You Are What You Worship

Worship is a as common to humans as breathing because it is part of who we are. Worship is not a religious thing it is a human thing. But the unique thing that I am starting to discover about worship is that you resemble most what you treasure deepest. That is to say you reflect in emotion, thought, and action what you worship with emotion, thought, and action. Psalm 115: 4-8 is the text I am drawing my understanding of this principle from. The Psalmist is giving a description of how idols are made (v. 4), the qualities they possess (v. 5-7), and the effect they have on those who worship them (v. 8). These idols are made by human hands (v. 4), yet do not even hold the attributes of a human because they cannot speak, walk, or talk (v. 5-7), and as a result those who worship them lack spiritually what the idols lack physically (v. 8). The error in understanding idolatry and its effect on those who participate in it is to assume that this was a cultural point and does not affect us presently. But because the Bible is timeless and worship is woven into the fabric of our being this principle is very timely.
To illustrate how timely the idea of you are what you worship let me give two present cultural examples:
The Second Largest American Religion: Sports
Any discerning person taking a trip to a Sports stadium during a game who understands historical pagan religion will see the connection. Pagan worshippers dressed up in weird gimmicks, painted their faces and bodies, and chanted unintelligible songs in order to influence their tribal deity. Compare that to a football game where people dress up in the most ridiculous costumes, paint their entire bodies in their teams colors in subzero temperatures, and sing fight songs to support their teams efforts. People get so wrapped up in the worship of a sports team that they start to refer to their team as “we” when referencing anything done by them. Also, a person who worships a sports team will also have his emotions determined by that sports team. When they win their happy and stable and when they lose they are depressed and unpredictable. Or if you are a Minnesota sports fan you are emotionless because you have been taking anti-depressants for so long that you have forgotten how to feel.
The Largest American Religion: Sex
I think this one is pretty obvious seeing as the Porn industry last year brought in more money than the NBA, MLB, and NFL combined. People who worship Sex are marked by the same passion that sex offers. They are people driven by passion and controlled by it so much so that they are willing to sacrifice anything to indulge it. Examples, would be husbands sacrificing their marriage and families to indulge a passion with a woman who is not his wife. A kid willing to sacrifice his purity and parents trust to view pornography. A man willing to sacrifice his freedom and risk going to jail to indulge a passion for someone underage. People resemble (are passionate indulgers of pleasure) what they worship (Sex: a passionate pleasure).
So the question is not do you worship but what do you worship. Sadly for most people they are idolaters who have worshipped themselves into sin by substituting the worship of the creator for the worship of created things (like sex and sports) (Rom 1:18-32). Jesus came to save us from our idolatry by paying for our false worship so that we could be restored to true worship (1 Peter 3:18). You worship your way into sin and you must worship Jesus to save yourself from sin (2 Cor 3:18).