Join Rick Hughes as he guides you through the essentials of living a life grounded in spiritual discipline and faith. With references to the Apostle Paul’s military and athletic metaphors, Rick paints a vivid picture of the Christian journey as one of ongoing growth and dedication. Through this episode, explore the ten problem-solving devices that form the core of a life aligned with divine principles, helping listeners to build their inner resistance against life’s adversities.
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.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around with me. Just a short 30 minutes with motivation, some inspiration, and some education, and no manipulation, no con games, not trying to hustle you in any way whatsoever, not asking you for money. We’re not trying to sell you a book. We’re just wanting to give you some information. Hopefully, taking that information, you will be able to orient and adjust to the plan of God. That’s okay if you can. If you will, I pray you will. It’s your decision to make. But we have a lot of information for you. We’ve been the FLOT line. If you don’t know what it is, this is your first time to listen. FLOT, F-L-O-T, stands for the Forward Line of Troops. What we’re doing is using a military analogy to explain the Christian life. We’re saying there are 10 unique problem-solving devices found in the Bible, which my pastor taught me many years ago. This is not something that I came up with on my own. And it’s certainly not anything weird. These are age-old biblical doctrines. But my pastor put them together in such a way as he explained them to be a main line of resistance, a flat line, a main line of resistance in your soul so you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside sources of stress. So if you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, which basically is the Christian life in a nutshell, then you can live a life without worry, without fear, without bitterness, without antagonism. What a wonderful way to live. It’s the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. This is how he thought. This is you orienting to the mind of Christ, thinking divine viewpoint, we call it. So that’s why we have this radio show. I’m recruiting. I’m looking for people that are hungry to grow. I’m looking for people that want to learn and apply the plan of God to their lives. Most people that listen to this radio show, some of the early in the morning, various countries, we’re in 50 states all across America. Every state has at least one flatline show being played this morning. And they’re not really young people. Most young people are not up. Most of you guys listening are older people, maybe 50 and up. And I appreciate you listening. And I always encourage you to write to me. Let me know if you’re learning something. So when it comes time to sign more contracts and pay more money to broadcast in your area, uh, At least we know somebody’s listening. So if you are listening, let us know. And if you are growing and if you are learning, let us know. You can write to us at Post Office Box 100. That’s not very complicated. Post Office Box 100 in the city of Cropwell, C-R-O-P. W-E-L-L, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054. It’s P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054. And it’s simply Rick Hughes Ministries. That’s all, Rick Hughes Ministries. Okay. Now, we want to talk today about winning the race. Winning the race. Okay. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul used a lot of military and athletic illustrations. We call them metaphors. He was a Jew, had a Roman citizenship. He was very familiar with the Roman army as well as Greek athletic events like the Ithmean Games and the Olympic Games. As a matter of fact, 1 Corinthians was written to believers in Corinth where the Ithmean Games were held. Thus, those folks there, those believers were very familiar with athletic competition just like we are in America today. Athletes throughout Greece would converge on the Ithamian Games every two years during the spring. And those games were in honor of the Greek god Poseidon. The Roman counterpart was known as Neptune, the earth-shaking god of the sea. Those athletes would compete in foot races, wrestling, boxing, throwing the discus, throwing the javelin, long jump, chariot racing, poetry reading, and singing. You didn’t know that, did you? We have our football stadiums. We have our baseball fields as well as basketball courts and hockey rinks. All Americans are well aware of the competition for the Super Bowl or the World Series or the Stanley Cup or NASCAR races or fishing tournaments or arm wrestling championships, PGA events. We love competition. We love to honor our winners with great status like the MVP, the Most Valuable Player. Let it be understood now, today, there are winners and losers in the arena of contention called the angelic conflict. What’s that? Well, in effect, it’s your life as a Christian in time. You are in the center of the angelic conflict. You are in the arena of contention. So Paul the apostle warned the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9 24-27 about the intense dedication that would needed to be committed to be a winner in God’s plan. And he used athletic metaphors to describe the devotion needed. His challenge in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 was this, run so that you may obtain. The Christian life is compared to running, not sitting, not standing, running. He compared the winner believer to one who mastered the event. In 1 Corinthians 9, 25, it says, and this, everyone who competes for the prize is is temperate in all things. Now they do it to attain a perishable crown, but we do it for an imperishable crown. So by being a winner in an athletic event, they receive the ultimate recognition of the winner’s wreath. And the apostle Peter even used this type of analogy in his book when he described the winner’s wreath in eternity. This is what Peter said, 1 Peter 5, 4. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the never withering wreath of glory, crown of glory that fadeth not away. So Paul talked about the winner’s crown that they got, the wreath that they wore, and Peter talks about what you’ll wear in eternity. Paul even used himself as an example. When he said this, he proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 9, 26, 27, I run with a purpose. I fight a real opponent. And he proclaimed that he disciplined his body, his flesh, for fear that after he proclaimed Christ to others, he himself might fail to finish the race and be disqualified. You know, many Christians, many believers like me, like you, start out running on emotional high after getting saved. But the emotions finally get overcome by adversity and discouragement in the daily grind of life. I was that way when I first accepted Christ as my Savior. It took me about maybe a year and a half before I found a well-qualified pastor that could teach me something. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to tell everybody I’d gotten saved. I’m a Christian. I’m now a new person in Christ. And I didn’t understand that I needed to grow up spiritually. I didn’t understand anything about that. I didn’t even know what my sin nature was. I didn’t even know that I had a spiritual gift. So I had to learn all of these things. What I want you to know is that my team and I have put a book together called Practicing Your Christianity. Kind of an athletic metaphor, and it’s not quite available yet. We’re in the process of finishing up the print, so it will be before the end of the year, before the summer, we should have it available called Practicing Your Christianity. We’re writing this book so you’ll understand the challenges you face and the opportunities you will have to glorify God to the maximum in your life. And it’s our prayer that you will learn and apply the principles we will give you in that book so that you will hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, Matthew 25, 23. If you’re going to win the race, it’s going to require some spiritual self-discipline. In 1 Corinthians 10, 5, Paul talks about those who are defeated. in the Old Testament times due to various distractions. He stated, with many of them, God was not well pleased, 1 Corinthians 10, 5. What was that about? Well, due to their failure to trust God, due to their failure to enter the promised land, the entire adult generation that came out of Egypt died wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. And it was their children that eventually went in. You can read about it in Numbers chapter 14 and Numbers chapter 15. A Christian who fails to learn and execute God’s plan winds up wandering in the wilderness of life. you’ll wind up being led astray by the tour guide called AKA the devil. Second Timothy 3.7 says, always learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And that’s the way a lot of Christians are. They buy all kind of books, try to read everything about everything, but they never really get under a well-qualified pastor to teach them the mechanics to the Christian life. I went to a Bible college. I didn’t get any mechanics. I learned about the Bible, but I never got the mechanics to the spiritual life. That’s what’s different about our radio show. We teach you the mechanics to the spiritual life and point you to where you need to be to grow up. The wind, these people wind up being deceived and chasing the happiness in life that they can never catch. You hear me refer to it all the time as the my way highway. What is that? It’s wasted opportunities. It’s a wasted life. No wreath of glory. Just a life filled with divine discipline. Maybe an eventual early death due to self-deception, self-destruction. If you want to receive the winner’s wreath, you must learn what God the Holy Spirit says in the scriptures. And you must absolutely understand the protocol plan of God and adhere to its demands. 2 Timothy 2.5. Listen carefully now, listen. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he will not be crowned as the winner unless he competes according to the rules. There it is. You will not be a winner in God’s plan unless you learn the rules. What’s that? The protocol plan of God said a right thing must be done in a right way. The first thing you must learn is how to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you don’t wind up producing all sorts of human good. Nine out of 10 people that write books about the Christian life never even mention that. Don’t even bring it up. They just try to give you some inspiration and motivation, tell you to be a good guy, love Jesus and all that, and sell you a book and earn some money. Listen, anyone competes as an athlete, he will not be crowned as a winner unless he competes according to the rules. Well, what are the rules? 1 Timothy 4, 7, exercise yourself unto godliness. Paul instructed this to Timothy, train yourself for godliness. That word godliness is a Greek word called eusebia, and it connotes duty and responsibility of the believer to God under the mandates of the spiritual life. When you exercise muscles, you tune them up. Godliness tunes up your spiritual life. You need spiritual power rather than physical power. I mean, at this point, we could stop and do an extensive study on godliness, but time won’t allow that. Just remember this. Godliness is you fulfilling God’s protocol plan and acquiring the mind of Christ, as Philippians 2, 5 tells you. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. So what is spiritual exercise? Well, the mandates in the Bible make it pretty clear that we are, number one, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5.18. And number two, we’re not to walk in the energy of the flesh, Galatians 5.16. This requires effort, requires you using your volition. It requires you learning the weaknesses of the flesh and seeing your three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and learning what God’s mandates are. As a matter of fact, you can assume this, if you would like, that the Holy Spirit will be your coach in your Christian life. Jesus told the disciples in John 14, 26, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. That’s the coach, that’s the Holy Spirit. As your coach, he issues you a playbook, and it’s called a Bible. I know I’m being elementary here, but this is what it is. It’s the Bible. And we are instructed to learn our plays by studying the scriptures. 2 Timothy 2.15, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If you can rightly divide it, you can wrongly divide it. I would consider a pastor to be the assistant coach. Sometimes you might call him the position coach. That particular individual called a pastor has the task of teaching you the scriptures in privacy in a local church. His job is critical since he’s to study, study, study, study, and communicate what he learns from the Bible to his congregation. He’s not there to be your crutch. He’s not there to be your counselor. He is there to be your authority in regards to the word of God and God’s plan for your life. The Bible refers to him as a shepherd and it says we are sheep and he nurtures you, he nurtures me, he feeds us as well as keeps the wolves away. So here’s the real question. Will you learn and apply what the Holy Spirit provides through the pastor? I mean, you have volition. You’re responsible for your decision and your destiny. I mean, if you show up in church and look at your cell phone and text people, if you sit in the back row and talk to people and don’t pay attention, you don’t take notes, don’t even bring a Bible to church, you’re what we call the nod to God crowd. Hello, God. See you next week, God. Thank you, God. Doesn’t work, I promise you. The question is, are you going to learn and apply what the Holy Spirit provides through the pastor’s message? If you want to be that winner, if you want to receive the wreath of glory that Peter talked about in 1 Peter 5, 4 again, When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. Not a crown like the Roman athletes received, the Greek athletes received, but a crown from the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you’re gonna have to learn the principles that we will write and teach you in that book that we’re printing called Practicing Your Christianity. It’s not complicated, it’s pretty simple. So the Apostle Paul, leaves us his pattern for victory in 2 Timothy 4, 7, where he says, I fought a good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. I fought a good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. Normally, you know, we don’t want any Elfs on our report card, do we? I mean, I used to get a lot of them in school. My mother would not be happy. My football coach would give me licks for every Elf that we got. Every Elf on our report card, we got three licks. He’s trying to keep us eligible so we wouldn’t flunk out and not be able to play football. but elfs on your report card in eternity. That’s exactly what you need. That’s exactly what you want. That’s exactly what you have to have. This is what Paul said. I fought, I finished, I kept the faith. Elf, elf, elf. I fought the fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. There’s three else that I want to major on right here. What the winner believer must do to get the wreath of glory. This is important. If you want that crown of glory that fadeth not away, if you want to be recognized as a winner in eternity, this is what you must do. You must fight the good fight. I told you before, you’re in a war. You’re in the angelic conflict. You’re in the arena of contention. Paul said, put on the armor of God so that you can stand against the strategy of the devil. You’re in a war, and it’s a war for your thinking. I did a radio show recently called Hijacking Your Mind. This is what Satan’s very good at, stealing your thoughts away, making you focus on your circumstances and human solutions and things like that. You must be alert, you must be aware that someone is trying to steal your thoughts. whether it’s social media influence, whether it’s the news, whether it’s a politician, they’re trying to manipulate you to thinking a certain way or what we call drinking the Kool-Aid. You drink the Kool-Aid, then you’re doomed to die. The Kool-Aid is not the word of God, I assure you, because if you drink from the word of God, Jesus said he would give you water of life and you’d never be thirsty again in John chapter four. So Paul said, I fought a fight. I fought the good fight. We need to fight the fight. No wonder Paul encouraged us to strap on the armor of God. We may not be aware of that conflict, but it’s every day for your mind. It’s every day a temptation. You have a flesh, there’s the devil, and there’s the world. Three enemies that you face every day. Every day the enemy seeks to distract you. Every day the enemy seeks to discourage you from ever reaching any type of spiritual maturity. Maybe you didn’t even know that any such a thing existed. Yes, it does. You start out being a baby, a spiritual baby. You get some spiritual self-esteem. You’re able to stand on your own two feet. You get some spiritual autonomy. And then you want to move to spiritual maturity where you can give God maximum glorification in your life. That’s what God wants you to do. He doesn’t want you to be a baby your whole life. Hebrews 5.11 says this. There’s a lot I’d like to teach you, but I can’t because you’re still a baby, the writer said. You need a bottle. You can’t handle strong meat. Christians that have been saved for years and have no spiritual life are still Christian babies. They’re not going to get the winner’s crown. They’re not going to get the winner’s wreath. They’re not going to hear anyone say, well done, my good and faithful servant, because they were distracted with family. They were distracted with hobbies, distracted with life. I mean, what if God gave you a spiritual gift and you failed to use it? You got distracted and you chased after your dream. Somebody said, oh, look, you can live your dream. You can be this and you can be that. And you put your spiritual life aside to live your dream. Oh, you give God the credit. Oh, yeah, God gave me the ability to do this. Thank you, God, for this. But. When God called you to do something and you didn’t step up to the plate and you went in another direction, then you’re in trouble. I had to face that in my life as well. I had to determine what are my priorities and what are my passions. It’s the same thing in your life too. There’s a conflict every day for our mind, a conflict every day for our thoughts, a conflict every day to capture it our way we think. We must fight to the good fight. we must realize there is a battle every day for our thoughts. There’s a battle every day for our thinking to pull us away, to discourage us, to defeat us. The next F, Paul said, is I finished the race. Paul’s time was up when he wrote this to Timothy. He knew he was going to be executed by the command of Nero, the Roman emperor. But here’s what we have to remember. God never takes us too soon. And God never takes us too late. Now, I’m going to tell you, you can go too soon if you die the sin and the death. You get out of fellowship with God, you don’t rebound. You go down the my way highway and you’re a Christian. You go through warning discipline. You go through intense discipline, and now finally, since you didn’t listen, you’re of no use, and God brings you home. It’s called the sin unto death. You can read about it. It’s all throughout the Bible. Acts chapter 5 talks about it, the sin unto death. Listen, are you on that road? Have you been a Christian for years and have not grown? You have not applied yourself. You have not fought the fight. You have not finished the race. Listen. Can you look in the mirror and say, I’m the man or I’m the woman God intended me to be, spiritually speaking? I don’t want you to finish the race falling down before you ever get to the finish line. God never takes you too soon. You can redeem the time. You can buy time by growing spiritually. But a call to come home is always God’s perfect timing. Job 4, 19 through 27, God’s perfect timing. He doesn’t make any mistakes. When your call to the front office comes, it’s God’s perfect timing. Whether you’re in fellowship or not, whether you’re under discipline or not, if God’s through with you, he’ll call you home one way or the other. Until then, the idea is to live the plan. Fight the fight. Finish the race. The third F is I kept the faith. Kept the faith. The Greek word for faith is pistis. It’s a noun. He didn’t proclaim he was faithful. That’s the word pistou. Pistou. The word he used here refers to what he believed. It’s the recognition and the acceptance of the Bible doctrine in his soul. He never turned away from the truth. He never moved away from what was solid and sound as others did. Listen to 2 Timothy 4.10. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved the present world. There’s somebody that did not keep the faith. You know, I’ve seen this in my life as a Christian. I’ve seen people change their mind, change their direction. I’ve seen pastors that believed one thing, and within two, three months, they believed something else. They changed complete direction in their life. pastors that should know better, pastors that had been taught the Word of God, and all of a sudden, they don’t believe that anymore, and they didn’t keep the faith. They changed direction. It’s very critical for a believer to maintain his direction, maintain his doctrine that he’s learned. not to be sucked off down the my way, highway, down to going to something different, going into something that is not God’s plan. And it happens every day. You’re always being lured every day, pulling you off, pulling you away. You must find that well-qualified pastor and stick with it. Stick with that doctrine that you learn and be consistent. Finish the fight. Finish it. Finish the race. Fight the fight. Keep the faith. Saving faith is what occurs at salvation. Living faith is being faithful to the doctrine we learn and the doctrine that we apply. That’s what it is. Hebrews 11, 1 through 3, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand the world’s refrain by the word of God, so that the things that are seen were not made of things which are visible. These three Fs are exactly what God expects out of you. Fight the fight, finish the race, keep the faith. We’re not talking about a little choo-choo train trying to get over a mountain saying, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the winner who practices, the winner who does exactly what the Bible says, grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Every time you go to church, you’re there to grow. Every time you sit down to listen to the teaching of the Word of God, you’re there to grow. How does growth occur? By hearing God. and by applying the Word of God. If you hear it and don’t apply it, it doesn’t do you any good at all. It’s just what the Bible calls knowledge or gnosis, G-N-O-S-I-S. What you need is full knowledge, epinosis, E-P-I-G-N-O-S-I-S. What’s the difference in those two words? Well, one of them is knowledge you heard, but you didn’t apply. The other is what you heard and applied and believed. That’s the faith that it takes to be the winner. That’s what God is looking for. People that have had those three Fs, fought the fight, finished the race, kept the faith. Is that you? Are you that sort of individual? I hope you are because that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for those sorts of individuals. It’s these winners that we will stand together in eternity and I will applaud you. I’ll clap for you. He will tell you, the Lord himself will tell you, well done, well done. I can’t imagine seeing you get that wreath of glory placed on your head for being faithful to keep the faith. I pray it’ll be you. I pray you’re learning. I pray you’re listening. I pray you’re being motivated to grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That’s why the Lord said, take my yoke and learn of me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. There’s a lot to learn. There’s a whole lot to learn in the Bible. You’ll spend your whole life learning and I’ll tell you what you’ll discover. The more you learn, the more you know you don’t know. That’s the way it is. When you get to heaven, you’ll figure it all out. So what about it? Are you gonna be a winner? Are you gonna be a loser? Not losing your salvation, no, but losing your crown of glory. Is that gonna be you because you got distracted? Because you didn’t fight to fight and finish the race? Is that you? I hope you’re listening and I hope you’re paying attention. I hope to challenge you with these thoughts, and I hope you will. Contact me if you have a question. Always feel free to do so. PO Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Floodline.
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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.
