What We Worship Shapes Us

What does it mean to worship something? Most of us picture ancient statues or temple rituals, but this sermon from Romans 1:18-32 challenges us to see that worship is not something we choose to do or not do -- it is something we all do, whether we realize it or not. The passage reveals that when humanity exchanges the knowledge of God for something lesser, the consequences are not arbitrary punishment from an angry deity, but rather a sorrowful releasing of people into the very life they have chosen. As one writer put it, anything other than God that we worship will eventually eat us alive. The things we trust to give us freedom slowly become our masters. This is a message that cuts across every category of person -- the obviously rebellious and the quietly respectable alike. The spiritual invitation here is to examine honestly what sits at the center of our lives, what we have placed on the pedestal where only God belongs, and to consider whether we are saying to God 'thy will be done' or whether we have drifted into a place where God, with wistful sorrow, says it back to us.