Hi Pastor Bob here. Welcome back to the Men of Valor podcast. The verse for today is from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 and it states, “And we all who are with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is Spirit.”

One of my favorite pictures that we have on our refrigerator is our granddaughter with her big smile holding her “Bug Book” with a big green grasshopper on the cover. Her and her “little people team” (her brother and sister) love to get their nets and go around catching various bugs. Imagine them trying to catch a Monarch butterfly and coming in excitedly with a caterpillar in their nets. As I see their catch I say, “Guys, that's not a butterfly, it's only a dirty caterpillar!” But not to be discouraged by Pop-Pop, they proceed to put it in a container with some dirt and grass and sometimes later that month, they call and they're yelling, “Pop-Pop, it was a Monarch! Pop-Pop, it was a Monarch! It broke through the chrysalis! It had beautiful wings. You should have seen it!”

“Life is no longer about me...it's now about exalting and obeying the God who created us...“

Now, imagine if you were that caterpillar. All you knew was spending your entire life in dirt and all you could see was the dirt in front of you and everywhere you turned was dirt, dirt, dirt. It's all you knew and all the other caterpillars were doing the exact same thing, so I assume you think this is what it's all about. Then, one day you fall asleep, you wake up and everything -and I mean everything- changes. You discover you have beautiful-colored wings. You can fly sometimes up to 3,000 miles over beautiful mountains and blue oceans and your view is one of sunlight and beauty.

Reminds me of a sermon Pastor recently taught and said “...your past no longer matters, eternity starts today and moves forward…” Wow! This can't be the same world I was living in, it just can't be! But guess what? I was that caterpillar. And guess what? So were you. We were all crawling around in the dirt of the world, chasing the toys of life because he who dies with the most and nicest toys wins.

“Are we compelled to share the gospel...?“

Perhaps we were living in the dirt of religion by just going to church, week after week, month after month, and it meaning nothing to us and living like most of the other people, just crawling their way through life. Then something absolutely miraculously happens: someone shares the good news of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ with us and by the grace of God, we're no longer blinded. Up until that time, 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Then, all of a sudden, everything changes in your life. Life is no longer about me and my toys; it's now about exalting and obeying the God who created us and loving and sharing with other caterpillars that were not hatched yet.

Now that our eyes have been opened to some extent, how do we view other people who have not been so blessed yet? Are we compelled to share the gospel and tell them our testimony as the Holy Spirit leads? Are we compelled to plant and water the seeds, to perhaps have the Holy Spirit open their eyes?

When discussing sharing like this, one young man recently shared with me, “I would share the gospel with this guy I know but he drinks, gets high and even sleeps around.” My comment back to him: “That was you 5 years ago! But someone saw you as a potential monarch and they didn’t judge you as the dirty caterpillar you were. Don't ever forget where you came from and where you were rescued from.”

Why did Jesus eat with the prostitutes, thieves and sinners? Because He saw them as potential monarchs, not who they were at that time but who they were in His sight and what they could become. I believe 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 about sums up this caterpillar/monarch illustration. It says, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things -the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so no man can boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God -that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’”

What an amazing God we serve. God bless you all.