"We're not worthy."

Today we’re going to talk about worthiness. The worthiness of God versus our own unworthiness.

Sometimes I like to think I’m good at stuff. Sometimes I even like to think I’m really good at stuff. God’s gifted me with a lot. I got a brain. A special one that sometimes feeds into my gigantic ego. In high school, I didn’t study and got all A’s. I barely tried and graduated second out of 550 kids. Yeah, sometimes I think I’m the bomb. Then when it comes to my classroom, I am not half bad either. I get raving reports from the principals when they observe and for all the kicking and screaming my students do, they like me. They know they are learning a ton and that I’m good at what I do. So I’m, you know, I’m pretty worthy...

Well when I put myself up next to God though, things come out a little bit differently. Check out Psalm 145. Psalm 145 is David, this kicking king’s praises (or according to Mr. Webster, David’s warm approval) of God. The book of Psalms is unique in the way that it is God’s Word to believers and it also the believers’ words back to him. You can read the Psalms as God’s word to you and learn about him and his ways AND you can pray and worship him the way he intends by praying them back to Him. The more you read and learn about God’s character, the more you’ll find it easy to worship him.

Take a closer look at verses 3,4, and 5. David is acknowledging how great the Lord’s works are. How people (one generation) will commend Him for His great deeds. Well, I’m teaching in North Philly. That’s pretty great. People commend me all the time for what I’m doing. Then there’s David, the guy actually writing this- he stepped out in faith and courage stood up for Israel by defeating that Philistine Goliath. He was this fantastic king who led a great army to many victories. So yeah—People commended David for what he did, too. Maybe David and I aren’t half bad.

Then we move on to verses 7, 8, and 9. I’m kind of those things, but now I’m stetching it. I bet David would be too. God is slow to anger. We move on about who God is and I’m done. There is absolutely no way I match up to any of this. I am so incredibly not like God. No matter how hard I try, I am not faithful to all my promises. I just can’t do any of that stuff to the extent God does it.

Think about in Wayne's World when Wayne and Garth meet Alice Cooper. It’s because of the posture Wayne and Garth take towards Alice Cooper. Now I’m not saying Alice Cooper is worthy of praise, but if we think of this as a type of model of worthiness versus unworthiness. Wayne and Garth realize they are teeny, tiny in comparison to Alice Cooper. I mean they need back stage passes to get into his dressing room. Everyone’s dying to get backstage to talk to Alice. He’s full of incredible information. He’s like a rock god. And then there’s Wayne and Garth – nobody’s. They were lucky to get backstage passes and be permitted to enter into the presence of Alice Copper. Not only that – Alice Cooper invited them to stay and join him. Bam- Wayne and Garth drop to the floor to acknowledge their unworthiness. They’ve compared themselves to Alice Cooper and realized this is the guy to be worshipped. They even say, we are scum. They know the chasm or great divide between themselves and Alice Cooper. Now that was just an analogy, but think about Wayne and Garth’s response to their god…or we might better term him…an idol.

Now stepping aside from Alice Cooper and moving onto our God, the true God worthy of all praise. When I compare the character of me and of God in Psalm 145. Bam – It’s clear I’m not worthy of any earthly praise, but this God-dude is worthy of it all. God is totally worth worshipping. I am humbled by the fact that no one is going to remember how I taught or what I taught 20 years from now. My focus is not on being remembered or being worthy of other peoples praise. My focus is on giving credit where credit is due. To the God who created me to do His work. I am humbled by how much time I waste thinking about how I can get other people to notice me when I could be getting other people to see God…someone actually worthy of serious worship.