This is the Truth Network. When's the last time you stop to refuel? My buddy, my mentor, my longtime discipler has written a whole Devotional book on refueling your soul. He is Rick Hoppy Rick. This is so important, man.
We get moving so fast.
Sometimes we don't. Dial into what God's saying, what God's doing, man. Is this kind of what inspired your book? Talk about that, will you?
Well, yeah, essentially I love uh Encouraging people. And uh several years ago I Hit a spot in my life where I got discouraged and burned out. And I knew I needed to understand the grace of God better, and so I essentially. was Try to please God. I knew I was supposed to please God, and 2 Corinthians 5 talks about that.
But I felt like I was displeasing God if there wasn't this overt pleasing of God. I was. supposed to fear God and I had an unhealthy fear of God. I had a servile fear of God. I knew I was supposed to do good works and all these things, and so I...
I just got burnt out. I was Jerry Bridges says I was on the performance treadmill. And Essentially, I Had a conversation with a friend, his name is John. and sat down with them 'cause I was so burnt out. My wife was worried.
I was worried. And we sat down, and after an hour of unfolding my life and unpacking my life, I mean, the Lord's my witness, I was really. I was in ministry, I was trying to please God. And Essentially, after an hour, he looked at me and he said, Rick. You're living your life in a courtroom.
constantly feeling judged and condemned by God, by yourself And by others, what you need is a big dose of God's grace in Psalm 34:22, which is really a sister verse of Romans 8:1, which says, Therefore, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so that really set me, Stuart, on a course. To understand the grace of God, the fullness of forgiveness. The righteous life that Jesus Christ lived for me on my behalf. And so the reason I knew I was starting to get out of my discouragement and burnout.
Was my worship started coming back? The grace of God connected to the cross, connected to my own heart and soul, was starting to give me joy. My purpose, more of my purpose came back.
So, passages like 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become. The righteousness of God in Him. I mean, passages that I had read, passages I even preached on, were becoming more and more. uh exciting to me so don't Just assume that you have absorbed all the nutrients of a verse because you've read it a million times. Make sure that you let God speak to you through the power of His Spirit.
you'll start the Lord willing to be encouraged.
So that's probably encouraging to me. And I'm very thankful for the grace of God because there's no reason I should be here. But by the grace of God, as Paul said, 1 Catholic 15:10.
So I hope that encourages you. That's wonderful.
Now you've written this book, and I believe you've got a sequel to. to help other folks find their identity and find the grace of God. Which you discovered, even as a seasoned guy who'd been in the pastorate, as a seasoned. Man, who you know, you've done all kinds of things from teaching pro tennis to other things. And Rick, what would you say to folks about just kind of just give us some baby steps on?
Walking in that reality, you know, Colossians. I think of Colossians, you know, two, where it says, as you've received Christ, so walk in him. How would you get us on the right track? Whether someone's dealing with a ton of guilt or whether they're just feeling like they're on the performance treadmill, they can't seem to get any kind of. any kind of satisfaction or any kind of peace in their life.
That's a great question, Stuart. I would borrow the words of Jerry Bridges: preach the gospel to yourself daily. We love God, we serve God, we serve other people. because we're already accepted in the beloved as Paul said in Ephesians 1.
So, we live not to try to be accepted by Christ, be accepted by God, but we live because we're already accepted by Christ, because He loved us and died for us and has declared us righteous. And so, that's jugular. There's nothing I can do to make God love me any more than He already does. There's nothing I can do to make God love me any less than He already does, and that's why it's grace. As Spurgeon said, we can't earn or unearn grace, and so it's an amazing concept.
I mean, God is very good, and yeah, basically, I just unpacked. A little bit about what the book is about. My first book, yeah, it's Refill Your Soul. It's a devotional. I took a lot of devotionals that I did on the radio years ago and kind of packed them in a Devo, and then this.
Second book is called Refuel by Grace. It's actually just sitting ready to be printed. I've intentionally not released it yet because I'm. I'm waiting to make sure that the timing is right. And I just want I just want to help people.
I just want people to know that they don't need to be burnt out. You don't need to be discouraged. You don't need to feel like you're on a performance treadmill. You don't need to feel like God is never pleased with your life. God really is a God of amazing grace and love, and He wants to help us.
And I find out that. I mean, Christians, and you even brought it out, Stuart, very appropriately. I've been a Christian 14 years. I've had my master's degree. and seminary I know Greek and Hebrew blah blah blah and I got burn out and discouraged because I thought I knew The text of Scripture, not only in my head, but in my heart.
And R.C. Spole used to say before he went to be the Lord: you must get the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of the grace of God from your head into your bloodstream. And I've talked to a lot. I've had over 20,000 conversations out with people. I talk to people all the time who really love God, want to please God, want to fear God, want to do the right thing.
And they just can't seem to get over the hurdle because we're living again by that performance strode mill, as Jerry Bridges says. And so it doesn't matter if you're an old saint, young saint, we need to teach the gospel to ourselves every day because we never graduate from the grace of God. And the reason why, here's the deal, and here's maybe an acid test for you and for me and for all of us or listeners. One of the ways we know. That We're understanding the grace of God.
Is because it's really amazing to us. I've talked to people all the time, and I'll try to give the gospel in every conversation that I have with people and try to break it down and what Christ has done, et cetera. And And sometimes, every once in a while people say, well, I already know that. Right now, Jesus died. I already know he rose from the dead.
I already know that. And You know, wonderful people call us. But That's possibly an indication. You really don't understand the grace of God the way you think you do. Because you know, the hymn the great hymn writer said Amazing Grace, how sweet this out that saved a wretch like me.
And it was sweeter and sweeter and sweeter because he knew it better and better and better, because it thrilled his soul more and more and more. And I think that's, again, another indication of how we know that we are growing in Christ. and the grace of God has reached So far into our soul. that the condemnation that we feel is no longer sticking in our heart. Lamar and Lloyd Jones once said Um Oh.
Faith is unbelief kept silent. If you really understand and you connect the cross. to your own faith. If we really understand that you're not condemned because Jesus was condemned for us, if we really understand that the righteous life that Jesus lived, Jesus lived for us. It's an unbelievable transaction that we get to live in light of that.
And Grace truly is amazing.
So just a few thoughts. I hope that helps. Oh, it's very helpful. That's the voice of my good friend.
Now you know why. I'm so glad God put him in my life back in our master's college days. Back, oh man, I'm not saying over 30 years ago, Rick. I'm not going to tell people how old we are, but God's used you in my life ever since. You're always such an encouragement.
You've always stuck with me and picked me up out of some tough stuff. In the book, Refuel, tell us how to get it real quick. Rick Hoppy, H-O-P-P-E. He's a big old 6'8, black belt and karate, pro-tennis, pickle, unbelievable athlete, loves Jesus. He's.
Been a pastor, a mentor, a discipler for so many years to so many people. Rick, what's the best way, the name of the book, and the best way to get it as we get out of here? Yeah, well the first book is Refuel Yours. And that's a devotional. And then this book will be released soon.
It's called Refuel by Grace: Overcome Burnout, Live Free. And uh it'll be released soon. I'm just uh Yeah, just uh pray about it and uh I hope you get it in your hands right. True television. Yeah, yeah.
