Gain insights into casting your burdens on the Lord, as Rick Hughes explains the significance of relying on God during difficult times. Explore the difference between gnosis and epinosis, and learn to transform simple knowledge into life-changing wisdom that strengthens your faith. As you grow spiritually and develop profound trust in God, you can navigate life’s challenges with peace, precision, and divine protection.
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 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. I have some good news for you. The greatest news that I could ever tell you is that God loves you. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That’s great news. A holy God loves you. In spite of what you may have done, in spite of what you may be facing, God loves you. He loves all members of the human race, you included, me included, and that’s great news. And the great news is you can love him back. God loves you. That’s his love for you, and you can love him. You can reciprocate that love by growing in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that’s what this show is about. explaining how God’s plan works. You know, the Bible says that God said in the book of Jeremiah, he said, I’m looking for those who know me and understand me. And there’s a big difference between knowing God and understanding God. That’s why we have these Bible classes on this radio show called The Flotline, to try to help you understand the God that you may already indeed know well. But do you understand the protocol involved? What does it mean a right thing must be done in a right way? Do you understand those unique problem-solving devices he provided for you, at least 10 that we can identify it? And that’s what we build our main line of resistance upon. The flat line is your main line of resistance. those 10 unique problem-solving devices that God gave you. Learn them, orient and adjust to the plan, and see the phenomenal things that can happen. That’s why this show is geared up this way. We have high IQ. Some have high IQ. Some have low IQ. But the IQ is not the issue. Spiritual IQ is the issue. When you take God’s Word and learn it and use it in your life, apply it in your soul, When you begin to think with the mind of Christ, you develop a spiritual IQ. Romans 12.3 says, stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. His word, how should we think? Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ operated under these problem-solving devices, but he never needed to rebound any sin. And he wasn’t occupied with himself, but he sure had the impersonal love for all mankind. He sure had personal love for his Father. He sure shared his happiness. He was oriented to the Word. He quoted the Word constantly. He was grace-oriented. He lived by faith. He walked under the filling of the Holy Spirit just like you do. So this is all amazing information for us. What happens is that people don’t want it until they get in a crisis. When a crisis hits, people tend to want to look to God because they have no answers. And there’s no doubt that in this day, the United States of America, the year 2020, is facing a crisis. People are scared to death. People are hoarding food, hoarding water, hoarding toilet paper. They’re afraid they’re going to die. They’re afraid they’re going to be stuck in their house forever. They’re afraid they might not be able to eat. I don’t know what they’re afraid of. But if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you never have to fear death because Satan is the one who makes you fear death. He can intimidate you and manipulate you by your fear of death. And you don’t have to do that. The Bible clearly says the dead in Christ will rise first, and we which remain alive together will be with them in the air, so shall you evermore be with the Lord. This is at the exit resurrection, 1 Thessalonians 4. You can read about it yourself. When that whistle blows, when the Father says that’s it, it’s over, the Lord Jesus Christ will come and retrieve the church, the body of Christ. And if you are a believer that’s still alive, and you’ll just go through the ceiling. You’ll just zap right on out of here. But if you’ve passed away, then you’ll walk out of that grave in a resurrection body, a new body, a body you’ll have forever and ever and ever. It’s an amazing thing to understand. Come to knowledge, and it gives you great peace and great confidence in God’s plan. So we must all understand the spiritual life if we ever hope to glorify God. If we don’t prepare, then we don’t have any recognition of what’s going on, then we don’t have any confidence and trust in God. Here’s what the Bible says concerning what you’re facing today as a Christian. How can you orient and adjust to that? Well, let’s use this verse, Psalm 55, 22. Cast all your burdens on the Lord, and he will sustain you. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. Now we start off with the word cast and the imperative mood verb of the word shalach in the Hebrew. Psalm 55, 22, shalach is cast. That’s what it means. And I know something about casting. I’m a fisherman. And so when I’m fishing, I cast my rod and reel. Accurate casting is a requirement for a professional angler, and I’m not a professional angler. I could have been had I wanted to go in that direction, but that was a passion, not a priority. My spiritual gift of evangelism is my priority in my life, and it should be your priority too, whatever your spiritual gift is. The fishing is a passion for a lot of people, and we know how to cast without throwing it up in the tree, without hanging it up in the rocks, without bouncing it off the pier. We’re accurate casters. I remember telling the church the other day, I was fishing with a friend of mine who could skip a worm under a boat dock. Like you would skip a flat rock, he could skip it under a boat dock with maybe only an inch or two clearance between the dock and the water and maybe catch a big fish up under that dock hiding. Well, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t get it under there. I’d hit the dock or hit the water in front of the dock and it wouldn’t go under there. So we finally came to a, a pier that had about eight or 10 inches between the bottom of the wood and the water. And he said, now that’s a Ray Charles pier. And I thought, what’s he talking about? Ray Charles pier. And you know, Ray Charles was blind. He said, that’s a blind man. A blind man could throw under that pier. And he was right. I finally got it under that pier. But, you know, being able to accurately cast is important. And it’s important for you to cast. This is a mandate from the original languages. cast all your burdens on the Lord. In this case, it’s the faith-rested drill. In this case, in order for your faith to be effective, you’ve got to hit the target. If your faith doesn’t hit the target, you’re not effective. In this case, the target is God’s universal provision of scripture. And you cannot hit what you cannot see. So we all depend on healthcare when necessary. But the doctor that we trust most is our loving Heavenly Father. So when you have a threat to your safety, when you have a threat to your security, cast all your burdens on the Lord. And he shall, absolutely 100%, he shall sustain you. He won’t throw you under the bus. He won’t abandon you. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved, the verse says. Proverbs 8, 17 says this, I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me. So casting your cares on the Lord would be like you seeking him early. You get up in the morning and you… Thank him for a wonderful day and ask for his provisions and protection during that day and look for opportunities to reflect the love of Jesus Christ through your life to your neighbors, to your friends. In Job 5.22, at destruction and famine you shall laugh. Economic, health, social, even death, you can laugh at those destructions. Job was told this, and it’s true. If you are a child of God, if you are growing spiritually, staying in fellowship and not under discipline from God for your sin, you can laugh at famine and destruction, economically, health-wise, social-wise. Because you have, as Psalm 55, 22 said, you have cast all your burdens on the Lord. That means it’s not your responsibility. Worry is you assuming an unassigned responsibility. It is not your responsibility to worry about your life, to worry about your kids, to worry about this. The Lord handles that. It’s his responsibility to protect you if you are his child. Cast all your burdens, the word says, yeehaw, yeehaw in the Hebrew. It means the things that you have been placed under, the responsibilities that you have been given. And you have been placed under a responsibility at this time in our country. maybe of quarantine, maybe of staying inside. Maybe you can’t go outside. Maybe you can’t do this or can’t do that. That’s the burden that you’re carrying. Just cast it on him. Relax. Take it easy. Enjoy life. He’s in control. Matthew 11, 28, come unto me all you that labor, labor heavy, weary from trials, weary from exhaustion. Come unto me all you that are weary and I and who carry a heavy burden, he said. Let me back that up. Come unto me, all ye that are laboring and carrying a heavy burden, and I will give you rest. In the Greek New Testament, that word burden is different from the word in the Hebrew. In the Greek New Testament, in Matthew 11, 28, burden is portizo, portizo, P-H-O-R-T-I-Z-O. It’s a different meaning. It means referring to the demands that you’ve been placed under physically, emotionally, placing demands on your resources. It’s used metaphorically of the demands, for example, there of the law of Moses imposed by the religious leaders. And people couldn’t live under those laws. They couldn’t exist under those laws. No one could live up to that. So you have to cast every burden you have on the Lord. And then remember this verse, Matthew 10, 28. Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. but rather fear him who’s able to destroy both soul and body in hell. That’s right. There will either be two births or two deaths. The first birth is when you’re born into the world from your mom and pop, and you come into the world a shining baby, boy or girl. That’s birth one. Birth two is when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you are born again. The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus he needed to be born again in John chapter 3. Nicodemus didn’t quite understand it. He thought that was crazy that no one could go back into their parents’ womb and be born again. And the Lord gently corrected him and said, no, it’s not physical, it’s spiritual. The spiritual rebirth is your human spirit being made alive. It’s God the Holy Spirit coming to live inside of you and making you spiritually alive because you’re born spiritually dead. You’re born with a sin-infected virus, the virus of sin and death. And for by one man sin came into the world and death by sin, and now death has passed on all for all have sinned and the wages of sin is death. You’re born into that. You have that virus already, and there’s only one solution. There’s only one thing to be inoculated with, and that is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. There it is. That’s the antidote to the virus of sin and death. So it’s yours if you want it. Don’t be afraid of anyone else. You want to be afraid of somebody, you better take a look at what God said. Hell is not the place you want to be. But remember this, hell and the lake of fire are horrible. Revelation 20 talks about the lake of fire and who will be in the lake of fire. And it says, whoever’s name was not found written in the Lamb’s book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. and this is the second death. I told you two births and two deaths. Either you’re gonna be born twice or you’re gonna die twice. The first death is when it’s appointed and the man wants to die and after that the judgment. The second death is being cast into the lake of fire. If you have had two births, you will not have two deaths. But if you’ve only had one birth, then you’ll go through two deaths, death one and death two. Physical death and cast into lake of fire, death two. So put your trust in the Lord and don’t worry about what man can do to you. Psalm 56, 11. In God, I will put my trust. And I will not be afraid of what man can do to me, regardless of what man can create. Nobody’s going anywhere until the Lord says it’s time. 1 Peter 5, 7, casting all your anxieties on him, for he cares for you. This means your loving Father is watching over you. I pity those that have no hope, no divine protection. You need to tell them the good news about the eradication of sin and death virus, and maybe they might believe it. But if they don’t have any hope, if they don’t have any divine protection, they are scared to death today. Romans 8, 2, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. There’s the sin and death virus right there. And Christ Jesus is the antidote to the sin and death. Now, I want to go over to another passage that’ll be interesting for you. I want to go to Philippians 1, 9, verse 9 through 11. And this will talk a little bit about the love of God for you. I told you God loves you. He’s not going to throw you under the bus. He’s watching over you. The question is, do you have the faith to trust him? do you do that can you trust god with your life with your life of your children with your finances if so then it’s in his court not your court but if you don’t then you’re going to worry you’re going to be afraid you’re going to be intimidated in philippians 1 9 verse 11 through 11 9 10 and 11 This is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Knowledge produces wisdom, and wisdom gives insight and discernment. What did he say? That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Your love is the Greek word agape or agapao. That’s the divine love that we understand to be occupation with Christ. He wants you, Paul is writing now to the church at Philippi, but to you as well, He wants your love to abound, perisuo. He’s praying for your spiritual growth, just like your pastor would pray for your spiritual growth, that you would increase in spiritual growth. But you have to abound, abound, perisuo. It means to exceed a certain number or a certain measure. And what we call this in the Greek morphology is a subjunctive mood which says maybe it will, maybe it won’t. That’s really up to you. How much hunger you have. Whether or not you have a desire for knowledge. When knowledge becomes pleasant to your soul, the book of Proverbs says, that means that knowledge is great like a Twinkie. You know, you love them Twinkies. You love those donuts. You love that chocolate. Do you love the word of God? Can you, can’t wait to get into it today. If you got some cookies at home you love, you can’t wait to go home and get a cookie. But what about the Bible? What about God’s word? Do you have a hunger for the word of God? I hope so, because that’s what it’s going to take. Abound. I want your love to abound more and more. The Lord Jesus Christ knew all about abounding. You know, when he fed those 5,000, they had 12 baskets full left over. And his love demonstrated his provisions and care for them. You have to do the same thing. You have to. You know, the greatest love we’ve seen apart from the love of God or our love for God is a combat veteran’s love. Men that served in combat together, men who faced death together. You know, these men had a great love and great appreciation for each other in World War II and the Korean War and Vietnam War. I’ve had the honor of knowing men like this that love their combat veterans. In the war with Japan, when we fought World War II, Germany on one coast and Japan on the other, the Japanese would willingly die for the Emperor Hirohito, willingly die for him. However, they were amazed that the American fighting man would die for one another, that our love for our fellow soldier would cause us to jump on a grenade and save his life. Do you ever consider this? This is a thought I want you to think about. The Lord Jesus Christ jumped on the grenade in the foxhole with you. He died for you. He took your place. He sacrificed himself to make you free. He did it for you. Our love for God has different levels based on maturity, based on fidelity, based on trust, but you must grow to appreciate that love. And the only way to do it is to grow in knowledge. And the word epinosis is the word for knowledge there, but it’s only one of two words. There are a couple of words for knowledge in the Bible. One of them is G-N-O-S-I-S, gnosis. And that knowledge doesn’t do you any good. It’s just an accumulation of facts that you understand. But epinosis is knowledge that you’ve converted from fact to faith and believed it and applied it into your life. This is what God is looking for, for you to take the information you’re hearing even from your pastor and and to transfer that information from your mind where it assimilates over to your heart where you can make the application. When it’s in your heart, it’s epinosis. When it’s in your mind, it’s gnosis. Gnosticism is a worship of knowledge. Christianity is not gnosticism. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father And so we come to understand these things when it gets into our heart. We learn about it and we apply it into our life. So he wants their love to increase. If you consider love is much like a river, it flows directionally. You know, when a river gets out of its banks in a flood, it’s very destructive. It can wipe away homes and wash cars off the road and kill people. Well, love that’s not under control is destructive. If you can’t control passion, it’s destructive. And so the only way you can ever control love is not to let it be an emotional thing. This is not an emotional thing. This is a different type of love. This is a love that is related to your understanding God’s plan for your life. So he wants your love to grow in knowledge and depth of insight. And that word depth of insight is a Greek word called eistasis. Eistasis. And it means discernment. That you would have great discernment in your soul. And that’s hypoxlegomena we call it. It’s only used one time in the Bible. But if you consider the banks of the river, the river’s flowing to the south. On one side of the river is knowledge. On the other side of the river is eisthesis or discernment. This is how you keep love directional going. If you learn about God’s word, if you not only know him but understand him, then you have epinosis. So when you have epinosis… then you can respond to God’s love by loving him back reciprocally. And when you love him, you have discernment. And that’s the other side of the bank of the river, discernment or eistasis. And this is you having the ability to see through the devil’s mirage. Satan throws up a smoke screen, and if you have knowledge of the Word of God, you can have discernment to see through it and not be distracted, not be knocked off course, not be defeated in your Christian life. So the delusional daydreamer, he’s not interested in discovering the love of God. He’s not interested in anything like that at all because he’s in love with his own self. He considers himself to be equal with God. Proverbs 1.22 said, how long will you naive ones love being simple? Yes, Proverbs 3.7, they consider themselves wise in their own eyes. The people that are delusional daydreamers are in panic palace right now today because they thought they were so smart and they didn’t need God. They didn’t need God’s word. They didn’t need the filling of the Holy Spirit. They didn’t need the Lord Jesus Christ. But when they start facing crisis like this, then they may begin to second think or they’ll just get bitter and angry and say, well, okay, there is a God, but I hate him because of what he’s done. It can go that way too, can’t it? but without acquiring some sort of spiritual IQ by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit, that’s problem-solving device number one. And without you having some epinosis, that’s taking what you heard and applying it into your life, you will never, ever, ever have maximum love or maximum appreciation for God. At best, it’ll just be a superficial emotion, which is, I guess, better than nothing but far from the best. The best is knowing the God you love. understanding the God you love, how you can reflect Jesus Christ through your life, how you can fulfill God’s plan in your life. I mean, it’s sad to wind up doing all the right things in the wrong way and thus accumulating nothing but wood, hay, and stubble at the judgment seat of Christ. That’s what it’s gonna be for a lot of folks that didn’t understand. Never took the time, oh, they love God, yes. Oh yeah, I love God, they’ll say. but they didn’t understand the God they loved. They did the right thing, did it in the wrong way. And what does verse 10 say of Philippians 9, 10? So that you would be able to discern what is best and that you could be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. To discern is the Greek word dokimazo, and it’s a verb, and it’s a present tense verb. There never is a time you shouldn’t discern. You should always be able to discern what is God’s will for your life. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t even have a place to get started. The Bible wants you to approve God’s will for your life, that you may be able to discern what is best, pure, and blameless. You have to make choices in life. You have to distinguish between what’s excellent and what’s wrong. And many, many people waste time doing good things that are totally a waste of time, totally in their spiritual lives. It’s easy to get distracted and drift from grace. by getting involved in some program that has nothing to do with your spiritual growth. So I could talk a lot about that, but let me wrap this up by saying this, that he wants you to be pure, pure. And that’s the interesting Greek word, alekrinos, alekrinos. And that means not contaminated, not contaminated morally and not contaminated with false doctrine. Pure from defilement. How could you reflect the love of God if you’re contaminated with prejudice, religious ritual, or self-serving sin? You can’t. So he wants you to be pure and blameless. And that means not causing others to stumble or lead them astray. That’s what Paul is saying. He wants you to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Peter actually said that, but that you would grow in knowledge and grace here and that you would continue to glorify Christ with your life. You know, there’s some pretty sleazy people running around this country, and we have a mandate to love them, to love them just like Christ loves them. We might not approve of their sin, but we do offer them deliverance and forgiveness and love in Christ Jesus. We have to because God loved them just as much as he loved you. So is it possible you forgot that? Is it possible you don’t have that first love you had? Remember why he came to start with, to seek and save those that are lost. And you’re not the only one that needed it. The son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost. Luke 19 10. That’s your mission also. To demonstrate God’s love through your life. Be a reflecting of Jesus Christ’s love for them. Give them hope in this time of crisis. People are scared. People don’t know where to go. They don’t know what to do. You have the answers. Some of those we gave you today, so think about it. If you’d like a transcript of this message, let me know. We’d be glad to send it to you. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flotline.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
