FAMILY Part 5
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 1005 aired on November 24, 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, 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a
whole lot of education and as we always say, no manipulation because we’re not trying to con
you. My job is to be on the radio every Sunday morning. This is show 1005. I’d like to thank you
for listening. Thank you for giving me a few moments of your time. Before we begin what we’re
going to study, a few weeks ago I announced that we would be dropping some radio stations in
the coming year. Your response has been overwhelming, my goodness. Many have written and
asked that we do not drop their local station since they listen faithfully every Sunday morning.
I’ve had calls and emails from the East Coast to the West Coast, even as far away as Alaska. We
are listening and we are asking for the Lord’s guidance in these decisions we have to make. Some
thought we were maybe hurting financially and that’s why we were eliminating radio stations
due to high costs, but this isn’t the case. Our God has faithfully supplied every need of ours
during the 20+ years this show has been on the air. There has never been a time that we hurt
financially even though we don’t sell anything and we don’t ask for money. What we’re trying to
determine is where we are not hearing from listeners. If we have aired in a particular city for a
year or two and only a few individuals have responded or asked for books or other material, then
we assume there is simply not a demand to continue in that city. We do continue to look for new
cities and add them to our radio broadcast so keep up your prayers for us as we cut and add some
stations in the future. Remember, all these shows are podcast daily on various podcast platforms
like Apple podcast, Spotify, Podbean and others. If you know how to podcast, then you can get
them on your phone, your listening device or iPad anytime you want, 24 hours a day, all over the
world. Now let’s move into today’s message and dive in. We are doing an in-depth study on the
family, one of God’s divine institutions. The past few Sundays I’ve taken a letter from the acrostic
FAMILY and spoken in-depth about that topic. F was for fathers. A was for authority orientation.
M was our study on mothers. I was a study on intercession and inspiration and today we will use
the L. We are going to take a look at logistical grace provisions. Today we are going to study this
and hopefully you’ll understand it. I hope I can make it clear. As we look at logistical grace
provisions let me remind you, logistical grace is defined as divine planning, a divine support
system, a divine provision system, divine blessing so we can execute the protocol plan of God
and fulfill God’s will for our lives, God’s purpose for our lives and God’s plan for our lives. He
provides logistical grace for us so we can have the support, the provisions and the blessings that
we need. Logistics is a military term and means how troops are sustained in the field, the beans
and the bullets, the gas and all that is needed. Every form of military activity, every maneuver in
the field has to be supported by proper logistics. For the Christian family, the logistics that we
are going talk about today are God’s guaranteed provisions for your life and for the life of your
children. Believers and unbelievers alike have certain logistical blessings and it starts with life
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support. Take a deep breath this morning, breath it in. You might enjoy the smell. That’s the air
you breathe. This is logistics. It’s logistical grace life support. God gives you air to breath. If you
had a sip of water like I just did before I began this show, you have water to drink. This is
logistics. When I walked into the recording studio this morning, I didn’t float up to the ceiling,
that’s gravity. It keeps me from floating off into space. This is a logistical provision as well. All
of these things, air, water, gravity are for every member of the human race. You are only alive
today for one reason, because of the logistical grace of God keeping you alive, not because of
anything you’ve done. These are divine provisions bestowed upon everyone in order that each
person can have the opportunity to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. I remind
you that our God loves you and He is not willing that any should perish. 2 Peter 3:9 says,
“The
Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not
wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
This is why you have logistics. God
is giving you time to make a decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I received a phone call
from a wonderful individual yesterday telling me that he had done just that from listening to our
radio show. He had trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and he is now a member of the royal family
of God and I am so grateful for this. If you’ve never done this, it’s essential. It’s a decision you
must make in your life. The number one decision you must make in your life is to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a simple decision. Is He or is He not the Son of God? Did He do what He
said He would do or did He not? Did He resurrect from the dead? Did He walk out of the grave
alive? Yes, there is proof of this. Are you going to believe this? Are you going to put your faith
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? I hope you will. This is why God is keeping you alive, giving
you time to make this decision in your life. If you are a Christian parent, as my wife and I are,
your job is to let your children know how God sustains their life every day in order that they
have the opportunity to enjoy eternal life. Of course, this is all complements of the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross where He paid for all of our sins. In 2 Corinthians 5:21,
“He
[God]
made Him who knew no sin
[Christ]
to be sin on our behalf
[you and me]
, so that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
There’s no way that we can equal God’s
righteousness. We are not ever going to be good enough. Romans 3:10 says,
“There is none
righteous, not even one.”
The only way we can ever have any fellowship with God is to assume
the righteousness of Christ. This is given to us because He went to the cross, died in our place
and when we believe in Him and receive Him as our Savior, I’ll quote that verse again,
“So that
we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
This is why you can have fellowship with
God. This is why our prayers can be answered. This is why God accepts us, because we are now
on equal terms with Him because we have the righteousness of Christ given to us through our
faith in Him. In 1 Peter 2:24,
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we
might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
Not only are we
given the righteousness of Christ, we are able to manufacture capacity righteousness in our life
as we live the plan of God every day. Once we receive Christ as Savior, we are then provided our
daily needs by His logistical grace in order that we can eventually fulfill His plan for our lives.
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Listen to Matthew 6:25-34. It’s a rather long passage but you will see the logistical grace of God
in this passage.
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life.”
[Worrying is a
sin. You might not realize this but worrying is a sin and needs to be confessed as a sin. This is
why you need a FLOT line in your soul, so the outside sources of adversity don’t become the
inside source of stress and cause you to worry. Don’t worry about your life if you are a Christian.
Don’t worry about who is elected president, who is elected vice president, who is elected senator,
who is elected congressman, who is elected mayor or who is elected governor. Don’t worry.]
Do
not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body,
as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at
the birds of the air that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them.
[This is God’s logistical grace for the birds.]
Are you not worth much more
than they?
And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life
[or one inch to your
stature]
? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they
do not toil nor do they spin
[this is logistical grace to the flowers]
, yet I
[the Lord Jesus Christ]
say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will
He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
[Why do you not have faith? Because you don’t
understand the grace provision called logistical grace provisions for you.]
Do not worry then,
saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the
Gentiles
[unbelievers]
eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you
need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will
be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day
has enough trouble of its own.”
Don’t worry. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. These verses are about
priority in your life. When it says
“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness”
this is the
priority of any Christian family if they are ever going to reach spiritual maturity. They’ve got to
have a priority. We all must have this priority
“seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness”
and then all these things will be provided for you. When mom and dad don’t
place a priority on their spiritual life but instead prioritize their children’s entertainment, their
children’s sports teams, whatever their children do on Sunday or whatever day of the week it is,
it’s no wonder that the children see no need to seek God’s will as adults because their parents
never got them there. Their parents never took time to take them to church. They were too busy
keeping them involved in sports. Mom and dad trained them with sports competition, but never
took time to sit down and pray with them, never took time to sit down and study with them,
never took them to church, never took them to Sunday school. They were always on the go,
always trying to make sure they were happy. Listen, if you don’t take time to study God’s Word
with them or even teach them how to pray, it’s no wonder your future grandchildren are not going
to be concerned with the things of God because mom and dad did not do what the Bible says,
“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.”
When believers have the correct priority, then
blessing over and beyond will flow from God. One such blessing that I want to bring your
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attention is called blessing by association. These blessings are received in the spiritual realm as
well as in the temporal realm and can even include dying blessing. All of the logistical blessings
that God provides come to us as a result of our adoption into the royal family of God. What a
wonderful thing. These logistical blessings that I have been discussing are provided for every
Church Age believer. They are above and beyond the air you breathe, the food you eat or the
water you drink. These are more. These are unbelievable logistical grace blessings provided for
you if you put your spiritual life priority number one. Logistical grace explains why we are alive
every moment of the day. The only reason God keeps us alive is because of logistical grace. We
don’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. There is no work we can accomplish to keep ourselves alive.
It’s only by the grace of God that we take another breath. Christians who fail to execute the
Christian life, and there’s a lot of them, still have at least the 40 things they receive at salvation.
Maybe you have never heard this before. There are 40 unique assets you are given the moment
you believe in Jesus Christ. If you’d like to find out what they are, I would suggest you contact
R.B. Thieme Ministries in Houston Texas. Their number is 713-621-3740. Call and ask for the
book on the 40 things that God provides for you at salvation. They’ll send it free of charge, no
problem. One of these things which God provides is a wonderful thing called His righteousness.
This means that God will support us and sustain us regardless of how deserving or undeserving
we are. In 2 Corinthians 9:8,
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always
having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed.”
In
Philippians 4:19,
“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in
Christ Jesus.”
This is grace blessing. Let me ask you a question. What happens when a believing
son or a believing daughter turns away from what you taught them when they were children?
You taught them the Word of God and they turned away from it as they got older. They went off
to college and they got recruited into the cosmic system. They moved out from underneath your
umbrella protection, your umbrella provisions, and they’ve abandoned the Biblical principles that
you taught them when they were living at home. Responsible for their own personal decisions,
they’ve gone down what we call the My Way Highway. This is where they will come under
warning discipline and maybe even intense discipline if they don’t recover. The Lord Jesus Christ
gave a parable in Luke 15:11-32 about the prodigal son. Here’s what He said about the prodigal
son who went down the My Way Highway.
“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 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
[This means his arrogance had been
broken, genuine humility had seeped into his soul and now he realizes what an idiot he was.]
he
said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here
with hunger!’”
This parable of the wayward son is proof that God’s discipline produces enforced
humility where there is none. When there’s no genuine humility as a child of God, He will
enforce discipline that they need. This is called enforced humility. Had this young man not gone
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back home to his father, had he not come to his own senses, had he not awakened and realized
what an idiot he had become, then he probably would have died in a foreign land. It was grace
blessing from God to get him back on track again. Logistical grace provisions for sustaining life
are never taken away when a child of God goes under divine discipline. If you have children
under divine discipline, God is not going to remove the logistical grace support system. He’s still
going to feed them. He’s still going to let them breathe air. He’s still going to give them water.
He’s still going to keep gravity working. However, they may be under divine discipline. These
things might sustain their lives and the reason is it gives them time to recover from their sin if
they will recognize it and then use 1 John 1:9, what we call rebound which is problem-solving
device #1. This is what we must do when we sin. We recover from our sin by using 1 John 1:9.
Hebrews tells us that God will discipline us when we get out of line if are His children. Hebrews
12:6-7 says,
“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines and He scourges every son whom
He receives. It is for discipline that you endure, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is
there whom his father does not discipline?”
This discipline can come in three stages in your life.
It can be warning discipline which is easy. Maybe God will let you hear a message on the radio.
Maybe you’ll read something in a book. Maybe you’ll see something on a billboard. Maybe
you’ll see some graphic on social media and God will speak like a warning to you, “Stop. Stop
doing what you’re doing. Stop it.” If you don’t listen, if you continue to wander down the My
Way Highway and shake it off like when there’s a sign that says “Dead End Ahead” and you
keep driving a hundred miles an hour down the road, you’re going to come under the second
stage called intense discipline. This is where God has to take you out behind the woodshed and
administer a little pain in your life. No pain, no gain, and He will do this. He probably has done it
in your life. I know He has done it in mine to keep me straight. Then there’s a third stage called
dying discipline. This is when God takes a believer home. It’s when their time on earth is called.
They are wasting God’s time, wasting their time and everybody else’s time. The Lord takes them
home. They are in heaven minus rewards. Proverbs 15:10,
“Grievous punishment is for him who
forsakes the way; he who hates reproof will die.”
In other words, if you don’t respond to the
correction, if you don’t listen to God, then you’re setting yourself up for an early death. Your
children may be doing exactly this, wandering down the My Way Highway, rejecting all the
provisions that God has given, setting themselves up for an early death because they think they’re
smarter than God. Psalm 34:15-16 says,
“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His
ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them
from the earth.”
Don’t forget this. You not hiding anything from God. He’s watching. He knows
who’s in fellowship. He knows who’s living the Christian life and He will listen to your prayer as
you pray for your children, pray for your spouse, pray for your family. Those who do evil, who
continue to reject His plan, they will be cut off from remembrance on the earth. Let me ask you a
question as I close. This is a very serious question. I want you to consider this. Are you currently
under divine discipline? Are you under warning discipline, intense discipline or maybe even
knocking on the door of dying discipline? What about you? I’m not asking if you have committed
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a sin but rather have you failed to admit your sin and you are continuing to cover it up hoping
God is not aware of what you’re doing? We all sin and we all fail, often on a daily basis, but we
don’t all fail to recognize our sin and admit them to God. As long as you continue to stubbornly
deny and hide the sin that you’re doing, you will be suffering divine discipline in your life. David
had to come to that point in his life in Psalm 32:5 where he said,
“I acknowledged my sin to You,
and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord;’ and You
forgave the guilt of my sin.”
This is exactly what you may need to do if you are out of
fellowship, if you’re on that My Way Highway, if you’re living off of logistical grace provisions
and that’s it and nothing else from God. You’ve been cut off from the blessings you deserve and
you’re wandering down the My Way Highway. If God didn’t keep you alive, you’d be dead by
now. He’s keeping you alive so you can recover, so you can get back in fellowship where you
belong. As a wayward child of God and a rebellious child of your parents, then it’s time that you
faced your own arrogant attitude and you come home where you belong. The problem with
arrogance is lack of humility. If you don’t have genuine humility you will always have an
unrealistic self-image, resulting in unrealistic expectations from other people and even from God.
If your son or if your daughter has rejected what you taught them as a child, it does not mean a
loss of salvation but it definitely means they have arrogantly assumed they are smarter than God,
smarter than you and all that Bible stuff you exposed them to was simply fairytales. I remind you
that life in the devil’s world is very tough and very exhausting. Keep praying for them and keep
watching for them to return. In Proverbs 3:5-6 we find, these are key verses for me,
“Trust in the
Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”
How do you get to your wayward
children? Trust in the Lord. Pray for them with all your heart, with positive volition. Don’t try to
argue with them or logically try to debate with them. Just trust in the Lord. Pray for them. In all
your ways acknowledge Him and He will give you the insight of what you need to do. Well I
hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention to this study on logistical grace provisions
for the FAMILY. The next show will be on the letter Y. We’ll have an interesting thing to study.
Remember, the family is one of the four divine institutions and it is critical for the survival of
this nation. As go the families of America, so goes the future of the nation. We have a bright
future ahead of us, an opportunity now to see some things that maybe we haven’t seen in a long
time. My prayer is that you will seize this opportunity to grow in the grace and the knowledge of
your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that you will advance in your spiritual life and the plan of
God by getting serious about it. Quit focusing on politics and focus on your spiritual life which is
critical, much more critical than politics because as goes your spiritual life, so goes the history of
the nation. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’ll continue to pray for me as we press on through
the end of 2024, rounding the corner into 2025. It’s a wonderful time to be alive with wonderful
opportunities God has given us. We depend on your prayers for us as we press on. Thank you for
listening. Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to The
FLOT Line