Rick Hughes delves into the concepts of self-control and responsibility, offering a fresh perspective on the dangers of opening the ‘door to doom’ in our lives. This episode covers essential themes like selfish ambition, self-centered arrogance, and the importance of humility. By contrasting these pitfalls with the divine plan, Rick encourages listeners to seek a deeper understanding of God’s word and to live a life dedicated to serving others over oneself.
00:26:22 Closing Remarks and Invitation to Learn More
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stay with me. It’ll be a brief time of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, and we do that without any type of manipulation. which means we’re not gonna con you. We’re not gonna play any games. We’re not gonna solicit money, membership, anything like that. We’re just here to give you some accurate information. And it’s my prayer that if I can verify and identify the plan of God for your life, that you will orient and adjust to that plan. That’s really up to you, but my job is to be accurate and get it right, and that’s what the Flotline is about, showing you how you can have an invisible barrier of protection in your soul called a main line of resistance, a forward line of troops, F-L-O-T, a main line of resistance. And it’s made up basically of the unique promises found in the Word of God, at least 10 of them we’ve been able to identify for you, And when you take those 10 problem-solving devices and put them into work in your life, then you can stop the outside source of adversity before it becomes the inside source of stress. That’s why we say on this show, adversity is inevitable, stress is optional. Because adversity is what you may do to yourself or circumstances may do to you, but stress, definitely, that’s self-induced. Because there’s a way to live without worrying. There’s a way to live without fear. There’s a way to live without guilt. There’s a way to live without a lot of mental stress. It’s called the Christian life. And it’s a wonderful life because it changes the way you think. For example, the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, and he had no stress. So we learn to think like he thought, and that’s called thinking divine viewpoint. When we begin to think divine viewpoint, that means that our mind is saturated with God’s word or with Bible doctrine, and we are learning God’s word, living by the promises of God’s word, using, for example, the faith rest drill, which is a problem-solving device, number three, using the rebound technique that’s problem solving device number one how do i handle my sin we learn these things we use these things and we have this amazing life this wonderful life called the christian life and so many people have distorted it and so many people have made it out to be something that it’s not like some sort of legalistic change that you have to wear around and That if you’re a Christian, you can’t do this and you can’t do that. And there are certain things Christians don’t do. I admit that. But it’s not a series of legalistic mandates. It’s a wonderful lifestyle, a free lifestyle in Christ Jesus. But there’s something that’s always knocking at the door. And this is what these radio shows have been about recently. Something knocking at the door, and I want to read to you again what I read last week from Genesis 4, 6 through 7. This is God our Father through Jesus Christ incarnate, and what we call a theophany or post-appearance of Christ before he came to this world. This is what he said, so the Lord, that’s Christ, said to Cain, that’s Abel’s brother, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, and this is the first person ever born with a sinful nature. No one had been born with a sinful nature yet, but Adam and Eve sinned, they received a sinful nature, and Cain is related to them, so he’s born into sin. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And remember, he got angry because the Lord rejected his offering, but the Lord accepted the offering of Abel. The offering of Abel was the sacrifice of an animal, innocent animal, which was a picture of Christ. And the offering of Cain was the fruit of his labor. That was not acceptable to the Lord. So he said, why has your countenance fallen? In other words, when he was irritated and angry, you could look at his face and see it. He had one of those faces, and you’ve seen those faces of irritable, angry people. If you do well, Genesis 4, 7, will you not be accepted? In other words, if you do a right thing in a right way, everything will be fine. But if you do not do well, he said, sin lies at the door. And its desire, the desire of sin, is for you. But you should rule over it. So ever since Adam and Eve, every child that’s born, every person that’s been born into this world, there is a worm in the fruit and it’s called the sin nature. We have to learn to control the sin nature or it will control us. And so we’ve been talking about the door to doom. When you open the door to doom, it’s when you allow your sin nature to dictate policy to your thinking. When you allow that to happen, whether it’s through emotions or whatever it’s through, then you are on the way to destroying yourself. And it’s always done by means of the arrogant skills. The arrogant skills include self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption, and eventually self-destruction. Self-justification is you justify why it’s okay to be disobedient to God or to your parents or to whatever authority that you’re under, and you say, I’m not gonna obey, I’m gonna do what I wanna do. And then you lie to yourself, you deceive yourself. Self-deception comes following self-justification. Usually you will justify why it’s okay to override the plan of God in your life, but you got to remember that all sin is threatening and destructive. And we can only thank God for the grace provisions that he gives us through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We have victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So remember that if you will. so cain made the decision to open the door to sin and it ruled over him because in the next verse he said let’s go out and to the field and let me show you something and probably he wanted to show him his great new kumquat i kidded about that but what he wanted to do was kill him so he got him alone got him out into the fields and he assassinated him The Bible goes on to talk about woe or judgment. The door to doom, when you walk through the door to doom, then judgment is what’s waiting for you. And so you must decide to stay away from the door to doom. And the Lord Jesus Christ warns about that. We’ll see that later on. But there are several ways that you can enter the door to doom in your life. And by allowing sin to control you and your sin nature to control you, One of the ways that you can become a stumbling block, and a stumbling block is when you cause other people to stumble in their faith and listen to the words of Jesus Christ, our Savior. In Luke 17, 1, it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come. Our Lord was very specific about those who caused others that believed in him to stumble and to fall in their Christian life. And this is particularly true of the Pharisees. They were actively engaged in trying to distort the message of the Lord, as well as persecuting anyone who followed Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, in John 12, 42, nevertheless, even among the rulers, many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, They would not confess Jesus to be Christ so that they would be put out of the synagogue, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. So if in fact you decide to follow Jesus Christ, you need to understand there is a price to be paid. When you identify with him, there is a price. See, he told the disciples, they’re going to kill me in three days, but don’t worry, boys, then they’re going to turn it on to you, and they will attack you. And in fact, they did. And every one of the disciples that we know about died a martyr’s death, with the exception of John, who was isolated on the Isle of Patmos. so how do you open the door to doom well becoming a stumbling block is one way or another way is lack of self-control not hearing having any self-control and we’ve talked about that we went through that in our study of lack of self-control we talked about a lot of that and i think i went through with you the doctrine of responsibility But briefly, responsibility denotes something within your power to control. You have the power to control your life. It’s called your volition. And under the law of volitional responsibility, in other words, God holds you accountable for your decisions, then we have the potential to cause our own misery and our own suffering because we have no self-control. We can blame others, but we must take responsibility for every decision we make and for the reason that we’re unhappy. It’s not someone else’s fault, it’s our fault. But the grace of God gives each one of us that volition so that we can choose. We just must not allow our volition to lead us into sin, to human good, or to evil, because God clearly states in Galatians 6, 7, under the law of volitional responsibility, be not deceived, God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, this he will reap. As a pastor friend of mine says, the chickens always come home to roost. So under that law of volitional responsibility, it’s possible, that we can inflict unbearable suffering from personal sins in our life, which usually is just a lack of any common sense. We also talked about how a sluggard, could open the door to doom. He could destroy his life because he’s just so lazy. The word sluggard in the Old Testament, atzal, is the Hebrew word. The Greek word used in the Septuagint was okneros, and it meant a lazy person or a person who is inactive, habitually lazy, lacks the ability to work, refuses to work, lacks the drive, won’t take responsibility, et cetera. And the Bible has a lot to say about that. And we went through quite a bit on that. If you’d like to know more about it, write to me or call me. And we’ll send you the MP3 so you can listen to that again. So what we want to move into this time on this show today is another door to doom. That door to doom is called selfish ambition. Selfish ambition, that is a door to doom in your life. Here’s what the Bible says in Galatians 6.3, if anyone thinks he’s something when he’s nothing, he’s deceiving himself. This door has a mirror on it. It’s called the mirror of arrogance. When you look at that mirror, you have an unrealistic self-image because you think you’re something that you’re really not. And by having an unrealistic self-image, then you inevitably have unrealistic expectations. In other words, you expect people to treat you in a way you’re not worthy of being treated because you think you’re something that you’re not. You think you’re something when you’re nothing. Selfish ambition. Now, what does the Bible say that we should do in Ephesians 5.1? Therefore, become imitators of your God, that’s Christ Jesus, as beloved children. So the solution to blind, self-centered arrogance is a problem-solving device we call problem-solving device number 10, occupation with Jesus Christ. Occupation with Christ is how you become an imitator of Christ. You think like he thought. Jerry Glanville was a coach of the Houston Oilers at one time, and he made a statement years and years and years ago, and it still rings true today. He said, at certain times, we all try to present ourselves as something that we’re not. We all try to pretend we’re something that we’re not. That’s nothing but unrealistic self-image or making a role model out of yourself. Here’s something that I had to learn a long time ago, and you need to learn it too, Do not believe the press clippings about yourself. I have a friend of mine who says I’m just a pothole in the road to progress, and he doesn’t want any attention. Well, that’s his way of kind of being humble, but I’ve met a lot of Christians, and a lot of people say a lot of wonderful things about them, write articles about them in the newspaper, and inevitably it’s like putting a target on their back. Just stay below the radar. Don’t believe the press clippings. That’s what happens to a lot of pro athletes. They believe what they read, and the next thing you know, they’re demanding more money because they think there’s something they’re not. One of the greatest tragic flaws in life is failure to see who you really are. That’s a tragic flaw. I have a poem. I don’t care much about poetry, reading poetry on the radio, but I’m going to read you this one. It’s an anonymous poem about self. Listen to this one. When you get what you want in your struggle for self and the world makes you king for the day, go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that man has to say. For it isn’t your father or your mother or your wife whose judgment upon you must pass. The fellow whose verdict counts the most in your life is the one staring back from the glass. Some people might think you’re a straight shooting chum and they’ll call you a wonderful guy. But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum if you cannot look him straight in the eye. He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest, because he’s with you clear to the end. And you have passed your most dangerous test if the man in the mirror or the guy in the glass is your friend. You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years and get pats on the back as you pass. But your final reward will be heartaches and tears if you cheat the man in the glass. The man in the glass is you. You are the one we’re talking about. the divine mandate from scripture is for you to avoid this self-centered arrogance this self-centered arrogance it will can destroy you listen to what the bible says in philippians 2 3 do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Here’s Paul to the church at Philippi, giving instructions to avoid this self-seeking attitude, this selfish ambition. Don’t do anything from selfishness or empty conceit. We will read, I’ll go get to that word in just a minute. Let me read it to you from the Net Bible. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition, that means being divorced from reality, or vanity, which the other verse called empty conceit, each one of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. And each one of you should be concerned not only with your own interests, but about the interest of others as well. That means that there’s never a time in your life you shouldn’t be praying for your friends, seeing if you can provide assurance or helpful conditions for your friends. So going back to Philippians 2, 3, do nothing from selfishness. Selfishness is the Greek word erithia, E-R-I-T-H-E-I-A, erithia. And this word actually means to be a recruiter. to recruit followers, to be an electioneer, to be self-promoting. It’s the same word used in Greek history as the self-seeking pursuit of a political office by unfair means. So this selfishness is motivated by greed. It’s a sinful desire. It’s the door to doom. It’s an unrealistic self-image of who you are. And Paul warns these people, do not do anything from selfishness or from empty conceit or vanity as it’s translated. And this word is kinodoxia, kinodoxia in the Greek. It means to have a vain opinion of yourself or a groundless self-esteem. Empty conceit, that’s looking in the mirror of arrogance and having an unrealistic self-image. So we have a conjunction of contrast in this verse where Paul said don’t do something, but if you want to do something, Do it this way with humility of mind. Tapifrosune. Tapifrosune. Do it from a humility of mind. That’s a compound word. Tapinosis is… and the base of phrone, which is not the word for nous, the word for the mind is n-o-u-s, and this is a different word. This is the word p-h-r-e-n, and it’s referring to your cognitive abilities or your cognitive faculties. So the compound word humility of mind means to have a humble evaluation of yourself. Got it? A humble evaluation of yourself. And how is that demonstrated in verse three? So let each esteem others better than self. Hegeomai, to count others. Hegeomai, to esteem. To count others better than yourself. In other words, this was a problem. It was going on in Philippi. There was self-centered arrogance and Paul said, get your eyes off of yourself. look not verse 4 says in very clear verse right here look not out for your own personal interest but also for the interest of others look not is copeo and it means to consider But this particular verb is an imperative mood in the Greek New Testament, and this is the mood of command. So we have a negative may with the word look. So we have the negative may, do not, look, and this is the imperative mood of command. Let me give you a couple of points. One, this mandate is not telling you to judge other believers, but to consider the needs of other believers. before your needs. Two, there are times when you need to consider the needs of others over yourself. Three, sometimes you give physical resources to help people, and sometimes you give biblical resources. In other words, some people don’t need the money, they just need some encouragement from the Word of God. Maybe they don’t have the problem-solving device they need to solve this. Or maybe they need finances. Sometimes you give finances. Sometimes you give encouragement from Scripture. But this is what it means to give resources to other people. And finally, self-centered arrogance will always put self first and make sure that others are last. So let me give you some more principles to consider. One, many Christians endure self-imposed discipline in their life due to confusion about the word of God and other common sense principles in life. In other words, you’re going to bring suffering into your life because you don’t understand what the Bible is teaching or you don’t have enough common sense to figure it out on your own. Two, making bad decisions in life can be rebounded You can confess your sin to God, yes. But to correct your course in life, then you have to go to the solutions found in the scripture. In other words, you can commit a sin, make a mistake, go to God, rebound the sin, But if you don’t get a grip on things, you’re going to go back to it and do it again. There’s a different way to go, and that’s to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How do you do that? As the Bible says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So I grow by studying God’s word under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. somebody who will take time to teach me God’s word, not just on Sunday morning for 30 minutes, Sunday night for 30 minutes, and that’s about it, maybe a little bit on Wednesday night. No one can grow up like that. That’s not enough information. If you sent your child to the first grade and they went an hour and a half a week, they’d never get out of the first grade. And to the compliment of many pastors, they would like to teach more, but the poor congregations won’t let them because they put unrealistic demands on them. They want them to visit and call on and do this and do that. That’s why you have deacons. That’s the deacon’s job. But the job of the pastor is to study and teach and study and teach and study and teach. That doesn’t mean he can’t have friends and that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t meet with people. But if he doesn’t have time to prepare, then he’s not going to be able to teach very adequately. And if all he wants to teach is an hour and a half a week, I wouldn’t call him a very good pastor. You need the word of God. This is how you grow. It’s called the treasure in the Bible and it’s a word treasure. It’s a thesaurus. And you are made rich as you learn God’s word and apply it into your life. Not rich physically, I’m not talking about money, but you’re made rich spiritually because you learn how to invest the riches you have. in the lives of other believers other people even unbelievers and so this is critical that you have a well-qualified pastor so self-centered arrogance can destroy all future happiness quicker than anything else that’s point three Self-centered arrogance can destroy all future happiness quicker than anything else. Point four. Protection for us comes in the form of divine authority. And what is that? That’s like your parents, like the police officers, like your pastor. All of these people have a job, and it’s to ride herd over those under their authority, to direct them, to watch over them, to coerce them. It’s critical. This is why God gave them to you, to protect you from yourself, not from other people, from yourself. You’re your own worst enemy. So point five, selfish ambition is nothing but an arrogant me-first attitude that results in a lifestyle of destruction and littered with ruined lives and ruined friendships. Point six, four attitudes that open the door to doom because of your selfish ambition are these. One, wrong thinking, which means you have no divine viewpoint. You haven’t learned the word of God. Two, wrong motivation, which is self-centered arrogance in your life or self-justification. Wrong decision, that’s your volitional decision, which was wrong. You made it. You chose it. Remember, be not deceived. God is not going to be mocked. Whatever you sow, you’re going to reap. And then wrong actions, that’s your impetuous decision to go off and do something that you don’t even know whether it’s God’s will for you or not. And you get impetuous and you step out of the plan of God and the next thing you know, you are distracted and destroyed in this angelic conflict. Destroyed, I don’t mean you’re not going to heaven. That’s not what I’m saying. But as far as being a faithful witness to Jesus Christ, Like, for example, Judas, you will be distracted with money or fame or something. Satan will put whatever he needs to to get you out of the plan of God. wrong actions, wrong decisions, wrong motivation, wrong thinking, it’s all going to take place in your soul. You have an invisible soul. And in that soul, you have a mentality. And that mentality is critical that you learn to think like Christ thought. That’s why Romans 12, one through three is so critical. Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think. but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. Are you listening? Are you learning? You do not want to walk through the door to doom. Woe to anyone who does that, Christ says. Your life is too important and it’s too short to blow it. So please, keep listening, keep learning. Come back next week, same time, same place. If I can help you, don’t hesitate to contact me anytime, anywhere, any day. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flotline.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
