Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey, podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

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Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day. This Bible teaching program.

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On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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William James said, perhaps the greatest discovery of this century is if you can change your attitude, you can change your life.

You know, if you think that thinking and attitudes are not that important, just look at what the Bible has to say about right attitudes and right thinking.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert. Our attitudes may have a profound effect on our lives right now, but it does not end here.

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress teaches that the way we respond to life's circumstances will have consequences that extend all the way into eternity. It's a message from the series "Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life."

But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

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Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Before we venture into today's subject, I want to share something that's weighing heavily on my heart. In these volatile days in our culture, I'm sensing two parallel trends. First, I believe God's spirit is quickening the hearts of men and women all across our country. And second, we don't know when Jesus will return, but the signs are evident, and now's the time to ramp up our efforts to invite our world to trust Jesus Christ as their personal savior and Lord.

I was impressed with these two factors when I read my friend's riveting book called the Legacy Life. David Green is the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby and someone I deeply admire. This isn't a book for elite or wealthy personalities. This one applies to us all because it's founded squarely on biblical principles of stewardship. David challenges us to understand our role in God's redemptive story. It's one that extends far beyond our individual lifetime.

Well, today, when you become a Pathway partner with an automated monthly gift to Pathway to Victory, you'll receive this transformative book from me. It'll inspire you to see your charitable giving, no matter the size, as far more than a transaction. When you become a Pathway partner, you're leaving a legacy that will outlive you. Plus, you'll become the channel God uses to change lives in your city, your country, and the world.

Alright, I'll share more details later. Right now, however, let's turn our attention to the study of God's Word. I titled the first message in this series, Attitude is Everything.

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Over and over again, the Bible talks about the importance of our attitude, our mind, our thinking. You can just jot down these references. We don't have time to look at all of them. You can look at them later on, but Luke 1:17 provides a description of John the Baptist. It is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous. There is an attitude of the righteous as opposed to the unrighteous. Romans 8:6 states, "For the mind that is set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." Ephesians 4:22 and 23 instructs us to lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, that we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Philippians 2:5 encourages us to have this attitude in ourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:15 adds, "Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and if anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you."

Do you see that? To neglect the importance of attitude, to ignore the importance of how we think, is to be totally unbiblical. Now, five key insights about our attitude. I want you to write these down.

**Principle number one:** Our attitudes are chosen. Attitudes, for the most part, are chosen. People many times choose the attitude that they're going to have. You know, I think about the Apostle Paul. He had some terrible, difficult circumstances in his life, one of which caused him to write the letter to the Philippian Christians. Here he was imprisoned, awaiting the verdict of his trial, whether he was going to live or die. And yet, 19 times in that little letter, he said, "Rejoice in the Lord. Again I say rejoice." Others would have lamented that kind of situation, but he chose the attitude that he was going to have. In Philippians 4:11, he said, "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." You know, that's a key verse. Paul was saying, "I don't come by this positive attitude naturally. It's not genetic, it's not body chemistry. I had to learn this attitude of contentment." Our attitudes, in many instances, are chosen.

**Secondly,** our attitudes are influenced by input. Our attitudes are influenced by external input—what we read, what we watch, what we listen to. I know people, and I bet you know people, who are just angry all the time. Just angry, angry. And yet, you look at their habits. They listen to talk radio continuously or they watch the cable news continuously. Let me let you in on a little secret: those things are designed to make you angry. They wonder, "Why am I angry so much?" Or other people I know say, "You know, pastor, I just have such trouble with impure thoughts." Look at what they're looking at. No wonder they would have difficulty with impure thoughts—websites they visit, movies they watch, and so forth. You know, it's an overused analogy, but it's still true: garbage in, garbage out. Paul talks about the importance of our input in Philippians 4:8. He says, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things."

Yes, our attitudes are influenced by what we see and what we read and what we listen to. But our attitude is also influenced by the kind of people we hang around. In Luke 1:17, Luke talks about the attitude of the righteous. You know, if you haven't done this before, I encourage you to start reading one chapter of the book of Proverbs every day. There are 31 chapters, one chapter for every day of the month. If you read through Proverbs, you'll find there are all kinds of warnings about the kind of people you ought to avoid at all costs because the people we hang around are the people who influence us. David, Solomon's father, also talked about the danger of associating with unrighteous people. In Psalm 1, verses 1 and 2, David says, "How blessed, how happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord." I love how the Living Bible paraphrases that: "How happy are those who don't hang around with sinners scoffing at the things of God." That doesn't mean you isolate yourself. We're to be influences on the unrighteous, but we're not to hang around them. We're not to party with them. We're not to allow them to shape our attitudes. We have to be very careful because the fact is, listen to this: attitudes are contagious. Our attitudes are shaped by the input we receive.

**Number three:** Our attitudes affect our relationships. I think every one of us listening to this message would say, "You know, I would like to have a better relationship with my mate. I wish I had a better relationship with my parents or with my children. I sure wish I knew how to get along better with my supervisor, my boss." Do you know what the answer to better relationships is? Many times, it's a change of attitude. In James 4:1, James asked this question: "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members and your body?" He said, "Diagnose any problem in a relationship, and at the root of that problem is a wrong attitude." That's certainly true in marriage. You know, whenever you have two people trying to live under the same roof, each hell-bent on getting his or her way, you're going to have sparks flying, you're going to have conflict, and ultimately you'll have a divorce. A selfish attitude destroys relationships. But you know what the antidote to a selfish attitude is? It's a change of attitude. Paul said in Philippians 2:4-7, "Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard his equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men."

Our attitudes affect our relationships. Yesterday, we had the funeral service for one of our great deacons, Herschel Forrester. Person after person offered a tribute to Herschel. You know, Herschel had many accomplishments in his life. He was a pro football player for the Cleveland Browns. He was a wildly successful commercial real estate broker. He had received all kinds of accolades. He had built a huge business. But it was interesting: the people who talked about Herschel only made a passing reference to those things. The reason that throng of people gathered together, the reason his two children and his grandchildren took to the platform and praised their dad and granddad, was for none of those reasons. Instead, they talked about his attitude, how he was an encourager, how he loved them, how he drew them close to God. It was all about attitude, nothing to do with accomplishment. And if you want to be sure that you have people praising you, remembering you in the best light possible, remember: they'll forget your accomplishments.

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They will always remember your attitude.

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Our attitudes affect our relationships. They either improve them or they destroy them. Number four: our attitudes are both the cause and the result of right behavior. Now, this is worth the price of the sermon right here. I want you to listen to this carefully. Our attitudes are both the cause and the result of right behavior. We understand the first part. We understand how we think; our attitudes produce right behavior or wrong behavior. Proverbs 23:7 states, "As a person thinks in his heart, so is he." How we think determines how we act. But did you know the corollary of that? The converse is also true: right actions produce right attitudes.

Right actions produce right attitudes. Perhaps the greatest illustration of that in the Bible is found in Genesis 4:6-7. Turn there for just a moment. You remember this story, the story of the two brothers, Cain and Abel. God had said to the brothers, "I want you to bring a sacrifice to me," teaching at an early stage in human history that a sacrifice was necessary to approach God. God gave very specific direction on what that sacrifice was to be. Abel brought the sacrifice that God had prescribed, and God accepted his sacrifice. But Cain decided to freelance a little bit to create his own sacrifice, one that he thought would be acceptable to the Lord. The Lord rejected Cain's sacrifice.

By the way, there's a whole sermon series right there about the sacrifice that pleases God throughout the scripture from that point on. You find this phrase: the way of Cain. Avoid the way of Cain. Beware of the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain? It is the way of trying to approach God in your own way instead of God's prescribed way. Do you know every religion in the world today? Whether it's Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, or any other ism you can think of, they are just one of the many religions that are the way of Cain, trying to approach God in your own way. The Bible says there's only one way to approach God: it's through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Jesus said, "I am the way, not a way. The way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father except through me."

The mistake Cain made was trying to approach God in his own way. God rejected his sacrifice, and Cain became angry. He became depressed. Notice what God said to Cain as a result. In verse 6, God asks, "Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? Why are you dejected? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it." I want you to underline that question: "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?"

He's saying, "If you do the right thing, Cain, you'll start to feel better. You'll start to feel the right thing." You know, so many people have that reversed today. They wait to do the right thing until they feel the right thing. If you depend on your feelings first, you'll almost always get it wrong. Today, there is a popular saying: "If it feels good, do it." Remember that from the 70s? If it feels good, do it. The converse of that was, "If it doesn't feel good, don't do it." A lot of people adopted that feeling. A husband or wife filing for divorce might say, "I don't feel any love for my mate; therefore, I'm going to divorce." Or someone might say, "I don't feel fulfilled in my job, so I'm going to leave my job with no other prospect in mind."

Somebody says, "I just don't feel the spirit in the church services anymore, so I'm going to quit coming to church." People base their actions on their feelings. I talk to people all the time who have wandered away from God. I'll ask them some diagnostic questions: "Are you reading the Bible?" "Well, I used to. I just don't feel like it." "Tell me about your prayer life." "Well, I used to pray pretty regularly, but I just quit because I don't feel close to God." "I notice you haven't been in church in two months." "Yeah, I just don't feel like going."

I always share with them the secret: if you wait to do the right thing until you feel the right thing, you're not going to do it. Reverse it. If you will start to do the right thing, then you'll start to feel the right thing many times. Most times, feelings follow actions instead of producing actions. That's why he says here, "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?" The Bible says our attitude is both the cause of and the result of right behavior.

One more truth, and perhaps it's the most important one: our attitude determines our destiny. Our attitude determines our destiny. Attitudes profoundly impact our life, our death, and our eternal destiny. Many of you may be familiar with the name of Norman Cousins. He was a celebrated New York journalist. For a period of time, he was editor of the prestigious Saturday Review. In 1964, Norman Cousins developed a very serious crippling connective tissue disease. The doctors told him he only had one chance in 500 of surviving that disease. But he wasn't satisfied with the prognosis. He decided to take matters into his own hands. He had already begun to study the biochemistry of the mind and of attitudes.

He did his own self-prescription. First of all, he started taking intravenous massive doses of vitamin C. But not only that, this was the day before videotape. He got a movie projector, a 16-millimeter movie projector, and he watched old reruns of the comedy show Candid Camera and movies of the Three Stooges. This learned man, a scholar, watched the Three Stooges on television and on his movie projector. He made this discovery: he said, "I made the joyous discovery that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep." He went on to write a bestselling book about his experience, which I read many years ago, entitled "Head: The Biology of Hope."

In that book, Norman Cousins said the most prolific gland in our body is the brain. The most prolific gland in the body is the brain because it activates both healing secretions and deadly toxins, dependent upon our attitude. Think about it: your attitude affects how long you live and how soon you die. But perhaps the most convincing argument for right attitudes is that your attitude affects your eternal destiny. Remember what we said an attitude was: your mental or emotional response to the circumstances of life.

Now listen to this: every one of us in this room, we all experience different circumstances in our lives, don't we? But there is one circumstance that every one of us in this room, every one of us watching on television, has in common, and that is sin. We've all been infected with sin. We've all fallen short of God's plan for our life. Truthfully, we didn't choose that circumstance; we were born in sin, the Bible says. But even though we didn't choose that circumstance, we can choose how we respond to our sin and our failure before God.

Some people respond by denying it: "I don't believe that. I don't believe what the Bible says, that I'm a sinner deserving eternal death." Other people respond to that reality with rationalization: "Well, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm better than most people. I haven't killed anybody, I don't deal drugs; I'm okay. I may not be perfect, but I'm good enough." If that is your attitude, your response to sin, the Bible says you'll spend eternity separated from God.

But here's the attitude that God respects: the attitude of the humble who respond to their sin not by denying or rationalizing, but by agreeing with God. "God, you know you're right and I'm wrong. I am a sinner. I have fallen short of your plan." Only when we confess our sin and put our faith in Jesus Christ, in what he did for us, is it that attitude through which we receive forgiveness and eternal life. That's why John said in 1 John 1:9, "If we will confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Perhaps William James' comment should be changed just a little bit. Perhaps the greatest discovery of this century is if we can change our attitude.

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We can change our life and our eternity. That's the overarching message in my teaching series called "Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life." When we purposely change our attitude, we can radically transform our life and our eternity.

As we conclude today's teaching time, I want to revisit something I mentioned at the top of today's program. David Greene's new book, "The Legacy Life," is one I highly recommend for anyone and everyone in our listening family. As the founder of Hobby Lobby, David articulates what it means to think with eternity in mind, especially as it pertains to the legacy we leave.

Rather than working hard to amass a huge savings account, David urges us to see the joy and value of working in cooperation with God to bless generations long beyond our own. I want to send you his book, "The Legacy Life," and when you become...

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One of our pathway partners today, or.

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Just give a generous one-time gift, and you'll receive this book. In doing so, you'll change lives through your partnership. Our pathway partners agree to give a monthly automated gift in the amount of your choosing, and when you sign up, your legacy starts today and lasts through eternity.

Oh, as an added gift, when you respond today, you'll also receive my book, "Choose Your Change, Your Life," along with David's thanks for trusting Pathway to Victory with your voluntary gifts. I'm so grateful for our Pathway partners and every generous friend who supports this ministry.

Let me say it again: when you give today, you're initiating a legacy that will reach far beyond anything we can imagine. Many lives are being transformed by the Gospel because of your generosity. Here's David to tell you more.

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When you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, or when you sign up to become a Pathway Partner, you're invited to request a copy of the book *The Legacy Life*. Plus, you'll also receive the book *Choose Your Change, Change Your Life* by Dr. Robert Jeffress. To request both resources, simply call 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org. When you give $100 or more, you'll also receive the audio and video discs for the teaching series *Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life*. Additionally, we'll send you the study guide especially designed for individual or group study. Again, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org.

You know, a lot of folks prefer to contact us the good old-fashioned way. If that's you, write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. You know, everyone loves a good underdog story, but often we never get to experience moments of triumph in our own lives, and that's because we quit partway through our endeavors. Learn how to choose perseverance over defeat. That's Wednesday on Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or you can follow the link in our show notes.

We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Oh, and one last thing before we go. Have you reserved your spot yet for the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska? You've been hearing me and Dr. Jeffress mention it, so what are you waiting for? Just picture yourself on the deck of Holland America's elegant Koningsdam and stepping out on deck to witness nature's grandeur. It's beautiful. These moments in God's creation will deepen your faith in powerful ways. It really will.

Experience five-star dining, luxurious staterooms, and visit iconic ports like Juneau, Ketchikan, and Skagway. We're also bringing along our own Christian entertainment. You'll love it. Seats are filling up, so book your spot today at ptv.org.