Page 5. “What’s the rhythm this guy’s throwing these punches? How can I counterpunch?” It’s not just get in there and swing away, they are thinking. Here’s another part of the relaxed mental attitude, it’s always part of your social compact with one another. As believers we have a royal family honor code that we live under and we have a social compact with one another, what is expected of each other. What’s expected of me is to treat you with a relaxed mental attitude and not get uptight about you or anything you’ve done or criticize you or critique you or malign you or gossip about you. I wish a lot of churches understood this, it would save a lot of splits. You see this RMA is one of the characteristics of a MVP for God. You say, “What is an MVP? Oh, the Super Bowl is coming up. It’s the most valuable player.” Not really, maybe in those terms it is. A spiritual MVP is a person that has momentum, virtue, and poise. Matthew 25:23 is where our Lord Jesus Christ recognizes these MVPs in heaven and says this, “Well done good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful in a few things, I’ll make you ruler over many things. Enter you into the joy of the Lord.” More than anything else you want to hear, “Well done,” that’s what you want to hear. So what is my definition of an MVP? Well the M stands for momentum. Momentum, hearing and keeping the Word of God on a consistent basis. Luke 11:27-28, our Lord says, “Happiness belongs to those people who hear My Father’s Word and keep it.” Hearing and keeping God’s Word on a consistent basis is momentum. This is what Satan will stop, he will try to stop you from doing this. Momentum testing is something that all Christians will go through. If people get serious about growing, if people decide they want to start studying and they say, “You know Rick, I’ve been listening to you and I want to get those tapes and I want to start studying and I want to start growing,” you will have so many distractions come your way. Satan will do everything he can to stop you from establishing momentum in your life because if you set up a routine in your life or you study God’s Word every day and you take notes and set that time aside and you’re faithful, that’s momentum and as you learn, you apply and as you apply, you glorify. Satan doesn’t like this. You will never be an MVP for God without having this kind of momentum in your life. The V stands for virtue. Virtue is a trait or quality deemed to be morally excellent, virtus is the Latin word, virtue. You know, it’s an interesting thought here. People can take away anything you have but they can’t take away your virtue. They can take away your money, they can take away your looks, they can take away your home, they can’t take away your virtue. It’s a quality that is unbelievable in a man or a woman, a virtuous person. Proverbs 31 talks about the virtuous lady. What a marvelous lady she is. I guarantee you she doesn’t do some of the things that I’ve seen ladies do recently on television if you can call them ladies. And the P in MVP is poise. Poise is the dignified, self-confident manner of composure and steadfastness. Being able to think under pressure, being composed, not losing your temper, not looking like a dog wagging his tail in your brain. You know when you come home, your dog’s happy to see you, your little puppy wags his tail, you know what I’m talking about? If your mind starts going like this, if your mind starts going right, left, right, left, right, left and you can’t End of page 5.
Page 6. think, then you’re not going to be able to use the faith-rest drill because you can’t even go to a promise. Remember, to use the faith-rest drill, you have to go to a promise and claim a promise and then you have to develop a Biblical rationale or reason why God is going to do what you believe He is going to do and then come to a conclusion. You can’t do this without poise, you can’t do this without being composed and being steadfast and momentum is incredibly important in your life. Again, I’m looking for people that are listening to this show that are willing to do this. You will be the pivot of this nation, you will deliver this nation, not Donald Trump, not any other person. You will deliver this nation if you become part of the pivot. If you hear and keep God’s Word on a daily basis, if you have an invisible impact, an historical impact, and a national impact, you will save our nation. Your spiritual life is the key to it. Momentum is you advancing spiritually, it’s you growing, it’s you picking up speed as you advance in spite of setbacks that you may face. See none of us can reach spiritual maturity apart from momentum testing and I’ve been through my share of it as well. Come on, there are going to be times when you get distracted. There are going to be times when you say, “You know, I just don’t feel like listening to that study today,” or “I want to go do this today. I don’t want to get up early or go to bed late. I want to watch this or watch that. I don’t want to really turn on that tape player or go to church and listen to that man teach tonight.” It’s so easy to lose your momentum and to put something else in its place. It’s the same way with losing weight, it’s the same way with working out. I mean, you’ve got to have a routine, you’ve got to be solid and this routine, it requires self- discipline and here’s the bottom line. You cannot have momentum without self-discipline, they go hand-in-hand. You will never reach spiritual maturity if you’re not willing to pay the price. You’re not going to go to some campfire and throw a stick on the fire and say, “God, I want to be a mature believer.” That’s not going to happen. You must grow. You must be faithful. You must have self-discipline to study God’s Word. You say, “Well my pastor only teaches 30 minutes on Sunday morning and 30 minutes on Sunday night.” What does he do the rest of the time? Is he some cruise ship director or something, organizing programs for the lonely hearts? Come on, if he’s being paid and you’ve got a multimillion dollar facility there and he’s not teaching the Word of God, well what in the world is he doing? Oh, I know, he’s going to the hospital and he’s holding your hand and he’s praying for you. That’s just what you need. When you get sick you need the preacher to come down there and hold your hand and pray for you and say, “My brother died with it but you’ll make it sister, hang in there.” Come on, how can you glorify God living off someone else’s spiritual strength? If you don’t have the strength to endure the momentum testing, how can you glorify God? So my suggestion is next time you get sick, don’t call the preacher. Go to your Father and thank Him that you’re alive. Thank Him that you have this opportunity to glorify Him through the suffering because 1 Corinthians 10:13 said, “There’s no testing that has overtaken you that’s not common to man,” and suffering for blessing is a real way that God blesses your life. I have a friend that was just recently in the hospital in a foreign End of page 6.
Page 7. country and she talked about the unbelievable experience of meeting so many caregivers, nurses and doctors, and being able to share the Lord with them and the rapport and the fellowship she developed. She said, “I loved being in that hospital, that was fun.” Now she was sick, she was in a life-threatening situation with her heart but she didn’t focus on this and she sure didn’t call the preacher to come pray for her. There is nothing wrong with having a pastor pray for you, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying, if you think that’s what’s going to get you through the test, you’re thinking wrong. You have to be able to have some self-discipline to stick with the Word of God so when the test comes, you don’t melt. Spiritual momentum is you having an ever increasing inventory of Biblical knowledge always increasing and you produce the mind of Christ. Virtue, well you’re not quick to react. You respond rather than react. You’re not lured into some short time fix. You, over the long haul, you always stick with it and you adhere to the protocol plan of God. Virtue, what a wonderful thing. There’s no greater problem-solving device than virtue love, personal love for God, impersonal love for others and poise, a wonderful, dignified, self-confident manner of composure and steadfastness. Being an MVP, boy, that’s what David was when he fought Goliath. He was an MVP, he had this poise. He had this dignified self-composure. When the giant walked out there and said, “I’m going to kill you and feed your carcass to the vultures and the hyenas,” he just looked at him and said, “No you won’t. I’m going to kill you and cut your head off and all of Israel will know that God doesn’t need a spear to deliver.” In fact he did it with a slingshot. Took the giant’s head off, scared the daylights out of the Philistines, they all ran for cover and motivated the armies of Saul to go after them and slaughter as many of them as they could. You know that’s the way you defeat the enemy, you slaughter them, you kill enough of them until finally somebody, somewhere signs a peace treaty and says, “We won’t mess with you again, we promise.” That’s the only thing they understand, the only thing violent people understand is a greater violence and so when it comes to law and order, there must be greater violence. When it comes to the military, there must be greater violence. In your life it’s a different situation. You have to learn to turn the other cheek, you have to learn to accept the insults and the harassment. That’s what our Lord did. That’s what you do as well. There is a lot to say about this, you’re learning. I hope I didn’t freak you out today, I hope you stuck with me, I hope you’ll come back next week. Until then, I am your host Rick Hughes saying, thank you for listening to the FLOT Line. End of page 7.
