“We’re not worthy, we’re not worthy”
This iconic statement was a part of my adolescent years. Spoken by Wayne and Garth in the movie, Wayne’s World, it was made in jest to people that they idolized. They would fall down to the ground chanting that they were not worthy.
Have you ever truly felt though like you were unworthy? We have all been there. I find that people often feel this sentiment. What have they done to deserve what they have or why should they receive something better? There is this underlying sentiment in our culture of people who feel unworthy. Oddly enough I find it to be more often true for people that have experienced success as there seems to be this guilt inside of them that tells them regularly they are not worthy. They then have to make up for it, yet nothing they do seems to help.
The fact of the matter is that we are not worthy. None of us. Yet it has nothing to do with our actions, the things that we have accomplished or haven’t accomplished. It has to do with the fact that we are sinners by nature and from the beginning of life we are not worthy. This felt sense inside of us then says that we must do something to change that so we work harder or feel bad about ourselves to try to make that feeling go away.
I have good news for you. You can stop working. There is nothing you can do to be worthy but there is something that has been done for you to make you worthy.
In the second chapter of Joshua, we meet someone that by human standards is completely unworthy. Her name is Rahab and she is a prostitute. Yet God was going to use her as a vehicle for His plan. Not because of what she had done previously but because of the faith that she had been given. She makes this epic statement in Joshua 2:11:
When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
She knew that what was happening around her was because the Lord was God in heaven above and earth below. It was grace that saved her because of her faith. Not anything that she had done. Rahab was the embodiment of this verse years before it was ever written:
Ephesians 2:8-9 – For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
As we sit here today we are not worthy and there is nothing we can do about it. There is hope though because something has been done for us and through faith in Jesus Christ we can become worthy. Through Him then we can be used to change the world. God used a prostitute to change the course of history because of her faith not actions. He can use you too. You are worthy. Not because of what you have done but because of what He has done. Knowing that, go out then and change the world! Just like Rahab.