Destined for Victory

Guest (Male): What can a caterpillar teach us about salvation? You'll find out on today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. 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.

Paul Sheppard: When I think of victorious, my mind goes back to being a kid growing up watching TV in the '60s, so my mind goes back to the Wide World of Sports. There was an announcer named Jim McKay. He had this classic line where he talked about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I love just thinking about how thrilling it is to be victorious. 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.

In life, we can win in Christ, and that's what the Bible tells us, that we are victorious in Him. 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. 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. 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. That's what I pray is happening as people tune in day by day.

We say it every day: in Christ, you're destined for victory. 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 four, 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.

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.

Paul Sheppard: 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. 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. I often look for parallel truths in nature or in our everyday experiences.

As I was preparing this message and really looking at what it means to have God morph us, change us, transform us, and 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 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 it can find a leaf to begin to chew on. And there it is, pitiful, ugly, low to the ground, eating leaves.

Sometimes that's the way we start out. I know you 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. Can you go with that? I don't want to offend you, but on the inside, there's some ugliness.

So you've got some caterpillar in you. Some things that are low to the ground, cannot scale the heights, cannot get up above the mess, and stays low, hoping not to get stomped on. 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. There is 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 illustration in nature to show you that when you come to Him, there's going to be some issues in your life that aren't worked out yet. There are things that are still low, that are bound to the ground, and are not attractive. 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 and a future.

So God gave us that illustration in the caterpillar eating leaves and just hanging out in the lowlands of life. But 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, "This is no longer acceptable." Caterpillars don't go to caterpillar school and learn anything like that. But God put something on the inside of them to help us understand there comes a time in your life when you hit a certain crisis point. It is like, "Lord, if You don't do something, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it."

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.

It closes itself off so that it's saying, "No more of 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 people thinking I'm ugly. I'm tired of people stepping on me. It's time for me to fly." And it closes itself in.

Be not conformed to this world. It is time to no longer be in the caterpillar world. He closes himself in. The 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.

That is a sign to you and me 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.

When you do that, God will begin the process of renewing you, making you somebody you've never been before. 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. It comes out of there saying, "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. 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 alights on a place to find the sweetness. 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 caterpillars saying, "I wish I was with y'all."

It is 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, "O 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, those old dirty leaves? Aren't you tired of crawling around? Aren't you tired of the same old same old? It's time to fly."

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. Then he says you build a cocoon. You no longer conform to the world of the caterpillar. You put yourself in a position where God can begin to do the work of transformation, a complete renovation in your life. The first way it's going to express itself is through a change in your thinking.

Guest (Male): Just in case you joined us late, you're listening to Destined for Victory featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Sheppard. Stay with us, the second half of today's message is straight ahead. Jesus said that the truth is the only thing in this world that can set us free. 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 ministry 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.

Paul Sheppard: You 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 face. You think differently about the way life is. When you think like a caterpillar, your thinking is limited to your reality. You're low, you're bound to the ground, all you can do is do a little climbing and find a little leaf. You have limited capability, so you have limited thinking.

But the butterfly has a different mind altogether. 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. God wants to give you a new attitude in anticipation of taking you to a new altitude. God wants to take you higher, but before He changes your altitude, He's going to change your attitude. He will help you begin to look at life's challenges. When you become a butterfly it doesn't mean you don't have challenges, but now you look at them from a different worldview.

God wants you 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 physical and emotional problems.

All of the way you've thought about life's challenges and the things coming against you is not suiting God's purpose in your life. It's time for a new attitude. Patti 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 shoe. Know where I'm going and know what to do. I got a new attitude."

Patti LaBelle will preach sometimes. Listen, that's what God wants you to do. He wants you to get a new attitude about your life and 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 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. 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 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. When God decided it's time, He heard the cry of His people down there in bondage and sent Moses to deliver 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 taking them to new heights so that He gets all the glory.

He raised up Moses and made him the deliverer. You know the story of 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. God wanted to deliver them, but first He made it hard.

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 stacked up and you're saying, "What in the world is going on?" But God's just getting you ready for a miracle. It got harder for a while, but God was still in the process of delivering them.

Ultimately, here's what happened. Finally, Pharaoh said, "All right, I can't fight your God. I'm going to let you go." And he sends a 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 were 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 million people were delivered by the mighty hand of God.

They began to leave Egypt, praising God, and 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 them 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 over the Red Sea," and it parted. God worked such a miracle that the Bible said those couple million people went through the Red Sea on dry land. Pharaoh's crazy army tried to follow them. Let me help you who don't yet know the Lord: don't fight God. Your arms are too short to box with God. If you're not ready to surrender, at least don't fight Him because He is God.

Pharaoh's army was under orders. Pharaoh had told them, "Go bring those people back," and they knew they better obey orders. So they saw the Red Sea parted and 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 sea and put it up on two walls and create a dry highway, He means for them to get away from us?

How smart do you have to be to figure that one out? Whoever that God is, He really wants them away from us. I've always said that if I were the first guy in the first chariot, I'm pulling off to the side of the road. The rest of them can go if they want, but I'm going to be on the side of the road and call Meredith. I'd say, "Yo, this isn't going to go good. We can't go back to Pharaoh, he'll have our heads, 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."

They went on in there and God waited until all of them got in the middle of the Red Sea. After Israel was up on a 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. They got over there and they murmured, complained, fussed, and yelled. They said, "This is not fair. Where's the water over here?" And they acted like slavery was better than freedom.

We need our minds renewed. God finally gave them water because He wanted to show them, "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 manna, something to eat they didn't even understand. Manna means "what is it?"

Every morning they got up and ate "what is it?" Sometimes God will show you that you don't have to know what it is; it's sustaining you and keeping you. They ate "what is it" until they got tired and said, "We don't want any more 'what is it.' Where is the meat over here?"

God blessed them with so much meat until the quail stank the place up because He was judging their rebellion in their hearts. That's why we need a new attitude. God could bless you, but some of us are praying for certain blessings and God said you couldn't handle it. 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. If we yield ourselves to God, say yes to Him, and build a cocoon, we enclose ourselves against the conformity to this world. You put yourself in a position where God can begin to do the work of transformation, a complete renovation in your life. We'll see God begin to transform us into the new creations He's promised to make us.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. 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.

Paul Sheppard: We have an attitude that needs a serious adjustment. If God is going to make you new, you're going to have to let Him change the way you view your world, view your challenges, and view your circumstances. Your altitude 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.