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Now, here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffers and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, what is God asking you to do today? It may be something monumental. It may seem inconsequential.
but whatever God is asking you to do today. Saying yes. is the first step in developing an obedient art. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffers.
The Bible teaches that by grace we've been saved through faith. There's really nothing we can do to earn our salvation. But that doesn't mean salvation is a get out of jail free card. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffers explains why obedience is an essential mark of a transformed heart.
But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Today we continue our very practical teaching series called Seven Marks of a Disciple. Before we get started, you're invited to join us for the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. Picture yourself on board when we depart the sunny harbor of Vancouver, British Columbia, on a one-week adventure to the Alaskan frontier.
Imagine spending seven days without having to cook your own meals. From the deck of the ship, you'll take in the majestic shoreline of God's masterpiece creation. And so that our time is distinctly Christian, we're bringing our own entertainment and music, and I'll be teaching from God's Word as well. For all the details, go to ptv.org. Then a quick reminder that Pathway to Victory has published a brand new padded hardcover devotional book for you.
It's called Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple, and it features a daily infusion of biblical hope and inspiration for you. Each chapter is brief, so that you can reflect and pray in just under two minutes. And each chapter includes a Bible verse, a short prayer, and uplifting encouragement for your day. The book is yours. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, We'll say more about the book, Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple, later in the broadcast.
But right now, let's pick up today's study in John's Gospel, chapter 14. It's a message titled, Developing an Obedient Heart. Today, we're in our series on seven marks of a disciple. And today, we're going to discover another one of those marks of a follower of Jesus Christ. And that is an obedient heart.
A true follower of Christ is one who obeys Jesus in all things that he has commanded them, according to Matthew chapter 28. And Jesus demonstrated that, not just in his words, but in his actions. In fact, Jesus in his life demonstrated three key characteristics of an obedient heart. First of all, Jesus' life demonstrates immediate obedience to God. Secondly, Jesus demonstrated complete obedience to God.
And then finally, the kind of obedience God demands from us is a joyful obedience. What is it that keeps us from that complete, immediate, and joyful obedience? Let me mention several barriers to that kind of obedience that God commands two specifically. One is our distance from God. Let's just be honest.
It's hard. To obey an invisible being, isn't it? One we've never seen. One who seemed so far away. I'm not saying that's a right excuse for disobeying God, but at least helps us understand one reason we find it difficult to obey God.
But an even more potent barrier to obedience to God is our distrust of God. It's not just our distance from God. At the heart of our disobedience to God is a basic innate distrust. we have of God. By the way, that was the basis of the first sin recorded in the Bible.
Remember in Genesis chapter 3, God had said to Adam and Eve, Now, Adam and Eve, I've given you this whole garden. Every tree is yours, except one. Just stay away from that tree. Every other tree is yours.
So, when the serpent came to deceive Eve, where did he stay? Center her attention not on all the things God had said yes to, but on the one thing God had said no to. He said, come on, Eve. Have some of this fruit. Eve said, No, Mr.
Serpent, I can't do that. God said, In the day we eat of the tree, we shall die. What did the serpent say? Verse 4 of Genesis 3: And the serpent said to the woman, You surely shall not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Eve, there's a reason God said not to eat of this tree. He doesn't want you to be like him. He's trying to keep something good, pleasurable from your... Life. You can't trust God.
Go ahead and eat. And that is the heart of every temptation that we face. Can we really trust that God wants what is best for us? That's the barrier to our obedience. Our distrust of God.
How do we develop? an obedient heart. A heart that reflexively obeys God. Completely, immediately, and joyfully. It doesn't happen automatically.
We don't get one of those hearts the moment we are saved. Even Jesus, you know, this is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible. Hebrews 5, verse 8 says, though Jesus was a son, He learned obedience by the things that he suffered.
Now, think about this. If Jesus, the perfect Son of God, had to learn how to obey his heavenly Father. How much more do you and I have to learn how to obey God? How do we do it? Let me suggest four practical ways to develop this obedient heart.
First of all, decide that obedience is a priority in your life. Decide that obedience is a priority in your life. I know that sounds simple, but let me just say: the reason most of us don't obey God regularly is because we have no intention of obeying God regularly. One writer said it this way: If you will stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the early Christians were. Your own heart will tell you.
that it is neither through ignorance nor inability but purely because you never thoroughly intended it. We have to intentionally decide that we're going to obey God. We have to come to the point in our life when we say, God, I believe what you say is true, and I really do believe you want what is best for me. A number of years ago, I went to my gastroenterologist. Having had both of my parents die at an early age from cancer, I decided I didn't want to go that way and go that early.
So I asked my doctor for some advice what I could do from contracting colon cancer. He said, Oh, that's real easy. He said, eat a bowl of bran flakes every morning with some unprocessed wheat bran on it. And every night before you go to bed, have a glass of metamucil and you'll be just fine. And by the way, that'll be $120.
So he took my money and I took his advice. And I've been doing that. every day for 35 years. I gag down the bran flakes not because I like them. There are many mornings I'd rather have a sausage biscuit from McDonald's.
Every night, there are nights I'd rather have a milkshake than a metamuchial shake, but I I do it anyway. Why? Because I have an intention of doing it. I decided I trust my doctor, I believe he knows what's best for me, and I really do want to avoid that disease. You know, it's the same way with obeying God.
We have to decide, God knows what is best, and we have to determine we're going to follow Him. By the way, a great scripture passage to memorize that reminds us that God's will and God's word are perfect for us is Psalm 19. Look at it again. I encourage you to read this and meditate upon it regularly. The law of the Lord is perfect.
Restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold. Yes, more than fine gold, and sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. God's commands are not evil. They're not bad.
They're not going to hurt us. They are good. They are pure. They are delightful. Develop that intention.
Decide that obeying God is your intention. Secondly, Develop a God is here mindset. Develop a God is here mindset. If one reason we have trouble obeying God is because of our distance from God, we've got to develop what we call this God is here mindset. What do you mean by that, Pastor?
Think about King David for a moment.
Now, when we think about David, what do we think about? The big mess up with Bathsheba, right? One night he made a bad, bad mistake with Bathsheba, and that's what we remember him for. But other than that one flub up, you know, the Bible says David was in fact a man after God's own heart. Why was that?
The key to David's spiritual life was found in Psalm 16, verse 8. This is so rich. David said, I have set the Lord continually before me. Because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken.
Now, David, what do you mean you have set the Lord before you? I mean, you wrote in Psalm 139: where can I go and escape from God's Spirit? He's everywhere that I am. That's the omnipresence of God. Yes, He is everywhere.
We just don't realize He's everywhere. We don't realize he's there and watching us and close to us.
So we have to continually develop the mindset that says God is here. He is here. How did David do that? One way he did it, Psalm 1, was by meditating on God's law day and night. Reading the Torah, the scriptures.
It reminded him that God is here. And that's a key for us to remember: God is here by continually reading His Word. You know, I'm going to confess something to you. You may want to throw me out as your pastor once you hear this. But there are nights I don't want to read my Bible.
I'm going through the Read the Bible in a Year program. There are some nights I think, oh my gosh, not this. I mean, especially when I get to Leviticus, you know, Numbers, the begets, and so forth. I tell you, it's like gagging down a bowl of bran flakes sometimes.
Now I shouldn't confess that does anybody feel that way ever? Desert, do you feel that way? but I do it anyway. And you know what the benefit of it is? If I don't get one thing, one application out of it.
It reminds me, as Acts 17:28 says, that there is a God. in whom we move, live, and have our existence. There's just something about reading scripture that reminds us that God is here. You know, David also used music. He was a harpist, and he used music not only, I think, to comfort Saul, but also to remind him of the presence of God.
Some ways you can set God before you.
Some simple things, scripture plaques around your home that have Bible verses on them that remind you of God's word. Um That's a powerful way. Listening to Christian messages while you're in the car or while you're exercising, don't waste that time. All of these things help us develop a God is here mindset. Maybe have some mementos on your desk at work.
That reminds you of milestones in your spiritual life, like your baptism, maybe a baptismal certificate, or a picture at a Christian conference, or something else that was especially meaningful to you. We need to work at reminding ourselves that God is here. You see, there's an inseparable link between thinking about God and obeying God. Frank Lawback. Was a man who developed what he called the game of minutes, in which he decided he was going to see.
How quickly he could turn his thoughts, whatever they were, back toward God. And it completely revolutionized his Christian life when he started learning how to think about God continually. He wrote, As for me, I never lived. I was half dead. I was a rotting tree until I reached the place.
Where I wholly, with utter honesty, resolved and then re-resolved. That I would find God's will, and I would do that will through every fiber in me that said no. and that I would win the battle. in my thoughts. It was as though some deep artesian well had been struck in my soul.
money, praise, poverty, opposition. These make no difference. for they will all alike be forgotten in a thousand years. But the spirit which comes to a mind set upon a continuous surrender. This spirit is timeless life.
A third key. To developing that obedient heart is obey. all that you know to be true. Obey all that you know to be true. Suppose that you go to your doctor and you're saying, you know, I'm feeling sluggish.
He says, well, let me run some tests on you. He comes back and says, oh, I know what the problem is. Your arteries are filled up with plaque. And not only that, your cholesterol is through the roof, and not only that, you've got a weak heart muscle. If you really want to get well, you need to do three things: you need to go on a low-fat diet, you need to take this cholesterol tablet to reduce your cholesterol, and you need to start exercising.
You say, okay, I'm for it, doctor. But after a week, you think the exercise thing, forget that, I'm not getting up early.
So you give that up. A couple of weeks later, you say, I can't take this low-fat diet any longer, so you get off of that. But you continue taking that cholesterol tablet.
Now, what are the results of making that decision? There's one result that is obvious. You're missing the benefit of exercise and the low-fat diet, but you are at least gaining the benefit of taking that little pill once a day. But the second consequence is much more serious. That is, you have made a habit of selective obedience.
By saying to yourself, I'm going to obey one thing the doctor says, but I'm going to disobey two other things he says. You're cultivating a habit of disobedience. And what happens in a month or two if you decide, you know what, this cholesterol tablet, it's too expensive, or it's too much trouble. I'm going to quit doing that as well, just as I quit doing the other things. Or what if in a few months your doctor says, You need to have a heart operation.
Are you going to decide, no, I don't think I'll do that either? That's the downside of selectively obeying. God's commands. When you decide, yes, I'll do this, but no, I don't think I'll do that. We cultivate the habit of disobedience.
And that's why God says He demands obedience to all of His commands. Deuteronomy 30, verse 2: And you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all of your heart and soul, according to all that I command you today, you and your sons. Or Deuteronomy 32, verse 46: He said to them, Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. A fourth essential for developing an obedient heart. is remember the reward for obedience.
Remember the reward for obedience. Listen to Hebrews 11, 6. I want you to listen to this and look at it carefully. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is.
And that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. If you're going to obey God continually, yes, you must believe that God exists. That's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it? You must believe that God is, but believing God is is not enough. For consistently obeying God, you have to believe that one day there's a payoff for your obedience.
That one day He is going to reward you for your obedience to Him. You know, we look at that kind of skeptically. For example, a parent who rewards his child, gives him a quarter or a dollar every time the child obeys the parent, we think, oh, you're messed up. You ought to teach your kids to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. Or a first-grade teacher who gives out candy to the students who do well on a test.
Oh, no, no, no, no. You need to teach them to do well in school just for the joy of learning. You don't need to give them a reward. We think people ought to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. But you know what?
God knows us better than we know ourselves. God says, unless there is a promised reward in the future. You're not going to stay in that troubled marriage. You're not going to say no consistently to temptations. You're not going to continue at a difficult ministry.
unless you believe there is a payoff at the end. And that's why we have to believe that there is a reward for obedience. Think about Hebrews chapter 11. Abraham, Moses, Noah, these great men and women of faith. What was their motivation to obey God?
It was the promise of a future reward that kept them going. Hebrews 11, verse 13 says, All of these died in faith without receiving the promises. They didn't get the payoff in this life. They died without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one.
They obeyed God in this life because of the belief that they had a better life that was coming. Even Jesus had did that. Again, remember, it was because of the joy that was set before him. That Jesus endured the agony of Calvary to experience the ecstasy of his unending rewards from God. No act of obedience.
is small in God's eyes. Whether it's saying no to a temptation or yes to the ultimate sacrifice. We obey God. Believing that one day he is going to reward us for doing so. And remember, no act of obedience.
is inconsequential in God's eyes. Philip Yancey, the great Christian writer, talks about seeing a documentary on television. about some of the survivors of World War II. Listen to what he says. This is so fascinating.
He said, The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day. One sat in the foxhole all day. Once or twice a German tank drove by and he shot at it. Others played cards and frittered away the time. A few got involved in a furious firefight.
Mostly The day passed like any other day for an infantryman on the front. Later, these soldiers learned That they had just participated in one of the largest, most decisive engagements of the war. The Battle of the Balds. It didn't feel like it was decisive to any of them at the time. Because none of them had the big picture.
of what was happening elsewhere. And then Yancey adds: Great victories are won when ordinary people execute their assigned tasks. And a faithful person does not debate each day whether he's in the mood to follow the sergeant's orders or to show up at a boring job. We exercise faith. by responding to the task that lies before us.
For we have control only over our actions. in the present moment. What is God asking you to do today? It may be something monumental. It may seem inconsequential.
But whatever God is asking you to do today. Say yes. is the first step in developing an obedient Art. We're so glad you joined us for this edition of Pathway to Victory. And before we conclude another week of programs, let me remind you about a brand new book from Pathway to Victory that's designed to help you cultivate your walk with God.
It's called Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple. As you strive to fulfill a never-ending inventory of requirements for being a godly parent, a spouse, an employee, and more. you might feel progressively disconnected from the God you're trying to serve. This resource will help you cut through the clutter as you choose to follow Christ in important areas such as forgiveness. contentment and trust.
Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple contains 80 stunning photographs of God's creation. You have to see this padded hardcover book to truly appreciate how beautiful it is, and each chapter is paired with a Bible reading suggestion, along with a prayer you can follow. When you include a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory with your request, we'll be sure to send a copy to your home right away. Your generous giving is what makes this ministry possible. You see, shining the bright light of God's Word in our dark culture isn't without expense.
In fact, simply paying for airtime takes up the vast majority of our budget. But when you give to support Pathway to Victory, you can be confident in knowing that every dollar you give will be carefully stewarded to help this ministry grow and reach more people.
So thank you very much for responding today. Here's David with all the details. When you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you a copy of the brand new devotional book by Dr. Robert Jeffers called Encouragement for the Heart of a Disciple. Call 866-999-2965 or even easier, go to ptv.org.
And when your ministry gift is $100 or more, we'll send you the Encouragement Resource Set. containing the new devotional, six clutter-free prayer cards, the clutter-free Christianity book and life application guide, and the seven marks of a disciple message series on DVD video and MP3 format audio disc set. If you'd prefer to write, here's that address: P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O.
Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Wishing you a great weekend. Then come back next week for a message called Developing a Trusting Heart.
That's Monday here 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.
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