How to Worship God
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 995 aired on September 15, 2024
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the few
minutes, please stay with me. It will be 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some
education and as always, no manipulation. We’re not trying to hustle money. We’re not trying to
sell you anything. We’re not going to ask you to join up, fess it up, give it up, nothing like that.
We just want you to listen as I try to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If I can do this,
then you have the freedom and the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan. It’s always up to you.
Thank you for listening to The FLOT Line. We play in over 100 cities across America every
Sunday morning, compliments of the grace of God. What a wonderful opportunity it is for me.
On our website you can find all the material we have available such as the many books we have
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These are transcripts of every show that year in book form. If you would like to have any of this,
don’t hesitate to contact us on our website or call us, okay? Let’s get started today. We want to
talk about the human spirit. John 4:24 says,
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth.”
Right away we notice the need for proper protocol when we
worship God. What does all of this mean? Is it possible that many who think they are worshiping
God may actually be doing the right thing but actually in a wrong way? Let’s start with the word
worship. The original Greek New Testament word is
proskuneo.
This is a compound verb and the
root word is from the word
pros
which means face-to-face and
kuneo
meaning to kiss.
Vines New
Testament Dictionary
says it’s the act of homage or reverence. This word was used among the
Orientals, particularly the Persians, to fall on the ground and touch their forehead as an
expression of profound reverence. Strong’s definition is meaning to kiss or to kiss the master’s
hand or to fawn or to crouch literally or figuratively, to prostrate yourself in homage, in
reverence, or to adore. Our Lord Jesus Christ used this word when confronting the Samaritan
woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria while on His way to Galilee. He and His disciples were
exhausted from the long day of traveling and arrived at the well around noon. The disciples had
gone into the town of Sychar to purchase some food. I’m sure there was no McDonalds there.
Our Lord was alone resting and a woman of Samaria showed up at the well to collect water.
When our Lord saw her, He asked her if she would share some water with Him. Of course she
was kind of taken back by this request since she noticed He was a Jew and the Jews hated
Samaritans. This conversation led Jesus to reveal to her that He was in fact the Messiah. This is
where He directly says He is the Messiah. In John 4:25-26,
“The woman said to Him, ‘I know
that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ), when that One comes, He will declare all
things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”
Here, Jesus Christ our Lord and
Savior directly said, “I am the Messiah.” This whole confrontation started when Jesus revealed to
her that He knew of her past and actually her present actions. In John 4:16,
“He
[Jesus]
said to
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her, ‘Go, call your husband and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’
Jesus said to her, ‘You have correctly said, ‘I have no
husband;’ for you have had five husbands,
and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.’”
Once she
realized that He was indeed God who immediately could figure this sort of stuff out, she started
talking to Him about where she worshiped God. Our Lord then made it clear to her that where
she worshiped was not the issue, but how she worshiped was the critical, important issue. I want
to tell you this too. Where you worship is not the issue. The issue is how you worship. In John
4:22-24,
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from
the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those
who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What was important to her to understand is
also critical for us to understand as well. What we notice right off the bat is that God is a spirit,
not a local individual. This reveals to us that He is not some individual like we are. He is
imminent, meaning permanently pervading and sustaining the universe, and He is transcendent,
meaning He exists apart from and not subject to limitations of the material universe. He’s
imminent, He’s everywhere, and He is transcendent. If you want to worship God, you must have
a living human spirit, because this is what He said,
“Those who worship Him must worship in
spirit and truth.”
If you want to worship God you must have a living human spirit and you must
be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is the first problem we encounter. We are born
physically alive, but we are born spiritually dead. In Romans 5:12,
“Therefore, just as through
one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,
because all sinned.”
It is for this reason that our Lord Jesus Christ says we must be born again.
In John 3:3,
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
This is your first dilemma. Have you been born again?
Without the new birth you do not have a living human spirit. Church membership does not mean
you’ve been born again. What I’m talking about is a supernatural act that occurs the moment you
place your faith in what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross through His death, His burial, and
His resurrection. You will not see angels or hear harps when you receive Christ as your Savior. In
my case I didn’t and I don’t know anybody that did but if you pray and you ask God to save you,
He will answer your prayer. In John 1:12,
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the
right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”
Believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ is the act of faith required by God for you to be born again. Ephesians 2:8-9 says,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Exactly how do you express this faith to
God? That you want to be born again. You want to have a new life. You want to have a living
human spirit, not the dead human spirit. What do I have to do to be born again? Romans 10:13,
“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Expressing your desire to be saved in
a simple prayer to God is the act of salvation. We have talked about it many times on this radio
show. Many have done this in church services like revivals or even crusades. Some have done it
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alone kneeling beside their bed. But all come the same way, by faith in the finished work of Jesus
Christ our Lord and our Savior. When you accept Christ here’s what happens. God the Holy
Spirit indwells your dead human spirit and He seals you until the day of redemption. Ephesians
1:13,
“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation –
having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
When you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you are born again, not physically but spiritually. Physically
you’re still the same old ugly person. Adam’s original sin was imputed to you and you were born
spiritually dead with the need to be born again. You need to have a living human spirit, not a
dead human spirit. A living human spirit only comes when God the Holy Spirit indwells you at
salvation and makes you alive spiritually. No human being can worship God by means of the
flesh. No human being can worship God unless he or she has been born again. You can see it’s
not where you are, but rather who you are. Without a living human spirit you cannot worship
God regardless of where you are located, regardless of what church you go to, regardless of how
many songs you sing. You will not worship God unless you have a living human spirit regardless
of the religious atmosphere and the spiritual songs that may be sung. None of this is going to get
through to God because it’s on the human plane and He is not impressed. Mark 13:1-2,
“As He
was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Teacher, behold what wonderful
stones and what wonderful buildings!’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings?
Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.’”
Jesus also said that we
must worship God the Father in spirit and in truth. Truth is our second word. In John 14:6,
“Jesus said to him
[Nichodemus]
, ‘I am the way and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the
Father but through Me.’”
In John 1:14,
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and
we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The
word truth can refer to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself or it could refer to Scripture.
In 3 John 1:4, back near the book of Revelation, here’s what John wrote,
“I have no greater joy
than this, to hear of children walking in the truth.”
It’s obvious that we can walk in truth and if
so, then we may also be able to walk in the lie or to follow the lie. What does this mean? The lie
that Satan promotes is salvation by good works, the idea that man can manufacture his own
righteousness, his own salvation by observing a lifestyle of asceticism. What is this big word
asceticism? It means extreme self-denial. However, Scripture says just the opposite. In Romans
3:10,
“As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one.’”
In this letter Paul is quoting
Isaiah 64:6 where it says,
“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our
righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like
the wind, take us away.”
The lie that Satan promotes in regard to the Christian life is that
spirituality is acquired by following church ritual, but we know that ritual without reality is
meaningless. One is not spiritual because he attends church. One is not spiritual because he
partakes in communion or because he tithes. Spirituality is related to the filling of the Holy Spirit
and the spiritually maturing believer has to understand this. Spiritual maturity is related to the
perception and the application of the Word of God into your life. The sad truth is that many
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believers think they are worshiping God by attending church or by observing some religious
ritual, but in reality they are not worshiping God. Unless you understand the protocol plan of
God, you will simply do right things but in the wrong way. You will go to church. You will sing
in the choir. You will tithe your money. You will dress-up on Sunday. You will join the nod to
God crowd, “Hello God. Goodbye God. See you next Sunday God.” All these deeds will wind up
being rejected by God at the Judgment Seat of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 we find the
Judgment Seat of Christ as taught by the Apostle Paul. Here’s what he says,
“For no man can lay
a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on
the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become
evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test
the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will
receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved,
yet so as through fire.”
If you build a house, you usually put down a concrete foundation. We’ve
seen that it’s possible that the house burns up and there’s nothing left but the foundation. In this
particular case as Paul uses this analogy, he is saying that any believer who produces or
manufactures human good will find at the Judgment Seat of Christ that all of it will be destroyed.
Will he be saved? Yes, it says so,
“He himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
It’s not a
matter of your salvation. It is a matter of what you’ve done to glorify God and worship God. It’s a
matter of your rewards in eternity future, so think about this. Are you really worshiping God
today when you go to church? Is anybody telling you that number one, you must be filled with
the Holy Spirit to worship God? I’m willing to bet that most pastors don’t even mention it. I’m
willing to bet that most pastors never get up and tell their congregation, “If you’re here and you
have unconfessed sin in your life, you are out of fellowship with God. You have quenched and
grieved the Holy Spirit.” It is impossible for you to worship God regardless of the music,
regardless of the atmosphere, regardless of your intent. You must worship God in spirit and in
truth. Unless you have a living human spirit and unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you
will never be able to correctly worship God. You must understand this. It’s not taught much. It’s
not even mentioned in pulpits today and this is sad. Many Christians will wind up at the
Judgment Seat of Christ thinking they’ve got a lot of rewards. Many Christians will wind up at
the Judgment Seat of Christ and say, “Well you know, I tithed all my life. I never missed Sunday
school. I got a pin for being faithful for 25 years. I never cheated on my wife” or “I never
cheated on my husband. I never cheated on my income tax. Look at what a good person I was,”
and it’s all wood, hay, and straw. It’s not rewardable because it was all done in the energy of the
flesh. A Christian can produce good works in the energy of the flesh and the unbeliever can
produce good works in the energy of the flesh. It’s possible sometimes you cannot even tell the
difference between the unbeliever and the believer based on what they do or how they live their
life. If you want to worship God, the first thing you must make sure of is that you have a living
human spirit. Without being born again you will not have a living human spirit. You must be
born twice or you will die twice. The first birth is your physical birth. The second birth is your
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spiritual birth. The first death is your physical death. The second death is your death when you
are cast into the Lake of Fire to be tormented forever and forever. Have you been born again? Do
you have a living human spirit? Are you in fact filled with the Holy Spirit as this is what’s critical
for you to understand if you are going to worship God. The issue in glorifying God and
worshiping God is that the human good produced in your life from the energy of the flesh is in
no way pleasing or even acceptable to God. As you’ve heard, I just read it to you, it will be
burned up. It will be discarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ. This simply means that every
prayer you pray, every nickel you give, every service you attend, every good deed which you
perform in the local assembly or on some mission trip will all be recorded and evaluated as
productive or nonproductive. Think about it. In your life are you truly worshiping God in spirit
and in truth? This is exactly where Satan is winning the battle in our churches today. Listen to
these words, see if you’ve heard this before. We hire worship leaders. What in the world is a
worship leader? We pay them big bucks but unfortunately all the praise, all the worship music
could possibly wind up simply being wood, hay and straw because it is all done in the energy of
the flesh. It might sound good and be worthy of a Hollywood production, but in the end it’s just
noise. Paul the Apostle addresses this in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 when he says, “Regardless of how
spiritual I may sound, regardless of how brilliant I may appear to be, regardless of the suffering
that I endure, without love. It’s all just noise.” The key word here is love. Why is it the key?
Because in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, the Apostle Paul insists that love must be the motivating factor
for the believer and for his service to God. Do you know where this type of love originates? In
Galatians 5:22,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love.”
It’s only through the filling of the Holy Spirit
that a believer can worship God and produce anything worthy of glorifying God. In 1 John
4:16-17,
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love,
and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected
with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment
[The Judgement Seat of Christ]
;
because as He
[God]
is, so also are we in this world.”
We have His righteousness when we
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember this, Romans 3:10-11 says,
“As it is written, ‘There
is none righteous, not even one.’”
2 Corinthians 5:21,
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
You cannot worship
God in your own manufactured righteousness. Your manufactured righteousness may be called
morality. You don’t drink. You don’t smoke. You don’t cuss. You don’t dance. You don’t play
marbles. You don’t gamble. You don’t do these bad things. This is not worshiping God.
Worshiping God is what God says in Jeremiah 9:24,
“Let him who boasts boast of this, that he
understand and knows Me.”
Do you understand the God you worship? Do you understand that
God is a God of protocol? This is what the Lord Jesus Christ taught this woman at the well. A
right thing must be done in a right way. You may be thinking you’re worshiping God and you’re
not. You may be going through some religious ritual. This is not worshiping God. Unless you
understand the God you know, you will never be able to worship Him because you must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. This means you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. You must have a
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living human spirit and you must be taught the truth, not the lie. Where does Satan gain an
advantage? By distorting the spiritual life for the believer, by having the believer think that if he’s
moral, he’s spiritual and never really teaching what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit,
never really making this point effectively at a local church or local assembly before the Sunday
morning service or a Wednesday night service or a prayer meeting or a mission trip. Are you
filled with the Holy Spirit in fellowship with God or do you have unconfessed sin in your life? If
you do have unconfessed sin in your life, the Bible says you’ve quenched the Holy Spirit and
you’ve grieved the Holy Spirit. Regardless of what you may do, regardless of how good you may
look, regardless of where you go, you are not worshiping God. You’re going through a ritual and
it has no reality to it. It is my prayer you are listening to this today. I could go on and on about it
but I don’t know how much more I can talk about it. I know there are many of you listening to
me today in the various cities across this country from California to New York, even all the way
up to Maine. This is a revelation to you. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Will
you make an adjustment in your mind? Will you make sure you are filled with the Holy Spirit?
Will you make doggone sure that you have received Christ as your Savior and not just gone
through some ritual without reality to it, because unless you are born again, you will never be
able to worship God. One more time, as the Lord says,
“Those who worship Him must worship
in spirit and in truth.”
It is critical you understand this. It is my prayer that I’ve made this plain
and clear. Maybe I haven’t, I don’t know. If you’d like to get the transcript of this message, you
can always contact us. We will be glad to send you a transcript or you can go to our website and
listen to it. By the way, we podcast all these message on Spotify, Apple podcast, Podbean and
various other podcast platforms. We are getting close to 2 million downloads on these podcast
platforms. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show. I hope you’ve learned something. I hope you’ll come
back and be with me next week at the same time on the same channel there in your city. Until
then, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you so very much for listening to The FLOT
Line.