Rick Hughes offers a deeply inspirational discourse on overcoming fear through faith, drawing on biblical figures like King Solomon to showcase the pivotal role of divine insight in navigating life’s challenges. This episode serves as a guide for those eager to embrace a life fortified by God’s promises, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a relaxed mental attitude amidst today’s turbulent world. By choosing faith over fear, listeners are encouraged to align themselves with a life plan centered on divine wisdom.
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, I’d like to invite you to stay with me. It’ll be a brief time of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education. And we always do this with no manipulation, no solicitations. That’s right. We’re not trying to raise money. We’re not trying to hustle you. We’re not trying to ask you to join up, fess up, give up, nothing like that. This show is simply me trying to give you some information about God’s plan for your life. Hopefully, hopefully so that I can verify and identify the plan. And hopefully, you will orient and adjust to the plan. It’s that simple. But the plan always starts with the good news that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, has redeemed you and me out of the slave market of sin. Our debt to God has been paid. We’re now free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin. by means of faith alone in Christ alone. So when you receive him as your savior, then you in effect accept the great offering that he made on your behalf, the free gift from God, compliments of God. In Titus 3, 5 through 7, the Bible says, not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a fantastic future in front of you. In order to live that future, it requires one simple thing. The simple thing you need to live the future life God has prepared for you is simply called, in the Greek New Testament, pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S. Pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S, or the verb pistuo, P-I-S-T-E-U-O. The English word, faith or believe, one of the two, faith or believe. So faith is required to live this phenomenal life that God has given to us through Christ our Lord. As we enter that life, we enter it through faith. The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift from God, not of works, lest anyone would brag about it. So we get in by faith, and we live by faith. And that’s what I want to talk to you about today. But before we get there, let me give you one key thought that I want you to remember. I want you to remember that wisdom is a process, not an inheritance. Wisdom is a process, not an inheritance. The word for wisdom in the Bible in the New Testament is the Greek word Sophia. And I refer to the Greek often or the Hebrew because that’s how it was written. The New Testament was written primarily in the Koine Greek New Testament, the language of the people, the Koine Greek, and the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic. And I’m not an expert in either one, but I know enough to do research and look them up, that’s for sure. And I know that wisdom is the word Sophia, and I know that knowledge is the word Gnosis, and we have Gnosticism or Gnosis. people that worship knowledge. So knowledge is wonderful. It’s a great thing to have knowledge. When you make that knowledge wisdom, then you have something very powerful because wisdom on the launching pad of your soul gives you the ability to make tremendous decisions. So faith is how we begin the process. In Isaiah 41 verse 10, The Bible says, fear thou not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. And so we see right away, right off the bat, that no believer is to live in fear. We have this mandate, yara, in the Hebrew, fear not, do not be afraid. I am with you. This is a wonderful thing about the Christian life. Jesus Christ lives in you. God the Father lives in you. God the Holy Spirit lives in you. They all three live in you, and you have nothing to be afraid of. And so let me make a statement. If there’s something in your life you’re fearing right now, if there’s something that is possessing your thoughts and causing you great trepidation and fear, get over it. It’s a sin. It’s wrong. You’re letting your emotions control you. In Hebrews 11.6, the Bible tells us without faith, it’s impossible to please God. For he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Let me suggest that you replace your fear with faith. You hear that? Listen, your heavenly father knows exactly what you’re going through. He knew it in eternity past and he knows it now. That’s why he’s omnipresent. That’s why he’s omniscient. He’s with you now, and he knows now exactly what you’re going on, what’s going on in your life. So God hasn’t thrown you under the bus. He hasn’t turned his back on you. I mean, you may have turned your back on him. That’s why he had to love you from behind. He still loves you. He hasn’t given up on you. And if you can still breathe, then God still has a plan for your life. So here are some principles I want to give you. I want you to remember these if you can. If you’d ever like to write them down, I hope you will. One, under no circumstances is the believer in Jesus Christ to be frightened by the adversary. Under no circumstances is the believer in Christ to be frightened by the adversary. That’s the devil. That’s the circumstances that he allows into your life to intimidate you. Every believer, point two, has a divine promise of security and peace in the middle of frightening situations. As a matter of fact, I’ll show you where Jesus Christ our Lord said, my peace I will give you. And it’s an amazing promise. Every one of us has that divine promise of security and that he’s not going to abandon us. He said, I’ll never leave you. I’ll never forsake you. And the peace in the middle of the frightening situation. Point three is, Those promises that Christ made for us must be learned if you intend to access them and use them. There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible. As a matter of fact, I have a book we put together on promises. Me and a few of my friends have put together a nice book about the size of a small telephone book. And we’d be happy to send you one if you’d like to have it. Just write to us, Rick Hughes. P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama. Rick Hughes, P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama. Our zip code is 35054 and do not send money. We’re not asking you for money. We’re offering you something that would help you. A book on the promises of God. And that’s all they are. There’s no commentary. It’s just promises of God. Promises for different situations that we highlight. And how you can go to those highlighted circumstances and find a promise. It’s there. But you have to learn them if you intend to use them. It’s like having money in the bank and you don’t know what bank it’s in. So how are you going to write a check? If you’re going to access the promises of God, you’ve got to know what they are. And so point four, promises learned. And promises deployed on the flotline of your soul are called the faith rest drill. That’s one of our flotline mandates, the faith rest drill. Remember, the flotline is the name of the show. That’s our show, and it’s made up of 10 names. unique problem-solving devices, beginning with rebound. How do I handle sin? I confess my sin. If I confess my sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all wrongdoing, 1 John 1.9. The second one, how do I handle my genetically formed old sin nature? And that is that I stay filled with the Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit, we won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. So that’s the second problem-solving device, and that’s That’s allowed by the first one. When we rebound, we are filled with the Spirit. And the third problem-solving device is the faith recidreal, standing on the promises of God, using the promises of God. So point five, short-time trusters. will never enjoy the benefits of security and happiness in the devil’s world. You cannot be a short-time truster. A short-time truster is somebody who wants to make God the magic genie in the eight ball. and you want God to pop out and make your problems go away. So rub that eight ball really hard and maybe God will pop out and grant your wish. That’s a short time truster and it doesn’t work that way. Point six, short time trusters always live with dread on the horizon because they never have a relaxed mental attitude. that peace that i’m telling you that our lord jesus christ gives to us is called to relax mental attitude you know in matthew 8 25 the lord instructed the disciples to get in a boat and go to the other side of the sea of galilee with him and by the way three of them the bible highlights wouldn’t go they made excuses but the others that got in went And listen to Matthew 8, 25. A tremendous storm came up. I’m talking about a bad storm. And I’ve been in the lake in some bad storms in my bass boat. And I don’t like six and seven foot swells. They scare me. These guys didn’t have a bass boat. They were in a rowboat or sailboat. They didn’t have automatic bilge pumps. And they came to him and this is what they said. And his disciples came to him and woke him up saying, Lord, save us. We are dying. in verse 26, and he said to them, why are you afraid? Oh, ye of little faith. That’s a short time truster. Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. Now, let’s put this in your life. Do you really think God put you in a situation where you could be killed? Jesus Christ loved his disciples. He didn’t take them out there to drown them in the Sea of Galilee. But they put their eyes on the storm, not the Savior. They didn’t look at the solution. They looked at the problem. And you have got to learn to look at the solution. And the solution is the confidence and the security found in the word of God. God was in business before you got here and obviously he’s going to be in business long after you’re gone. But if you want to function in a life of peace with a relaxed mental attitude, you’re going to have to learn these things because 1.1, sooner or later, a storm will hit your life. You hear me? It’s coming someday. You know, when you’re young, you talk about where are we going to the movies this weekend? Where are we going to do this? What are we going to do that? I wonder what Billy Bob’s doing over there at Joe’s house. But when you’re old, like some of you and me, then we start talking about who’s sick and who’s dying. Who’s got what? Matter of fact, I told my friend the other day, quit talking about sick people. Talk about the Word of God. I want to talk about something uplifting, not something depressing. sooner or later, a storm is going to hit your life. And point two, what you do in those circumstances will reflect the security that you have in your soul. Do you have any security in your soul? Do you have any promises of God to exercise your faith? You see, that’s where the peace comes from. When you have the promises of God in your soul as wisdom, Not only have you learned them as knowledge, gnosis, but now you’ve made them wisdom. It’s part of your lifestyle. Then you have the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ promised. Listen to the word of God in Proverbs 1.7. This is where it all begins. Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise or they reject wisdom and instruction. Is that found familiar to you? The Hebrew word here, point one for fear in this passage, is the verb yirah. And this word indicates two mental attitudes. The fear of the Lord, Yirah, is reverence and respect. Point three, those two mental attitudes that represent fear of the Lord are reverence and respect. You must learn this about God the Father. In Psalm 86, verses 9 through 11, all nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and they shall glorify your name, for you are great, and you do wondrous deeds, and you alone are God. Teach me your ways, O Lord, the psalmist wrote, and I will walk in truth and unite my heart to fear your name. That’s universal reverence of God. In Psalm 211, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Reverence and respect manufacturing joy. Did you hear that? Listen again. It’s interesting. Psalm 211, serve the Lord with reverence and respect and rejoice with trembling. Reverence and respect manufacture joy. So let’s get some principles here. One, the majority of the Proverbs written like the ones that I just read to you were written by King Solomon, the son of David. However, he wrote many other Proverbs that were not included in the scripture, at least according to 1 Kings 4.32, because 1 Kings 4.32 says, and he spoke 3,000 Proverbs and his songs that he wrote were 1,005. So point two, God blessed Solomon with great wisdom in a supernatural way. And A under two, 1st and 2nd Kings, those two books in the Old Testament, record and interpret the reigns of all the kings of Israel, all the kings of Judah, except for Saul. And they start with the planning of Solomon on David’s throne, and they go through the reign of Zedekiah. So B, they cover those two books, 1st and 2nd Kings, They cover the united monarchy, the divided monarchy, the surviving kingdom of Judah. But, you know, we really don’t know who wrote those two books. But they are written to record history and to teach us the lessons of history. You know the lesson of history, don’t you? We learn from history that we learn nothing from history because we repeat it. That shouldn’t happen. So A, B, C, D, the written, we record history to teach the lessons of history, and then D, one of the first lessons to learn that you need to learn about Solomon. And you need to think about this. It’s frightening, but think about it. As wise as he was, as amazing a man as he was, he blew it all in the end. 1 Kings 11.1, King Solomon loved many strange women. Together were the daughters of Pharaoh, the women of the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Zidonians, and the Hittites. Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go into them, neither shall they come unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon, clave, that means he remained faithful or stuck close unto these women in love. And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. That’s the lower status ladies, lower than the wives. And his wives turned away his heart from God. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he went not fully after the Lord as did his father David. And divine discipline followed with national disaster in Solomon’s life. You see, it’s an interesting thing. This seems to be a true principle here that a beautiful woman can certainly change the heart of a man. You see, the original blessing of God on Solomon, point E, that we had, was found in 1 Kings 3, 11 through 12, where God gave him tremendous wisdom. God said unto him, because you’ve asked this thing and have not asked for yourself to have a long life, you haven’t asked for riches, you haven’t asked for me to take the life of your enemies, but you’ve asked to have understanding and to discern judgment. So I have done according to your words and I have given you wisdom. and an understanding heart, so that there was none like you before, and neither will there be any after you like you. In 1 Kings 4, 29, God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. But one thing God did not do is he did not take away his old sin nature lust pattern. You have one, and I have one, an old sin nature lust pattern. What is that? Every one of us are related to Adam’s original sin. And we have a sin nature. And every sin nature has a lust pattern. Some people lust for money. Some people lust for power. Some people lust for alcohol. Some people lust for drugs. Some people lust for sex. I don’t know what your lust pattern is. But when you get out of fellowship with God and you turn your back on the Lord, you’re going to go after that lust pattern. And that may be why you’re so miserable today. And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east countries, all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than all men, wiser than Ethan the Israelite, and Haman, and Kakal, and Darda, the sons of Maal. And his fame was in all the nations around about the world. And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five, as I read you earlier. And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spoke of the beast, and of the fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes. I like that one. I like to fish. Maybe Solomon liked to fish. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon. For all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom wanted to know what it was. You know, you want to know what his wisdom was? Here it is. It’s called divine viewpoint thinking. And you can have that same wisdom. It’s recorded for you in the Bible. You have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2.16 says the Bible is the mind of Christ. That’s the wisdom of Solomon. So Solomon recognized that the beginning of wisdom had to center… in his reverence and respect for the Lord. You respect his power, you respect his judgment. And he wrote his Proverbs with the intent of giving a course of instruction to you and to me, a course of instruction in wisdom, as he said. That’s life’s advantage for us. It’s preparation for life and instruction for living life in the devil’s world. Here’s a principle you should always remember. Without preparation, there is no execution. So Solomon prepares us if we listen, learn, and apply it into our life. Solomon didn’t write all the recorded Proverbs, by the way. Chapter 30 was written by another man named Agur from the land of Mash between Palestine and Babylonia. Proverbs 30, verse 1, these are the words of Agur. And then chapter 31, chapter 30 written by Agur, and then chapter 31 written by King Lemuel. And he wrote the words that his mother taught him. And interesting enough, chapter 31 of Proverbs, very famous verses on the godly woman. And chapter 31, 10 through 31, read it. Proverbs 31, 10 through 31, if you’re a female, read it. Because there is the godly woman. So regardless of who wrote the final two chapters in the book of Proverbs, it’s obvious the Holy Spirit included them in the completed canon of Scripture. And thus they are divinely inspired and they are for our benefit. Because the Bible clearly says, man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In Psalm 119 verse 105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. That’s what the word of God is. We cannot live on bread alone. I mean, everybody likes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Everybody likes a bologna sandwich, but we have to live on something else. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is what we feast on. So by understanding the process that Solomon talks about in Proverbs, gaining wisdom, having divine viewpoint, then we can understand the foolishness of the human viewpoint that saturates the cosmic system, the devil’s world. Socially and politically, it’s out there. We call it today diversity, atheism, humanism, socialism, communism, progressivism. They’re all designed to reconstruct and change the American way of thinking. The cosmic system is full of it. here’s the principle. Don’t forget this. Remember this. Satan is in a war for your thoughts. He wants to control the way you think. Why? Because the Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And so you have a choice. You can think human viewpoint, which is the cosmic system’s way of thinking, or you can think divine viewpoint, which is the biblical way of thinking. In the cosmic system, all things evil have now become good. And all things good have now become evil. That’s the mantra of the progressive. But in our society, in the believer’s heart, All things evil are still evil, and all things good are still good. Evil is the genius of Satan. Evil takes the word of God and puts a little bit of twist on it. So it sounds right, smells right, looks right, but it’s not right. No. Satan will tell you a lie, and it’ll be so close to the truth that you’ll believe it. But it’s not the truth. He’s even said to have doctrine of demons in the Bible. He’s even said to have preachers that are in pulpits in the Bible. They say good things. They sound good, but it’s not the Bible. It’s human viewpoint thinking. So by giving you the information that I’m going to give you in these radio shows, it’s my hope that I can equip you with a bank of values, and that’s called wisdom. Wisdom will give you the discretion to make good decisions based on divine viewpoint thinking, because without the humility to receive instruction, nothing in your life will ever change. You will never have any contentment in your life since you have no consistency And learning and acquiring the divine viewpoint of God’s word. No contentment for you. No peace for you. Because you live in the devil’s world. You buy into the cosmic system. You think the thoughts that he wants you to think. And you never have the confidence and the security that comes from knowing that Jesus Christ controls history. That God was in business before you got here and he’ll be in business when you’re gone. So remember these things. Think about these things. There’s a lot to talk about because I want to give you this information free of charge, no request for any money, no solicitation of any kind, just giving you the Word of God, which is alive and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and the spirit and the joint and the marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That’s what the Word of God is, alive and powerful. As you hear it and learn it and apply it, we like to call it LAG, learn, apply, and glorify, L-A-G. As you do that, you will find yourself moving to a great sense of confidence, to a great stability in your life. to a place of great peace in your life, not fear. I hope you’re listening and I hope you’re learning and I hope you’ll stay with me. Come back, please, next week. Same time, same place. And if you need that book on promises, you write to me, let me know. We’ll be glad to get it out to you. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying 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.
