Why Should I Worship God?
Recently I was asked to speak at a Christian Union on the subject “why should we worship God?”.
I gave the following three reasons:
1: God should be worshipped as humanity's Maker.
At the start of the Bible we are told God made everything: Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.....”;
in 1:26, 27 we read of God creating humanity: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him”.
As Maker of all things God is owner of all things:
to Him belong the sun, moon and stars;
to Him belongs the hills, mountains and seas;
to Him belongs every animal, bird and person – including you and me.
You belong to God!
2. God should be worshipped as humanity's Saviour.
In Isaiah 43:10, 11 God says “Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no Saviour”.
In Genesis 3 we read of humanity disobeying & rebelling against God, and from there on the story of humanity is one where we we need rescued and saved, not just from one thing but several things:
we need rescued and saved from ourselves and our sin;
we need rescued and saved from death and from the devil.
we need rescued and saved from the God whose judgement and curse we are under.
The Bible is clear: all humanity needs rescued;
all humanity needs a Saviour. Our Saviour is God!
3: God should be worshipped as humanity's Judge.
When in Athens the apostle Paul told people that whatever else they believed or thought about God He was their judge: Acts 17:31 – “God has fixed a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed (Jesus Christ). He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead”.
Note: “God has fixed a day when He will judge the world”. In other words there is a date marked in God's calendar when He will say “enough”, and everything as we know it will be wrapped up, cleansed, renewed.
In several of his letters Paul brings up the day of God's judgement in order that people would not be caught out by surprise. 1 Thess 5:2, 3:
“the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'peace and safety', destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape”.
Paul perhaps had in mind Jesus words in Luke 17:
“Just as it was in the days of Noah so also it will be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.....It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed”.
The apostle Peter also picks up on this theme in 2 Peter 3:10:
“the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives”.
Three reasons God deserves our worship:
God is our Maker;
God is our Saviour;