Remembering who God has been

Pastor Juliet Lyons opens by inviting the room out of routine and into gratitude. She recalls student days when she could not make rent and would go hungry, only for someone to show up with a casserole, and she promised God she would one day be that provider for someone else. She asks the church to call out who God has been to them: faithful, savior, provider, Abba, joy giver, mediator. Remembering is itself a practice, and today the series turns to the spiritual discipline of worship.

Worship is not just singing

Her definition: worship is a physical expression of reverence and awe for what God has done, a snapshot of what is happening inside us. A true worshiper physically exemplifies the revelation of Christ they carry to the world they live in. All the disciplines dovetail into one thing: loving God and loving people. They grow our spiritual strength, produce good fruit, and equip us to push back enemy territory.

Who are you worshiping today?

The human body was made to worship; the only question is what we worship. Any religion can invite you to worship in spirit, but Jesus says in John 14:6 that He is the way, the truth, and the life, so there is no true worship outside of Him. Most idols are God's good gifts turned upside down: money becomes Mammon, and children, work, and status can all be made into gods. She presses the point for this specific day: not the day you were baptized or the day you were saved, but right now, who has the top spot in your life? The greatest commandment is to love the one Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

From bloody altars to living sacrifices

Old Testament worship was built on sacrifice. After the flood, the first thing Noah did was build an altar and offer clean animals. She walks through the peace, burnt, grain, trespass, and sin offerings, each requiring something clean and holy, offered continually because people kept sinning. Jesus died once for all, and now, as 1 Peter says, we are a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices. We come to the house of God not for a feel-good experience but as living sacrifices aware of our need for forgiveness. She honors the serve teams, from parking to first-in-last-out, as modern priests whose unglamorous work is worship.

In view of God's mercy

Writing to a church surrounded by centuries of pagan worship, Paul spends eleven chapters unpacking who Jesus is and then urges, with forceful language, a response. In view of everything Jesus has done, adoration is the only natural response. The word for body also carries the sense of the church as a whole, so we bring ourselves continually and together. She challenges the idea that God will take whatever dregs we offer: come as you are to the altar, but once you know what He has done, "come correct" with a holy and pleasing offering. Worship does nothing for God; He needs nothing. It renews our minds and connects us to Him.

True and proper worship

The phrase true and proper is the Greek logikos: worship is the only rational thing to do once you understand the gospel. Because we become the sum of those closest to us, she urges the church not to be conformed to the world's patterns but transformed, a slow transfiguration. She shares how years of listening only to worship music reset her own mind. A transformed mind can test and approve God's good, pleasing, and perfect will, the same clean and pleasing offering God asked for from the beginning. Spiritual authority flows from this conformity to God rather than to the world.

Physical expressions of worship

Using tables of Old and New Testament words, she shows that worship includes bowing down, praising, shouting as a weapon, serving, living a devoted life, and leaning in with deep honor like a kiss. It is biblical to be undignified like David, and her dream for Elan Youth is that they become undignified worshipers. Worship also looks like a songwriter offering their craft, holding a door for someone, or Brother Lawrence cleaning a deck as a love offering to God. She closes by inviting everyone to stand, practice one expression together, and commit to one practice for a month, whether singing out loud at home, a daily act of kindness, humbling yourself at work, or surrounding yourself with worship only.