Explore the embodiment of spiritual champions as Rick Hughes recounts the biblical tale of David and Goliath, reflecting on what it means to be a hero in both biblical and modern times. We question the heroes we idolize today and how true motivation should stem from spiritual strength and understanding. Through compelling narratives and scriptural insights, learn how each of us can stand in the gap and make a significant impact in a world that often mirrors ancient struggles.
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. This is called the FLOT line, F-L-O-T, and we’re using that military metaphor to explain how you can establish a main line of resistance, a FLOT line, a forward line of troops, a main line of resistance in your soul by learning God’s unique problem-solving devices. We have listed 10 of them on our radio show. We’ve written a book about these 10 Christian problem-solving devices that I learned years ago from my pastor. We’re passing that information on to you. And hopefully, if you take time to learn and understand and use the rebound technique, the filling of the Holy Spirit, the faith rest drill, grace orientation, biblical orientation, pick up a personal sense of destiny, have a personal love affair for God, using impersonal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God, and being occupied with Christ, you’ll understand those 10 problem-solving devices that I just quoted to you. They’re there and they are for you. They will sustain you and carry you in times of adversity in your life. The outside sources of adversity are always inevitable, but the inside source of stress is always optional. So by learning and using the word of God, you can actually live a life free from worry. You can live a life free from bitterness. You can live a life free from jealousy. It’s simply called the Christian life. It’s the wonderful life that the Lord Jesus Christ lived and passed on to us. demonstrated to us in his humanity how we could live also. And so that’s what we do here on the Flatline is we teach the Lord Jesus Christ lifestyle. Reminding you, the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. If you’re going to replicate how he lived, you have to replicate how he thought. You have to know his intentionality, what he intended, what were his motives, his initiatives, his desires. And it was always to glorify the Father. And hopefully that’s the same with you as well. So these Flatline shows are available every Sunday free of charge. And we also provide transcripts of all shows as well as transcripts for the whole year 2019 in three separate volumes. So if you’re interested in getting those transcripts, let us know. Contact us through the website at rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. There you can see the transcripts. You can order them. You can order the various books that we’ve got available, including Christian Problem Solving. And we offer this printed material all free of charge. So thank you for listening. Thank you for giving me your time. If you learn the Word of God, you’re going to have some spiritual x-ray vision. It’s called in the Bible wisdom, and that wisdom gives you two unique qualities, insight and discernment. When you have those two things, you’re able to forge ahead in the devil’s world and be used by God to replicate the life of Christ, and hopefully that’s what’s happening with you. Today we’re going to study a subject that I think is interesting. I always have to come up with different topics for these radio shows, and I think this topic will interest you. We’re going to be looking at this, the search for a champion, looking for a champion. And the way we’re going to go about it is to look at 1 Samuel 17, 4 in the Old Testament, where the Bible says there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines whose name was Goliath. from the city of Gath, who stood nine feet, six inches tall. There’s no doubt you’ve heard the story of David and Goliath. Maybe you have never understood all the details of it, but Goliath was a champion, the people’s champion. The Hebrew word for champion in that passage is the Hebrew word ish. iysh ish and this is the same word used in genesis 2 24 where god created ish or adam and then god created eve who is ishah the man and the woman but in the case of the giant whose name was goliath it referred to a true celebrity a person who was very well known and this champion from the town of gath was a well-known celebrity you know in these times here in good old usa a lot of people are looking for a hero someone they can identify with someone who motivates them to do better could be a political hero or sports hero even in my sports and like i like to do fishing could be a fishing hero But the Bible cautions us about that. It says, curse it as the one who trusts in man. Jeremiah 17, 5. Don’t take your motivation from another man. Take your motivation from the Lord Jesus Christ and assuming the mind of Christ. That’s why the Bible says, stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility as God has signed to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word, Romans 12, 3. So, Goliath was that people’s champion. He was unstoppable and iconic, but… On the human side, he was rather overconfident and lacked any humility at all, since he had a perfect track record. He killed everybody he fought. On the outside, he looked unbeatable. But on the inside, he had one major flaw, and that was his massive arrogance. And that arrogance caused him to suspect a small shepherd boy named David would be no contest for him. I’m sure Goliath was well paid. I’m sure he had anything he wanted. He was, after all, the people’s champion. You know, sports has MVPs also, be it football, baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming, track and field, boxing, automobile racing. I mean, they all have their famous celebrities who rack up millions and millions and millions of dollars. for their outstanding performances. We just recently had the NFL draft, quite different than it has ever been before because it was a virtual draft. But a lot of these top 10 guys signed for millions and millions of dollars over a four-year deal. And they also have guaranteed money as well, signing bonus. And my personal friend, and I don’t know him, but the one I liked the best was Tua Tungaviola out of the University of Alabama, the quarterback who went to the Miami Dolphins in the fifth pick. And he signed for millions of dollars. Well, in this same vein, God has his own champions. and you very possibly could be one of these champions but don’t expect to be well paid or highly appreciated in the book of ezekiel we find an interesting verse this is what it says ezekiel 22 30 and i sought for a man among them one that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that i should not destroy it but i found none Did you hear that? I was looking for a man, God said, among them, one that could make up the hedge, stand in the gap, and I found none that I should not destroy it. In other words, national discipline. God said if I could just find one person of righteousness, then I would pass over this land and not destroy it, but I could not find one person. When the Jews fled Egypt after 400 years of slavery, they were led by Moses and his brother Aaron. Once across the Red Sea, they turned towards the Promised Land, but once on the journey and seeing the seemingly insurmountable odds, they broke weak and requested to go back to Egypt. Back to slavery, or at least they had some sort of security. In Exodus 32, Moses prays for God to forgive that apostasy of Israel when they built and worshiped the golden calf during Moses’ absence while he was on Mount Sinai. Listen to the words of God. and the pronouncement of judgment on the children of Israel who quickly turned away from God while Moses was gone for 40 days. So what was he doing? He was receiving the Ten Commandments. He was on Mount Sinai for 40 days. And Joshua was at the foot of the mountain waiting on him with no cell phone, no text message, probably wondering what’s taking so long. And the people didn’t take but 40 days without a champion like Moses, and off they went crazy. So in Exodus 24, 12, the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on this mountain. and remain here, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments which I’ve written for their instruction. So Moses arose with Joshua, his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God, but to the elders he said, you wait here for us until we return to you. you have Aaron and her there with you if you have a legal matter let go to them so Moses went up on top of the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain the glory of God rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days on the seventh day he called out to Moses from the midst of the cloud And to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on that mountain. Moses entered the midst of the cloud, and he went up to the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. In the meantime, trouble in paradise, since the people had no patience, and they were possessed with fear of the unknown going to the promised land. So when they saw that Moses delayed to come down in Exodus 32, 1, they assembled about Aaron and said, hey, could you make us a God who will go before us? As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don’t know what happened to him. We don’t know where he went. He left us, gone. Aaron said, well, tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives. and your sons and your daughters and bring all the gold to me. You may wonder where they got gold. They had been slaves for 400 years. They got this gold from Egypt when they left the land. Exodus 12, 35 tells you about that. So all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron and he took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf that had a lot of gold. And they said, this is your God, O Israel, the one who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar to it. Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow we will feast to the Lord. And the next day they rose early. They offered burnt offerings to this stupid golden calf and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Probably had a good game of volleyball. So what’s going on on the mountain? Well, God’s champion is up there. And the Lord spoke to Moses, Exodus 32, 7. Go down at once for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them and they made for themselves a molten calf. They worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, this is our God, O Israel. the one who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I’ve seen this people. They are an obstinate people. So let me alone so that my anger, look out, here it comes now, so that my anger may burn against them and I may destroy them and I will make of you a great nation. Uh-oh. This is the greatest test Moses ever faced. God offered to wipe out everybody and start again with Moses. How about that? He could have been that lead dog. He could have been the hero. He was a champion, but he had a lot of humility. So listen to what Moses told the Lord. Then Moses in verse 11 entreated the Lord and his God and said, Oh Lord, why does your anger burn against your people? the ones you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power, with a mighty hand. And why should the Egyptians speak, saying with evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountain and destroy them from the face of the earth? Please turn from your burning anger. Change your mind about doing harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself. And you said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which he had said he was going to do to his people. Now, God never changes his mind, and God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. He’s immutable. He’s veracity. This is an illustration of how the Lord is influenced when people confess sin and people intercede for other people. Moses was interceding for the entire nation, a couple of million people. And he was asking God not to place discipline on them. And the Lord honored his prayer. In Psalm 106, 21, it’s mentioned again where it said they forgot God, their Savior. the one who had done great things in Egypt, wonders in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore he, that’s God, said that he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to turn away his wrath from destroying them. Was this not the verse that we were looking at a while ago? I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it. Could it be possible that you could be that person? Is it possible that you could be the one that intercedes for our country, turns away the wrath of God? Because there is no doubt we are under discipline. We are in serious trouble as a nation. Moses had been God’s champion in those times of national discipline. And now with the national discipline coming in the form of the Babylonians and their king Nebuchadnezzar, No one could be counted on by God to make up that hedge. That’s what I read to you about making up the hedge. It was a different time. So it wasn’t Moses he’s talking about. This is something else. And this is the coming disaster with Nebuchadnezzar. And so God said he’s looking for one person I can count on. One person. And there was no one. No one could be counted on by God to make up the hedge. No one could stand the breach in the wall of national protection. And national discipline was coming. Was there no one who would in righteousness intercede on behalf of the city and seek God’s mercy? God searched for it. He looked for that defender, but he couldn’t find not even one. It seems to me that if someone had been willing to stand in the gap, the destruction of Jerusalem could have been avoided. But since no one was available or willing to defend the breach and rebuild the wall, judgment fell. In Ecclesiastes 9.15, Solomon’s wisdom teaches it only takes one. It only takes one champion to deliver a nation. In Ecclesiastes 9.15, there was found in that city a poor wise man, and he delivered the city with his wisdom, and yet no one remembered the poor man. The wisdom of God is unbelievable, and when you have discernment and insight that springs forth from wisdom, you can be the deliverer that God is looking for. Abraham pleaded for God to spare Solomon Gomorrah. He got him down to just 10 righteous people, but there were not even 10 in that town. The real champion for us is the Lord Jesus Christ who stood in the gap and said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. The question is, can you be the champion that delivers a nation such as ours? The first question we have to answer is, why does God allow a client nation like America to be disciplined? Is it for our immorality? Is it because of robbery and murder? If you look at Hebrews 4, I know it’s written to a certain group of people, but it applies to us always. God had a controversy with Israel. Here’s what it said. Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has a court case against the inhabitants of the land because there’s no faithfulness no kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land. They’re swearing and deception and murder and stealing and adultery, and they employ violence so that bloodshed follows bloodshed, and the land mourns. The land mourns. This is very same thing in America. Great cities in America mourn over crime and murder committed nightly. In the city where I live, it’s rarely a weekend goes by without three or four murders. So the land mourns and everyone who lives in it languishes along with the beast of the field and the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea disappear. That’s greed, killing and greed. And yet let no man find fault. Let no one offer reproof for your people are like those who contend with the priest. You’re going to stumble by day and the prophet will stumble along with you. That’s the preacher by night. And I will destroy your mother. That’s your land. Now listen, here comes the condemnation. My people, let’s say in the United States of America, are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Knowledge. When knowledge becomes pleasant to your soul and you develop wisdom, insight, discernment, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge, didn’t want to know God’s word, didn’t want to understand it, I will reject you from being my priest since you forgot your God and the laws of your God. I will forget your children. Are you worried about your children today and what’s going on in this country? Then you better be a champion and stand in the gap. Because when a nation loses its champions of God’s word, then apostasy and sin cause it to crumble from within. The first champion that you and I have to appreciate is a well-qualified pastor who can effectively disseminate the scripture. Because when a client nation like us loses the herald of God, the pastor teacher, then apostasy can dominate religion. So there must be prepared men in pulpits of this nation if we wish to survive. And their job is simply to teach the word of God. Study, teach, study, teach, study, teach. Not to be cruise ship directors and make sure everybody has a good time. Not to print and sell books, do TV shows. Study and teach, study and teach, study and teach. their local flock, so that a pivot of mature believers can be established and come forth. What have I noticed in this country? Well, two things. First, many people don’t want to spend time in church. They don’t want to listen to a pastor teacher. I mean, I hear it every day. I just don’t have time to study. I’m too busy. So they don’t want to study. They don’t want to listen to a pastor teacher. much less metabolize what that pastor says, because it’s much more fun to worship the gifts than the giver. And sadly, there’s very little hungry for the knowledge of God’s word in this client nation, USA. And it’s in God’s word where all wisdom originates. And another thing I’ve noticed is many pastors who do have the gift, don’t stay the course. They tend to drift off course and deviate from sound doctrine. I mean, I don’t know what lures them, but when they go they take their entire flock with them. Sometimes it may take a generation or two, but in the end those people are scattered. So when a nation like the USA loses its pivot, when there are no more invisible heroes or champions, Then believers who are mature and possess insight and discernment must live by principles. We must live by principle, not by counter-principles. Truth, not what’s in the angelic system, not the cosmic vortex, but the truth of the word of God. not to lure the cosmic system so you can be an invisible champion if you want to be that’s up to you let me tell you how you see the purpose of god’s protocol plan in this day and time called the church is to manufacture champions invisible heroes champions in the angelic conflict so point two these champions are defined as believers such as yourself, who’s listening to me right now, who attain spiritual maturity through the consistent function of lag, L-A-G, lag. What is that? Learn, apply, and glorify. learn apply and glorify as the Lord Jesus Christ said happiness belongs to those people who hear my father’s word and keep it learn it and apply it and it glorifies God so point three this means that you must perceive metabolize and apply the word of God on a consistent basis in your life because it can take you to spiritual maturity and when you get there you will be a champion and you will bring God maximum glory with your testimony with your lifestyle the way you think the way you live and that’s when you have an invisible impact Not necessarily a high profile. No, not high profile visibility, an invisible impact. The high profiles in heaven, God knows exactly what’s going on. High visibility in the devil’s world is not part of God’s plan most of the time. Not for most people. I mean, there are a few exceptions where mature Christians know enough doctrine to avoid the pitfalls of the lure of the world. And you give somebody a high profile, you give them a maximum amount of visibility and exposure, and a lot of times they sell out for the money, for the profit in printing and publishing and doing this and doing that instead of just studying and teaching and studying and teaching. So the national impact of God’s invisible champion sustains the client nation because it forms what we call a pivot, that core group of believers that hold us together. But remember, God does not use unprepared people. So if you’re God’s champion, you better be prepared to answer the call. Isaiah 6, 8, I heard a voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah said, Here am I, send me. The prophet Isaiah was cleansed by God for their service because he was to proclaim God’s judgment on the nation. He reminded the nation of their sinful condition in which they were living and the consequences that were going to come. And he preached to the southern kingdom of Judah during the reign of Hezekiah. But he was not used till he was cleansed by God. Isaiah 6, 6 through 8 talks about his cleansing. And I can tell you right now, his message was not well received. The people did not listen before and they did not listen to him. There was a small remnant that survived, but the message of discipline coming went largely ignored. So how about you? Are you cleansed by rebound and filled with the Holy Spirit? are you prepared to serve god and be a champion by possessing biblical wisdom in your soul can you hold up even though you may be ignored by your friends and your family you see the great tragedy is that your children who trusted you to protect them and care for them in their youth those same children of yours now ignore your words as if all of a sudden you became dumb and you don’t really know what you’re speaking about anymore so Their own arrogance lured them away from your wisdom to their own demise. Like David, you don’t need to be a grown adult to be God’s champion, but you must be filled with the Holy Spirit and you must use the faith rest drill. These days in our country may be what God has been preparing you to be, you for. I want to ask you a question. Can he depend on you to stand in the hedge? Can he depend on you to go forth representing him by lifting up your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? and sharing the good news with your family and friends. Remember, Gideon only had 300, but he changed the course of history. Those 300 names are not mentioned, but they were all invisible champions used by God in the national crisis. And God can use you just as well. You can be God’s MVP if you have momentum, virtue, and poise. Momentum, hearing and keeping the Word of God on a consistent basis. Virtue, built on discernment and insight from the wisdom of the Word of God. And poise, the ability to think under pressure. That’s what it takes to be a champion. Will you be that person that we’re talking about? Will you stand in the hedge and make up the gap between God for this country? Will you be the pivot member who sustains this nation? Please pay attention to this message. Listen to what I say. We are in critical times today. Until next week, I’m your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flock Line.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
