SPEAKER 01 : 0:08

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 02 : 0:24

Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. It won’t be long, 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, and no, none, zilch, no manipulation, because we’re not going to con you. We’re not going to ask you for money. We’re not trying to sell you something. We’re not trying to get you to join anything. It’s simply a show about the Bible, God’s Word, me teaching that to you, trying to get you to orient and adjust to the plan of God for your life. If you can do that, then that would be fantastic. My job is to verify and identify that plan, and so my prayer as you’re listening, and that you will make the decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning we welcome many new listeners who may be tuning in for the first time. Recently we added new stations to our Floodline broadcast, cities like Sarasota, Florida, Albany, Georgia, Maui, Hawaii, Marion, Illinois, Greenville, Mississippi, and Beckley, West Virginia, just to name a very few. If you like the information you’re hearing and you’d like to hear more, You don’t have to wait until next Sunday broadcast because we post all our shows on our website. That’s rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. If you go to the site and click on the FLOT line, F-L-O-T, you will find a link to all of our past shows. You can also check out all of our podcasts found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other several podcast venues. Just go to the podcast site, search for The Flotline, and you’ll find all the shows as well as the transcripts for each of the shows that we teach. You may notice something different. We don’t sell books. We don’t request money because I believe if God’s in it, God will pay for it. And so our financial needs are always his responsibility. My objective is to find those of you that are hungry for spiritual information, information that will assist you in your Christian life or perhaps even meet the needs of those of you who would like to become members of God’s royal family by receiving Christ as your Savior. You may find the information I’m giving you does not agree with what you’re hearing in your local church. If that’s so, go to your pastor with your questions. I’m sure he’ll be able to answer any questions you have for you. If you don’t attend church, feel free to write to us here via our website, and I’ll try to answer those questions for you. That’s rickhughesministries.org, okay? Now today, I want to talk about courage and commitment. Courage and commitment. In 1 Corinthians 16, Paul wrote some words to the church at Corinth saying this, Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong, let all that you do be done with love. Many believers that I talk to don’t really recognize the seriousness of the situation. In this particular passage, the Apostle Paul is wrapping up his first letter to the church at Corinth. And he finds it necessary here to issue a challenge to the believers in Corinth due to the opposition of the devil, aka Satan, the master deceiver. This is actually the second time he issues a challenge to stand fast in these closing remarks. Remember the words, stand fast. The first challenge was in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, where he said, therefore, my beloved brethren, Be steadfast, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Prepositional phrase, in the Lord. So let’s notice the key words to be used to challenge the readers that read that letter that he wrote to them. The first key word was watch. Watch. Watch is an English word. We’re familiar with it. Do you have a watch on your wrist? No. Look outside and watch the weather. Okay, now we’re getting closer. Watch is a Greek word called Gregoreo. Gregoreo, that’s the Greek word when we translate it watch in English. But that verb is a verb of command. It’s not a request. It’s an apostle’s order. Present, active, imperative in the morphology of that particular verb. The present tense means there never is a time that the believer is not to watch. The active voice says you do the action. You create the action. The imperative mood in that verb is the mood of command. It’s a command. Watch. I remember being in high school trying to diground sentences in English class and flunking every time. And here I am giving morphology of Greek words. That just shows you what God can do when a person gets saved, when the Holy Spirit controls his life, when he has a great pastor that can teach him something. I wasn’t dumb, I just wasn’t interested at that time. Now I’m interested, I hope you are too. Gregoreo, the verb of command, present active imperative, wake up, pay attention. It’s the concept of standing guard or being vigilant. Now, what should you and I be watching for? That’s a good question. In Matthew 24, our Lord tells the disciples to be watching for his return after the tribulation. I’ll read it to you, Matthew 24, 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. In Matthew 24, 42, watch therefore, there’s our word watch again, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. I’m sure very few of us consider today may actually be the day that the Lord Jesus Christ would return to gather his church. When you awaken this morning, did you consider this could be the last day you’d ever spend on planet Earth? I know you get excited when you’re planning a vacation or special trip, don’t you? You can hardly sleep at night thinking about all that needs to be done before you leave the next morning. It’s called anticipation. If you knew the Lord was going to return for his church in the morning, would you be getting prepared? Would you call family members or neighbors and alert them so they could be prepared? Listen to Luke 21, 34. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly. You’re not watching, are you? You’re not paying attention. Take heed. Don’t let your hearts be weighed down with all this other stuff. So not only are we to watch for our Lord’s return, But the scriptures say we’re also to watch our personal actions, lest we be overtaken by the enemy. In 1 Peter 5, 8, Peter warns us, be sober, be vigilant, that means pay attention, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking who he can devour. When you ignore your spiritual life and your responsibilities with your spiritual life, you become vulnerable to the deceptions of Satan. His objective is to shut you down and take you out of the game. And he uses many tactics to do this, but one he gives many is to substitute emotionalism for spiritual growth. Christian worship through emotional appeals has distracted thousands of people from ever reaching spiritual maturity. Oh, we need to remember that it is the word of God that sustains us in our difficult times, not the words of your favorite hymn. I want to say that again. Listen, we need to remember that it is the word of God that sustains us in difficult times, not the words of your favorite hymn. Why would I say that? Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Your faith is the source of your spiritual strength. That’s why the scriptures instruct us to do what? 2 Timothy 2, 15. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You have to grow your faith. You have to learn the Word of God, and you have to have that backup information stored in the compartments of your soul, the mentality of your frame of reference, so you can use it when you need it. Another word found in this passage that we looked at in 2 Corinthians 16, 13, was stand fast. We had watch, first of all, watch, and then we have the word stand fast. This is the Greek word stacheo, stacheo, or stacheo, we might say stacheo, that’s more correctly pronounced, stacheo. And it’s another present active imperative. And it means this is not a request but another command. Watch, stand fast. Breaking ranks and not standing fast is definitely a sin. So Galatians 5.1, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Wow, what a strong statement that is. You’ve accepted Christ as your Savior. You are now free from the penalty of sin and death, free from the control of the sin nature. We talked about that last week, the freedom that you have now that you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And here he warned, don’t get tangled up again with the yoke of bondage, slavery of the sin nature. You see, the grace of God set you free from the chains of religious legalism. Those Judaizers of Paul’s days would move into an area where Paul taught faith alone and Christ alone, and they would insist that new believers come under the bondage of the Mosaic law. beginning with circumcision and other legalistic demands in order to be worthy of salvation. In 2 Thessalonians 2, 15, we read these words. Therefore, brethren, stand fast. There it is again. Hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or by epistle. In other words, whether I was there face to face or whether it’s written instructions. Hold on to it. Stand fast. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be overrun. Don’t be defeated. Now let’s go back to Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians 16, 13. In the form of an admonition, stand fast and how? In the faith. There’s a prepositional phrase. In the faith. In hopistis. That’s the Greek word. In hopistis. Here we must see the distinction between saving faith and living faith. So you’re saved by faith, but living by faith is something different. Living by faith is demonstrated by use of the faith rest drill. That’s problem solving device number three in the flat line of your soul. Where would I get something like that in 2 Corinthians 5, 7? We walk by faith, not by sight. So when you’re told to stand fast in the faith, where’s the strength come from? From the scriptures you’ve learned and stored in the compartments of your mentality of your soul so you can pull them out and claim them and use them as problem-solving devices when it’s necessary. You have to learn to walk by faith in this life. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day. We don’t know why some things happen and why some things don’t happen, but we believe God’s in control. We believe these words. Listen carefully. Jesus Christ controls history. So we walk by faith, not by sight. You may ask exactly, what exactly is faith? Well listen to what the writer of Hebrews said it is. In Hebrews 11 one, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So walking by faith is observed by the mental attitude of one simple word, trust. Walking by faith is observed by the mental attitude of trust. Do you trust God? It’s simply you having confidence in God’s logistical grace provisions. I mean, we could spend many hours studying faith. Some believers are weak in their faith. Romans 14 one says that. And some believers are growing in their faith. But one thing is absolutely certain, book it, write it down, God will test your faith. James 1.3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. So you have to be tested to grow. That’s why we learn, apply, and glorify God, L-A-G, LAG, learn, apply, and glorify God. Our faith has to be tested. And when our faith is tested, if we endure that, we produce patience. Patience. What a wonderful, wonderful thing to have as a Christian, to be patient and wait on the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 16, 3, quite you like men be strong, he said. Be strong like a man. That’s our passage we were studying there that he wrote. Be strong like a man. Finally, in this passage in 1 Corinthians 16 three, we find those words adrizomai, adrizomai. And then we add a word pros, we add one word krateo, krateo. And this means like a man. Like a man, be strong. This is certainly a challenge to the male believers in the congregation. They are to act like men, not babies. That’s something that’s so pitiful to see. Born again Christian, adult, act like babies. Act like a man. Stand fast. Watch. Keep your eyes sharp. Stand shoulder to shoulder. Shield to shield. Watching over your neighbor. Watching over other believers. Having that faith. Standing and encouraging them and praying with them. Stand fast because our enemy goes around like a roaring lion looking for the weakest one he can devour. These people that Paul wrote to are never to be intimidated by any people or any set of circumstances. They are to what? Stand fast in the faith. Be like men, be strong. The challenge is for every believer to grow up and don’t act like a baby. What I mean by that, I mean somebody who needs constant attention. The spiritual life requires growth. You gotta grow as a Christian. We go through, once we get saved, I remember when I got saved, I didn’t know anything about the Bible, nothing. Thank goodness I got in a good church and got a great pastor that started teaching me something. And I started learning a little bit at a time. But we have to grow up. We have to grow through spiritual self-esteem. My pastor taught me these words. I want to give you his words. The spiritual life requires spiritual self-esteem. This is where you develop self-confidence, and it’s based on the scripture, the scriptures you learn and apply in the thinking of your own soul. Your spiritual life was never designed to depend upon counseling. Now, I get people call me all the time, want me to counsel them. I don’t do counseling. Spiritual life was never designed to depend on counseling, never designed to depend on advice from other individuals, or in any way to use someone else as some sort of crutch for your spiritual life. As a member of the royal family of God, your perception and your metabolization and your application of the scriptures determines your ability to deal with every stress, every problem, every adversity, every area of prosperity or adversity, doesn’t make any difference. And to handle these things, without leaning on anybody except the word of God in your soul. That’s where we have to get the mature believers. Spiritually self-sustaining. Spiritual growth leads to spiritual autonomy. And this is a wonderful thing, it’s characterized by contentment. That’s that word patience again, we’re content. It’s you sharing the happiness of God, which means that circumstances that come into your life do not dictate whether you’ll be happy or not. Circumstances do not dictate happiness for you. This contentment is a form of mental stability. Mental stability is the ability to think Bible doctrine of the word of God or scriptures under pressure. That requires courage on your behalf. So the final stage of spiritual growth now is where we recognize spiritually mature believers. Now back up a little bit, we had spiritual what? Spiritual autonomy, spiritual self-esteem, the first one, spiritual autonomy, the second one, and now spiritual maturity. This is where we are known to be mature believers. This is where we glorify God to the maximum. And this is also a very tough time in your life because you will undergo evidence testing, which is cross-examination, aka the devil himself, just like he did Job. I had a friend send me a text this morning and said, I got some health problems. I got the word of God in my soul to handle it, but I appreciate the extra prayers. He doesn’t need me to tell him what to do. He knows what to do. He knows how to use faith as drill. He knows how to trust the Lord. He knows that this is what we go through when we begin to reach spiritual maturity. We undergo evidence testing like Job did. Therefore, spiritual maturity is the divine objective for you and for me. It’s the purpose for all commands of the scripture related to time. and it’s the only way we can ever glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in time while we’re here. Spiritual maturity is the basis for all temporal and even eternal rewards and blessings in the future. So lastly, Paul says be strong. Quiet you like men, and then be strong. Present passive imperative, notice passive, not active, it’s a passive this time. of the Greek word krataiou, krataiou. And the passive voice means the subject receives the action of the verb, they don’t produce it. The present tense means they’re always to be strong. The imperative mood is the mood of command. So what does this word mean, krataiou? It means to be strengthened or receive power from the noun kratos. That’s the root of the word kratos. The fact that this verb is the passive tense indicates it’s something you receive, not something you crank out and manufacture. And this is indicative of how we are to be strengthened and protected by means of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Thessalonians 3.3, the Bible clearly tells us these words. But the Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. The Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. Did you get that? And that’s in 2 Thessalonians 3.3. And then in 1 Peter 5.10. But may God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after you have suffered a little bit, strengthen, and settle you. There is spiritual testing. That’s a mature believer going through evidence testing where you come to the witness stand and Satan’s allowed to cross-examine you, find out exactly what you’re made of, May the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you suffered a little bit, that’s your testing, establish you, strengthen you, and settle you. You know, each one of us has a responsibility of strengthening our own souls by growing spiritually. and increasing our faith. And there’s only one way to grow your faith, and that’s by learning and applying the scriptures into your life. You don’t do that, you’re not gonna grow. You don’t learn the scriptures, you don’t have any faith. All faith is related to the scriptures. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. To the extent that you know the word of God in your soul, that’s how strong your faith is. For example, do you know how many promises are in the Bible that you can claim? Someone once told me there are over 7,000 promises in the Bible that you can claim. We’ve written a book called Promises and Principles. It’s for you, it’s free. It’s one of our many books we offer. And if you’d like to have that book, it’s got a lot of those promises there that you can claim under certain situations. It tells you what situation you’re in and what promise to claim. But God has given you that for your faith. His word is the powerful energy of your faith. Each of us has the responsibility to strengthen our faith by growing up spiritually. That’s the only way we can do it. Learn and apply the scriptures. So again, we go back to Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. By studying the scriptures and applying what we learn, we demonstrate our faith and grow our faith. Hopefully you’ve heard me emphasize the need for a well-qualified pastor, haven’t you? A well-qualified pastor to teach you the scriptures and explain the meaning. so that you can accurately represent Jesus Christ through your life and thoughts. And some of these radio stations we’ve added this week, a couple of those towns, I’m very familiar with great qualified pastors in those towns. Pastors that are really cranking it out and teaching. Been there a long time. Solid, sound, great men of God. if you don’t have a pastor and you live in one of these towns you let me know we’ll try to hook you up we’ll try to tell you where you can get the information face to face or over the internet or in printed form whatever but i’m not a pastor i’ve always told you that i’m an evangelist my job is to lead you to the lord jesus christ to give you some basic information and encourage you to get under a well-qualified pastor There are a few out there that I know of. If you don’t have one, get in touch with me. We’ll try to point you in the right direction. My prayer is that you’ll continue to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you’re a new listener to our show, that you’ll go to the website, rickhughesministries.com. and listen to some of the shows there. Just go to the website, type in on your internet, rickhughesministries.org. And then when you see the word Flotline, click on that. You’ll find hundreds of radio shows categorized as play. All you got to do is click on them and they’ll play and you can listen to them going back for years and years ago. And our podcast. We’ve got almost 2 million downloads now through the podcast. So if you’d like to go to Spotify, if you’d like to go to Apple iPod and type in The Flotline, you’ll find the radio shows there that you can listen to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, driving, sitting at home, wherever you might be. Okay, boy, what a great time to be in. What a wonderful opportunity God’s given me to come speak to you, to give me this opportunity to share this information with you. The main thing I want you to know is that are you saved? Do you know for sure that if you died today, you’d go to heaven? Are you confident of that fact? Have you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? Because if you haven’t, regardless of what you may do or try to do, you’re never going to get in heaven. Because the Bible says what? He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might remain the righteousness of God through him. Christ died for us. He took our place. And we know the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It was a simple thing for me to do, just to bow down on my knees one night and when I was 22 years old and say, Father, I’m a sinner. I know it. I recognize it. I’d like to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior. Something like that. I don’t remember all the words exactly, but it happened. And I didn’t see an angel. I didn’t hear a harp. I didn’t hear any music. No dust floated down the ceiling. But it happened. My life changed the moment Christ came to live in me. And he will come to live in you also. He will if you will receive him as your Savior. So think about that. Do you know that you’re going to heaven today? Are you confident? Can you know it? Well, sure. 1 John 5 says these things are written so that we might know that we have eternal life. He that has a son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life. So I hope you’ll do that. I hope you’ll make that decision. And I hope if you are a believer, you’ve been challenged by what I’ve read to you today, what Paul wrote in Corinth, to watch, stand fast, and in the faith, be brave, be strong, and let all that you do be done with love. That’s the key to it. Personal love for God is your motivational virtue in life. If you love me, you’ll obey me, 1 John says that. If you love me, you will obey me, and my mandates are not grievous. So that’s where it starts, personal love for God, and then impersonal love for the ones who we don’t even like. It’s possible you can love people you don’t even like. How do you do that? You do that based on your character, not theirs. You’re loving them based on who you are, not what they are. So think about that. That’s what this show’s about, teaching you the mechanics to the Christian life and hopefully directing you to the Lord Jesus Christ or directing you to a well-qualified pastor where you can grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Okay? We’ll be back next week, same time, same place. I hope you’ll join us then. So until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:09

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.