SPEAKER 02 : 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 01 : 0:23

Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, stick around. About 30 minutes of inspiration, motivation, some education, and no manipulation. We don’t con people. We’re not seeking money. We’re not trying to solicit your support. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re just trying to give you accurate information that will help you verify as well as identify God’s plan for your life. And if you can do that, then we pray that you’ll be able to orient and adjust to that plan. That’s my desire for you, that you would orient and adjust to God’s plan for your life. The Flatline has been on the air for 930 different shows. That’s 930 Sundays across America. Today, the message you’ll hear is being broadcast from California to Maine. What a great privilege that I have to give this word of God to 50 states all across and as well as the Philippines. So thank you for listening. I remind you that we have transcripts of our shows. If you’re interested in getting a transcript, let us know. You can contact us through our website, rick at rickhughesministries.org. That’s our email, rick at rickhughesministries.org. And if you’d like to get some of the transcripts, we have them completely years, 2019, 2020, 2021. Every show we did, transcript written down. You can read it. Okay, our new book coming out very soon is Christian Problem Solving. And if you’d like to get a copy of that book, contact us through the website, rick at rickhughesministries.org. And get us an email and tell us, give us your name and address, and we’ll put you on the list and make sure when that book’s available in the next couple of weeks, you’ll get your copy. Okay? Now, thank you for listening. Thank you for being here today. I want to talk about something today that’s rarely mentioned in pulpits across America. Maybe a bit of a shocker for you, but let’s go look at it. The word is bitterness. Bitterness. Bitterness is rarely mentioned from the pulpits of churches in America, and it seems to be an invisible sin that never really is confronted publicly. A bitter war may be going on between two church officials, and that can spill over into the congregation and infect the whole flock. Assuming the pastor calls on Mr. Smith, for example, to give a public prayer in the worship service. But dear old Mr. Smith hates dear old brother Jones, who has never repaid the money he borrowed from him or some other grievous deed. So the beautiful, holy sounding prayer offered by the supposedly godly person is no more than sounding bronze or tinkling cymbals. Why? Because he’s out of fellowship with God. because of his mental attitude’s sin of bitterness, which is failure to forgive and use impersonal love. Where do I get some kind of thought like that? Why could I say something like that? Can I back that up with scripture? Well, 1 Corinthians 13 one. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I’m only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. The love there is impersonal love, and that’s the ability to forgive and forget the person that sinned against you, the person you can’t stand. So if you have bitterness, you’re doing the right thing. You’re praying, but you’re doing it in the wrong way. You’re doing it out of fellowship. And I remind you, the plan of God requires protocol, which means the right thing must be done in a right way. So no matter how much you pray, no matter how much you give, if you’re not in fellowship, it’s nothing but human good. The right thing prayer done in the wrong way with unconfessed sin in your life is useless and it’s good for nothing. It may sound great, it may sound holy, but it will be revealed as wood, hay, and stubble at the judgment seat of Christ. Listen to 1 Corinthians 3, 14, and 15. Each one’s work will become manifest for the day will declare it. It will be revealed by fire and the fire will test everyone’s work of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he’s built upon endures, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss. But listen to this, he himself will be saved, yet so is by fire. That verse implies that every prayer you prayed, every dime you gave, every class you taught, every floor you swept, every service you attended will be evaluated and either burnt up or rewarded. Now here is my warning. Bitterness is not obvious to everyone, but your Heavenly Father sees what you’re thinking and what your intentions are. And you cannot glorify God with unforgiving bitterness in your soul’s mentality, because bitterness can stain your thinking much like dirty diaper that a baby wears. And it stinks, and bitterness will cause you to stink. Hebrews 12, 15, looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God and lest any root of bitterness spring up cause trouble. And by this many become defiled. Defiled is our word. We’re looking at defiled. The Greek word defiled is pronounced me. I know M I A N O. And it’s literally the word filth from the bedpan filth from the bedpan, you know, bedpan under the bed at night and don’t have an outhouse. You use the bedpan. The vines new Testament dictionary translates this word to pollute or to contaminate and to soil. That’s how nasty bitterness can be, and in your soul’s mentality, it pollutes your thinking. Bitterness also makes you stink just like a dirty diaper stinks. And bitterness of soul is a harsh, hostile attitude that results from arrogant reaction and sometimes becomes the source of habitual carnality in your life. It all starts with some sort of unchecked self-absorption, which is the trait of arrogant person. And springing out of this unchecked self-absorption is anger, vindictiveness, jealousy, self-pity, slander, and eventually abusive language. The bitter person will always try to recruit other people to support his claim, what he believes. And I warn you, do not get trapped in his web of bitterness and hatred. One of the areas that spawns bitterness in the souls of many people is, listen to this, politics. Politics. Individuals who are opposed to those who have political power are often quick to slander and vilify those politicians they disagree with. And they may have a valid reason to disagree with the administration’s policy or agenda, but they have no grounds to harbor bitterness in their souls mentality. Maybe they forgot the scripture. Let me read it again to you. Romans 13, one and two. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. Do you hear that? Every soul be subject to the governing authorities. Except there is no authority except that which comes from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinances of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. This passage clearly teaches, let me read it again, there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. What does that mean? That means no one can assume authority over a nation unless God allows it to happen. Notice the words appointed by God. Now, assuming you have some amount of humility, would it be wise on your part not to assume that God made a mistake? Listen to this verse, 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4. Therefore, I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all who are in authority so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. Well, instead of being bitter about the politician you don’t like, how about you pray for him Pray that God would reveal his will to him. Pray that he may become under conviction of the Holy Spirit and receive Christ as his savior. Is it safe to say that a bitter person is not exactly praying for the political leader he disagrees with? Yep, I guess it’s so. So just the opposite. Listen to this scripture and see how the bitter mind works. Listen carefully. Ephesians 4, 30 through 32. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you’re sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, there’s your word, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you along with your malice. And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake forgave you. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this mandate from his Apostle Paul is something you must consider. Here it is, one, stop being bitter. God put them in power for a reason. If there’s a politician you don’t like, quit being bitter. Pray for them. Why did God put them there in the first place? They wouldn’t be there if God hadn’t allowed it. Maybe you better figure out why God allowed it. Stop, number two, having mental attitude sins of hatred and vilification. Stop having explosive anger with vulgar accusations. Stop committing verbal sins of slander by maligning the politician you dislike and stop wishing them to be harmed. And that’s called malice. Perhaps you’d like to know why God allows some people to be in power. Why exactly would our Lord allow someone to be in control that does not have your best interest at heart? Someone who seems to be bent on changing the destiny and the identity of your very own life. A nation like ours, good old USA, can become arrogant when we focus on the gifts and ignore the giver. National arrogance ignores the mandates of divine institutions. That means marriage is no longer sacred, the family is no longer relevant, freedom of choice is slowly taken away, and becoming internationally minded is another departure from God’s plan of nationalism. When divine discipline comes, it’s always very obvious. Leviticus 26, 19, and I will break down the arrogance of your power and I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. Ezekiel 7, 10, behold, the day is coming and your doom has gone forth. The rod of discipline has budded because arrogance has blossomed. The United States of America has moved into arrogance. As far as your personal life is concerned, listen up. In times of stress, those who have rejected God’s word and its mandates always become complainers. They become full of bitterness, whining, mewing their way through life. They never see that they themselves are responsible for the national disaster that’s overtaking the nation. It’s always somebody else’s fault. Many believers in this nation have sold out to ritual with no reality. And they don’t understand the God they know, nor are they even interested in learning what his plan for their lives include. Believers seem to marry unbelievers, yep, every day. Believers settle for Christian entertainment over Bible teaching, yep, every day. Ministers write and sell books for profit. High profile Christian celebrities charge speaker fees to come to your church or your city and talk about their faith. Christian musicians often sell their music for profit. Christian parents give in to the desires of their children who are lured by social media. Must I go on? There appears to be no longer for God’s word, no hunger for God’s word, and the mechanics of the Christian life are not being taught. And you thought it was the fault of the politician, didn’t you? You thought it was the Democrat’s fault. You thought it was the Republican’s fault. You come home, watch the news, then you get bitter about some new legislation being imposed and you go to church bitter. Do you understand? Bitterness is a sin. Jeremiah saw the same attitude in his own generation. Jeremiah six 10 to whom shall I communicate doctrine? To whom shall I give a warning that they will listen? The whole, their ears are uncircumcised. They will not listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them. They have what? They have no delight in it. That describes America today. So the historical disaster that’s coming our way is a cleansing of the nation. It’s taught under the concepts of the five cycles of discipline found in Leviticus 26, 14 through 38. Now, what about personal bitterness? You and I, personal bitterness. You and I as individuals can fall into the same mental attitude sin the nation has fallen into. And what do I mean by that? We have began to focus on the gifts and forgot the giver. You don’t want God unless you’re getting a jam. That’s what’s going on in America today. All this human viewpoint, all the socialism, all the humanism, all trying to figure out how to solve it apart from God’s word. So what about personal bitterness? You cannot afford to fall into this mental attitude sin, but you will if you don’t use those 10 problem-solving devices that we call the flatline. And soul bitterness is the number one test that many believers fail to pass when they are confronted by unfair circumstances. No matter how faithful they’ve been, no matter how much Bible study they’ve gone through, they just cannot keep a relaxed mental attitude when they get crossed or disrespected are sometimes just ignored. What do they do? They lose their objectivity when they’re offended. They become subjective. They take the test personally. Impersonal love is not applied and forgiveness does not happen. Rather, instead, complaining and grumbling and griping and the scriptures tell you don’t let that happen. Philippians 2.14, do all things without complaining and disputing. That’s a mandate. That’s not a request. God’s not asking you, please be nice. He’s telling you, don’t do this. As soon as you open your mouth and complain, as soon as you open your mouth and disagree, you are sinning. Now, if it’s a divine establishment concept and someone says that marriage is no longer necessary, you have the right to disagree because the Bible teaches that’s not true. But disagreeing over leadership, disagreeing over the piece of property, disagreeing over who’s in charge, I mean there’s all sorts of stupid things you can disagree over. And you’re told do not complain, do not dispute. Do you not realize the Supreme Court of Heaven is open 24 hours a day? Do you not realize no one gets away with anything? Do you not realize God’s well aware of what’s going on in our own nation? He knows which politicians are liars. He knows which politicians are cheats. He knows which politicians are trying to change the course of American history. You think he’s asleep? He forgot about that? No. And you want to complain and you want to gripe and you want to do this and that and the other and you’re bitter? Pray for these people. Pray for these people. That’s what the Bible said. Pray for these people. God put them there, Romans 13. That’s why they’re there. Maybe it’s to bring discipline on this nation. Our Lord Jesus Christ spent a lot of hours teaching his disciples how to have happiness in spite of the difficulty they were going to face once he departed. It was going to be tough, it wasn’t going to be very nice, and he tried to prepare them. In John 15, 11, you can read where he said these things. I spoke to you so that my joy may remain in you and your joy may be full. God wants you to have plus H, sharing the happiness of God. There it is right there. That’s plus H, my joy in you and your joy full. That’s sharing the happiness of God. That’s the design that God gave for you. Well, bitterness is not sharing the happiness of God. Complaining is not sharing the happiness of God. Disputing is not sharing the happiness of God. If you have a mental attitude like that, if you get all bent out of shape, if you get vibrated every time something happens that you don’t like and you start complaining, you start running your mouth, you start griping, You’re sinning big time sinning and it needs to be rebounded first problem-solving device number one if we will confess our sin he’s faithful and just to forgive us and Purify us from all wrongdoing So I mean come on now you want to live for the Lord you want to live the Christian life? get control of your attitude because that’s where the Christian life is lived in your souls mentality and That’s where it always lived. And when God wants to check you out, he looks at what you’re thinking. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is, the Bible says. That’s what God looks at. What are you thinking? Are you bitter? Are you arrogant? Are you full of self-justification? Self-absorption? Self-absorption? Are you full of that? Soul bitterness is the number one test many believers fail to pass, especially if they are confronted by some sort of unfair circumstances. No matter how faithful they’ve been, no matter how much Bible study they’ve been through, they just can’t keep that relaxed mental attitude. They lose their objectivity when they get offended, and they become subjective. Take it personal. But impersonal love is not applied and forgiveness does not happen. What happens rather instead is complaining and grumbling and griping and maligning and bitterness. And the scriptures tell us don’t let that happen. Philippians 2.14, as I gave you earlier. Do all things without complaining. Do all things without disputing. Our Lord Jesus Christ spent many hours teaching his disciples how to have happiness in spite of the difficulty they would face when he left. Listen to what he said. I’ve spoken these things to you so that my joy may remain in you and your joy may be full. I told you earlier those same verses. He wants you to have happiness. He wants you to have joy. He was never bitter. He was never angry. He was never mad. He never vilified the Romans. He never vilified these people. So any complaint that you have about the government, any complaints you have about those in authority, you are to take it directly to the Lord, not to your close friends. And 1 Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. And Psalm 55, 22, cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. That means you have to use your volition, part of your soul, To go to the Father and use rebound to pray about your sin of anxiety and anger and bitterness and leave it at his foot and walk away from it and keep your relaxed mental attitude. That’s how you do it. Casting all your anxiety on him means what? Faith, rest, drill. Problem-solving device number three. You live by faith. You’re oriented to the faith that you have in God’s plan. And so you can relax. You can’t straighten anybody out. You can’t even keep your own self straight. You know what I’m talking about. So what makes you think you can do a better job? Sharing your reactions of bitterness with your friends or your spouse will cause them to enter into your bitter web of anger. And you will seek to justify yourself and vilify the ones that wronged you or the ones that irritated you. And you’ll want your friends to hate them also. So you’ll say all sorts of nasty things about them. And you’ve done that, you know what I’m talking about. Your happiness or your unhappiness does not depend on how you are treated. Listen again, your happiness or your unhappiness does not depend on how you’re treated. It depends on how you use the problem solving devices in your life. If you’re waiting to be treated fairly in the devil’s world, you’re going to have a long wait. If you’re waited to be treated fairly, you got to wake up and realize Satan has a target on your back. Anything he can do to discourage you, anything he can do to defeat you, anything he can do to get you to go sit in the corner and feel sorry for yourself, he will do it. So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to react with bitterness or are you going to leave it at the Lord’s feet? Just like the burden said, like the Bible says, cast your burden on the Lord. Go to him, pray, stay in fellowship, grow in God’s grace. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. Your happiness or your unhappiness, again, does not depend on how you’re treated. Listen to Luke 11, 27. When Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed. But he said, On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. The word blessed is the Greek word makarios, and it means happiness. And what she was saying is that I bet your mother must be really happy. Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast on which you nursed. And he said, on the contrary, which is a King James way of saying you’re wrong. Happiness belongs to those who hear the word of God and keep it. That’s momentum in your life, hearing and keeping the word of God on a consistent basis. So here are some principles you need to remember. Bitter people are boring and a joke to someone who has some spiritual insight. People with spiritual insight can see your sin and your bitterness. and they’ll have nothing to do with you because you’re boring. That’s all you want to talk about. And number two, bitter people are inconsistent and irrational. Thus, you cannot have a rational relationship with them unless you play by their rules that you think like they think. So don’t waste your time. Bitter people are in the greatest form of arrogance. Selfish, inconsiderate, and indifferent people. That’s bitterness. The greatest form of arrogance you can get into. Selfish, inconsiderate, and indifferent. No impersonal love. I’m talking about a Christian now. But sure, an unbeliever can do this. I’m not really talking about unbelievers. I’m talking about believers like you, like me. We can’t afford to be selfish and inconsiderate. And here’s a principle for you. Bitter people have very few friends. Proverbs 14 10 the heart knows its own bitterness and a stranger does not share his joy instead of doctrine. There’s a bitterness and complaining and nobody wants to hear that. So if your friends are avoiding you, maybe you might figure out why they don’t want to hear you griping about this and complaining about that because better people are so self absorbed. They usually lie to themselves. and justify why they feel that way and deceive themselves, thinking they’re right and the world is wrong. So bitterness is the greatest form of arrogance you can get into because it feeds on self-justification. You will justify why you have a right to hate that person. You will justify why you have a right to want that person to be harmed. You will justify why you have a right to talk about them and spread malicious gossip about them. That’s what bitterness does. So the habitual complainer is a bitter person, and you have no right to complain about anything. Jealousy is another form of bitterness. Jealousy is another form of bitterness. James 3.14, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, Do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. There’s the words I’ve been talking to you about, arrogance, bitterness, jealousy. It’s all right there in that one passage. If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, that’s unrealistic self-image, in your heart, in your mind, in your soul’s thinking, don’t be arrogant and lie against the truth. I mean, how much more clear could it be than that? You can’t afford to get sucked into bitterness. You can’t afford to let your bitterness destroy your happiness. God has a much more wonderful, marvelous plan for you, but it starts with you understanding how the Christian life functions. As we’ve said so many times, God said, I’m looking for people that not only know me, but understand me. Just because you go to church, just because you go through the ritual, there may not be any reality to it, doesn’t mean you’re glorifying God. Unless you learn and understand God’s plan, You’re going to be doing all the right things in the wrong way, and you’re going to get to heaven, and you’re going to expect to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, but you won’t hear it. You may hear something like, have a seat, we’ll get to you in a couple of thousand years. I hope not. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention. I hope I’m waking up some hunger in your life. Oftentimes people call me, and they want to talk about everything but Scripture. They want to give me their opinion about what’s going on in the world. They want me to give them advice. I’m not a counselor. I’m not there to discuss things with you about what’s going on in the world. I’m here to teach you the word of God and direct you to a well-qualified pastor. So I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention. And I hope you’ll come back next week, same time. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Floodline.

SPEAKER 02 : 27:18

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.