Episode 22 - Re-"imag"-ing Worship

Worship might be the most misunderstood word in modern Christian life. We tend to shrink it down to a set of songs, a church service, or a “spiritual” mood. Scott and Sister Amy push back on that small definition and ask a bigger question: what if worship was never meant to be a compartment, but a way of living with God at the center? 

We connect worship to identity, discipleship, and bearing God’s image. With Isaiah 43 as a guide, we talk about being created for God’s glory and formed to proclaim His praise, then bring it down to street level: kindness at the grocery store, patience in traffic, listening well, serving your family, making wise choices, and practicing generosity. The key isn’t perfection or performance. It’s intent, the quiet decision to do the next thing with Him, for Him, and to bring Him joy. 

Scott shares a personal story about visiting our parents, having a hard conversation with our 86-year-old dad about driving, and watching that moment turn into worship through wisdom and generosity. It ends at a car wash with a cleaning cloth in hand, unexpected tears, and a simple prayer: “Thank you, Jesus.” That’s the heartbeat of everyday worship, where ordinary tasks become sacred because the love behind them is offered to God. 

If you want a more grounded, biblical, and practical approach to Christian worship and spiritual disciplines, press play and try one small experiment today. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what everyday moment you’re turning into worship.

Transcript

Worship Beyond Sunday Songs

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hello, listeners. This is Scott here with Sister Amy, and we're recording another podcast for you guys. Our podcast entitled In It Together: Sibling Conversations on Life in the Kingdom and how Amy and I are trying to apply Jesus' teachings and what we see in scripture and how we're going to live our lives and the things that we're discovering. And we've been talking about discipleship. We've been talking about bearing God's image and that being the image that we reflect into the world. And what does that look like in conflict? What does that look like as in our everyday life of the influence we have in other people's lives? And today, Amy, we're talking about worship. And so what are your thoughts on to get us started here?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Well, yeah, like typically when we were growing up, I always thought, of course, that's when we're singing a church, you know, that that's when maybe it could be the whole church service itself, but mostly I connected it to the music and the singing. But I think it was Andy Wright said something like, our idea of worship has become impoverished, which is really a stunning statement. So I think there's more to worship than how I used to think of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, I definitely would use the term, you know, just in the context of like music and worship music. And I guess it depends on who you're listening to, of whether or not that sounds like worship to us. But, you know, what we're really talking about here today is really the kind of question of what if worship was never meant to be a segment of life, but a way of living. And it's something far beyond and more than music. And so I, you know, what we've been talking about, we we've the last few episodes, we've kind of referenced back to Genesis 1.26, where God said, Let us make mankind in our own, our our own image. And and that's where we find our identity. That's where we go to to find our identity, is we look at who God is. We look at the person of Jesus Christ, the full embodiment of God here on earth, and we seek to become like him. That's our definition for disciple, a person living to become like Jesus in every way possible. And as we're doing that, we're rediscovering our identity because we were created to be in his image. And as we we've all become someone different than who God fully intended for us to be because of the fall, but we're returning back to that image and to bear that image, reflect that image in the world. But today we're adding

Created For Glory And Praise

SPEAKER_01 3:05

to that one of the core foundations of our identity of what we do. And we see it in Isaiah chapter 43, a couple different places, uh, verse seven. The Lord says, Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, and who I formed and who I made. And then later in the in the same chapter, these my my chosen people formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. Like we were created to be beings that gave God glory and that proclaim, that praise him. Like it's in the very essence of what he intended for us to be, and also who he created us, you know, what he created us to do. So we're created in his image, we're created for his glory, and worship is reflecting him rightly in the world. Like in worship, we're re we are rediscovering who we truly are. That's very different than going to a church service or than singing a worship song. Like worship is living every part of my life with God at the center and his glory as the focus, right? So when I find myself, you know, in any mundane task, ultimately I'm trying to do everything that I do today for the glory of God, right? So imagine, is there anything that you could do today that wouldn't be better if you did it with him, for him, or to bring him joy?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

No.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Let me let me say the statement again, right? Everything that you do today would be better if you with him for him and to bring him joy.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Right. I'm agreeing with that.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Yeah. And but yeah, I think that we miss that. I think we I don't think this is necessarily something that I grew up learning or understanding in church. You know, worship was more, you know, compartmentalized, church was more compartmentalized, your spiritual life is more compartmentalized thing. And I think that worship is to be involved in every task. And that's not necessarily natural for us, but it can be something that we're intentionally

Ordinary Virtues As Worship

SPEAKER_01 5:35

diving into, right? So what if you know, cleaning, doing the dishes could be an act of worship?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

That would be really awesome. That would greatly improve our housekeeping.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

And so I really think that in large part, a big, a significant aspect of this is intent, right? I don't think that we can truly live and engage a spiritual life without the intent to do so. Our our sinful nature too often and too easily distracts and dissuades us away from the very things that we were created for, and to be people who bear his image of kindness and goodness and and wisdom, and we get caught up in self and what we're interested in. But what if like driving or you know going to work, parenting, listening to someone, or serving, you know, what if those were acts of worship? Right? We've talked a lot the last several weeks about some of God's virtues of being kind and gentle and loving. And essentially, Amy, what I'm saying is, and trying to lead the listeners to comprehend or consider is what if worship was simply engaging the very virtues and the nature of God in the world that we live in to the people before us? Like when I'm at the grocery store and I choose to be kind and caring and interested in the person checking, checking out, you know, ringing up stuff at the grocery store. Like, but I do so because I'm desiring to be like Christ, and this is who he would be. He would look them in the eye. He would probably say their name, he would care about them, he would probably ask them questions about how their day is going. And imagine the kind of the way that has helped me with this is like if you put a line down on the floor and you said, okay, on the left side of the line is the worldly perspective of life, which is what we all know all too well. And on the right side of the line is the reality of a spiritual life. From the left side, being kind to the lady at the checkout is just like, oh, well, that's that's a good thing. Anybody could do that and should do that. And that, but nobody I don't think would say that's a it's wrong or not good to be kind, right? But from the right side of that line, like, well, this is no small thing. Like all of heaven stopped and recognized that the intent, the desire of your heart is to worship God and to be like him and to reflect his image of kindness and goodness and and love to this person in front of you. Like from the left side, that may just seem like, oh, that's that, okay, good, good idea, but a small thing. From the right side, this is no small thing. From the spiritual perspective, this is one of the one of the biggest things happening in the day because you're choosing to do it with God, for God, and to bring him glory. And that's worship.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Right. And what you're talking about, like, isn't about guilt or striving or even like having some kind of planned behavior.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, this is not performance, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Right. This is like anytime we make a change, we might have to have some intentionality behind that.

Repentance And Whole-Life Awareness

SPEAKER_00 9:35

But really, what we're talking about is a whole way of living that just becomes different. Like we've changed it, it's repentance. Like we've talked about repentance in that it's changing our mind about something changing how we think about the ordinary, what seems like ordinary parts of changing our perspective on everything. Right, right, right. But we're beginning to grasp God's thoughts on this, which are that every moment can be holy, and every moment can be an act of worship. So when we see somebody in the grocery store and we're kind, well, maybe originally we're thinking about being intentional to be kind, but over the course of time we just can't help ourselves. This is just our way of life. We act with kindness, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

So and I think but what I think we can do that, like to imagine that's very different than singing songs in church on Sunday or listening to music in your car that's worship, right? We're talking about the the actions, like the the more biblical sense of, you know, in both Greek and Hebrew, like the worship was an action of coming and bowing down and coming to connect with and encounter God, right? And so that's what we're talking about is that it's worship's not just music, worship is far beyond that. It is so much more, it is engaging and acting and reflecting the very nature of God in the world. And that to when when we're doing that to bring him glory, then I believe that it's worship.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Oh and it's integrating into all of your life. Like when we've talked about just having awareness or abiding, that's been a critical piece that we've talked about. Just being attentive to the things around us and the people around us. Like worship begins when really when we stop dividing our life into segments, like this is the worship time, this is the other time of life.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

It just all becomes a one.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah, all of life is to glorify him. And you know, and that's not just a concept. We're saying that like that's a lifestyle, that's a means by which we live, but it requires a significant amount of intentionality

Practicing Worship As Discipline

SPEAKER_01 12:35

to move in that direction. It doesn't just happen. We have to intentionally pursue it like a discipline.

unknown 12:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Like I've had moments where, you know, as you know, I like to sit in my backyard and have devotion outside when the weather permits it. And I guess I'm getting old because I like to see the birds and feel breeze and everything else, right? And so I've had moments where I'll just kind of close my eyes, and there may be times when I'm just sitting there in silence in prayer or just being still in solitude. There are times when I'm actually listening to a worship song and just, you know, you know, praising God through my headphones. And but there are a number of times when I'll kind of get caught up in the moment and then all of a sudden open my eyes, and it's kind of a shock that I'm back in reality. Like I'm back in at least a reality that, oh, there are trees and bushes and birds and and you know, things around me that I'm like almost kind of caught up so much in just thinking about or imagining being in the presence of God. And it's almost a shock when I open my eyes. And I think that there are deep experiential things that the Lord has for us as we turn our minds to him and as we seek to bring him praise and glory, whether it's in being still, whether it's in being kind, whether it's in making a wise choice, or, you know, any, again, reflecting any of his virtues or attributes in our life, we're taking a step

Dad’s Decision And Generous Gift

SPEAKER_01 14:10

back to who we're created to be. But as you know, the story, we were together last week. I came up to visit. And for those of you that don't know Amy and I, we live about seven or eight hours apart, but Amy lives about two miles from my parents. And our parents are getting older, and our dad is 86 years old, and both our parents are driving. But when I came into town, I had intended to sit down and talk to my dad about considering whether or not driving was the most wise choice in this season of his life. And Amy and I have talked about this, you know, we've kind of been having conversations with our parents for almost 10 years, kind of leading up to one day, you know, we'll have conversations like this. But I sat down with my dad in his office while I was there last week and um and shared some thoughts with him. And I was just like, you know, I really, as your son, I really care about what this next season of your life is like for you. And so basically what I was presenting to him was, you know, I really care. I want to help guard that peace that you have and avoid a significant regret. And so I want you to be able to have peace and no regret. And so I would like for you to consider whether or not you think driving is wise. Because if you've, if for some reason there was an accident and someone was injured, you would feel awful, like it would completely destroy your peace. And and I know, you know, our dad well, obviously, and I think it would leave him with a significant regret. And I'm like, I love you too much to not put this before you and ask you to consider whether or not this would be a good season to quit driving. And separately, but connected to, it would had already been decided, and everybody knew it, that oh, my dad, when he quit driving, or at some point in the near future, he was going, he wanted to pass this car down to Amy's daughter, my niece, Kate. And so she had just graduated this past weekend. And I suggested, you know, have you have you considered maybe doing that as a graduation gift? And so that began, you know, a little bit more of a conversation, again, kind of separately from the driving piece. But the reason I'm telling y'all the story is that um my heart was to make this conversation all about worship and what we're talking about today. And so as I shared with my dad some of the things that we're discussing here, I'm like, dad, to choose to like he he was planning to like sell Kate his car for whatever she got for her old junker. And he's like, I don't care if it's a dollar. I just think, you know, she'd probably find value in buying the car from me than me giving it to her. And and that's where I just kind of invited him to consider things differently. And Amy's already heard this story, so this is for you guys to hear. And so I said, Well, the Lord is is generous. Like one of his virtues is to be generous. And he didn't ask a dollar for a dollar from us that we could purchase, you know, our our forgiveness for our sins. He gave it freely. Like he is, he is graceful and he is merciful and he is generous. And so as I was explaining this concept of worship to to dad, I was just like, Dad, I just encourage you. I know that the money, as you're clearly saying, is not, you know, the priority here, but I encourage you to reconsider that and just choose to give her the car out of generosity because you want to be like your father in heaven. And that's a moment of worship if you're intending to do it to reflect his image here on earth and to give him praise and glory for how he has loved us and not charged us anything for the grace that he's given us. And without a second thought, he was bought in and is like, yeah, and do that. And so sometimes it's as simple as us reminding ourselves or being led to remembering who God is and how we can how we can dive into and engage those realities here in our life. In this case, I got the blessing of being a son who cared about that and getting to encourage my dad toward it and loved his response. It wasn't but a moment or two later that, you know, he's like, Well, we need to go get that thing cleaned up. There's a car wash down the street. And so we chose to, I drove down there, we go through the car wash, and it's one of those car washes where after you pull through, you kind of pull off and vacuum and clean it out yourself. And and I just I told him, I want to come along and help clean it out because I want to be a part of the worship service. And he's like, Well, let's go. So we get in the car, go to the car wash, we're we're vacuum, we vacuumed it out and we're we're wiping down things. And I was sitting behind the wheel with a you know cleaning cloth in my hand, and he had a cleaning cloth in his hand, wiping down the dash in front of him from the passenger seat. And I just was full of joy. I was just so excited to clean this car as though Jesus were the next person to drive it. Like I was so excited to serve, you know, Kate in that way. I was so excited for what my dad was choosing and that his response to want to worship was so quick and so clear. I just, I had a joy and an excitement happening in me. And I just almost naturally just said, God, I just love this. I love getting to worship. Doesn't it feel good to just worship? Literally, as I'm like wiping, you know, dust off of the steering wheel. And in that moment, our dad just kind of broke down weeping and was suddenly kind of caught up. Another one of those eye-opening moments. Oh, reality is here. But my dad's response 30 seconds later was, thank you, Jesus. And I'm honored to tell you that that was my number one experience with my dad in my life, is that as a son who cares about him and is encouraging him to consider when is the time to make the wise decision and to be wise and reflect the Lord's wisdom in the decision that you're making and to be generous and to reflect the generosity of God as an act of worship and to watch my dad choose to do what was really hard. I was so proud to have gotten to be a part of the moment and at 86 years old witness my dad worship in a way that it cost him something, but that he was delighted to do. And I'm proud that he's my dad. I'm proud that he's made the choice that he did. And we're all thrilled to get to watch Kate get the keys to uh to the newer car. And friends, God has so many moments like this for us as we choose to slow down and consider what a life of worship could be like, where we're letting the reality and the virtues and the nature of God be the thing that directs and leads our life. I think a lot of us. Have our number one moments still waiting out there for us. I think that they most likely are going to be found in moments of choosing to worship. And so thanks for listening to the story. Thanks for being a part of this

Living Sacrifice And Daily Prompts

SPEAKER_01 22:15

with us. You know, I really think so much of this is comes together as we look at things like Romans 12, you know, where Paul's saying, you know, in view of God's mercy, offer yourself as a living sacrifice. This is your spiritual act of worship. This is what's holy and pleasing to God. And that's this laying our life down as a living sacrifice. That's this looking at every small moment and just wanting to be a person that just puts a smile on God's face. Because the intent in which we're doing the things that we do is to love him and to glorify him and to bring him joy and to and to bring him praise. And so, all right, Amy, I'm about that that about tapped me emotionally. So where are we?

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Well, the thing about our worship is that it should really lead us to be joyful and happy. And like it's it's just a great perspective on life. And like even in this moment, like you sharing that story, it makes you want to go, well, thank you, Lord, that I have scared for a brother, because who knew that going through something so hard with a parent could be done in such a way that, you know, it leads us all to worship. And that's a really hard thing to have to walk through with your parents. But I'm so thankful for how God led you to do that. But this is not just reserved for church, it's not just reserved for the music time at church, or for things that are hard. It's for all of our lives, it's for every moment. So whether it's washing the dishes, washing a car, helping your kids tie their shoes, or helping your kids in the midst of an argument, like whatever. It doesn't matter what it is, everything about our lives, exercising, eating, all just the normal things in life can be a holy moments, really, with an attitude heart condition to worship.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah, and it's a whole different way of living. It's doing life with him and for him and to bring him joy. I mean, we can do that with anything that we do, but too often I know that I find myself distracted. But as I'm learning to engage this as a discipline and learning to look for and imagine and invite the Holy Spirit to direct my thinking into how is this? How can I, what does kindness look like right now? Well, what are the virtues of God look like in this moment? And choosing to do those in the moment with intent to bring him glory is is a whole different whole new way of living. And it and it's it is, it's joyful. I get caught up in it. I'm honored to get to do this. And so rather than finding myself in frustrating, so many frustrating moments when I'm intentionally doing this, I'm finding joy and I'm finding peace, and I'm finding the kingdom of God showing up here on earth. Right. More like it would be in heaven. Because this is who we were created to be. So, you know, worship and learning to live every worship is learning to live every moment with God, for God, reflecting his character in this world, and and in it we find joy.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Oh yeah, go figure, because this was who we were made to be. Is is our identity, is how we bear his image.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

So we're just asking you to consider what would change if every moment of life became an opportunity to love God and reflect him in the world that you live in. Something to consider.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Maybe go do something with the attitude of worship, dry, washing your dishes and worshiping God. I mean, you know, and think of the most ordinary thing that you're gonna do today, and maybe try and think of it as worship to God.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Right. So, you know, live intentionally toward him, trying to be with him, living life for him, and doing it for his glory. So think of just we're just gonna throw out a few examples and leave you with that. Like, what if, you know, what if you wash the dishes that way today or clean things up? What if driving to work was something that you did intending to be with God and to bring him glory and letting that person with their blinker on over because you wanted to exercise kindness as the Lord would be kind and as he has been kind to you, and you're reflecting that. Like that's not a small moment. It may seem that way in the physical world, but it's not in the spiritual world. Answering emails, folding laundry, making coffee, walking the dog, every moment has an opportunity to be a life of liturgy. And and so we're just trying to invite you into having life be a liturgical experience where you're finding and discovering the sacred, the spiritual reality of who God created you to be and finding joy in that life that He has intended for you. So you guys have a great week. Go and be worshipers and engage God in a whole new way.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

See ya.