FAMILY Part 1
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 1001 aired on October 27, 2024
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes, please stay with me. It won’t be long, only about 30 minutes of inspiration, motivation,
information and no manipulation. We’re not trying to kid you. We’re not trying to con you.
We’re not soliciting money. We’re just trying to give you some accurate information from the
Word of God, hoping that it will help you to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If we
can do this and you want to orient and adjust to the plan, then that is fantastic. The plan begins
with you accepting Christ as your Savior. It is the single most significant decision you can ever
make in your life. As Jesus asked in Matthew 22:42,
“What do you think about the Christ, whose
son is He?”
Is He or is He not the Son of God? The answer is yes He is. How did He prove this?
By walking out of the grave alive and He’s alive today. And the wonderful thing about it is He
will come and live inside of you and give you a new life, a new life in Christ. This is why 2
Corinthians 5:17 says,
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things
passed away, behold, new things have come.”
As we move into the election and the future, there
are a lot of things to consider about this country and what’s going to happen. I want to give you
an illustration the next few weeks dealing with the family. We’re going to talk about what it
means to be FAMILY. We’ll use the word family as an acrostic, F.A.M.I.L.Y, and show you what
each one of these letters stand for. Before we begin this, let’s talk about the divine institutions.
There are four of them taught in the Bible. My pastor taught me these years ago. I want to give
you some principles to remember them. God has ordained four divine institutions by which the
human race is preserved and I might add, perpetuated. They apply to Christians as well as non-
Christians regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of any other factor. Titus 3:1-2
says,
“Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every
good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentile, showing every consideration for all men.”
This is what should happen within the divine institutions of a nation. 1 Peter 2:13-17 clearly
says,
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the
one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of
those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance
of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as
bondslaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.”
These
four divine institutions that I want to bring to you include volition which is the first one we want
to talk about. What is volition? Each of us is under the authority of our own individual volition.
It’s your chooser inside of your brain. It’s the part of you that says yes or no. God bestowed on
you volition or in other words He gave you decision-making capability as part of your human
soul. With our volition we exercise freedom of choice and we bear the responsibility for those
choices that we make. We’ve all made dumb decisions that we had to pay the price for. These
choices that I’m talking about determine your character in the course of your life and even the
1001-FAMILY-p1-transcript.pdf
condition of your nation. Soon many American citizens are going to exercise their volition at the
polls and vote for the candidate that they believe will be the best one to govern this country for
the next few years. Remember, you are going to be accountable for your vote so I encourage you
to choose wisely. Volition is the first divine institution. Each one of us has volition. God ordained
it and gave it to us regardless of race, gender, creed or color, it doesn’t make any difference.
Christian or non-Christian, you have volition and the greatest volitional decision you can make is
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The second divine institution is marriage. In the Garden of
Eden God Himself instituted marriage. This is when He joined one man and one woman as a
stabilizing structure of all civilization. In Genesis 2:21-25,
“So the Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon the man, and he slept
[He didn’t even have to take any melatonin, how about that?]
;
then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a
woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said,
‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she
was taken out of Man.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined
to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were
not ashamed.”
Marriage is a divine institution instituted by God. The family is the third divine
institution in the framework of the home for perpetuating and safeguarding future generations.
All parents are charged with evangelizing their children as well as teaching respect for authority,
breaking the arrogant trends they might have, as well as establishing norms and standards such as
respect for privacy, good manners and patriotism. National stability rests with the family unit and
broken families equal broken nations. Now please allow me for a minute to go to the acrostic
FAMILY. I’m not going to go to the fourth divine institution yet. We will get to that later. I want
to go to F.A.M.I.L.Y. What does F stand for? Fatherhood, you can’t have a family without a
father. In Proverbs 22:6,
“Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will
not depart from it.”
In Proverbs 13:24,
“He who withholds his rod hates his son but he who loves
him disciplines him diligently.”
In Psalm 127:3-5,
“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the
fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s
youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”
It is a great thing to be a father. It is
wonderful to have children and it’s an awesome, sometimes terrifying responsibility to make sure
as Proverbs 22:6 says to train them up in the way they should go. How do we have to train them?
Proverbs 13:24 says if you spare the rod, you hate your son. It is clear from Scripture that being a
father is an honored position and with this honor comes a tremendous responsibility. Family
starts with the father. Unfortunately in our nation, client nation America, we’re seeing a lack of
fathers stepping up to the plate, taking responsibility for their children. It is also clear that many
who father children are way too young to meet this responsibility since many are still just
children themselves. As a matter of fact, statistics say one in three American children grow up
without their biological father in their home. The National Fatherhood Initiative says there is a
father absence crisis in America. Some recent studies have found that children raised without a
father are at higher risk of behavioral problems. They are also vulnerable to abuse and neglect as
1001-FAMILY-p1-transcript.pdf
well as more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol. You may not know this about me or my wife but I
personally grew up without a father in my home. I never met my father, I’m not sure who he is. I
guess I’ll figure it out in heaven, but I never met my father. My mother raised me as a single
parent. It was not easy. We lived in a federal housing project where my mother worked a job. I
went to school and went to the Boys Club for entertainment. In my wife’s case, her mother and
father separated when she was 10 years old. This placed a great load on my wife’s mother to raise
six daughters on her own without receiving any child support. She was forced to place them in
foster homes for a year while she tried to get her life together where she could take care of the
girls. Our story is not all that unusual I promise you. What does God’s Word say about being a
father? Does the Bible really talk about it? Yes it does. Listen to this, Ephesians 6:4 the Scripture
says,
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord.”
The word provoke is an interesting word because it means to arouse. It’s
a verb showing action on the part of the father. It is what we call in the morphology of this verb,
the present active imperative which simply means this is a direct command from God, “Do not
provoke your children to wrath.” Wrath is also a verb that means to cause anger unjustly. It
interesting that these two words, provoke and wrath, are actually the same Greek word,
parorgizoo
. Both are imperative mood verbs. They both mean the same thing and are followed
by a conjunction of contrast, the word
alla,
which is the word but.
“Do not provoke your
children to anger, but.”
But what? We’ll see here. We have alternative instructions,
“But, bring
them up in the discipline
[nurture]
and instruction
[admonition]
of the Lord.”
Do not, absolutely
you are not allowed to, provoke your children to anger but to bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord. What do nurture and admonition mean? The word nurture is an
interesting Greek word. It is the word
paideia.
What does this word mean? This is where we get
the word paddle in our English language. It suggests Christian discipline that regulates character.
This is exactly what has to happen. There must be discipline in the home. There must be
nurturing. There must be
paideia
. One way to break the arrogance and disrespect for authority
the child may have is for the father to put something on their rear end just as God does to us. He
does the same thing to us. Listen to Hebrews 12:5,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline
[paddling or chastening]
of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him.”
This word
discipline or chastening is the same Greek word,
paideia,
used in the passage that we were
looking at in Ephesians 6:4. God sometimes has to paddle us when we disobey Him. We know
this as intense discipline. He has to bring discipline into our lives to straighten us out. It requires
humility to grow and be a normal person and this is what discipline is for, to enforce humility. If
you don’t have genuine humility, God has to bring enforced humility into the Christian’s life so
that he will obey the mandates of God. It’s the same thing with a father. If a child will not obey,
there must be enforced humility. There has to be teaching authority to break this arrogant streak.
It’s impossible to live without this. Now for the word admonition,
“Bring them up in the
discipline
[nurture]
and instruction
[admonition]
of the Lord.”
What does the word admonition
mean? It’s the word
nouthesia.
It comes from the word
nous
which means mind. There are two
1001-FAMILY-p1-transcript.pdf
ways to train a child. You can put something on their rear end or you can put something between
their ears which is the word
nouthesia,
to teach them. Here are some principles for fathers that
you should understand and remember. First of all, never ever discipline your children when
you’re angry at them. Don’t do that because this is exactly what the Bible says, do not cause your
children to go into anger. Two. Never apply pain to your child’s bottom unless authority is
rejected. Why is this? Because they must learn to respect authority since in the long run respect
for authority will save their lives. If a child can’t accept the authority of his daddy, if he can’t
accept the authority of his mother, then he will not obey the authority of the police officer. He
will not obey the authority of the principal. He will not obey the authority of the pastor. He will
be anti-authority and if there’s anything wrong with America today, it’s anti-authority people. We
have a whole generation of children without authority orientation and this nation is in serious
trouble because of this. Again, never apply pain unless your authority is rejected. It’s the same
thing God does with you. When God tells you, “Don’t do this,” and you do it anyhow, you are
going to get pain. Why, because He’s angry at you? No. Because He loves you. He’s trying to
keep you from destroying yourself. This is exactly what authority does. Authority is designed to
stop you before you destroy yourself and maybe someone else along with it. Three. You can
teach them by putting something in their mind so if they make a mistake, it was not deliberate. A
lot of times kids mess up when they are young. There’s a heater, they touch it and they burn their
hand. They didn’t do this deliberately. You didn’t tell them, “Don’t touch the heater.” If they
touch the heater, they’re going to burn their hand. If they violate your authority, that’s one thing
but if they’re just curious, they make a mistake and they hurt themselves, this is one of the ways
they learn. They can learn by putting something between their ears. Teach them not to do certain
things. A good question to ask you is what should a father put in his children’s mind, in his
children’s thoughts? Deuteronomy 11:19 clearly tells us,
“You shall teach them to your children,
talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie
down and when you rise up,”
24×7. What am I supposed to be teaching them? God’s Word. I’m
supposed to put the Word of God in the mind of my children. Teach them the Word of God. Read
the Scripture to them. Pray with them. Introduce them to who God is at a young age so that
they’ll be God-conscious and introduce them to the gospel when it comes time. I can remember
leading my children to the Lord and what a wonderful time it was. This has to be done by the
father or one of the parents. If you’re a father, you must do this. You must teach your children the
Word of God and introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Make them aware of God’s presence
by learning about creation and then expose them to the saving work of Christ as soon as possible.
Why? Because Satan will certainly waste no time trying to capture their thoughts, especially
using social media. He’ll do this for sure. What if you have a child that you’ve evangelized and
you’ve taught them the Word of God? I get letters from people like this. What do you do with
them later in life? What should a father do if you raised your children right, you gave them the
Word of God, you lead them to Christ, and then they stray away and go down the My Way
Highway? How do you handle this? In Luke 15:11-32 the Lord Jesus Christ gave a parable. I’m
1001-FAMILY-p1-transcript.pdf
going to read part of it to you and we’re going to draw some illustrations out of it. As a father, if
you’re listening I hope you can learn from this.
“And He
[Jesus]
said, ‘A man had two sons. The
younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.” So
he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered
everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his
estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that
country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens
of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his
stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to
him. But
when he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than
enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to
him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called
your son; make me as one of your hired men.’” So he got up and came to his father. But while he
was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced
him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your
sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly
bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and
bring the fattened calf, kill it and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has
come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” and they began to celebrate.’”
Now let’s
back up a little bit. Two sons, I’ve always called these two boys Fric and Frac, one older, one
younger. There was a real problem going on because the older son didn’t particularly care for the
younger son. It says here the younger son got anxious and said, “I want my inheritance now. I
don’t want to wait until you die. I don’t want to hang around here any longer. I’m ready to get the
heck out of Dodge so just give me my share of the inheritance now.” His share was one third.
The older son got two thirds. Whatever the father did, I guess he agreed to give in to the demands
of the son because he realized there was only one way this kid was going to learn and he’ll have
to learn the hard way. He was so arrogant he couldn’t understand learning the easy way. So he
took everything he had, all of his money and by the way, the Bible doesn’t tell us here but I’m
going to put an invisible friend with him, a motivator, somebody who says, “I know where we
can go have a good time. Come go with me, let’s go.” There is always somebody willing to help
you spend your money if you’ve got some. They took off. They went somewhere and wasted
their possessions with prodigal living, which means they just had a party. It might have been like
somebody going to New Orleans and going down on Bourbon Street and spending every dime
they had, going back and forth, up and down Bourbon Street, into the bars and whatever. He
didn’t have any money left. This actually happened to me when I was in college. We went to
Bourbon Street from the University of Alabama to party one weekend. We had no money,
nothing to get any food with so we sold a spare tire from the car so we could get something to
eat. That’s how broke we were and I can understand this passage. This kid had nothing to eat. He
was starving to death. He had no job, no food so he went and joined himself to a farmer. I can see
1001-FAMILY-p1-transcript.pdf
him going and asking the farmer, “Do you need help? I need a job.” He said, “Sure, I need
somebody to feed my pigs.” Keep in mind, this is a Jewish boy. He didn’t eat pork. He sent him
into the field to feed the pigs and he’s so hungry that he could eat the slop the pigs were eating.
Then,
“He came to his senses.”
What does this mean? He finally got some genuine humility. He
finally woke up and said, “What an idiot I am. How stupid could I have been? I’ve been so
stupid.” How did he realize this? He thought to himself, “How many of my father’s hired
servants have bread enough to spare and I’m dying from hunger?” Then he made a great
decision. His volition arrived. He said volitionally, “I’m going to get up and go home to my
father and apologize. I’m going to say to my father, ‘I’ve sinned against heaven and before you.
I’m not worthy to be called a son. Just make me like a hired servant.’” He was willing to swallow
his pride so he could live and go back home to his father. Do you know what happened? Do you
think the father ran him off? You might wonder why the father didn’t go looking for him and I
thought about this myself. Why didn’t the father try to go find him? I bet the older brother knew
where he went and didn’t tell him. Anyhow, as he was coming home, you’ve got to see this
picture. He was still a great way off. I’m sure one of the servants said, “Sir, there’s a beggar
coming up the driveway. Do you want me to get rid of him?” The father looked and began to
stare and concentrate and he said, “That’s not a beggar. That’s my son.” He had compassion. He
ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said, “I’m not worthy to be called your son
because of what I’ve done.” The father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on
him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let’s have a
party and let’s eat. This is my son. He was dead to the world and now he’s alive again. He was
lost and now he is found.” This is exactly what God does for us. When we use rebound, problem-
solving device #1, when we go to God and admit our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 tells us this. If you have a son or a daughter that
is out of fellowship with God, who has walked away from what you’ve taught them, this is what
you pray. You pray that God will humiliate them. You pray that God will let them see themselves
as they really are. You pray that God will open their eyes so they can see what an idiot they have
been. You pray they will have enough humility to come home to their Father. This is what the
Lord Jesus Christ was teaching. As Christians, maybe even you as a child of God have walked
away from your Father. You have not have fellowship with your Father in years. You’re a
Christian, you’re saved and you know it yet you have turned your back on your Father and you
went down the My Way Highway. It’s never too late to turn around and come home. It’s never
too late to come back and confess your sin to God. As 1 John 1:9 says,
“If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This is what your Heavenly Father is waiting on you to do. Your Heavenly Father is waiting on
you to return home to Him just like the earthly father is waiting on the prodigal son to come
back. Come back home where you belong. I pray that you are listening to me. I pray that you will
understand this. This is your life. If you don’t get some humility, if you don’t come home you’re
going to wind up killing yourself. You’re going to wind up going deeper and deeper into your sin
1001-FAMILY-p1-transcript.pdf
and as the son said in this parable, “I’m sitting here dying of starvation because I’m too arrogant
to admit I was wrong.” It takes some humility to admit you’re wrong. I hope you will do this. I
hope you’ll come to your Heavenly Father and admit your sin. I hope you’ll admit you’ve been
wrong. God as your Father loves you and you as a father love your child. I hope if this is your
child that you’ll be praying he would come back to you, that your child will see their own
arrogance of their own mistakes and they will come home and admit their sin to you. I hope
you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention because in FAMILY, the F stands for father. The
father is the most significant person in the family. If you’re a father, I hope you’re the right kind
of father. I hope you instill God’s Word in your children. I hope you can lead them to Christ. I
hope you’ll come back next week. We will continue this study of the family, F.A.M.I.L.Y. You’ll
be surprised with what A stands for. It’s something they have to learn, authority. They have to
learn authority and I hope you’ll come back and study it with me next Sunday, same time, same
place. Until then, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you so much for listening to The
FLOT Line