Pathway to Victory

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Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory and Dr. Robert Jeffress.

We're dedicated to bringing you bold biblical teaching that transforms your life and strengthens your walk with God.

And you can study God's word alongside Dr. Jeffress in person on the 2026 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.

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Have you ever witnessed the breathtaking majesty.

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Of massive glaciers rising from crystal blue waters or stood in awe as bald.

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Eagles soar over snow capped mountain? I want you to experience these unforgettable moments with me on the Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska, June 13th through 20th, 2026.

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Join Dr. Jeffress and the Pathway to Victory family for a spectacular seven-day adventure aboard Holland America's luxurious Koningsdam.

Indulge in elegant staterooms, world-class dining, and expansive decks perfect for breathtaking views.

Visit historic ports like Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, where wilderness and frontier history await.

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There's something powerful about connecting with God and fellow believers in the majesty of his untamed wilderness. I truly believe this journey will refresh you spiritually, physically and emotionally.

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Cabins are filling quickly, so reserve yours today. To book your spot on the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, call 888-280-6747 or go to ptv.org 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 on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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A trusty heart is one that has or allows our confidence in God's character to govern our inward emotions and our outward behavior.

That is, we are so convinced of God's love, power, and wisdom that it frees us from inner turmoil and frees us to outwardly obey God.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. God expects his children to be obedient to him, but the only way we can obey God completely is if we also trust him completely.

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress talks about how to trust God with our future regardless of our current circumstances.

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. As we begin a brand new week of Bible studies together, you're invited to join us on a luxurious getaway to the Great Frontier. Imagine waking up every morning to spectacular scenery or exploring the wonder of God's creation as you spot magnificent glaciers and amazing wildlife like Humpback whales, bald eagles, and wild salmon. Well, you're invited to share these incredible experiences on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. The dates are June 13, 2026. You'll never regret making the decision to travel with us, and all the details are found at ptv.org.

Keep in mind that time is running short to request the brand new devotional book from Pathway to Victory. It's called *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple*. This is a padded hardcover book that you'll proudly display on your coffee table or nightstand. It contains quick doses of biblical inspiration to help you cultivate your walk with God. By applying the biblical principles, you'll become better equipped to deal with worry, discover contentment with your finances, and gain inward peace in spite of your outward circumstances. To thank you for your much-needed gift to support Pathway to Victory, we'll send you this beautiful resource. It would also make a great gift for a loved one or friend. Again, it's called *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple*.

Okay, let's open our Bibles to Colossians, Chapter three. In our series, we're talking about the seven marks that identify a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Today, we're discussing developing a trusting heart.

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You know, God says that if we do what he asks us to do, we will be better off than if we don't do what he asks us to do. Most of us will believe that up to a point. We believe God enough that we don't commit murder or embezzlement. We know that wouldn't be good for us. We may say no to certain temptations that we don't feel a particular inclination to fall into. But there comes a level at which we begin to doubt whether we can really trust God or not. And it's at that level of commitment when God asks us to abstain from a certain behavior that we begin to wonder, can we really trust God that we're going to be better off if we obey Him?

Last time we talked about one of the marks of a disciple being an obedient heart, being willing to do everything God asks us to do. Not picking and choosing like a buffet what we're going to obey, but obeying all things. But ladies and gentlemen, we will never be that obedient disciple. We will never obey God immediately, completely, and joyfully until we learn to trust God. And that's what I want to talk about today: how to develop that trusting heart that allows us to obey God in all things whatsoever he has commanded us. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Colossians chapter three.

Today we're talking about trust. But in the Bible, the word faith is the synonym for trust, and it's invaluable in a disciple's life. For example, Habakkuk 2, verse 4 says, "the righteous person shall live by what? By faith." Or skip down to Hebrews 11:6. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." Faith is indispensable. Learning to trust God, but what do we mean by faith? What does it mean to trust God? I think the best way to understand what faith is is by understanding what it isn't.

First of all, faith is not the ability to predict the future. Have you heard people say, "Well, I'm trusting God that my marriage is going to work out," or "I'm trusting God that I'm going to get this job that I want," or "I'm trusting God that I'm going to get the raise that I've been desiring for so long?" They think that's what faith is, the ability to predict what's going to happen. And if we believe something long enough and hard enough, poof, it comes to pass. That's not faith. That's presumption. Okay, no. Faith is not the ability to predict the future.

Secondly, faith is not the absence of any doubt. Sometimes we think faith means I can have zero doubt whatsoever. A few weeks ago, as you know, I made a quick trip to Israel for some meetings. And, you know, I went on that trip. The reason I got on the airplane was I believed it had been solidly built by the Boeing company and some negligent worker didn't leave a couple of bolts off the engine that would cause it to fall off in the middle of the ocean. I believed in the competency of the pilot, that he wouldn't try to fly the jet while he was drunk, and that he had a basic level of skill necessary to fly. I believed that our counterterrorism experts, both here and in Israel, had tried to do everything they could to screen away would-be terrorists. I believed all of those things, but I didn't have 100% faith.

Before we left on the trip, I redid my will, and Amy and I went to the lawyer, and we redid the will because I knew I'd be flying over the Golan Heights, and I just wanted to prepare for any contingency. I didn't have 100% faith. But I had just enough faith to get on board that airplane. You know, God says it's not the quantity of faith that makes a difference. Jesus said, "If you have the faith as that of a mustard seed." A mustard seed was the tiniest seed in the vegetable world in Jesus' day. The faith of a mustard seed is enough to move mountains. It's not the quantity of faith we have; it is the object of our faith.

So what is faith? Faith I've defined as believing that God will do what he has promised to do and acting accordingly. Acting accordingly. You know, when our girls, Julia and Dorothy, were younger and were at home, I wanted them to have confidence in me so that they would follow my directions. I wanted them to have confidence in my love for them, that I really did want what was best for them. I wanted them to have confidence in my power, my ability to take care of them and watch over them so they'd be free from anxiety about their future. I wanted them to have confidence in my wisdom, that I might know just a little bit more than they knew, and they would follow my direction. I wanted them to have confidence in my love, in my power to take care of them, and in my wisdom. Should we be surprised that God wants anything less than that from us?

If we're going to obey God—and listen to this—if we're going to obey God in everything he asks us to do, we have to have complete confidence in God's love for us, that he really wants what's best, in his power to take care of us no matter what happens, and in his wisdom to know what is truly best. That's what it means to trust God. And that leads to the definition of a trusting heart. When we talk about developing a trusting heart as a disciple, what does that mean? A trusting heart is one that has or allows our confidence in God's character to govern our inward emotions and our outward behavior. A trusting heart, again, is a heart that allows our confidence in God's character to govern our inward emotions and our outward behavior. That is, we are so convinced of God's love, power, and wisdom that it frees us from inner turmoil and frees us to outwardly obey God.

Now I want you to look at Colossians 3:15. This is exactly the kind of heart that Jesus had. Jesus was completely confident in God's love, power, and wisdom, and that's why he obeyed him completely. And he wants that same peace and confidence to govern our lives as well. Look at Colossians 3:15. Paul says, "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you indeed were called in one body, and be thankful." Now, there are two key phrases here we've got to understand. First of all, the phrase "the peace of Christ." What does he mean, the peace of Christ? Well, he's talking about the peace that comes from Christ, but he's also talking about the peace that characterized the life of Jesus. God wants us to be free from inner turmoil and outer hostility so we can be completely at peace with God and obey him freely. That's what he's talking about, the peace that characterized the life of Jesus.

Look at Colossians 3:5. You know, the reason people chase after immorality and greed is because they don't have that peace. Paul says, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry." People chase after these new sexual experiences or more money because they lack this inner peace. They're looking for something more. Likewise, look at verse 8, a second list of negative behaviors. "But now you also put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth." People lash out at other people. They try to get even with their enemies, all because of this lack of inner peace, a confidence that God is in control.

Contrast that to the life of Jesus. He completely was at peace with obeying God because he felt confidence in God's love and wisdom. John 4:34, Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." He said, "I live for one thing, and that is to obey God, to follow his will for my life." And the reason he does that is because he has confidence in God's love, His power, and his wisdom. In the same way, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, being tormented by those who wanted to take his life, he didn't lash out in anger. Instead, 1 Peter 2:23 says, "While being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously." Jesus was so convinced of God's justice that he knew he didn't have to get even with his enemies. He knew God would take care of it in his time.

Do you see what I'm saying? Having a confidence in God's love, His power, His wisdom, His character that frees us from inner turmoil inside. It allows us to experience the peace of Christ. A trusting heart is one that allows our confidence in God's character to control our inward emotions and our outward behavior. Now the second key phrase in that verse, Colossians 3:15, is "rule in your hearts." Let the peace of God rule in your heart. That word "rule" in Greek is the word we get "umpire" from. You know what an umpire does in an athletic contest? He makes certain calls.

I read the story about an umpire's convention that was taking place. And after one of the evening sessions, a group of umpires got together for one of those late-night bull sessions in one of the attendees' rooms. And they were talking about how they made difficult calls in a baseball game. And one umpire said, "Well, I call them the way I see them." Another umpire said, "No, that's not right. You don't call them the way you see them." He said, "I call them the way they are." A third umpire spoke up, he said, "They ain't nothing until I call them." You know, that's the way life circumstances are. We have all of these adverse circumstances that get thrown at us every day. Are they good? Are they bad? Well, the fact is life circumstances, especially adversities, are nothing until we call them. We get to umpire; we get to determine whether we're going to allow that adversity to completely upend our life or we're going to allow it to be used for good.

And what Paul is saying here is when difficulties come into your life, let the peace that comes from Jesus Christ have the final say. Allow your confidence in God's love, wisdom, and power to free you from anxiety about the future. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. That's what it means to have a trusting heart. And what I want to show you in the few moments we have left here today is how having confidence in God's love, His power, and His wisdom affects your past, your present, and your future.

First of all, write this down. Trusting God's love provides freedom from guilt over past sins. When you trust in God's love for you, it gives you a freedom from guilt over your past sins. You know, I remember reading years ago a biography of Walt Disney, a 500-page biography. And far from being the cuddly Uncle Walt that everybody thought he was, a nice guy, he was really a monster to work for. Apparently, he had a habit of firing all of his employees about once a month, completely firing everybody and then hiring them back a couple of weeks later. And the reason he did that, he said, was to keep his employees on their toes, that they would work harder if they had the fear that they were going to lose their job. Well, that might motivate some workers for a short-term period of time. But that doesn't work in the long term. The fact is, whenever we are motivated by fear, it never helps our relationship with our superior.

It's the same thing in our relationship with God. If we're always wondering, does God love us? Does he hate us? Are we in his family? Are we out of our family? That is no way to build intimacy with God. In John 15:9, Jesus said he wants us to be assured of God's love for us. "Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide, rest in my love." How can we know for sure that God doesn't hate us? How can we know for sure that at the judgment one day God is not going to dredge up our past sins and hold us accountable for them? Romans 5:1 has the answer to that question. Paul says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Leading up to Billy Graham's funeral, there were a number of clips of some of Billy's past messages. But one they played repeatedly was a clip of his message that he preached here at our church some years ago. And in that clip, Billy was saying, "The world has no peace. There is no peace in the world. We will never have peace. Peace in the world, we'll never have peace with other people, we'll never have peace in ourselves until we are at peace with God." And that became the title of perhaps his best-selling book, "Peace with God." Until you know all is right between you and your creator, you will never experience peace. How can you have that peace? Paul says, "We have that peace by being justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Now that word translated "by" in your English Bible, the preposition is better translated "through." We have been justified through faith through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same thought that you find in Ephesians 2:8-10. If you saw the funeral service, you heard Franklin say that his father had one scripture verse that he wanted read at his funeral service. And it was the passage from Ephesians chapter 2 that climaxes in verses 8 to 10. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." How are we saved? We're not saved by faith. There's no amount of faith we could conjure up that could ever wipe away our sins. People say, "I'm saved by faith." No, you're not. You don't have enough faith to save yourself. We are saved by God's grace that we receive through faith. It's God's grace that saves us.

It was God sending his only son, Jesus, the perfect son of God, to die on a cross to take the penalty for sin that we deserve. It was that time when God made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That is what saves us. It is the grace of God, what he did on the cross for us that wipes away our sin. But we access that grace through our faith. Let me see if I can explain that to you in a very simple way. The difference between "by" grace and "through" grace and "through" faith.

Let's imagine, parents, that on Thursday you say to your teenage son, "Now, son, I know you're gonna wanna go out tomorrow night with your friends. That's great. But you have one job around the house tomorrow, and that is to empty the dishwasher before you go out with your friends." Friday rolls around, your son has a dental appointment that runs later than expected. Realizing he's not going to be able to do that, you empty the dishwasher. Seven o'clock rolls around, somebody's honking their horn out in front of your house. Your son bounds down the stairs. He's on the way out when he says, "Oh, mom, the dishwasher. I forgot. I really wanted to do that. I am so sorry." And you say, "Son, I knew that. I knew you couldn't do it. I emptied it for you. Now go out and have a good time."

Now, how did that happen? I mean, you had laid down the law. No empty dishwasher, no night out with your friends. That was the law. But you also knew your child was incapable of keeping that requirement. And so you did the work he was unable to do for himself, and you allowed his apology. All you needed to see was that, "Mom, I'm sorry." That's all it took. That's all it took for him to become the beneficiary of what you did on his behalf. His apology didn't empty the dishwasher. No amount of apology would do that. It was your work that emptied the dishwasher. But his apology, you allowed him to count that as the work you did for him.

Now, it's the same with what God does for us. We are saved not by our faith; we are saved by God's grace. But we receive it through faith. Romans 4:5 says, "But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." The moment you confess your sins to God and believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, God takes your faith, no matter how little it is, and he counts that for righteousness. And the Bible says trusting in God's love for us frees us from guilt over past sins. The Bible says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us." The Bible says the prophet says he takes our sins and he casts them into the depths of the sea; somebody added, "And he puts a sign there that says no fishing." That is so true. You never have to worry that your sin's going to be dredged up again one day. When God forgives, He forgives your sin. It's forgotten forever. That's what trusting in God's character does for us. It frees us from guilt about past sins.

But secondly, trusting God's power provides freedom from panic about our present circumstances. Not only does it free us from guilt over past sins, but trusting in God's power frees us from panic about our present circumstances.

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And for those reasons and more, you can trust God with every aspect of your life. We'll take a deep dive into these Biblical principles on tomorrow's edition of Pathway to Victory, so please make it a point to listen again tomorrow.

Keep in mind that Pathway to Victory has published a beautiful padded hardcover book that complements our current broadcast series. If you're prepared to learn more about what it means to become a true follower of Jesus Christ, then you'll want to receive this full-color devotional book. It's called *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple*.

Too often, our daily lives are filled with activities that keep us running from sunup to sundown, and we leave little margin for restoring our soul. *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple* will help you focus on what's truly important. This book is printed in a large format, and each chapter can be read in just under two minutes. Plus, the reflections in each chapter are complemented by a Bible verse and a brief prayer to guide you.

Our hope is that you'll enjoy spontaneous moments with your God as a result of pausing for a sip of cool water from the spring of life. So when you give a much-needed gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, be sure to request a copy of the devotional book *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple*. It comes with our thanks.

Thank you for giving generously during the summer months. We couldn't fulfill our mission at Pathway to Victory without the support of friends like you. Every dollar you give allows us to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word. Here's David to tell you more.

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You're invited to request your copy of *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple* by Dr. Robert Jeffress. When you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory with a generous gift, simply call 866-999-2965 or visit online@ptv.org. For your ministry gift of $100 or more, we'll be pleased to send you the Encouragement Resource Set, which includes the new devotional, six clutter-free prayer cards, the *Clutter Free Christianity* book and Life Application guide, plus the *7 Marks of a Disciple* message series on both DVD and MP3 format audio disc set.

Again, call 866-999-2965 or visit our website at ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Let me give you that address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. One more time, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us again next time for the conclusion of this message on *Developing a Trusting Heart*. That's Tuesday here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

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To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.