Join Rick Hughes as he dives into the core understanding of true worship in the latest episode of The Flatline. Discover how spiritual awakenings across college campuses are shaping a new generation of believers, and explore the essential principles of worship that go beyond emotional experiences. This episode weaves through historical movements and emphasizes the shift from the old covenant to the new, elucidating the path to spiritual maturity through real connection with God.
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 am your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next 30 minutes, please stay with me. It’s not long, just about 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, and no manipulation because we don’t try to beg for money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re not asking you for anything. What we would like for you to do is pay attention to what I’m teaching you. Maybe listen as I try to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. And if I can do that, then you would like to orient and adjust to that plan. That’s my prayer that you would do. We would certainly be thrilled and delighted about it. This is show 981 of The Flatline. We’ve been producing this show many years now. It’s my great honor and great privilege to represent our Lord Jesus Christ and God’s plan for your life as I bring these messages to you. You can always visit our website at rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. If you have a question, you can call us at 800-831-0718. Again, 800-831-0718. And by the way, we’re not counselors. I’m not here to counsel you about your wedding. I’m not here to counsel you about your kids. I’m simply an evangelist bringing you the Word of God. If you need a counselor, you need a professional. That’s not me. I’m a minister, a Bible teacher, not a counselor. So keep that in mind if you call. Now today I want to talk about something that’s been troubling me. I’ve been thinking a lot about it. Been going through my mind, watching it happen. You know, there’s two things that always get people stirred up. One is religion and the other is politics. And I try to stay away from politics because, like you, I get frustrated and get fired up when I talk about it. But I want to talk about a religion today, a little bit about what’s going on across this nation. It’s been interesting to watch things happen over the last year, year and a half, maybe two years now, of what some people call an awakening spiritually on college campuses. As we move through these troubling times that our nation finds itself in today, some say there’s a religious awakening among the youth of the college campuses, many experiencing huge crowds of young adults being converted, they say, and even baptized. Decision Magazine is a ministry of Franklin Graham, and it reported in September of 2023 that about two of these movements that I’m talking about. One of them was on the campus of Auburn University here in my state of Alabama, where my own daughter graduated from Auburn University. And one other one at Texas A&M University at the Corpus Christi branch. New Life Church in Corpus Christi reported hundreds, hundreds of people making professions of faith and getting baptized almost daily. I’ll quote from what the pastor of New Life Church said in Corpus Christi. He said, quote, to make a public declaration of, quote, no, I want to give my whole life to Jesus starting today, end quote. And then we see them radically transformed before our eyes, where their lifestyle is radically different, and they now have a bonus to preach the gospel to their friends like never before. He stated that a culture of holiness is being observed in these young people. There’s a lot of statements in that that I question, but we’ll go on. Auburn University, where I’m talking about my daughter went to school, had about 5,000 students attend what was called a night of worship, and many of those students were baptized in a local lake, even by some of the coaches. A Facebook quote found about that event said, we are still speechless and in awe of what God did last night at Auburn University. Hundreds of students were baptized at the Red Barn Lake, and thousands cheered as they were raised from death to life. God is moving on the Auburn campus and it doesn’t stop here. You might not know this about me since all you’ve ever heard is the radio ministry, me talking to you on the radio show, but beginning in 1969 and going all the way through the year 2022, I spoke in hundreds, and I literally say hundreds, of high school assemblies across the United States of America. And I myself have witnessed a few incidences where this sort of movement took place. Leading a lost person to Christ is really unbelievable privilege. One such school I was in was in Greenville, Mississippi, where I was speaking to Greenville Christian Academy. And I really had nothing to do with this. I mean, I spoke for a week, spoke every day, an hour a day to the entire student body because what I was doing was conducting spiritual emphasis weeks with the students. On the last day, a young lady named Amber got up to sing a song about getting to heaven and who would be there with her. And after she was through and I spoke and we said our goodbyes, I left to drive home. And then that night I got a call from the headmaster of the school. He said, you don’t know this, but after you left, a young girl in one of the classes with the girl that sang, sang with Amber, asked the teacher could she talk to Amber about how to become a Christian. And the teacher said you can take her out into the courtyard and speak with her in private. She did that and that led to other kids wanting to go out and talk about it as well. And before it was over, nearly the entire student body was in the courtyard. The headmaster was shocked, so he had to call to one of the local churches and get some youth ministers to come down and talk with him. And he told me that many, many kids’ lives were changed that day, and I had nothing to do with that. I was already back home. But it was interesting to see what happened. I’ve seen that in a couple of other places as well. But I tell you that to let you know that I’m not a stranger to this sort of movement. And I learned a long time ago how you can manipulate a crowd and get people to make a decision. You know, even better is to see these new converts that they’re talking about, ones that supposedly got saved and baptized, get into a local church and begin to grow spiritually. But the sad thing is that the emotions of the moment eventually fade away. And many of those new converts never, if they were converted ever to start with, never grow to spiritual maturity, much less do they ever contribute to the body of Christ through a sound, solid Bible teaching church. And that’s a sad thing to see. I was speaking at another school and I was there for the entire week and the headmaster said, we have a, man in town speaking at a church, and he’d like to have an assembly. Would you give up one of yours and let him speak one day? And I said, certainly, sure, yes sir. And so he came in, and I think it was Wednesday or Thursday, He spoke and he gave a public altar call, a public invitation for the kids to come out of the bleachers and come down to the basketball court where he was speaking to give their life to Christ. And probably I’d say two-thirds of the entire student body came forward. Now I had been speaking every day to those students and I don’t give come forward invitations. I don’t try to manipulate them that way. And so he had them all down there and had them all crying and squalling and And then he left, and I guess he got them to come to his church. I don’t really know. But I’ve learned that you can get kids to come forward. You can get kids to make a decision. Maybe it’s real, maybe it’s not. Only God the Holy Spirit knows that. But in my particular ministry, I learned as I was traveling and speaking in these schools and the hundreds that I spoke in, to stay away from trying to give public invitations for them to come forward. I did give the gospel at every school assembly. I did ask people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and give their life to Christ. And I did have hundreds of them that told me that they did that, but they came to me on their own without me calling for a public altar call. Now I want to tell you about something that is really amazing. In the 60s and 70s, many youth moved to Houston, Texas to attend a church named Baraka Church and study under a pastor named R.B. Thiem Jr. During those days in the 60s and 70s, if you didn’t get to church an hour early, you didn’t even get a seat. Pastor Thiem taught five nights a week and even twice on Sunday. And the emphasis was not on music, no music worship, no come forward altar calls, no baptismal services, but the emphasis was on learning and applying God’s word from the scriptures. And the people that came there brought a Bible and a notebook. And many had to come an hour early and put their Bible and notebook in a seat and then go get a hamburger and then come back before church started. If they didn’t do that, they’d wind up standing in the foyer trying to hear what was being taught. And it was through this particular church, Baraka Church in Houston, Texas, and Pastor Thame’s ministry that I myself learned the mechanics of the spiritual life. Pastor Thame is in heaven today, but his messages can still be freely ordered and studied through what is called Thame Ministries, T-H-I-E-M-E, Thame Ministries in Houston, Texas. You can look it up on the internet and find it for yourself, Thame Ministries. Baraka Church, the church that he pastored for 50 plus years, continues to teach solid, sound Bible classes under Pastor Thiem’s son, the Reverend Bobby Thiem, who has now been pastor for 20 years. And you can actually watch or listen to his messages by going to Baraka Church on the internet. Many people that call me asking where is there a good local church in their area if I don’t know where one is, I will recommend that they go to the internet and go to baraka.church, B-E-R-A-C-H-A-H, baraka.church on the internet and listen to Pastor Thiem teach the Word of God just as his father did. And the messages are streaming video or streaming audio. You can listen or watch either way. And this is exactly what I do on a daily basis for my Bible study since I’m no longer able to get around and go to this local church. But there’s no charge for any materials from that church provided, and there’s never any solicitation for membership or any solicitation to make any kind of public commitment. And yet thousands, thousands, and I’m talking about thousands of young people went through that church, got saved, grew in grace, became mature believers, many of them became pastors, many of them became missionaries, many of them wound up working on the church staff for the rest of their life. And that church continues to crank out the Word of God consistently even to this day. So this is what you will understand. It’s my prayer that what I’m gonna say today through this radio show will help you understand what it truly means to worship God and His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let’s look at a couple of verses concerning what it means to worship. In Exodus 34, 14, the Bible says, for you shall worship no other God. For the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. That’s simply an anthropopathism, which means we describe to God a human characteristic he does not actually possess. God never is getting jealous. He’s not jealous. That’s a sin. Jealousy is a sin. God doesn’t sin. But this anthropopathism helps you understand and reveals to you God’s policy towards mankind in the language of accommodation so we can understand it. And what’s happening in this Old Testament passage is a warning that we find given to the Israelites not to break the covenant of God that he had made with them. He made that covenant in Exodus 34, 10 through 12, and here it is. And he said, behold, I make a covenant before all of your people, and I will do marvels such as have not been done in all of the earth. nor in any other nation, and all the people among you shall see the work of the Lord, for it is awesome thing that I will do for you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Prezorites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, and take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of that land, the land you’re going into, lest it be a snare in your mindset and in your midst. So the covenant God made is called the Mosaic Covenant, and that was the basis of God’s rule over his people. Since he alone is God, he tolerates no rivals. Thus, in this sense, God is a jealous God, and this warning was to protect them from idolatry of the people they would conquer and perhaps get involved with. Now, you and I are not under that covenant. We’re under a new covenant, a different covenant. The new covenant is the promise that God will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned towards him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of this new covenant, and his death on the cross is the basis of that promise, Luke 22, verse 20. Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying this, here it is, now listen. This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you, quote. The new covenant was predicted even in the Old Testament while the old covenant was still in effect. The prophet Moses and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all alluded to the new covenant that would come. And it’s through this new grace covenant that your salvation and my salvation is based on the finished work of Christ on the cross. And it is not based on us keeping the Mosaic law because we are no longer under the law. But we are now under grace in Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law, but you are under grace. This grace provision that I’m talking about is our guarantee of eternal security. And it’s based on the work that Jesus Christ, our Savior, did on that cross. And the fact that we are sealed once we believe in Christ. by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption, according to Ephesians 1.13. So it’s for these reasons that we worship God. That’s why we do it. We have a new covenant, and we are free from our sin. But I want to ask you a question. What is true worship? What does that mean? Is it singing and praising God and swaying back and forth? I see some crazy things on the internet sometimes, people jumping up and down and dancing and running in circles around the congregation and doing weird, weird, wow, crazy things. So what exactly is real worship? What is that? In John 4, 24, the Lord Jesus Christ said these words, God is a spirit and And those who worship God must worship him in spirit and truth. Under this principle of true worship, you can only give God what you actually possess, because worship is an expression of your personal love for God. So if you’re going to worship God, here’s the first thing. You must worship him in spirit. This means that if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, I don’t care what you sing, I don’t care what you say, I don’t care what you do, if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, it’s not worship. It’s human good. It’s you trying to impress God Now remember, problem-solving device number one is rebound. And that says if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to purify us from all of our wrongdoing. When you sin, when I sin, we quench the Holy Spirit and we grieve the Holy Spirit. And so if we go into church to worship, quote, and we have known sin in our life, we’re kidding ourself. We are not worshiping. We are in the right place doing the wrong thing. You may think you’re worshiping, but you’re not filled with the Spirit, you’ve quenched the Spirit, you’ve grieved the Spirit, and it’s impossible for you to accurately worship God out of fellowship with unconfessed sin in your life. So that is the first thing any pastor must insist on. Anytime he steps up in the pulpit to teach, he must insist that the congregation do a personal examination to make sure there’s no unconfessed sin in their life. That verse says, God is the spirit, John 4, 24. And those who worship him, that’s God, they must worship him in spirit and in truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed in John 14, 6 that he himself was the personification of truth. So you can’t worship God without coming through the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can possibly worship God unless they go through Christ, since he is our mediator. 1 Timothy 2.5, for there is one God, one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ. So you and I must understand something. That true worship of God the Father begins with appreciation for the work of God the Son, Jesus, the anointed Son of God. That’s why we take those communion elements, he alone, and that’s the only way, he alone is the propitiation for our sins, and so the only way to come to God is through Jesus Christ. True worship of God, the Father, requires respect. What do I mean by that? I mean thoughts of deep admiration. I want to ask you a question. How can you respect a God you don’t understand? It’s impossible. People that claim to be worshiping Jesus or worshiping God and getting very emotional and waving their arms, jumping up and down, swaying back and forth, that’s not what we’re talking about. Hosea 4.6 gives a warning about this. It warns you to these words, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. There’s a warning about not understanding God and not understanding his mandates. If you don’t understand the protocol plan of God, You will wind up doing what you think are the right things, but you will wind up doing them in the wrong way. And when you get to heaven, you’re going to have a big-time surprise, according to 1 Corinthians 3, when all that, quote, worship stuff you thought you did is burned up like wood, hay, and stubble. So is it possible to do a right thing in the wrong way? Yes. Here’s one way you can know it. If you’re involved in some service and someone starts praying to Jesus and not the Father, get out of there. That’s not the way you do it. Jeremiah 9.24 is very clear that God wants us to know him and understand him. And we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ said when you pray, pray like this. Our Father which art in heaven. You don’t pray to Jesus. You pray to God the Father. We don’t worship the Son, we worship the Father through the Son. So our reverence to God in our worship is very important. Deep respect for God. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that when you get into heaven, you’re gonna walk up to the throne of God and you’re gonna go, hi God, it’s me, old Herbie. If you met the President of the United States, you would not call him by his first name. You would say, pleased to meet you, Mr. President. You would honor the position even if you did not like the person that held that position. So finally, we honor God, we respect God, we reverence God, and we honor God. That’s what worship is. We respect God, deep admiration. We reverence God, deep respect. And we honor God, which is great esteem. At every stage in our spiritual life and our spiritual growth, we have gratitude and thanksgiving related to the frame of reference in our soul, the scriptures in our mentality. But we are limited in our personal love for God if we don’t grow spiritually. I’m gonna say that again. At every stage in your spiritual life and spiritual growth, you have gratitude and thanksgiving, and it’s related to your frame of reference. What I mean by frame of reference, I’m talking about the scripture in your mentality. But you will be limited in your personal love for God by your stage of spiritual growth. You cannot have deep appreciation and commitment if you don’t grow spiritually. And that commitment does not come overnight. So church attendance can be a worship experience. A lot of people do that. If you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, And if the scriptures are expounded upon to the point that you understand more and more of his character and love for you, so when you go to church, you go to church to sing, to sway back and forth, or you get in some kind of meeting where you have an emotional experience, that’s not really worshiping. Worshiping is learning and growing and applying the word of God into your life. When the scriptures are expounded upon to the point that you understand more and more and more of God’s character and God’s love for you, then your personal love for God becomes a problem-solving device in your life. And it includes your respect, your reverence, and your honor for God. Remember this, that personal love for God is reciprocal. The Bible says we love God, why? Well, because he first loved us. We love God because God first loved us, John 4, 19. The Bible’s clear about that. That’s why you love him. But you can’t love him if you don’t understand him. The objective of assembly worship is for the communication of God’s word so you and I can grow spiritually and develop a deeper appreciation for God and his anointed son, our savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. So I want to tell you right now, if the song service is longer than the teaching service, you’re getting gypped. A great passage to read is found in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter eight verses one through three, it says they read from the book of the law of God and explained the meaning to the people. The church service is not supposed to be an emotional falderal. You know what a falderal is? It’s trivial or nonsensical fuss. It’s not getting high on Jesus. If they do that where you are, get out of there. It’s not having varied worship services to appeal to the youth one, you know, an adult service and then a youth service. They call it a contemporary service and a traditional service. And finally remember this. that you can worship God and celebrate his unfailing love at any time in your life because you are a believer priest. Your prayer life is a type of personal worship. You understand that? Using the faith rest drill is your personal worship. Being occupied with Christ as a problem solving device is your personal worship. All of this is explained in our book, Christian Problem Solving. And you can order your free copy of that book from our website. Just go to rickhughesministries.org and you will see our books listed there under whatever books are there and you can order them. They’re all free of charge. But please order Christian Problem Solving and learn these 10 problem solving devices. So if you want to really worship God, you will understand and know the God you’re trying to worship. Because other than that, all you’re going to have is some kind of emotional experience. It won’t last you and it won’t carry you. A lot of those people that were involved in my salvation were getting emotionally excited, and they’re no longer to be found today. They didn’t get in a good church. They didn’t get under a good pastor. They didn’t learn the Word of God. They faded back across into the woodwork. So what about you? Do you understand what it really means to worship God? Do you know and understand the God you worship? I hope so. Excuse me. And I hope this is clear to you today. You cannot worship God unless you come through the Lord Jesus Christ and unless you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. Those are the two things that are the key to understanding worship in your life. And again, God said he’s looking for people that know him and understand him. If you don’t understand God’s unfailing love, if you don’t understand God’s justice and righteousness, then you can never really truly worship God. So don’t fall for some sort of emotional experience. Don’t fall for somebody trying to get you to do something publicly to claim you’re never gonna sin again. I’ve seen that happen before, too. Had a guy tell me one time he wanted to rededicate his life, and I said, well, go right ahead. He said, I tried it, it didn’t work. That’s right, that doesn’t work. There’s a way to grow, and there’s only one way to grow, and that’s to grow spiritually through the word. I hope you’re learning. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’ll come back next week. 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.
