In this enlightening episode, Rick Hughes delves deep into understanding what God expects of us and how accepting His divine plan can transform our lives. Through the discussion of spiritual stability, balance, and the options we have in life, Rick shares insights into overcoming mental attitude sins. Discover the joy and freedom that come from living a life dedicated to God’s teachings, as Rick emphasizes the role of spiritual maturity and growth through grace orientation.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now your host Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few minutes please stay with me It’ll be a brief time of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, and we do all of this without any type of manipulation. We don’t try to con you. We’re not trying to hustle you. We’re not going to ask you for money or solicit any membership. We just want to give you some accurate information. information designed to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. And if you can respond to that by orienting and adjusting to the plan, you have the opportunity to have an amazing, amazing life in Christ. So the Flotline comes every Sunday morning on this radio show. We broadcast this by faith. We know if God’s in it, he’ll pay for it. So we don’t solicit money. And we would like to tell you that we’ve been on the road traveling quite a bit. We have a new book we’ve written called Life’s Toughest Years, written for teenagers. And that book is available if you contact our website, rickhughesministries.org. It’s free for the asking. We also have DVDs available from various churches where we’ve spoken, and you can watch those messages. And you can go to our website and see a list of the messages available. And we also have MP3s available of various schools that we’ve been in where we talk to teenagers. And if you have grandchildren or children, you might want to hear those messages. And again, you contact us through the website. We’ll provide all of that for you. It’s all free, God’s grace. And so thank you for listening to the FLOT line this morning. Thank you for dropping by, and I hope you enjoy the show today. Remember, FLOT, F-L-O-T, stands for the Forward Line of Troops. It’s a military metaphor. And what we’re trying to convey is the thought that in your soul you can establish a forward line of troops or a main line of resistance so that you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside source of stress. We always say, like my pastor used to tell me, adversity is inevitable, but stress is optional. And that’s right. If we learn God’s Word and use these tremendous problem-solving devices as a flatline in our soul, then we can stop all that outside sources of adversity from becoming the inside source of stress. Stress is never something a Christian should entertain. We never have to worry. We never have to be afraid. We never have to be bitter. We never have to be angry. We never have to be full of guilt. Those are mental attitude sins, so many of them, and we don’t have to live like that. We have a new way to live. We think a new way. The Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. The Bible says in Proverbs 23, as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. So the real you is how you think, and the issue is you want to think human viewpoint, which is what the world tells you, happiness is in circumstances and people, etc. Or you can think divine viewpoint, where the Lord Jesus Christ said happiness is belong to those who hear my Father’s Word and keep it. And so it’s about you having a wonderful life, about you having a magnificent time while you’re here. And if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him as your Savior, you have that opportunity if you take God’s Word and learn it. That’s why the Bible says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So, it all starts with that good news that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, has redeemed me and you out of the slave market of sin. And our debt to God has been paid, and we are now free of that penalty of death, and we have the freedom to exercise the freedom from the power of sin. And we’re told in Romans, don’t let sin reign in our mortal bodies any longer. Sometimes I wonder sometimes if people understand what God really expects out of them. And that’s a question that’s a fair question I could ask you this morning. What does God expect from you? And I base that question on what I call the Fantastic Four. We’ve been teaching it for a while, Proverbs 2, 10, and 11. Discernment, understanding with the result that you have wisdom and insight in your heart, in your mind. And it’s not you contemplating something. It’s not contemplation. It’s application. So if you understand God’s Word, do you know your options in life? Well, let’s start there. You have the option, number one, of thinking human viewpoint, or you have the option of thinking divine viewpoint. You are a victim of your decisions. You are a product of your decisions. If we sow to the wind, we reap the whirlwind, the Bible says. So you are responsible. for every decision that you make. And every decision that you make is based on your choices or your options. And what are your options? Well, that’s where the Word of God comes in. What does the Bible say about this? What do my friends say about that? Who am I going to listen to? And if you listen to the Word of God, if you listen to the Bible, then you’re going to have the opportunity to have a wonderful life. But if you listen to some expert who says, I’ve been there, done that, and let me tell you what you ought to do, well, you can just bet on it that you’re going to be miserable. Option one, the choice must be made in relation to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ because arrogance rejects God’s plan, and it substitutes works for grace. There’s only one way into the plan, only one way to enter the royal family of God, and that’s through faith alone, in Christ alone. That’s why the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift of God, not of works, lest any man would boast about it. It’s repeated in Titus 3, verse 5 through 7. Not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done. Are we saved? But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And that word hope is the word confidence. the confidence that we have in eternal life. So your first option is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your second option, what do you do with this new life you’ve been given? Because the Bible says if any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creature. Old things are passed away and all things become new. So what are you gonna do with this new life you get in Christ? What’s going to be your basis for living? What’s going to be the rules that you live by? Because in life’s experience, we only get one shot. Unfortunately, there’s no redos, no makeovers. So it’s crucial that any one of us believers in Jesus Christ, that we maintain spiritual momentum by having balance and stability in our life. Do you have balance and stability? I know you just said, what do you mean by that? Well, balance comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit, problem-solving device number two. And balance comes from what else? The filling of the Holy Spirit and from grace orientation. If you know how to be filled with the Holy Spirit and if you understand grace orientation, then you can have balance in your spiritual life. stability in your spiritual life comes through doctrinal orientation. Both grace orientation and doctrinal orientation are two of the problem-solving devices we’ve talked so many times on this show. And remember, We have a book called Christian Problem Solving. If you want it, write to me. We’ll send it to you free. And it lists all 10 problem-solving devices. But grace orientation and doctrinal orientation are two of them. You either live by grace or you live by works. You either live by doctrine or you live by human viewpoint. It’s up to you. And so Romans 11, 33 says it this way. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. You want to be rich, I assume. You want to have a good, wonderful life, I assume. And the riches that God provides comes from wisdom. The word Sophia comes and from the knowledge of God. You know, the word understanding is a Greek word pronounced sunesis, and it means two things coming together. When you have knowledge, which is the insight of the Word of God, and you have understanding that comes together with it, they form the river of wisdom. And it’s wonderful to have wisdom from the Word of God, because it will protect you. But there is no wisdom without knowledge and understanding. And so these grace provisions that I’m talking to you about, they’re barely explored in our human life. I mean, what God has provided, the depth, I’m talking about the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. It’s barely explored. We only know so much. We have a Bible and we know what’s in the Bible. But I can assure you in the future, once you cross over to the other side, you will know more than you ever in your lifetime could have imagined. Earthly wisdom is nothing compared to the spiritual riches that are revealed to us through God the Holy Spirit and to the believer that’s growing especially. I did say growing now, growing believer. You’re not growing if you’re staying out of fellowship and you’re not filled with the Holy Spirit. And you’re not growing if you’re not taking in the Word of God in a consistent manner. And so advancements in your spiritual life are made by this balance in your life. The balance, stability and balance, that’s how you advance in your spiritual life. But circumstances can really throw you off sometimes, and that means failure. If you lose your routine, loss of routine, it’s very, very hard to keep a routine in your life. Professional football players, athletes do. Christians don’t. They let details of life and circumstances distract them, so they’re not consistent in attending church or attending Bible class regularly. They’re not consistent in having a routine to study every day. They’re not consistent in confessing their sin. And so they must understand that circumstances can throw you off balance. Now I want you to go in your Bible with me. I’ll read it to you, but it’s in Romans 12, 1 through 3. And this is in regards to the question that I ask you. What does God expect from you? And let me read what Paul wrote, okay? He said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Did you hear that? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, this is the second time he said this, by the way, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. What does God expect from you? I just read it. That you present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is expected of you. It’s reasonable. And then Paul goes on in verse 2, says, and here’s the only way you can do it, don’t be conformed to this world. but be transformed by the way you think, by the renewing of your mind, so that, purpose clause, you can prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. In order for you to fulfill your spiritual destiny, you’re gonna have to change the way you think. You can’t think in terms of self more highly than you ought to think, the Bible says. Listen to verse three. For I say through the grace given unto me, Romans 12, three, To every man that’s among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, that means with humility, according as God had dealt to every man a measure of faith. So in order for you to fulfill your spiritual destiny, You’re going to have to change the way you think. There’s no way around it. You can’t think more highly of yourself than you should. You can’t have some unrealistic self-image like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who said, I am worthy of you, God. I fast, I tithe, I do all this good stuff. I’m a religious, self-righteous person and ad nauseum, ad nauseum, ad nauseum. And the poor publican sitting over there beside him said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. This is the one that was saved, the Lord Jesus Christ said. So if you’re going to understand what God wants out of you, you got to understand what it means to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. Just what exactly does that mean? It also says it’s our reasonable service. So let’s break it down. Paul said in Romans 12, 1, I beseech you. And it’s a verb of indicative mood, a present tense reality verb of parakleo. And he’s inviting them. He’s calling them. I’m inviting you. It’s a verb of exhortation where Paul gives an open invitation to It’s not a mandate. It’s not him giving a mandate. It’s an invitation to the believers in Rome that they would surrender their personal will and desires to God’s divine will and desires for their life. That’s the first question I have to ask you. Have you done that? It’s a volitional decision that you’re encouraged to make. but it’s not mandated in this passage. And it’s been presented to the church before, as I told you, Romans 6, 13. Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness. Wow. In positional truth, positional truth, you are dead to the effects of sin, not in experience, but in position. but in experience you still may be enslaved to send nature habits and those habits have to be broken so if you’re going to present yourself to god which is your reasonable service you’ve got to break those sin nature habits in verse 12 romans 6 do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust do not let sin control your thoughts and your actions In your flesh, your mortal bodies are your flesh. You see, even though Satan may have lost you to the grace of God because you expressed faith alone in Christ alone, he’s still going to seek to manipulate you and use you if he can impugn God’s name by exposing the flaws of your sin nature. What are the flaws of your sin nature? Well, it’s your lust patterns, the various lust patterns of the soul. You see, some people lust for sex, can’t get enough of it. Some people lust for money, can’t get enough of it. Some people lust for drugs and alcohol, can’t get enough of it. Different people have different lust patterns. The ones that are the most evil are those who lust for power, politicians especially, those who lust for recognition, approbation, those who lust for attention and do anything to get it. And so we must recognize our lust patterns. You have a lust pattern. And by that I mean if you get out of fellowship with God, this is what you’re going to be drawn into. If your flesh takes over, if you sin and do not rebound, your flesh will begin to manipulate you and control you. And like quicksand, it will draw you into the lust pattern you desire. The lust pattern that’s always been with you. And that thing is going to always be with you until you die and get a resurrection body because it’s part of your sin-infected soul. So, Romans 6, 11 says we’re to consider ourselves dead to sin, but alive to Christ. That means we’re to ignore the call of the flesh. Dead to the lure of the flesh, but obedient to the service of the one who bought you. This is not something that you do very easily, I promise you, because the flesh does not want to surrender control. of the spiritual life. In Galatians 5, 17, the Bible says the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh, and they’re contrary one to another. There’s a war going on inside of you every day for your thoughts. And the flesh cries out, let me take control. And the Holy Spirit beseeches you, no, let me take control. And you are a victim of what you choose. Your volition makes a decision. Some of you are in trouble today because you made a volitional decision to listen to the flesh. You may have an addictive sin nature. You may have an addictive lust pattern. so that no one else is even aware of it. But guess who is? God is. Because the Bible says his eyes roam to and fro all over the earth. There’s nothing you can hide from God. And so even though the lights may be dim and the door may be shut, God sees and he knows. If you’re his child, if you’re a Christian, He knows what you’re doing. If you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ, the first thing you need to do when you shut the door is get on your knees and say, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Your heavenly father formed you. He’s aware of the struggle that you have. He knows what you’re going through. And thus he made a provision for you to have victory over the flesh. That provision is the filling of the Holy Spirit plus the dynamics of the living word of God in your soul. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit and you have the word of God in your soul, You have the resources you need to say no and the resources you need to overcome the temptation. The enemy definitely has a dossier on your weaknesses. There’s no doubt about that. And he will attack you at your weakest point. Now, this may surprise you. What do you think is your weakest point? And the answer is this, when you’re alone. When you’re alone, when you’re by yourself, that’s when you are weakest. And the flesh can be the strongest when you’re alone. That’s when the spiritual life is really lived, isn’t it? I mean, when you’re alone and no one’s watching you, that’s where we really find out what the spiritual life does, who you are, the real you. Paul said in Romans 12, 1, he wishes we would present our bodies a living and a holy sacrifice. He is referring to clean, acceptable believer who’s not tainted by the sins of the flesh by habit or by design. The word present is an aorist active infinitive in the Greek word peristome, and it’s at a point in time. And so there’s a point in time, a culminative aorist, a point in time in your life when you have to make a conscious decision to grow in grace by studying yourself, making yourself approved unto God. If anyone’s going to grow up in being a mature believer and glorify Jesus Christ at some point of time in their life, they have to make a decision. Now, I’m not talking about going forward in a revival and saying I’m here to dedicate my life to Christ and going out two days later and being the same old person. I’ve seen that. I’ve seen the same person go forward several times, dedicate my life to Christ, and goes out and does the same old thing because he never understands the protocol plan of God and how it works. And shame on the pastors that don’t teach it. But only by the means of the filling of the Holy Spirit are you able to carry out this request. This means that you have to make a determination in your own soul to not allow yourself to be enslaved by the flesh, but rather to present yourself as a free slave to your heavenly Father. And Paul says it’s a reasonable request. It’s a reasonable service. It’s a , the Greek word, reasonable service. It’s rational. It’s not irrational. It’s rational expectation to serve the Lord. It’s reasonable that if you came to Jesus Christ, and if, for example, if you go to church expecting to worship God and serve him, you can’t allow your flesh to taint your fellowship with God. If you give your life to God’s service, it’s not just for pastors and evangelists and missionaries. It’s for all of us. Everyone’s in full-time Christian service. Listen, at this point in time in your life, there’s no way you can really fully appreciate what Jesus Christ, our Lord, has provided for you. But once you cross over… From time to eternity, as I told you earlier, then you will become aware of all that’s been accomplished on your behalf. So the only way possible for you to fulfill this request to present your bodies as a living, holy sacrifice is to understand what it actually means. Your salvation guarantees that you’re going to have a resurrected life, that you have eternal life. It guarantees that your life will be imperishable and undefiled. It’s reserved for you in eternity, according to 1 Peter 1.3. But if you’re still hanging around in this sin-infected body, in this world, wondering what you should do with your life, then you have to do some consideration. So may I suggest Romans 12, 1 through 3. Since God has been merciful to you in providing your salvation through his Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Is it too much to ask in return that you surrender your will and destiny to him so you can be an instrument of his righteousness? And that requires an attitude adjustment. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That’s an imperative mood in the Greek of Romans 12, 1 through 3. You’re going to have to change the way you think. Change yourself. Shape from one form to another. Don’t emulate the lost world by being sucked into the cosmic system in some frantic search for happiness, but be transformed. That’s the mental attitude way of thinking. Change the way you think to morph from one form to another form. And that’s only accomplished through humility. You adopting the mindset of Jesus Christ. Until this happens in your life, you will always be a slave to your flesh. You will always be a slave to the inner desires. It is only Bible doctrine or what is the mind of Christ that can set you free from the slavery of the sin nature that enchains you right now. But it’s your choice. It’s certainly yours. You can be a slave to the lust of the flesh and live your life in shame. Or you can make a decision to do something about your future happiness. May I suggest that you surrender to a new master and serve only that master’s interest. Matthew 25, 14 through 30 talks about it. Matthew 25, 14 through 30. Look it up and read it. Serving the master’s interest. There’s a lot of other things to say, but time is short. I do want to thank you for listening. I appreciate your faithful attendance here on this radio show, and I pray you’ll come back next week, same time, same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
