God is >

History has seen a lot of powerful civilizations and rulers come and go.



The Egpytians and Babylonians built massive empires. The Greeks created western civilization and philosophy. The Romans spread their empire across Europe and into Asia. The European countries conquered new worlds.



Pharaohs came and went. Nebuchadnezzar came and went. Alexander the Great lived and died. Ceasar did not last. The Kings and Queens of Europe all eventually died.



We spent yesterday celebrating the life and death of one of America's great people, Martin Luther King Jr.



The point is that civilizations come and go, but only one Ruler and one Kingdom remains forever and that is God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Listen to how God puts it when speaking to a Babylonian king who opposed him in Isaiah 14

Sheol (death) beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you: "You too have become weak as we! You have become like us!" Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. [14:9-11]

God makes three simple points here that I think are grounds for our worship this week:

1) Everyone, including Kings, except for God dies.

Job puts it this way, "He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not."

We are all working underneath a ticking clock that foretells our death. The movers and shakers you see on CNN today will soon be history. Even if they leave an amazing legacy behind all that will be left to remember them is a national holiday. They will be forgotten.

That is why God says to this king, "Death is stirred up to meet you when you come."

The mortality of our leaders is one reason why they don't deserve to be worshipped. They may be smarter than us and deserve to be in a position of leadership over us but at the end of they day they are just like us--human.

But God is the "I AM." He has always been and will always be. We will not attend his funeral or remember only with a day off from school. He is the single constant through the stream of history. He was there when the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans built there empires and He was there when they fell.

2) All of history's "great" people are lower than God.

I love the imagery Isaiah uses here with all of the rulers eagerly awaiting the death of the Babylonian king so that they can say to him, "You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!"

The imagery is one of a special room in hell for the "great" leaders of history. And these leaders pass their time in torment by lamenting their fall and remembering their "great" days of being in charge. But they live with one constant thing on their mind--they are not as great as God and their life would have been better spent as a poor beggar who worshipped God than a king who ignord him.

So every time a new ruler shows up to the "party" they take momentary joy, albeit perverse joy, in the reality that they were not the only ones to crumble. They say, "You thought you were great like me, but you are nothing. You were just as foolish. You ignored him as well. You are, like me, an eternal nobody."

3) Eternity only respects the fame of one--God.

On earth we separate ourselves into classes and social groups. We start country clubs and exclusive neighborhoods. We give out awards and fame.

But we do that because as humans we are prone to thinking that what we experience in our lifetimes is all that exists. We delude ourselves into thinking that our "important" people are the most "important" people and we treat them accordingly.

But eternity sees with a different perspective. It is the aerial shot of history that affords eternity the ability to distinguish between genuine greatness and momentary brilliance and this perspective leads to the praise of only One as truly great--God.

This is the point that God makes to this Babylonian king when he says, "Your pomp is brought down to Sheol (death), the soudn of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.

Congratulations ruler! You have now entered eternity so check you "pomp" at the door and allow us to exchange it for a bed of maggots and some worm covers on your behalf.

It does not matter how much fame, money, or power history's "great" people possessed on Earth in eternity and that is why only God is respected there. God's greatness doesn't fade because it is not made of material things. It is made of immortal things like his eternal goodness and power.

So, stop this morning and take a minute to praise the God who alone is great in eternity and remember next time you turn on the television and see a little hero "worship" going on that there is only one who is truly worthy of worship in the eyes of eternity.

God is truly > than ______.