Rick opens up about his journey alongside his mentor, Pastor R.P. Thame Jr., and shares timeless insights that continue to shape his teaching. Through a rich tapestry of Biblical doctrines and personal anecdotes, Rick challenges listeners to orient their lives around unwavering faith and divine knowledge. Uncover how focusing on Jesus, coupled with full knowledge (epignosis) of His love, leads to genuine inner peace and an exemplary Christian lifestyle.
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.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. Just a short show, about 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, education, and always done without any type of manipulation, which means we don’t con you for money. We’re not trying to solicit funds. We’re not offering to sell you anything. We’re just offering to give you clear word of God, hoping that we can identify God’s plan for your life so you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s my desire. And I thank you for listening. Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time. If you do, you’ll find this is not like any other radio show you’ve heard dealing with the Bible because we’re a lot different. Here we deal with mechanics and how the things operate, how the Word of God actually applies to your life without getting on the emotional side and trying to get you worked up emotionally. Today’s show that we’re going to do will conclude our study on how we came up with the term flotline. That’s the name of our radio show, FLOTLINE. So please remember that this term is a military phrase which stands for the Forward Line of Troops, F-L-O-T, FLOTLINE. My pastor, R.P. Thame Jr., used this term to teach the concept of learning 10 basic principles of scripture that once you learn them and once you believe them and use them, they can act as a main line of resistance, a flat line in your soul, stopping the outside sources of adversity from ever becoming the inside source of stress in your life. That’s why we say adversity is inevitable and stress is optional, because adversity is simply what circumstances do to you, but stress, that’s what you do to yourself. No Christian has to live a life of stress-related sins. if they will use and learn these 10 wonderful problem-solving devices. In the past few weeks, I’ve shared with you what Pastor Tain taught me. And I trust you’ll understand that these are simply scriptural insights. They’re not some human viewpoint system of thinking. This is not some weird thing that he conned up. This is strictly Bible doctrine. This is from the Word of God. Nothing new, nothing unique, but it’s put in such a way that you understand how the Christian life works and operates. And we looked at rebound, which is how you deal with sin when you fail. You rebound, you recover by confessing your sin. We’ve looked at the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is how you control the genetically formed old sin nature. We’ve looked at the faith rest drill, how to stand on the promises of God. We’ve looked at grace orientation, living by grace, saved by grace, dying grace. We’ve looked at doctrinal orientation, which is to study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. And then we’ve looked at you having a personal sense of destiny. We also studied virtue love and broke it down into two different realms, personal love for God and impersonal love for others. These are eight of the 10 problem-solving devices that we’ve been through. And then last week, if you were listening, we looked at problem-solving device number nine, which was sharing the happiness of God. Today, if I can, I’m gonna try to conclude this review of the Flatline Concept with problem-solving device number 10, the final problem-solving device, which is occupation with Christ, okay? All right, let’s look at Hebrews 2.2 to start off with our key passage. Fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Fixing our eyes or concentrating on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. This unique way of thinking, concentrating on Christ, directs us to put the emphasis on God rather than on people and circumstances. It’s easy to concentrate on other people and get discouraged. It’s easy to concentrate on some adverse circumstances and get discouraged. But if you will focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, put your eyes on him, then you can be occupied with Christ and not have to go through all this discouragement. King Solomon reminded us of this principle when he wrote in Proverbs 3, 5 through 6, these words, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust, you notice that, that’s faith. And don’t lean to your own understanding, that’s you trying to figure out what’s going on because God has a plan, you might not understand it. In all your ways acknowledge him, that’s everything you do, and he will direct your path. Those are divine promises. If you will trust in him, And if you will avoid trying to figure things out on your own and acknowledge that he’s in control, he will direct your path. These key words, trust and heart, indicate the Christian life is based on something you learn, something you have to learn. and that having faith in that information, you have to learn and have faith in the information. You cannot trust in what you don’t know, can you? So in the book of Romans, Paul instructs believers in Rome to do this. He said in Romans 13, 14, dealing with occupation with Christ, he told them, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. Learning to replicate the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ is what we do if we are to be occupied with Christ. Again, Hebrews 12.2, fix your eyes on Jesus Christ. And Romans 13.14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have to learn to think like Christ thought and replicate his lifestyle to be occupied with Christ. The actual mechanics of For doing this is found in Philippians 2.5. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. So if we’re to live as he lived and think as he thought, we have to learn to obey Philippians 2.5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This means you have to watch out how you think, because this is where all your spiritual life is lived, in your brain. Your soul is in your brain. It’s your mentality, your volition, your consciousness, your self-consciousness. That’s where everything starts. The Bible says, if a man thinketh in his heart, so as he is. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is. The real you is what you think. So in this passage in Philippians says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. The Greek word for the word mind in this passage is phroneo. Normally it would be nous, N-O-U-S. That’s the normal Greek word for mind. And the Greek word for heart is cardia. But in this passage is phroneo, P-H-R-O-N-E-O. And that word means let your mindset, your mindset, your order of thinking, In other words, in order for us to be occupied with Jesus Christ, we must set our thinking after the standard that he set while he was here on this planet. Now don’t forget this, he is undiminished deity, true humanity, the God-man in one body forever. He was God and he was man in one body and it will be forever. So as God, he was certainly omniscient, yes, but as man, he was required to learn and think the very things God prepared for him, his father. So the same is true for us. We’re not God men, we’re just men or women, but the same is true for us. We must learn to have the mindset of the Lord Jesus Christ if we’re ever going to replicate his decision-making process and as a result, represent him by our lifestyle. The lifestyle of the believer is based on personal love for the Savior. This is occupation with Christ again. Ephesians 3.19, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge so that you may be filled with the fullness of God. This is the love we have to come to understand. The Greek word for knowledge here is the word gnosis, G-N-O-S-I-S. Knowledge is the Greek word gnosis. But this type of knowledge is an understanding only, not an application. There is another word for knowledge used in the Bible and it’s pronounced epi-gnosis. And it’s the word gnosis with a preposition epi in front of it, which is full, full knowledge. So this virtue-based love, a full knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, is not only to be understood but to be applied. We must understand that occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ, and get this now, is a love-driven attitude. Again, Ephesians 3.19, to know the love of Christ, which passes understanding so that you and I may be filled with the fullness of God. This occupation with Christ, again, is a love-driven attitude. And occupation with Christ is personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s an amazing thing. Now, it’s not an emotional thing. Personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And how does that come? It comes through the maximum learning or what I call metabolized or scripture, learning of scripture circulating in your stream of consciousness. That’s where all your thoughts are. That’s where all your thinking is. And the only way you can do that is by the filling of the Holy Spirit. So I’m going to try to rephrase that. Hope you’ll get it. Listen carefully. Occupation with Christ is personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ because you have maximum amount of scripture circulating in your brain from the filling of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Peter 1.8, Peter wrote these words about occupation with Christ. He said, even though you haven’t seen him, you love him. Well, that’s exactly what Paul said. We need to know the love of Christ. Even though you haven’t seen him, you love him. That means you’re occupied with Christ. And though you don’t see him now, but you believe in him and you greatly rejoice with inexpressible happiness full of glory. Any individual who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and makes a role model out of him. These are the type believers that have true happiness and the type believers that are spiritually self-sustaining. But there are two mandates with regard to you being occupied with Christ in the scripture. Both of these we must understand and believe and apply into our life. In Hebrews 12, two, we see the word be concentrating on Jesus. Again, occupation with Christ. Be concentrating on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our doctrine, who because of the exhibited happiness he endured the cross, disregarded the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. I don’t know if you looked at what he just said. He endured the cross, disregarded the shame. This means that he used the problem-solving devices. He certainly was suffering. He certainly had shame, but he focused on the problem-solving devices, particularly on the faith restoration following his father’s plan. And he suffered the shame. What does that mean? It means all of our sins were imputed to him on the cross. Every evil, wicked, nasty thing you and I have ever done was imputed to him on the cross. And after that happened, he sat down at the right hand of God, the Father in heaven, Hebrews 12. So mark that verse in your Bible and go back and read it again. Be concentrating on Jesus. the author and the perfecter of our doctrine. And then Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3.15, but sanctify, that means to set apart, it’s more important than anything else, set apart the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts. Sanctify, set apart is more important than anything else, the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts. So God is now making a direct positive demand on your will. a direct positive demand on your volition for you to be occupied with Christ. I will tell you this, you cannot live an effective Christian life if you are not occupied with Christ. It’s a mandate to be consistent in your spiritual growth and in the application of God’s word to your life. You must be occupied with Christ. You will never live a successful Christian life, again I say it, until you are occupied with Christ. So having the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Philippians 2.5 told you, results in you being preoccupied with Christ rather than preoccupied with people, preoccupied with circumstances in your life. All of those things can be a distraction and discouragement, but you think on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you’re occupied with Christ, that eliminates all human viewpoint thinking. Thank goodness. It eliminates human viewpoint thinking. Human viewpoint, what is that? Well, it’s different from divine viewpoint. The Lord Jesus Christ thought divine viewpoint. When the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, we’re thinking divine viewpoint. What is your viewpoint? You can think scripture. You can think what Christ would have done. That’s divine viewpoint. Or you can think human viewpoint. What is that? Well, that’s you calling up one of your friends and saying, what do you think I should do, Bob? What do you think I should do, Jill? What do you think I should do? Instead of going to the scripture. Abby doesn’t have the answer. Bob or Jill doesn’t have the answer. The scriptures have the answer. And so occupation with Christ eliminates you going to other people for answers because that’s just going to make you miserable and make you argue with everybody about everything. Human viewpoint holds an opinion about everything in life, and of course that’s always intolerant of anyone else’s opinion. Well, in my opinion, I think you ought to do this. When you hear that, it’s time to run. What does the Bible say? What does the Scripture say? What did the Lord Jesus Christ, how did he handle it? That’s occupation with Christ. If you don’t know anything about him, how can you know what he did or how he handled it? So the key to the protocol plan of God, and that’s what we call the Christian life, the protocol plan of God, and what I mean by that is the right thing has to be done in the right way. You’re a Christian, you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you think you’re living the Christian life, but if you don’t do the right thing in the right way, you’re gonna find out at the judgment seat of Christ that a lot of what you did is just wood, hay, and stubble. and would be burned up and never glorified God to begin with. You must learn the protocol plan of God. And I’ll confidently tell you it’s learning those 10 problem-solving devices and living by them. So the key to the protocol plan of God is that you no longer live for yourself, but if you’re occupied with Christ, now you live for the Lord Jesus Christ. and God does all the work. The only way that you could ever have a marvelous, wonderful, full spiritual life is to no longer live for yourself. Once you have occupation with Christ, then you’re living for Christ, and you are happier than you’ve ever been when you live for yourself. Isn’t it amazing? Our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ comes from learning God’s Word. And it’s infinitely more important than our fellowship with the neighbor across the street, or our fellowship with our friend that we like to hunt or fish with, or our girlfriend that we like to go shopping with, whatever. Your fellowship with Christ comes from learning the Word. So if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, which is a mandate, Ephesians 3.18, And if you’re living by the word of God, learning and applying the word of God in your life, then you have wonderful, wonderful fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s synonymous with being occupied with Christ. Being in fellowship with Christ is synonymous with being occupied with Christ. That is part of God’s will for you, part of God’s plan for you. It’s the purpose for your life. Christian fellowship with other Christians is never a substitute for occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s your primary goal in the protocol plan of law, to be God, to be occupied with Christ. Where do I get that? Well, Psalm 128 verse one. Happiness is everyone who fears the Lord. I’ll kind of make it a different way. I’ll say it to you like this. Blessed or happiness is everyone, that’s any believer, who fears with the Lord, or is occupied with the Lord, who respects the Lord. And then in Philippians 1.21, for me, living is Christ, dying is profit. That’s Paul the Apostle saying. You think he was happy? Yeah. Living is occupation with Christ, and dying is great, tremendous profit. Don’t forget our Lord was the God-man. He was undiminished deity and true humanity all wrapped up in one body forever. So if you wish to be occupied with Christ, not only does this include personal love for God-man, but also appreciation and respect for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God. He lived as we lived in a human body, He used the same problem-solving devices we use in his human body, with the exception of two. He did not have to rebound or confess any sin, and he did not have to be occupied with Christ. Those are two special things we do. But he lived just like you live, just like I live. And we learn from how he handled those situations. So being occupied with Christ, it’s not us living an emotionally charged life, running around singing, oh how I love Jesus, and raising our hands, and is Jesus willing, Jesus. I get so frustrated with hearing people Call him by his first name. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed son of God. Somehow or another, people seem to say, oh Jesus, oh Jesus. Don’t do that. If you want to talk to him, it’s the Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed son of God. Give him the respect he deserves. So if we want to live the occupation with Christ, Avoiding the taboos in this world, you know, like don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t dance, don’t go to movies unless they’re G-rated, calling everybody brother, calling everybody sister, wearing a bracelet that says, what would Jesus do? That’s not occupation with Christ. That may be something Christians do, but that’s not occupation with Christ. Occupation with Christ is learning to think like he thought when he was here as a man. Occupation with Christ is tapping into the same resources that he used when he was here as a man. That’s why he did it so you could follow his example. Our Lord had to learn scripture, just like you. He had to recognize his destiny, just like you. He had to stay filled with the Holy Spirit just like you. In fact, he himself lived a prototype spiritual life and demonstrated that to us. He was the first person to live what we call the Christian life. So being occupied with Christ is us replicating his lifestyle. his thinking, and we actually become Christ-like so that when other people see us, they see the Lord Jesus Christ in us. That’s what occupation with Christ is all about. Representing Jesus Christ is an awesome responsibility. Why? Because what John wrote in John 12, 32, if I am lifted up, I will draw men to myself. You and I must always be ready to answer anyone who asks us, why are we so confident in our eternal security? I’m gonna ask you a question. Can you clearly give the gospel to someone? Do you understand what it takes to be saved? If someone says, I’m not sure if I’m saved, do you know where the Bible says these things are written so that you might know that you have eternal life? Yes, you can know it. Yes, you can be sure about it. Can you yourself clearly give the gospel message to somebody? Dealing with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ? Do you understand what he went through on the cross to pay for our sins? And do you have the courage to speak up on his behalf when the opportunity comes around? I hope so. In 1 Peter 3, verse 15, we find these words. But sanctify, that’s set apart, the Lord God in your hearts. and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason of the hope that you have, along with meekness and respect. So set apart the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts, in the thinking of your soul, and always be ready to give a defense. Now what do I mean set apart? Well, we’ve already studied that. We already went through that in some of those previous verses that we looked at. And where Hebrews 12 too, be concentrating on Christ. And earlier in the passage, let this mind be in you as in Jesus Christ. And Romans 13, 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We went through all of that. If you didn’t get it, contact me and we’ll send you the transcript of the message. But you need to understand that. Sanctify the Lord in your heart and always be ready to give a defense. to everyone or anyone who asks a reason why you have this sort of confidence with meekness and fear. You and I possess a great treasure, a treasure the world doesn’t have. I mean, you don’t have to win the lottery to be rich. You’re already rich. Did you know that? We possess a great treasure. In 2 Corinthians 4, 7, but we have this treasure in our earthly vessels. that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We have this treasure in our earthly vessel. So you have a treasure in your body. Now here’s the key. The word treasure is the English word thesaurus, thesaurus. The treasure that Paul talks about is a word treasure. The word treasure in our earthly vessels, that means in your brain, you have the scriptures, the divine viewpoint of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so the excellence can be from God and not of yourself. Divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint. That word treasure, again, in the pages of Scripture, we find everything we need to know about our Lord and our relationship with Him. And you will never be occupied with Christ until you do that, until you learn the Scriptures, until you learn how He uses Scripture, until you learn to live like He lived and replicate His lifestyle. Why? Because your life does not belong to you anymore. You were bought and paid for with a price. And that was the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Galatians 2.20, if you’re a Christian, listen to this verse that Paul wrote. Having been crucified with Christ, it’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That’s occupation with Christ. And the life which I now live in my flesh is I live based on faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So, I’ve been purchased. My life has been paid for. The Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, took my place, paid my penalty, and set me free. If any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new. That’s your second birthday. You’ve heard me say before that you’re gonna be born twice or die twice. Your first birthday, you didn’t have anything to do with that. You just showed up one day. But the second birthday is all about you believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and being born again. So in closing, allow me to remind you that occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ is maximum personal love, maximum personal devotion, and personal respect for our Savior. Are you having an intense concentration on Him every waking hour of your life? Not that you’re weird, not that you run around acting weird, but that you know enough of the Word of God to apply the same things he applied, to live by the same principles he lived by, which is the protocol plan of God, and always being ready to lift him up and speak on his behalf so that he can draw people to himself. That’s what he’ll do. If you will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, he will draw people to himself. So I hope you’ve learned something about this. We’ve been over all 10 of those unique problem-solving devices. We have a book called Christian Problem Solving. If you don’t know it yet, write to me. Go to my website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org, and request that book, Christian Problem Solving. We’ll send it to you immediately. And it will go back over all 10 of these unique problem-solving devices. So that concludes our review of the FLOT line, F-L-O-T, FLOT line, forward line of troops, 10 unique problem-solving devices. And next week, we’ll move on into a different subject. But I thank you for listening. I thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time. Again, if you need this in a written transcript, let us know. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Flatline 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.
