Season 3 is here!

We cannot begin to express how excited we are about this season. It seems as though life before The Pantry Podcast was ages ago given all that we’ve experienced over the last seven months. SEVEN MONTHS. Two seasons in the books, and a third season chock FULL of amazing guests and even more brilliant Word. WORSHIP IS OUR WARSHIP!

Worship Is Our Warship

Considering culture, it’s easy to think of worship as the songs and the beginning of a service and not a superior weapon against the enemy. Yes, the Word is the way to win—if you believe it, use it, and live it. This season is all about the battles (and battle strategies) that come your way when you step into your role as a Worshipper of Christ.

Verses Mentioned This Episode

Luke 12:49-56, Ephesians 6:12, Genesis 1, Isaiah 42:5, Colossians 1:17, Ephesians 1:1, Galatians 3:13-14, John 6:44, Revelation 20:11-15, Psalms 139:7-12, 1 Timothy 1:17, 2 Samuel 7:22, Micah 3:6, Acts 17:31, Ephesians 2:4-5, John 14:6, 1 John 1:5, Psalms 23:1-6, Ephesians 1:7, John 15:15, Romans 5:10, 2 Timothy 2:10, 1 Samuel 15:22, John 14:15, Luke 6:46, John 8:7, Isaiah 54:17, Luke 10:19

Annotated Transcript: Worship Is Our Warship

Let us know if you spot an error!

Shea: All right, man. Hey, what’s up? We are in season three. I’m fired up for the season. Ah, I mean, I really like it. It’s actually right up my alley, this fog of war battle of what goes on in our lives and how we fight it because I don’t fight my battles. How the world would, I should say this season

Michelle: Worship Is Our Warship.

Shea: Ooh, that’s what I’m talking about because worship is so instrumental in this battle that we fight daily. I want people to understand that it’s not all kumbaya, that there is a battle being waged. When Christ came as a man, it disrupted everything. I’m not saying there wasn’t problems before that, but this just added to the sauce.

Luke 12:49-56:
“I have come to set the world on fire and I wish it were already burning. I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me. And I’m under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I have come to bring peace to earth? No. I have come to divide people against each other from now on. Families will be split apart three in favor of me and two against or two in favor and three against. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “when you see clouds beginning to form in the West, you say, here comes a shower. And you’re right. When the South wind blows you say today will be a scorcher. And it is you fools. You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times. Jesus laid it out. He never promised peace on earth. He promised peace itself, but he also brought one more thing. And that is where the battle really lies. And that’s in the principality of the air.”

Michelle: You know, as a Christian, some might say, you know, “I’m a conscientious objector for war for battle. You know, I’m not good at that. I’m really a peaceful person. I’mma sit this one out.” That’s not how this works, no matter what you are a part of the battle team, God or team, not team life or team death, but there’s a battle. And I thought it was really in Ephesians 6, where that famous verse about what we’re wrestling with. We’re wrestling against the principalities and the powers, not flesh and blood. And I was interested in what the root of the word ‘wrestle’ was because I wanted to better understand all that, that entailed. And when I looked at it. The Greek word means to vibrate or to wrestle. And it said that it’s another form of another Greek word that’s called, ‘Ballo’. That word is to arise and cast out like dung to lay down, to pour out, to put up to strike. We are not to put all our energy into focusing on throwing down people, but to throw down the lies and the death and the darkness. And that’s what this entire season is going to be about what this looks like, because it’s not what you might think a supernatural war would look like, but it is with, for an eternal outcome.

Shea: It goes back to that verse, right? Three in favor of me too against, I mean, this is war. I mean, there are people who receive this. There are people who do not receive this. There are people who jump up and down about Jesus and there are people who curse Jesus, and it didn’t start with God, with Jesus. It started with a prideful angel when he was cast out of heaven. Worship is paramount. There are so many things that God needs to be glorified for to give Him reverence over that we can’t even encompass in our own minds because He is that good. Glorious the necessity in our lives. I’ve never sold anyone else on anything else since Jesus sold me on Him, because He has been just that good. Look:

• He created the world. Genesis 1, Isaiah 42:5
• Actively sustains the world. Colossians 1:17
• He’s executing his eternal plan. Ephesians 1:1 (Which by the way, involves the redemption of man from the curse of sin and death.) Galatians 3:13-14
• Draws people to Christ John 6:44
• Disciplines. His children will judge the world. Revelations 20:11-15
• Exists everywhere. Psalms 139:7-12
• Infinite 1 Timothy 1:17
• Incomparable. 2 Samuel 7:22
• Knows everything has all power and authority features one unchanging Micah 3:6
• Just. Acts 17:31
• Loving Ephesians 2:4-5
• Truthful John 14:6
• and Holy 1 John 1:5
• Passionate, merciful, gracious, judges but forgiving.
• He’s a protector. Psalms 23:1-6.
• But most importantly, He gave us His son and through Jesus, we have forgiveness of sin. Ephesians 1:7
• Reconciliation with God, John 15:15, Romans 5:10
• And eternal salvation. 2 Timothy 2:10

Why would my life not be worship?

Michelle: Amen.

Shea: Why would I not build Him up and put Him above everything else in my life?

Michelle: Can I just be honest for a second?

Shea: Be honest. Cause we need to be here.

Michelle: We aren’t worshiping Him proper. Our priorities are out of order and that’s not to say that when you love God, you aren’t going to have curveballs thrown. Loving Him, worshiping Him proper does not mean you are free of all trouble. What it means is that you will be victorious in absolutely everything because you’re walking in His will, which brings Him glory. And He will see you through. That’s why this season is so important because we love y’all. Even if we’ve never met you, we understand pain. We understand poor circumstances that leave you feeling bound and trapped, but the world will tell you to fight your way out in a way that is not effective. Some of the most insidious are when they literally take biblical advice, take Jesus out and give it to you because it’ll work for a while.

If you were born with the personality to get it all together for a little while, it’ll work for a while, saving up will work for a while. Getting the degree will work for a while. Stanying out of prison will work for a while. Not cursing will work for a while. Until it doesn’t. And let me tell you, this is eternity that we’re talking about. So it’s guaranteed to fail without Jesus.

Shea: Absolutely. Everything.

Michelle: Worship is obedience, right? It’s showing reverence and adoration. So God’s perfect. God knows all. God’s all-powerful. So why would I ever stop and think for a second, that what I have planned and that what I want to do, if it doesn’t align with Him, is going to work out? It’s just not going to work out.

And in 1 Samuel 15:22 it says:
but Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice. And submission is better than offering the fat of Rams.”

We can sit there all day and say we’re serving Him and say He’s happy with us. We can sit there all day and say, well, you know, I didn’t go out and spend the money here. I, I put it in the offering instead! And I’m not saying those are bad things, but what I’m saying is if you’re doing all that, but He’s calling you to do something that you’re conveniently ignoring because you’d rather do something else, you’re hurting yourself.

You’re hurting your relationship with God because it says in John 14:15:
“If you love me, obey my commandments.”

And commandments aren’t just the 10 commandments. It’s what—anything He commands you to do, right? That’s important to remember.

Shea: I like on that one, Luke 6:46:
“Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I tell you.”

Right? I mean, it’s like, I, uh, okay, look guilty. I’m guilty. I never want people to think like, uh, y’all are just speaking at us. No, I was speaking to myself. I need to hear it. I need to hear it all the time. Cause I want to be on his path.

Michelle: Yes.

Shea: Speaking. This strongly helps us.

Michelle: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Strongly. Cause I have it all down. Pat figured out I’m speaking top strongly. Cause I need to hear it and I can handle my own tough love, praise God. But you know, I mean, God never loses, never loses. You know that that song, See a Victory? Because he never fails. It says the Word of God will never fail. The word of God is Jesus. The word of God is the words written in the Bible. The word of God is God’s word—Doi! You know?

Shea: Oh my gosh, I haven’t heard “doi” forever. Sorry I had a moment on this one, because I remember back in the day, I mean, for real, for real though, but that’s so true. It’s so true.

Michelle: We forget that it never fails. And then we hear Him say something that sounds, like, counterintuitive to what we think makes sense. What we want to do. Honestly, how many people would advise Jesus—if He got on Facebook today and said, “Guys, God’s telling me I got to die on the cross for y’all.” How many people would say, “I don’t want you to do that!,” “No, God wants you to live a happy life,” “God wants you to live a prosperous life,” “Why would God send you towards such pain?”

The cool thing is, even when it sounds like He’s walking you to death, He’s walking you into glory. He’s defeated death. We still use the world’s terminology. So even if it’s not literally, “go to that literal cross and die on it,” it might be: let that dream go, let that guy go, let that goal go, let that grudge go, let that hurt go.

And that’s the last thing we feel like doing, but we inherit victory from the Lord.

Shea: That sounds like I’m putting God first saying that God’s way is more valuable and important than my way, man. My way, our way, right? No, not my way, Yahweh. And I know this is like a different approach to, to worship. Yeah. But I think that we have to draw the line. You know, when Jesus went to stand up for the lady who committed adultery, right, He did more than a flesh and blood war there. He put himself there and He said, Hey, he without sin cast the first stone so see, He realizes what this is. And He just wants us to turn and look at Him. Look, sometimes we have to give up something or walk away from something, work harder in something. Cause look, there might be that person who married that someone.

Michelle: Yeah. Right?

Shea: Yeah. But you’re married and you have to work harder. But how do you work harder in it? By glorifying God, by putting Him first and taking all of His commandments, like you’re saying and put them into practice. Not one time or one thing in my entire life, did I just ease and cruise through—it took work, right? And it took me following guidelines, working hard to be obedient. Put God first, live life, live life.

Michelle: And I’m not saying that you have that every single time he’s going to take something, right? Sometimes He gives you something. He loves giving you the resources to do what He’s saying.

In Isaiah 54:17, it says:
“But in that coming day, no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence. Every voice raised up to accuse him. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord. Their vindication will come from me. I, the Lord have spoken.”

We have an inherited victory from Him, so we can trust what He says. You know, worship—we’ve said it before—isn’t just singing on Sunday or just singing in the shower. It’s not. It’s a big part of it, though, because that is yet another weapon, right? Let’s not forget when you’re down and out: praise the Lord, praise Him in song. Repeat His word. It is armor.

It is a reminder of truth and life in those dark places.

But in Luke 10, it says:
“I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.”

And sometimes people think that means let’s go out there and try to pick up a Cobra. Let’s go out there and try. But, it’s like, that eternal perspective. If I have eternal life, then what can they do to me? Nothing. Nothing that’s lasting, right? Nothing that’s lasting. So our priorities have to shift to the eternal because it’s not just us. You know, we might have the Lord and that is a beautiful, secure thing. And you can go through this life being occasionally used, right? And for the most part, trying out your own goals, but look at all of the other people that God may use you to engage with, use you to bless. There’s an opportunity to bring others with you.

Shea: It is a lifestyle, true worship is constant. It’s that inner praise to God scripture, right? Expressed in prayer and song and service and giving. And in living, these are the testimonies. These are the actions that show, nah, it’s not me. It is not me. It’s who I serve. And you know, in John 4:23-24, it’s like the hour is coming and He is here, right? It’s when the true worshiper will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Holy Spirit, your spirit, and the truth. The Word of God: this is what we worship in. Why would we want to stop at salvation? Why wouldn’t we want to go on to serve and be in the word and be prayerful and just bang cymbals together? I mean overcome!

You know, during one of my hardest times—one, though, one of many, y’all—it just was tough and I remember going to bed, you know, fired up, amped up, you know, reading the word of God, being at a Bible study, being at prayer, you know, just trying to get through, you know, but keeping God at my forefront. And then I go to sleep and it’s like, the enemy comes in. It’s like, you close your eyes for a minute, right? And you wake up and you’re and you, and you’re—it’s time to get up and it’s hard. I remember calling out to God and saying, “I love you. I’m trusting in you. You are greater than all these things. You’re greater than this world.” And I’m telling you, it gives me that energy to get to the next verse, next prayer, the next whatever it was—a constant. And then, you know, it was kind of funny as we fall off, even, even I fall, it fell off and it took COVID.

It took this the season to bring back a thought, because let me tell you something. Depression is there. This season has brought in depressive moments and I get midway through it. I’m talking to a friend of mine on the phone, right. And I’m telling him like how to overcome it and how you know, like, man, we just need to overcome. And I said, you know what? I remember something. I remember waking up every day on one of my rock bottoms—the last one, by the way—and just glorifying God and telling God you are greater than me. I have started waking up every morning and telling God, “You’re greater than me,” and praising Him for all that He’s done in our lives because He’s seeking such people to worship Him.

Michelle: When I think of a battle that we all have to fight, we don’t have a choice. Right? I see kind of like, milk, to me. You see the ones who…they weren’t trained for this. They were pretty much grabbed up, put a helmet on them, put a vest on them, hand them a weapon and say, “Go out there. Good luck.”

And then you see the ones that have been battle-tested, the armor doesn’t wear them. They wear the armor. And they’re out there, not just looking out for themselves, but looking out for the ones that can barely carry the backpack on their back. And it’s because they’ve been trained. They know what they have in their arsenal and they’re using it. There’s a level of confidence of knowledge, of wisdom, of capability. The beautiful thing about the battle we fight on the eternal level is thanks to God’s love we are all capable of being that warrior that has the armor of God on and knows how to use it. And none of us have to be trapped consistently trying to stay afloat on our own, trying to hold the weight of the world. We don’t have to, you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to wait for the warrior you look up to, to come to save you. And when I say that, I mean the person, the church member, that you always think has it more together, that knows more verses because that person, what they’ve learned is they have to cling to Jesus and never let go. That is the key, not getting it all together yourself. And that’s all you have to do: cling to Jesus, worship Jesus. You will become that warrior. And you can be victorious through all these things that feel so big now, but they are nothing to God.

This entire season is going to focus on the things that come your way. When you even try to worship the Lord, the storm keeps coming, trying its hardest to discourage you and tell you worship ain’t worth it. And that this warship is really a little sailboat. And it’s trying to blow you and snap your mast in half, but that’s not the truth because the truth is with every single storm your warship weathers, your relationship with Christ strengthens and because He never fails that means it strengthens every single time you don’t give up. It’s just—I’m excited. I’m excited for every single episode. We’ve got some zingers. We’ve got some amazing people. God has blessed us with getting in contact with and bringing aboard for this season. I’m amazed.

Shea: Oh, it’s been good. It just has been, is, and will be. We’ve got to keep that in our mind. We got to keep in our mind that we are living sacrifice. He’s made us Holy. He’s made us accepted. You know, so that we find our spiritual worship, let’s offer up those praises. Let those fruits flow off of our lips into this atmosphere. His name can change any atmosphere, just speak His name. Cause He’s that good.

Michelle: Amen.

Shea: Amen. Yeah.

Michelle: Well, season three, we’re in, it is happening.

Shea: In it to win it.

Michelle: We want to hear your prayer requests this time, to hear your thoughts. We want to pray with you. Find us on Instagram and Facebook and at thepantrypodcast.com. We’re there, waiting to hear from you. And we also have amazing new merch—super plug!—but you can grab Worship Is My Worship long sleeve tees and tees and sweatshirts in the store. The proceeds help fight human trafficking, help bring little babies into this world, and, of course, help us host the podcast.

Shea: You guys mean a lot to us.

Michelle: So until next time y’all.

Shea: Bye.