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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, a Pathway to Victory, you may not be able to change your situation, but you can always do the next right thing. In the Bible, doing the next right thing is called Doing good. Very simply, doing good means do all the good you can, while you can, where you can.
Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffers. You ever had one of those days where everyone seems to be asking you for favors? You do your best to meet everyone's needs, but the requests keep coming in. Will you ever have the time to take care of yourself?
Today on Pathway to Victory. Dr. Robert Jefferson encourages us to not grow weary of doing good. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory.
Today is a very significant day because it's the final day in our Courageous series. And it's also the last day to request my book by the same title. Please don't let the time slip away from you without taking advantage of this special time-limited offer. When you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of my book. The full title is Courageous, 10 Strategies for Thriving in a Hostile World.
But that's not all, because right now we're enjoying the multiplying impact of the In God We Trust, matching challenge. Many of you have already received a letter from me about this challenge. Listen, from our very founding, America has been a nation blessed by God, because we were a nation dependent upon God. That dependence is what set us apart. And as that dependence erodes, so does the blessing.
I believe with everything in me that the only path forward for this nation is a return to the God who made her great. When you give to the In God We Trust matching challenge, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar, helping us reach more people than ever before with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Well, many Christians argue that doing good works isn't important. After all, we're saved by faith, not works, right? In this last message of the Courageous series, I'm going to show you why doing all the good we can is absolutely essential to our survival as Christians who live in a hostile world. I titled this next message, Survival Tip Number 10, Do the Next Right Thing. Vice Admiral James Stockdale had a brush with fame.
As Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot's running mate, on the independent reform ticket. Remember that? On October the 13th, 1992, Stockdale's first words during the nationally televised vice presidential debate were. Who am I?
What am I doing here? Those questions meant to introduce himself. instead made him a laughing stock in the media. Who portrayed Stockdale as a weak, doddering old man? Don't you remember those Saturday Night Live routines about James Stockdale?
Stockdale may have been from a bygone era. But he was anything. from doddering. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Stockdale was an accomplished fighter pilot.
In 1965, the 41-year-old father of four was shot down over Vietnam. As he ejected from his A4 Skyhawk and floated to the ground, he said to himself, Five years. That's how long he thought he would be held in captivity. As it turned out, he spent almost eight years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison. For four of those years, Stockdale was in solitary confinement.
For two years, he was forced to wear leg irons. He was tortured at least 15 times. Stockdale was the highest ranking officer among the hundreds of U.S. prisoners of war in the prison camp. Despite his solitary confinement, Stockdale organized a system of wall taps.
Hand signals and hidden notes for the prisoners to communicate with one another. He also developed a set of rules governing prisoner behavior. These rules gave his fellow American prisoners a sense of purpose and hope. Later he said, when a person is alone in a cell, and sees the door open only once or twice a day for a bowl of soup. He has to build some sort of ritual into his life.
if he wants to avoid becoming an animal. Stockdale led the prisoners' resistance against the Vietnamese attempts to use them as propaganda or informants on fellow soldiers. To Stockdale, integrity was the most important thing to maintain for a prisoner of war. more important than food, avoiding torture, or even life itself. Stockdale wrote, I came to realize that if you don't lose your integrity, You can't be had.
And you can't be hurt. To live as honorable prisoners, Stockdale instructed the American soldiers that it was okay to divulge useless information along with their name, rank, and serial number and birth date. One pilot, under torture, gave his captors the names of comic book heroes when he was asked to name their top flyers. In doing so, he bolstered the men's spirits, protected vital military secrets, and preserved his honor. In 1969, Stockdale's Vietnamese captors decided to parade the prisoners through the streets of downtown Hanoi to show foreign journalists how humanely the prisoners were being treated.
Stockdale refused to take part of the charade. He slashed his scalp with a razor and beat his own face with a wooden stool because he knew his captors wouldn't want to show a prisoner with cuts and bruises on his face. When he learned that some prisoners had died during torture, Stockdale cut his own wrists to let his captors know that he would rather die than betray his country, his countrymen, and his character. These were radical steps to take to protect his integrity and the honor of his men. But they worked.
When the Vietnamese saw how determined Stockdale was to resist, And how his resistance emboldened his fellow soldiers, they ceased torturing American POWs and improved conditions in the prison. In 1973, during Operation Homecoming, James Stockdale, along with the other prisoners in the Hanoi Hilton, was finally released. His courage and heroism became widely known, and in 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded Stockdale the Congressional Medal of Honor. In our series, Courageous, we're looking at 10 strategies for thriving in a hostile world.
Well, today we're going to look at the tenth and the final principle for thriving in a hostile world. And it's one that James Stocktale embodied. And the principle is simply this. Do the next right thing. Whatever situation you're in, no matter how difficult it is, do the next right thing.
In the Bible, doing the next right thing is called doing good. Very simply, doing good means do all the good you can, while you can, where you can. Take your Bibles and turn to Galatians 6, verses 9 through 10. Perhaps you've never seen these verses before. Paul wrote, and let us not lose heart in doing good.
Underline that. For in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.
So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good. There it is again, to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Paul says, if we do good, no matter how difficult our situation, we will not grow weary. How do you maximize your opportunity to do good? Let's look and see what the Word of God says.
First of all, if you're going to do good, look beyond yourself. Doing good means having a focus that is not on yourself. Secondly, ask God to create opportunities to do good. Ask God to create opportunities to do good. In Colossians 4, 3, Paul said, I am praying, and we should be praying, that God may open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ.
Paul was saying, we're praying that God gives us an opportunity to share the gospel. Friends, that's a prayer God will always answer. The Bible says we ought to ask God to create opportunities. And then, thirdly, when those opportunities come, seize the opportunities that God creates for us. Seize the opportunities that God creates.
Now look. There are all kind of needs around you. That doesn't mean you're the one necessarily to meet those needs. You can't meet every need in the world, but you ought to meet the needs that God gives you the opportunity to meet. How do you know?
If it's an opportunity, if there's a need somewhere that you should be the one to meet it. You know, ask yourself, do I have the ability to meet that need, the giftedness, the ability to meet that need? Secondly, has God opened a door of opportunity for me to meet that need as well? If you're going to do good, seize the opportunities that God creates for you. You know, when I think of doing the next right thing, even when you can't see the whole picture.
I think of one woman in the Bible who illustrates that principle the best. In fact, she has a whole book. that's attributed to her name. Her name is Esther. Remember the story of Esther in the Old Testament?
You know, in the book of Esther, Esther is the only book of the Bible in which the word God is not mentioned one time. God's not mentioned at all in the book of Esther. For that reason, Martin Luther and others thought the book didn't even belong in the Bible. But that's wrong. Even though God's name doesn't appear, you see his fingerprints all over Esther's story.
It's a book about the providence of God. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, let me give you the reader's digest summary. You remember that Esther lived in Persia, which is modern-day Iran. That's where some of the exiles lived, the Jewish people who had been exiled from the northern and later the southern kingdom. And she was orphaned as a young girl, and she was adopted by her older cousin named Mordecai.
And through a miraculous set of circumstances, Esther ended up being chosen by the king Xerxes to be the queen of Persia. And in Esther chapter 2, verse 17, it says, The king loved Esther more than all of the women. And she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her the queen.
Well, upon a day Uh King Xerxes right-hand man, Haman. Uh ordered. all of the people to bow down before him. And when cousin Mordecai refused to bow down before Haman, Haman was infuriated. And he went to the king and persuaded the king to sign an edict that would call for the killing of all of the Jews in the land, not just Mordecai, but all of the Jews on a certain date in the future.
And so King Xerxes signed that edict, not knowing that his own wife. Esther was a Jewess herself. And when word came to Mordecai that the king had issued that edict, he sent word to Esther in the palace to please intervene on not only his behalf, but on behalf of the Jewish people.
Well, Esther was hesitant to go and ask the king to do that. Because there was a Persian law, a custom, that you never went into the king's presence uninvited. Because if you went uninvited into the king's presence, he could do one of two things. He could hold out his scepter, indicating that you were free to speak and make whatever request you wanted. But if the king withheld his scepter, it means you were to be executed.
You can understand why Esther was hesitant to go into the king's presence. She knew she had a 50-50 chance of living. And so she expressed her reservation to her cousin Mordecai, but he didn't stop making his plea. Chapter 4, verse 14, he said, Who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this? In other words, Esther, you're not where you are by accident.
God put you there for a great purpose.
Well, it finally persuaded Esther to do the right thing, the next right thing. But before she rushed into the king's presence, she asked Mordecai and the other Jews in the land to pray and to fast for her. And finally, at the end of three days, she decided to go. And she uttered those famous words in chapter 4, verse 16: If I perish, I perish. Esther went into the presence of the king, trembling, I'm sure.
She didn't die that day. Instead, to her surprise, the king welcomed her and told her he would grant her any request she made. She had an elaborate plan. She didn't unveil her request that day. But later on at a banquet, she revealed that she was Jewish herself.
She talked about what the king's official Haman had done and how he had plotted against Mordecai. She persuaded the king to do something, to intervene on behalf of the Jewish people.
Now again, according to Persian law, a king could not reverse an edict. Have you heard of the laws of the Medes and the Persians? It means something that cannot be changed. But what the king could do was to issue another order that gave the Jewish people a right to defend themselves when they were attacked. He did that, Haman was executed, and as a result, the entire Jewish people were saved.
all because of the courage of one woman to do the next right thing. You know, as I look at that story of Esther, I find four principles about doing the next right thing that apply to every one of us today. Just jot these down, would you? First of all, determined to take action in spite of danger or doubt. Determine that you're going to take action in spite of danger or doubt.
You know, somebody has said that the two greatest days of a person's life. or the day they were born. And second, the day they discover why they were born. Esther discovered why she was born through her cousin's words. Who knows that you come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther knew she had to take a stand, and she was willing to do so, even though she didn't know. how it would turn out. Determine to take action in spite of danger or doubt. Secondly, enlist others in your action plan. You know, Esther didn't try to do this by herself.
She asked people to pray for her. I think she probably asked for advice on how to best approach the king with her request. Proverbs 15, 22 says, Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors, they succeed. Thirdly, Take deliberate action. Once you know what the next right thing to do is, do it.
Don't wait. Don't ask for another sign. If God has spoken to you and shown you what the next right thing to do is, do it. You know, somebody has rightly said. The amount of time you allow Between knowing what to do.
And doing what you should do, that interval of time is the time that Satan speaks to you. And the longer the time is between when you know what to do and you do it. the longer Satan has to talk you out of it. That's why it's important to take deliberate action when you know what the right thing to do is. There was a famous Christian writer.
And I don't want to disparage him because he wrote a lot of good things. But one bad thing he used to say was: he said, You know, you've heard it said before, don't just stand there, do something.
Well, I say, don't just do something, stand there. In other words, just keep waiting on God, waiting on God, waiting on God, and waiting on God. He almost made it sound like there was something spiritual about being paralyzed with inaction. I agree. You shouldn't run ahead of God.
Nobody should do that. But you don't want to fall behind God either. When you know what the right thing to do is, go ahead and do it.
Some of you right now know the right thing to do. Perhaps you've felt lonely and You need other Christians to encourage you. Go ahead and join the church. Or join that Sunday school class where you can be encouraged.
Some of you know there's somebody you have wronged that you need to ask forgiveness from. You don't have to pray about whether to do that. The Bible says go ahead and take that action. Perhaps there's a friend or Even a child or grandchild from whom you've been estranged. You've been waiting for them to make the first move, but you know what the Bible says?
You're supposed to make that first move. Pick up the phone, send that email. Maybe there's somebody in your office who needs to know Jesus as Savior. Don't wait for the perfect time to share with them. Share right now.
God has promised His word will not return void. Take deliberate action now. Daniel 11:32 says, The people who know their God shall stand firm. and take action. Take deliberate action.
And fourth, Leave the results of your action to God. Leave the results of your action to God. You may not know what the outcome of your obedience is. Leave that up to God. That's what Esther did.
When she said, I'm going in there, Mordecai, to see the king. If I perish, I perish. She wasn't being morbid or fatalistic. I think she said that with happiness in her voice. You know what?
I'm going to do the right thing. If I die, he kills me. That just means I get to see God that much sooner. If I don't die, I don't die, and I get to lie. I win either way.
And the same is true for you. Just ask yourself: if you're fearful about taking that next step, ask yourself: what's the worst thing that could happen to you?
Well, I guess the worst thing that could happen to you is you die doing the right thing. That's probably not going to happen, whatever you're being called to. It's not going to cost you your life. There's no reason to be afraid. You know, when I think about somebody who did the right thing without knowing the outcome.
I think about another woman. And she decided that for her the Next right thing was to Teach a Sunday school class for underprivileged boys in her church. And so she told the Sunday school superintendent God was telling her to teach this class, and so she taught the class. And the church had a policy of buying a new suit of clothes for every one of those little boys that was in the Sunday school class to encourage them to come. There was a particular boy in the class, Bob Rowdy.
Always interrupting. After a couple of weeks, he quit coming, so the teacher went to see him. and found that he had ruined that suit of clothes, torn the suit.
So she arranged for him to have a second suit. He came back, kept disrupting the class, dropped off the radar, and she went by to see him, and he ruined a second suit. She invites him back, arranges for another suit. Finally, a third time, he's in the class for a couple weeks. She doesn't see him again.
She goes to the Sunday School superintendent. She says, I'm ready to give up. I just don't know what to do. The superintendent said, let's give him one more chance. I'll give you a suit to take to him.
So she did that. He came back to the class and this time he stayed. And after a few weeks, he We're saved in that Sunday school class. After that, he began teaching the class. as a young man.
And that boy named Bob, his actual name was Robert Morrison. He became the first Protestant missionary to China. He's the first one to translate the Bible into Chinese. And today, there are literally hundreds of millions of Christians in China. Because of that one woman, that Sunday school teacher.
who is ready to do the next right thing. even when she didn't know the outcome. That's why the Apostle Paul says, don't lose heart. in doing good. For in good season we shall reap.
if we do not grow weary. An entire nation was saved, all because of the courage of one godly woman. That's the power of doing the right thing. and I hope you'll take these four principles from Esther's story and begin applying them to your life today. Like Esther, I believe that God has appointed pathway to victory for such a time as this.
This summer we're positioned to engage our culture in ways I never dreamed possible and make an even greater impact across our nation and around the globe. And it's all because of financial partners like you. And when you give a generous gift to the matching challenge, I'll send my thanks along with a copy of my book. It's called Courageous, 10 Strategies for Thriving in a Hostile World. Make no mistake, when we develop the kind of godly courage God calls us to, we can transform the country we love one heart at a time.
The stakes have never been higher, and I refuse to be silenced by those who would prefer we say nothing about God's plan of redemption. In recent years, I've never witnessed the kind of angst spreading across this nation. But at the same time, I'm watching God open doors for his truth like never before.
So this is no moment for the sidelines. That's why the In God We Trust matching challenge matters so much. Every dollar you give today is immediately doubled, multiplying your impact on the nation we love. Please don't hesitate. Step up right now, give generously, and trust the God who has never once abandoned a nation that calls upon his name.
Thanks so much. Here's David with all the details. You're invited to request a copy of Courageous, the book by Dr. Robert Jeffress, when you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory. To request your very own copy, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org.
You can also support this ministry by texting PTV to 78800. And when your gift is $75 or more, you'll receive the complete Courageous Leader kit. Which includes a copy of the book, the personal and group study guide, the complete teaching series on DVD and MP3 format audio disc, and a set of courageous encouragement cards. And best of all, because of the In God We Trust matching challenge, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar, having twice the impact. To request the Courageous Leader kit, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org.
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I'm David J. Mullins. Wishing you a great weekend, then join us Monday for the start of a new series called America and the Bible. That's right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr.
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To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/slash/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: don't forget to reserve your spot on the 2027 Journeys of Paul Mediterranean cruise. You've heard me and Dr. Jeffers talk about it, and cabins are going quickly.
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