Pathway to Victory

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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.

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

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In Ephesians 6:11, the apostle Paul said, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the schemes of the devil. That word scheme in Greek is Methodia, the method, the blueprint for your destruction.

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Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, most of us go through life pretty blissfully unaware that we are caught in the crossfire of an epic battle. But Satan has a personalized strategy to steal your joy, destroy your effectiveness, and strip away your spiritual rewards.

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress exposes Satan's three-pronged attack plan and explains how to defend against it. 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. Take a look around you. Scroll through today's headlines online. Think back on the argument with your spouse, your child, someone you once called friend. Our world in general and our individual worlds in particular frequently appear out of control.

Well, even when it appears that evil is winning over good, God will ultimately triumph over Satan. And that's why we're conducting a comprehensive study right now called Spirit Wars. You see, defeat is Satan's middle name. And I want you to learn the biblical prescription for having victory over his destructive ways.

I've written a helpful resource on this topic for the young people in your life. And when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll send you a copy. It's titled Suit Up: The Armor of God for Kids. As parents and grandparents, it's our job to help our little ones understand how to win their spiritual battles. We can show them the truth in terms they will understand when they put on the full armor of God. Satan doesn't have a prayer.

As an added bonus, I'd also like to send you a brand new book for adults about angels and demons. Both books are yours, along with my thanks, when you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory. We'll say more about the books and other resources later on, but right now let's dig further into this subject together. I've titled today's study Satan's Blueprint for Your Destruction.

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You may not recall the name Mohammed Al Shaif, but you may remember his nickname, Baghdad Bob. Do you remember Baghdad Bob? He was the Minister of Information, really the minister of disinformation during the final days of Saddam Hussein's rule over Iraq. And he was always trying to convince people that Saddam was winning, when in fact he was losing.

On April 6, after coalition forces had secured the airport, we changed the name from Saddam's Airport to Baghdad International Airport. And yet this minister of disinformation claimed we butchered the enemy's forces at the airport. The next day, as our forces marched through the streets of Baghdad and overtook one of Saddam's palaces, Baghdad Bob said there is no presence of the Americans in the city of Baghdad at all. We besieged them and we killed most of them. His comical efforts to deny what was evident to everyone made him the fodder for late-night TV shows, even the President at that time. When asked about Baghdad Bob, he chuckled and said, "He's quite a guy, isn't he?"

You know, I was thinking, Satan is a lot like Baghdad Bob. He wants to convince us that he's winning, when in fact he's losing. Even though he was defeated at the cross of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago and the day of his final judgment is already on God's calendar, Satan wants to convince us that he is in control of us and our destiny.

Do you realize you have an adversary, the devil, who is intent on destroying you? He has a plan, a scheme for the destruction of everything important to you. We're going to talk about Satan's blueprint for your destruction. First of all, his strategy is to discourage you from worshiping God. Never forget, Satan is doing everything he can.

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Can to discourage you.

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That's what he tried against God's servant. If you have your Bibles, turn to Job, Chapter one. For a moment, discouragement was Satan's primary strategy against Job. We find that in the opening verse, this description of Job, Job 1:1. There was a man in the land of Uz, not Oz, but Uz, whose name was Job. And that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.

But then we see the drama behind the drama on earth. It was taking place in heaven. Satan approached the Lord, and the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the Earth, a blameless and an upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." In effect, God was saying to Satan, "Satan, not everybody made your choice to rebel against me. Not everybody chose to follow you like that group of angels did. I still have creatures who worship me."

And Satan said, in effect, "Well, God, of course Job worships you. Look at all the good things you've done for him. Why, he would be a fool not to worship you. But if you take away those blessings, I guarantee you he will turn away from you and turn toward me." Look at verse 12. Then the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.

The rest of chapters one and two are a record of Satan's relentless assault on Job's life. His wife came to him and said in Job 2:9, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die." She was just Satan's mouthpiece. That was the goal: to get Job to curse God, to turn his back on God and die. Satan employs the same strategy today.

But take courage. Satan, although his power is considerable, isn't unlimited. God said to Satan, "You can do anything you want to him, except you can't take his life." You can't take his life. And the same thing is true for us. Martin Luther, the reformer, said, "The Devil is still God's devil." Somebody described it this way: Satan is like a junkyard dog on a very long chain. Although his power to destroy is considerable, it's also limited.

Well, why would God even give Satan limited permission to go against Job? God understood, and even Satan understood, an important principle: untested faith is really no faith at all. For Job's faith to be genuine, it...

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Had to go through the crucible of testing.

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And so does your faith in my faith. Remember when Satan had unloaded on Job and done everything he could? In Job 13:15, Job cried out, "Though God slay me, I will still trust in him." Job passed his test with flying colors.

And now he has moved off the stage. You and I are on the stage, and Satan does the same thing to us. Satan's number one strategy is to discourage you from worshiping God. His second strategy is to distract you from serving God.

How does he do it? How does he distract us? It's through what a previous generation called worldliness.

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Have you heard that term before? Worldliness.

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Now, worldliness doesn't mean overt sin. It doesn't mean getting drunk and having immoral relationships. Worldliness means becoming focused on the delights and details of everyday living. That's what worldliness means, to be focused on this world and this world alone.

Jesus talked about worldliness in Luke chapter eight. It's the famous parable about the sowers and the seed. Remember, Jesus was trying to answer the question, why is it that everyone doesn't respond the same way to the word of God? Why do people respond differently to the word of God? And his answer was to consider a sower of seed. In Jesus' day, if you wanted to plant seed, you didn't pay for a machine. You did it by hand. You'd walk out into the fields and grab a handful of seeds from your pouch and just throw it out. And it would land on different kinds of soil.

Some of the seed would land on hard soil. This was the soil by the footpath that was tight and packed because of the foot traffic. When seed landed there, it never penetrated the soil. They just lay there, and the birds would come and pick it up. It would never grow a plant. Jesus said this is like somebody who hears the word of God so often that his heart becomes hardened and he cannot receive the word of God—the hard soil.

Other seed fell on the shallow soil. This is soil that looks good and soft, but underneath it, there's a thin bed of limestone. When the seed penetrates the soil, it begins to grow roots. But those roots stop because of the limestone, and there's no longer a root system for the plant. When the hot Middle Eastern sun starts to beat down on that plant, it dries up because it doesn't have the right root system. This is Christians who hear the word of God. They decide they want to act on it. But because they never develop a spiritual feeding program to give them the nutrients, the moisture, if you will, they need, they wither away when the trials of life hit them.

There was a third kind of soil Jesus talks about that's affecting our passage this morning. It's weed-infested soil. This is seed that falls on soil that's soft, not hard. It's deep, not hard. Then it goes down and begins to develop a root system. But underneath that soil is also a network of weeds that have been there for a long time. Once that plant begins to grow, those weeds strangle the life out of that plant by strangling the roots. This is people who hear the word of God. They receive the word of God, but they allow weeds, so to speak, to strangle out their spiritual life.

And Jesus names what those weeds are. Look at verse 14 of Luke 8: the seed which fell among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way, they are choked with three worries: second, riches; third, the pleasures of this life. And they end up bringing no fruit to maturity.

Let's look at those weeds for just a moment. First of all, a weed that can distract you and strangle out your spiritual life is worry. What is worry? Somebody has defined worry as a thin stream of fear trickling through our minds that, if left unchecked, will cut a deep ravine into which all other imaginations, emotions, and thoughts are drained.

Let me illustrate that for you. Have you ever been having a productive day at work, or enjoying a wonderful time with your family on the weekend, or having a great worship experience at church, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this alien thought comes into your mind, this fear? What if I lose my job? What if my mate leaves me? What if my children or grandchildren turn away from God? What if I develop an incurable disease? And the more you try, the less...

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You'Re able to dismiss that thought.

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It just comes in and captures your thoughts and emotions. Where does that alien thought come from? Well, I'll tell you one place it doesn't come from: from God. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind." Well, if it doesn't come from God, where does it come from? Here's a clue. Have you ever discovered that most of the things you worry about never happen? Why is that? Because most of these worries come from Satan. Jesus described him in John 8:44 as being a liar and the father of all lies. Satan wants to motivate you to worry and therefore strangle your spiritual life.

Weed number one for distraction is worries. Number two is riches. Jesus said in Luke 8:14 that the riches of this world can strangle out and distract you from your spiritual service. Now, I can read your mind because I can see your expression from up here. Some of you are saying, "Well, preacher, that doesn't describe me. I'm not rich." You know, if you have a place to sleep tonight with a roof over your head, if you have two or three changes of clothes, if you know where your next meal is coming from, you're richer than about 95% of the population of planet Earth. You are wealthy; you just don't know it yet.

But even if you don't accept that notion that you're wealthy, did you know people can become as fixated on money when they don't have it as when they have it? It's not just the rich who focus on money; the poor focus on it, too. In fact, it's people without money who are more prone to worship it than people who have it. Where do I get that in the Bible? Listen to Matthew 6:24. Jesus made this statement in the Sermon on the Mount: "You cannot serve God and wealth. You cannot serve God and money."

Then in the next verse, Matthew 6:25, he says, "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Jesus recognized that it's people without money who can worry the most about money. And not much has changed in 2,000 years.

You know, the fact is, today people obsess over money, over a fear of not having it. The investment industry spends millions of dollars every year trying to convince us that we need to invest with them. Millions of dollars. By the time we're age 65, we need to have millions of dollars stored up. And if we don't have that, we're going to be eating oatmeal the rest of our lives. The insurance industry preys on people, saying, "You need to buy these expensive nursing home policies, because if you don't get our policy, you'll be out on the street in your old age."

Now, please don't send me any emails. I understand you need to plan for the future.

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Proverbs 6 tells that you need to.

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Be prudent in how you handle your finances, but you're not to obsess about them. The Bible says a preoccupation with finances is spiritual enemy number one in our relationship with God. Remember 1 Timothy 6:10, for the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. What are the distractions Satan baits us with to turn us from serving God? He talked about worries. He talked about riches. Thirdly, he mentions, now this is so interesting. He says, watch out for the pleasures of this life.

Now, Jesus was not condemning any enjoyment of life whatsoever. In fact, pleasure, when kept into balance, can draw you toward God. Did you know pleasure can make you a worshiper of God if you experience it in the right way? Satan is very aware of that, and so he tries to push us into one of two extremes when it comes to pleasure. One extreme he works on in our life is to cause us to abstain from any pleasure. You know, some people try to be more spiritual than God is and they think, well, if I'm going to be a godly person, I'm going to quit any kind of pleasure whatsoever.

And so they're convinced that reading a book just for the heck of it, not because there's any spiritual value to it, but just because they want to, is sinful. Or going to a mall and buying a shirt or a dress just because they want to, not because they necessarily need it, is wrong. In order to enhance our relationship with God, we have this strict self-discipline program that keeps us from any pleasure whatsoever. Did you know when you take that philosophy, you're playing into Satan's hand? You're doing exactly what he would like you to do.

C.S. Lewis exposes the danger of this plan in his book, *The Screwtape Letters*. Did you ever read *The Screwtape Letters*? You know, it's a series of fictional letters supposedly from a senior demon named Screwtape who writes to his novice nephew, demon Wormwood. He is trying to teach him how to be effective in carrying out Satan's plans. He addresses the subject of pleasure. He said to his novice nephew, demon, never forget that when we're dealing with pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are in a sense on the enemy's ground, talking about God.

I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is his meaning, God's endeavor, convention, not ours. He made the pleasures. All of our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our enemy has prepared and use them in ways and degrees that he has forbidden. Remember Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes 2:24-25. He told us pleasure is good. In fact, Solomon said, there is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself his labor is good. This also I have seen. It is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without God?

Satan can't convince us to abstain from pleasure; he makes us go to the other extreme and be excessive, obsessive about pleasure. The apostle Paul warned about that in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 when he described unbelievers as lovers of self and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Today, you can see in our culture people going to that opposite extreme of worshiping pleasure. Did you know Americans spend over $700 billion a year on pleasure? Even if we're not spending all of our free time or extra money on recreational pursuits, what are we doing when we work? We're trying to store up enough money for that golden age known as retirement so that we can spend the last 20 or 30 years of our life doing absolutely nothing of value and have no other worry in the world except to wake up every day and say, what am I going to do to entertain myself today?

That is not God's plan for any of us. You may retire from the job you have right now, but God never intended for you to be unproductive and doing nothing. What I'm saying to you is this, ladies and gentlemen: whether you believe it or not, Satan has a strategy, a method to destroy everything important in your life. Which one is he using right now in your life? Is he trying to discourage you from worshiping God by allowing the enemy to bring trials and testing into your life? Is he trying to distract you from serving God by a focus on the what-ifs of worries and a focus on money, a focus on pleasure?

Now remember I said Satan has a three-pronged strategy: discouragement, distraction. The third strategy is the one we're going to look at next time, and that is he's trying to deceive.

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You into disobeying God.

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I hope you'll be here next time. As we continue to talk about Satan's blueprint for your destruction.

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I know that someone is listening right now and thinking that Satan has been messing with their mind. He's been using these sinister methods to undermine their peace, happiness, and contentment. Well, I'm urging you to follow this entire series on the pathway to victory. We're calling it Spirit Wars. God never intended his children to walk onto the battlefield without protection.

So let me encourage you to be intentional about learning more about this subject of spiritual warfare. I've written a bestselling book that describes the full armor of God, and this one's for your children and grandchildren. It's called *Suit Up: The Armor of God for Kids*, and I'd be pleased to send you a copy. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathways, it'll arrive at your home with a book I've written for adults called *Angels and Demons*.

In addition to receiving these two books, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that your generous gift is truly making a difference. To give you an example, I heard from Jody from North Carolina, who said, "Pastor Jeffress, I struggle almost every day with the attacks of Satan, praying off my insecurities and bad choices. Recently, I discovered your teaching series on the Armor of God. Each study compelled me to do the work to change my life. Today, my life has been lifted."

Isn't that great to hear? Thank you for financially investing in Pathway to Victory. Because of your gifts, we're reaching people just like Jody and countless others, allowing God to pierce the darkness with the light of His Word. Here's David with all the details.

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When you partner with Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you *Suit Up: The Armor of God for Kids* plus *Angels and Demons: Fact versus Fantasy*, our latest resource developed for adults. Give today and make your request by calling 866-999-2965 or visit PT. Those who contribute $100 or more will receive both books along with the *Complete Spirit Wars* teaching series on audio and video discs and *Divine Defense*, the best-selling title by Dr. Jeffress. Simply call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org to mail your gift. Here's the address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Have you ever wondered why certain temptations seem to appear at just the wrong moment? Discover the nefarious calculations behind the temptation equation. That's Tuesday on Pathway to Victory.

*Pathway to Victory* with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas. Join us for the breathtaking majesty of America's last frontier on the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, aboard Holland.

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America's luxurious Connings Dam ship with Amy and me for a journey that will refresh your soul and renew your spirit.

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Experience the unforgettable adventure June 13th through 20th, 2026. To book your cabin, call 888-280-6747 or go to ptv.org.

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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 visiting 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.