Uh What can a caterpillar teach us about salvation? You'll find out on today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard. But before we get to that, I'd like to share a conversation I once had with Pastor Paul, one that will really help you understand what our mission here at Destined for Victory is all about and what it always will be.
Well, you know, when I think of victorious, my mind goes back. I'm a kid growing up watching TV in the 60s, so my mind goes back to the wide world of sports. Oh, yeah. There was an announcer named James McKay, Jim McKay, something like that. He had this classic line where he talked about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
And I love just thinking about how thrilling it is to be victorious. I love in any game I'm playing, I want to be victorious. I tell people, I don't care whether it's monopoly or something really serious, I want to win. And in life, we can win in Christ, and that's what the Bible tells us, that we are victorious in him. And victorious means that we're following his lead, that we're letting the Holy Spirit take us where he wants us to go in life.
We're saved by his grace, and then we're simply following his direction. And, of course, the word of God is so key. To following God's direction, because the Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And so those who tune in to broadcasts like Destined for Victory are really supposed to be receiving guidance so that we can walk in and live in victory. And that's what I pray is happening as people tune in day by day.
You know, we say it every day. In Christ, you are destined for victory. And we want to continue to share that message with as many people as we can using whatever means possible. But the truth is, we can't do it without your prayers and your financial support. Today, as you give, we've got a great thank you gift to share with you.
It's a new booklet called Truth, Temper, and Treasure. In Ephesians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul talks about our new life in Christ and what it should look like. In this outstanding resource, Pastor Paul does a deep dive into three key areas: telling the truth, Controlling our temper, and honoring God with our tithes and offerings. I encourage you to get your copy today and see how the Lord wants to help you grow in these areas. That's Truth, Temper, and Treasure, our thank you gift this month when you make a generous donation to Destined for Victory.
You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 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, 94538. Um God says, when you surrender, I can take you to a place where you choose to no longer. Conform to old patterns.
But now you allow me. to transform you by the renewing of your mind. When you come to faith in Christ, God begins to transform you from the inside out. One of the best ways he does it is by renewing your mind. But what exactly does the renewing of our minds look like in day-to-day life?
We'll explore this question in the coming days. And we begin by giving you a better understanding of what transformation is all about.
So let's get started with today's Destined for Victory message, I've Got a New Attitude. Very often, when I'm teaching the Word of God, I look for illustrations in the natural world because I understand that truth tends to run parallel. And when you see a spiritual truth in scripture, there are often parallel truths in the natural world that help reinforce what God is saying to us. And so, I often look for parallel truths in nature or in our everyday experiences. And as I was preparing this message and really looking at what it means to have God morph us, change us, transform us, create a metamorphosis in our lives, I thought about what happens in nature when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
That is very close. to this concept.
Now, you all understand that a caterpillar, when it comes out of the egg, is just ugly and pitiful. I know some of you all really have a positive way of viewing everything in your life, but what else are you going to call a caterpillar but ugly? I mean, just pitiful, just this little pitiful creature. Bound. to the ground.
Crawling around. If it is fortunate, it makes its way. to a branch of some little bush. Where can fine A leaf to begin to chew on. And there it is, pitiful.
Ugly, lull to the ground. Eatin' leaves.
Sometimes that's the way we start out. I know you don't like to think of yourself as ugly. You certainly don't like to think of yourself as ugly. But there's some ugliness in you. Let's say that you're cute on the outside.
You're fine on the outside, but in you there's some ugliness.
Okay, can you go with that? All right, I don't want to so offend you. He tripping up there calling me ugly. No. All right, so you're cute on the outside.
You are fine. People look at you and say, whoa. But on the inside, there's some ugliness.
So you got some caterpillar in you.
Some things that are low to the ground, cannot scale the heights, cannot get up above the mess, stay low, hoping not to get stomped on. And if it's fortunate, it'll make its way into a little bush where it can find a leaf and will just sit there and begin to crunch on the leaf. Not a whole lot of excitement. But God created the caterpillar to not stay a caterpillar.
So that he could show you, he used that in nature. I'm sure there are other illustrations in nature I'm not familiar with. He used that illustration in nature to show you when you come to me, there's going to be some issues in your life that aren't worked out yet, some things that are still low, that are bound to the ground, that are not attractive, and all of that. But don't worry about it. I know the plans I have for you.
Plans to do you good and not harm. Plans to give you hope in the future.
So, God gave us that illustration, and the caterpillar is eating leaves and just hanging out in the lowlands of life. It is growing to a place where it's going to come to maturity. And at maturity, something on the inside. Will kick in and say, you know what? This is no longer acceptable.
Now caterpillars don't go to caterpillar school. And learn anything like that. But God puts something on the inside of them to help us understand: there comes a time in your life, comes a time in your Christian experience, when you hit a certain crisis point, when it's like, Lord, if you don't do something, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it. And God shows us in the world of the caterpillar what you ought to do. The caterpillar begins when it reaches maturity.
You know it's reached maturity because instinctively God puts something in it where it begins to build a cocoon. It begins to create a cocoon and it encloses itself.
So that it is no longer conformed to the world of the caterpillar. Oh, somebody better hear me. It closes itself off so that it's saying, No, no, no more the caterpillar world. There's something in me that wants to fly. There's something in me that wants to be beautiful.
There's something in me that wants to be attractive. I'm tired of crawling around. I'm tired of folks thinking I'm ugly. I'm tired of folks stepping on me. It's time for me to fly, and it closes itself in.
Be Not conform to this world. Time to no longer be in the caterpillar world. He closes himself in. Cocoon is built, and in there. The transformation begins to happen.
He can't transform himself, but he can close himself off while God, through the natural processes, begins to transform him. And that is a sign to you and I that if you will close yourself off, get in your prayer closet, get in a place of surrender, get somewhere where you say, Lord, I'm tired of being self-led and self-driven and self-directed. I'm tired of making the same old mistakes. I'm tired of the same old bitterness. I'm tired of hating.
I'm tired of feeling bad. I'm tired of the same old besetting sins. God, I want you to do something so new until I'm beautiful, till I can fly to some heights I've never been to before. Close yourself in with God. And when you do that, God will begin the process, Paul says, of renewing you.
Making you somebody you've never been before. And when it comes out, it knows it's a butterfly. It knows it has transformed because after a while the wings want to fly, but the cocoon is enclosing it, so it bursts out of the cocoon. Comes out of this, all right. I'm new.
I'm ready to fly. I've had my time of surrender. I've said yes to God.
Now I want to see what life is in the center of his will. And it comes out and it doesn't crawl away, it doesn't crawl ever again.
Now it flies. God sent this word to tell somebody your crawling days are close to being over. It's time for you to get ready to fly. It's time for you to get ready to believe me for some great and mighty things that you have never seen before. And it goes in, an ugly caterpillar.
But it comes out a beautiful butterfly. It no longer eats leaves.
Now it wants to drink the nectar. The sweetness That God has put in some of the plants. And so it flies and it lights on a place to find the sweetness. Oh, somebody's not hearing this. It no longer wants to eat.
Leaves. It no longer wants to hang around. You never see the butterflies going back, hanging out with the caterpillar, saying, I wish I was with y'all. Look like y'all had more fun than we had. No, no, it it's so glad it has been changed.
That now it can go where it could never go as a caterpillar.
Now it can drink what it could never drink as a caterpillar. It's now drinking only of the sweetness that God has provided. It's no longer hanging out with dirty things and rotten things. It's now finding sweetness that God has provided. David said, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the person who trusts. In him. That's what God is up to in your life. He says, aren't you tired of leaves, old dirty leaves? Aren't you tired of crawling around?
Aren't you tired of same old, same old? It's time to fly. Oh, I've never been over there. Let me fly on over there. Oh, look at that over there.
I've never been there before. Just take off. In the will of God. And experience some things like you've never experienced them before. Paul says, you get there by surrender.
So surrendered until you're no longer fighting God. And then he says You build a cocoon. You no longer conform to the world of the caterpillar. I'm tired of the way it's been. And you put yourself in a position.
Where God can begin to do the work. of transformation. A complete Renovation. in your Life. And he says The first way it's going to express itself.
is through a change in your thinking. Just in case you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard. And stay with us, the second half of today's message is straight ahead. You know, Jesus said that the truth is the only thing in this world that can set us free, and that's our mission at Destined for Victory, to share timeless truth for a victorious life, so that everyone who hears these messages might come to faith in Christ. You can join us in this mission by sending a generous gift today.
Stop by pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. That's pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500.
Now, for more on what the transformation process is all about, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. I've got a new attitude. You'll know God is up to something. When you begin To have the ability to think differently. about the problems and the challenges.
You used to faith. You think differently. About the way life is. You know, when you think like a caterpillar, your thinking is limited to your reality. You're low, you're bound to the ground.
You're low, all you can do is do a little climbing, find a little leaf. That's about all you can do. You have limited capabilities, so you have limited thinking. But the butterfly has a different mind altogether. And God says, when I get through with you.
You'll be able to express yourself differently than you ever did before, and it will begin. In your mind, the renewing. of your mind, you and I need a new attitude. New attitude. God wants to give you a new attitude.
He's going to give you a new attitude in anticipation of taking you to a new altitude. God wants to take you higher, change your altitude. But before He changes your altitude, He's going to change your attitude. And help you begin to look at life, look at life's challenges. You know, when you become a butterfly, it doesn't mean you don't have challenges, but now you look at them from a different perspective.
Worldview. God wants you to change. He wants to change your attitude. Don't you realize that it's time for some of us to have a new attitude? Don't you see that the attitude you had isn't working too good?
Don't you see that your negativity is taking you down? All it's doing is giving you heart trouble, and all it's doing is giving you physical and emotional problems. All of the way you have thought about life's challenges and the things coming against you, and all of that is not suiting God's purpose in your life. It's time for a new attitude. Oh, Patty LaBelle tried to tell you that years ago.
When she sang, I got a new attitude. I'm feeling good from my head to my shoes. Know where I'm going and know what to do. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. I got a new attitude.
Hehehe Oh, Patty LaBelle will preach sometime. Listen, that's what God wants you to do. He wants you to get a new attitude. about your life. New attitude about your challenges.
He's going to change your altitude, but before he changes your altitude, he's got to change your attitude. He's got to help you understand that there is a new way. Before he changes what happens to you, he wants to change what you think about what's going on in your life. And you know why that's important? That's important because until God renews you in your mind.
You will look at your world completely wrong. Let me illustrate that from the Old Testament. Do you remember when the Lord delivered? Israel out of bondage and slavery in Egypt. He Took the Israelites out of Egypt.
But their attitude kept Egypt in them. Do you understand that sometimes God delivers you from something, but if your attitude still stinks? You could be delivered and still bound. They were no longer slaves. And look at what God did.
When God decided it's time I've heard the cry of my people down there in bondage and I'm going to send Moses to deliver them, and He delivered them with a mighty hand. First of all, He picked somebody nobody thought could ever lead. He picked a dude with nothing but a stick and a stutter. Moses said, Lord, I know you can't mean me. But God likes taking the low things.
to confound The high and mighty. He likes taking those things that are base and take them to new heights so that he gets all the glory. And so he raised up Moses, made him the deliverer. And you know the story, how Pharaoh resisted. In fact, the New Testament tells us that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
God was so anxious to show us what He will do to deliver you that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.
Now, God wanted to deliver them, but first he made it hard. Before he delivered them.
Sometimes God likes to stack the odds up. Before he comes through with a mighty hand. That's where some of you are right now. You see it being stopped up, and you're saying, What in the world is going on? But God's just getting you ready for a miracle.
And so it got harder for a while, but God was still in the process of delivering them. And ultimately, here's what happened. Finally, Pharaoh said, All right, I can't fight your God. Gonna let you go. And he sends the word: let these slaves go.
We're not talking about a little bit of slavery, we're talking about millions of people. History tells us there was at least two million. Who were delivered from there, perhaps more. I've seen figures that suggest four or five million. But at least a couple of million people Delivered by the mighty hand of God.
They began to leave Egypt. Praising God, got to the Red Sea. Then the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so he said, I can't let all this free labor go, and he took off after him. Just so God could show you what He'll do. When you see the enemy closing in on you, don't worry about it, don't look at the enemy, look to God.
He's trying to show them how to do it. The Lord told Moses: stretch out your hand, stretched out his hand over the Red Sea, and it parted. God worked such a miracle that the Bible said those couple of million people went through the Red Sea on dry land. Went through on dry Land. And Pharaoh's crazy army.
Tried to follow him. Listen, let me help you. You who don't yet know the Lord, don't fight God. Your arms are too short. To box with God.
Don't fight God. If you're not ready to surrender, at least don't fight him. Because he is God. Pharaoh's army, well, they were under orders. Pharaoh had told them, go bring those folk back, and they knew they better obey orders.
And so they saw the Red Sea parted, and they knew they had to know. I mean, how smart do you have to be? To realize that if these people serve a God, who can take a C. And put it up on two walls and create a dry highway. He means for them to get away from us.
Hey, how smart do you have to be to figure that one out? Whoever that God is. He really wants them away from us. And I've always said, so if I was the first guy in the first chariot. I'm pulling off to the side of the road.
Yeah. Rest of them can go if they want to. I'm going to be on the side of the road, pull out my cell phone. Call Meredith, say, yo. This ain't gonna go good.
We can't go back to Pharaoh. He'll have our head, but I am not going into that highway in the middle of the sea. Let's meet in another town. and start a new life. You know the story.
They went on in there, and God waited till all of them got in the middle of the Red Sea, all the army. And after Israel was up on safe shore, He enclosed the walls of water. And drowned them. But Israel Though they were no longer in Egypt. Because their minds weren't renewed.
Egypt was still in them.
So they got over there and they murmured and they complained. And they fuss. And they yelled. And they said, This is not fair. Where's the water over here?
And they act like slavery was better than freedom. We need our minds renewed. God finally gave him water because he wanted to show him, I am your provision. When you need something, don't get an attitude, don't get mad and angry and nasty. Look to me in faith.
And they never got the message. They got mad and they murmured. God gave them water. Then they said, All right, where's the food over here? God gave him manna.
Something to eat they didn't even understand. They ate that. Manna means what is it? Every morning they got up and ate, what is it? But sometimes God will show you, you don't have to know what it is, it's sustaining you, it's keeping you.
And they ate what is it till they got tired, and they said, We don't want anymore. What is it? Where to meet over here? God blessed them with so much meat till the quail stanked the Place up. Because he was judging their rebellion in their hearts.
That's why we need a new attitude because God could bless you.
Some of us are praying for certain blessings, and God said, You couldn't handle it. Because if I blessed you with your attitude. You wouldn't know how to praise me and glorify me and see me continue to work in your life.
So you need A new attitude. And if we yield ourselves to God. Say yes to him. and build a cocoon. and close ourselves against the conformity to this word.
We'll see God began to morph us. Transform us. into the new creations he's promised to make us. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard. Today's message: I've got a new attitude.
To learn more about our media ministry or for more information about the special gift reserved for you when you make a donation today, please come see us at pastorpaul.net. We can't fly if we don't believe we have wings. Here's Pastor Paul with a word about changing the way we think. We got an attitude that needs a serious adjustment. Because if God is going to make you new, you're going to have to change the way.
You're going to let Him change the way you view your world, view your challenges, view your circumstances, because your attitude will be determined by your attitude. That's tomorrow in our continuing message. I've got a new attitude. Until then remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
In Christ, you are destined for victory.
