Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and welcome to this special bonus episode of the Pathway to Victory Podcast. I was honored to deliver the keynote address at the closing banquet of the 2025 National Religious Broadcasters Convention held here in Dallas.
The convention had almost 6,000 attendees, representing ministry leaders from organizations across America and around the world. I thought long and hard about what message God would have me deliver to this gathering of Christian communicators. It's the message you're going to hear today. It's titled, How to Keep from Blowing Up Your Ministry.
And in it, I outline four dangerous landmines that threaten to destroy Christian leaders today. These same biblical principles apply to all of us as we navigate the challenge of living faithfully in today's world. This bonus episode is my way of saying thank you for your faithful support and listenership. I'm encouraged knowing that many of you are enjoying this podcast and make it a regular part of your day. And I want to express my gratitude by giving you first access to this exclusive message. My team tells me that this podcast is one of the easiest ways for you to share our ministry and the messages with your friends, family and community. Would you help God's word go to more people by sharing an episode today with somebody in your life? You can forward this message or any other to a friend or family member.
Thank you. I truly appreciate your partnership with the Pathway to Victory podcast. So please join me now for this special presentation from the 2025 National Religious Broadcasters Convention as we discover how to keep from blowing up your ministry. Christianity Today did a feature article on the Dallas-Fort Worth area trying to answer the question, why are so many ministries, national and international ministries, moving to Dallas? I remember one line in the article that said, if the South and the Southwest are the Bible Belt of our country, Dallas is the buckle of the Bible Belt.
But lately, that buckle has become tarnished, as many of you know. The New York Times several weeks ago did an article also on ministries in Dallas, but with a different question. Why are so many ministries located in Dallas collapsing under the weight of moral and monetary scandals? I've got news for you. It's probably not news. This is not limited to Dallas.
It's happening everywhere. Christian leaders falling into the traps laid by the devil. Nobody's immune from it. If you think this is not for me tonight, then you're possibly the next casualty on the enemy's list. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, 12, Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Let me say it clearly. No pastor, no broadcaster, no musician, no ministry leader, no Christian trying to live for Christ is immune from Satan's attacks. And so that's what we're going to talk about for the next few moments. I titled tonight's message How to Keep from Blowing Up Your Ministry.
It's not original with me, by the way. About 40 some odd years ago, my mentor and former seminary professor, Dr. Howard Hendricks, invited me to join him and his wife, Jean, on a trip to Portland, Oregon, where Prof was leading a Bible conference. Also speaking at that conference was one of his other former students, an up and comer who was just getting a start on the national scene.
You may have heard of him. His name was Chuck Swindoll. Now, I remember one Saturday afternoon at that conference slipping into a session Chuck was leading entitled Avoiding the Landmines of Ministry. And to this day, I don't remember one scripture verse Chuck used, one illustration, but I remember the outline because the four landmines he talked about all began with an S. And I found that 40 years later, those landmines are more potent than ever. If you don't recognize these landmines, if you don't recognize them and flee from them, you will be destroyed by them. What are those landmines of ministry?
The first one that begins with an S is silver. And by that, of course, I'm talking about money. I have three friends in ministry who had to resign their ministries all because of financial impropriety. What was ironic is each of these leaders was earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in salary. And yet they lost their ministry over a few thousand dollars they took that really didn't belong to them.
Why would anybody make such a stupid trade? Hundreds of thousands of dollars for thousands of dollars. Paul answers that in First Timothy six verses nine and 10. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and destruction. That word snare refers to an animal trap that is laid to catch its prey. What is it that entices that animal?
There's some inward desire that it entices it to go into the snare. What is it that entices us into financial inconsistencies? It is the love of money. That's why First Timothy three says that to be in ministry, you need to be free from the love of money. Sometimes the enticement toward silver can be in blatant acts like embezzlement or padding an expense account.
But many times it's more subtle what the trap is. For example, our desire, our need, we think for a little extra money causes us to get involved in a side venture that distracts us from our main ministry. Or the desire to keep receiving personal gifts from a wealthy donor leads us to make decisions that aren't best for our church or our ministry. Or the lure of money, a higher salary, sometimes tempts us to another place of service that, frankly, we're not suited for, all for the desire of money. I'll let you in on a secret, and that is nobody ever thinks he has enough money.
Did you ever think about this? Of the 400 people on the Forbes list, the Forbes 400 list, 399 of them are envious of somebody else. There's only one who's satisfied, and he's probably not that satisfied. Ecclesiastes 5 10 says it this way, whoever loves money never has money enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. Money is like salt water.
The more you take in, the thirstier you become. You know, I'll never forget my first job in ministry. I started working as youth minister at the church I now pastor, First Baptist Church in Dallas. And I'll never forget, it was 1978 when I started there, and I remember one Saturday when the personnel chairman called and told me what my salary was going to be. He said, we're going to pay you $800 a month. And I nearly dropped the phone. I went in to see Amy.
She was in the other room in our apartment. I said, Amy, they're going to pay us $800 a month. What are we going to do with all that money?
Well, we answered that question. It's called children and grandchildren. But, you know, you never think you have enough. Scripture says as riches increase, so do those who consume them. How do you keep from being trapped by money?
I think John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had a good answer. He reportedly said to his sister, money never stays with me. It would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find a way into my heart. He told everyone that if at his death he had more than 10 pounds, about $20 to his name, he could be considered a robber. You know, one of the experiences I will never forget when I was just beginning in ministry was listening to one of my ministry heroes make this confession. He said, I've come to the point that I'm obsessed with money. All I ever think about is money. When I pray, I'm thinking about money. When I read the Bible, I think about money. When I stand and preach God's word, all I think about is money.
God help me. For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pain. The second landmine of ministry is sloth, s-l-o-t-h, which is just another word for laziness. A while back, I got an email from one of our Pathway to Victory viewers in Georgia, and she said, My husband and I have enjoyed watching you on TV on Saturday nights. Imagine our surprise when we went into church Sunday morning and heard our pastor deliver the same message with the same title and distributed the same outline that you used in your message.
What should I do? I'm considering going to the chairman of the deacons to let him know. Well, I told her I didn't care. That didn't bother me at all. I'm sure I got the message somewhere. You know, was it Spurgeon that said, All creativity and no plagiarism makes for dull preaching.
But if you're going to quote for something word for word, at least give the guy some credit for it. But anyway, what would cause a pastor to do that and risk his reputation and respect in the church? The simple answer is laziness.
Laziness. Laziness is something that will destroy your ministry. Proverbs 18, 9 says, He who is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. You know, Solomon was pretty humorous.
Listen to Proverbs 19, 24. The sluggard, the lazy person, buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth. Just imagine you're walking down the street and you run into a homeless person and he hasn't eaten in three days and you're feeling especially benevolent. So you invite him to go to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Have you ever been to Ruth's Chris?
Maybe you have one. It's a great place. And you tell your new friend he can order anything he wants. So he orders a 24 ounce New York sirloin, a loaded baked potato, a Caesar salad, an apple pie a la mode. And that comes that time the waiter brings out the sizzling plate and your friend takes his knife and fork and cuts into the meat. He takes the fork and stabs it in the meat and he starts to bring the fork to his mouth when he stops. He's paralyzed. And you say, what's wrong? Is something wrong with the meat?
Oh, no, it looks great. Well, why don't you put the fork in your mouth? Oh, that would take too much effort. That's what you call lazy.
But that's exactly what Solomon is picturing here. Now, before you criticize that man too much, let's all admit we have some of the sluggard in every one of us here tonight. There's a little hint of laziness in all of us.
Let me demonstrate that for you. How many of you can right now think of one thing you could do that would make you more successful in your ministry if you would start doing it? How many of you can think of something? How many of you can think of one thing you could start doing that would improve your relationship with your mate?
How many of you can think of one thing you could start doing that would improve your relationship with your heavenly Father if you started doing this one thing? Now let me ask you the simple question. You know what to do. Why aren't you doing it?
Why am I not doing it? You know what the answer is? Oh, that would be too hard.
It would be too difficult. Well, I have some great news for you tonight. This is the best news you'll ever hear. You're not going to die from hard work.
You're not. People don't die from hard work. You know, there is an insurance mogul. His name was A.L. Williams, and he wrote a great book.
It's the greatest title of any book I've ever read. It's titled All You Can Do is All You Can Do, and he started before he went into insurance as a high school football coach here in Texas, and he writes this. He said, I used to tell my football players that it was impossible to die from hard work. In the summer, we'd have football camp and practice three times a day. I'd say, now guys, you're going to get out there in that hot sun, and you're going to be working, and the coach is going to be fussing at you, and you're going to feel like you're going to die, but when you feel like you're going to die, just keep working, because the good Lord put a little mechanism in your head up there that makes you pass out before you die, and if you do pass out, we'll drag you into the dressing room, put you into the showers, give you some salt tablets, and you'll be ready for the next practice. Look, if you're going to succeed in your God-given dreams in life, expect to work hard.
Hard work is not going to kill you, but laziness, slothfulness will kill and destroy your God-given dreams. The third S, the third landmine of ministry, is one we're all too familiar with, and that is sex. Let's take a poll tonight. How many of you know of somebody or somebody who had to step down for ministry because of sexual immorality? Everybody raise your hand. I want you to look around and see this if you can. It's almost every one of us here.
That ought to tell you, something about the danger of this problem. You know, Proverbs is filled with warnings against immorality. What I love about Solomon is he doesn't engage in preacher talk. He tells it like it really is.
He never misled people about sexual immorality. You know, we teach people, oh, sin is so painful, and it's so awful, and it's so miserable. And then our people go out and start to sin a little bit, and they say, you know what? It's not a problem. It's not a problem. It's not too miserable.
It's pretty much fun. And Solomon said that. Solomon said, extramarital sex is great. Stolen waters are sweet for a season. But then he said, the lips of a lover are initially like honey, but in the end they become as bitter as wormwood. It's like that piece of bait you dangle in front of a fish.
That fish is so starved it grabs at the lure that's set in front of it, not knowing that there is a hook in the middle that will absolutely destroy it. You know, I'm convinced that most Christians don't wake up one day and say, you know what? I think today's a good day to destroy my marriage. I'm going to have an affair. I don't think most Christians wake up and say, wouldn't it be great to lose my career in ministry?
Wouldn't it be great to have my reputation destroyed forever? Most immoral relationships begin innocently. June Hunt, you know this as a counselor, eighty percent of affairs among Christian leaders and with Christian leaders start as counseling situations. They start innocently, but then you have that unplanned comment, that unintended touch that turns it into something very ugly. I remember South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who was exposed for an affair that ruined his family, ruined his political career. I remember watching a press conference and he was trying to explain the affair. He said it actually began as an innocent friendship, but then again it always does.
There are some of you listening to me tonight. You're on the edge of falling into that kind of relationship. It's innocent so far, but it's getting ready to take a turn. How can you recognize a situation that is fraught with danger? Dr. Dennis Rainey offers seven characteristics of a relationship that will move into adultery. Number one, you've got a need you feel your mate isn't meeting for attention, approval, affection, and that other person begins meeting your need.
You find it easier to unwind with somebody other than your spouse by dissecting the day's difficulties over lunch, coffee, or during the ride home. Number three, you begin talking with this person about problems you're having with your mate. Number four, you rationalize the relationship by saying that surely it must be God's will to talk so openly and honestly with a fellow Christian. Number five, you look forward to being with that person more than even your own mate. Number six, you wonder what you would do if you didn't have this friend to talk with. And number seven, you hide the relationship from your mate.
I'm not being self righteous here, but I want to say this because I know it's true. There's someone, some group in this room right now that's involved in an immoral relationship. You think nobody knows about it because nobody said anything to you about it, but most likely it's already known.
They just haven't talked to you about it. And even if they don't know yet about it, God knows. The ways of a man are ever before the Lord, the scripture says. I want to encourage you, if you're in that situation, to fast forward in your mind to what the ultimate outcome is going to be.
Picture those around you who are closest to you. What's going to happen when, not if, when, your immorality becomes known? What will that do to the friends who once respected you, to the mate who once trusted you, to your children who have admired you, to your grandchildren who adore you? What will be the response of your Savior who bled and died for you? Proverbs 6 32 says, the one committing adultery lacks sense. Only he who would destroy his life would do it. The final landmine that can blow up your ministry and your life is perhaps the most potent and the most foundational and its self. S-E-L-F. An obsession would get my desires met without thinking what God wants. My friend Bob Beale says, every life exists for one of two purposes, either to meet a need or to fill a greed. Every life is either God-focused or self-focused. Every life is focused on building God's kingdom or building my kingdom. It's one or the other.
It can't be both. And the most basic issue in your ministry you've got to get settled is, whose kingdom are you building? Is it yours or God's? I had to face that question very early in my ministry career. As I said, I served as youth minister at First Baptist Dallas for seven years. I remember seven because it corresponded to the tribulation.
And June, you can only appreciate that. A rapture came, and I got raptured to a little county seat town in the middle of the city. And it was a little town in the middle of the city, a little county seat town two hours west of Dallas, to become a pastor, which I knew was my calling. Amy and I were so excited to go to our first church, but almost immediately I ran into a buzzsaw. There was a group of three or four men who had run the church for fifty years, and they weren't about to surrender to a twenty-nine-year-old pastor.
And so they started stirring and making trouble and resisting the changes I was trying to make in the church. And it was during that time that my mom, who lived in Dallas, was fifty-four years old, was diagnosed with colon cancer and told she had four months to live. And so every Saturday during those early months, Amy and I would drive back to Dallas to see her.
I'll never forget the day after my mom's funeral. The men who were the ringleaders of the church came into my office and they said, you know, preacher, everybody's been sympathetic with you because of your mother. And because of that, we've laid off of you.
But now that she's gone, we're going to get rid of you. I never forgot that. And they made good on their promise, or at least they tried to. They really started stirring the ascension in the church. And I remember a Wednesday night, we were scheduled to have our monthly business meeting, and I just had a sense that something was about to happen.
We lived in the parsonage next to the church. And so before that meeting started, I knelt down in my study by my chair and I prayed to the Lord. And I prayed to the Lord. I said, Lord, something's getting ready to happen here.
You already know what it is. And tonight I want to give my ministry to you. My ministry completely belongs to you. And if you want me to leave, I'll leave. If you want me to stay, I'll stay. But if you want me to stay, I need a sign and I need it tonight. Now, look, I came from Dallas Seminary. You're not supposed to believe in signs, but sometimes you just do the best you can.
And that's the best I could just come up with. I said, Lord, I need a sign. Well, when I stood up, folks, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulder.
I felt such a freedom because I had given my ministry to God. I walked across the backyard into the church fellowship hall. Usually we would have about 50 or 60 people at our Wednesday night business meeting.
The place was packed with 250 people standing room only. And I knew something was about to happen. So I went through the agenda of the business meeting and I came to the portion, Is there any other business? And all of a sudden the ringleader stood up. He pulled out a sheaf of papers out of his pocket and he said, whereas the pastor of our church has, and he started listing the accusations.
I didn't know if I was going to be accused of murder, theft, or adultery or what, but it was just penny ante stuff. But he read the list. He said, therefore, I move that we vacate the office of pastor tonight. Another deacon stood up and he said, that's right.
We've lived under this dictator for a year now. We're not going to put up with it any longer. Another one stood up and said his piece. And finally I said, before we took the vote, does anybody else have something they want to say? And at the back of the room, an old woman, she was tough as a boot, Ms. Osborn. She started walking down the center aisle straight toward me.
I didn't know she was going to punch me out or what she was going to do. She came down to the front. I said, Ms. Osborn, do you have something you want to say?
She said, nope. I just want to stand with my pastor. And she planted herself there. And then somebody else came and stood here. And one by one, silently, the people stood up and came down until the place was filled at the front. And when there was no more room, a man sitting out in the audience said, I don't know what this is all about, but I go to the coffee shop every morning and I hear men say they've been won to Christ by Brother Robert, and I'm going to stick with him. Ms. Rodes, Benita Rodes, stood up and said, we've run off every pastor we've had here for the last 40 years.
We're not going to run this one off. And one by one, for the next 45 minutes, people stood up and gave a word of testimony. And when they had finished, the man who made the motion to vacate the pastor's office stood up and said, I never realized how out of step we were with the thinking of this church. You'll never hear another word from us. Within three weeks, they had left that church.
In three weeks, they were gone and the church exploded in growth and outreach. Now, I learned two things from that experience that I hope you'll remember. You really can give your ministry to God. He's much more interested in it than even you are.
He's much more interested in you than you are. You can trust God and it gives you a freedom of peace like you've never known when you give that ministry to God. But secondly, I learned never to leave your post prematurely. If I had left and I was tempted to leave, if I had left, I would have missed the blessing of staying.
While I was going through that, somebody gave me a little cassette tape by Charles Stanley in which he described a similar situation he experienced when he first came to First Baptist Atlanta. And a group of men took him out to lunch and tried to pressure him to resign. And Charles said, you know, if I resign, I have to answer to God for leaving my post. If you fire me, then you have to answer to God. I'd rather you answer to God than have me answer to God.
And that would be my word to you tonight. There are some of you who are very discouraged right now in your ministry. Don't leave prematurely.
Give the ministry to God. Let him deal with it. If he leaves you, fine. If he takes you, fine. But don't leave prematurely.
You really can trust him. The real question tonight for every one of us is, what is our ministry about? Is it about building our kingdom or building God's kingdom? Is it about self or is it about him? It's one or the other.
It can't be both. 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 slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
