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? 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.

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And fellow believers in the majesty of his untamed wilderness.

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I truly believe this journey will refresh.

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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.

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Every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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A disciple obeys Christ in every area of his life. Go back to that Great Commission. Not only is it baptizing people, but it's teaching people to observe what all things that I have commanded you.

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Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Getting up at dawn for prayer? Memorizing hundreds of Bible verses? Or is there something deeper at the core of true discipleship?

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress helps us understand what God truly desires from those who follow Him. But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

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Thanks, David, and welcome to this Monday edition of Pathway to Victory. You've chosen a very special day to join us because today we're launching our next Bible study series. This series, which will carry us through the month of July, is called 7 Marks of a Disciple. The day we become a Christian, our spiritual journey begins in earnest. It's like a walk alongside the Lord Jesus, learning to love, think, and behave as he did.

So here's the question: what does it mean to take on the virtues that Jesus so perfectly expressed as flawed earthly beings? How do we exercise these heavenly virtues? Well, these are common questions, and we're going to find answers in this series called 7 Marks of a Disciple.

To help you with your discipleship journey, we've prepared a brand new ministry resource called Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple. It can be challenging to stay connected with God in our busy lives. This beautiful full-color padded hardcover book provides practical insights that'll help you experience God's presence and encouragement throughout your day. Each devotional reading is paired with a scripture verse, a brief prayer, and a breathtaking photograph of God's creation. Each chapter, printed in a large format, can be read in just under two minutes.

A copy of Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple is yours with our thanks when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. We'll share more details later on, but right now, let's get started with our next series. This message begins with a story that made national headlines several years ago. Do you remember when the residents of Hawaii received a false text alert about an incoming missile strike? That illustration sets the stage for today's message titled The Heart of Discipleship.

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Residents of Hawaii received this text message on their telephones. It said ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill. 51-year-old Shawn Shields responded by immediately calling his 10-year-old daughter and his grown son, both of whom were living on the mainland, to say goodbye to them. Ten minutes later, Shawn Shields suffered a massive heart attack. Others had reactions that were somewhat subdued but still very serious. Hawaii resident Kimberly McMurray said later, "My first initial thought was pure fear at the idea that my 2-year-old daughter's life was going to be instantly cut short. That melded into the thought of what it was going to feel like. Would I die in the initial blast or get lingering effects from the radiation exposure and die later on?"

Upon receiving the alert on her cell phone, Kimberly sent this message out to friends and family shortly afterwards: "We are under an immediate missile threat. We are seeking shelter in the basement of a hospital. I'm really scared. I love you guys and will keep you updated the best I can. We have four minutes left." Fortunately, after 37 gut-wrenching minutes, those residents received another message that it was all a mistake. And that day, the residents of Hawaii received a temporary reprieve from their death sentence. I say temporary because one day they are for real going to face death again. Nobody is going to escape death. Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment." If it's not terrifying enough to you to think of the end of your life, notice what the writer says. Death is followed by... Immediately after death comes a judgment we will all face before God.

You know, occasionally we receive reminders of our mortality. How quickly life is passing by, how fleeting life is. It may be an emergency missile threat we receive. It may be a trip to the doctor's office for an annual exam that doesn't quite turn out the way we thought it was going to. It may be a milestone event in our life that reminds us how quickly time is passing by. I remember more than a decade ago when I experienced my 50th birthday. I almost said suffered my 50th birthday. But it was a milestone event. We had a lot of parties with friends and family members. Our church threw a giant celebration for me, complete with skits and gag gifts like bottles of Metamucil and adult Depend diapers. And it was all a lot of fun.

But I distinctly remember the next day, after the party was over, after the balloons had deflated, after the cards were read and discarded, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that I now had more years behind me than I had in front of me. Sooner rather than later, I was going to actually meet face to face the God I had been speaking about, writing about, speculating about for years. And not only was I going to face God, I was going to be judged by God. I remember for nights after that I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night, almost terrified, saying to myself, "What is it I need to do to please God? What is it that God really wants for me?"

Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, "Oh, Pastor, you of all people should know there's nothing you can do to please God. Our works are worthless to God. All we need to do is trust in Jesus for our salvation and everything will be okay." Is that really true? As you read through the whole of the New Testament, can you really say that all God really wants from me is to receive that free get-out-of-hell card and that's all that really matters? Does he care about anything else? Again, the stakes are too high to get this wrong. What does God want from my life?

Let me affirm at the outset of this message that I believe that salvation is by grace alone. That is the foundational bedrock belief of Christianity; there's nothing we can do to earn God's salvation. In Ephesians 2:8-9, the apostle Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast." God doesn't allow us to work even a little bit for a right relationship with him. Why is that? Paul explained it in detail in Romans chapter 4. He said, "Even if God says, 'My salvation is 99% my grace and 1% of your work, I'm going to let you work just a little bit for your salvation so you have some skin in the game.' You know why God doesn't do that? Because if we contribute even 1% to our salvation, then our salvation becomes a wage that God owes us. It becomes an obligation because we worked for it. And God refuses to owe any man or woman salvation. It is a gift from God."

So it's very clear. Salvation is by faith alone. But is that all God wants for me? Is there anything else he wants for me? I want you to turn to Luke 10 for just a moment. Luke chapter 10. This is a famous story. We looked at it in our study of Luke last year. It concerns an attorney who came to Jesus asking a very serious question. Verse 25: "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put Jesus to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'" Now, I've pointed out before, it's very clear. Luke says that this lawyer was testing Jesus. Perhaps the Pharisees put him up to this to try to entrap Jesus, hoping that he could get Jesus to say something that would be considered blasphemous and worthy of death. So, like a lawyer, he was trying to trick Jesus.

"What do you have to do to inherit eternal life?" But I have a sneaking suspicion that wasn't the lawyer's only motivation. Sure, maybe he agreed to do this as a favor to the Pharisees. But perhaps something in this attorney's own life made him ask the question. Maybe he had just had his 50th birthday. Maybe he began thinking about how life was passing him by very quickly. So he sincerely, maybe wanted to know, "Now, Lord, what do you think I must do to have eternal life?" Jesus said, "Well, how does the law read to you?" And the lawyer said, verse 27, "Well, the law says, basically, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength and with all of your mind and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said, "Right, do that and you shall live."

Jesus affirmed that the essence of a right relationship with God was loving him with all of your heart and loving other people as yourself. Very simple. Not easy, but very simple. You know, I, like you, have heard my share of fallen preacher stories. We all hear them. A lot of people enjoy reading about how preachers have fallen into sin. But I saw one recently that just took the cake. A prominent Southern Baptist church member of our denomination was looking for a new pastor. And so the pastor search committee searched and searched and searched, and finally they were convinced they found God's man. He came to the church, and people were just wowed by his oratorical ability. The church immediately began to grow and grow. About three months into his tenure, it was discovered that this new pastor had embezzled $200,000 from his previous church. Not only that, his degrees that were on his resume were bogus. And not only that, the Internal Revenue Service was after him.

People were so surprised; they were so disheartened. They asked the pulpit committee, "How in the world did you choose this guy to be our pastor?" And one member of the search committee said, "We were swayed by his unusual ability to communicate the gospel." Communicate the gospel? What gospel? The gospel that says you can receive that free get-out-of-hell card and then live however you want to live? The gospel that says it's possible to be forgiven by Jesus without ever following Jesus? What is the essence of what it means to be a disciple? How do you explain not only pastors but other Christians who fall into that kind of rebellion against God, whose lifestyle is completely like that of unbelievers?

I think perhaps the late Dallas Willard had the answer when he wrote, "A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying, 'Why did this happen?'" But listen to this: "The greatest need you and I have, the greatest need of collective humanity, is the renovation of our heart. That spiritual place within from which outlook, choices, and actions come, has been formed by a world away from God. Now that heart must be transformed."

Today we're beginning a brand new series I've titled "7 Marks of a Disciple." We all know we're supposed to be disciples of Christ, but what does it mean to be a disciple? You know that word disciple or the word discipleship? It gets thrown around the church, our church. A lot of people use that term without really understanding what it means to be a disciple. In fact, if I were to ask you, "What does it mean to be a disciple?" I think we'd come up with all kinds of answers. Well, to be a disciple means you get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and meet with a couple of other men or women for an accountability group. Some people would say, "Well, to be a disciple means you memorize 100 verses, and that's what it means to be a disciple." Other people would say, "Well, being a disciple means enrolling in this class in Discipleship University. That means you're a disciple."

Now, all of those things, by the way, are good things to do. But those things relate to the process of discipleship. They don't define what a disciple is. They describe how you become a disciple. But that's not what a disciple is. Other people define a disciple by what a disciple does or is. They will note that that term, disciple (mathetes in Greek), was used in Jesus' day to refer to somebody who admired a rabbi and decided to attach himself to that rabbi to learn all of his teachings and to emulate his lifestyle. So to be a disciple, they say, involves attaching yourself to Jesus and emulating his lifestyle. Specifically, they would note that there are four things a disciple does or is. You might want to jot them down on your outline.

First of all, they would say a disciple is a Christian. Well, duh, pastor, tell me something I don't know. And yet a lot of people think it's actually possible to be like Jesus Christ without ever being in Jesus Christ. That is, they try to follow the lifestyle of Christ without ever having that initial experience with Christ that not only results in the forgiveness of our sins but the empowering by the Holy Spirit of God. They're trying to live the Christian life being like Christ without ever being in Christ. And Jesus described what happens to people like that. One day they're going to receive the surprise of a lifetime. Matthew 7:22-23: Jesus said, "Many will say to me on that day, the judgment day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?'" These aren't people who are Satanists. They're not drinking the blood of animals. These are people who are doing good things in the name of Jesus. But then Jesus will say to them, "Depart from me. I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness." They did good things. They did them in the name of Christ, but they never had that personal relationship with Christ that comes through faith.

So the beginning point of being a disciple is to become a Christian. You know, Jesus talked about the importance of that in the discipleship process. The words we often call the Great Commission. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20? "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." How do you do that, Jesus? How do you make disciples of people? Well, he said, "First of all, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Now, people get hung up on that sometimes. But what he's referring to is to make a disciple, first of all, you have to lead somebody to faith in Christ. Well, why didn't Jesus say that instead of baptizing? Because if you're going to be a disciple, you're going to obey Christ in being baptized. Baptism doesn't make you a Christian, but it's your profession of faith. And so Jesus here is talking about the whole salvation experience that begins with our faith and ends in our baptism. Again, we're not saved by baptism, but frankly, you can't read the New Testament and find one example after the resurrection of any person who professed faith in Christ and was not baptized. Every believer, true believer, will be baptized to be a disciple, a follower of Christ, not for our salvation, but as a profession of faith of our salvation.

So that's why Jesus said the first step is a conversion experience. And then he said, secondly, "Teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age." A disciple is a Christian. Secondly, a disciple has a growing relationship with God. I'm not going to belabor that because I've talked about it before. But just imagine a man who said, "Oh, I wish my relationship with my wife was like it was when we first got married. Everything was so new and so exciting. But now we wake up together, we're like strangers; we don't know one another." What would you say about that marriage?

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You would say it's in the process of disintegrating.

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Either you're growing closer to your mate or you're growing further away from your mate. It's the same way in our relationship with God; if we're really a disciple, we're gonna know and love Jesus Christ more today than when we were first saved. A disciple has a growing relationship with God.

Thirdly, a disciple obeys Christ in every area of his life. Go back to that Great Commission. Not only is it baptizing people, but it's teaching people to observe all things that I have commanded you. You know, every now and then we'll have some well-meaning people in our church who will say to me, and they're really good-hearted because they're serious about this. They say, "Pastor, we're concerned that we're not making disciples, that our church is not focused enough on making disciples."

And again, to them, making disciples refers to the process, you know, doing this and doing this and doing this. But I always remind them that everything we do in our church is about making disciples. When we teach people in a sermon series on how to forgive those who have wronged you, that's part of discipleship. Because one thing Jesus commanded us was to forgive those who wrong you. And if people don't know how to do that, they can't be disciples.

When we have a weekend marriage conference, that's part of discipleship, teaching people to love their mates just as Christ loved the church. When we have a discipleship university course on how to handle your finances, that's discipleship. Jesus said, "If you can't be faithful in handling your money, how in the world am I going to entrust true riches to you?" Discipleship, the essence of it, is teaching people to obey God in every area of their life: their work, their finances, their marriage, their parenting, their thought life. That's what it means to be a disciple.

And then finally, a disciple is one who makes new disciples. If you're a true follower of Christ, you're going to take seriously Jesus' final command before he ascended into heaven to go into all of the world to make it your life purpose to make disciples. You say, "Well, I can't travel all over the world doing that." No, you and I can't individually, but we can join with a church like First Baptist Dallas that is doing that. And together we can do that. Together we can go into all the world and make disciples.

Now, all of those things I mentioned—those four characteristics of the disciple—still, as true as they are, don't define the essence of discipleship. So are you ready to know what discipleship is really all about? I want you to write this down: The essence of discipleship is a changed life that comes from a transformed heart. Let me say it again: The essence of discipleship is a changed life that comes from a transformed heart.

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And we'll be talking about this process of transformation throughout this series. It all stems from the wise counsel in Proverbs 4: "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life."

Earlier, we mentioned a brand new ministry resource called *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple* that complements this teaching series. We're eager to send you a copy today when you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory.

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. Each chapter is intentionally brief, and the reflections are complemented by a Bible verse and a brief prayer to guide you.

Oh, and by the way, perhaps you have no idea of the impact of your generous support. There's not a day that passes without hearing from someone who tells us about the life-changing impact of Pathway to Victory. Because of your partnership, people are coming to Christ. Families and marriages are finding hope.

So thanks for giving a gift today. And when you do, be sure to request a copy of the devotional book *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple*. It comes with our thanks.

Now here's David with all the details.

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When you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory with a generous gift, you're invited to request your copy of *Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple* by Dr. Robert Jeffress. 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. Here's 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 when Dr. Jeffress continues his message on the Heart of Discipleship. 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. Experience the breathtaking majesty of America's last frontier on the 2026 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.

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Board Holland America's luxurious Koningsdam ship with.

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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 888-28067 or go to ptv.org.

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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.