Why worship God?

There are an infinite number of reasons, of course, but let me share four - the Four I’s.

First, because we are Impressed with Him.

Alisa Camplin is an Australian aerial skier who won gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics. An excerpt from a newspaper article at the time said:

“Camplin’s passage to the Olympics involved seven years of hard labour, with a procession of increasingly difficult somersaults and some awful accidents. She broke her collarbone and a hand, separated her shoulder, dislocated her sternum twice, ripped her hip flexor out of her groin, broke both ankles, tore her right knee and cracked 12 ribs. But after she soared through two perfect triple twisting double somersaults to win the Olympic gold medal at Deer Valley, she felt all the agony had been worthwhile. In 2002/3 she won the World Championship and the World Cup title.”

Impressive huh? And it is easy to shower her, and others like her, with well-deserved praise. Therefore, how much more should we be impressed with God?

Light travels at 300,000 km/s, so it can travel around the world during the click of a finger.

Light needs just 1 second to get to the moon and 8 minutes to travel to the sun. It would take a day for a flash of light to reach the edge of our Solar System and, at the same speed, 4.3 years to get to the nearest star (Alpha Centauri).

After that, it would be 2 million years to find the nearest galaxy.

There are billions of Galaxies. God’s universe is very big. To say we are impressed with God is an understatement at best but that is our first ‘I’.

Why worship God? Second: Because his love is Infinite. “…the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him” (Ps 103: 17).

And look at the quality of that love. Paul attempted a summary in his beautiful description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, often read at weddings: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Cor 13:4 - 7)

And that love is for all time. Forever. God’s love towards us is infinite.

The third “I” and reason to worship God is that He Identified with us.

Jesus, “made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death —

even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:7-8).

The same writer, Paul also wrote: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

Jesus humbled himself to become human, even submitting to the taunts and nails of those he had created in order that he might die in our place. He identified with us by stepping into the mud with us, and he did that to save us from it.

If these reasons weren’t enough, the fourth reason to worship God is because he is Intimate.

“I will never leave you; I will never abandon you” (Heb 13 v 5).

“And I will be with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28 v 20)

“Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, LORD, for you are with me” (Ps 23: 4).

Intimate means ‘close. Very close. The Lord is never far away. And always worthy of our worship.