If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’re Going to End up Somewhere Else – Secret #3 – Part 2

David J. Mullins: 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/donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, 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.
Guest: If you want to discover your dream, remember these two words: passion and giftedness. God's dream for your life is the intersection between your passion in life and your unique giftedness. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and Pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress.
David J. Mullins: When you set out on a trip or vacation, you leave your home with the destination in mind. And today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shows us that the same planning required for travel is required for every area of life. We can't get to where God wants us to be without following a biblical roadmap. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Thanks, David, and welcome to Pathway to Victory. Picture this for a moment. What if you could stand where Paul stood, walk where he walked, and hear the Gospel proclaimed on the very hill where he preached it? That's exactly what we're going to do. May 14th through the 23rd, 2027, I'm inviting you to sail the Mediterranean with me on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Cruise. We'll visit beautiful and iconic destinations and spend ten days growing in God's Word together. I can't think of a better way to deepen your faith, refresh your soul, and build friendships that will last a lifetime than to make this journey together. I hope you'll take the next step and join us by going to PTV.org. Well, our current study in Proverbs is called The Solomon Secrets, and I've written a book by the same title. When you give a generous gift today, you're invited to request a copy of The Solomon Secrets: Ten Keys to Your Success. And that's not all. When you respond today with your generous gift, I want to send you, in God We Trust, a beautiful two-disc set featuring the First Baptist Dallas Choir and Orchestra, 12 stirring songs of liberty and praise, plus two of my teaching messages on America's Christian heritage. In this historic 250th anniversary year, this is the perfect gift for every patriot who loves God and loves this country.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Okay, it's time to begin today's message. We're talking about mapping out a plan for a rich and rewarding life by applying wise counsel from God's Word. I titled my message, "If You Don't Know Where You're Going, You're Going to End Up Somewhere Else." Today, as we continue our study in the Book of Proverbs, we've come to the third Solomon secret for success. And the Solomon secret we're looking at today is this: If you don't know where you're going, you're going to end up someplace else. Today, we're going to look and see what Solomon, as well as all of the biblical writers, had to say about the subject of planning. You see, we don't ever arrive anywhere by accident. Did you know the only thing that ends up at its intended destination by accident is airline luggage? The rest of us never get any place by accident. It takes a plan to get to where we're going. Because the truth is, without doing anything, listen to this, without doing anything, we don't drift toward our dreams, we tend to drift away from our dreams. By simply doing nothing in your life, you will drift away from God's intended destination of your life. Making plans, listen to this, making plans that are within the will of God, for the glory of God, are pleasing to our God. God says we ought to make plans, but make them within the boundaries of His will. Listen to Proverbs 19 verse 21. "Many plans are in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand." If you want to know how to determine what God's dream is for your life and how to get there, there are three key words you need to understand. One is purpose, the second is objectives, and the third is goals. If you want to know where God wants you to go in life and how to get there, first of all, you need to have a clear purpose in life, a clear purpose. That's foundational. A purpose statement answers the question, "Why do I exist?" Why do I exist? By the way, some people use the word dream for purpose. That's okay, too. A dream is the difference you want to make in this world before you die. A dream is the difference you want to make in this world before you die. So whether you call it a purpose or a dream, it doesn't matter. A purpose statement answers the question, "Why do I exist?" Now say with me on this. There's a general purpose for which all Christians exist. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." We were all created to have fellowship with God. That's a purpose that applies to all of us. As Christians, Jesus commissioned us in Matthew 28 to be a part of His commission, to go into all the world and make disciples. All of us are to be involved in that. We took that purpose statement and fashioned it into our church's mission statement. The reason First Baptist Church Dallas exists is to transform the world with God's Word one life at a time. That's something that applies to all of us. But in addition to this general purpose statement that applies to all Christians everywhere, God has a unique purpose for your life. He has a reason that He left you here instead of taking you to heaven to be with Him. And if we're going to have a life that matters, we need to discover what God's unique purpose for our life is. Margaret Thatcher. You know what her life purpose was? As a little girl, she believed she was called to be a leader in her nation who would help impoverished people. That was the dream that she had. I think about Candace Lightner. When Candace Lightner's daughter was killed by a drunk driver, she was so infuriated by it that she decided to turn her fury into something meaningful, and she founded Mothers Against Drunk Drivers to eliminate the menace of drunk driving from society. I have a friend, Bobby Halbert. He founded a moving company, and he said his life purpose was to build a Christian company utilizing Christian principles to show how God would bless anyone who follows His Word. That's his life purpose, to be a model of a Christian businessman. I think about the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul had a dream. The dream in his heart was to take the gospel to the Gentile nations. All of us need a unique purpose that explains who we are and why God left us here. I remember it was almost 30 years ago. It was an afternoon, I was sitting in the coffee shop at the Houston Intercontinental Airport. I had a few hours before my flight, and even though I had known since I was 15 that God was calling me to be a pastor, I still didn't have a clear direction about how that was to work itself out in my unique contribution to the ministry. I remember I took out my yellow legal pad and I prayed and asked God for direction and started going through some exercises in my own life. And as I sat there trying to write out in a sentence my life purpose, I wrote at the top of that yellow legal tablet, "My purpose is to be an effective communicator of God's Word." I believe that God's Word is filled with life-changing principles, and I want people to be excited about those principles and to use those principles to change their lives. That was what my real passion in life was. I still keep that piece of paper in my file. I keep looking at it and remembering when God revealed that to me. My purpose in life is to be an effective communicator of God's Word. And whether I'm preaching here on Sunday morning, or writing, or speaking on television or radio, that's the guiding beacon that gives me direction in my life. My life purpose is to be an effective communicator of God's Word. You say, "Well, Pastor, how do I find out what my purpose is? How do I discover my dream?" If you want to discover your dream, remember these two words: passion and giftedness. Passion and giftedness. God's dream for your life is the intersection between your passion in life and your unique giftedness. Let me show you what I mean. Get your pens out, you're going to want to write these down, they're going to flash by real quickly. First of all, talk about passion. God is not going to call you to do something that He doesn't give you a passion to do, okay? He's just not going to do it. He's not going to call me to discover the cure for cancer, because frankly, I couldn't care less about science. I have no passion in that. So that is not going to be my life's calling. If He calls you to do something, He's going to give you a passion. Here are four questions to help you determine what your passion in life is. See if you can answer these about yourself or even for your children. Question number one, "What needs do you see in the world that concern you?" As you look around, what needs do you see in the world that concern you? Number two, "If I could meet any need in the world, what need would I meet?" You see, God's going to call you to a dream, not to fill your greed, but to meet somebody else's need. That's a true purpose in life. True purpose is not greed-based, it's need-based. So if you could meet any need in the world, what would it be? Number three, "What are the most urgent needs in my country, my community, my work, my school, my church?" As you look around these different venues, what do you see as the most pressing need? Number four, "What age group or type of people naturally interest me?" For some of you, it might be children. Others, it might be young adults. Others, it might be teenagers. Others, it might be senior citizens. "What group do you enjoy working with the most?" That will help you determine what your passion is. Now, secondly, your life purpose will involve your giftedness. God, if He's calling you to do something, will not only give you a passion, He will give you the gift to accomplish that purpose. How do you know what your giftedness is? Again, here are four questions to ask yourself. "What abilities do I have that other people tend to notice and affirm?" What abilities do you have that other people come up and say, "Man, you're really good at that," or, "You were born to do that," or, "You make it look so easy"? Number two, "As I review my life, what five accomplishments have given me the most satisfaction?" You look back over your life, what five things have you done that have given you the most satisfaction? Number three, "What is it that when I do it, people affirm you and say you were born to do that or you seem to do it without any effort?" And number four, this is key, "What single word best describes the area in which I am most passionate about and gifted?" Is there one word that summarizes both your passion and your giftedness? For me, that one word was communication. For you, that word might be science, or missions, or children. But wherever your giftedness and your passion meet, that is going to be a clue to what your life purpose is. And once you know what that single word is, ask yourself this question. See if you can answer this statement, "The way I want to make a difference in the world is by what?" How are you going to make a difference in the world? It's going to be a combination of your passion and your giftedness. "The way I want to make a difference in the world is by this." Now, where do I get all of this? Am I just coming up with this out of the windmills of my mind? No, I'm getting it straight from God's Word. Listen to Philippians 2:13. Graduating seniors, memorize this verse. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purpose." God is at work within you, giving you the will, that's another word for passion, and the power, that's another word for giftedness, to achieve His purpose. God is going to call you to do something for which He gives you a passion and a power. So, first of all, you get your clear purpose. The way I want to make a difference in the world is by what. Secondly, in addition to a clear purpose, you need clarifying objectives. An objective answers the question, "What do I want to be or do? What do I want to be or do in my life?" And specifically, your objectives in life will somehow be connected to your purpose. Now, to develop your objectives in life, there are two words to remember. First of all, evaluation. You need to do an inventory of your life. If you want to discover what it is you want to do or to do better in your life. And on your outline, look at it, I've given you a life grid that marks the seven basic areas of your life: spiritual, physical, family, vocational, personal growth, social, financial. And I've given you a scale of one to ten. Now, you're not coming back to church tonight, so here's what your homework assignment for tonight. I want to encourage you to take 15 minutes, it won't probably take you 10 minutes, and just score yourself on a one to ten in each of these life areas. You don't have to show it to anybody, just for yourself. How would you rate your level of satisfaction, one being the lowest, ten being the highest, with each of these areas in your life? How are you doing in your spiritual life? How are you doing with your health? How about your finances? How about your relationship with God? Where would you grade yourself on a scale of one to ten? Now, if you end up with a seven or more in some of these areas, your objective might be to say, "In this area, I want to continue what I'm doing." If, for example, in your spiritual life, things are going well, you're having your regular time with the Lord, you might just say, "I want to continue being consistent in my daily time with the Lord." However, if you scored yourself a two on that area, you might say, "I want to begin spending more time with God." Same thing for each of these areas. Evaluation and then secondly, formulation is the second word, come up with an objective in each of these areas. For example, a spiritual objective might be, "I want to grow in my relationship with God." Physical objective, "I might want to live a long, healthy life." Family life, you might say, "In my family, my real need is, I want to build intimacy with my mate." Vocational, you might say, "You know what, I'm tired of the rat race and working for this bozo who doesn't know what he's doing, I want to start my own company." Okay? So you put that down. "I want to own my own business." These are objectives. A purpose statement answers the question, "Why do I exist?" Objectives answer the question, "What do I want to be or what do I want to do?" Now, whatever objectives we come up with ought to support our overall life purpose. Let me show you what I mean. For example, when I went through this exercise, I knew I wanted to be an effective communicator of God's Word. So I started asking myself, "Well, how does that affect each of these life areas? What do I need to do better in order to achieve my overall life purpose?" So, example, under spiritual, I said, "I want to spend more time reading the Bible." I mean, after all, for me, how can I communicate truth if I don't know what the truth is, by reading God's Word? So I wrote that down, "I want to spend more time reading the Bible." My physical life, I put down, "I want to live a long, healthy life." I mean, after all, I'm not going to be able to communicate from the grave, no matter how passionate I am about God's Word. I can't communicate from the grave unless it's Pathway to Victory reruns or something, but I'm not going to be doing it. I'm going to be gone, so I want to live as long as I can to communicate God's Word. In my family life, I put, "I want to be a model Christian to my children." After all, they're my most important congregation. So I developed things I wanted to do in each of these areas of my life. The same is true for you. Now, in order to have a roadmap for where you want to go in life, you've got to have a clear purpose, you've got to have a clarifying objectives, but thirdly, you have to have concrete goals. Now, this is where the rubber meets the road, it's what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. So listen this, this is where most people fall down, they're never able to translate their purpose and objectives into goals. What is a goal? It's a desired accomplishment that can be measured by time and performance. It's a desired accomplishment that is easily measurable by time and performance. For example, let's just say, under family, men, let's say you say, "Well, you know, I want to have a better relationship with my wife." Well, now that's an objective, but it's not a goal. I mean, after all, when do you know if you've had a good enough relationship with your mate? There's no way to measure that. So a goal might be, in order to have a better relationship with your mate, "I want to take my wife on a date once a week, beginning this Friday." Now, that's a goal that is measurable. "I want to take my wife on a date." That's something, a desire to accomplishment. I want to do it how often? "Once a week." And I have a beginning time, "beginning this Friday." Somebody might say, "Well, I want to pray more." That's not a goal. That's not a goal. I mean, how do you know when you've prayed enough? Now, a goal would be, "I want to begin spending ten minutes a day praying every morning, beginning tomorrow." I mean, that's a specific goal. You know whether you've met it or not. It's a specific accomplishment that's measured by time and performance. You might say in your financial life, "I want to get out of debt." That's my goal. "I want to get" No, that may be an objective, but it's not a goal. A goal would be, "I want to eliminate all of my credit card debt by December 31st." See what I mean? That is a specific accomplishment that's measurable by time and performance. Now, here's the key. As you have these specific metrics, these goals, they are helping you meet your objectives in life that ultimately help you reach your purpose in life. In order to reach that dream destination where God wants to tell you, you've got to have clear objectives. How that dream applies to every area of your life. And once you know that, then you have to break it down further into specific goals that you want to accomplish that begins to be your daily to-do list. Instead of just ambling around your life, just waiting for people to take control of your life and fulfill their agenda through you, we've got to know what God wants from us. We've got to understand what His dream is for us and develop those plans and those goals that will help us reach His desired plan for our life. Robert Ringer writes, "Remember, life is nothing more than the sum total of many successful years. And the successful year is nothing more than the sum total of many successful months. And a successful month is nothing more than the sum total of many successful weeks. And a successful week is nothing more than the sum total of many successful days." Many of you have perhaps been to Rome and seen the Sistine Chapel. That magnificent piece of work on the ceiling painted by Michelangelo. If you read the book or saw the movie, The Agony and the Ecstasy, you know that Michelangelo spent four years on his back painting that artistic masterpiece. He could have walked in and been overwhelmed by the assignment. "There's no way I can do that." But he didn't do it. Do you know how he accomplished it? He broke down that great dream into manageable parts. He would be on his back, and he would take one section, only a few inches in diameter, and he would work and work and work on that section. When he finished it, he'd move over a little bit and work on that piece, work and work and work on it, day after day, week after week, month after month. As tedious as the project was for him, he never lost sight of the big picture and the ultimate goal. And because of that, 400 years later, we still enjoy that masterpiece. How do you feel right now about the life that you're painting? What's your life looking at right now? And how are you going to feel if you reach the end of your life, and we're all going to reach it sooner than we think. How are you going to feel if you reach the end of your life not having reached your dream or even having attempted to do so? Having a clear purpose, formulating clear objectives, making concrete goals is one of the most often overlooked but essential secrets for extraordinary success. And it's a secret that is grounded in God's Word. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 5 from the Phillips paraphrase: "Live life then with a due sense of responsibility. Not as men who do not know the meaning and purpose of life, but as those who do. Make the best use of your time despite all the difficulties of these days. Don't be vague, but firmly grasp what you know to be the will of God."
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Achieving success, realizing your dreams, living with passion, begins by drawing up a plan and setting some goals. The profound principle from King Solomon is this: If you don't know where you're going, you're going to end up somewhere else. Well, I'm so pleased you chose to join us for today's Pathway to Victory. As I mentioned earlier, I've written a book that complements this broadcast series. The Solomon Secrets contains an entire chapter on the topic we discussed today, as well as nine other practical subjects, such as, "How to Keep Your Cool When Things Get Hot," and a sensitive chapter on marriage called, "Graze in Your Own Pasture." Look, people across our country are desperately searching for the good life. Yet, most are frustrated by the inability to experience it. Today, you can become the conduit of God's blessing for others, because the secret to genuine success is revealed in the book we teach every day: The Bible. And when you join with me by giving generously to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're allowing people to connect with and employ the biblical secrets of living well. A woman called the other day and said, "Dr. Jeffress, since I began listening to Pathway to Victory, God has opened my spiritual eyes and opened doors in my heart so I can receive the truth." As a financial partner, your gift is the key to reaching people like this caller. So thanks for following these simple instructions and responding today. With your gift, please request a copy of my book, The Solomon Secrets. Here's David with all the details.
David J. Mullins: When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you a copy of Dr. Jeffress' best-selling book, The Solomon Secrets. Call 866-999-2965, visit PTV.org, or text PTV to 78800. And when your gift is $75 or more, we'll also send you this month's teaching series, also titled The Solomon Secrets. You'll get that on DVD video and MP3 format audio disc. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or make your request online at PTV.org. You can also send your donation by mail, write to PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. That's PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Tragically, most Americans live far beyond their means, and as a result, the financial pressure in many households has become unbearable. So how do we break the cycle of debt? Join us for Solomon Secret number four. That's Tuesday 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/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. Jeffress talk about it, and cabins are going quickly. Just picture yourself aboard the beautiful Celebrity Infinity, sailing round trip from Athens. Standing where the Apostle Paul stood in Ephesus, and taking in the breathtaking Greek islands. Nine unforgettable nights with stops in Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, and more. Every meal prepared, every detail taken care of, plus fellowship with like-minded believers. There's also an optional pre-cruise extension to Athens. Oh, and one more thing. If you book online before July 31st, you'll receive a $200 early bird discount. To book your spot, go to PTV.org.