This episode of The Flatline focuses on the challenges and tests we face in life, encouraging listeners to press forward and not dwell on past failures. It highlights the danger of living in complaint and the importance of gratitude, even when circumstances seem challenging. Rick emphasizes the significance of humility as a grace-oriented position essential for spiritual growth, and asserts the importance of daily dedication to God’s word.
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, inviting you to stick around for just a few minutes of motivation, inspiration, education, without any type of manipulation, because no one’s going to ask you for any money. No one’s going to con you out of anything. No one’s going to ask you to join anything. We just would like to please get you to listen. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I’m able to do that, then you certainly have the freedom and the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan. Remember this, God gave you two ends. One of those ends you sit with and one of those ends you think with. And success in your life depends on which one of those you use. Heads, you’ll win. Tails, well, you’ll lose. In second Peter three 18, the Bible says we’re to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ grow as an imperative mood verb in the original Greek new Testament. It’s not a request. That’s a mandate. God wants you to grow up. He wants you to be a mature believer. And that has something to do with what you think. You have to train your mind to think divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint. Human viewpoint’s free. Everybody’s got an opinion. You know what we have to say about opinions and everybody’s opinions. But the Word of God is a different way of thinking. It’s assimilating the mind of Christ and you using the mind of Christ as 1 Corinthians 2.16 tells us the New Testament is the mind of Christ. So when you learn the mind of Christ, think with the mind of Christ. You’re doing what the Bible says in Philippians 2, 5. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. You’re learning God’s word, applying God’s word, glorifying God as a result of it, having a wonderful, fantastic life. But there’s something we got to deal with today, and I don’t like to deal with it very much, but we have to deal with it. We have to deal with the concept of complaining. I know you and I have both been around people that complain a whole lot. And these sort of people get on your nerves after a while, complainers. Here’s what the Bible has to say about complaining today. We’re going to take a look at it. In Philippians 3.13, Paul said, I do not evaluate myself as having attained the final objective. of being a mature believer so that I could pass evidence testing. That’s what happens as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We go through momentum testing and we go through evidence testing. And he said, I do concentrate on this one thing. I forget what lies behind me and I press forward what lies in front of me. Forgetting what’s behind you is a big issue. because all of us have failed, all of us have made mistakes, all of us have committed sins, and Satan is really good at causing you to look back and see those sins and get mad at yourself or mad at someone else and complain about it. You can never afford to handicap yourself with regards to your momentum in Christ, but that’s what you will do if you forget those things, if you don’t forget those things that are behind, and if you dwell on your past failures. I mean, my goodness, I’ve had more failures than anyone in my spiritual life, and I know you’ve had your share of them too, but God’s not through with us. We’re both still here, aren’t we? So if we’re still here, evidently God still has a plan for our life. So if we look at our failures, then we wind up complaining and recalling past failures causes guilt. Guilt is a horrible sin. A guilt reaction is an emotional sin that we get into. And it can go from guilt to denial and then to projection where you project it onto someone else or even get into some sort of multiple personality disorders because of your guilt. But the greatest problem is self-absorption related to guilt. And victimization always sets that sort of thinking off in your life. So Paul said in Philippians 3.14, here’s the answer. Keep advancing towards the objective for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Keep moving. When you sin, we have a wonderful problem-solving device called Rebound. It’s problem-solving device number one in the flatline of your soul. If you go to the Father and you confess your sin to God, the Bible says he’s faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all wrongdoing. You don’t have to confess the same sin 10 times. One time is enough. You don’t have to keep going back and keep going back and keep going back, pulling that sin out of the closet and then feeling like when something bad happens to you somewhere down the road, maybe 10 years down the road, thinking, oh, well, I knew God would get even with me one day for doing that. That’s not what’s happening. You have to understand, one of the things that often sidetracks believers like you and me is, and it keeps us from advancing in our spiritual life, is sins of the tongue. That’s a terrible sin, and that’s part of where complaining comes from. And I guess I would assume more divine discipline comes from this than any other type of sin. Sins of the tongue, slander, that’s one category, the sin of the tongue, and it’s gossiping about people, maligning people, judging people. We’re not allowed to do that. The Bible said we’re to keep our nose out of other people’s business. They have the privacy of the priesthood. But slander is one sin of the tongue. And then there’s the false category, falsehoods, where we lie or we misrepresent the truth or we perjure ourselves. And then there is the complaining category where we grumble and gripe and whimper and whine. These sort of sins are committed without really thinking about it. They’re just kind of emotional reactions to certain situations you find yourself in. And it’s very easy to get into the slander category when someone says, well, what do you think about old Bob over there? And you’re going to give your opinion about Bob. What you think about Bob is not essential. And if you say, oh, you know, he’s a pretty good guy, but he’s got this one really bad habit I wish he didn’t have, and off you go complaining about him. maligning him, judging him, or lying to your spouse or lying to your friends, misrepresenting something that’s not true, but complaining, whining, griping, grumbling. This is a terrible, terrible sin that you get into. And this is when you allow your emotions to take control of your life. If you’re not thankful for what you have, then you’re going to complain about what you don’t have. That’s evident. And when we complain about anything, we’re complaining about things God knew about in eternity past. So why do we complain? Well, the answer is because we’re not applying the word of God to the situation, to whatever situation we’re in. You know, the Bible says all things work together for good to them who love God and are called according to a predetermined plan. But the secret there is to them that love God. If I ask you, do you love God, you would probably say, yes, I do. But the Bible says if you love me, you’ll keep my mandates, and my mandates are not grievous. There it is, 1 John 5, 3. Do you really love God? Yeah, I love God. Okay, do you keep his mandates? Well, I try to keep the Ten Commandments. Well, let me give you a couple of other mandates. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Those are mandates too. Those are sins of omission, things that you don’t do, things that you ignore. You’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a spiritual life, and you’re not feeding that life by feeding on the word of God. You’re not under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. You’re not learning. You’re not growing, and you’re doing a whole lot of complaining and judging and maligning. That’s not good. You have to apply the word of God to the situation, and it starts with grace orientation. You have to grace people out just like God graced you out. In eternity past, the Bible says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life. That’s grace. That was a free gift. That’s why the Bible says, for by grace we’re saved through faith. It’s a free gift of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. When God graced you out, he did something so wonderful, so marvelous, so unbelievable for you. that he allowed his own son to take your place on the cross and pay for the penalty of your sin and my sin. That’s grace. And gracing people out is God’s way that he works about or the way he does things. So we have to learn to execute our life the same way. We have to learn to grace people out and not complain about anything, not complain about their life, not complain about what they have or don’t have. You have to learn that God knew about all these things in eternity past. So why should we complain? Because we don’t apply the word of God to that situation. Philippians 2, 13 and 14, for it is God who’s at work in you both to desire and to work for his good pleasure. So do all things. Now listen, here’s a mandate. You love God, do you? Yes, sir, I love God. Okay, here it is. Philippians 2.14, do all things without complaining or arguing. So let’s see, how many arguments have you been in this week? How many times have you complained? You complained about anything. Didn’t get the newspaper. Didn’t get the dinner you wanted. Had to work overtime. Your favorite TV show was off the air. I saw a thing on television, I mean on the internet just the other day about the weatherman showing where the tornadoes were hitting and people calling in and complaining because he interrupted their regular program schedule to watch something they wanted to watch. They didn’t care about the tornado. It wasn’t in their neighborhood, so why would they care? They want to watch the TV. People love to complain, love to gripe, love to just malign, carry on. This is all emotional sins. For it is God who works in you, both to do, desire, and to work for his good pleasure, and do all things without complaining or without argument. The word do, do, verse 14, Philippians 2, do all things without complaining or arguing. Do is a present active imperative verb. It’s the verb po-io, po-io. And it means to do something now, right now. Do all things without, and that’s an imperative verb now. That’s a command. That’s not God asking you. That’s God telling you, don’t complain. The interesting Greek word for complaining is gongousmos. Gongousmos. And that’s a masculine noun, which means to murmur in private about your displeasure. That’s the last thing you need to be doing, murmuring, griping, complaining. Listen to what the Bible says in Acts 6.1. And in those days when the number of disciples was multiplied, there arose murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because the widows were neglected in the daily ministration of the church. So they got mad because they thought maybe the Hebrews were taking more care of their widows than the Gentile widows. Be hospitable one to another, 1 Peter 4, 9, and don’t complain. Stay out of complaining, gonguzmas. When you start to complain about the weather, complain about the television, complain about your wife, complain about your husband, complain about your car, this is perfect because it lets your emotions take you over and your emotions can rule you. And the Bible goes on to say, don’t argue. Don’t argue. Do all things without complaining or arguing. The Greek word for argue is dialogismos. Dialogismos. And that means to dispute. In Luke 9, 6, the disciples had a problem with this. Then there arose a reasoning or an argument among them about who would be the greatest. And the Lord Jesus Christ settled that one real quick. Whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. That sort of attitude requires a humility profile. Without some humility, you can’t live your life and serve the Lord. You gotta get rid of the complaining, get rid of the griping, get rid of the arguing, and have some humility. Listen to Romans 12, 3. This I say through the grace of God that’s been given to me, to everyone that is among you, not to think of himself more than he ought to think, but to think in terms of humility, since God has dealt to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. Thinking in terms of humility. You know, one of the greatest places that these arguments and complaints start is in a local church where someone has too much power, you know, too many chiefs, not enough Indians. So he’s going to complain about the pastor. He’s going to complain about the offering. He’s going to complain about the people in the church. He’s going to complain about this, complain about that. Always stirring up trouble. Always running his mouth. Has no humility because if you try to talk to him about it, he sees that he’s right and everybody else is wrong. That’s an arrogant person and he’s very self-centered. He’s minus any humility in his life. God respects genuine humility. It’s a wonderful mandate from the Bible. Humble yourselves. The Bible tells us we’ll see that. And if we don’t have that humility, God can use enforced humility to humble us to where we need to be. But now humility’s got to be distinguished from humiliation. Humility is the virtue of freedom from arrogance, and humiliation, that’s not the same thing. Humiliation is used to reduce your view of self to a lower status in your own eyes or in the eyes of others. So someone may try to humiliate you or intimidate you. It’s used to mortify people. And what God expects is humility, not humiliation. Humility or being humble is the unique thing about the spiritual life of the church age. It’s the recognition of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and submitting to that authority. Humility is a recognition of authority in the execution of the spiritual life. And you know, the Bible is the mind of Christ. So when you submit to the authority of the Bible, you’re submitting to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is there for you to learn. Consistently learn it and apply it into your life. And we submit by our daily intake of the word of God daily. I’m talking about daily, not once a week, not every couple of weeks. I’m talking about every day. And if you’re the type of person that says, all I need is church on Sunday and I’ll be fine. You will never grow up spiritually. You will always be an immature spiritual baby. Hebrews 5 talks about that. You should be a mature believer by now, but you’ve gone back to being a baby and you need someone to teach you the first principles of the oracles of God again. This is the problem we have in the church in our nation today. Too many spiritual babies that have gotten used to entertainment and not being fed steak. We submit ourselves by the daily intake of the word of God and if we become neglectful of that, that’s a type of rebellion in your life where you don’t have time for God So that’s a good question I want to ask you. Do you have time for God? Do you make time for God? I can hear your answer now. Well, I read my daily devotion. Wonderful, wonderful. A little five-minute devotion and you’re good to go for the rest of the day. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about sitting under the authority of a well-qualified pastor with a Bible and a notebook and taking notes and learning it and applying it into your life. Are there preachers that do this? Yes. Are there churches where pastors teach the word of God more than on Sunday morning and Sunday night? Yes. Can you find those churches? Yes. If you don’t know where they are, contact me, I’ll tell you. You can get the information free, but that’s what we must have. We must have the post-salvation growth to be grace-oriented and to develop some humility. Because the biblical humility that I’m talking about is not going to be complaining and griping and mumbling and grumbling all the time. In James 4.10, the Bible says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. And that’s not a request, that’s a mandate. A mandate for you to be grace-oriented and to be occupied with Christ so that you depend on the Lord constantly. and it precedes any effective use of any problem-solving device you have. You must do what the Bible says. Humble yourself. Orient to the authority of the Word of God. Humility is an objective evaluating, you objectively evaluating your own life in light of what the Word of God teaches. How could you do that if you don’t know what the Word of God teaches? but it’s a, it’s a quality of honor. Humility is a quality of honor and integrity related to orienting yourself to what a idiot you have been in the past and rebound from that sin and move on in the spiritual life. Don’t look back. Don’t get trapped into that complaining and griping and judging yourself and judging other people. There has to be an attitude adjustment to have some humility. I can assure you of this. So first Thessalonians 5.18 says give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Let’s get that verse down. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Whoa, wait a minute. In all circumstances? Yes, in all circumstances. Paul said I’ve learned whether I have a lot or whether I have a little, it doesn’t make any difference. For me to live is Christ and to die is profit. Are you complaining because you don’t have a good job, because you don’t make enough money, or because the government’s not taking care of you? Are you complaining because your spouse doesn’t pay enough attention to you? Are you complaining because the weather is bad today and you can’t do your favorite golf outing or fishing or whatever you want to do? In all thanks, give thanks in all circumstances. This is the day the Lord has made. I’ll rejoice and have a super abundance of happiness in it because of his unfailing love and mercy every day. That’s a great Bible verse. When you get up in the morning, regardless of what it looks like, regardless of what you have to do that day, that’s a verse you need. Give thanks in every circumstance for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. How about where you messed up? How about where you’re in trouble? Are you to give thanks for that? Yeah, that’s God getting your attention. That’s God giving you some enforced humility since you were too dumb to have some authority orientation. You didn’t listen to the police officer. You decided to drive 90 when the speed limit was 50 and you got a ticket and you complained about it, griped about it, maligned the police officer, maligned the judge. give thanks. God might have just saved your life by slowing you down. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ had this humility profile and he was treated extremely unfair. Listen to Isaiah 53, 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheep that Before his shear is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Not one time did our Lord complain, gripe, malign, judge, carry on. He didn’t do that. And the disciples saw that sort of attitude. That’s the Christian life. It’s a way to live a wonderful life so you don’t have this burden of complaining and griping heavy on you, letting your emotions take over, letting your emotions dictate how you feel. You live by faith, not by feeling. Because unhappy people are going to take their unhappiness with them wherever they go. I mean, if you’re unhappy in New York, you’ll be unhappy in LA. You say, I just need to move to Florida. I’ll be happy. No, you won’t. You’re going to be the same miserable person you are right now because you have not oriented and adjusted to the plan of God. It’s called sin nature control. James 4.3 talks about it. He said, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? That’s right. The flesh wars against the spirit. The spirit wars against the flesh. They’re contrary one to the other. Galatians talks about this. You have a sin nature. The Bible goes on to say you desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and you cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel and you don’t have because you do not ask. And you ask, but you don’t get it because you asked wrongly to spend it on your own passions. That’s what a lot of people are like. They’re never happy. Can’t do anything to make them happy. That’s not you. That’s not the way you’re supposed to live your life. Isn’t it about time you oriented and adjusted to this and learned to be the person God designed you to be? In Exodus 14, 11, and 12, here’s the Jews as they came out of Egypt and they said to Moses, it’s all because there are no graves. And is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you while we were still in Egypt? Leave us alone so we can serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Gripe, malign, complain, carry on, whine. They wanted to go back to slavery. They’d rather be slavery in Egypt than to be occupied with God’s plan for their life. Listen to what Peter says for you today, and this is one you need to learn. Cast all your cares on him. He cares for you. Do you think God’s going to throw you under the bus? You think God’s going to give you some deal that’s not fair? He knows what’s going on, and he’s designed a plan for your life, and the quicker you learn it and live it, the better off you’re going to be. But the longer you stay outside the will of God, the longer you ignore God’s word, the longer you stay letting your sin nature control your life, not being filled with the Holy Spirit, you’re going to beat your brains out until eventually you’re miserable. This humility I’m talking about is a characteristic of a relaxed mental attitude that comes from the faith rest drill. And these are biblical problem-solving devices. The faith rest drill, problem-solving device number three. We’ve taught it. We’ve been over it. And you can’t learn it if you’re not teachable because the people that are arrogant are unteachable. Humility is teachability. But humility, again, is not humiliation, but rather you being oriented to genuine authority of the Word of God. Humility can be poised under pressure. Why? How can you think under pressure? Poets is thinking under pressure. How do you do that? You have the mind of Christ. If you don’t think under pressure, then you’re going to get emotional under pressure and do dumb and stupid things. You know, God only promotes those people that have genuine humility. In James 4, 6, he gives greater grace. Therefore, it says God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. The greatest test of humility is how you respond to authority, whether it’s fair, whether it’s unfair, in personality conflict with you or not. So the Christian way of life is described as having grace and humility. And those with humility are always objective. Those motivated by arrogance are always subjective. They always take everything personal. Humility is the most fantastic spiritual dignity that carries with it the opportunity to have God’s happiness in your life. Humility is a biblical viewpoint, and it’s always God consciousness rather than self-consciousness. God consciousness includes personal love for God the Father and occupation with Christ. Problem-solving device number 10. So the choice is really yours. You can live a life of genuine humility, motivated by your trust and your love for God, or you can be a complainer, always griping, always complaining, always mumbling about the raw deal you’re getting in life, reacting to circumstances and not responding, not able to handle pressure. Miserable, complaining about everything. No wonder people don’t want to be around you. No wonder no one wants to have anything to do with you since you are a bore and sometimes a bully. I advise you to confess your sin to God, to recover before God removes you off this planet. You think he’s going to put up with this kind of stuff always? God can humble you in a way you’ve never been humbled before, and I advise you to humble yourself first before the hammer drops into your life. This message is for you. I hope you’re listening because God loves you. He’s not mad at you, but he won’t tolerate your arrogance, and he won’t tolerate your lack of humility, and he won’t tolerate all of your complaining and griping about everything if you’re a Christian. So think about this. Look into your life. Look into the mirror. Am I talking about you? If I am, confess your sin to God. Orient and adjust yourself to the plan of God. Get with it. Start growing in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And be the man God designed you to be. Be the woman, Proverbs 31, God designed you to be. That’s the person God’s looking for. Heroes, not zeros. There’s a lot of zeros running around. You don’t need to be one of them. Until next week, I’m your host, Rick Hughes. I would like to thank you for listening to The Flatline. I hope it’s made sense. Contact me if you have a question. Until next week, thank you and God bless you.
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.
