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 donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. What Solomon is saying is the most important choice we can make is to build our life around God.
How do you do that? How do you choose intimacy with God over isolation from God? Let me just share with you four practical principles for making God first in your life. Here's our author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, life revolves around relationships. Family and friends, neighbors, coworkers, they all play a crucial role in our day-to-day lives.
But there is 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. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. 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 next May, 2025. It's the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Fall Mediterranean Cruise. This isn't just a vacation. It's a spiritual journey that will transform your faith and create unforgettable memories.
Imagine worshiping on the same seas that Paul sailed on and studying God's Word where it was first preached. Along the way, we'll explore stunning islands, soak in breathtaking views, and forge deep connections with fellow believers. I can't wait to share this experience with you. So join me for an adventure that will impact your life forever. The dates are May 5th through 16th, 2025.
You can find all the details at ptv.org. As David mentioned a moment ago, today is the very last day of my teaching series called Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. This is one of the most practical studies I've ever presented on Pathway to Victory because we're addressing 11 personal issues that are common to us all. In my book, I come alongside you and address issues like choosing repentance over guilt, forgiveness over bitterness, and companionship over loneliness. This is the very last day 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. Now, let's get started with the very last message in my teaching series.
Today we're talking about choosing intimacy over isolation. 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 that, the importance of having the right map in his book, Seven 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 going to 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. But as we close out that series today, we're going to 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 1. Ecclesiastes, you've got 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 going to 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 going to see if there's some other system of belief that can give me true fulfillment in life. He devoted 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 2, verse 1, he said, Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good. Well, if that doesn't work, what would you 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. 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 said no. He said, 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. 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.
This too is meaningless. Everything we have, everything we achieve is left behind. Jesus talked about that reality in Luke chapter 12 beginning with verse 16. Remember the story he told? The land of a certain rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself saying, what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? He would stay awake at night. Not because he had too little, but because he had too much.
He didn't know what to do with all of his excess. And 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. It really 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. And 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, if we look at what is around us, life does seem meaningless, futile, useless. But there's another way to look at life, to look at life above the sun. For 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. Now the key to that word is understanding its use in 1 Samuel 1. Remember the story of Hannah who prayed to God that God would give her a child and finally he answered her and gave her a son named Samuel. 1 Samuel 1 says, and God remembered Hannah. It's not that he had forgotten about her. To remember means to act decisively toward.
God acted decisively for the benefit of Hannah. And for us to remember God means for us to act decisively in our relationship with God. It means to put God first. What Solomon is saying is 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. 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? Number three, how do you build intimacy to God? Remove any barriers in your life to intimacy with God. You know what the biggest barrier is between us and God that keeps us from having a relationship with him? The biggest barrier, it's a little word, three letter word, S-I-N, sin. In Isaiah 59, too, the prophet said, but your iniquities, your sins have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. He was talking to God's own people, the Israelites.
Now let me be clear about this. When we are born into this world, we are born separated from God. The wall is already there. It's a wall that is caused by the sin we inherited from Adam.
We are separated from God. You say, well, how do you remove that wall? You can't remove it.
I can't remove it. But that's why Christ came, to pay for our sins. He's the one who removed that wall and made access to God possible. And when you trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, God takes a sledgehammer to that wall.
He knocks it down. He welcomes us into his presence. But after we become a Christian, we can try to erect that wall ourselves, brick by brick by brick. And when we erect our own walls, sin after sin after sin, it's not that God changes his attitude toward us, but we change our attitude toward God. We grow distant from God. The more sins we pile on and we build and build and build that wall till we can no longer see our Creator. You know the biggest brick that blocks our view of God? It's not adultery or murder or theft. I mean, those are all certainly sins. But the one brick that blocks our view of God more than any other is idolatry. Some of you think, he named the one thing I'm not guilty of.
Well, you might want to think again. You know, idolatry is not just bowing down before a wooden statue in Africa somewhere. Idolatry is loving anyone or anything more than you love God.
That's what it is to have an idol. To be obsessed with, to think about, to love anything or anyone more than we love God. And if we're going to have intimacy with God, we've got to be willing to let go of those idols in our life. Finally, how do we have a right relationship with God?
To continue to nurture our relationship with God. If we're going to have intimacy with God, we've got to continue to nurture our relationship with God. Here's a formula that's absolutely guaranteed to destroy any relationship you have. Don't ever talk to the other person.
Don't ever listen to the other person. And don't ever spend any time with the other person. That will destroy any relationship. Now, you may think, well, I've got a great relationship with my wife or with my children or with my lifelong friend. You may think you have a great relationship. You may have a great relationship, but quit talking to them, listening to them, or spending time with them, and that relationship will shrivel up overnight.
It's the same in our relationship with God. You know how to destroy intimacy with God? Don't ever talk to him. Don't ever listen to him.
Don't ever spend any time with him. We have to nurture our relationship with God if we're going to be intimate with him. You know, even Jesus, the Son of God, understood that. You've heard me many times quote Mark 1 35.
To me, it's one of the most amazing verses about the life of Jesus. The day after the busiest recorded day in his entire ministry, when he ministered until late until the evening, the Bible says on the next morning, in the early morning while it was still dark. I had to get up at three this morning for Fox and Friends. I was miserable. It was dark out there. I didn't want to do it.
I wanted to roll over, but I knew I had to do it. Jesus got up not just one morning, but every morning. In the early morning while it was still dark, he got up, he arose, and he went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there.
Think about it. If spending time with the Heavenly Father was essential for the perfect Son of God, how much more essential is it for you and for me if we're going to have a relationship with God? How do you spend time with God?
You know the answers. We talk with God through prayer, telling what's on our heart. We listen to God through reading his Word. We spend time alone with him as often as we can. I found in my own life one of the best ways to develop intimacy with God is by keeping a journal, not a diary, but a journal, not every day, but just writing down things that God is teaching me that I'm learning from him and keeping a list of prayer requests and the answers that do or don't come. As I reflect back over those journals, it is such a refreshment to me to see that God really does exist, and he's at work in my life. In a lot of ways, Ecclesiastes was Solomon's spiritual journal, and he left it so all of us could read it and learn from his mistakes. Solomon said, don't be like me. Remember God.
Make him first in your life before it's too late. You know, one of my favorite fables is about the dog that was carrying the bone in its mouth, and as it went over a bridge, it happened to look down into the pool of water beneath the bridge, and the dog immediately saw the reflection of the bone it was carrying in its mouth. The dog actually dropped the real bone, and it dove into the water in pursuit of the reflection and ended up going hungry. That's really Solomon's story. He gave up his relationship with God that had started out so strong. He gave it out because he was distracted by the reflections, by the gifts of God rather than the giver of the gifts, God himself.
And he ended up dying spiritually hungry. Don't make that same mistake, Solomon says. Choose intimacy with God. Make it a priority in your life instead of isolation from God. My hope is that today is the day you choose intimacy with God rather than isolation from God.
This journey together has been fabulous for me. Many weeks ago, we started this teaching series that concludes today. It's called Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life. And this is the very last day to request my book by the same title.
So be sure to get in touch with us right now. You see, your attitude about unwanted surprises changes everything. None of us gets to choose the unsavory surprises in our lives, but we can choose the way we react to them. So when things go wrong, how do we pivot and put our attitudes in order?
That's the question I tackle in my very practical book, Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life. And I'm pleased to send you a copy to your home right away with my thanks when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. No matter what amount you choose to give, I can assure that your generosity is helping people all across the world. Many, in fact, are learning to conquer mountains, even the mountain of grief.
For example, I recently received a comment from a listener who wrote, Pastor Jeffress, my mother died recently and that experience has affected me greatly. Your truthful teaching helped my mom and me face her death this past year with peace regarding her salvation and her graduation to be with the Lord. Well, thank you for taking time to tell your story. This is truly what our ministry together is all about. And friends, let me assure you, when you give to Pathway to Victory, this woman's thank you note really belongs to you. God is using your generosity to reach men and women for Him.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, you're invited to request a copy of the book, Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life.
It's written by Dr. Robert Jeffress. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org. Now, when you give $75 or more, you'll also receive both the CD and DVD teaching sets for Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life.
Plus, we'll send you a study guide especially designed for individual or group study. But today is the last day we're offering this special package of resources, so be sure to get in touch right away. Again, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. You know, a lot of folks prefer to write, and if that sounds like you, write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us for the start of a study on the Ten Commandments.
It's called The Ten. That's coming up Wednesday 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. 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.
