WHAT IS WORSHIP, REALLY? // S01E08 (EPISODE 8)

How do we worship God? What if you can’t sing? What if you’re shy? What if…it’s not just about songs and melodies?

QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON THIS EPISODE:

• What is worship?
• How do you worship?
• What are acts in true worship?

VERSES FROM WHAT IS WORSHIP, REALLY?

Romans 12:1-2, John 4: 24, John 6:63, John 1:1, John 16:13, James 4:7

QUOTES FROM WHAT IS WORSHIP, REALLY?

“We’re kingdom citizens, so my environment is temporary. My heaven, my kingdom is eternal. I need to be there in that position with my father, with everything else shut off because I need to be there in spirit and truth.”

Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E08: What is Worship, Really?

“Worship is when you obey God, that is what it is when you’re loving God and showing it that is worship. The definition of worship is actually the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.”

Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E08: What is Worship, Really?

“I’m nothing without his word. I’m nothing without him. I am nothing without the Holy spirit who sits there and realigns me.”

Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E08: What is Worship, Really?

ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT

Shea: Welcome to the pantry, everybody, man. 

Michelle: It’s another awesome time to just sit here staring at you. Just have these conversations. 

Shea: Oh my goodness. Y’all see. Hey, you know, it is cool though. It’s cool that we have this ability to, to sit and talk about the word of God that, you know, that’s kinda how we met, you know, it’s, it’s kinda cool. Bible study really played a huge role in our relationship 

Michelle: When we first started hanging out, we were walking around the track of a middle school, talking about whatever, had been talking about Bible study or prayer or whatever. We would just be nerding out like this. So,this is awesome 

Shea: This is just us, but hey tonight, we’re going to tackle something that I think that sometimes we misunderstand what worship really is. I think that even sometimes the most seasoned we’ll sit there and think of worship and think that it requires all of these things are the bells, the whistles, the tambourines, and, and, you know, really worship isn’t all of that. Now, granted, it can be, I think you were, you were saying at Besla, you know, I say, Hey, what do you think worship is?

Michelle:  Yeah. It’s when you obey God, that is what it is when you’re loving God and showing it that is worship. The definition of worship is actually the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. Wow. You know, so, I mean, there’s only one deity, right? Our Lord that’s, that’s what it’s about. It says nothing about music. It says nothing about singing. Those are just two awesome ways to show it

Shea: So I got a question. Yeah. If I’m like running down the street and I tripped and I almost bite it. Right. And I’m like wobbling all over the place and I actually recover and I stay humble. Thank you, Lord worship reverence. Right? I’m giving credit to him. I’m like, I’m like, no, I’m calling his name. Not my own, but thank you for sparing me. That’s a thought in itself. Thank you for sparing me. Romans 12:1-2 It’s in that mercy. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as living sacrifice, give it all. That’s I kind of put that in there. That’s my, that’s my give it all wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God in my old life or my old perspective, I would run down the road.

Shea: Run down the road and you start tripping. You start falling and you start like going off. Like, I mean, come on. Y’all y’all been there. There’s been that time when you’re like, how did I pull this off? And my old self would say, man, I was lucky. Ain’t no luck now. Recognize what it is. It’s God. And so what in that it’s God, it’s God, it’s God, it’s God, it’s God, you know, what does God give us? He gives us eternal love. He gives us eternal life, forgiveness, reconciliation, patience, hope, wisdom, strength, eternal, joy, everlasting peace. He gave us the Holy spirit. He justified us sanctification. He gave us freedom. 

Shea: I mean, this is where my true worship sits, knowing what’s been done for me. Even when I start to get lost, I focus back to what he’s given. And it’s like an awe and wonder. I just, I don’t know. You know, I could see her. I’ll like, wow. You know, and I could reflect. But if you knew my story, if you knew where I came from, you might sit there and that on one and be like, yo, how’s this dude alive, here now doing this podcast?

Michelle: Oh, I can’t wait for you to share more about everything. Cause that’ll inspire some people I’m sure.

Shea: But all those things were mercies. All of those things, the comfort, the strength, right. Is wisdom. The obedience. We sit there sometimes and we don’t understand where we are in life. Stop in worship, sing, pray, worship with his word. Thank him. There’s all of these avenues of just sitting in front of your father and being, wow. Thank you.

Michelle:  The, the word reverence in the definition of worship, right? Showing how much you value his opinion, his guidance in your life. So that when you’re not in the church setting, when you’re just out in your daily life, you worship him with your actions toward others. You’re presenting him in a solid light by how you’re acting, because that shows other people who he really is. That’s how you show you value what he’s done for you, that you value his principles and who he is. Cause you’re trying to be like him. You can tell who respects their parents by how they talk about their parents and how they act. You can’t help. But sometimes question parenting or give kudos to parenting based on, you know, actions that you see in a kid for better, for worse comparison kills contentment. I know we just went over that last, last episode, but it’s just, it’s natural because you know, someone raised them and how they were raised is a big impact on how they’re acting now. Right? Okay. So if the Lord is raising us, if we’re allowing him to be our parent in that sense, then we go out there and we’re just shining his light. Every time we shine his light, it’s an act of worship

Shea:  You can have the best parents ever and the worst kid, but you know, you just never know. But, but, but we know who our father is. We know who our heavenly father is. Let’s be more specific, right? We know from reading the word, all that, he’s done, all that. He’s given us all that, you know, through the whole Bible, all that he’s given every one that put their trust in their faith in him. I love, I love that carrion. I love the, you know, the, the, the definition of reverence because in John 4: 24, it says, God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. See, there’s two aspects of this worship first there’s spirit. And then second there’s truth. And I mean, I know that all everybody else has got the answer that I got and we do have the answer to that.

Shea: That’s not what this podcast is about. It’s not about giving everybody something like a blown out, logical explanation with some kind of new way or new twist that they’ve never heard before. We gotta put it aside. We’ve got to put flesh aside. So how do I get the spirit? How do I get the truth? I put myself aside. I humble myself before the Lord. Everything Shea fleshly has to be given away. I mean, like taken away, like just step out of that position and say, no, I’m not going to listen to the voices. No, I’m not going to listen to the world. No, I’m not going to listen to what my boss told me earlier today. No, I’m not going to listen to the fight that was replaying in my head. You know, from my relationship with my wife, no, in that moment, spirit and truth, I am removing myself from this existence.

Shea: And I know that sounds freaky or weird. Maybe. I don’t know, but you got to understand something. We’re kingdom, citizens. So my environment is temporary. My heaven, my kingdom is eternal. I need to be there in that position with my father, with everything else shut off because I need to be there in spirit and truth. And what is that? What is spirit? What is true? Spirit gives us life. John 6:63 flushes of course, no help. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. He says, you know, in John’s day and he says, you know, this is, this is Jesus saying, no, he’s saying this too, to his disciples, Galatians. But I say walk by spirit and you will not gratify the desires of flesh. So that spirit, we’re not in the flesh. We’re sitting out with just our father, our spirit and our soul sitting here with all this pain, right? How many times do we sit there and try to, to turn on the, the, the worst and baggage is just sitting there,

Michelle: Right? It’s when we really let the words intimately settle into us, right? Like, thank you’re a plant. Get the soil. When the living water comes, when you let it trickle down and soak into the soil. That’s one thing, you know, it’s, it’s in there for a time, but it’ll just drain out the bottom. Unless you soak it up into your roots and that’s worship, that’s knowing in spirit and in truth, that this is the way and the truth and the life. And I want it. And I value it and it’s worth soaking up into myself and making it a part of me. It’s worthy to live by this. And it’s worthy to try, you know, cause I mean, you’re never gonna 100% soak it all in. And then just for the rest of your life with no trouble at all, walk it out. But the effort, the desire, the desire, cause he knows our heart, the desire to want to walk with him.

Michelle: I going back to David, why was David, who was a murderer who had, who stole somebody’s wife, who was a liar on multiple occasions? Why was this someone after God’s own heart that God loved so much? Not because he was perfect and had it all together. It’s because even at his worst moments, the first thing he always did when he came back to his senses was go straight to the Lord. He never tried going anywhere else to figure it out or solve his problem. You know? Like he would always go straight to the Lord and that reveals his heart. And that’s what he wants for us is even when we’re messing up, we worship him by knowing he is the alpha, that he is the Omega. That he’s the only one to come to.

Shea: And so how do we know that? See, where, where does, where does that come from? Where does this, this truth come from? Because truth and spirit can’t sit by themselves. They have to be together. You gotta do it in spirit and truth. It doesn’t say do it in spirit or do it in truth. It says, do it in spirit AND truth. See David, I love that’s a great example. He came back cause he knew truth. He had heard it enough times experienced it enough times. You know, we’re at a point where he’s slayed Goliath, he’s escaped King Saul. You know, he has always seen God manifest himself and see, man, I’m going to tell you, we have an advantage in this day and age, we have an advantage. I’m sitting here right now in front of a Bible. Right? Do I know the word? And who is the word?

Shea: Who’s the word Jesus. See John 1:1 of course in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. And the word was, God, you got have both aspects. It’s a blend. You’re you’re out of this, out of this. How do you even know how to step away from the bag of step away from the flesh to say, Hey, I need to clear my thoughts, clear my mind and have this razor point focus, sniper focus. That’s kind of my background. Yeah. Sniper focus though, to where you just have God in your heart and your mind, it is possible. The word of God says it’s possible in Romans 12 two. Yes. And the word of God says it’s possible because we have this blend. It’s it’s like when you don’t feel the spirit, go to the word and see what it says, the word will manifest itself and the spirit will talk to you. Yeah.

Shea: And so we blend these together and our worship has to be in spirit and truth. I don’t go before God and start talking about a bunch of other things that have nothing to do with who I am in Christ. You know what I’m saying? Oh I hate that person Lord. Oh, I know. That’s it. Lord change me. Right. Teach me, guide me. I praise God. You know, I sit there in this worship and I just enjoy the reverence of who I’m standing before

Michelle: And I’ll make a confession. I have gone to the Lord and been like, Lord, I cannot stay on this person. And when I do that, the amazing thing. And we bring this up when we argue, when me and share not on the same side while we’re always on the same side. But technically, sometimes we’re deceived and think we’re on different sides. Right. But when that happens, if you bring God in as a third person, he’s the only third person you should ever bring into a fight. Right? Right. And if he, if, if you bring him in and you start telling him how frustrated you are, how annoyed you are, you can even try and tell him how annoying the other one is. But regardless he starts to talk because you start feeling that truth come in about, well, they’re not the only one that’s at fault.

Michelle: They’re not the only one who did something. They’re not the only one who needs to change in some way, you have to change your heart. Right. You know, even that is worship because I alluded to Romans 12:2 it’s it’s this idea do not conform to the pattern of the world. Right. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I love it. Cause I’m a psych major. And how over time, your brains forms stronger and stronger connections between thoughts, right? Like little networks and synopsis based on how much you’re thinking of certain things. So the more you put in the word of God, the more everything in your life starts connecting and being reinforced to literal verses, which is a literal, physical, psychological, physiological occurrence where you are transforming and renewing your mind. You know, it’s not like, Oh, you know, just read some verses and he’ll just click just like that transformer. No, he’s, he’s doing it. Like this is one of those times where you can pinpoint the whole problem. When you are conforming to the pattern of the world, you’re reinforcing the wrong associations in your brain.

Shea: Right. Right. Right. I think back to our vows without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish, wow. That’s a wake up call every time. But you know, how do we get there? Exactly. You know, those things carry the sooner we bring God into it. The sooner we can continue in worship, glorifying God demonstrating God being lights for God. Because outside of that, you walk around, we fight. We’re going to use this because it’s easy example. It might be like, dang, we fight all time. No, no. But like, it’s just an easy example because I think everybody has a fight with, with someone they know where they love or, or whatever. No we fight, I walk out of the house. I don’t get over it. I go to the store. I walked by somebody, they say hi, I don’t say nothing.

Shea: Cause I’m in my mode. What if they needed to hear a hi and we’re not getting too far off base. I think some people might say to me, well this is going through the worship. No, it’s a, it’s a mind alignment. How do I get to that point by allowing truth and the spirit to come in and do the work. 

Shea: I’m nothing without his word. I’m nothing without him. I am nothing without the Holy spirit who sits there and realigns me. Hey, that person who just beat your dog. I know Michelle. The thing about dogs. Yeah. They’re innocent. No spot, no, no blooms. Don’t wrinkle. Did they? They couldn’t, they couldn’t fathom that in their mind. But see, when I sit there and the judgment of God and I say, okay, it’s just for God to handle. Then I can come to this revelation that you know what?

Shea: It’s not mine. It’s his. And in us, there’s no spot, no wrinkles. So I have this blend. Now I’m in a position to be able to worship him with my body. When the spirit of truth comes, John 16:13, he will guide you in all truth for you and not speak on his own authority. This is what’s cool. Here comes the word, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will declare to you the things that are to come. The word speaks to you. God, Jesus speaks to you. Jesus speaks to you through the Holy spirit. So how do we worship in spirit and truth, right? How do we, yes, it’s an expression. That’s pure. It’s an expression that doesn’t have the weight of the world. I love that word. I didn’t have that. She gave it to me, but that expression,

Michelle: Just this reinforcement, you know, in James 4:7, submit yourselves then to God resist the devil and he will flee from you. Every time you do that, it’s an act of worship. Worship does not require singing ability. It’s whatever way you express your adoration. That’s it 

Shea: If you want to be able to worship, present your body as a living sacrifice, that’s motability and that’s allowing God to transform.

Michelle:  Just remember we want to know what you think so go to the pantrypodcast.com and hit us up till next time.

Shea: Ciao.

Keywords: Faith can move mountains, mustard seed parable, worship scripture, worship verses in the Bible.