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 of massive glaciers rising from crystal blue waters? Or stood in awe as bald eagles.

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Soar over snow capped mountain?

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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.

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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.

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Glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program.

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On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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Work is our calling. If you don't hear another thing I say today, hear this. Your job, your work in and of itself has meaning to God. Work is not a curse. Work is part of God's plan for.

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Your life and my life.

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Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Do you feel satisfied by the work you do? Or has your job become a daily grind? Do you put up with the hassle just to earn a paycheck?

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress provides the biblical tools to help us pursue a vocation that brings genuine satisfaction and purpose.

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. God has given each man, woman, and child a free will. That means we have complete freedom to make our own choices. Some of our personal choices are small, like choosing what to eat for dinner. Others are big, like choosing a life partner or purchasing a first home.

Well, the entire month of September is devoted to this important subject. We're searching the Bible for practical insight on how to make wise decisions. The teaching series concludes soon, but I've written a book on this subject to help you dig deeper on your own. It's also called How to Make Wise Decisions. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll make sure you receive a copy.

And by the way, I don't want you to miss out on next year's vacation of a lifetime. Did you hear that? Pathway to Victory is hosting a seven-day cruise to God's creative masterpiece. We're sailing to Alaska from June 13 to June 20, and I'd love for you to join us. Picture yourself surrounded by fellow believers as we witness towering glaciers, majestic wildlife, and pristine wilderness that will absolutely take your breath away.

We'll enjoy meaningful Christian fellowship, uplifting worship, and inspiring Bible study, all against the backdrop of Alaska's stunning beauty. Don't let this incredible opportunity sail away without you aboard. All the details are found at ptv.org.

All right, and now it's time to get started with our topic for today. Whether you're unemployed and hunting for a job or you're gainfully employed but looking for something better, this study is for you. I titled this message Finding the Perfect Job.

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In John 10:10, Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly." Contrary to what most people think, the eternal life that Jesus promised us doesn't have to wait to begin until after we die. You don't have to die to experience eternal life. Because you see, the eternal life that Jesus promises not only deals with the quantity of life we have—eternity—but also the quality of life we experience. And Jesus wants us to begin experiencing that overflowing with joy, abundant, filled with purpose life in the here and now. It can extend past the grave till the hereafter.

One important facet of experiencing that abundant, overflowing with joy life that Jesus promised you is to find your calling in life. That's what we're going to talk about today: how to know God's will when it comes to your calling and your vocation, if you will, your job. I mean, doesn't it make sense that if 70% of your waking hours are going to be spent on your job, that Jesus would care about what that job is? Somebody has said that nothing will drain the color from a person's face any more than an unfulfilling job.

So today we're going to see what God's Word says about how to find the perfect job and how to know what God's unique calling in your life is. Now, again, some of you are probably thinking, "Well, that doesn't apply to me. I've already found my job." Well, maybe you have a job, but is it your real calling in life? Some of you are thinking, "Well, I'm already retired. I've got that pension and that Social Security coming, and all I want to do is travel around in a Winnebago, you know, from here until the day I die."

By the way, did you know retirement is a very unbiblical idea? Tell me one person in the Bible who retired. People don't retire in Scripture. Now, you may change your job, but you're never to spend 20 years of your life doing nothing except figuring out how to entertain yourself every day. That was never God's purpose for any stage of life. No, God wants you to be productive at every stage of your life. He has a calling for you, and today we're going to talk about how to discover that calling in our life.

Now let's review where we've been in this series so far. We've seen that God does have a blueprint, a plan for every area of our life. Doesn't that make sense? The architect of the universe, who planned this world with such intricacy, would have a blueprint that includes your choice of a vocation?

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Of course it does.

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Not only does God have a plan for every area of our life, secondly, we've seen that God communicates His plan to us in the future in a variety of ways. God doesn't just speak one way. He speaks many ways. He speaks through the Bible, through prayer, through wise counsel, through the desires in our heart, through circumstances. He speaks all of those ways. And depending on the decision we're trying to make, we may consult one or more of those different ways to determine God's direction.

For example, let's say you're deciding whether or not you ought to participate in an illegal business deal. How are you going to find out God's will about that? Well, you don't have to pray about it. You don't have to check your desires. You don't have to ask your best friend for counsel. God's already revealed that decision in His Word. So one way is sufficient to discover God's will about that decision.

But sometimes God employs several ways to speak to us. Let's say you're seated at a restaurant, you've got the menu in front of you, and you're trying to decide between chicken or beef for the entree. Now, does God have a plan for what you order? Again, think about it. If His plan is so minute that it includes the number of hairs on your head, sure, He has a blueprint. His blueprint for your life is so detailed, it even includes what you were going to have for dinner that night at the restaurant.

But do you panic over that decision? Do you drop down on your knees beside the restaurant table and say, "Oh, God, show me how you would have me to order tonight?" You don't do that. You don't open your Bible and see, "What does God's word say? Chicken or beef? Chicken or beef." You don't do that. You're not panicked about it. You simply probably check your preference, what you feel like having, and you might seek some wise counsel. Ask the waiter what's best, the chicken or beef, and then you move ahead.

Now, when it's a major decision, like choosing a mate, we saw God speaks through a variety of ways. And you might use all of those different channels—the Bible, prophecies, prayer, consultation—to determine His will. What I'm saying is, depending on the importance of the decision you're making, God may speak in one or more ways to you concerning that decision.

Now, when it comes to choosing a job, when it comes to discovering your calling in life, certainly we want to pray about it. Certainly we ought to seek wise counsel. But I want to suggest to you that there are three primary ways that God reveals your calling in life to you. Keep your Bible ready. Today we're going to find out about how to find the perfect job.

Key number one, you've got to know the biblical principle. Know the biblical principle. And the biblical principle is your work. Your job is important to God. Your job is important to God. I've discovered, ladies and gentlemen, that many Christians have a perverted view of work, a perverted view that unfortunately comes from the church itself. And so today, I want to share with you three erroneous views of work and then what I believe is the biblical view of work—how God looks at your job.

First of all, there are some people who embrace the "work as our God" philosophy. Work as our God. Now, this is the secular viewpoint that says we find our meaning and purpose in life through our job. Our job defines who we are. And so we pour all of our energy into our job. And by the way, if you don't believe people have bought into that idea, the next time you're with a group of strangers and the group is asked to introduce themselves and to tell one thing about themselves, just notice how people introduce themselves.

"Hi, my name is Robert and I'm a pastor." Or "Hi, I'm Bennett and I'm a law enforcement officer." Or "Hi, I'm Bill and I'm a real estate agent." People introduce themselves in terms of what they do. From the time our children are small, we start helping them discover what they're going to be in life. What are you going to be in life? And by "be," we don't mean a dedicated Christian or a faithful husband or a loving wife. We mean what vocation are you going to grow up to be? And this is indicative of this "work is our God" philosophy.

By the way, is work a worthy idol or object of our worship? Listen to what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 2:17-18. He spent his life building a successful career, and he came to this conclusion. He said, "So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me, because everything is futility, everything is striving after wind. Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun. For I must leave it to the man who will come after me." Solomon says it's futile to spend your whole life working at a career that you will ultimately leave behind. And you may leave it to somebody who's not nearly as successful as you are. Why spend your life building up something that you're going to have to leave behind? That's the "work as our God" philosophy—the idea that we derive our identity through our job.

Well, some Christians reacting to that secular viewpoint have gone to another extreme, an extreme which perhaps many of you embrace. And that is the idea that "work is our curse." Work is our curse. That is, our job, our work is really a judgment that has been passed down to us because of Adam's sin. Turn over to Genesis chapter three for a moment. Let me show you where people get this idea.

Genesis chapter three. Remember, after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God pronounced judgment on the serpent and then on the woman. And then He came to Adam himself. And look at Genesis 3:17. "Then to Adam, God said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I said, you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; both thorns and thistles that shall grow for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'"

Now, we read this verse, and here's what we think. We think if Adam and Eve hadn't messed up in the garden, we would be sitting around eating bonbons all day, just taking it easy, never having to set the alarm clock and get up in the morning. But cursed be Adam and Eve, because they're the ones that made it hard for us to work. Work is a curse. It is a judgment from God. And by the way, you have a lot of people who believe that.

There are people, for example, in Christian churches today who believe that all work is either divided as sacred or secular. That work which is sacred is work that is done in the church. And according to this view, that's the work that matters to God. But outside of evangelism and discipleship, every other kind of work is useless, and it's really a judgment from God.

By the way, that explains why a number of people end up leaving their jobs and going to seminary after having heard taught from the pulpit all of these years that the only thing that matters is winning people to Christ. The only thing that matters is ministry. Everything else is meaningless. People scratch their heads and they say, "I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing that which is meaningless. I need to give up my secular vocation and go do something that really matters to God." So I'll go into the seminary. I'll go into the ministry. That's the "work as a curse" viewpoint.

Now, through the years, clergymen got kind of smart about this. It suddenly dawned on them, if we keep telling our people that their jobs are absolutely meaningless and count for nothing, and if they all leave their secular jobs and go to the seminary, who's going to pay the bills? Who's going to keep working and tithing? Who's going to pay our salaries? And so they came up with this third viewpoint that you've heard many times, and that is "work as our platform." Work as our platform.

Doug Sherman and William Hendricks, in their book "Your Work Matters to God," explain this viewpoint. It's the idea that your job—your secular job as a banker or as a real estate agent or as a grocery store clerk—your job is meaningless except when it provides you an opportunity to be a witness for Christ. And that is, your job has meaning only to the extent that it gives you an opportunity to be a witness for Christ.

It's like a school teacher who says, "Well, I pay the bills by teaching school, but my real job is being a witness to Christ to my students." God doesn't really care that much about teaching kids how to read and write. But to the extent that I get to be a witness to Christ, then my work has meaning. And you hear people say that all the time. Even if they work 50 hours a week and they only have five minutes to share the gospel with somebody, even if the other 49 hours and 55 minutes of their life is meaningless, those five minutes make their job worthwhile. Your work has meaning only to the extent that it gives you a chance to share the gospel with other people.

Now, let's be clear. God does want us to be salt and light wherever we are. God does want us to be a witness for Him and take advantage of any and every opportunity we have to share the gospel. But do we really want to say that 99% of our working life is meaningless to God? I think there's a more biblical viewpoint of work, and it's the one I want to share with you today. And that is, "work is our calling." Work is our calling.

If you don't hear another thing I say today, hear this: your job, your work in and of itself has meaning to God. Work is not a curse. Work is part of God's plan for your life and in my life. Where do you get that in Scripture, Pastor? Turn back to Genesis chapter one for a moment. Now, this is all before the fall, okay? Before Adam and Eve's sin in the garden. And notice the purpose for which man was created.

Genesis 1, verse 26: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" Verse 28: "And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth, subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over everything that moves on the earth.'" God created man to rule over the earth.

Now turn over to chapter two, verse eight. "And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden. And there He placed the man whom He had formed." What was he to do in that garden? Sit around and enjoy it? Well, that's part of it, but look at verse 15. "Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it."

Now, God could have created the Garden of Eden in such a way that it would have been self-sustaining—things would have grown naturally, no weeds, no nothing. Everything just took care of itself. But God didn't do that. He created the garden in such a way that it needed man's hand, man's work to cultivate it, to make it productive, to keep it. All of this before the fall. You see, Adam was placed to be God's partner in His purpose. Adam's work was an extension of God's work. God created the garden, but He said to Adam, "No, you cultivate it and you keep it."

What I want you to see is you and I have been created to be workers. We have been created to be an extension of God's work here on earth. And that means that our work is not a curse; it is a part of God's original plan for our life. Go back to Philippians 2:13 for a moment. It says, "For God is at work within you, giving you the power and the desire to accomplish His purpose." I gave you the Phillips paraphrase: "God is at work within you, giving you the power and the desire to achieve His purpose." God has given you a passion. He's given you a gift to achieve His purpose.

Now, here's the $64,000 question. What is God's purpose in the world today? What is it that God is trying to do in the world today? Well, that's easy, Pastor. He's trying to win people to Jesus Christ. He's trying to redeem humanity. That's true. But is that the only thing He's trying to do? Is that God's only purpose—redeeming people? How many of you would say, "I think God is interested in justice in the world?" Do you think God is interested in injustice, in righteousness, in evildoers being punished and the righteous rewarded? Does God have an interest in that? Just read the Bible. He's very interested in justice.

Now, how does God go about accomplishing justice in the world? I suppose if He wanted to, He could zap everybody dead who did evil. And He does that occasionally, but He actually uses man to accomplish that purpose. In Romans chapter 13, it says governing authorities—whether it be law enforcement officials or those in the military—they are ministers of God, sent to render judgment upon evildoers. In other words, God has appointed people in military service. He's appointed people in law enforcement. He's appointed them to execute righteousness and justice in the world today.

If you work as a lawyer, if you work as a judge, if you work in the military, if you're a policeman, all of those are an extension of God's purpose in the world to bring about justice. Or another question: Is God interested in making sure people are fed in the world today? Is He interested in making sure you get the food you need? Of course He is. He's promised to do that. But how does He go about doing that? I suppose He could drop manna from heaven like He did for the Israelites for a period of time—go out and scoop it up every day and there's your food for the day. But He doesn't do that. Instead, today He works through man to accomplish that purpose.

Think about it. Those involved in agriculture or food processing or the trucking industry, that checkout clerk at Tom Thumb—all of them are a part of that chain that begins with God and extends to your mouth to give you the food that you need. They are all working to accomplish God's purpose in the world. Is God interested in making sure you have something to wear? He certainly is. Again, Jesus said, "Don't worry about what you wear. Consider the lilies of the field. You know, they've been arrayed in beautiful clothing. If God cares about them, He cares about what you wear." God's interested in providing you something to wear.

But how does He do that again? I guess you could wake up in the morning, suddenly you'd be fully clothed in the outfit for the day, you know, dry cleaned, ready to go. But He doesn't do that. Instead, He uses people to accomplish that purpose. Think again—people involved in the textile industry or fashion design, those who work in retail. All of those are people God uses to accomplish His purpose.

We are very narrow-minded when we limit God's purpose to just evangelism and discipleship. God has many things He's accomplishing in the world today.

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Whatever your vocation or calling might be, you can be sure that God is using your talents and skills to accomplish His purposes. And there's much more we need to cover on this topic. So please keep listening to Pathway to Victory. Remember, our teaching series on how to make wise decisions concludes soon. If you've had good intentions to request my book by the same title, now's the time to respond.

Lots of friends have told me that they're using this book in their small group Bible study or passing it along to a son or daughter who's making big decisions of their own. My book is titled *How to Make Wise Decisions*, and it's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

In closing, I'd like to affirm those who have given generously to Pathway to Victory. Our country has gone through incredible changes in the last 12 months, and gratefully, God's people have pulled together to ensure that Pathway to Victory has a voice. For millions of people around the world, your gift has become a lifeline because our radio and television ministries have become a place of comfort and truth.

Maybe you've been listening for a long time, but you've never stepped forward to join us in this mission. This month, we're looking to add 50 new Pathway Partners to our family of supporters. A Pathway Partner is someone who commits to a monthly contribution in an amount that reflects their heart and capacity. These dedicated individuals serve as faithful seed sowers, casting gospel truth into fertile soil around the world.

Would you be willing to become one of the brand new 50 Pathway Partners? We'd be so grateful. Here's David to explain how you can join our team.

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Of Pathway Partners, simply give us a call at 866-999-2965 or it's even easier to sign up online at ptv.org. When you make your first gift as a new Pathway Partner or when you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of how to Make Wise Decisions. In this very practical book, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains how God makes his plan known to his children and how to act upon those plans.

When your gift is $75 or more, you'll also receive the complete CD and DVD teaching set for our current series, how to Make Wise Decisions. Again, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. If you'd prefer to send a check, simply write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins, wishing you a great weekend. Then join us next week when Dr. Jeffress continues his series called how to Make Wise Decisions. That's Monday here 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 follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.