Born to Fly, Part 2 (cont'd)

If you've been looking for advice in all the wrong places, you're in the right place today. Hello and thanks for stopping by for this Friday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. In just a few moments, Pastor Paul shares his message, born to fly.

But first, he joins me from his studio in California. Pastor, you know many of us put some real thought into what we name our children, our businesses, even our pets. Many of our listeners have wondered, though, how we got our name, Destined for Victory.

Let's talk about that for a moment. Well, I want to tell you that it's important to me as a discipler that my voice is heard and it is used to help people grow in their knowledge of the Lord and in their faith walk with Him. Fact of the matter is, my voice doesn't sound like most of the other folks you hear on Christian radio.

I'm well aware of that and I'm really comfortable with that. I come from my own unique background, both ethnically and in terms of life experience. There are things I share, there are things I say, and there are the ways that I say them that are unique. I believe that that perspective needs to be heard throughout Christendom.

And so while I'm so grateful for all of my heroes, your heroes are mine. I listen to the same people, the guys who have been on the radio for decades and have proclaimed God's Word faithfully. I really do appreciate those guys, but I've learned not to be intimidated by them because I've got my own way of processing and own way of sharing and helping people to learn and to grow in their faith.

So it's quite intentional. Sometimes I like to be really colloquial in what I say and how I say it because I'm just using who I am and I think God wants to use that. He's the one who called me.

I didn't call myself. He called me and I believe he knows what he was getting when he called me into the ministry. And so I'm just trying to make a difference because the gospel really does change lives and I believe I have a unique calling to help present the gospel from my own perspective. And I pray that that's resonating with listeners and I pray that that means enough to them that they'll make sure my voice can continue to be heard right along with our other heroes who teach the gospel of Jesus.

Well, we say it all the time here on the broadcast. In Christ, you are destined for victory. God said it and we believe it. We hope you do as well and we hope you will support our mission to reach as many people as we can with this important truth. For your generous donation to Destined for Victory today, we'll send you a booklet from Pastor Paul called Lessons from the Cocoon. As you know, butterflies don't start out as butterflies.

They're caterpillars, grounded, earthbound. But later on, a transformation takes place and they take flight. So will your life. In Lessons from the Cocoon, Pastor Paul reminds you that God is at work in you even when you can't see it. And in his perfect timing, you will, like the butterfly, take flight because you were born to fly. That's Lessons from the Cocoon, our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory.

Call 855-339-5500 to give over the phone or mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. You can also make a safe and secure donation from our website, PastorPaul.net. I want you to understand that in saving us, Christ did more than prepare us for eternity. He also comes into our lives to do a significant work of change in our lives.

All of us have people in whom we can confide, friends or family members, people we know and trust enough to share with them what's going on in our life. Well, today on Destined for Victory, the question Pastor Paul wants you to think about is this. Are they the right people? Do they believe in Jesus the same way you do?

Or are they people who make you feel better, who tell you what you want to hear? Let's join Pastor Paul now for today's Destined for Victory message, Born to Fly. I had to learn to be smart, especially when I started going on the radio around the country and what have you and doing those radio rallies and going to the city and meet with the listeners so that they could connect with you and you could raise funds for the ministry and all that. And when I first started that process, I wasn't real smart about it because, you know, I was so proudly hating certain teams that I went to one city where I hate the team with a passion, but I had to go do a radio rally. And it was my first time doing a rally in that city and those folks loved me. And they came, I was about 1,200 for that first rally in that city, showed up and they were all over that place and I got up and they applauded, whoa, this is the Pastor Paul we've been listening to, I said, oh, I'm greeted him, I'm glad to see you all and meet you, so glad you're part of our radio team, blah, blah, blah, what have you. And then that first time I said, I love you all, I love everything about this city except this football team.

At the time, Southwest had not yet created the commercial, but it was one of those moments, want to get away? Because when I said, I like everything about you all but your football team, the air went out of the room. And these people who had just been giving me a standing ovation a minute before were now sitting there looking.

Place went silent. And I thought, oh, I have messed up. And one man spoke out, I promise, I lie not, one man spoke up and said, we love you Pastor Paul, but that could change.

You know why it could change? Because you set your affection. He decided he loved me, but if I was going to keep fooling with his team, see what I'm saying? You set your affection on things, and so the Bible says, set your affection on things above. Present your body to God, say, Lord, do with me whatever you want. Lord, I am yours, I want you to change me, there's nothing about me that is non-negotiable.

There's no part of me that I will not, not just let, okay, God, do whatever, no, no, it's not his job. It's your job to say, Lord, this is ugly. You got to look at your ugliness, see, because God will deliver you from your enemies, he'll never deliver you from your friends. If you like your ugliness, he'll let you live with it. But you'll never be what he's called you to be. And so no need of you staying a caterpillar when he destined you to be a butterfly.

You got to present it and say, Lord, this is not acceptable to you, your word is clear. So something's got to give. Some of you are at a something's got to give stage in your life right now.

And it's time for you to build your chrysalis. It's time for you to build a new environment in which transformation can take place. For some of you, that means getting rid of some raggedy people in your life. Because you cannot become what God's destined you to be. You can't be God's butterfly fooling around with earthbound folk.

If you're going to fly, how you going to spend all your time with folk on the ground not trying to go anywhere? You're going to have to shake up your inner circle. You're going to have to stop letting people speak into your life who are not going where God is taking you. If God is doing a new thing in you, you got to stop hanging out with folk who are not interested in a new thing.

They like themselves just the way they are. You know, God can have great things for you, but if you fool, he can't feed you with them. Think about it in the natural. If you just get up from one of those places that just feeds you heavily, like Cheesecake Factory. Y'all have been to Cheesecake Factory? Oh, quit it. You've been to Cheesecake.

I don't know what you're talking about. I just eat salads all day. If you sit down at Cheesecake, if you aren't careful about what you order, you will leave there. You can hardly get up. Now, if you just walked out having had a wonderful full meal and you walk out and you go home and somebody who didn't go to Cheesecake Factory said, I just cooked the most amazing meal.

I'm so proud of myself for all this. Here, sit down. Let me fix you a plate.

It doesn't matter how good the food is. Why? Because I'm full. Some of you all can't get where God wants to take you right now and can't experience transformation right now because of the stuff you're full of. You're full of it.

Whatever it is, you're full of it. And if you are full of it, full of yourself, full of your flesh, full of your preconceived ideas, full of your pride, full of your hatred, full of your malice, full of whatever it is, your unforgiveness, if you are full of something other than what God wants to transform you into, you're going to have to make some major changes in order to be prepared for transformation. So you got to build your chrysalis.

You got to create a new environment. You got to get some people out of your inner circle. You got to make sure that the folk who are in your life are people who speak the truth in love, people who pay you more than they cost you.

You got to learn to invest in better relationships than you've been investing in. You can't let people who don't know anything talk to you. There are a whole lot of people who don't know anything but refuse to shut up. Just always talking, always running their mouth. Well, see, if it was me, there's the problem. You who are trying to hold together a marriage and you just believe in God and just struggling hard and you're telling these people, say, honey, if it was me, I wouldn't even bother.

Get them out of your inner circle. God's trying to save your marriage and make you a trophy of his grace and his ability to endure and press through difficult things and you're talking to somebody who done traded off two, three folk. I'm not going to talk to you about marriage.

You don't know anything about marriage. Why would I take swimming lessons from a drowning person? Oh, this is good, this is good. And if you sitting there right now saying, mm, that's cause that's you. So you got to shake up your life to get ready for the metamorphosis. You got to get rid of some things and some people. You got to change your priorities.

You got to set your affection on things above. You got to become a Jesus fan. I'm about Jesus. I'm about Jesus.

That's me. I'm a Jesus guy. I'm a Jesus gal. I'm about the Lord. I feed on his word. I don't make apologies.

No, I can't do that because the word is against it. That's the way you got to become. Position yourself. Build your chrysalis. That will support the transformation God wants to bring about. It means you got to shut some things and some people out and only invest in that which is going to promote your transformation. And you got to understand that God is up to something marvelous in your life and you cannot allow yourself to begin to think about where you've been. You've now got to begin to think about where you're going. This is about destiny, not history. History takes you in the wrong direction. It is fine to know your history. Some say if you don't know your history you're doomed to repeat it.

It's fine to know your history but do not hang up on knowing your history. Get familiar with your destiny. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Sheppard. Remember, you can always listen to our program on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net where you'll find a host of great resources at our online store.

You can also reach out to us with your prayer request by using the contact feature at the top of the home page. Do you want your Christian life to really take shape? Also, you may have to make some changes to your inner circle.

Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, Born to Fly. Start calling yourself what God says about you, not what you have always been. You've got to break away from anything that you've always been if you're going to become something you've never been. So you've got to begin to speak faith. You've got to begin to speak life. You've got to begin to speak hope. You've got to begin to speak future things that are better than what has been. My future is better than my past.

Why? Because God destined me for some things. And you've got to begin to be forward thinking and forward moving. All of that is part of building the structure that will shut out everything that doesn't conform to the will of God. Paul said in Romans 12 2, don't be conformed to this world.

That's your choice. You have to reject the world system so you can adopt God's system that will allow for your transformation. And when you build that chrysalis, here's what happens in the life of that caterpillar. As soon as it closes itself out from all the negative environment and that's so essential because there is no caterpillar who becomes a butterfly with full exposure to the world. Well, I know that I'm supposed to build a chrysalis, but I don't feel like it. So I'm just going to lay here and become a butterfly. It doesn't happen.

It's not possible. It's not God's plan. Because what you're exposed to is what you're going to become like.

Do you know some things are caught, not taught? See, you can say all you want, I don't want to catch a cold. I hate catching the cold. I refuse to catch a cold. I know cold season is coming, but I'm just not going to participate. Okay, I hear you. Now what are you going to do to ensure that you don't catch a cold? Here's the one thing you got to do, make sure to not fool with folk who have one. Why?

Because some things are caught, not taught. Several years ago, I was flying from the West Coast to the East Coast for a meeting, church revival. Thousands were going to be there, looking forward to being there. Got on a plane Tuesday and I sat in my seat by the window in this particular row, and other folk came in, filled into their assigned seats, and as the devil would have it, man who pulled in next to me had a full-blown active cold. You know what I mean when I call it active? I mean, clearly, this thing is still infectious.

There's one thing to be on the other side of the infectious stage where you still got a little leftover cough, something like that. That's not dangerous. It's okay, I hear that. That's just a nuisance. Why don't you go somewhere with all that?

But you know, I'm talking about a dude who came on and everything sounded active. All the noises, all the sneezing, all the coughing, all the nose blowing, and I'm sitting by the window, I'm pressed up, pressed up against the window. I wish to God I can sit somewhere else, but the plane is full. I'm stuck.

All the way across the country, I'm stuck. Bad position. Got off that plane, got out into the terminal, got to my hotel, called my wife, I said, I sat next to the most obnoxious man who didn't know that he has no business out in the flying public. He should have cared enough about other folk. He didn't have to go that day. He should have stayed home until he got well or died or something. You know, I had an attitude by then.

You just go somewhere else and die. Why you got to come up in here? Yeah, he made me very caterpillar that day, very, very.

And I'm just fussing to my wife, hoping, I said, I got this meeting, I want to enjoy the whole meeting, I sure hope. Sure enough, the next day, eyes stinging, scratchiness in the throat, nose to eyes, oh no. Why? I didn't want to catch it, but it wasn't a bad matter of want to.

It was an exposure issue. Some things are caught, not taught, both positively and negatively. So your cocoon is designed to close you in with everything positive that will help you get to the place of transformation and to shut out everything that will militate against it.

That's your decision. You got to do the discerning, the shutting out. Not everybody can go with you to the butterfly place. Not everybody can go with you through the metamorphosis. Some folk, you got to drop off along the way.

Some folk are happy on the branch, happy on the leaf. You just got to let them go there and build your chrysalis and move on with your life. Oh, this is a growing up season for some of you. Some of you just got to flat out grow up now. It's time for you to grow up emotionally. It's time for you to grow up psychologically. It's time for you to stop depending on people who were never destined to be a major part of your life anyway. It is time for you to make changes that will cause you to experience the transformation God has in mind.

And if you're willing to do it, here's the good news. When you get in the right environment, you don't have to make, I wonder how to make myself, you don't want to know how to make yourself a butterfly. God is the one who started the butterfly stuff in you.

He is the one who knows how to bring about the transformation. And inside that sack where none of us on the outside can see, some miracles are taking place. What used to crawl only suddenly is developing wings. What used to be ugly suddenly is becoming beautiful.

And when it comes out of there, when it breaks out of that sack, what breaks out is not what it looked like going in. God did a work of transformation. Suddenly the thing is beautiful, has wings.

The wings are weak, but it begins to shake its wings. Get some blood in there. It takes blood for transformation.

The blood of Jesus is what's working in your life to get you to a place where God can do a mighty work in your life. And what used to be ugly suddenly becomes beautiful. What used to be earthbound suddenly can take off. It has never flown before, but now it has a brand new potential. And after it gets enough blood in its wings, then it takes off and begins to learn how to fly.

And it catches on pretty easily because it now has flying on the inside. That's what God wants to do in your life. God wants to do something marvelous in your life and make you different. You know, what you were was ugly, but don't plan to stay there because God is taking you to something beautiful.

Not every area of your life goes from caterpillar to butterfly at the same time, but thank God that in various areas you're seeing transformations happen over and over and over again. The old saints used to say that I'm not what I'm going to be, but thank God I'm not what I used to be. In fact, there was a lady in the old church in New York that my dad used to go preach to, and she said it the best. It was one of those churches where you get up, they have testimony service. Some of y'all don't know about testimony service, church, where you get up singing a little chorus.

Some of y'all don't know about that. So you get up singing a little chorus, and then you give your testimony after the chorus. And so you get up and sing, Living, he loved me, dying, he saved me, then he carried my sins far away. He justified, freed me forever. One day he's coming, oh, God, yesterday night. I learned how to play the organ at churches like that.

I was just going on with him. And when they got through with that chorus, then they would testify. Giving honor to God, pastor members, friends.

Come on, some of y'all. I thank God for my life, health, and strength. I thank God for saving me. I thank God for, and they'd had their little way of saying, this mother would get up, she said, saints, I just want you to know. That I'm not all I'm going to be, but thank God I ain't what I used to was.

Oh, I lived to go to that church, so hear that mother testify. Some of y'all, that's what you got to understand about what God's doing in your life. You're not what you're going to be yet, but be encouraged, because when you look at where you are now, you've come this far by faith. And although you're not fully developed yet, you are not what you used to was. God is up to something in your life. You've crawled for a long time, but it's about time for you to fly.

You've been ugly long enough, it's about time for you to see God take you and make something beautiful out of those areas of your life. In the words of that great theologian R. Kelly, I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky.

Think about it every night and day. Spread my wings and fly away. I believe I can soar. I see me running through that open door. I believe I can fly.

You got to know that flying is in you. So you present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. You make the presentation. God's not going to make it happen.

You make the presentation. Lord, I'm all in. Lord, I'm fully yours.

Lord, there's no area of my life that's off limits. I'm a Jesus fan first and foremost. I want nothing more than to feed on your word and experience your transforming power. And you will see spiritual metamorphosis take place in your life. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message, Born to Fly. If you'd like more information about the Destined for Victory ministry or if you need prayer, be sure to stop by our website, pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. Well, just as the team here at Destined for Victory is always willing to pray for you, so is Jesus. In fact, he's praying for you right now and he prayed for you in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died.

If you're going to fly, how you going to spend all your time with folk on the ground not trying to go anywhere? You're going to have to shake up your inner circle. You're going to have to stop letting people speak into your life who are not going where God is taking you. That's Monday when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, Jesus Prayer for You. Have a great weekend and until next time remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.