“I’m Not Worthy.”

“I’m not worthy.” 

It’s a thought most of us carry… even if we never say it out loud. 

In this episode of Bible, Basically, we wrestle with that feeling — the quiet belief that we’ve messed up too much, gone too far, or just aren’t good enough to be close to God. But what if worthiness was never the requirement? 

Walking through real moments in Scripture, we see how people who felt the most unworthy were often the ones Jesus moved closest to. Because grace doesn’t wait for you to clean everything up — it meets you right in the middle of it. 

If you’ve ever felt like you have to fix yourself before you can come to God… this one’s for you. 

Bible, Basically — figuring out faith, together. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hey everybody, and welcome back again to Bible basically, where we are figuring out faith together. You know, I I I had a plan this Sunday to uh release an episode, and I had a great suggestion from a family member, and I will do that episode. You know who you are, and I know you're listening, and I will do that episode. But something hit me today that I just felt compelled to talk about. And I'll even give you a teaser for the next episode. The next episode is is kind of how to tune the world out. Things can get a little crazy. We we we're living in some interesting times, and it's not just political, it's personal. You know, we're faced with challenges daily. How do we get that sound out of our head and focus on what's important? And I promise we will do that episode more than likely next week. But I want to give that some good thought and some good research before we dive into it. Today, I want to talk to you about something that I think we've all thought at one point or another. Maybe you're thinking of it right now. Maybe you're, you know, one of the very few people listening to this podcast, and you're thinking about moving your life to Christ, uh, you know, thinking about increasing your spirituality, but you look at yourself and you go, I I'm not gonna want me. Look at me. Look at who I am, look at what I've done, look at the things I've done. He's not gonna want this. And those three words, I'm not worthy. I mean, maybe you've never said it out loud, but you've thought it. You feel like you're not worthy of grace, and not worthy of forgiveness, and not worthy of being close to God, but you know your past, you know your patterns, and yeah, there's a gap between who you are and who you think you're supposed to be. So when you hear God loves you, you wonder. Yeah, but does that really apply to me? You are definitely not the only one struggling with this. I have a sordid past. I have done some pretty horrible things in my life. Things that I am not proud of. You know, you there are stories you tell your kids, you know, I used to do this and I used to do that, because they they're like, you know, you want them to think, yeah, you I look, I had life before you guys. I did some pretty cool stuff, and then I did some stuff that I'm not too proud of, but it's still kind of cool. And then are there things that you do that you don't you don't talk about? And for some people, that's horrible things. For other people, it's just things they're blatantly not proud of, and they lived a life that they don't want to remember.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

And we're not the only ones that that have that.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

So we're gonna kind of be, we're gonna kind of jump around a little bit. We're gonna start off in the Gospel of Luke, and it's Luke 5.8, and we're gonna talk a little bit about Peter. Originally named Simon, Jesus renamed him Peter, and but when he recruited Simon Peter, Simon was just a fisherman. And he looked at Jesus and he he fell down at Jesus' knees and he said, Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord. Here is a man at the feet of Jesus himself, and he sees Jesus for who he truly is, and he immediately felt unworthy. And his first instinct is distance, not closeness. He tells Jesus, go away, man. I'm I'm I'm a sinful man. You don't want anything to do with me. And Jesus basically picks him up and says in 5.10, Luke 5.10, he says, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men. Jesus pulls, pushes towards him, doesn't pull away from him. Look. Let's let's let's forget about the the maybe the the bad things you've done major, right? When you were a kid, or those of you who have kids, how do you know they're not living the way you want them to? And almost every parent, if they didn't think of it already, will have an aha moment right now when I say that they kind of pull away, right? What's that old saying? If the house is too quiet, something's up. I used to do it with my parents. If I was doing something wrong, I would do my best to avoid them.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Because I knew I was wrong. I knew I was wrong.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

It's a natural behavior of ours to feel unworthy, to know that we are when we are doing things that we're not supposed to be doing, that we want to avoid authority.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

And a lot of times it's shame. We have shame for what we did. And I'm not here to tell you don't have shame. I have shame. I have shame in my life. But Jesus pulls towards us. He doesn't push us away. One of my dad's favorite parables was the prodigal's son.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

And I'm going to give you kind of an abridged version. There are two brothers, and the father gave them both an inheritance. And one son stayed with the father and continued to help the father, and continued to work for him and be diligent, and basically what you would want out of a son, right? The other son, well, he took off. And he did everything. You shouldn't. He took that inheritance and he blew it. And he partied like a rock star and had fun and did whatever he wanted to do, obviously taking some liberties with the story, but that's the gist.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Then eventually he came back. And I will read the end of the story.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

In Luke 15, 20 and 21, it says, and he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

His son said it, Dad, I'm sorry. I screwed up.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

He rehearses unworthiness and he expects rejection. But the father interrupts him. And in twenty-two, Luke 15, verses 22-24, the Father says to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For my son was dead, and he is alive again. He was lost and now he's found. And they began to celebrate. That father does not argue worthiness. He restores identity. And that is what the Lord can do for us. I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

We are not worthy. We are not worthy. Our salvation is not dependent on our works. We are sinners.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

But in Romans 5 8, he tells us, it says, God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Not when we improved, but while we were still broken.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

And this is not your own doing.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

It is the gift. Grace is not earned. It's given.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. Is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

We're never gonna be worthy. He sent his son to redeem us. And he doesn't care who we are or how we were.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

This is all self-imposed guilt. Why do we still feel unworthy? Because we are the ones who remember our failures, and we are the ones who compare ourselves to others, and we are the ones who think that closeness with God has to be earned, but it doesn't. In John 1 9, he says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but we must confess and repent. We are not worthy, we cannot earn worthiness. But if we recognize who we are and the mistakes that we make or have made, and we kneel before him in repentance and confession and ask for forgiveness.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Forgiveness isn't reluctant, it's promised. I've talked about that passage a couple times. Your past does not define you.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Your weakness does not disqualify you.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

It is where his grace shows up.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Maybe the point was to realize that you don't have to be.