Join host Rick Hughes as he delves into the crucial topic of recognizing and capitalizing on the divine gifts bestowed upon believers. This episode of The Flatline explores the myriad of spiritual assets that come with salvation, emphasizing that the journey doesn’t end at accepting Christ. Rick invites listeners to examine their spiritual lives and consider the importance of maturity in glorifying God.
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. It’ll be a few minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education. And absolutely no manipulation because we don’t play con games here. We’re not trying to con anybody. We’re not trying to beat you out of any money. We’re not going to try to sell you anything. We just want to give you some information. Information that I pray will help you verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If I’m able to do that, then you can orient and adjust to the plan if you’d like to do so. But thank you for listening to The Flatline. I remind you of our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. There you can find all the many books we’ve written that are free of charge. You can order them from the website. And we even have some of our books are audio recorded there by our announcer, Jack Steele, reads them to you. So you can listen from the website as long as you hear all the old radio shows that are stored there as well. So come visit us at the website, rickhughesministries.org. We also podcast all our radio shows on Spotify, on Apple iPod, and Podbean, some of these various podcast venues. And so if you’re a podcaster, you can just search for The Flotline, F-L-O-T, Flotline, on Apple iPod or Spotify iPod, and you’ll find us, The Flotline. Join us there and listen in from there. All right, today we want to talk about something very critical to you. I think this is like show 978, and we want to talk about wasted opportunities, wasted opportunities. This is something near and dear to my heart that I think about all the time when I’m praying, trying to think, how can I motivate you to grow spiritually? Or how can I motivate you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? What can I say that the Holy Spirit would use in your life to give you a little push? So let me remind you before we get started, the single greatest decision you could ever make in your entire life is the decision to receive the good news of the gospel. And you may say, well, what good news is that? Well, somebody stepped up and paid the penalty for my sin and for your sin. Somebody did it for us. We don’t have to pay for our own sins. In 1 John 2, 2, and he himself, that’s Jesus Christ, is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. If you add to that verse these words in 2 Corinthians 5.19, that is what Paul wrote here, that is that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. This lets you know that Jesus Christ was our reconciliator. He died for us. He took our place. He was the propitiation for our sin. I don’t care what you might have done in your life. I don’t care what you’ve been through. Christ paid for it. He died for you. If you will believe in him and receive him as your savior, you can have eternal life. It’s because of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ on that cross of Calvary that no individual will ever be sent to the lake of fire because they committed some sin. The only reason any person would ever be condemned to eternity in the lake of fire is found in Revelation 20, verses 12 through 15, and you might want to listen carefully. I’ll read it to you. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. This is the great white throne of judgment. And books, plural, notice plural, books were opened. And then another book, notice it’s singular, was opened. This is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which are written in the books, plural. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead that was in them. And they were judged each one according to their works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. If you die without accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, you die the first death. And remember, you either have to be born twice or die twice. The Bible says in Revelation 3, 5, he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot his name out of the book of life. but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. And then again, we find this other verse that I want to read to you this morning in Psalm 69, 28. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous. Whenever you reject Christ as Savior, your name is blotted out of the book of life and you’ve died the first death. The second death is being thrown in the lake of fire. So you’re either born twice, physical birth, spiritual birth, or you die twice, physical death and lake of fires, a second death. Now, here’s the sad part. Suppose somebody gave you a very, very expensive automobile, like a very fancy Rolls Royce. How in the world could you enjoy the benefits of such an automobile if all you knew was how to drive it? If all you knew was how to open the door, crank the car, and drive it down the road, and that’s all you knew, well, it would get you to your destination. But you did not understand the luxury that it offers, like cruise control, air conditioning, automatic headlights, deluxe climate control, heated and cooled seats, Bluetooth connection to your cell phone, automatic windows, automatic dimmers. I mean, there’s so many wonderful things that come with that automobile. and you don’t know it. All you know how to do is open the door, put the key in, and drive it down the road. So you never take advantage of the full automobile, what it offers you. I’m making this illustration to emphasize the fantastic gift you receive at the moment you believe in Jesus Christ. Because your salvation includes a whole lot more than just a free trip to heaven. Unfortunately, that’s the way some people think about it. Okay, I accepted Christ as my savior, I’m going to heaven, that’s it. If that’s all you got out of the experience, then clearly no one has explained to you all the tremendous assets and all the wonderful advantages you now have as a member of God’s royal family. So if you’re interested in learning what’s available to you now that you’re a member of the body of Christ, then you’re listening to the right program. So could I start off by asking you a personal question? You ready? What exactly do you want out of your Christian life? And what is the process to become the person you want to be? I’ll ask the question again. What exactly do you want out of your Christian life? And what is the process to become the person you want to be? Now you say, if all I want is a trip to heaven, you got that. Is that all you want or is there more? And if there’s more, what’s the process to get that? In my experience, there are individuals who I call conventional Christians. These are good, God-fearing people who talk about the man upstairs. You know, you’ve heard that statement, the man upstairs. They pray at least once or twice a week, and they go to church on Sunday. And, I mean, they even treat their neighbor kindly and probably tie the portion of their income. But most of the time, they’re busy working, raising children, enjoying their hobby. And they seldom feel the need for any in-depth Bible study unless it’s more than once a year at the January Bible study week every January. But for the most part, they’re what I call the nod to God crowd. Hello, God, it’s nice to see you, God. I’ll see you next Sunday, God. In reality, they have no concept of what they’re missing in their spiritual journey. Yes, they have a ticket to heaven. Yes, they’ll be in heaven for eternity. But they’re not going to be able to take advantage of all the assets and advantages God’s given them now. The writer of Hebrews addressed this sort of attitude in Hebrews 11, Hebrews 5, Hebrews 5, 11 through 16. Here’s what he wrote. I have a lot to say to you and it’s hard to explain since you’ve become dull of hearing. What he’s saying is you cannot pay attention. In other words, for me to talk to you, you have to be entertained, and that’s what’s become in religion today, entertainment. He goes on to say, for by this time you ought to be teachers, and you need someone now to teach you all over again the basics, the very principles of the oracles of God, and you’ve come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. He’s still a baby. But solid food belongs to those who are full age, mature. That is those who by reason, that’s people that seek understanding, reason of use have their senses exercised. That means that they have discernment. They can discern both good and evil. Is that you? Do you have to have milk to keep your attention? If someone came to your church and tried to teach a solid, sound, systematic Bible conference, would it bore you? This writer seemed to indicate that they needed to review the basic doctrines of their faith before he attempted to teach them anything more advanced. And I want you to know that it’s unsatisfactory to remain a baby Christian all your life. And this is the challenge that you and I face every day. Do we understand the gifts that God’s bestowed on us so that we might become the person God wants us to be? Let me ask you this question once more. I’ll ask it in a different way. What are the goals of your Christian life, your spiritual life? What are your goals? And what assets do you have to achieve those goals? I can put it this way. What is the process that you use to become the person that God wants you to be? What’s the process for a person who becomes a mature believer and gives maximum glorification to God? Because the path to spiritual maturity requires a value system. That means something you live by every day. That’s established by the principles found in the scriptures in the Bible and the Word of God. So let’s look at a few of these principles and what they’ll produce. In 2 Peter 3.18, the Bible clearly tells us, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That word grow is a verb and it’s a mandate. It’s not a request. It’s not Peter saying, would you please grow up? It’s Peter saying you must grow up in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Remember the word for knowledge is epinosis knowledge. That’s full knowledge. There’s a type of knowledge that’s not full knowledge and that’s gnosis knowledge. That’s knowledge where you hear it but you don’t use it. You just hear the word of God but you don’t use the word of God in your life. And that doesn’t do you any good if you just hear it and don’t apply it. So if all you do is hear it and it becomes gnosis knowledge, then to you it’s not advantageous. So God wants you to have full knowledge. God wants you to have epinosis knowledge, full knowledge in your life, okay? So let’s read on in this passage. How do I grow spiritually? If God wants me to grow spiritually, how do I grow spiritually? What’s the process? Well, number one, you must stay filled with the Holy Spirit. You can ask people, what does it take to be a good Christian? And very seldom will they tell you, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. But if you’re going to grow spiritually, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5.18 tells you that. Be filled with the Spirit. And that word filled is a verb just like that word grow. It’s a mandate. It’s not a request. He’s telling you. Stay filled with the Holy Spirit. So if I want to grow and be the person God wants me to be, if I want to have a value system in my life, I have to stay filled with the Holy Spirit. And then I have to develop the discipline to study God’s Word on a daily basis. 2 Timothy 2.15 tells you this. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God a workman who does not need to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth. So this is what God wants you to do, diligently, to present yourself approved to God. What does that mean? It means when you get to heaven, you want to hear the words, well done. You want to hear the Lord say, good job, you did it right, I’m proud of you. You do not need to be ashamed. Will it be shame at the judgment seat of Christ? Yes. You take a look at your life and you’re going to see where you wasted opportunity and you blew it and you did the right thing in the wrong way. You’re not going to be proud of it. God wants you to rightly divide the word of truth. That’s what this passage says. Listen carefully. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That’s 2 Timothy 2.15. So daily Bible study. This is something I push on you all the time. I talk to you about it all the time, getting under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor and studying God’s Word every day. So daily Bible study lets you develop what we call a spiritual inventory of ideas in your soul’s mentality. That inventory in your soul’s mentality is identified as Scripture, and it’s called in the Bible wisdom. In Proverbs 2, 10 through 11, when wisdom enters your heart and knowledge becomes pleasant to your soul, then discretion will preserve you and understanding will keep you. When wisdom enters your heart, and we’re not talking about the thing that pumps blood, we’re talking about the cardia, In the Greek, they identified the nous as the mind and the heart as the cardia. And this is where your memory center is. This is where your conscience is. This is where your volition is in your heart. It’s your soul. And when knowledge becomes pleasant to your soul, the passage says, in other words, you look forward to it, just like you may look forward to that cake or look forward to that piece of pie, look forward to that fried chicken. You liked it, you want to get it. Do you really like Word of God? Are you hungry to learn the Word of God? Is there desire in your soul to feed on the Word of God? If there is, then the Bible goes on to say, discretion will then preserve you, and understanding will keep you. So the mature believer can see through the deceptive schemes of the devil, because that’s the discernment that I’m talking about. The only way you and I can have divine discernment is through the knowledge of God’s word, which will expose the lie of the world and the evil of Satan. Well, what’s the lie of the world? The biggest lie is that people and circumstances can make you happy. If I can just win the lottery, let me go buy another lottery ticket. Oh, if I could just win the lottery, I’ll be happy. If I can just find the right man, I’ll be happy. If I can just find the right woman, I’ll be happy. If I could just do this or do that, happiness is not related to the details of life. I’m telling you, the Bible says happiness belongs to those people who hear my Father’s word and keep it. So the lie of the world is that the details of life can make you happy. And the evil of Satan is this. It’s the counterfeit gospel of organized religion. that you will go to heaven because you’re good, that you will go to heaven because you don’t treat people bad or because you give money to your church. That’s not how you get to heaven. The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and it is a gift from God, not of works, as anybody would brag about it. So as a member of the body of Christ, you’ve been given what my pastor taught me years ago were 40 different things identified as salvation. I can mention a few of them to you here to help you understand them. First of all, you have been indwelled by the Holy Spirit when you get saved. You are indwelled and sealed by the Holy Spirit. John 14, 26, Jesus said, but the helper, that’s your mentor, that’s almost like your chauffeur driving that expensive automobile, the Holy Spirit, the helper, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and he will bring to your remembrance everything I said to you. So that’s one of the gifts that you have, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And of course, you’re told to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You can quench the Holy Spirit by committing sin, and you can grieve the Holy Spirit by not confessing your sin, living in your sin, enjoying your sin, staying there. But if you’re going to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you have to learn to use 1 John 1, 9, which is the rebound technique we teach under those 10 problem-solving devices. If we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and to purify us from all wrongdoing. Okay, so that’s the first thing. One of those 40 things is the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. Here’s something else God’s given you so you can have a journey that’s complete. He’s given you a canon of scripture. We call it the Bible. It’s the word of God. And no one in the Old Testament had one of these. No one in the New Testament had one of these. But you have probably four or five of them around your house. I hope it’s not in the back of one of your automobile getting faded from the sunlight. I hope you take it to church with you and I hope you use your Bible. The canon of scripture is the word of God and the Bible says it’s alive and powerful sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder, the soul and the spirit, the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intents of the heart. You have a canon of scripture, a Bible. That’s a gift from God. You have a qualified pastor teacher somewhere. You’re a sheep and there’s a shepherd for you somewhere. There’s someone that God has designated to be your shepherd, to shepherd your soul. How do I know that? Ephesians 4, 11 through 14. And he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some evangelists, hello, that’s me, and some pastor teachers. Why did he do that? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to be perfectly mature individuals to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ, and so that we would no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. You don’t think people would deceive you in organized religion? You’ve been asleep somewhere. You’ve probably already been deceived. So you have a canon of scripture, a qualified pastor, and the indwelling and the filling of the Holy Spirit. These are all assets for you. And here’s something else. You have a spiritual gift. Do you know that? In 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 6, there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it’s the same God who works all in all. I don’t know what your spiritual gift is. I know what mine is. Mine is the gift of evangelism. I didn’t earn it. I didn’t deserve it. It’s something that God bestowed on me when I got saved and you have a gift. Maybe you have a communication gift. It’s not singing, I assure you. That may be a talent, but that’s not a spiritual gift. Spiritual gift may be the gift of helps, may be the gift of giving, may be the gift of administration, may be the gift of mercy, may be the gift of pastor, teacher. Lord help you if it is, because that’s a life of sacrifice and suffering, I assure you. So there are different gifts. What is your spiritual gift? Do you know how to determine what your spiritual gift actually is, because how can you use it if you don’t know what it is? It’ll work whether you realize it or not, but it helps to know what it is. Another thing that happened at salvation is you’re granted access to the throne room of God 24 times seven, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you don’t have to use a cell phone, you don’t have to charge it, it’s available free, it’s called prayer. Hebrews 4.16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So as long as you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, you can come to the throne room of God and pray. And you can lay things at your Father’s feet and turn it over to the Supreme Court of Heaven. The Bible says in Romans 8.26, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with utterances that we don’t even understand. But if he’s quenched in greed, your prayers won’t work. Because the Bible clearly says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Why? Because you’ve quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit and he can’t do his job in prayer. His job is to intercede for you. So, throne room of God is available 24-7. Come quickly, boldly to God’s throne. May I suggest that when you do, that you don’t start off with petitions, that you start off with adoration. that you start off with appreciation of who and what he is, not start off by asking for something. You can also pray for other people, that’s intercession. And then you can pray for yourself, that’s petition. So keep that in mind when you pray. You have access to the throne of God. That’s a wonderful gift. And then you have the promise of the resurrection. Philippians 3, 20 through 21. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. So when you die, and we will die, it’s one of the man wants to die, and after that the judgment. We know that, we’re all gonna die. But you’re gonna get a resurrection body. You’re gonna get a new body. A body that will no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow. The old things are passed away and everything will become new. What a wonderful body that will be. No more arthritis, no more cancer, no more anything. It will be a resurrection body. He will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body. You’re going to be a body just like the Lord Jesus Christ who’s currently in heaven now seated at the right hand of the Father. You also are now your very own priest. You don’t need somebody to be a priest for you. In 1 Peter 2, 5 through 9, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it also contained in the scriptures. So this is a promise to you. You are your own believer priest. You don’t have to go to someone else to intercede for you. You can intercede for yourself going through the Lord Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, straight to the throne room of God. Now these are some incredible blessings that are yours since you’ve been redeemed out of the slave market of sin. What a wonderful thing. Paul stated in Philippians 3, 7, what things were gained to me, those things now I counted but lost. And then he said again in Philippians 3, 13, brethren, I don’t count myself to have apprehended anything. But one thing I do, I forget those things that are behind me and I reach forward to those things that are ahead. I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Is this your testimony? Is this your desire? Because if not, then you’re going to spend a lot of time doing things that only glorify yourself. You must understand the importance of what I’m telling you. Don’t be like the church at Laodicea whose testimony was recorded in Revelation 3.17. Here’s what it says. Because you say I’m rich and I’ve become wealthy and I have need of nothing and you do not know you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. That’s a spiritual condition you don’t want to be in. So what about it? What’s your goal spiritually? Is it just to go to heaven? Are you ready to take advantage of all the assets and the opportunities that God has for you? I hope this has encouraged you, and I hope this has challenged you to understand there’s so much more waiting for you. It’s called the flat line of your soul. When you learn it and put it into your life, I mean, the outside source of adversity is inevitable, but the inside source of stress is optional. Wonderful new way to live in Christ Jesus. No more worry, no more fears, no more antagonism, no more animosity, but a great way to live. Are you listening? Are you learning? If so, let me hear from you anytime you can. Drop us a note from the website, rickhughesministries.org. We’ll come back next week, same time, same place. Until then, thank you 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.
