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 slash podcast and click the donate button or follow the link in our show notes.
Now here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. This is the coming year with the brand new 2024 daily devotional, From Pathway to Victory. This exquisite book bound in forest green leather and inlaid with brown and gold foil features over 530 pages of biblical inspiration from Dr. Robert Jeffress. That's a new devotional reading deeply rooted in God's word for every Monday through Friday and through every season in the new year. Get a copy for yourself and request several more for your family and friends when you go to ptv.org. This is Robert Jeffress. In response to the horrific attack on Israel, I've written a brand new book called Are We Living in the End Times?
Go to ptv.org to order your copy. What if your doctor were to tell you that you only had six months left to live? Would you have any regrets in your life? Today we're going to begin this series by looking at three foundational assumptions to living a regret free life. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress.
And by the way, happy new year to you. You know, regret is one of life's most painful emotions, but no matter how bad choices haunt your past, you can claim God's forgiveness and leave the baggage behind. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shares biblical principles for dealing with regrets from the past and preventing regrets in the future. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Happy New Year, David, and happy new year to all of our Pathway to Victory friends. You have chosen the perfect day to join us because we're beginning a brand new teaching series today. Yesterday we said goodbye to 2023. And this morning you greeted a brand new year.
You see, January 1 represents a fresh start, a clean slate. And that's a beautiful thing because some are lugging a measure of regret into the new year. Many of us are living with disappointment. We feel sorry for mistakes we've made. We feel bad about opportunities we may have missed.
It's like we're living in a constant state of if only. Well, in this brand new series and in my book by the same title, Say Goodbye to Regret, we're going to talk about putting those would have, should have regrets behind us. Again, I titled the new series Say Goodbye to Regret. And over the next two weeks or so, we'll talk about issues like saying goodbye to parenting regrets, to financial regrets, and even to sexual regrets.
Truly, this may be the most practical series we've ever presented on Pathway to Victory. It touches on some of the most personal and intimate issues of our lives. And if you're prepared to say goodbye to regret and move on as God intended, then you'll benefit from my new book. I'm going to send you a copy when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory.
We'll say more about my book later in the program, but right now, let's open our Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. I titled today's opening study, Say Goodbye to Regret. Tuesday, October the 3rd, 1995 is a day I will never forget. As millions of Americans sat glued to their television set awaiting the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, I sat by my telephone awaiting a different kind of verdict. 24 hours before that, a dermatologist had removed a piece of skin from my face that looked suspicious.
He wanted to biopsy it. And the next 24 hours were very uncomfortable for me. Because of my family's history with cancer, I immediately expected the worst. I remember a sleepless night in which I played out different scenarios, but I also spent the evening reviewing some of the regrets in my life. I thought about Saturdays that I had spent at the office polishing an already adequately prepared sermon instead of being at home with my two little girls.
Not every Saturday, but some Saturdays. I thought about some of the hurtful words I had spoken to people who mean the most to me. I thought about time I had wasted that I could have spent strengthening my relationship with God. The next day, shortly after noon, you may remember O.J. Simpson heard the words of the jury foreman announcing the trial's verdict, not guilty. Do you remember those pictures of O.J., the relief he showed when he heard those words, not guilty? There were no cameras recording my expression when I got a telephone call a few minutes after that telling me that that suspicious piece of skin was just discolored skin. It was nothing. Man, was I happy.
Much more than O.J., I think. But my elation over my so-called acquittal was tempered by the fact that, statistically speaking, one day I would hear a different verdict. One day I would learn probably I was going to die. How would I face that news then? How would you face that news?
What if your doctor were to tell you that you only had six months left to live? Would you have any regrets in your life? As you thought about your marriage, for example, would you know that you're leaving behind a spouse whose memories of you were filled with affection and joy? What about your children? Would your children be able to say that they were a priority in your life? As you think about your vocation, would you be able to look back and say, I had a fulfilling job that made a significant contribution?
As you looked over your ministry, would you be able to identify people who are going to be in heaven directly because of your influence and your witness? And what about your relationship with God? If you knew you were going to die soon and meet your maker, would you be filled with joy or absolute fear?
The poet was correct when he said, of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, it might have been. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm really not. But I am afraid of approaching death with a long list of if onlys.
Maybe you fear that as well. And so today we are going to begin a brand new series entitled Say Goodbye to Regret. And let me say up front, this is not a series about dying. It's a series about living. But if we want to die well, we need to live.
