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.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

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.

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

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First of all, realize that true fulfillment is impossible apart from God.

You're gonna build your life around whatever you think is gonna satisfy your deepest needs.

And that means if you wanna have intimacy with God, you've got to come to the place where you realize you can't be fulfilled any other way.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert J.E. This program revolves around relationships—family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. They all play a crucial role in our day-to-day lives.

But there's one relationship that's more significant than all the rest. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress talks about how to nurture your relationship with the one who created you.

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. I'll begin today with a very exciting opportunity for you and your family. As your radio pastor and Bible teacher, I'm thrilled to invite you on a life-changing adventure this coming June. It's the 2026 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska. Join me for an unforgettable week in the great frontier. Imagine waking up to breathtaking views of towering glaciers, spending your days in idyllic Alaskan villages, and witnessing God's creation in all its glory. This family-friendly cruise provides the perfect setting for Christian fellowship while enjoying world-class amenities. You'll find all the details for reserving your spot when you go to ptv.org today.

We begin the very last message in my teaching series called "Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life," and I've written a book with the same title. In my book, I come alongside you and address issues like choosing repentance over guilt, forgiveness over bitterness, and companionship over loneliness. Time is running short to request my book "Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life." A copy is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

As a bonus, I'm going to send you a second book. This one is from the founder of Hobby Lobby, David Greene, and is called "The Legacy Life." Stick around for details on this life-changing book coming right after our study in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I titled my message "Choosing Intimacy with God over Isolation."

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Maps can be crucial for providing direction, especially when you're in an unfamiliar territory and especially if you don't have access to Google Maps. But the only thing worse than having no map when you're in an unfamiliar territory is having the wrong map. Stephen Covey writes about the importance of having the right map in his book *7 Habits of Highly Effective People*. He said, suppose you wanted to arrive at a specific location in central Chicago. A street map of the city would be a great help to you in reaching your destination. But suppose you were given the wrong map through a printing error. The map labeled Chicago was actually a map of Detroit. Can you imagine the frustration, the ineffectiveness of trying to reach your destination? You might work on your behavior. You could try harder, be more diligent, double your speed. But your efforts would only succeed in getting you to the wrong place faster. You might work on your attitude; you could think more positively. You still wouldn't get to the right place. Or perhaps you wouldn't care. Your attitude would be so positive you'd be happy wherever you were. The point is, you'd still be lost. The fundamental problem has nothing to do with your behavior or your attitude. It has everything to do with having the wrong map.

You know, the problem with most motivational books, motivational sermon series, even the Christian ones, is they talk about things like setting goals and persevering and having the right attitude without providing you with the right map. And by map, I'm talking about the way of viewing life. You know, a geographical map is helpful in getting from point A to point B, and it's based on certain geographical realities. In the same way, a spiritual map shows us how to get from where we are into the place we want to be in our relationship with God in heaven. And it's also based on certain spiritual realities. Just imagine you did arrive in Chicago, and instead of asking for a map of the city, you decided to draw your own map of Chicago, even though you've never been there. You decided to base your map on what you wish Chicago was like instead of what it is actually like. The result is going to be a disaster, isn't it? It's the same thing when we try to create our own spiritual map, when we try to worship the God of our own understanding, when we just make up reality. The end is going to be a disaster. No, we've got to have the right spiritual map if we're gonna be successful in life.

In this series, *Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life*, we've been talking about biblical decisions, biblical attitude choices that are absolutely crucial in life. We're gonna end by talking about the most foundational attitude choice of all, the only one that will give you a proper spiritual map of life. And that is the choice to choose intimacy with God over isolation from God. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ecclesiastes, Chapter One. Ecclesiastes. You know, you've got it in the middle of Psalms and Proverbs and race past Song of Solomon and get to Ecclesiastes. You remember, thousands of years ago, there lived a man named Solomon. He was the king of Israel. And yet, as he surveyed the endless cycle of seasons and of nature, he came to the conclusion that there was no purpose to life whatsoever. Meaningless. Meaningless. Everything is meaningless.

But before he came to that final conclusion, he decided to set out on a personal pilgrimage to discover the right map that would give him direction in his life. Look at verses 12 to 13 of Ecclesiastes 1. "I, the teacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the sun." By the way, we're gonna see this again in a minute. Notice he was king of Israel already. He started out strong in his relationship with God, but then he began to wander away from God. And he started to say, maybe there's something else to life. I'm gonna see if there's some other system of belief that can give me true fulfillment in life. He devoted himself to study everything, to explore wisdom, all that is done under the sun. And so he tried three different maps to see if he could find meaning in his life.

The first map he used was pleasure. Perhaps experiencing pleasure was the key to meaning in life. Chapter two, verse one. He said, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." And so in verses 10 and 11, he says, "I denied myself nothing that my eyes desired." He tried everything: wine, laughter, women, great houses, great possessions. And he came to the conclusion that it was all a chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun. Key phrase in the book of Ecclesiastes: under the sun. Well, if that doesn't work, what would he do next? Well, Solomon thought to himself, you know, I've always been more of a thinker than a playboy at heart anyway, so maybe I'll try something else. Maybe I'll try the pursuit of wisdom. You remember, Solomon had always placed a premium on wisdom. When he was 20 years of age, at the beginning of his reign as king of Israel, remember God came to him and said, "Solomon, I will give you anything you want." Now, if you told a 20-year-old male, "I'll give you anything you want," what do you think most people would choose? It wasn't any different in Israel at that time. Most 20-year-old guys would have chosen a flashy chariot or a hot concubine or something else. But not Solomon. He said, "No. I want wisdom. I want wisdom." God granted him wisdom and every other thing his heart could have wanted as well.

But then he came to this conclusion. Verses 14 and 16: "But I came to realize that the same fate overtakes the wise and the fool, both. Like the fool, the wise man too must die." If you're a wise person, you might be buried at Westminster Abbey in London. If you're a fool, you might be marked in an unmarked grave. Buried in an unmarked grave. But the fact is, in the end, it really doesn't matter. Dead is dead, no matter where you're buried. The same fate overcomes everybody. Verse 15: "So I said to myself, the fate of the fool will overtake me also. That is, I will die. So what do I gain by being wise?" I said to myself, "This too is meaningless." Having found no meaning in pleasure or in wisdom, he tried work itself. Maybe if I throw myself into my work, that will provide meaning. Verses 18 and 19: "I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun."

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This too is meaningless.

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You know, I have an incident in my mind I will never forget. Do you all have things that have happened to you in the past that you just will never forget? Snapshots in your life? It happened to me about a month before my dad passed away. He knew he only had a few weeks to live. We were seated at the kitchen table, and he was going through his papers, showing me where everything was and preparing for his death. He showed me where his savings account was and where his bank CD was and these things.

He stopped in the middle of the explanation, looked at me, and said, "You know, I just can't believe this. I've worked all of my life for this, and now I'm gonna end up leaving it to somebody else." You know, that's the wisdom that only death brings. It doesn't matter what you have; it doesn't matter what you accomplish, you're gonna leave it to somebody else. And who knows what will happen to it then? Whether it's money or a business you've built, you're gonna leave it to somebody else. Who knows what will happen to it?

That's what Solomon was saying. "I've worked building this kingdom of Israel. I've brought it further than even my father David did. And now I'm gonna leave it to my son." I think he had a premonition that his son Rehoboam wasn't gonna do well with this. Who knows what's gonna happen to it? By the way, his premonition was correct. After Solomon died and Rehoboam became king, he made a series of bad decisions that, within a short period of time, ended up causing a civil war in the country. The country was divided. That's what happens.

Even if the person who comes after you builds that company, builds that business, builds your wealth, so what? You're not gonna know it; you're still going to be dead. Everything we have, everything we achieve is left behind. Jesus talked about that reality in Luke 12, beginning with verse 16. Remember the story he told? The land of a certain rich man was very productive. He began reasoning to himself, saying, "What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops?" He would stay awake at nights, not because he had too little, but because he had too much. He didn't know what to do with all of his excess.

Finally, he said, "This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all of my grain and all of my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.'" He had spent his life accumulating wealth, and he calculated, "Now I've got enough that I don't have to do anything except enjoy myself in retirement."

And what did God say to him? Verse 20: "You fool. This very night, your soul is required of you." That word "required" is a banking term that means literally to call in a loan. God was saying to this person, "You fool, God is going to call in this loan, the loan of your life. Your soul is required of you. And who will own what you have prepared?" So is the man who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Really, it doesn't matter what treasure you're spending your life to acquire—pleasure, wisdom, or wealth. Solomon and Jesus both affirmed the idiocy of trading the eternal for the temporal. You know, after this journey, the first 11 chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon came to the conclusion that wisdom is futile, pleasure is vain, work is meaningless, life is short, and death is absolutely certain. That's why he says over and over again, "Meaningless, meaningless. Life under the sun is meaningless."

But there's the key: "Under the sun." That's a phrase Solomon uses 29 times. It refers to life from a horizontal perspective. If we just look at what is around us, instead of looking up, life does seem meaningless, futile, useless. But there's another way to look at life, to look at life above the sun.

Have you ever had this experience of taking off in an airplane when it was gray and cold and raining? As you go down the runway, the rain streaks across the window of your passenger seat. Yet, as the plane goes upward, within just a few moments, as soon as it gets above the clouds, everything is sunshine. I mean, both realities are true. On earth, it is dark and gloomy. Above the clouds, it is sunshine. You have both realities true at the same time.

Well, the first 11 chapters of Ecclesiastes is under the sun, the meaninglessness of life. But then when he gets to chapter 12, he gives the above-the-sun perspective. Look at what he says in chapter 12, verse 1. Here's the key to finding meaning in life: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them.'"

"Remember your Creator." What does that mean? That word "remember" doesn't mean just a call to mind. "Oh, I remember God. I'd forgotten him for a while, but now I remember him." No, the key to that word is understanding its use. In 1 Samuel 1:19, remember the story of Hannah who prayed to God that God would give her a child. And finally, he answered her and gave...

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Her a son named Samuel.

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1 Samuel 1:19 says, "And God remembered Hannah." It's not that He had forgotten about her. To remember means to act decisively toward God; He acted decisively for the benefit of Hannah and for us. To remember God means for us to act decisively in our relationship with Him. It means to put God first. What Solomon is saying is that the most important choice we can make is to build our life around God. He is the only one capable of giving us the right perspective of life and eternity.

How do you do that? How do you choose intimacy with God over isolation from God? As we close out today, let me just share with you four practical principles for making God first in your life. First of all, realize that true fulfillment is impossible apart from God. You have to come to the understanding that true fulfillment is really impossible apart from Him. You know, nothing will block intimacy more than divided affections. If I am trying to build an intimate relationship with my wife, Amy, and yet I'm carrying on with some other woman at the same time, is that going to affect my intimacy with my wife in any way? Of course it is.

The truth is, there's no such thing as divided affection or divided loyalties. We build our life around one thing, not many things. Jesus said that in Matthew 6:24. He said, "Nobody can serve two masters." You just can't do it. You may think you can, but you can't. For you will either hate the one and love the other, or you will hold onto the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. The fact is, if you are under the illusion that a certain position, a certain amount of possessions, or a certain amount of prestige or pleasure will really provide the fulfillment you need in life, you can't be intimate with God and serve Him at the same time.

You're going to build your life around whatever you think is going to satisfy your deepest needs. And that means if you want to have intimacy with God, you've got to come to the place where you realize you can't be fulfilled any other way. You know, I had the funniest thing happen not long ago. I came across in my files a piece of paper, a yellow piece of paper from a tablet, something I'd written down 35 years ago. It was a list of my four major goals for that particular year. And I look back, and you know what struck me about it was I...

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Had marked off each of those goals.

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I'd accomplished them that year. But did that keep me from setting any more goals? Of course not. I mean, year after year after year, I had more and more goals. Here's what struck me. If those goals I thought were so important had been enough to fulfill me, I wouldn't have set any more goals. But it wasn't enough. It's never enough. I believe Solomon had reached the same conclusion. He had built the most powerful nation in the world. At that time, he became the wealthiest man of his day. And yet he realized he wasn't fulfilled.

It is only when we come to the point that we realize fulfillment is impossible apart from God, that we will begin to build our affections around God. Secondly, to gain intimacy with God, honestly evaluate your relationship with God. Do an honest X-ray of the condition of your heart. What right now is the center of your affections? What are you building your life around? The temporary or the eternal?

You know, a good way to really evaluate your heart is to ask yourself the question, how would you respond if suddenly you lost all of your material possessions? You lost your most important relationships, you lost your health, you lost your children? Would your life completely spin out of control? Did you know there was a person who actually experienced all of that in a very short amount of time? His name was Job, and we find his story in the Old Testament.

Obviously, Job was heartbroken after he lost his kids in a freak windstorm, after all of his possessions were taken from him, and after he began to lose his health. But it didn't undo his life. In Job 1, verses 20 to 22, it says that Job arose, he tore his robe and he shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Through all this, Job did not sin, nor did he blame God. Job's life was built around something more than what could be taken away from him; is yours?

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Solomon discovered what many spend a lifetime learning. Pleasure, wisdom, and wealth all leave us empty. True fulfillment comes only when we build our lives around God.

So don't wait until it's too late. Choose intimacy with God over isolation from Him. Remember your Creator and nurture your relationship with Him daily.

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Just before I turn the microphone over.

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To David, I'll interject this very important invitation. Earlier, you heard me reference David Green's excellent book. It's brand new and called the *Legacy Life*. And it comes with my thanks when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

Look, you don't need to be wealthy to leave a legacy. In the *Legacy Life*, David challenges the idea that legacy is only about money. David challenges us to understand our role in God's redemptive story. It's one that extends far beyond our individual lifetime.

Here's the exciting truth: as a believer, every time you partner with Pathway to Victory, you're living out a Biblical legacy mindset. Your generosity touches lives far beyond the life you're living right now—in your city, your country, and around the world.

In addition to David Green's book, I'll also be sending you my own book, *Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life*. It's the one I wrote to parallel our current teaching series that concludes tomorrow.

So why should you partner with Pathway to Victory? Because hurting people need to learn about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Families across our country desperately need direction, and our polarized nation needs the guiding light of God's Word.

So thank you for reaching out with a gift today. When you do, you will be used by Christ to change lives. Here's David with all the details.

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You're invited to request the Legacy Life when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Plus, you'll also receive the book by Dr. Jeffress called *Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life*. It's written to help you live out the principles we learned in this study. Just call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org.

Another convenient way to give is to text PTV to 78800, and when you give $100 or more, we'll also send you the audio and video discs for the *Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life* teaching series, plus a group or individual study guide. Again, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223, 609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Join us for part two of the message *Choosing Intimacy with God Over Isolation*. That's Thursday 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 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.