In today’s episode of The Flatline, Rick Hughes explores the concept of the cosmic confluence and its impact on believers’ spiritual growth. Drawing on powerful biblical teachings, Rick encourages listeners to evaluate their current spiritual standing, urging them to stay motivated and hungry for God’s word, even amidst life’s trials. He discusses how enduring faith and understanding the essence of God can turn weaknesses into spiritual strengths, and ultimately light the path to spiritual fulfillment.
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 good morning and welcome to the flatline i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes we’d like to invite you to stick around 30 minutes of motivation some inspiration some education always done without any type of manipulation because we don’t con you
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We’re not asking you for money. We’re not trying to sell you something, not asking you to join anything. We would like for you to listen. Listen up, pay attention as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I can do that, then you have the freedom to orient and adjust to that plan if you want to. Last week, if you heard this radio show, we talked about the cosmic confluence. The cosmic confluence. I don’t know if you heard that or not, but you should. It’s dealing with a cosmic vortex that swirls around in this world, which is the devil’s system. If you want to know more about this, I encourage you to request our book called Life’s Toughest Years. We used illustrations in this book to show how the times of the world can, and the lures that the world can draw you into that cosmic vortex. So if you want to get that book, Life’s Toughest Years, you can call us at 800-831-0718, or you can write to us at P.O. Box 100. in the city of Cropwell, Alabama. As always, our website is rickhughesministries.org. Also, let me remind you, we have two new books available, Christian Problem Solving. It details the use of each of those 10 problem-solving devices. And we have a new book called Divine Pardon, which is a good book for anyone who doubts eternal security. And the gospel is clearly presented throughout this entire book. We use that mostly in prisons for incarcerated people. But I think you’d find it very interesting. So let’s continue. on a bit with this cosmic confluence and how many people get pulled into the cosmic system because of spiritual apathy, lack of concern. What we’re going to talk about today is spiritual apathy. This is one of the issues that believers face as they get older, as they get up in age and 60, 70, 80 years old, is spiritual apathy. The word apathy, according to the dictionary, is a lack of interest, a lack of enthusiasm, or a lack of concern. And this may be brought on by depression or some major event or even some major event that causes you to have an emotional detachment. But for the Christian, this sort of apathy can be manifested by no desire to learn anything new, no desire to study and grow, just to kind of relax and rest on what you learn and not keep growing. It’s a lack of effort to advance spiritually. Excitement and enthusiasm about your spiritual journey is definitely something that’s necessary if you’re going to fuel your spiritual growth. So here’s the question. I want you to consider this for me, would you? Have you, you, you, that’s right, you, have you lost interest in the things of God? Have you allowed your emotions and your enthusiasm about God’s wonderful plan for you to burn out and simmer down like a campfire with just a few ashes left burning? Do you still find pleasure in studying the scriptures? or have other concerns overtaken your spiritual journey, like your family, your finances, your friends? Have they replaced your efforts to advance spiritually? There is no doubt that Christian life is a spiritual journey, as I’ve told you, and there’s no doubt that all the forces of Satan are designed to get you distracted so you don’t fulfill that journey. Let me give you an illustration. Consider yourself to be a mountain climber who’s trying to climb a 20,000-foot mountain peak mountain, way up to 20,000 feet. You get up to 5,000, you get up to 10,000, and then suddenly you see this incredible view at 10,000 feet, and you decide this is the most beautiful sight you’ve ever observed. And so you sit there enjoying the view and never complete the journey up to the top to discover the view on the other side, which is even more glorious. So if there’s one thing Satan does not want you to see, it’s the glorious view of the mature believer as he looks back at his life and realizes how many times God has protected him, how many times God has rescued him even from his own mistakes. Once you realize how many times your Heavenly Father has delivered you, then you will begin to appreciate why you must complete your journey from spiritual self-esteem to spiritual maturity. It’s essential. This journey is an intentional lifestyle. It’s growing in the grace and the knowledge of God until you eventually replicate the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. And once you’re able to do that, you will reproduce Christ in your life and others will be attracted to you. They’ll be drawn to you. You’ll be the light that draws them in. So let’s look at some scriptures that back up some of these things that I’m saying, okay? In the book of Revelation, we find a warning to the church at Ephesus. Listen carefully what the Lord Jesus Christ said. To the angel of the church at Ephesus write these things, says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, I know your works, I know your labor, I know your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil, and that you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. And you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary. Nevertheless, and this is shocking, listen carefully. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You left your first love. You left your first love. I mean, it sounded like they were doing great. It sounded like everything was going along wonderful and fine. They were doing everything that they should do it, but they were doing all the right things in the wrong way. They were not motivated by personal love for God. All the right things done in the wrong way equals wrong. Personal love for God is the believer’s motivation to be obedient. It’s his motivation to follow the mandates of God. Personal love for God is the basis of all virtue love in the believer’s life. We call it problem-solving device number seven out of those 10 problem-solving devices that make up the flat line in your soul. It’s known as motivational virtue. If you don’t know those 10 problem solving devices that make up the flat line in your soul, I wish you would order that book, Christian Problem Solving, and read through it and learn each one of them. Learn what it means to rebound. Learn what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Learn what it means to live by the faithless drill. Learn what it means to enjoy grace orientation and doctrinal orientation. Come to understand your personal sense of destiny and understand what it means to be motivated by personal love for God so that you can in turn have impersonal love for all of mankind. And then you can understand what it means to share the happiness of God and to be occupied with Christ. 10 unique problem-solving devices. If you don’t have a copy of that on a bookmark, we have a bookmark with all 10 of them on it. We can send that to you for sure. But I hope you’ll order that book, Christian Problem Solving, and come to understand that these 10 unique problem solving devices make up the flat line in your soul. Now let’s go back to personal love for God. You left your first love. In 1 John 5, 3, the Bible says, this is the love of God. So we’re going to give you a test. And I said, do you love God? I bet you would say, yes, I do. Yes, I love God. Do you really? Because the Bible says this is the love of God. In other words, here’s the proof that we keep his mandates and they are not hard. They’re not a burden. So obedience is an indication that you love God. Same thing with your parents. If you have a child and the child says, I love you, mama. I love you, daddy. But then they disobey you. They don’t love you. They love themselves. So I want to ask you a question, a personal question. Please think about this. Have you fallen out of love with God? Have you? Do you still have the appreciation for his care and the respect for his mandates? Or have other concerns captured your thoughts and your efforts? Because loving God is not just some emotional words you sing in a song like, oh, how I love Jesus. I mean, a lot of people sing that, but they don’t. They don’t love him because they don’t obey him. Personal love for God is an undying devotion with respect and gratitude that develops as you advance spiritually in your life. You cannot love someone you don’t know. If you don’t understand the essence of God, how are you going to love God? If you don’t understand that he’s sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, veracity, these are all characters of the essence of God. Do you know what they are? How can you love someone you don’t know? So again, did you fall out of love with God? Did you get distracted? Because personal love for God is the only form of human personal love that has any inherent virtue at all. Because only God is worthy of unlimited trust and unlimited devotion. And every one of us is commanded to love God. That’s a command in the Bible. I’m not making it up. Listen to Matthew 22, 37. Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And then in 1 John 2, 5, John repeated it. Whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. And by this obedience, we know we are in him. So again, do you love God? You don’t love him if you don’t learn about him. If you’re not motivated to get closer to him. If you love someone, you want to be with them 24-7. You want to be around them as much as you can. Do you really love God? Or is it just a ritual without reality to you? Is it just like church on Sunday and back to the normal life? You know, the nod to God crowd. Hello, God. Goodbye, God. See you next Sunday, God. Here’s some money for the offering, God. If you think you’re impressing God with that, you’re sadly mistaken. Personal love for God requires inherent virtue. And again, Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. That means to be obedient, to be faithful, to be trustworthy. You will never truly love and respect yourself or anybody else until you obtain, first of all, love for God. What do I mean by that? Well, listen to the scripture in 1 John 4, 20. If somebody says, I love God, you hear it, I love God. Preacher says of Sunday morning, how many of you love God? Raise your hand. I love God, it’s me, I love him. Listen to the scripture. If someone says, I love God, quote, and hates his brother, he’s a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how could he possibly love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. You get that? Loving your brother is impersonal love. And there is no room for prejudice in the plan of God. We’re not black. We’re not white. We’re not yellow. We’re not brown. We are believers. We are Christians. We’re in the royal family of God. If you have prejudice and hatred towards anyone, you don’t love God. Someone says, I love God, hates his brother, he’s a liar. I read it to you. So what about you? Who do you hate? It’s only this type of love and this type of devotion that motivates you to keep pursuing God until your very last breath. Yes, until you die. At which time God will welcome you home with appreciation for your fidelity. But I know people that have their very last days of living have listened to Bible doctrine over a tape player, have listened to Bible doctrine on a DVD. Even on their deathbed, they listen. They still want to know. What’s there? What is there to know about God? Aren’t you going to be embarrassed when you get to heaven and figure out you did all the right things and all the wrong way because you never got to know God and who he really is? And all those lies you told people about you are really a dedicated Christian and you really love God and you really serve the Lord and it all comes to light that you were a lying loser all along? Think about it. It’s easy to be discouraged in this life. especially as you grow older. Life becomes a lot more difficult, I assure you of that. Have you considered what the Apostle Paul said about his discouraging health issues? Listen to 2 Corinthians 12, nine through 10. And God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will therefore boast in my weaknesses that the power of Jesus Christ may rest on me. Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in the reproaches, in my needs, in persecution, in distress, for Christ’s sake. Because when I’m weak, then I’m actually strong. You will never be any stronger than what you can be spiritually under pressure. This is what Paul, you know, in this passage, he asked God to take it away several times, three times specifically. The thorn in his flesh, he kept asking the Lord to take it away, take it away, take it away. And the Lord kept saying, no, no, no. And finally, God said, my grace is sufficient. You don’t need a miracle. You don’t need me to take away your crippled foot. You don’t need me to take away your asthma. You don’t need me to take away your cancer. You need to trust me that I know what I’m doing. And so he said, therefore I will most gladly boast in my infirmities. That’s love of God, trust, he trusts God. Do you trust God with what you’re going through right now? The infirmities that you’re facing in your life? The secret that Paul discovered and one we’ve had to learn also is that once the human Ability diminishes once we get weak, once we get old, once we lose our abilities. We have an opportunity to rely on God’s care and provisions like we never had before because before we were going wide open, before we were strong, before we didn’t need God that much. And now you got to have help getting around. And now you need him. Paul discovered that. He discovered that once we get old, we have to learn that our human abilities diminish and we have opportunities to rely on God like never before. So physical sickness in your life, infirmities in your life, they give you the opportunity to go where you’ve never been before. They force you to either be bitter about your condition or realize what a privilege you now have to glorify God to the max by total faith, rest, and maintaining a relaxed mental attitude. Faith, rest, drill, problem-solving device number three. So you have a disease, so you have a cancer, so you have a problem financially, socially, spiritually, physically. You get bitter about it. We talked about that not long ago, bitterness. Or do you trust God? Do you know he’s in control? He’s not gonna put more on you than you can stand. The Bible tells you that. So Paul had to learn that secret. He had to maintain that relaxed mental attitude. And this is what he said, I take pleasure Does that sound like a relaxed mental attitude to you? I take pleasure in these sicknesses, in the reproaches, in the needs, in the persecution, because for Christ’s sake, when I’m weak, and here is the dichotomy of this, when I’m weak, I’m actually strong. The weaker I am physically, the stronger I am spiritually is what he’s saying. That’s what I’m telling you. As you get weak physically, do you go into spiritual apathy? Have you quit growing? Have you quit studying? Have you quit paying attention to the scriptures? Maybe you used to study the word of God consistently under a well-qualified pastor. Now you don’t. Now you’re all concerned about everything else. Physical sickness, infirmities give you an opportunity to go where you’ve never been. That’s right. As I said, you’ll either be bitter about your condition or realize you have a privilege to glorify God. So listen to Psalm 56, three and four. Listen to what the Bible says. Whenever I’m afraid, I will trust in you. In God, I will praise his word. In God I put my trust, I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me, David wrote. In Romans 8, 28, Paul wrote, we know that all things Work together for good. Now listen to the key word. To those who love God. That’s what I asked you. Have you lost your love for God? That was the problem in Revelation I read to start out with. You’re doing all the right things in the wrong way because you left your main motivational personal love for God. All things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. All things. Do you love God? Do you? You might not like what’s happening to you. You might not like what you’re having to go through right now. Maybe it’s distracted you. Maybe it’s grounded you. Maybe you quit studying and quit growing. Maybe you’re thinking, I just don’t have the energy to open the Bible and listen to someone teach it to me anymore. You better get with it. You’re going to need it more than ever. There are many well-qualified pastors that I know of that can teach you the scriptures without you ever leaving your home. You can sit at your desk with a computer and watch streaming video that I know of some well-qualified pastors, great men of God. Or you can get DVDs or MP3s. There are a lot of people teaching doctrine straight, square, right up, on the dot, on the money. Do you want it? Are you hungry for it? Or have you gone into spiritual apathy? Because now is the time for you to get serious about your spiritual life. Since without some spiritual muscle, you’re going to be crushed by circumstances in life. Do you hear me? Without spiritual muscle, you will be crushed by life circumstances. Paul wrote to Timothy, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That means approved today and approved tomorrow and approved once you transition to heaven. God wants you to be approved. If you can be approved, you can be disapproved. What does that mean? It means you can do a right thing in a wrong way and God won’t accept it. It’s called wood, hay, and stubble. It’s human good. It’s not divine good. You will never, ever demonstrate that you love God until you learn to obey God. And the scriptures never authorize you to slack off and coast into heaven. You hear that? The scriptures do not authorize you to slack off and coast into heaven. In Hebrews 12, 1, therefore we also, since we’re surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, self-pity maybe, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. You’re in a race, a race to eternity. Maybe you’ve rounded the bottom corner and you’re headed toward the finish line. You don’t have to finish first, but you have to finish. You have to put out every bit of effort you can put out. Maybe you finished third or fourth in the race, but you finished. You didn’t quit. That’s what many believers do in spiritual apathy. They quit. They go sit on the sideline and have a little pity party because life is too tough, circumstances are too tough, and they feel sorry for their self, and they don’t press on, and they don’t finish the race. Endurance means to have power to endure difficult circumstances without you giving in. It’s your ability to stick it out even though your circumstances are less than comfortable. This is why it’s critical for you to learn the 10 problem-solving devices and apply them to your life because they will orient you to God’s plan and they will enable you to press on until God calls you to the front office. So what about it? Are you ready to get back in the race? Are you ready to get with it and press on until God calls you home? Are you ready to finish what God started in you many years ago? If so, I encourage you to rebound your apathy, that’s confess your sin. Rebound your self-pity, mental attitude, sin. And by doing so, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and then get under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor and start carving out a time every day, every day, every day in which you study God’s word, the scriptures. And you apply what you’re learning because you’re never too old to learn unless you’re incapacitated. And then you simply switch over to what you have already learned and keep applying. In Hebrews 10, 35, the Bible says, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance. There it is. You have need of endurance so that after you’ve done the will of God, you may receive the promise. God wants you to endure the race. He wants you to hang in there. Stay filled with the Spirit. Rebound your personal sins. Use the faith rest drill. Stay with doctrinal orientation under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. Understand where you’re going, your personal sense of destiny. We don’t know when we’ll get there, but we know we’re headed there. And may every bit of this be motivated by your personal love for God. I have somewhat against you, Jesus said. You left your first love. The final question is this. Here it is. 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In 2 Timothy 2.15, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth. Here’s the answer. Spiritual growth never ends. If you quit growing, you’re not gonna make it into the winner’s circle. You’re not gonna get the winner’s crown. You’re not gonna hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, because you went into spiritual apathy. You let sickness, you let circumstances, you let anything overcome your desire to grow spiritually, and you got sidelined, and Satan laughs at you. He just sits over there and laughs at you. That’s what he wanted. He doesn’t want you to complete the race. Spiritual growth in your life requires sacrifice and fidelity. It’s not easy to take in the Word of God daily. It’s not easy to listen to the teaching of the Word of God daily. And maybe you can’t do it every day, but you can do it three or four times a week. There are a lot of pastors that offer a lot of information free and all you have to do is click a button and watch and listen and learn and take a Bible, get a notebook, write it down. You say, well, there’s not one in my community. I know that. People ask me every day, where’s a good church in my community? I don’t know one, but I know where there are some. If you’re willing to make some effort where you can get taught and be fed and it’s free, they don’t charge you anything. Here’s something to remember. Spiritual growth glorifies God to the max. That’s what you want to do. You want to give maximum glorification to God throughout your whole life. And spiritual growth finally will allow you to say with confidence, with confidence, I finished my race. I have been faithful to the end. I fought a good fight. This is what Paul said. This is what you must do. Finish the fight and be faithful. In Ephesians 5, 15, the Bible talks about this. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as an idiot, a fool, but as a wise person. Wisdom is essential for you to understand this. I’m giving you biblical wisdom today. Redeeming the time, buying the time, using the time, because the days are evil. Walking circumspectly, the Greek word akribos means this, walking accurately. You must understand the protocol plan of God, and that’s what I’ve been trying to teach you for several years now. So you’ll understand it, comprehend it, and we put it in a nice, wonderful package, the 10 problem-solving devices that my pastor taught me years ago. It couldn’t be any more clear than that for you. And there are a lot of people that want you to do a lot of things that have nothing to do with spiritual growth, has a lot to do with emotional worship, you know, the Rah-Rah Jesus Club, but you’re not growing spiritually. You may be entertained, but you’re not growing spiritually. Look at your own life and tell yourself, have I grown spiritually in the last two or three years? Am I a different person today than I was two or three years ago? You have to answer that question, you know. I hope you will answer it. I hope you’ll consider it. i hope you don’t hear you have left your first love because that’s exactly what happened to the church at ephesus got unmotivated and left their first love well i hope you’ve been listening i hope you’ve been paying attention and i certainly hope you’ll come back next week and listen again we love to hear from you we always love to know that you’re out there therefore we when we make our contracts with our radio stations we know that People in certain areas are listening. Don’t hesitate to write to us, rickhughesministries.org, or call us at 800-831-0718. Thank you now for listening to The Flatline.
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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.
