In this insightful episode of The Flatline with Rick Hughes, delve into the spiritual implications of our actions today and how they shape the future of our families and our nation. Rick draws from biblical teachings to explain the profound impact of parental influence on the next generation. Through engaging stories, such as the parable of the two sons, he highlights the importance of instilling humility, discipline, and respect in children for a robust and prosperous society.
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 :
Well, hello. Good morning. Welcome to the Flatline. I am your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. You know the drill, 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education without us trying any manipulation because we don’t try to con people. We’re not soliciting money. We’re not trying to sell you something. We’re not going to ask you to join it up or give it up or get into some kind of campaign where you promise you’re never going to do bad again. That’s not what this show is about. This show is about explaining to you how the plan of God works. That’s all it’s about. If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this show is for you. If you’re not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer is that you will make the decision to receive him as your savior because it is the single most important decision you’ll ever make in your life. You may put it off and you may say it’s not real, not true, but you will learn one day that it is true. And the Bible says, whoever’s name is not written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire forever. And that’s not God’s plan for you. He created the lake of fire for Satan and fallen angels, not for you. He gave his only begotten son for you so that he would die in your place, pay the penalty for your sin, and offer to you forgiveness through the cross. Please consider that. Now, there’s no doubt the times we’re living in are changing in America. I mean, at least that’s what the press keeps telling me. The press keeps pushing this grievance of the Americans who feel they’ve been exploited and Now they want some sort of reparation. They give front-page coverage to different groups almost daily. There’s not a day that goes by without political accusations being made, and the green energy people continue to demand less fossil fuel use, and the military convenes search for qualified recruits, but the pool is getting smaller. So we all know that the more sensational the news, the better it sells. It’s job security for the news to have sensational articles, sensational print and letters. Political pundits, you know, that’s job security. But is it really that bad? Is it really that bad in this country? Or are just a few people being promoted over the needs and the will of a lot of other people? What about it? Will they be able to accomplish their goals eventually? Will they be able to do that? Is it really that bad? If the humanists and socialists have their way, they would eliminate capitalism and Christianity, I promise you. But most of it will depend on what the next generation does. And what are they going to do with their future depends greatly on what mom and dad put in their soul today. Listen carefully, grandma, grandpa. It depends on what mom and dad put in their soul today. Many young people that I’ve met over my years of traveling are already being caught up in the cosmic vortex. They’re being evangelized daily by the social media and to Satan’s cosmic system and capturing their thoughts with promises that cannot be delivered. Many of them are deceived and seduced by lies and these vulnerable young souls may never know what hit them. if it happens. But the real problem starts in the home. Unless mom and dad plant the truth of God’s word in these young minds of their children, those children are gonna grow into adulthood not knowing the very things that could actually stabilize this nation and guarantee God’s approval and blessing on our country. Make no mistake about it, the enemy’s hard at work trying to recruit your children and your grandchildren. And if Satan can capture their thinking, he can cause destruction in their lives and eventually destroy their nation, our nation, client nation USA. That’s what it’s all about to begin with. Excuse me. Shut down the outreach of Christian missionaries. Shut down the authority structures of the home and destroy the concepts of marriage as God originally designed it and eliminate personal freedom and replace it with governmental control. How can this invisible, lethal assault be stopped? And will parents actually believe what God says is necessary to have a free and stable and prosperous nation? What is necessary for parents to do? Here it is, Ephesians 6. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. That’s a Christian. For this is right. Parents must teach authority orientation. They must teach authority orientation to their children. Ephesians chapter six, verse two, honor your father and your mother, which is the first mandate with a promise, which means they have to teach respect and appreciation for their parents. that it may be well with you. I mean, great, wonderful life. And you may live a long time on this earth. So parents have to teach the secrets to a long and fruitful life to their children, which is respect for authority and honoring their father and their mother. And then you fathers, here’s a warning, Dad. Provoke not your children to wrath. Don’t make them mad. Don’t make them angry by unfair discipline. But bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Fathers are to discipline and give direction to their children. One of the most critical things a father can teach is what we call this, is what we call divine establishment. And these are the principles ordained by God for the survival, stability, prosperity, protection, and even the perpetuation of the human race, believers and unbelievers alike. These principles were introduced in Genesis and fully described in the Mosaic Law. Those principles include liberty, morality, civility, and authority within an actual entity. It applies to every person in every age. These basic truths are restated in the New Testament and are God’s design for restraining man’s sinful nature. while allowing maximum function of free will, which includes the responsibility to make your own decisions. Secondly, parents must instill an awareness of God in their children’s lives. What does that do? This allows for God consciousness, age of accountability, and eventually gospel hearing. How do you do that? Well, family prayers at meals, Bible reading in the evening are two ways to instill an awareness of God in their young minds. Whenever my grandchildren come to our house, we make sure we do not eat until we say the blessing, and they’re not used to that. They want to just grab a mouthful and start chomping. I’m like, whoa, whoa, wait. Put that down, we’re gonna say our blessing. We’re instilling in them an awareness of God. But giving them a cell phone or giving them an iPad, I mean, that might be considered normal, but in reality, you’re allowing their minds to be occupied with a sense of unreality and giving the enemy an opportunity to recruit them to his way of thinking. A young man full of bitterness and disillusioned is described by Jesus in a parable in Luke 15, 11. And in this particular parable, two sons are mentioned. I always like to call them Frick and Frack, but we could call them Jack and John, whatever you want to call them. But what is taught is that both are sons, and both have issues. Frick had an unrealistic self-image of himself, and Frack was a big-time jealous bully of his little brother. Frick demanded his inheritance early before his pop actually died so he could leave and head off down the My Way Highway in his frantic search for happiness. Luke 15, 13 in the parable went like this, and not many days after, the younger son, Frick, gathered everything together, all his goods, you know, his clothes, his suitcase, packed up and journeyed to a far country and wasted his inheritance with riotous living. What is righteous living? You can figure it out. Party hardy. This is where the younger son had to learn a very valuable lesson since he did not have humility to begin with. He had to be taught that circumstances are going to bring him to enforced humility. If you don’t have genuine humility, circumstances will give you enforced humility. But when he had spent everything, this is Ophric the younger son, there arose a severe famine in the land he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to the citizens of that country and they sent him to the fields to feed the pigs. He didn’t eat pork. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the slop the pigs ate because nobody would give him anything. Wow. Here we go. Bad situation. When he came to himself, what does that mean? Enforced humility. His volition kicked in. He said, I’m an idiot. I’m stupid. I can’t believe I did this. He said these words. How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying from hunger. I’m going to arise and go back to my father and say to him, I have sinned against heaven, sinned to you, and I’m not worthy to be called your son anymore. Just make me a hired servant. Notice that he at least had enough humility to admit he was wrong and return home to ask for forgiveness. Genuine humility is a characteristic missing in the lives of many of our young people today. The ones we’re trusting to guide us in the future don’t have genuine humility. Humility is an attitude of honor, it’s an attitude of integrity, and it places virtuous values above self-centered desires. It’s a basic human virtue required to adjust to reality. If the future generation in this country has no humility, they will destroy this country. And humility is, in fact, teachability. But since humility is not inherited at birth, it has to be learned. It has to be acquired. So for a young child, the home is the classroom where mother and father must enforce humility and restrain the sin nature of the child through constant training and constant discipline. And they will wear you out, breaking your will. They don’t give up. You’ll be so tired of trying to say, don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that, and you’ll be yelling and screaming and give them a little tap on the fanny and they’ll do it again. They have to learn not to do that. They have to learn what authority is. They have to learn to respect the parents. The Bible says in James 4.10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. To the extent that mother and dad ignore God’s mandates, to the extent that they don’t take time to prepare their children for the future, they are guaranteeing that their country is doomed. Now let’s notice Frack, the older brother in our Lord’s parable. Once the younger brother came home and asked for forgiveness, The dad had a celebration and killed the fatted calf for a party meal. Steaks for everybody. And the older brother did not like this at all. He got really upset about that. Luke 15, 25. Now the older son was in the field and he came and drew near to the house and he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and said, what’s going on? What’s happening? And he said, your brother has come home because he’s received him safe. Your father received him safe and sound and your father has killed the fatted calf and we’re having a celebration. But he was angry. He would not go in. And his father came out and pleaded with him. What was he angry about? Why was he not happy to see his younger brother? Because he was full of unrealistic self-image. In Luke 15, 29, so he answered and said to his father, all these years I served you, I never disobeyed your commandments at any time, and you never even gave me a young billy goat to make a party with. But as soon as your son comes home, you kill the fatted calf, and he’s been living with harlots, and you have a party for him. This is pure jealousy based on an unrealistic self-image. I’m perfect, he’s not. In his eyes, he had been the perfect son, but his dad was never thrown a party for him. And so he had a little pity party for his own self. His feelings were really hurt. Bless his heart. These two sons had every opportunity to serve God, but neither of them did so because of their own arrogance. How many families have sons or daughters, just like I do, and my wife and I, we have sons and daughters who act the same way. Bickering, jealousy, bitterness, all indications of a miserable family existence. Mom and dad, if there is a mom and dad, that’s one of the things Satan has been very successful at today, is splitting the home. I’m not talking about mom, mom, dad, dad. I’m talking about mom and dad. Mom and dad must teach their sons and daughters how to use impersonal love. That’s a wonderful problem-solving device. And not let sin nature get into pettiness and destroy family bonds. You’ve got to teach your children what that means. Impersonal love is part of the virtue love package God makes available. Personal love for God and personal love for others. It’s possible to love the worst jerk in town by what? Based on what you are, not based on what he is. And how many families don’t know that? How many children fight and bicker? How many parents yell and argue because they don’t understand that? And they’re believers, they’re Christians, that’s what’s weird. They’ve accepted Christ as their savior and yet they’ve learned nothing about the spiritual life. Mom and dads got to teach their sons and daughters how to use impersonal love. Not to let that sin nature pettiness destroy them. Because if it’s a maladjusted teenager, it means a maladjusted future. And it is very clear from looking at our nation’s leadership that we have petty, jealous people who will do anything to destroy the ones they hate the most. So are we doomed? Well, we will be if we don’t return to divine establishment principles. But how can we return if we don’t even know them? If we don’t even know what they are? Either we must get back on track or we are doomed to be erased by our enemies, which are not just our nations that oppose us and despise us, but it’s the individuals within your nation who hate you, who hate the very foundations that we were built upon. And the scriptures clearly state the reason for divine national discipline is this. Divine national discipline, I said it, divine national discipline, God’s discipline on a nation. I believe we are being disciplined by God. You want to see it? It comes in the book of Hosea in the Old Testament, chapter four. We won’t go there yet. I want to go to Israel’s covenant with God and agreement with God according to Deuteronomy 26. Listen to 28, excuse me. Deuteronomy 28, 1 and 2, listen to this. And it will come to pass, if you will listen diligently unto the voice of the Lord your God to observe and to do all of his mandates, which I command you this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings will come to you and overtake you, and if you shall listen to the voices of the Lord your God. And then in verse 9 and 10 of Deuteronomy 28. The Lord shall establish you with the holy people unto himself as he has sworn unto you. And if you will keep his commandments of the Lord and walk in his ways, all the people of the earth shall see your call by the name of the Lord. They will be afraid of you. Eventually, Israel broke every mandate God gave them. 490 laws of the Mosaic Law, not just the Big Ten, 490 different laws, and they broke most of those laws. And he warned them, listen, God’s chosen people ignored what God said, and he warned them that here’s what’s gonna happen if you continue to break my laws. Deuteronomy 28, 15. But it shall come to pass, if you don’t obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all of his mandates and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And it did. And we are in a likewise situation. God’s blessed us. God put us on a pedestal. God made us the most rich nation in the world, the most prosperous nation in the world, the strongest nation in the world, freedom. And our enemies are jealous. Not only that, but there are equal enemies within that want to destroy us. They don’t like the way our laws work. They want to change everything. It’s called the humanist society, the socialist society, the woke administration. How do we get back to where we used to be? Remember Hosea 4, 6 says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge, I will reject you. Until pastors mount the pulpit and start teaching the word of God clearly and laying down what the word of God says, we will not get back. You’ve heard me say there’s a fog over this country. F-O-G, failure in the pulpits. Failure of spiritual leadership. O-F-O, open rebellion in the streets. Open rebellion to the rule of law. And G, God’s word ignored, God’s word rejected. How are we going to get back? Each week I seek to invest in you the knowledge of how the spiritual life works. I try to invest in you what the spiritual life is and why you need a well-qualified pastor and why you must use Rebound and deal with your sins. Have you been listening? You know, we spend thousands of dollars every month in order to bring you these shows and provide you with printed materials. Have these had any effect on you at all? Have you understood why these times are so critical? Are we doomed? Is America on the down slide and about to be destroyed? You can answer that question yourself based on your knowledge of scriptures. Will this next generation lose it all because you did not do your job as a parent or a grandparent? I assure you God knows and he’s not playing silly games like many Christians play. And I assure you you’re running out of time so you need to listen very carefully, Isaiah 55, six and seven. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God he will abundantly pardon. There is a pardon available for America. There is an opportunity for America to get back on track, but it must start in the home. It must start with mom and dad. Mom and dad must understand God’s plan for their life. We’re talking about Christian parents, Christian parents who teach their children how to pray, Christian parents who give authority, orientation to their children. This is a generation that will either destroy us or make us. How do your grandparents, your grandchildren look? How are your children looking? Do they understand these things? Do you know how much God has blessed us? You can see that if you’re older. You can see what we’ve experienced, the great blessings and prosperity this nation has experienced. And anybody with a brain can see what’s happening. Young people don’t see it because they’re concerned with what they’re doing this weekend. Some of my close friends don’t even think about it. They’re thinking about, are the fish biting? Is it deer season yet? You know, young, they’re strong, they’re healthy, they’re not sick, they’re not weak. They got a beautiful wife. They got a beautiful husband. They got lots going on, and they don’t think about stuff like that. Who thinks about politics? So just like the frog in the pan, they just sit there and simmer and simmer and simmer until they’re cooked. We are being cooked today by satanic forces that are destroying the lives of young people that must lead us in the future. That’s why I’m appealing to parents and grandparents, get with the program. Teach your children God’s word. Make them sit down and pray with you. Read scripture to them. Make them aware of God and that he’s there and hopefully they’ll have some sort of God consciousness. When I was 11 years old, my mother sent me off to get rid of me. I was more than she could handle. She was a single parent. We lived in a federal housing project in Birmingham, Alabama. It wasn’t a great existence, so she sent me to a place called French Camp Academy in Mississippi, and that place is still there today. At 11 years old, I went there, and I learned about God. I became aware of God, but I did not become a Christian, but I had God consciousness. I knew God existed, and I wasn’t mad at God. I just never took the time to know God. And when I was 22 years old, someone exposed me to the gospel. Someone from Africa was visiting America and gave the gospel in a small group meeting and I received Christ as my savior. Those were two decisions I had to make. I had to make a decision in God consciousness. Did I want to know God? Yes. And I had to make a decision at gospel hearing. Do I want to receive Christ? Yes. And was I saved? Yes. I got saved. I accepted Christ as my Savior. Have you done that? Have you received Christ as your Savior? The Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that can happen to you today while listening to this radio show. You may be driving in a car. You may be seated at home in your chair. But if you have never trusted Christ, you can do it right now. You can simply pray, Father, I know I’m lost. Father, I believe Christ died for me and I want to receive him as my savior. You can pray a prayer like that. Because the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And in that instant, you might not feel it. You might not see the lights flicker. You might not hear any harps play. But in that instance that you express faith alone and Christ alone, it will happen. And you will be born again. your spiritual life will be fired up. God the Holy Spirit will come to live inside of you and mentor you and encourage you and teach you and you will have a new life in Christ called your spiritual life. You will have two lives, not just one. That’s why I say you gotta be born twice or you’re gonna die twice. The first birth is physical, the second birth is spiritual. The first death is physical death, the second death is cast into the lake of fire. Whoever’s name is not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, Revelation 20, was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, it says. So what about it? What about it for you? Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Have you? It is the single most important decision you’ll ever make. And if you’re a Christian, do you understand the importance of what I’m telling you about parents and grandparents and the future of this country and how we are doomed if you don’t step in and do your job? Make sure you free your children and your grandchildren from satanic devices. Make sure you don’t let Satan recruit them by electronic means and put things in their mind that don’t belong there. Break them out of that. Get it away from them or they will wind up disillusioned in a frantic search for happiness and even mad at you if you try to get them to slow down and quit watching that stuff. It’s amazing what’s happening in our country. You can see it and I can see it. We may be doomed if we don’t return to divine establishment principles. If we don’t get back to freedom and marriage and family and nationalism, these are all important to you. God designed us to be free, to have a choice, and God designed you to be married, not male and male, male and female. God designed you to have children. God designed you to do what? To have national freedom and nationality. You’re American. This is why we had the Tower of Babel. God dispersed people and said no longer. Different lands, different languages, different people. Today the move is to put everybody back under one coin, one authority, one language, one whatever that plays right into Satan’s language. So I hope you’re listening. I’ve rambled a lot, but I hope you paid attention. Surely you heard something here that’ll challenge you today. Is America doomed? I don’t know. But I’ll tell you this, we are in serious trouble. That’s why I challenge mom and dad and I challenge grandma and grandpa Get into the minds of your children and grandchildren now while you can. Rescue them from the cosmic vortex they’ve been sucked into. Share the gospel with them. Share the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. And read the scriptures to them and let them see what it means to have a fruitful, abundant, long, wonderful life in Christ Jesus. I sure hope you’re listening. Sure hope you’re paying attention. We’ve been on this show a long time now, and I know many of you are responding. If you’d like to contact us, you always can. The announcer will tell you how to get in touch with us. Or you can call us at 800-831-0718. But until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you so much for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
