Why God Is Worthy No Matter What You're Facing
Excerpt from: "Declare: Worthy"

Daniel Dunn • Elder
August 2, 2026

8 Minute Read

God is worthy of worship because of who He is, not because of what He does. That one truth is what makes worship possible on the worst day of your life. Your circumstances do not change His worth, which means your circumstances do not have to change your worship. But that truth is harder to live than it is to say, and most of us have never noticed how much of our worship is actually built on something else.

What's the Difference Between Worship and Gratitude?

I know exactly what my own moments of "worship" tend to look like. I find a good parking spot, and that feels like a moment of worship. I'm moving a little fast down the highway, I notice a CHP officer sitting there, he doesn't whip around, and that feels like a moment of worship too. Not my finest example, I know. I step on the scale and the number went down instead of up, and there it is again.

None of that is wrong. Gratitude is good. But look at the motivation underneath it. Every one of those moments depends on a favorable outcome, which means what I'm calling worship is really just relief with a spiritual accent.

Jesus is worthy of worship always. When I step on the scale and the number goes up instead of down, He is still worthy, because the number does not touch His worth. When I get the $307 ticket, He is still worthy, and that one is on me, not Him. When I have to park in the back 40, He is still worthy. When I get a diagnosis I don't like, He is still worthy. When I'm healed, He is still worthy. My circumstances do not affect His worth, and so my circumstances do not have to affect my worship.

That is hard, by the way. It is tough, because we live in a world that is completely and utterly broken and futile. It is just broken, and we live here. So we don't worship only because He answered a prayer, or only because we happened to feel His presence that morning.

Do You Need the Right Atmosphere to Worship?

I was in a city once with a group of young people, sitting in a worship service that simply was not landing. I don't know if the piano player had broken fingers or what was going on, but it was a bad day up there. No flow, no momentum, nothing. I looked down the row at those students, and they were dead. Completely disengaged.

What they were waiting for was a certain atmosphere before they could enter in and worship. That was the moment I knew we had a serious problem. We needed an atmosphere to worship, and the reason we needed it is that we were not seeing Him clearly enough to understand that He is worthy of worship regardless of the room, the sound, or the mood.

Who Is God? The Question Underneath Everything

The good thing about asking why we worship is that it pushes us past the wrong question. The wrong question is, what has God done for me? The real question is, who is God?

He is the God of the universe. You do not get to understand everything He does, because you are not Him. He sees all of time and all of creation as though it were happening right now. He holds the whole universe in the palm of His hand. If you understood everything there is to understand about God and why He does what He does, then by definition you would be Him.

After a few decades of studying the Bible, this is what I have landed on: there is a God, and I am not Him. I don't get to understand everything. I get to trust that He is good.

What Does "Holy, Holy, Holy" Mean in the Bible?

There is a man in Scripture named John, one of the apostles, one of the first disciples of Jesus, and the one who lived the longest. Rome tried to kill him more than once. It was a rough life. He pastored in Ephesus for a season. He saw miracles happen in and around him. He knew Jesus intimately and personally. And at the end of his days he was in exile on an island, and God came in, pulled back the curtain, and said, let Me show you what heaven is like, and let Me show you what is to come.

Some of you have experienced days when the barrier between what is seen and what is unseen feels a little thinner, when God shows you something. Some people would call that mystical. It isn't. That is just what happens when you walk with a God who is spirit, because we worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). But what John received was something else entirely. This was a vision.

In Revelation 4:8, John describes four living creatures whose appearance is so strange and complex that no summary does them justice. He writes that they are around the throne, and "day and night they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come."

Day and night. They never stop. These unimaginable creatures that God created are so struck by His worth that night and day they are circling the throne with the same words. Heaven is not responding to changing circumstances. Nothing changes for them, and He is still worthy of everything.

Two Visions, 800 Years Apart

Eight hundred years before John, a man named Isaiah had a moment like that. In Isaiah 6:2-3, he describes angelic beings before the throne, and he writes that "one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."

Two men, 800 years apart, different covenants, different moments, and it is the same heaven with the same song. They were singing it in Isaiah's day, they were singing it in John's day, and they are singing it right now.

Is It Clean, or Is It Clean Clean?

Have you ever told your kids to go clean their room, then walked into said room and found it clean? Some of you are more drill sergeant than others, so I hear it is possible. It never once happened for me.

Mine would head upstairs and take an hour on a job that did not require an hour, which means something else was happening up there. Eventually they would come back down, having half forgotten why they went up in the first place, and announce, "Dad, it's clean." And I would say, right, but is it clean clean? Not my standard. Mom's standard, because Mom's standard is higher.

That is the sense of the holy thing. In Hebrew, you say something twice to mean the greatest of its kind. There is a book in the Bible called Song of Songs, which means the greatest of all songs. Jesus is called the King of kings, which means He is King over all the kings. So when heaven says He is holy, and holy, and holy, what it means is that He is completely and totally holy. Nothing is holy compared to Him. Nothing can be more holy than He is. He is all holy.

Why God's Holiness Is the Reason He Is Worthy

Why does that matter? Because that is precisely why He is worthy.

There are no imperfections in Him. There are no problems in Him. God never has a bad day and never has a bad motive. Everything He does comes out of love and out of His holiness, because holiness is not something He is holding. Holiness is who He is.

When we understand that, we understand why He is worthy. He is holy, holy, holy, the Most Holy, and therefore He is worthy. And what that does in the life of a believer is produce worship in every circumstance, no matter what.

How Do You Respond to a God Who Is Holy, Holy, Holy?

So the first question is settled. Is God worthy of worship? He is. He is worthy.

Which means the question is no longer whether He deserves it. The question becomes what happens in you when you actually see Him. How do you respond to Someone who is holy, holy, holy? How do you respond to a Jesus who is worthy?

That is the question worth carrying into your week, especially the weeks where nothing is going the way you hoped. His worth is not up for renegotiation based on your diagnosis, your bank balance, your parking spot, or the quality of the music on a Sunday morning. He was worthy before you walked in, and He will be worthy after you walk out. Everything else is just the setting in which you get to see Him clearly.

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From this Author: Daniel Dunn
September 6, 2026 • 7 Minute Read
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Why Paul's Final Letter Carries So Much Weight The verse just before the charge sets the tone. Paul writes, "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom" (2 Timothy 4:1). Who is the "I" in that sentence? Paul. He is a man who wrote a large portion of the New Testament, an apostle converted by Jesus, brought into His Kingdom, and then commissioned out from Him to preach the gospel. Here is what makes this so weighty. 2 Timothy was written around AD 64 to 66, likely from a place called the Mamertine Prison, a small holding cell in Rome. The only way in and out was through a hole roughly the size of a manhole cover. You were dropped down into it. When it rained, it flooded. You were never expected to survive in there. 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If you have read this far, you have enough awareness and understanding of the truth of the gospel to share it. You could pass along what you have read here. You are qualified if you know Jesus, because at the end of the day what you are preaching is Him, and He has all the creativity you need. He made the universe. You are fine. You are really fine. Does Sharing Your Faith Require A Big Personality? No. You do not need a bunch of personality or charisma. I can tell you that from experience. I have been in rooms where people ask me, "Are you angry?" No, I am not angry. I am sorry. It is just my face. It is just the way it is, and I am working on it. According to some of the older men I know, I am still young, so I have room to grow. Here is the point. I do not need a great personality to preach the gospel. I need to know Jesus and preach His Word. It really is that simple. What Does Hebrews 4:12 Say About The Power Of God's Word? It says the Word does the work you and I could never do. "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). Notice what is not in that verse. There is nothing in there about you being able to do any of that. I do not have to divide soul from spirit. I do not have to judge the thoughts and intentions of anyone's heart. The Word does that for me. All I have to do is offer a life that looks like the Word so people take me seriously. If I preached a gospel of fitness, who would listen? Nobody, because I do not look like it. If I preached a gospel of a full head of hair, nobody would listen to that either, because I do not live like it. But if I look like Jesus and I live like Jesus, they will listen. They will still know I am imperfect, because I am human and so are they. If I preach the Word to them, though, the Word does all of that for me. He does it for me. Does God's Word Really Accomplish Anything? Yes, and God says so about His own Word. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:10-11). The rain and the snow are the metaphor. The point underneath them is that God's Word accomplishes God's purposes. It does not come back empty. Where To Go From Here When Jesus met Paul on the road, He sent him into the world with the gospel, knowing it would return to Him with the salvation of souls. The same holds for you. When you are sent into the world, all you have to do is bring the gospel. He takes care of the rest. So you do not need talent to share your faith. You need to know Jesus and carry His message. His Word is enough. His Word is enough.

Daniel Dunn

Elder

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August 2, 2026 • 8 Minute Read
Why God Is Worthy No Matter What You're Facing
God is worthy of worship because of who He is, not because of what He does. That one truth is what makes worship possible on the worst day of your life. Your circumstances do not change His worth, which means your circumstances do not have to change your worship. But that truth is harder to live than it is to say, and most of us have never noticed how much of our worship is actually built on something else. What's the Difference Between Worship and Gratitude? I know exactly what my own moments of "worship" tend to look like. I find a good parking spot, and that feels like a moment of worship. I'm moving a little fast down the highway, I notice a CHP officer sitting there, he doesn't whip around, and that feels like a moment of worship too. Not my finest example, I know. I step on the scale and the number went down instead of up, and there it is again. None of that is wrong. Gratitude is good. But look at the motivation underneath it. Every one of those moments depends on a favorable outcome, which means what I'm calling worship is really just relief with a spiritual accent. Jesus is worthy of worship always. When I step on the scale and the number goes up instead of down, He is still worthy, because the number does not touch His worth. When I get the $307 ticket, He is still worthy, and that one is on me, not Him. When I have to park in the back 40, He is still worthy. When I get a diagnosis I don't like, He is still worthy. When I'm healed, He is still worthy. My circumstances do not affect His worth, and so my circumstances do not have to affect my worship. That is hard, by the way. It is tough, because we live in a world that is completely and utterly broken and futile. It is just broken, and we live here. So we don't worship only because He answered a prayer, or only because we happened to feel His presence that morning. Do You Need the Right Atmosphere to Worship? I was in a city once with a group of young people, sitting in a worship service that simply was not landing. I don't know if the piano player had broken fingers or what was going on, but it was a bad day up there. No flow, no momentum, nothing. I looked down the row at those students, and they were dead. Completely disengaged. What they were waiting for was a certain atmosphere before they could enter in and worship. That was the moment I knew we had a serious problem. We needed an atmosphere to worship, and the reason we needed it is that we were not seeing Him clearly enough to understand that He is worthy of worship regardless of the room, the sound, or the mood. Who Is God? The Question Underneath Everything The good thing about asking why we worship is that it pushes us past the wrong question. The wrong question is, what has God done for me? The real question is, who is God? He is the God of the universe. You do not get to understand everything He does, because you are not Him. He sees all of time and all of creation as though it were happening right now. He holds the whole universe in the palm of His hand. If you understood everything there is to understand about God and why He does what He does, then by definition you would be Him. After a few decades of studying the Bible, this is what I have landed on: there is a God, and I am not Him. I don't get to understand everything. I get to trust that He is good. What Does "Holy, Holy, Holy" Mean in the Bible? There is a man in Scripture named John, one of the apostles, one of the first disciples of Jesus, and the one who lived the longest. Rome tried to kill him more than once. It was a rough life. He pastored in Ephesus for a season. He saw miracles happen in and around him. He knew Jesus intimately and personally. And at the end of his days he was in exile on an island, and God came in, pulled back the curtain, and said, let Me show you what heaven is like, and let Me show you what is to come. Some of you have experienced days when the barrier between what is seen and what is unseen feels a little thinner, when God shows you something. Some people would call that mystical. It isn't. That is just what happens when you walk with a God who is spirit, because we worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). But what John received was something else entirely. This was a vision. In Revelation 4:8, John describes four living creatures whose appearance is so strange and complex that no summary does them justice. He writes that they are around the throne, and "day and night they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." Day and night. They never stop. These unimaginable creatures that God created are so struck by His worth that night and day they are circling the throne with the same words. Heaven is not responding to changing circumstances. Nothing changes for them, and He is still worthy of everything. Two Visions, 800 Years Apart Eight hundred years before John, a man named Isaiah had a moment like that. In Isaiah 6:2-3, he describes angelic beings before the throne, and he writes that "one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." Two men, 800 years apart, different covenants, different moments, and it is the same heaven with the same song. They were singing it in Isaiah's day, they were singing it in John's day, and they are singing it right now. Is It Clean, or Is It Clean Clean? Have you ever told your kids to go clean their room, then walked into said room and found it clean? Some of you are more drill sergeant than others, so I hear it is possible. It never once happened for me. Mine would head upstairs and take an hour on a job that did not require an hour, which means something else was happening up there. Eventually they would come back down, having half forgotten why they went up in the first place, and announce, "Dad, it's clean." And I would say, right, but is it clean clean? Not my standard. Mom's standard, because Mom's standard is higher. That is the sense of the holy thing. In Hebrew, you say something twice to mean the greatest of its kind. There is a book in the Bible called Song of Songs, which means the greatest of all songs. Jesus is called the King of kings, which means He is King over all the kings. So when heaven says He is holy, and holy, and holy, what it means is that He is completely and totally holy. Nothing is holy compared to Him. Nothing can be more holy than He is. He is all holy. Why God's Holiness Is the Reason He Is Worthy Why does that matter? Because that is precisely why He is worthy. There are no imperfections in Him. There are no problems in Him. God never has a bad day and never has a bad motive. Everything He does comes out of love and out of His holiness, because holiness is not something He is holding. Holiness is who He is. When we understand that, we understand why He is worthy. He is holy, holy, holy, the Most Holy, and therefore He is worthy. And what that does in the life of a believer is produce worship in every circumstance, no matter what. How Do You Respond to a God Who Is Holy, Holy, Holy? So the first question is settled. Is God worthy of worship? He is. He is worthy. Which means the question is no longer whether He deserves it. The question becomes what happens in you when you actually see Him. How do you respond to Someone who is holy, holy, holy? How do you respond to a Jesus who is worthy? That is the question worth carrying into your week, especially the weeks where nothing is going the way you hoped. His worth is not up for renegotiation based on your diagnosis, your bank balance, your parking spot, or the quality of the music on a Sunday morning. He was worthy before you walked in, and He will be worthy after you walk out. Everything else is just the setting in which you get to see Him clearly.

Daniel Dunn

Elder