May 13, 2026 • 27 mins
Spiritual renewal occurs when Christians seek to learn God’s Word. A national spiritual renewal must start with you. Revival brings unbelievers to Christ—but renewal brings believers back to the Word of God. In part two of the series, Rick Hughes challenges listeners to pursue genuine fellowship with God through recovery from sin, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to Scripture.
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(00:06):
Welcome to the Flat Line with your host Rick Hughes.
For the next 30 minutes you'll be inspired, motivated, educated
but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
Good morning and welcome to the Flat Line.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please
(00:27):
stay with me. Just about 30 minutes of
motivation, some inspiration, some education, and of course,
no manipulation because we don'tcon people.
We're not seeking offerings, contributions, not trying to
sell you anything. We just believe that if I can
verify and identify the plan of God for your life, at least you
have the choice to make. Whether or not you want to
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Orient and adjust to that plan, it's up to you.
My job is to be accurate. I'm not a politician, I'm an
evangelist. That's exactly what I am.
I'm not a pastor, I'm an evangelist.
I would like to see you get under the ministry of a well
qualified pastor. That's one of the things we
encourage you to do on this Flatline radio show.
(01:10):
So we've got our 800 number working again.
You feel free to call us again. It was out for a while, but the
telephone company finally got itfixed and now we've beginning to
get some 800 calls. I'm not sure they're getting the
answering machines working yet, but we're on the way.
I did talk to a few people todayon the 800 line.
And, you know, don't forget about our website,
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rickhughesministries.org. If you'd like to order any of
our books, you can go to the Rick Hughes Ministry website and
order from there free of charge.As always, we got a new book
coming out. I told you about that new book.
It's a reprint of Understanding Your Soul.
We've changed it up a little bit.
I think you'll really enjoy thisbook.
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My staff and I have been workingon it diligently and I can't
wait for you to get your hands on it.
It's called understanding your soul.
Now let's talk about something. Many years ago, Citizen Man
radios were introduced to America.
You might not remember it, but Ibet some of you do.
Some of you that are older, you'll remember when the Seabees
came out. I bet you might remember terms
(02:14):
like breaker, breaker 19. Anybody got their ears on, you
know, truckers talk to each other that way and let fellow
drivers know Smokey was up ahead.
Smokey was a Highway Patrol. Burt Reynolds made a movie
called Smokey and the Bandit starring old Jackie Gleason as
sheriff, Sheriff Buford T Justice.
And I think that's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
(02:37):
I had ACB in my own personal automobile.
I had a friend in Georgia who was a Georgia State Trooper, so
any time I traveled through his particular town, I would always
call on my Citizen Man radio forthe Georgia Cowboy and Trooper
123 would answer me saying he was just out there on the
Interstate riding herd. Of course, like anything else,
(02:59):
Citizen Man radios were misused and became a nightmare trying to
determine what was real and whatwas not real.
If you Fast forward from 1975 to2025, today we still have folks
communicating with one another except now it's on social media
like TikTok, Facebook, Instagramand many other social media
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websites. I often look at Facebook as I'm
having my morning coffee and theamount of preachers publishing
and pushing their platform to anyone curious enough to listen
is actually quite staggering. These type of individuals are
called influencers. Influencers and their message
sometimes is so confusing that many who watch really don't know
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what to believe. One influencer who's a pastor
tells you this, Another influencer who's a pastor tells
you that. And which one are you supposed
to believe? I call this a satanic
smokescreen. In recent months, there appears
to be a spiritual revival takingplace.
A lot of things happening and I hope that indeed it is a revival
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taking place, but many celebrities are now admitting
that they have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
There have been large movements on college campuses.
They've occurring with many asking to be baptized as an
admission to their salvation. We don't have any more
evangelists like Billy Graham packing out football stadiums
like he did in those days, but rather social media influencers
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calling daily 24/7. If this is truly real, and, and
I pray that it is, and I thank God for the many who are
accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, America needs a revival.
So much of what we used to call evil is now being accepted as
good, and things that we used tocall good are now being called
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evil. For example, sexual perversion
is promoted as a normal choice. Drugs and violence have invaded
all our major cities across the country.
Unchecked arrogance has swept across our land.
It's no wonder what the Bible says in Jeremiah 17.
Nine. You want to hear it?
Here it is quote. The heart is deceitful above all
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things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
The wonderful thing about getting saved is that God gives
you a new heart through a spiritual birth.
Did you know that you can get a spiritual heart transplant in
Ezekiel 3626? A new heart also will I give
you. A new spirit will I put within
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you, and I'll take away the Stony heart out of your flesh
and give you a heart of new flesh.
A new heart of flesh. Let me read that again.
Ezekiel 203626-A new heart also will I give you.
A new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the
Stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of
flesh. That particular verse that I
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just quoted to you was written to Judah, the southern Kingdom,
which was actually in bondage toBabylon at the time.
The promise that is there refersto what would happen in the
nation once God freed them from captivity.
In chapter 36, God had just promised Israel would be
restored to her land under the leadership of David, her
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rightful king. So in Ezekiel 3624 you read
these words, where I will take you from among the heathen, and
I will gather you out of the countries, and I will bring you
into your own land. Their captivity was a result of
their sinful ways. And notice God stated the very
reason why He was going to restore them in verse 32.
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Ezekiel 36. Not for your sakes will I do
this, said the Lord God. Be it known unto you, Be ashamed
and confounded for your own ways, O House of Israel.
So giving them a new heart was ametaphor for bringing in forced
humility through divine discipline.
Thus Israel would have new desires and a new attitude.
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Remorse and turning from sinful habits and desires is always
proof of that spiritual event wecall salvation.
When I accepted Christ as my Savior, I remember the choices
that I had to make and not too, not too much after that.
And I found that certain things I didn't want to do them anymore
because I knew they would not bepleasing to God.
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So I had remorse and I had turning from my sinful habits,
sinful ways. If you could just imagine the
moral shift in America if thousands of people respond to
the gospel message, that would be a national revival in
America, and it would produce a similar effect, a remorse and a
turning away and a new attitude and new desires.
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On the other hand, I want to give you another word, not a
revival, but a spiritual renewal.
What is that? A spiritual renewal?
I'm talking about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, people
who have already been saved. If you have a spiritual renewal,
you would have a new hunker for the Word of God.
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That's what we're looking for. In Jeremiah 1516 thy words were
found, and I did eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy
and the rejoicing of my heart. For I'm called by thy name, O
Lord God of hosts, did you hear that Your words were found?
And I ate them. Delicious, wonderful.
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And it was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart.
That's what we must have in America.
We must have people that God's word is joyful.
Congreve to eat the word of God.The Flatline radio broadcast is
not necessarily reaching thousands of lost people.
I know that in our case, we're reaching believers like
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yourself, those of you that are listening this morning, those of
you who choose to listen to thismessage.
But what I hope to see is a spiritual renewal in the lives
of those of you that are listening.
That means a new desire for you to grow spiritually from being a
baby Christian to a student without academic portfolio, to
eventually a mature believer whomaximally glorifies God to the
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maximum, but to realize what God's will for your life is and
come to the one who glorifies God to the maximum.
And I get a lot of letters from listeners and they say they're
understanding these things. They say they're learning things
they never knew before. And these are the believers who
are having a spiritual renewal in their life.
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Many of them have ordered our free books and free material and
are studying it and passing it on to their friends.
Many of them are asking me wherecan I find a well qualified
pastor to teach me the word of God and I am so grateful for
that. Many years ago I was speaking at
a church in Columbus, Ms. This is a funny story, but it's true.
I had a man who wanted to rededicate his life to the Lord
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Jesus Christ. He had been saved years before
but has slipped back into his old lifestyle.
So he asked me how do I rededicate, rededicate my life?
And I said well, 123 rededicate me.
He said. I tried that, it didn't work.
Of course, I didn't know what totell him at that time because I
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myself did not understand the mechanics to living a successful
Christian life. It was obvious I didn't know
what I was talking about and I was the preacher.
By God's grace, I learned how torecover my spiritual direction
once I drifted off course. And now I do understand how to
recover from sin and failure. That's why we push you to
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constantly rebound, rebound, rebound.
When you know you've sinned, when you know you've committed a
sin, you know you've failed. Rebound first.
John 19. And that's the key to being
filled with the Holy Spirit. So the key to changing America's
direction is to put people in the pulpit.
Pastors who know what they're talking about, No religious
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performers who use emotional appeals hoping to reach
individuals. If you want to know, and this is
a very good question, I don't know if you want to try it or
not, but if you want to know what your pastor believes, you
can ask him one simple question.Here's the question.
It's a simple question, What must I do to be a good
Christian? Why would you want to do that?
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Well then first John 41, the Bible says, beloved, believe it
and believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God or not, because many false prophets have gone out
into the world. So that's not a very hard
question. What must I do to be a good
Christian? And the answer is really simple.
You only need two things to execute the Christian life.
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One is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and the other is
the acknowledgement of the Scriptures because both have
amazing power in your life. In Acts 18, the Bible says you
shall receive power dunamis. We get a word dynamite from
that. You shall receive power after
the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you will be witnesses
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unto me both in Jerusalem and inall of Judea, even in Samaria
and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Samaria was a part of town nobody wanted to go into.
And when people become filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Spirit will use them as a witness for the Lord Jesus
Christ because He said if I be lifted up, I will draw men unto
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me and that's my job and your job to lift up the Lord Jesus
Christ to replicate his life, reproduce Christ and our
thinking so that we are thinkingdivine viewpoint.
So the the Holy Spirit is the power we need to live the
Christian life, but he also needthe power of the scriptures.
And so in Hebrews 412, the Word of God is alive and powerful,
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sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of the soul and the spirit and of the joints in the
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of
the heart. So what is powerful?
The Word of God? Where do we get our power from
the Holy Spirit. Without the filling of the Holy
Spirit, you would have no spiritual power.
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Likewise, without the knowledge of the Scriptures, you would
have no wisdom or understanding of what God's plan is.
Now let's back up just a minute.Where does this Holy Spirit come
from? Well, remember when you got
saved, whatever day it was, maybe you remember it, maybe you
don't. It's it's not necessary.
You remember exactly when it happened.
But if you it did happen, that'sthe point.
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You have believed in Christ and when you believed in him.
Listen to Ephesians 113 in whom you also trusted after you heard
the word of truth. That's the gospel, the gospel of
your salvation. It says in whom after that you
believed as getting saved, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit
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of promise. So the Holy Spirit was placed
into your life the moment you believed in Jesus Christ.
He made your human spirit come alive so that you could have
fellowship with God. And he's there to coach you and
mentor you and direct you. That's his job.
If you don't understand what you're talking about, you're
just having ritual without reality, and that's what
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religion is, ritual without reality.
Sometimes it has to be the reality of what it's all about.
So here's the first one, the first mandate in regards to the
Holy Spirit. Write it down, remember it.
Ephesians 518, Paul wrote, do not be drunk with wine because
of excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
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That's not asking, that's telling you it is my job and
your job for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
We are not to be filled with theflesh.
We have two enemies, you know, the flesh and the Spirit.
So the, the Bible clearly says the, the spirit wars against the
flesh and the flesh wars againstthe Spirit and they're contrary
one to the other. And you have to make a decision
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every day when you get up. Am I going to walk in the
filling of the Spirit, or am I going to let my flesh take over
and I'm going to live under the control of my flesh right now as
you're listening to me maybe driving your car or maybe
sitting at home and listening toyour radio, maybe on a podcast.
By the way, we just passed 2,000,000 downloads on our
podcast program. Wherever you are, you are either
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filled with a spirit or you are under control of your flesh.
There's no in between. Either you're in fellowship with
God or you're out of fellowship with God.
So the first one is about being in fellowship with God.
Be filled with the Spirit. And then here's another mandate,
another command from the apostlePaul.
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Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until
the day of redemption. It's the day the Lord Jesus
Christ takes you to heaven at the exit resurrection, which we
call the rapture of the church. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, Grieve not. And then in First Thessalonians
519, quench not the Spirit of God.
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One of them. Quench means to shut off the
fire, shut off the power. If you don't understand these
three simple verses, there will never, ever, ever be a spiritual
renewal in America. Well, mostly because prayers
won't be answered. People can pray all they want
to, but they don't know how to pray.
It's not going to work. These three mandates must be
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understood if you want to have arenewal in America.
Does your church teach this? I'm asking you now, think about
it. Does your church teach this?
Does your pastor explain these things to you?
I mean, if you want to go into any Christian bookstore and pick
up the latest seller Christian book, and it's sometimes it's
pitiful what's there. But if you go in and pick these
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up and look at them, you, you'reprobably not going to find
anywhere that the author tells you you must be filled with the
Holy Spirit because most authorsnever even mention it.
Every one of our books, it's right off the bat, right off the
first page. If you're not filled with the
Holy Spirit, you're not going tobe able to get any spiritual
phenomena out of this book because it's the Holy Spirit
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that teaches you these things. So what about it?
Does your church teach this? Does your church teach the
filling of the Spirit? Does your church team that teach
you not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God and don't quench
the Holy Spirit of God? After a national revival, the
new converts must get into a local church when it teaches the
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Bible in depth. Listen to Ezekiel 2230.
And I sought for a man among them that should make up the
hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I
should not destroy it. But I could not find one.
That's a sad state of affairs. No pastors, no communicators who
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would stand in the gap for God. Why was that so?
Or why is it so hard to day to find a well qualified pastor who
will teach in depth, line upon line, precept upon precept?
I think the reason is because Satan has done a masterful job.
He's really done a job on the church today.
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Because many churches are like many Disney worlds.
Fun and games for the kiddos, entertainments for the adults.
Trips here, trips there, go here, go there.
Sadly, so many believers don't even come to church to learn the
Bible. They come for the fellowship.
They come for the worship experience, which in reality
most of the time is no worship at all.
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If the pastor only has about 20 minutes to teach the Bible,
after all the other preliminaries, after all the
fussing over who's going to singthe special and all this other
stuff, the offertory and whatever else is going on, it's
almost impossible for him to have any time to teach.
I mean, look at the logistics here.
It's impossible for him to feed you a gourmet meal of divine
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truth if he doesn't have time toprepare the meal.
So maybe he's going to get to teach you 30 minutes on Sunday
morning and then maybe 30 minutes on Wednesday night.
If he does teach you, then between Sunday morning, Sunday
night, and Wednesday night, that's about 90 minutes a week.
By illustration, if you send your child to the first grade
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and they only get 90 minutes of teaching a week, they will
never, ever graduate from the first grade.
You can understand that if you want to have an effective, if
you want to have an effective, impactful Christian life, you
better learn how to do the rightthing in the right way.
It's not about you getting a book of motivation, inspiration
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by the bookstore so you can readyour morning devotional.
That's not how you grow. It's a wonderful you do that.
I hope you will do that. But it's that pastor's job to
get into the scriptures and teach it to you, line upon line,
precept upon precept. You're not supposed to teach
yourself your Bible is a textbook.
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It's not supposed to. And if they gave you an algebra
textbook that said teach yourself, you'd never learn it.
Same thing with the Bible. I'm glad you read your Bible.
I know the Holy Spirit will use it to speak to you.
But you've got to have a pastor that can teach it to you and
break it down so you don't misunderstand what you're
reading. Because that's what happens a
lot of times people think, take things out of context.
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Next thing you know, they're teaching something that's not
even true. So remember, at any time in your
life, this day, today, this Sunday, you're either going to
be in fellowship with God under control of the Holy Spirit, or
you're going to be out of fellowship with God under
control of your sin nature. What a sad state of affair to
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have a church house full of people out of fellowship because
they have unconfessed sin in their life.
There can never be a spiritual renewal in America until pastors
teach truth. Until we learn how to pray
effective prayers. Until we learn how to live the
Christian life on a daily basis and forget the emotions that go
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with this stuff today. Trying to sell books, sell
music, whatever you're trying topush has to be teaching from the
pulpit. There have to be men that are
willing to risk their career to stand up and teach the Bible.
Because I'll tell you what, whena man decides to stand up and
start teaching the Bible, he's probably going to get fired
because they want him to come shake and glad head and go to
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the hospital and visit people and pray with people and come
over here and come over there. He didn't have time to study and
teach. When he tries to study and
teach, they're not going to likeit.
I know churches where they have been let go, pastors have been
let go because they talk too much.
And it's never impossible. It's impossible to teach too
much because this is what God uses for you to grow.
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If you're a pastor, listen to me.
Get in the pulpit and teach the Bible line upon line, word upon
word, precept upon precept, OK? Galatians 517 teaches us the
flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit wars against the
flesh, and they're contrary one to the other so that you cannot
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do the things that you would. This is the battle that goes on
in your life every day. You want to know why you do
stupid things. Sometimes you feel like a nut
and sometimes you don't. It's because you have that sin
nature inside of you and you will always have it until you
leave this body and get that resurrection body.
And you will not have a sin nature in heaven.
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That thing will be gone. But right now it's the cancer
that lives in you. It's the sin nature.
It came from Adam. Adam's original sin was imputed
to us, and that's the battle we face every day.
Sometimes you do what's right, sometimes you do what's wrong.
You know why? Because God gave you volition.
He gave you the choice. You can choose.
You can choose to execute God's plan, or you can choose to do
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what you want to do. So many believers choose not to
learn, not to grow, not to study.
They're busy. They got careers, they got jobs,
they got children, they got hobbies, They got whatever
they're doing. They don't have time.
I know many, many, many people. I spend time every day listening
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to the teaching of the Word of God.
I know many pastors who teach the Bible on a consistent basis
so that you can study every day as resources are available, so
that you can take in the Word ofGod every day.
My own pastor has been teaching the book of Philippians now for
quite a while. Line upon line, word upon word,
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precept upon precept. Hundreds of hours plotting
through Philippians, learning it, applying it, and glorifying
God as a result of it. I'm very thankful for that
because Satan worked very hard to confuse believers in regards
to the Holy Spirit's ministry. So unless this doctrine is
taught and taught correctly and understood, there will never be
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a spiritual revival, You hear me?
Unless it's taught and taught accurately, there will never be
a spiritual revival. We need a spiritual renewal.
We need believers to be renewed spiritually.
We need unbelievers to get saved.
That's a revival. And then we need a spiritual
renewal on top of that. So good intentions are well
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meaning, but they're unacceptable to God.
And where do you find that in First Corinthians 311 through
15? It's called wood, hay and
stubble, gold, silver, and precious stones.
Just think of the many things you've done in regards to God.
And then when the judgement seatof Christ comes, you find out
you did it for nothing, just like it's fire material because
you did it in the energy of yourflesh.
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You did a good deed, but you didit in the wrong way.
A national spiritual renewal must start with you.
Matthew 1128 through 30 Coming to me, all ye that labor and
heavy laden, I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly
in heart. You will find rest unto your
souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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Did you hear that coming to me? He offers you a wonderful way to
live. Not only does He provide eternal
life through His sacrifice for us on the cross, but He also
offers a life of happiness and security as well as rest in your
soul. That rest is peace with God.
Romans 51 Therefore, being justified by faith, we have
peace with God. As a child of God, you have
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access to His throne by prayer. Listen to Jeremiah 33.
Three, call unto me, and I will answer you and show you great
and mighty things which you knowus not.
You must remember that two things are necessary for
effective prayer. First, you're going to be saved.
Remember the royal family of God.
And secondly, you must be filledwith the Holy Spirit, because
unconfessed sin will block your prayer in Psalm 6618.
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If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me. Spiritually mature believers
know how to pray, and they get answers.
Are your prayers being heard andare they being answered?
I trust that's true, and I trustyou're part of that national
spiritual renewal that we desperately need.
I have a bookmark you might wantto order that identifies several
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reasons prayers are not answered.
You can go to our website and order 10 Reasons God Doesn't
Answer certain Prayers. All right, I hope you've enjoyed
this. I hope it's been a challenge to
you. I want to see a spiritual
renewal in America, beginning with a revival that sweeps this
country and millions coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank
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you for listening to The Floodline.
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick
Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick,
please write to him at PO Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or
online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
Welcome to the Flat Line with your host Rick Hughes.
For the next 30 minutes you'll be inspired, motivated, educated
but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
Good morning and welcome to the Flat Line.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please
(00:27):
stay with me. Just about 30 minutes of
motivation, some inspiration, some education, and of course,
no manipulation because we don'tcon people.
We're not seeking offerings, contributions, not trying to
sell you anything. We just believe that if I can
verify and identify the plan of God for your life, at least you
have the choice to make. Whether or not you want to
(00:49):
Orient and adjust to that plan, it's up to you.
My job is to be accurate. I'm not a politician, I'm an
evangelist. That's exactly what I am.
I'm not a pastor, I'm an evangelist.
I would like to see you get under the ministry of a well
qualified pastor. That's one of the things we
encourage you to do on this Flatline radio show.
(01:10):
So we've got our 800 number working again.
You feel free to call us again. It was out for a while, but the
telephone company finally got itfixed and now we've beginning to
get some 800 calls. I'm not sure they're getting the
answering machines working yet, but we're on the way.
I did talk to a few people todayon the 800 line.
And, you know, don't forget about our website,
(01:31):
rickhughesministries.org. If you'd like to order any of
our books, you can go to the Rick Hughes Ministry website and
order from there free of charge.As always, we got a new book
coming out. I told you about that new book.
It's a reprint of Understanding Your Soul.
We've changed it up a little bit.
I think you'll really enjoy thisbook.
(01:52):
My staff and I have been workingon it diligently and I can't
wait for you to get your hands on it.
It's called understanding your soul.
Now let's talk about something. Many years ago, Citizen Man
radios were introduced to America.
You might not remember it, but Ibet some of you do.
Some of you that are older, you'll remember when the Seabees
came out. I bet you might remember terms
(02:14):
like breaker, breaker 19. Anybody got their ears on, you
know, truckers talk to each other that way and let fellow
drivers know Smokey was up ahead.
Smokey was a Highway Patrol. Burt Reynolds made a movie
called Smokey and the Bandit starring old Jackie Gleason as
sheriff, Sheriff Buford T Justice.
And I think that's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
(02:37):
I had ACB in my own personal automobile.
I had a friend in Georgia who was a Georgia State Trooper, so
any time I traveled through his particular town, I would always
call on my Citizen Man radio forthe Georgia Cowboy and Trooper
123 would answer me saying he was just out there on the
Interstate riding herd. Of course, like anything else,
(02:59):
Citizen Man radios were misused and became a nightmare trying to
determine what was real and whatwas not real.
If you Fast forward from 1975 to2025, today we still have folks
communicating with one another except now it's on social media
like TikTok, Facebook, Instagramand many other social media
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websites. I often look at Facebook as I'm
having my morning coffee and theamount of preachers publishing
and pushing their platform to anyone curious enough to listen
is actually quite staggering. These type of individuals are
called influencers. Influencers and their message
sometimes is so confusing that many who watch really don't know
(03:42):
what to believe. One influencer who's a pastor
tells you this, Another influencer who's a pastor tells
you that. And which one are you supposed
to believe? I call this a satanic
smokescreen. In recent months, there appears
to be a spiritual revival takingplace.
A lot of things happening and I hope that indeed it is a revival
(04:03):
taking place, but many celebrities are now admitting
that they have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
There have been large movements on college campuses.
They've occurring with many asking to be baptized as an
admission to their salvation. We don't have any more
evangelists like Billy Graham packing out football stadiums
like he did in those days, but rather social media influencers
(04:27):
calling daily 24/7. If this is truly real, and, and
I pray that it is, and I thank God for the many who are
accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, America needs a revival.
So much of what we used to call evil is now being accepted as
good, and things that we used tocall good are now being called
(04:48):
evil. For example, sexual perversion
is promoted as a normal choice. Drugs and violence have invaded
all our major cities across the country.
Unchecked arrogance has swept across our land.
It's no wonder what the Bible says in Jeremiah 17.
Nine. You want to hear it?
Here it is quote. The heart is deceitful above all
(05:10):
things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
The wonderful thing about getting saved is that God gives
you a new heart through a spiritual birth.
Did you know that you can get a spiritual heart transplant in
Ezekiel 3626? A new heart also will I give
you. A new spirit will I put within
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you, and I'll take away the Stony heart out of your flesh
and give you a heart of new flesh.
A new heart of flesh. Let me read that again.
Ezekiel 203626-A new heart also will I give you.
A new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the
Stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of
flesh. That particular verse that I
(05:52):
just quoted to you was written to Judah, the southern Kingdom,
which was actually in bondage toBabylon at the time.
The promise that is there refersto what would happen in the
nation once God freed them from captivity.
In chapter 36, God had just promised Israel would be
restored to her land under the leadership of David, her
(06:13):
rightful king. So in Ezekiel 3624 you read
these words, where I will take you from among the heathen, and
I will gather you out of the countries, and I will bring you
into your own land. Their captivity was a result of
their sinful ways. And notice God stated the very
reason why He was going to restore them in verse 32.
(06:36):
Ezekiel 36. Not for your sakes will I do
this, said the Lord God. Be it known unto you, Be ashamed
and confounded for your own ways, O House of Israel.
So giving them a new heart was ametaphor for bringing in forced
humility through divine discipline.
Thus Israel would have new desires and a new attitude.
(06:59):
Remorse and turning from sinful habits and desires is always
proof of that spiritual event wecall salvation.
When I accepted Christ as my Savior, I remember the choices
that I had to make and not too, not too much after that.
And I found that certain things I didn't want to do them anymore
because I knew they would not bepleasing to God.
(07:20):
So I had remorse and I had turning from my sinful habits,
sinful ways. If you could just imagine the
moral shift in America if thousands of people respond to
the gospel message, that would be a national revival in
America, and it would produce a similar effect, a remorse and a
turning away and a new attitude and new desires.
(07:43):
On the other hand, I want to give you another word, not a
revival, but a spiritual renewal.
What is that? A spiritual renewal?
I'm talking about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, people
who have already been saved. If you have a spiritual renewal,
you would have a new hunker for the Word of God.
(08:04):
That's what we're looking for. In Jeremiah 1516 thy words were
found, and I did eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy
and the rejoicing of my heart. For I'm called by thy name, O
Lord God of hosts, did you hear that Your words were found?
And I ate them. Delicious, wonderful.
(08:25):
And it was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart.
That's what we must have in America.
We must have people that God's word is joyful.
Congreve to eat the word of God.The Flatline radio broadcast is
not necessarily reaching thousands of lost people.
I know that in our case, we're reaching believers like
(08:45):
yourself, those of you that are listening this morning, those of
you who choose to listen to thismessage.
But what I hope to see is a spiritual renewal in the lives
of those of you that are listening.
That means a new desire for you to grow spiritually from being a
baby Christian to a student without academic portfolio, to
eventually a mature believer whomaximally glorifies God to the
(09:08):
maximum, but to realize what God's will for your life is and
come to the one who glorifies God to the maximum.
And I get a lot of letters from listeners and they say they're
understanding these things. They say they're learning things
they never knew before. And these are the believers who
are having a spiritual renewal in their life.
(09:29):
Many of them have ordered our free books and free material and
are studying it and passing it on to their friends.
Many of them are asking me wherecan I find a well qualified
pastor to teach me the word of God and I am so grateful for
that. Many years ago I was speaking at
a church in Columbus, Ms. This is a funny story, but it's true.
I had a man who wanted to rededicate his life to the Lord
(09:53):
Jesus Christ. He had been saved years before
but has slipped back into his old lifestyle.
So he asked me how do I rededicate, rededicate my life?
And I said well, 123 rededicate me.
He said. I tried that, it didn't work.
Of course, I didn't know what totell him at that time because I
(10:13):
myself did not understand the mechanics to living a successful
Christian life. It was obvious I didn't know
what I was talking about and I was the preacher.
By God's grace, I learned how torecover my spiritual direction
once I drifted off course. And now I do understand how to
recover from sin and failure. That's why we push you to
(10:33):
constantly rebound, rebound, rebound.
When you know you've sinned, when you know you've committed a
sin, you know you've failed. Rebound first.
John 19. And that's the key to being
filled with the Holy Spirit. So the key to changing America's
direction is to put people in the pulpit.
Pastors who know what they're talking about, No religious
(10:56):
performers who use emotional appeals hoping to reach
individuals. If you want to know, and this is
a very good question, I don't know if you want to try it or
not, but if you want to know what your pastor believes, you
can ask him one simple question.Here's the question.
It's a simple question, What must I do to be a good
Christian? Why would you want to do that?
(11:19):
Well then first John 41, the Bible says, beloved, believe it
and believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God or not, because many false prophets have gone out
into the world. So that's not a very hard
question. What must I do to be a good
Christian? And the answer is really simple.
You only need two things to execute the Christian life.
(11:41):
One is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and the other is
the acknowledgement of the Scriptures because both have
amazing power in your life. In Acts 18, the Bible says you
shall receive power dunamis. We get a word dynamite from
that. You shall receive power after
the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you will be witnesses
(12:04):
unto me both in Jerusalem and inall of Judea, even in Samaria
and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Samaria was a part of town nobody wanted to go into.
And when people become filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Spirit will use them as a witness for the Lord Jesus
Christ because He said if I be lifted up, I will draw men unto
(12:25):
me and that's my job and your job to lift up the Lord Jesus
Christ to replicate his life, reproduce Christ and our
thinking so that we are thinkingdivine viewpoint.
So the the Holy Spirit is the power we need to live the
Christian life, but he also needthe power of the scriptures.
And so in Hebrews 412, the Word of God is alive and powerful,
(12:49):
sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of the soul and the spirit and of the joints in the
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of
the heart. So what is powerful?
The Word of God? Where do we get our power from
the Holy Spirit. Without the filling of the Holy
Spirit, you would have no spiritual power.
(13:12):
Likewise, without the knowledge of the Scriptures, you would
have no wisdom or understanding of what God's plan is.
Now let's back up just a minute.Where does this Holy Spirit come
from? Well, remember when you got
saved, whatever day it was, maybe you remember it, maybe you
don't. It's it's not necessary.
You remember exactly when it happened.
But if you it did happen, that'sthe point.
(13:34):
You have believed in Christ and when you believed in him.
Listen to Ephesians 113 in whom you also trusted after you heard
the word of truth. That's the gospel, the gospel of
your salvation. It says in whom after that you
believed as getting saved, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit
(13:54):
of promise. So the Holy Spirit was placed
into your life the moment you believed in Jesus Christ.
He made your human spirit come alive so that you could have
fellowship with God. And he's there to coach you and
mentor you and direct you. That's his job.
If you don't understand what you're talking about, you're
just having ritual without reality, and that's what
(14:16):
religion is, ritual without reality.
Sometimes it has to be the reality of what it's all about.
So here's the first one, the first mandate in regards to the
Holy Spirit. Write it down, remember it.
Ephesians 518, Paul wrote, do not be drunk with wine because
of excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
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That's not asking, that's telling you it is my job and
your job for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
We are not to be filled with theflesh.
We have two enemies, you know, the flesh and the Spirit.
So the, the Bible clearly says the, the spirit wars against the
flesh and the flesh wars againstthe Spirit and they're contrary
one to the other. And you have to make a decision
(15:00):
every day when you get up. Am I going to walk in the
filling of the Spirit, or am I going to let my flesh take over
and I'm going to live under the control of my flesh right now as
you're listening to me maybe driving your car or maybe
sitting at home and listening toyour radio, maybe on a podcast.
By the way, we just passed 2,000,000 downloads on our
podcast program. Wherever you are, you are either
(15:24):
filled with a spirit or you are under control of your flesh.
There's no in between. Either you're in fellowship with
God or you're out of fellowship with God.
So the first one is about being in fellowship with God.
Be filled with the Spirit. And then here's another mandate,
another command from the apostlePaul.
(15:44):
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until
the day of redemption. It's the day the Lord Jesus
Christ takes you to heaven at the exit resurrection, which we
call the rapture of the church. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, Grieve not. And then in First Thessalonians
519, quench not the Spirit of God.
(16:08):
One of them. Quench means to shut off the
fire, shut off the power. If you don't understand these
three simple verses, there will never, ever, ever be a spiritual
renewal in America. Well, mostly because prayers
won't be answered. People can pray all they want
to, but they don't know how to pray.
It's not going to work. These three mandates must be
(16:29):
understood if you want to have arenewal in America.
Does your church teach this? I'm asking you now, think about
it. Does your church teach this?
Does your pastor explain these things to you?
I mean, if you want to go into any Christian bookstore and pick
up the latest seller Christian book, and it's sometimes it's
pitiful what's there. But if you go in and pick these
(16:51):
up and look at them, you, you'reprobably not going to find
anywhere that the author tells you you must be filled with the
Holy Spirit because most authorsnever even mention it.
Every one of our books, it's right off the bat, right off the
first page. If you're not filled with the
Holy Spirit, you're not going tobe able to get any spiritual
phenomena out of this book because it's the Holy Spirit
(17:11):
that teaches you these things. So what about it?
Does your church teach this? Does your church teach the
filling of the Spirit? Does your church team that teach
you not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God and don't quench
the Holy Spirit of God? After a national revival, the
new converts must get into a local church when it teaches the
(17:33):
Bible in depth. Listen to Ezekiel 2230.
And I sought for a man among them that should make up the
hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I
should not destroy it. But I could not find one.
That's a sad state of affairs. No pastors, no communicators who
(17:55):
would stand in the gap for God. Why was that so?
Or why is it so hard to day to find a well qualified pastor who
will teach in depth, line upon line, precept upon precept?
I think the reason is because Satan has done a masterful job.
He's really done a job on the church today.
(18:17):
Because many churches are like many Disney worlds.
Fun and games for the kiddos, entertainments for the adults.
Trips here, trips there, go here, go there.
Sadly, so many believers don't even come to church to learn the
Bible. They come for the fellowship.
They come for the worship experience, which in reality
most of the time is no worship at all.
(18:39):
If the pastor only has about 20 minutes to teach the Bible,
after all the other preliminaries, after all the
fussing over who's going to singthe special and all this other
stuff, the offertory and whatever else is going on, it's
almost impossible for him to have any time to teach.
I mean, look at the logistics here.
It's impossible for him to feed you a gourmet meal of divine
(19:02):
truth if he doesn't have time toprepare the meal.
So maybe he's going to get to teach you 30 minutes on Sunday
morning and then maybe 30 minutes on Wednesday night.
If he does teach you, then between Sunday morning, Sunday
night, and Wednesday night, that's about 90 minutes a week.
By illustration, if you send your child to the first grade
(19:23):
and they only get 90 minutes of teaching a week, they will
never, ever graduate from the first grade.
You can understand that if you want to have an effective, if
you want to have an effective, impactful Christian life, you
better learn how to do the rightthing in the right way.
It's not about you getting a book of motivation, inspiration
(19:46):
by the bookstore so you can readyour morning devotional.
That's not how you grow. It's a wonderful you do that.
I hope you will do that. But it's that pastor's job to
get into the scriptures and teach it to you, line upon line,
precept upon precept. You're not supposed to teach
yourself your Bible is a textbook.
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It's not supposed to. And if they gave you an algebra
textbook that said teach yourself, you'd never learn it.
Same thing with the Bible. I'm glad you read your Bible.
I know the Holy Spirit will use it to speak to you.
But you've got to have a pastor that can teach it to you and
break it down so you don't misunderstand what you're
reading. Because that's what happens a
lot of times people think, take things out of context.
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Next thing you know, they're teaching something that's not
even true. So remember, at any time in your
life, this day, today, this Sunday, you're either going to
be in fellowship with God under control of the Holy Spirit, or
you're going to be out of fellowship with God under
control of your sin nature. What a sad state of affair to
(20:50):
have a church house full of people out of fellowship because
they have unconfessed sin in their life.
There can never be a spiritual renewal in America until pastors
teach truth. Until we learn how to pray
effective prayers. Until we learn how to live the
Christian life on a daily basis and forget the emotions that go
(21:13):
with this stuff today. Trying to sell books, sell
music, whatever you're trying topush has to be teaching from the
pulpit. There have to be men that are
willing to risk their career to stand up and teach the Bible.
Because I'll tell you what, whena man decides to stand up and
start teaching the Bible, he's probably going to get fired
because they want him to come shake and glad head and go to
(21:33):
the hospital and visit people and pray with people and come
over here and come over there. He didn't have time to study and
teach. When he tries to study and
teach, they're not going to likeit.
I know churches where they have been let go, pastors have been
let go because they talk too much.
And it's never impossible. It's impossible to teach too
much because this is what God uses for you to grow.
(21:55):
If you're a pastor, listen to me.
Get in the pulpit and teach the Bible line upon line, word upon
word, precept upon precept, OK? Galatians 517 teaches us the
flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit wars against the
flesh, and they're contrary one to the other so that you cannot
(22:17):
do the things that you would. This is the battle that goes on
in your life every day. You want to know why you do
stupid things. Sometimes you feel like a nut
and sometimes you don't. It's because you have that sin
nature inside of you and you will always have it until you
leave this body and get that resurrection body.
And you will not have a sin nature in heaven.
(22:37):
That thing will be gone. But right now it's the cancer
that lives in you. It's the sin nature.
It came from Adam. Adam's original sin was imputed
to us, and that's the battle we face every day.
Sometimes you do what's right, sometimes you do what's wrong.
You know why? Because God gave you volition.
He gave you the choice. You can choose.
You can choose to execute God's plan, or you can choose to do
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what you want to do. So many believers choose not to
learn, not to grow, not to study.
They're busy. They got careers, they got jobs,
they got children, they got hobbies, They got whatever
they're doing. They don't have time.
I know many, many, many people. I spend time every day listening
(23:21):
to the teaching of the Word of God.
I know many pastors who teach the Bible on a consistent basis
so that you can study every day as resources are available, so
that you can take in the Word ofGod every day.
My own pastor has been teaching the book of Philippians now for
quite a while. Line upon line, word upon word,
(23:43):
precept upon precept. Hundreds of hours plotting
through Philippians, learning it, applying it, and glorifying
God as a result of it. I'm very thankful for that
because Satan worked very hard to confuse believers in regards
to the Holy Spirit's ministry. So unless this doctrine is
taught and taught correctly and understood, there will never be
(24:07):
a spiritual revival, You hear me?
Unless it's taught and taught accurately, there will never be
a spiritual revival. We need a spiritual renewal.
We need believers to be renewed spiritually.
We need unbelievers to get saved.
That's a revival. And then we need a spiritual
renewal on top of that. So good intentions are well
(24:29):
meaning, but they're unacceptable to God.
And where do you find that in First Corinthians 311 through
15? It's called wood, hay and
stubble, gold, silver, and precious stones.
Just think of the many things you've done in regards to God.
And then when the judgement seatof Christ comes, you find out
you did it for nothing, just like it's fire material because
you did it in the energy of yourflesh.
(24:51):
You did a good deed, but you didit in the wrong way.
A national spiritual renewal must start with you.
Matthew 1128 through 30 Coming to me, all ye that labor and
heavy laden, I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly
in heart. You will find rest unto your
souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
(25:12):
Did you hear that coming to me? He offers you a wonderful way to
live. Not only does He provide eternal
life through His sacrifice for us on the cross, but He also
offers a life of happiness and security as well as rest in your
soul. That rest is peace with God.
Romans 51 Therefore, being justified by faith, we have
peace with God. As a child of God, you have
(25:34):
access to His throne by prayer. Listen to Jeremiah 33.
Three, call unto me, and I will answer you and show you great
and mighty things which you knowus not.
You must remember that two things are necessary for
effective prayer. First, you're going to be saved.
Remember the royal family of God.
And secondly, you must be filledwith the Holy Spirit, because
unconfessed sin will block your prayer in Psalm 6618.
(25:58):
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me. Spiritually mature believers
know how to pray, and they get answers.
Are your prayers being heard andare they being answered?
I trust that's true, and I trustyou're part of that national
spiritual renewal that we desperately need.
I have a bookmark you might wantto order that identifies several
(26:19):
reasons prayers are not answered.
You can go to our website and order 10 Reasons God Doesn't
Answer certain Prayers. All right, I hope you've enjoyed
this. I hope it's been a challenge to
you. I want to see a spiritual
renewal in America, beginning with a revival that sweeps this
country and millions coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank
(26:41):
you for listening to The Floodline.
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick
Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick,
please write to him at PO Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or
online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
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