In this riveting episode, Rick Hughes unpacks the importance of being a part of the pivot, a core group of mature believers that God uses to maintain national freedom. He discusses challenges in broadcasting, calling upon listeners to assist in ensuring that God’s message reaches every corner of the nation. Through vivid analogies and biblical insights, Hughes provides listeners with profound understanding and encouragement to pursue growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, once again, Rick Hughes. Thank you for tuning in and thank you for listening. I appreciate you giving me some time of yours. You know this show is about some motivation, inspiration, education without manipulation. We don’t try to con people. We’re only here to give you some accurate information that will help you verify and maybe identify the plan of God for your life. And if that happens… as we always say, maybe you will orient and adjust to that plan. I hope so. You are a victim of your own volition. You have your own mind, your own volition, your own chooser, your own decider. And you will be a victim of what you think because the Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And whatever you think, that’s what you’re going to be. That’s what you’re going to do. When God wants to look at you, by the way, he’s Not looking at your image and your style. He’s not concerned with what you’re wearing. He’s concerned with what you’re thinking. And the whole concept about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is to acquire the mind of Christ, Philippians 2, verse 5, so that we can think divine viewpoint. not human viewpoint. Divine viewpoint is the mind of Christ. And so that’s why the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. You’ve heard me say that. Before we begin the show today, I’ve got something I want to talk about called the Pivot and Client Nation USA. But before I do, I want to ask a favor of you. It seems like frequently now, it seems like more than ever, a lot of times radio stations do not play our shows, even though we’ve contracted with them and paid them for this. And it started maybe, I didn’t really start monitoring the shows till about three or four years ago. I did nine or 10 years. without ever monitoring what they did play or did not play, and I probably lost a lot of money. Because constantly, just like last week, there were three shows that didn’t play on three different radio stations. And so we have to follow that up and try to get our money back, even though we paid for them, they didn’t play it. And so I wanna ask you, if you live in a city where this radio show is played, I need you to spot check it for me. I need you to let me know that the show played as it was supposed to on time and in its entirety. Just a simple email to rick at rickhughesministries.org. rick at rickhughesministries.org. That’s all I need. And I need you to let me know if the show played in your area. There are two ways the show plays. It plays terrestrial, which means it goes out over the radio airwaves. So those people that live in California could not listen to what’s being played in Mississippi or vice versa. But it also goes out over streaming internet audio. And so sometimes if you live in Mississippi and you want to hear what’s being played in California, then you go to the internet and And you download an Internet application where you can listen to streaming audio from the particular station where the show is playing in California. We’re all playing the same show. That’s not what I’m saying. But what I’m saying is the show comes out in streaming audio and over the terrestrial airwaves. When we check it, we can only check streaming audio because we’re not in California, we’re not in Texas, we’re not in Mississippi, we’re in Alabama. And so I need some help, just like the weatherman has weather helpers that tell him what it rained over in this part of the county or that part of the county. I need someone to let me know that the show played in your city on time as scheduled. Many of you have indeed contacted me when the show didn’t play. And that’s how I found out that we needed to contact the local radio station. And so we eventually had to hire someone to be a spot checker, to check the shows, to make sure they’re playing. Enough said. If you want to help out in that area, we could sure use it. That way we know that we’re not losing money by paying radio stations to play something and they don’t play it. I’ve only had one radio station call up and apologize for not playing the show. Most of the time, they don’t even know it didn’t play because it’s all completely automated with Internet, with computer-generated programming. So unless the programmer’s sitting there watching it, he doesn’t even know what plays or doesn’t play sometimes. It’s just the way life is in the world of the radio. And this is a show about the Word of God. This is a show about the Bible. I can expect satanic opposition. I can expect Satan to try to disrupt and try to discourage and try to defeat what we do. But we’re going to press on, and we believe that the Lord will use it and honor it. And so we’re asking for your help in that aspect. Now today, I would like to talk about another practical principle for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ called being a member of the pivot. The pivot is the core group of mature believers that God uses to sustain the freedom in a nation. The United States of America is a client nation for God. In that client nation, there is a pivot that is a core group of believers that sustains this nation. As goes the pivot, so goes the history of the USA. I think that we are losing the battle. I think the pivot is shrinking. By that I mean that many of the young people that I meet and talk to, they are drinking the Kool-Aid of liberal progressivism, and I’m not a politician. But they don’t believe so much in the Bible anymore like you and I do. And so they tend to get away from the Bible for a decision-making process and tend to justify why it’s okay to live certain lascivious lifestyles as if the Bible doesn’t really mean anything. America is in a disaster zone. We are in a crossroads of history. And if something doesn’t change, I don’t think we’ll survive a whole lot longer as a free nation. How long, I don’t know. But I know that if you read the news like I read the news, and if you watch what’s going on, First of all, you realize that a public lie floats around and that if it’s told loud enough, long enough, and often enough, people will believe it. That’s called drinking the Kool-Aid. And that came from Jim Jones in Guyana when he induced all those poor people to drink the Kool-Aid and commit suicide down in Guyana. many years ago. So we need a pivot. We need a strong group, core group of mature believers. You can make the analogy of Gideon and his 300 that delivered the nation Israel from the thousands of Midianites that had come to ravage and attack them. God only needed 300, 300 well-qualified men. And I believe that we don’t have to have thousands and thousands and thousands because I don’t believe there’s that many people in this country that really love God’s Word and want to learn it. I think there are a lot of Christians, a lot of thousands and thousands and thousands of Christians, yes, but hungry? Hungry to study the Bible on a daily basis? Hungry to understand the mechanics of the protocol plan of God? Hungry to glorify Jesus Christ to the maximum by means of divine good production in their life? I don’t think so. I don’t know. I know where there are a few solid, well-founded local churches, and I’m a part of some of those, that do stand fundamentally on the teaching of the Word of God. And they’re not weirdos. They’re not running around in black suits and 50-pound Bibles whacking people on the head. But they believe in studying the Bible, learning the Bible, applying what they learn, and glorifying Christ as a result of it. And these people are what God calls the pivot, the core group of mature believers. When the pivot goes down, the nation goes down. It’s all taught under the five cycles of discipline in Leviticus 26 and 27. And this is what happened to Israel and Judah, and it could happen to us as well. As a client nation, we are not guaranteed perpetual freedom. As goes the attitude of the people, so goes the history of the land. In Hosea 4, 6 said, my people are rejected because they rejected knowledge. They did not want to know me, did not want to know my word. Remember Jeremiah said, God is looking for people that understand him and know him. And I have said before, there’s a difference between knowing God and understanding the God you know. So I am looking for pivot potential. This radio show is designed to spot that. You, wherever you are, you may be in California, you may be in Wyoming, you may be in Texas, you may be in Nevada, you may be in Louisiana, you may be in Mississippi, Georgia, anywhere, Texas, all the way to New York. No telling where you are, but you may be a potential pivot member. so let’s start off with this paul gives a mandate in second timothy two three and four in the king james version of the bible we’re using that to quote from today it says there you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of jesus christ no one engaged in warfare entangles himself in the affairs of this life so that this is called a purpose clause in the greek new testament the reason we don’t entangle ourself in the affairs of this life, so that we may please him who enlisted us as a soldier. This is a military metaphor used by Paul, written to Timothy. Remember, Paul used military metaphors a lot, like in Ephesians 6, where he said, put on the armor of God so you can stand against the strategy of the devil. This show is built around a military metaphor of the forward line of troops, the flight line. So here Paul is warning these believers and Timothy as well to endure hardship as a good soldier. All right, and then he said, enduring hardship is in the verb structure of this word, endure. It’s an imperative mood verb. It’s the aorist tense, meaning that at the point in time, this is going to come. The active voice of that verb says Timothy has to produce the action of the verb, and the imperative mood is the command. So, kakopatheo is the word endure. Kakopatheo, endure. And hardship is coming. Kakopatheo is made up of two words, kakos, which is the word evil, and pathos, which is the word suffering. And so, to suffer hardship from the opposition. There is opposition. It is called AKA the devil, and he’s going to oppose you in this stage of the angelic conflict if, if, if you wish to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you make a decision, as I have seen a lot of people do, to say, you know, I’m gonna start studying every day, and I’m gonna get serious about this, and I’m gonna learn the Word of God and understand the mechanics of God’s plan, so that when I get to heaven, I don’t have to be embarrassed and say, well, put my hands in my pocket and stand there and kick my feet. I didn’t understand all that, God. You want to hear, well done, my good and my faithful servant. And that doesn’t mean that you just went to Sunday school and church every Sunday. There’s a lot more than that. It means you replicated the life of Christ. You reproduced Christ in your community, in your family, and they saw him in you, and you acquired the mind of Christ. It means that you grew spiritually, as the Bible tells you. Grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3.18. So if you’re going to endure hardship, part of it is momentum testing, right? Part of it, God allows. 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, nothing’s come upon you that’s not common to man, and with it, the Father always provides a way out. Momentum testing is to test your desire to stick with it. You may be going through some sort of momentum testing now. Will you be faithful to stick with God’s word? This is sort of like boot camp. When a young recruit goes to boot camp, he’s momentum is tested. He wanted to be in the military. His desires to be in the military, maybe a Navy SEAL, maybe a Special Forces, maybe a Ranger, maybe a Marine, and he’s going to be tested. See if he sticks with it. Sometimes we are tested. You go forward in a revival and you say, I want to serve the Lord. I want to do this. I want to do that. Your momentum can be tested. That’s one of the ways that God refines you. And then there’s evidence testing. There’s another way we endure hardship. This is when Satan gets to cross-examine you, just as he did the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 4. He will cross-examine you. You’ll be called to the witness stand. Oh, so you’re a child of God, huh? Okay, well, let’s see what you believe about this. Let’s see how you’d handle that. And people oftentimes give in. Excuse me. So let me remind you of a principle. This is a principle my pastor taught a long time ago. It’s called the principle of deliverance, and it depends upon the size of the pivot in the nation. The size of the pivot is derived from the fact that mature believers are a blessing by association, and they have a historical impact on the nation, USA, client nation. What do you think the pivot size is today? How big is it today? Are there three million mature believers in the United States of America? Three million? How about one million mature believers who love God’s word and study on a daily basis? Is that there? Are there that many mature believers? That pivot is a remnant of mature believers who reach maximum justice to the justice of God. In other words, they have oriented and adjusted to God’s grace. They have positive volition towards learning and applying the Word of God. And the principle is if there’s a large pivot, if there’s a lot of people, then the nation is delivered from historical disaster. But if the pivot is small and shrinks and there’s only a few, then the nation is destroyed. And this happens throughout history. People, as far as Israel and Judah went, they went through the same thing in destruction under the Chaldean army. the destruction under the Babylonians, the destruction under the Romans. So the question is, what is the pivot? And are you willing to be a member of the pivot? If you are willing to stay filled with the Holy Spirit, if you’re willing to begin a daily study of the Word of God in your life under a well-qualified pastor, There’s no reason you cannot be a pivot potential. As you grow in grace, as you’re tested, as you go through momentum testing and evidence testing, you can be a pivot member. You can be a spiritual, quiet professional, and you can deliver this nation, not by marching, not by holding a placard up, but by growing in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Here’s some requirements to be in the pivot. Titus 2, 11 through 13. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all people. It, that’s the grace of God, trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our confidence in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. Yes, it has. And it trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires. Godless ways. What is that? Godless ways is the Greek word asabaya. Asabaya. And it means a lack of respect for the laws of God. This same word is used in Romans 118, which is a passage that we should be well aware of about God. indecency and weird things that people do, men with men, women with women, those who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. And remember where the Bible says in Galatians 6, 7, God will not be mocked. And when people begin to mock God’s laws and begin to mock God’s word and begin to reject any principles of decency that God gave to us, then you can bank on it that our nation will begin a decline. And we are in a spiritual decline as I speak to you. And I don’t know how much longer we have, but I know that we are in trouble. So the grace of God has appeared to all men and trained us to reject godless ways and worldly desires. Whirly desires, what in the world is whirly desires? It’s kosmikos, kosmikos, from the cosmos. The cosmos is the cosmic system, the system of Satan. And so the desires, whirly desires, epithumia, the Greek word for desires, epithumia, this word means a craving for or an uncontrollable appetite for sin, uncontrollable lusts. If that’s going on in your life, if you are not able to control your sin nature to where when your sin nature induces you or tempts you to sin and you dive into it headfirst willingly, you’re building scar tissue in your soul. And this is in 1 Timothy 4, 2, where your soul is being seared with a hot iron. You’re being branded. You’re being seared. Your soul, your norms and your standards, things that your parents taught you are right and wrong, it’s all burned away. Things that your pastor taught you are right and wrong, it’s all burned away. In your arrogance, you justify why it’s okay to dive deeper into sin, immorality, into anything that is against God’s laws, worldly desires. The world is a mirage. It offers you all sorts of happiness. Come on over here and try this. Come on over here and try that. and you’ll be happy. However, the Lord Jesus Christ said, happiness belongs to the people who hear my Father’s word and keep it. What the world offers you is a way to destroy yourself. What the world offers you is a dead-end street, an endless cul-de-sac down the highway of life. You can get on the my way highway and you will destroy yourself. Or you can get on the thy way highway, as a friend of mine in Houston put it, thy way, T-H-Y, and you can have a wonderful life. It’ll be well lit and it’ll be direct and God will show you exactly what he wants you to do, when he wants you to do it, and how he wants you to do it. But if you go down the my way highway, there’s no lights, there’s no direction. It’s just you justifying why you’re doing what you’re doing and blaming it all on someone else. So on the contrary, we are to live self-controlled is what this verse said. Not giving in to what the Bible calls godless ways and worldly desires and But we are to live self-controlled. Sophranos is the Greek word, self-controlled. It means we have to learn how to restrain our passions. We learn how to restrain our desires. Thus, we think as Christ thought by attending the mind of Christ, by attaining the mind of Christ and getting to the thinking like Christ thought. It’s not easy to restrain passions in life, especially sinful passions and sinful desires. And this is what is so strange. Paul said, the things I want to do, I don’t do. The things I hate that I do in Romans 7, 15. And then he said in Romans 8, 1, don’t let sin reign in your mortal bodies any longer. We need to get to where sin doesn’t control us. We need to get to where we’re able to control our sin natures, not letting our sin natures control us. And the only way we can do it is to, number one, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and number two, to have the resident doctrine of God’s Word inside our soul. And number three, to operate on a faith rest drill. If we take in the Word of God, stay filled with the Holy Spirit, operate on a faith rest drill, it’s possible, maybe not probable, but it’s possible that you can overcome a lot of the desires of your flesh, that you can restrain the passions that right now drive you to do things you don’t like. This word sofrana, self-control, means to be free of intoxicants, those things that rob you of clear thinking. Emotions are intoxicating. Emotions eliminate your clear thinking. And they do not restrain the sin nature. We must learn to restrain the sin nature by being self-controlled. And it starts at home with the children being taught divine norms and standards while they’re still under your care so that when they get into the world, they have options. They at least know what their choices are. It doesn’t mean they’re gonna always choose the right thing, but it means you prepared them, you gave them a choice, and then it’s up to them. They have to use their volition. If they love you and they honor you and they respect you, hopefully they will follow your advice and listen to the Word of God. So we are to keep watch over our lives and not fall asleep on duty. We are to have self-control. As a matter of fact, Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5, 6, let us not sleep as others sleep, but watch and be sober. It means God does not assign responsibility to immature individuals. He expects you to develop self-control because if you don’t have that, you can be enticed to disregard his plan and endanger anyone associated with you because you don’t have any self-control, because you’re self-centered, because you’re nosy, because you’re messy, because you’re impatient. Maybe you’re even explosive. So Titus says we are to have self-control and live uprightly. live uprightly, de chaos, de chaos. That means that we live equitably in a fair and impartial manner, never taking sides, not judging people, not predetermining guilt on our part. Let the Supreme Court of Heaven handle it. And that’s why Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2.10 the statement about his behavior, the way that he acted. Listen to the way he acted. He said, you are our witnesses and God is also how devoutly and justly and blamely we behaved ourselves among you who believe. Devoutly, justly, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves. Wow. I need to break those three words down. I haven’t done that yet, but I will. So if we go on with Titus 2.12, he said we got to live godly lives. Eusebos, Eusebos is the Greek word, Eusebos, a godly life. Remember Psalm 116 verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones. And so the question is, what is a godly life? What is a godly person? And I want to go over that with you, maybe not on this radio show, on the next one. Go into what is godliness? What does it mean to be a godly person? I hope you’ve been listening, and I hope you’ve been paying attention. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Simply go to our website, RickHughesMinistries.org, and you can always email us from the website. You can there find a list of the books that we have available that are free of charge. We never charge for anything. We never solicit money. We never solicit funds. We never sell anything. I believe if God’s in it, he’ll pay for it without us ever having to open our mouth. And he has always done that. We are here today because of the faithfulness of believers who live by that principle just like I do. So think about it. Come back, be a part of the show, listen, learn, and apply with us this information that we give you. The most important thing is you know Christ as your Savior. I pray you have made that single most significant decision in your life, which is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
