In today’s session, Rick Hughes shares valuable wisdom on achieving a spiritually mature life, urging listeners to transcend the constraints of emotional reactions in favor of a scripture-centered mindset. The discussion highlights the misguided focus on emotional experiences in modern religious practices, emphasizing the necessity of sound doctrine and the study of God’s Word as essential tools for personal and spiritual development. Tune in to enrich your understanding of how to harness faith to conquer internal and external pressures, and step confidently into a life reflective of Christ’s teachings.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, education without any manipulation. Gosh, I’ve said that hundreds of times and I hope you’re listening to me because we don’t try to con anyone here. We’re not soliciting money. We’re not trying to get you to join up. We’re not asking you to give it up, fess it up, nothing like that. We just want you to listen. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if you have any interest at all, then you have the freedom and the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan. But my objective for the many years we’ve been doing this show is to give you accurate information, not useless speculation, but accurate information. Information that will give you insight into God’s plan for your life. It’s my prayer that you’ll understand this. My prayer that you’ll grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if perhaps you’ve never trusted that, if you’ve never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, I never did until I was 22 years old. I never went to church. No one in my family went to church. No one told me anything about God except when my mother, when I was 11 years old, sent me off for summer camp and I heard about God. But I wasn’t mad at God or anything like that. I just didn’t know anything. And one day God found me, and what a wonderful day that was, the day that I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. If you don’t know him, I pray you will. I pray you will introduce yourself to him. I pray this show will help you understand what Christ has done for you on the cross and the resurrection and the guarantees that he makes for you in eternal life in the future. It’s so easy. The Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That’s all I did. That’s all most of the people that I know have done, that our believers, they simply ask God to save them. They simply told God the Father they’re believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and they want to receive him as their Savior. And it’s not some weird, miraculous, weird thing that happens. It’s just an act of faith. God said it, you believe it, and it’s a done deal. But once you accept Christ as your Savior, that’s not all of it. The next question is, what does God want me to do with my life? What should I do? Where should I go? What should I be up to? Any Christian who has accepted Christ as his Savior must reach spiritual maturity. The Bible’s clear about that. God wants you to grow up to be a spiritually mature Christian. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That word grow is what we call a verb, and it’s the verb in the Greek New Testament pronounced agzano. And in the Greek New Testament, that verb carries a mandate. It’s a divine command. It’s not a recommendation. However, no one ever grew up spiritually by singing songs about God or singing to God. Spiritual growth only comes one way. In 2 Timothy 2.15, the Bible clearly says we’re to study to show ourself approved unto God, a workman at need if not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The word study is another verb, another imperative verb, another command, the Greek word spoudazo, which means to be diligent. God wants you to be diligent to understand his plan to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because the most phenomenal life awaits you. as you learn and deploy the FLOTLINE on your soul. FLOTLINE, 10 unique problem-solving devices taught by my pastor many years ago, which summarize the Christian life in a nutshell. When you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, you can begin to experience the wonderful life God’s given you. The rebound is the first one, confessing your known sin, then the filling of the Holy Spirit. and then the faithless drill, and then grace orientation, biblical orientation, coming to a personal sense of destiny, developing virtue, love for God, and then personal love for others, and then eventually sharing the happiness of God and occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ. But the believer who reaches maturity must have the discipline to contain his emotions, must have the discipline to contain his emotions. as well as the focus to eliminate any distraction and the commitment to finish the race. So it takes discipline, focus, and commitment to become a mature believer in your life. Now, you and I both have emotions, we know that. They’re natural and they’re normal. But what is not normal is to let your emotions drive your thinking and cause you to be insecure or to have some sort of fear. Emotions, or an emotion, is a system of feeling in contrast to a system of thinking. But the spiritual life that we have been told to live in the Bible is lived by thinking, not by getting emotional. The proof of this is the mandates of Scripture such as Philippians 2.5. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. It does not say let these emotions be in you that were also in Christ Jesus. As a man, he had emotions, but he did not let his emotions drive him. You remember he said, Father, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. When he went to the cross, he died for us, took our place, bore our sins, resurrected from the grave, seated at the right hand of the Father right now, this very moment, awaiting the shouted order to return. So we’re to think like he thought. In Proverbs 23, 7, the Bible tells us, as a man thinks in his heart, so he is as a man thinks in his heart, not as he feels, as he thinks. And then in Romans 12, 2, Paul wrote these words, don’t be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, renovating your thinking. Modern religion today places a great emphasis on you having an emotional experience when you come to church. an emotional high from the worship service, hoping to cause you to, quote, feel the presence of God. The problem with that is that God doesn’t operate on emotions. And you cannot appeal to God’s emotions in order to gain favorable treatment from him. His unfailing love is not based on appreciation for what you express in worship. In other words, he cannot be manipulated by you in worship. If you love God, you truly love God, and you want to obey God, it’s just that simple. If you love God, you will obey God. That’s all you gotta do is obey him. Where does it say that in the Bible? 1 John 5, 3. This is the love of God that we keep his mandates, and his mandates are not a burden. If you love God, just obey God. And I just gave you some earlier verses about studying and growing and learning. Unfortunately, most of the nod to God crowd on Sunday morning just go through the ritual. and there’s no reality to it. I call them conventional Christians, caricatures of the real Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what Ezekiel wrote about these sort of people in Ezekiel 33, 31. He said, so they come to you as people do, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth, they talk about love, they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. So there’s the game that most people play on Sunday morning, the nod to God crowd. Come to church, dress up, look right, sound right, smell right, but don’t do what they’re supposed to do when they leave the back doors of the church. In spite of what they might have heard from the preacher, they don’t do it. The verse that should reflect our attitude towards the preaching of God’s word is found in Jeremiah 15, 16. Thy words were found, and I did eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Are you hungry for the Word of God? That’s all I’m looking for. I’m looking for somebody that’s hungry for the Word of God. Hungry in Houston, hungry in San Antonio, hungry in San Diego, hungry in Knoxville, hungry in Green Bay, Wisconsin, hungry in all of the many radio stations we broadcast on across this country, 110 stations. Are you hungry for God’s Word? As we move into the year 2023, I’m going to double down on insisting that you learn how to live the spiritual life and that you get under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor, no matter what it takes. because you cannot continue to allow your emotions to hold you hostage. If you don’t gain control over your emotions, you will always be held hostage to fear and intimidation. Emotional appreciation is normal. I mean, we all have emotions. There are a lot of things that I appreciate. A great view is beautiful. A beautiful picture, a great movie may indeed trigger your emotions. But that’s where it is because emotions are generally just appreciation and respect. But they’re not sorrow and fear. They can be. But our job with emotions is an appreciation thing. So If I’m out night fishing in a bass boat and the moon is full and it’s a beautiful night and I’m sailing down the lake, I get an emotional experience. I appreciate it. I thank God for that opportunity. Or if I see something beautiful, a beautiful movie or something, my emotions may kick in. I may get teary-eyed. But that’s normal. The problem that’s not normal is allowing your emotions to override what you know to be true. Here’s a question for you. Have you used the faith rest drill, problem solving device number three, to contain your emotional fear and emotions manipulating you? Do you have a relaxed mental attitude that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, problem solving device number two, and occupation with Christ, problem solving device number 10? You cannot let your emotions govern your spiritual life, and they will. If you’re not careful, you will be manipulated by your emotions and they will override what you know to be true. Note the fine balance between emotions producing happiness and the spectrum and emotions producing misery. The fine line between happiness and misery in your soul is determined by which way your emotions go. Do they respond to the way you think with word of God? Or do they go to the old sin nature? So you have a sin nature, you have a soul, you have a body, you have a soul, you have mentality, you have volition, you have conscience, self-consciousness. And in the mentality of your soul, you have emotions, a genuine appreciator that God gave you. But not a dictator, not to control you, not to manipulate you. And a lot of the pain and misery you go through is because you don’t let your emotions, or it’s because you do, excuse me, because you do let your emotions control you. You can’t afford to live like that. You’re gonna either respond with faith in what the Word of God says and have confidence in God, or you will react. There’s a difference between responding and reacting. If you don’t respond with faith and confidence in God’s Word, you will react with mental attitude sins of emotional fear and worry. Now what does the Bible say about that? In Psalm 56 three, what time I’m afraid, I will trust in thee. That’s divine viewpoint. And that sort of thinking only comes by renovating your mind. And it’s a daily task. Your emotions are not going to go anywhere. And as you grow older, you’re going to experience sickness, you’re going to experience health issues, you may experience financial issues, you may experience a lot of things. And if you let your emotions take over, you will lose your direction. You will lose your ability to concentrate. You will melt into a heap of worry and fret and fear. That’s not the Christian life. That’s not the confidence that God has for you in his care and his control in the situation that you’re in. So if you’re in that sort of situation, just go to Psalm 56 three and claim it. What time I’m afraid I will trust in thee. Afraid is an emotional override. That’s your emotions causing fear. You must think divine viewpoint. Emotional stress, for example, causes people to act on their impulse. The emotions of fear, which is a sin, that causes flight. The emotions of disgust causes you to repulse and get mad at somebody and respond. The emotion of anger can cause violence. There’s no divine power in your emotions. The power is in the thought, and that thought must be the word of God learned and applied into your life, that which we call Bible doctrine. Without Bible doctrine in your soul, you have no power, and you will always be manipulated by your emotions. Well, if you want to share the happiness of God, that’s the greatest emotion you could have, sharing the happiness of God, problem-solving device number nine in the flood line of your soul. Do you know those 10 problem-solving devices? Would you like a book on it? I’ve written a book that details every one of them, and you can have it free of charge if you just go to our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. Now, do not go to Richard Hughes Ministries. That’s not me. I am rickhughesministries.org. And you can find our book on Christian problem solving. And it details all 10 of those problem solving devices. We also have a bookmark we can send you to put in your Bible that lists all 10 of them too. So get in touch with me if you don’t know what those 10 problem solving devices are. But a good example of your emotions misleading you is in your salvation. Some people say, I don’t feel saved. Your salvation is never based on how you feel, but it’s based on what God said. In 1 John 5, 11 through 13, this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God so that you may know, know, know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. To say you don’t feel saved when you have believed in Christ is an emotional override. What do you think you’re supposed to feel? When I accepted Christ as my Savior, I didn’t feel funny. I didn’t hear any harps. I didn’t see any angels. I just expressed my faith in prayer and believed God did what he told me he was going to do. He saved me. You know, you run into people that say, well, I don’t really feel saved. And that’s because their sin nature is causing them to do things they don’t want to do. They’ve never learned how to control their sin natures. The same can be said for the spiritual life. The spiritual life operates on divine power, not how you feel. So let’s suppose you committed some sort of sin that’s embarrassing to you, and you use rebound. You go to 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and to purify us from all wrongdoing. You rebound the sin, but now you don’t really feel like God forgave you. That’s guilt associated with your emotions. And I can assure you, Satan would like nothing better than to have you sit in the corner in a pile of guilt, crying, saying, I don’t feel worthy of forgiveness. Some religions would have you try to make it up to God by doing something generous so you could then hope that God was being pleased with you, that you’re trying to manipulate God. This is you trying to appeal to God’s favor or his emotions, which he doesn’t possess. So 1 John 1, 9 tells you how to be forgiven. Just obey what it says and move on and do not look back at your failure. Quit looking backwards. That’s what Satan wants you to do. Look at you. You’re not a very good Christian. Look what you did four or five years ago. Maybe God never really forgave you for that and then you feel guilty. In Philippians 3, 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, I forget the things that are behind and I reach forward unto those things that are before me. That’s your objective, to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To keep pressing forward. not letting your emotions drag you back down into a compost pile of guilt and fear. And that’s happened so easy. You can get mad easy driving. You let your emotions kick in. You can get mad easy talking about someone, someone talking about you and your emotions kick in. Once those emotions kick in, you can bet heavy sins coming right behind it some way or another. Some way you’re gonna react and some way it’s gonna, whatever your weakness is, you’re gonna be sinning big time because you let your emotions take over. Don’t allow your emotions to become dominating, especially a dominating irrational force in your life. Internal pressure, and the thinking of your soul can cause you to let your emotions kick in and cause you to take over your thoughts. What am I talking about when I’m talking about internal pressure? I’m talking about sickness and health and things that you face internally, not externally. That’s Satan and what he does. Internally, your biggest enemy is you. Remember, you have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And the devil is not omnipresent. He can’t be in Europe and America at the same time. And sometimes you make the mistake of saying the devil’s after me. No, he’s not. Sure, he knows who you are. Sure, he has a file on you, but he doesn’t have time to come to your town and mess with you. And so you’ve got your flesh to deal with. And your flesh was where the emotions rule. And once the emotions take over, you quit thinking. Remember, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Now you’re not thinking. Now you’re feeling. Now your emotions are controlling you. Now guilt, now fear, now intimidation, whatever the emotional response is, that’s controlling you. You quit thinking and you went emotional on me. You can’t live like that. Internal pressure is not necessarily the result of you failing spiritually, but it’s rather the weight of a constant pain and constant suffering which can indeed open the door to you being doubtful and fearful, especially if you have a disease that you’re fighting and you’re trying hard to get control of it, and it frustrates you, and you’re going day to day just lucky to even still be alive, and your emotions can kick in. I remember, this is a story, true story, about me one time. I was traveling years and years and years ago in Georgia, and my appendix ruptured. While I was on the road, my appendix ruptured. And I didn’t know what was wrong. And I went to the hospital, and you know what they told me? They said, you have gas. No, I had a ruptured appendix. And it was 10 days before then when they operated on me. And I can remember laying in the hotel room, weeping, wondering, God, what’s wrong with me? Why doesn’t somebody show me what’s wrong with me? I knew I was sick, but couldn’t get any answers. And my emotions tended to kick in and cause me to weep. That’s normal, that’s understandable, but you don’t have to live by the control of your emotions. That internal pressure that you face is not necessarily the result of spiritual failure, It’s just the weight of that constant pain and constant suffering. And that’s the weight that can open the door to doubt and fear in your life. So is there a solution to internal pressure? The internal pressure that’ll steal your relaxed mental attitude? You bet there is. In 2 Corinthians 9, 8, and God is able to make all grace abound towards you so that always having all sufficiency in all things that you may abound to every good work production. Do you hear that? God is able to make all grace abound towards you and you will have sufficiency in everything. That means he’s not abandoning you. He’s not throwing you under the bus. He hasn’t forgot about what’s going on with you. See, unlike Satan, who is not omnipresent, God is omnipresent. And he is omniscient. And he is omnipotent. And he is with you 24-7. The Lord Jesus Christ lives in you 24-7. The Holy Spirit indwells you, the Bible tells us. So yes, God is intimately aware of the suffering you’re going through. And yes, he does have the solution for that suffering. And that is your faith and your trust in him. The divine solution to internal pressure is 2 Corinthians 9.8. God is able to make all grace abound towards you. The scriptures warn you about letting Satan take control. In 2 Corinthians 2.11, don’t let Satan get an advantage over you for we’re not ignorant of his devices. Yep, he will play with your mind. He will try to get you to fear. He will try to get you to doubt. He will try to get you to have a pity party and go into self-pity and feel sorry for yourself. That’s not how you live the Christian life. Don’t forget now, you are what you think, not what you think you are. Listen to me again. You are what you think, not what you think you are. You are what you think. And Satan will defeat you from ever reaching any spiritual maturity or ever bringing maximum glorification for God if you don’t learn how to think and quit letting your emotions discourage you. Quit letting your emotions drive you. That’s not what drives a Christian life. You’ve got to learn to quit letting your emotions control you. You’ve got to learn to renovate your thinking with God’s word. You’ve got to learn the word of God, use the word of God, rejoice in God’s provision, and quit being a spiritual wimp. In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, the Bible clearly says, there is no testing overtaken you, but such as with common to man. And God is faithful. You hear that? God is faithful. He didn’t throw you under the bus. He hadn’t forgot about you. He knows what you’re going through. He is faithful, and he will not permit you to be tested beyond your capability. But with the testing, we’ll provide the solution so that you may be able to endure it. I’m going to read that one more time. You need to remember it. No testing has overtaken you, but as such as is common to man. God is faithful. He will not permit you to be tested beyond your capability, but with the testing, he will provide the solution so that you may be able to endure the testing. This is what glorifies God to the maximum. When you pass the test, when you don’t fall into the fear panic ploy, when you don’t get into emotional revolt of the soul, when you stand firm on those 10 problem-solving devices, putting your faith and your trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross for your salvation, and your faith and trust in the power of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit in regards to your Christian life as you go through it daily. Yep, you’re getting older. Yes, you’re having experiences that you didn’t experience before. Yes, you’re going through trials and tribulations. What a wonderful time. an opportunity to glorify God to the maximum, an opportunity to demonstrate to the world what it’s like to be a mature believer and not focus on self, but focus on the grace of God. Are you listening to me? Are you understanding this? You cannot let your emotions control you. They will cause you to melt into a pile of pity. You can’t live like that. That’s not the Christian life. That’s not the way God designed it. He designed you to be victorious in Christ Jesus, using his word, using the filling of the Holy Spirit, and glorifying him to the maximum. You have that opportunity to do it. It’s up to you. Just my job to try to make it plain and bring it for you so you can think about it. That’s why I come to you every Sunday morning, same time, same place, so you learn these things and hopefully get under a great pastor that can teach you the word of God so you can apply it into your life. Thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week.
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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.
