeks. With them pitiful messages, y'all tried to encourage me. Oh, Pastor, that was good. It was pitiful.
I'll tell you myself, it was pitiful. I hated the messages. Because I didn't feel like church. I mean, I was given the information, but I'm used to, you know, interacting. And you know me, I'm a comedian.
So comedians, you know, imagine a comedian on a stage and nobody sitting out there.
So that's what it felt like to me. It's like, I don't get to do what I do. While I give them the word, and so I started eating emotionally. And that happened for 22, the first 22 months of the thing, I was kind of spiraling because I just couldn't get my mind around what is this going on? And finally I got to a place where I said To myself, it was New Year's Eve.
2021 get ready to come into 22. I said Enough is enough. I had gotten to the heaviest weight I had ever been in in my life. And I said, either I'm gonna have to buy a new wardrobe. Or I'm gonna have to stop this.
And so you can't just Take the program. You gotta renew your mind. And I said, Lord, help me. I know how to do it. Weight watchers or whatever.
I know how to do it. I've done it off and on over the years. It's not hard, but getting the head right. See, I'm telling on me so you can sit there and relax. You you see m the method of my madness Because you got areas, whether it's your money, whether it's your weight, you got something where you got your same problem.
I need to change the way I think. I need to let the word of God help renew my mind. And I said, New Year's Eve 2021.
Okay, I was praying, Lord, you're going to have to help me. And I spent the first 10 days of January 2022 praying, Lord, help me to get to the place where my head is ready, my mind is renewed. 10 days into the new year, it locked in. And I started eating what I knew I should eat and practicing what I knew I should practice. But I said, Lord, this time when it goes away, I want you to help me so that it never comes back.
And that takes the renewing of the mind. And so I'm in saying this so that whatever areas of your life you have to join me in that same discipline, whatever the discipline is to be applied in your life, what are the things where I can't just put off the old bad eating and then jump into Neutral system. Or whatever it is for you. Weight watches. Noom.
Which is just the psychology of it. It's a psychological way of doing what the Bible says: changing your way of thinking about the food. Cause how many know when you have trickers Well, you're going to have to change your mind because the trigger stuff is going to keep happening. How many know that? If some folks say I eat when I'm happy.
When else do you eat when I'm sad? Yeah. Do you know how often you either go be happy or sad? You can't just wait until I'm neither happy nor sad. to get myself together.
Be like that RB song. I think Babyface wrote it. I only think of you on two occasions. That's day and night. Oh, you could be that way with some food.
Come on, I need somebody to, I need some honest people. Have you ever been emotionally triggered? You think of food on two occasions. You think of cake on two occasions. You think of pie on two occasions.
You think of fried foods on two occasions. You think of sweets on two occasions. Yo, holy, yo, I never even heard baby face before. You've got to let the word of God renew your mind. Money.
Food Whatever the issue, you can apply it to a lot of different areas of your life. You'll never get your assets, your associations, your actions, and your attitudes together until your mind is renewed. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory message, where we feature the teaching and preaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. Before we sign off, I want to just say thank you to all of you who responded to the current financial needs of this ministry. As you may have heard, Destined for Victory lost a major source of funding at the end of the year, and your help is still needed to help close that gap and help us remain on this station.
When you give today, we'll say thank you with a brand new booklet, one that will challenge you to persevere through unwanted changes or a past you can't quite shake. It's called Keep Moving Forward. Drawing from Israel's transition from Moses to Joshua, this book that will help you understand that God will go before you as your leader and your protector even when you're facing new challenges. Again, it's called Keep Moving Forward, our gift to you as you financially give to help this ministry keep moving forward into the brand new year of twenty twenty six. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500.
That's eight five five three three nine fifty five hundred. 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.
Some of you all listening to this message have a victim mentality that you gotta get rid of if you're gonna walk with Jesus. You gotta stop blaming the world for your troubles, and you gotta realize that you have a Savior. Who not only wants to give you eternal life, but wants to give you abundant life, life to the full. That's next time in our Destined for Victory message: The Process of Becoming New. Until then remember.
He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
