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.

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

Speaker 2

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

Speaker 3

This Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

A lot of Christians walking around today under the belief that they are still slaves to their sin nature. They will never have victory over it till Jesus comes. Baloney.

You don't have to wait till Jesus comes. You can have that experience, that power. Right now, that power is within you. He's called the Holy Spirit of God.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Jesus desires to be the center of our lives and the focus behind everything we do. But if we're not careful, life's enjoyments and distractions can really lead us astray.

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress continues his series called Coming Home to the Father Who Loves You by sharing four practical ways to balance pleasure with discipline.

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

Speaker 3

Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. In the middle of November's demanding schedule, we often lose sight of God's goodness. Sometimes we get so entrenched in our daily responsibilities that we forget to step outside and simply touch the grass. Well, I guarantee that our 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, June 13th - 20th, will allow you to feel the sweet soil of God's majestic creation in a manner that will make your heart absolutely soar. Join me and fellow believers as we explore pristine wilderness, witness towering glaciers, and breathe in the fresh mountain air. You'll find all the details at ptv.org.

During today's study, I want to describe a biblical process that'll completely transform your intimacy with God. If you're longing to feel closer to God and to experience the beauty of His presence, this lesson holds the key. The Bible teaches us that life is like a foot race, but most Christians are losing the spiritual race without knowing why. They're distracted, running in circles while wondering why they can't gain ground with God.

In this next study and in my companion book, I want to show you a training regimen every Christian can follow to win the race of life. My book is titled *Coming Home to the Father Who Loves You*. It's perfectly suited for all members of the family, and I'll send a copy to your home when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

Right now, let's turn to Hebrews, chapter 12 for time-tested wisdom. I titled today's message "Lessons from the Pentathlon."

Speaker 2

During the Civil War, a young mother took her infant son and presented him to Confederate leader Robert E. Lee. She asked the famed general, "General, would you please bless my son?" Lee took the infant in his arms, looked at the child, and then looked at the mother and said, "Mother, you must teach your son to deny himself." What a strange thing for someone to say to the mother of an infant: "You must teach him to deny himself." Yet, General Lee understood a principle that very few people understood then or understand today, and that is discipline. Learning to deny yourself is the secret to success in every area of life, including our relationship with God.

That's what we're going to discover tonight in our series, "Coming Home to the Father Who Loves You." We're using the prodigal son as a metaphor, an analogy for our relationship with our heavenly Father. Just as a desire for money, a thirst for pleasure, and a striving towards success in life caused the son to leave his earthly father, it's those same three temptations—money, pleasure, and success—that lure us away from our heavenly Father into the far country.

Last time, we began looking at the second of these temptations: pleasure. We discussed how Satan uses a desire for pleasure to interfere in our relationship with God. Remember, we saw last time that there's nothing wrong with pleasure in and of itself. God created pleasure for our benefit. He wants us to do more than simply endure this life; He wants us to enjoy it. However, pleasure becomes a problem when, first of all, it's in excess in our lives; secondly, when it becomes our life focus; and thirdly, whenever it violates biblical standards.

Maybe tonight you're listening to this message and you would say, "You know what? I have allowed pleasure to have a place it shouldn't have in my life." Or perhaps you're saying, "I want to make sure pleasure never becomes a god in my life. How can I keep pleasure as my slave rather than becoming my master?" Well, that's what we're going to look at tonight for the few moments we have together as we discover what I'm calling some lessons from the pentathlon.

If you have your Bibles, turn over to First Corinthians 9 for a moment. As you listen and read the words of the Apostle Paul, you'll discover he had a fear. He was scared to death that one day a lapse of self-control might cause him to fall away from God and defame the name of Jesus Christ. That's why in First Corinthians 9, beginning with verse 24 through 27, he says this: "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it not to receive a perishable wreath, but the imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air. But I buffet my body and I make it my slave, lest possibly, after I've preached to others, I myself should be disqualified."

As you read all of Paul's writings, you discover he was a sports enthusiast. He uses all kinds of sports analogies to describe the Christian life. In Ephesians 6, he compares the Christian life to a wrestling match. Later on in the passage we're going to look at, he describes it as a boxing tournament. But the favorite metaphor Paul used for the Christian life was a foot race. It's a race. And by the way, if you're going to win in the Christian life, like in a race, it's not enough just to be in the race. You've got to run and live in such a way as to win. You've got to have the determination that you're going to win in this thing we call the Christian life.

How do you do that? I want to suggest to you tonight four keys to winning in the Christian life—the same four keys that a runner has to utilize in order to win the race.

**Principle number one: Remove any excess weight.** A runner knows he can't carry any excess pounds if he is going to win the race. I know it's politically incorrect to probably say this, but how many obese people have you ever seen cross the finish line first? It doesn't happen, does it? Or how many times have you ever seen a runner wearing an overcoat or dressed in a wool suit? No. A runner knows if he is going to win, he has to shed any excess weight. It's the same way in winning the Christian life.

Remember the writer of Hebrews, what he said in Hebrews 12:1: "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." The excess weight the Hebrew writer says we need to lay aside is sin. There is nothing that will weigh you down and hold you back in your relationship with God more than unconfessed sin in your life. If you're going to run in such a way as to win, it means you're going to have to deal decisively with those sins in your life. You're going to have to remove them.

Now, a person who's not intent on winning will say, "Well, I just can't do that. To do that would cause too much discomfort. It would cause me to give up too much pleasure. I just can't do that because it's not comfortable." Some people excuse their unwillingness to deal with sin with a spiritual thought. They'll say, "Well, you know what? I know I need to get rid of that sin, so I'm just going to pray that God removes that sin from my life. After all, I can't do it. I can't do it in the flesh. I just have to ask God to remove that sin for me."

If you think that way and pray that way, you are destined to fail in the Christian life. You know what this principle says in Hebrews 12:1? I want you to write down these two thoughts. They're very simple. First of all, the writer says, "You are responsible for laying aside sin." You're the one responsible. He says, "Let us lay aside the sin and the encumbrance." He doesn't say, "Let God do it for us." He says, "You set it aside."

Whenever we give God a responsibility, He has first given us that responsibility. That's called upward delegation. I have this all the time as a pastor. I've had it through the years. I'll give a staff member an assignment and ask them if they will do this for me. Of course, Walter never does this, but I've had other people do it. I'll give them an assignment, and they'll come back and say, "Well, Pastor, I don't know how to do that. Could you show me how to do that?" I end up doing the work that I gave them to do. That's upward delegation.

Whenever we give God a responsibility, He has given us that responsibility. We say, "God, take away the sin from my life." God says, "Forget it, you take it away. That's your responsibility. You lay aside the sin and the encumbrances that are weighing you down." Not only that, but secondly, write down, "You are capable of laying aside sin from your life." You and I are capable of laying aside sin. God will never give you a responsibility for which He hasn't given you the power to accomplish that responsibility.

The reason we are to lay aside sin is that God has given us the power to do that. In Romans 6:4-6, listen to what the apostle says: "Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so too we might walk in a newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the power of his death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that our body of sin might be done away with so that we should no longer be slaves to sin."

Remember what we said a few Sunday nights ago? Sin has no more power over your life than you choose to allow it to have. A lot of Christians walk around today under the belief that they are still slaves to their sin nature. They think they will never have victory over it until Jesus comes. Baloney. You don't have to wait until Jesus comes. You can have that experience, that power, right now. That power is within you. He's called the Holy Spirit of God.

A lot of Christians don't understand this. They're like what we talked about—the 10-ton elephant that is staked down by that little stake and chain. Why is that? Because he thinks he is still a slave to that stake and chain like he was when he was a baby elephant. It's the same way with us. We are responsible for laying aside sin. We are capable of laying aside sin. If you're going to run in such a way as to win, first of all, remove any excess weight that is sin from your life.

**Principle number two:** If you want to run to win, say no to a specific pleasure in your life every day. Listen to what Paul says in First Corinthians 9:27: "I buffet my body." By the way, he didn't say, "I buffet my body." It's the word "buffet." It's a lot different. He said, "I buffet my body day and night." You know what that word "buffet" means? Literally, it means, "I beat my body black and blue." Now, he's not advocating we do something bizarre. What he is saying is simply, "I remind my body that it is my slave. I discipline myself."

An athlete who's going to win has to discipline himself. He has to make pleasure his slave rather than his master. John MacArthur has some great insight on this. He writes, "Most people, including many Christians, are instead slaves to their bodies. Their bodies tell their minds what to do. Their bodies decide when to eat, what to eat, how much to eat, when to sleep, and get up, and so on. An athlete cannot allow that. An athlete follows the training rules, not his body. He runs when he would rather be resting. He eats a balanced meal when he would rather have a chocolate sundae. He goes to bed when he would rather stay up. And he gets up early to train when he would rather stay in bed. An athlete leads his body; he does not follow it. It is his slave, not the other way around."

Let's be honest; it's only Christians here tonight, anyway. Only spiritual Christians here tonight. Amen. Let's be honest tonight. The fact is, all of us, if we're not careful, can allow pleasure to dominate our lives. It's very easy to allow our bodies to become our masters rather than our slaves. A seminary professor used to say regularly to us, "Men, say no to something every day just to remind your body who's in charge." That is a great principle. Say no to something every day. Say no to that extra piece of pie. Say no to that extra television program. Say no to that extra 30 minutes or an hour in bed. Not because there's anything wrong with those things—there's nothing wrong with those things—just say no to something to remind your body who's in charge.

St. Francis used to call his body an affectionate nickname: Brother Ass. He called his body Brother Ass because it reminded him that he was supposed to ride the donkey, not the other way around. It's a great biblical principle. Remind yourself who's in control.

**Number three:** Allocate your efforts wisely. In Paul's day, if you were going to be a successful athlete, you couldn't just specialize in one sport like people do today. You had to be a specialist in a number of sports. The most popular sport in Paul's day in the Greek Games was called the pentathlon. That's where I got tonight's sermon title, "The Pentathlon." It consisted of five events: running, javelin throwing, discus throwing, long jump, and wrestling. The skilled athlete, to win the prize, had to be proficient in all of those games, not just one.

That's why Paul writes in verse 25 of First Corinthians 9, "Everyone who competes in the games, plural, exercises self-control in all things." A lot of times we get the idea in the Christian life that if we can just master one area of our life, then we've got it made. For example, maybe you're having difficulty having a regular quiet time reading the Bible and spending time in prayer, and you get that down and think, "I've got it covered now; I'm okay." Well, that's great; you need to work on your spiritual life. But that's not the only responsibility God's given you. He's given you a responsibility to take care of your family. He's given you finances to oversee, as we talked about this morning. He's given you a career that you need to maximize. He's given you a body that you need to take care of.

You can't just excel in one area; you've got to be proficient in all areas. We say, for example, that somebody who works all the time and neglects his family has a life that is out of balance. And that's true. On the other hand, a person who spends all of his waking hours and time and thoughts on his family but doesn't take care of his job, finances, health, or spiritual life is just as out of balance as a person who neglects his family. We have a variety of things that we need to have under control, and that's why we need to learn how to allocate our energy wisely.

If you're going to be a successful Christian, if you're going to run in such a way as to win, you need to allocate your energies wisely over all the life areas, not just one or two.

**And then number four:** Keep your eye on the finish line. A runner who allows himself to be distracted by the weather, other runners, or the spectators in the stands is certain to stumble and lose. If someone is going to win the race, he has to keep his eye on the finish line. In the same way, if we're going to win in the Christian life, we've got to have the finish line clearly in our focus.

By the way, the finish line is not marriage. It's not graduation from school, not the first job, and not even retirement. The finish line for a Christian is the judgment seat of Christ. Second Corinthians 5:10 says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may be rewarded for what we've done in the body, whether it be good or evil."

About a year and a half ago, I remember being in Corinth, and I stood in front of the bema, the judgment seat where Paul stood when he was before the proconsul of Corinth awaiting the verdict in his trial. It was while Paul was standing there in front of that judgment seat that he got this image in his mind. He said, "Just as I am standing before this judge, one day I'm going to stand before a more powerful judge. One day I'm going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for everything in my life."

As I stood there looking at that judgment seat, I prayed this prayer and went home and wrote it in my journal: "Lord, give me a bema mentality. Help me to live the rest of my life with the thought that one day I'm going to stand before God and give Him an account of every word, every action, every choice that I've made in my life." If you're going to run in such a way as to win in your Christian life, you've got to have that bema mentality. Keep your eye on the finish line, with the knowledge and assurance that one day you're going to stand before Christ.

Joe Wall tells a story about a duck that was with the flock flying south for the winter. But a broken wing caused the duck to fall to the ground. A benevolent farmer picked the duck up and took it back home with him, mended its wing, and it became the household pet. The children would play with the duck and feed it scraps from the table.

Well, the next fall, when the ducks were once again flying south for the winter, the children were heartbroken when the duck they had adopted went out and joined the other ducks, starting to take off to join the flock on the way south. Unfortunately, the duck's wing hadn't healed properly, so it was unable to take off and went back to play with the children. The next fall came a year later, and once again the ducks gathered together to fly away. The adopted duck looked up longingly and tried to take off to join the flock. The only problem was the children had overfed it. It became a fat duck and tried several times to take off. It couldn't, so after several unsuccessful tries, it gave up and went back to play with the kids.

The third fall rolled around, and as the ducks flew overhead, the duck that had been adopted by the children had become so comfortable in its new life that it didn't even notice when the other ducks flew overhead. Joe Wall makes this application: as Christians, we need to avoid the fat duck mentality. It is possible to become so comfortable in this life that we forget we were created for another life. Instead, we ought to always be longing for, looking for, and disciplining ourselves for that day when one day we'll fly.

Speaker 3

Away to meet the Lord in the air. Maybe today you've come to realize that you're becoming like that spoiled duck. Spiritually, you're overfed, you're far too comfortable in your ways, and it's becoming more difficult to take flight. Well, let me urge you to take deliberate steps towards your pathway to victory.

I've written a book to guide you. It's called *Coming Home to the Father who Loves You*. Using the parable of the prodigal son as a backdrop, my book will offer you step-by-step guidance. It's compassionately written to lead you back to the Father who loves you. Along the way, I'll help you discover the four reasons we're prone to wander from God, the three strategies Satan uses to destroy our spiritual life, and four secrets to maintain consistency in your relationship with God.

Maybe your son or daughter or perhaps a grandchild is far from home. No matter how far they've strayed or why they've wandered, my book will remind them that they have a loving father who watches, waits, and works for their return. So let me send you my book, *Coming Home to the Father who Loves You*. It's yours when you give a much-needed gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

My book is more than 200 pages in length, so you might gauge the size of your gift. With this in mind, if you've been part of our listening family for a long time, maybe you're ready to provide this program for someone else. You remember the impact of Pathway to Victory on your own life, and now you're in a position to help others engage too, so they come home to the Father who loves them.

The needs are urgent. I look forward to hearing from you today. Here's David to tell you more.

Speaker 1

You're invited to request your copy of *Coming Home to the Father Who Loves You* by Dr. Robert Jeffress. When you contact Pathway to Victory with a generous gift, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You know, a lot of folks in our audience express their appreciation for the reliable, trustworthy exposition of Scripture that they receive through Pathway to Victory.

With your generous donation today, we'll also send you a prayer for your prodigal as our gift of thanks. It's a keepsake to help you remain steadfast in praying for your loved one's spiritual return. To request both resources, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could also contact us by mail if you'd like. Write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us again tomorrow when Dr. Jeffress shares a relevant lesson on avoiding the dangers of personal ambition. Hear a message called *Declarations of Independence*. That's Friday 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.