By: Henry Knapp
There is a reason why your mother warned you not to hang out with the bad kids… and his name was David—never “Dave,” nor, heaven-forbid, “Davey,” but always “Daaavid” with as guttural a voicing as possible. David was exactly the kind of child that every parent feared, and who every wannabe cool-kid wanted to be like. David was rambunctious, edgy, noisy, and unruly; basically, he made for a rollicking kindergarten class and a frazzled teacher. David was destined to be a ruffian, a thug, or worse (a Cleveland Brown’s fan).
Of course, I was mesmerized by David: Whatever he did, I wanted to do; how he spoke, I wanted to speak. His actions were models for my own. I was mesmerized. My mother… was not. The more I idolized David, the more I picked up some habits that were not as she would desire. The more I hung around David, the more I grew to be like him.
What my mother feared is a simple truth of humanity: we grow and conform ourselves to that which we spend time with. This idea is well captured in the Scriptures: “Idols… have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see; they have ears but do not hear; noses, but do not smell… Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.” (Psalm 115:4-8) If you trust in an idol, you will become as useless as they are—we become what we worship.
“We become what we worship.” Spending time, attention, devotion to something will inevitably cause us to become more and more like that thing. We begin to resemble what we revere. This is no accident, it is a function of our creation. Made in the image of God, we were intended to grow more and more in godliness as our worship, devotion and attention are given to Him.
This past year we have stressed “Worship + 2” at Hebron as our focus in making disciples—
· through our worship: Loving the Lord together
· through +1, our study: Learning the Word of God together
· through +2, our service: Serving our King together.
Worship is key and important in its own sense—our highest duty, our highest joy is to worship our Savior. It is honoring and pleasing to Him for us to come and adore Him individually and collectively. For no other reason than it is right to do so, we worship the Lord of heaven and earth.
However, as we worship Him, discipleship happens—we become more and more like Him! Revering Him, we begin to resemble Him. We grow as disciples of Christ not only as we follow His Word, but as we follow Him. And part of the way we come to follow Him is by worshipping Him. In so doing, we become what we worship.
Please join me in worship, as we adore our Lord and are transformed more and more into His likeness—all to the praise of His glory!
