FAMILY Part 2
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 1002 aired on November 3, 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. A couple of weeks ago I told you we are making changes with the
radio show. We currently broadcast in 111 cities across America and at the end of the year, we’re
going to stop airing in 20 cities where we aren’t hearing from people. I must use the Lord’s
resources to look for positive volition. Come January if your station doesn’t air The FLOT Line
anymore, call or write to me and we will tell you how you can hear the show. It’s always podcast
the following Tuesday on my daily podcast and it’s on our website. I hate to do this but we have
to be wise with the Lord’s money. These shows are not free. So if we’re not getting responses, we
will move on to other areas. On our last radio show I started a series called FAMILY. I’m doing
this because I believe the breakdown of the family is one of the leading contributors to national
destruction. I hope you will remember that the family is one of the four divine institutions that
were created by God for the human race so that the human race can be preserved and
perpetuated. These four divine institutions apply to Christians and non-Christians regardless of
race or gender. They include volition or freedom. They include marriage. They include family.
And they include nationalism. I made this statement to you last week if you heard it. I said the
family is the framework for perpetuating and safeguarding future generations of a client nation.
The parents are charged with number one, to evangelize their children as well as number two, to
teach them respect for authority. Number three, to break the arrogant trends they may have and
number four, to establish good norms and standards such as respect for privacy, good manners,
patriotism, etc. National stability as you understand rests with the family unit and broken
families equal broken nations. I told you I wanted to use F.A.M.I.L.Y as an acrostic so that we
could take an in-depth look at what a family should consist of. We started with the letter F and I
made reference to the responsibility of the father in the home. I remind you of what I said in
regard to fathers. I said it’s clear from Scripture that being a father is an honored position and
with that honor comes tremendous responsibility. Unfortunately, client nation American is seeing
a lack of fathers stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for their children. Today I want
to switch from the F letter in FAMILY to the A letter and I want to talk about the word authority.
In a family there must be recognition of authority. This authority begins with the husband. Notice
Ephesians 5:22-23,
“Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is
the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the
body.”
These verses are followed by Ephesians 5:25,
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ
also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”
This passage that I read to you is not saying
the husband is to be a bully, manipulating his spouse. On the contrary, he is to love her just as
Christ loved the church and gave Himself as a ransom to redeem us out of the slave market of
sin. This type of love the husband must demonstrate is called virtue love. It is driven by meeting
her needs before his own needs. Personal love is the motivation for sacrifice and commitment
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and impersonal love gives you the ability to forgive flaws and to give comfort in times of failure.
These two loves are part of the problem-solving devices we talk about on The FLOT Line.
Personal love for God is your motivational virtue and impersonal love for others is your
functional virtue. There will be times that you will have to use impersonal love with your spouse,
be it your husband or your wife. If you use it, you can love them based on who you are, maybe
not based on who they are. This will give you the ability to forgive them when they fail and to
give them comfort when they need it. The enemy of the big word authority is the word
arrogance. Arrogance is always anti-authority. It is based on decisions made through what we
call self-justification. The child or the spouse in the family that has arrogant traits will always
justify why they are correct and the father is wrong. This self-justification always leads to self-
absorption which is totally delusional and eventually destructive. The ignorance of God’s plan
combined with the arrogance of an individual equals what a friend of mine called artificial
intelligence. A+I equals artificial intelligence. What is artificial intelligence? Arrogance and
ignorance. You don’t want to be living under arrogance and ignorance. Jeremiah 17:10 says,
“I,
the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways,
according to the results of his deeds.”
The Lord has the ability to check out what you’re thinking
and He sees when you’re arrogant. He sees when you justify your wrongdoing. He understands
what you’re up to. You are not going to trick Him. You’re not going to pull the wool over His
eyes. He’s always looking, always testing and you can bet you’re going to get according to your
own ways. You are going to be the victim of your own decisions and bad decisions always limit
future options. Here are some principles on authority you have to understand. Without authority
orientation it is impossible to learn anything since humility is required for teachability. This
means that a student must have authority orientation to the teachers if they are going to learn
anything. Without authority orientation you cannot have any humility. Again, humility is
required for a person to be taught something. Let’s look at the issue of authority orientation in
our homes and in our nation. If you’ll let me I’m going to quote some notes for my former
pastor, R.B. Thieme Jr., something he taught me years ago. He said these words: One, “Authority
is defined as the power to command, to judge, or to act by a person or persons in whom authority
is vested.” Two, “Authority or authorities applies to persons having latent legal power to make
and enforce the laws, to make policy or to make decisions.” Three, “All authority in life is
divided into two general categories, legitimate authority or unfortunately illegitimate authority.
Legitimate authority is established according to Scripture. They are the laws of the land or in
accordance with establishment rules, principles or standards for the land.” Four, “God has
delegated legitimate authority in two categories, in the temporal realm around us, this is the
human realm or within the spiritual realm.” Five, “In the family the parents have legitimate
authority and they must enforce the rules and the guidelines for the children. Children must
understand privacy and respect for property in the temporal realm. In the spiritual realm, parents
must expose their children to the existence of God in creation and they must tell them about the
gift of eternal life through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It’s the spiritual realm that
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produces freedom in the temporal realm.” If you get the spiritual realm right you can get the
temporal realm right. Listen to Galatians 5:1,
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free;
therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
What does this
mean? It means that you don’t have to be under the authority of your sin nature. Your volition
makes this decision. Your volition chooses. In John 8:32 our Lord Jesus Christ says,
“And you
will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,”
spiritual freedom in the spiritual realm.
What a wonderful thing it is to be free, free to think correctly based on what the Word of God
says and not be under the authority of Satan and human viewpoint thinking. Six, “Illegitimate
authority is illegal, unlawful authority generally established by unlawful or illegal forces, the
attainment of power without the lawful right to possess this power. This is illegitimate authority.”
Seven, “God has authority over nature and nature obeys God.” Did you know God has authority
over nature? Luke 8:25,
“They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, ‘Who then is
this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?’”
This was the
disciples being amazed when Jesus stood up and told the seas to be calm. It was like a force
twelve storm and He said, “Stop, be calm” and it was. Eight, “1 Peter 3:22 teaches us that angels
are subject to divine authority,
“Who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after
angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”
This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has gone into heaven and He’s seated at the right hand of the Father. Angels and authorities and
powers are now subject to Him.” Nine, “Parents have authority over children.” They must
understand this. Colossians 3:20,
“Children, be obedient to your parents in all things
[not some
things]
, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.”
Obey means to be under the authority of your
parents. Ten, “Freedom and authority must coexist. You cannot have freedom without having
authority because if you have freedom without having authority, it is called anarchy. If you have
authority without having any freedom, this is called tyranny. Freedom includes the right of
privacy, the right of self-determination, the right to hold and give your own opinions and the
sacredness of property and life. Establishment freedom is the heritage of physical birth. Children
under the parent’s house don’t have the right of self-determination.” Not until they grow up,
move out, get on their own and pay their own bills can they make their own self-determination.
They can hold their own opinion but they had to learn that property is sacred. Don’t take other
people’s property. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Establishment freedom is the heritage of physical birth.
As believers we have authority delegated by God in many different areas. You probably never
thought about this. In Luke 10:19,
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.”
In this particular
passage we have the Lord Jesus Christ giving authority to the 72 who were being sent out in
pairs to cities (Luke 10:1-24). He was planning on visiting these cities and He sent others out to
prepare the way for Him. They were to prepare the way for the coming of the kingdom of God.
He warned them of the difficulties and the adversity that they would face as they did this from
people who would reject the message and from creatures of the wild that might seek to harm
them. So He said,
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and
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over all the power of the enemy
[aka the devil]
, and nothing will injure you.”
We have our
authority based on the power of Scripture. This is where our power comes from. This is why we
are told in Ephesians 6:11-17 to arm ourselves for the Satanic opposition that we face every day.
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the
devil”
(Ephesians 6:11). The victory we have in this angelic conflict is seen in James 4:7 where
we have authority over Satan. Did you know this?
“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and
he will flee from you.”
In closing, let me remind you that parents must exercise authority over
their children one more time. The Scripture mandates that children must submit to parental
authority. Again, Ephesians 6:1,
“Children, obey your parents
[then we have a prepositional
phrase]
in the Lord,
for this is right.”
This is what gives a child the ability to be obedient. This is
what gives a child the ability to have humility in the Lord. This is what a Christian child should
do. He should acquire humility through the filling of the Holy Spirit, through the motivation of
the Word of God in his life as being evangelized by his parents and taught by his parents. “Obey
them in the Lord, for this is right,” Paul said. The original Greek word for obey is
hupakouo.
You
ask, “Why do you give me that word?” Because this is what it was originally written in, the
Koine Greek dialect. It means to be subject to the authority of your parents. Every child will
buck authority but this arrogance has to be broken. My wife and I see this in the lives of our own
children and our grandchildren. As they grow up they want to establish their own authority over
the authority of their parents. If parents are successful in instilling respect for authority in the
minds of their children, then once these same children grow up they have an opportunity to be
productive members of society. If they fail to orient and adjust to the authority of their parents, if
they continue to function under the self-justification of arrogance, in their own artificial
intelligence, they will never be productive members of society. They will always be problems.
You can go into any major city in America today, like Birmingham, Atlanta, Houston or Dallas
and see children that will not submit to authority. Let’s keep going so you will get this down. All
illegitimate authority in life is based upon the function of man’s arrogance within the cosmic
system of Satan. For example, power lust is one of the motivating factors in arrogance and
remember, we have different lust patterns. We all have a sin nature but we have different lust
patterns. Power lust is when someone’s demand for power exceeds the need for power. This is
what we see in politics today. Thus politicians that have power lust break laws or rewrite laws to
give them entitlement so they can retain the power. Rejection of authority causes people to
become degenerate, whether immorally or even morally. I think one of the worst sorts that you
can run into is the moral degenerate. The moral degenerate will kill you and think he’s doing God
a favor. These are the type that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, morally, self-righteous,
degenerate people. Rejection of all authorities means that you have the potential of becoming a
criminal. If you can’t handle authority, you can’t handle life. If you justify why you are right and
the police officer is wrong, you are a criminal. If you justify why you’re right and the teacher is
wrong or why you’re right and the principal is wrong or why you’re right and your parents are
wrong, maybe they are wrong. Maybe you can’t handle a bad decision coming your way.
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Sometimes people in authority make mistakes. Sometimes people in authority make a decision
against you that is not correct. How do you handle this? I remember an illustration that I may
have given on this radio show about a student I met years ago that was disciplined by the
principal for something he didn’t do. He was being paddled because he couldn’t read but he
didn’t want to tell anybody that. Finally after getting paddled two or three times, he admitted to
the principal, “I don’t know how to read. I have never learned how to read.” He could have
gotten angry. He could have gotten upset and said, “My dad is going to come up here and punch
you for whipping me,” but he didn’t. He had enough humility to handle a bad decision on the
part of leadership. No parent is perfect. Parents make mistakes. I can’t tell you how many times
my wife and I disciplined a child and it was the wrong child. We had asked, “Who did this?” And
it would always be, “Not me. Not me. Not me. I didn’t do it.” So you wind up having to
discipline all of them. People have to learn how to handle authority, good or bad. How do you
handle it? If you work for someone and they make a decision based on something that they want
you to do and you don’t like it, maybe it’s even unfair, do you moan and complain and gripe or do
you keep your mouth shut and take it? Can you handle illegitimate authority in the workplace?
Can you handle illegitimate authority in the home? Yes you can by using the problem-solving
devices taught in the Word of God. You can use impersonal love to not get upset, not get angry
but to forgive the individual. You can use a relaxed mental attitude. You can use the faith-rest
drill and know that God is using the situation to teach you something. All authority is not perfect,
but we can’t live without authority, without the police officer, without the dad, without the
mother, without the principal, without the pastor. There must be orientation to authority. You
must be able to handle authority good or bad, it makes no difference. Rejection of authority
means you have the potential of becoming a criminal. It means you will reject the authority of
the police officer. You will reject the authority of the judge on the bench and of management.
Such a miserable person makes those in his own periphery miserable as well because he’s a
complainer. He’s a griper. He’s all the time fussing about, “The raw deal I got or how bad
somebody treated me and that really wasn’t fair,” on and on and on, complaining, complaining,
complaining. Here are some principles on how God treats us. God is never unfair. He’s legitimate
authority and He never treats you unfairly but He will allow you to be treated unfairly to train
you, to test you, to see what you’re made of. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13 says,
“Who will not
allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.”
It will come. It will happen. You’ll be asked
to do something you don’t want to do. Maybe you are a teacher and you’ll be asked to stay after
school to go to a ballgame when you’d rather go home and be with your family. Maybe as a
teacher they need you at the gate or they need you in the stands watching people. You don’t want
to do it so you complain. You go to other teachers and you complain. You go to other people in
the workforce and complain.. Are you one of the complainers because you can’t handle
legitimate authority? You’ve got to learn how to handle it. Not only just the children but mom
and dad must learn how to handle it also. The biggest thing that will keep you back from
growing up as a Christian is your own rejection of authority, your own lack of consent to submit
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to necessary authority in your life. This authority may be wrong. It may not be correct. They may
make a bad decision on your part but you have got to learn to how to handle it, submit to it by
using the faith-rest drill, knowing that God is not throwing you under the bus. God is giving you
an opportunity to take a test. Will you pass it or will you fail it? It’s up to you. Everyone of us is
a product of our own decisions and bad decisions limit future options. When we make good
decisions from a position of strength, meaning when we accept authority, we can develop
capacity for life and be able to handle life. Bad decisions come from a position of weakness such
as arrogance. God holds you responsible for every decision you make. Do you want to hear this?
I’m not sure you do, but here we go. Listen carefully to Hosea 8:7,
“For they sow the wind and
they reap the whirlwind.”
If you make a series of negative decisions, don’t be surprised what
comes back at you. In Galatians 6:7,
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a
man sows, this he will also reap.”
When the Bible tells you not to do something, it’s not because
God is being unfair. It’s because God loves you. He’s trying to protect you. He’s trying to keep
you from destroying yourself and destroying other individuals in your periphery. If you can’t
handle this, then you’re going to be in trouble. Whatever you sow, you are going to reap. Keep
these things in your mind. Authority is necessary and it begins in the home. It begins with mom
and dad having to submit their children to discipline to break them of their arrogance trends, to
keep them from becoming anti-authority. It is not fun. It is not going to be easy. They’re going to
wear you out. I know, my wife and I have four children and they about wore us out trying to raise
them. We were so happy when they were raised and we finally got out from the responsibility of
having to watch over them all the time. If you are a parent, it has to be done. Without this, our
nation will be in sad trouble. You can see where we are failing today. The family has fallen apart.
Fathers are not being fathers and authority is not being taught. We have a lack of fatherhood. We
have a lack of authority orientation. This adds up to destruction of this nation. Next week I am
going to talk about mothers, the M in FAMILY so hang with me. Without a mother, you can’t
have much of a family. This also applies to grandmothers so stick with me. Pray for me as I put
this together. I hope I can make it clear and understandable to you. Remember this again before I
close out. At the end of the year we’re going to stop airing in 20 different cities where we are not
hearing from people. I must use the Lord’s resources to look for positive volition in other areas
of the United States. Like I first told you, I fish at different holes trying to catch one here. No
bites? Go over here and try to catch one. I’m looking for positive volition. I’m looking for people
that are hungry to grow in the grace and knowledge of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and
want to grow up spiritually by finding a well-qualified pastor to teach them the mechanics of the
Word of God. Come January, if your station stops broadcasting The FLOT Line call me or write
me and we will tell you how you can listen. I’m so very grateful that you allow me to bring you
these messages. It is my prayer that we are giving you information that you can apply to your life
on a daily basis. Until then, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to The
FLOT Line