Transcription
The price of pride is one that no believer can afford, yet the souls who once sought the Lord become indebted to the destruction of a haughty spirit. Pride comes at the expense of destruction, consequences, correction, and disqualification. We have been warned: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. When the battle of humility and pride cross paths, we as believers must humbly submit to the sufficient will and authority of God's Word.
Good morning, happy New Year! I don't know about you guys, that video of kind of recapping 2021 just got me fired up. You know, ministry is hard sometimes; it's tiring sometimes. But when you can look back and celebrate the successes and have confidence that God will continue to do a work, it just gets me excited. So glad that you're here with us this morning worshiping. My name is Justin; I'm the executive pastor here. And I have found that New Year's is a great time to look back and reflect on life, and also to look forward. This past week, as I was preparing for this message, I took some time to think back on the last year and also to look ahead at the coming year. And when I did that, I was hit hard with the reality of the brevity of life: how quickly time passes. One minute you're in a stage of life, and the next thing you know, that stage is over, and you're on to a new stage in life.
Last year, I turned 40 years old. This year, my oldest son, Arnie, will turn 18 years old. We adopted him when he was five, 13 years ago, yet it seems like yesterday. I can remember everything about the first day that I met him in Uganda. I remember the smells; I remember what I was wearing; I remember the first thing that he said to me when he ran up to me and jumped into my arms. See, he had known that we were coming; he knew that a family was adopting him. And he jumped into my arms and he said, "Can I go home now?" Yet, in a few short months, he will legally be an adult. My wife and I, this coming summer, will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We will be married for as many years as we were alive before we got married. The stage and the seasons of our life are changing. I found myself contemplating and questioning: How effectively have I stewarded the times, the talents, and the gifts that God has given me during this season? The season where we raised our family, we're seeing our kids grow, we're seeing them mature. Did I invest enough in the things that really mattered, or did I spend too much time worrying about things that have no eternal value?
Life does not stand still. Recently, I thought about something that's a really small thing, but it hit me hard, and I realized how quickly things were changing, and it brought tears to my eyes. It happened in November after my son's last football game. My youngest son, Kyler, we spent a lot of time together. He's participated in sports; he plays football, and he used to wrestle. And we used to travel to wrestling tournaments. We spent a lot of time talking about sports and life together as we traveled to his sporting events. And after every football game, we have a routine. I stop at Sheets after every road football game because at 10:30 or 11 o'clock in Mifflinburg, the only place you can buy food is Sheets. So I get him the same thing every time: a foot-long turkey sub, Italian bread, mayo, American cheese, lettuce, and pickles every time. And I go to the high school; I wait for the bus to come. He jumps in the car; he's a big dude. He downs a turkey sub faster than any human possibly should, and we talk about the game. He'll ask me, "Did you see that hit? What did you think about that penalty? This is what I was thinking on that play." And we have a 12-minute drive home. It's a very small thing, but in the midst of our busy lives, it was always special, at least for me: a dad and a son connecting about a common interest. But shortly after the season was over, Kyler got his driver's permit. And I'm sure before next season, he'll have his driver's license. He'll be driving himself home from games next year. Those memories are done; those are just a thing of the past, something that we had. Now, the foot-long turkey sub, he can buy for himself. See, life is fleeting. We take for granted moments like that all the time, until they're gone.
So, at New Year's, it's a good time to reflect, to think back about the things you're thankful for, and to learn from the things that you wish you did differently. But it's also a good time to look ahead, because it's not how we start the Christian life that's important; it's how we finish. And this morning, we're going to be in the Old Testament book of 2nd Chronicles. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there. We're going to be in 2nd Chronicles chapter 26. As we dig into the scripture today, in the story of Uzziah, I hope you can use this passage as a strong warning: a warning that some Christians start this journey well, but not all finish well; some actually finish rather poorly. The story of Uzziah is broken up essentially into two parts. And in the first part of chapter 26, we see Uzziah was 16 years old when he was crowned to be the king of Judah. His reign lasted for 52 years. The first part of his reign is marked with an extraordinary blessing. Scripture says that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He set himself to seek God. Zechariah, his religious adviser, instructed him in a fear of the Lord. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. Uzziah made war against the Philistines, and he built cities, becoming very strong. His name became great. He built towers and fortified the gates of Jerusalem. Among his accomplishments, he innovated agriculture practices, stabilizing the food supply within the kingdom. He built and trained a mighty army. He had 2,600 elite commanders who oversaw an army of over 300,000 men. And not only were these men well trained, they were well equipped; they were on the cutting edge of military technology. Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, and coats of mail for all of his men. Scripture refers to machines invented by skillful men that were made to fire arrows and stones. They armed the towers of Jerusalem. The Bible says Uzziah's fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong. So that's where we're going to start in the text today. So let's go to 2nd Chronicles 26; we're going to read starting in verse 16.
But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him with 80 priests of the Lord, who were men of valor. And they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn the incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong; it will bring you no honor from the Lord God." Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priest, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead. And they rushed him out quickly, and he found himself hurried to go out because the Lord had struck him. And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper, lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, wrote. And Uzziah slept with his fathers. They buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, "He is a leper." And Jotham his son reigned in his place.
Let's pray. Father God, Lord, we declare You righteous and holy and just. God, we know that You give us Your Word to reveal who You are, partly so that we can live in a righteous manner. God, I pray that we can use this text today, apply it to our lives, so we can live lives that bring glory to You. God, convict us of the pride of our hearts; help us to repent and turn away. We pray for the Holy Spirit to work within us. In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray, Amen.
So, point number one of today's message, and I'm sure you saw it right off the bat: Pride leads to destruction. Let's look at verse 16. It doesn't beat around the bush: "When he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction, for he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense." Uzziah was unfaithful to God. This implies that he disrespected God's holiness, failing to give God the glory and worship. Uzziah violated God's holiness by trespassing on the temple, which was for the priests and the Levites only. He sought to offer incense, a duty reserved only for the priest. He was a political leader; he was not a spiritual leader. But due to his pride, he was not content with that; he was seeking out spiritual authority in addition to his power as king. Proverbs 16:18 says this: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." In this proverb, we are warned that pride goes before a fall, and we clearly see that that was the case here. Even a great king cannot live above God's law. In Holman's Bible Dictionary, pride is described as this: "An undue confidence and attention to one's own skill, accomplishments, possessions, or position." Pride is easier recognized than defined, and it's easier to recognize in others than in oneself. Pride is rebellion against God because it attributes to oneself the honor and glory due to God alone. And this is not an abstract illustration or concept; we see this play out in people's lives time and time again: in athletes, in politicians, in pastors, in our own hearts. If we don't recognize it and turn away from it, pride will lead to destruction.
When I was a kid, I loved the New York Mets. I still do, actually. We only had 12 channels on our basic cable here in Mifflinburg, but one of those channels was WOR out of New York, and the Mets were on every night. I was very emotionally invested in that team. Two of their players were phenoms: Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, "Dr. K." Darryl was the Rookie of the Year in his first season in the majors; he was 21 years old. He was a two-time Silver Slugger winner, and he led the National League in home runs in 1988. Doc was the Rookie of the Year as well in his first year at 19 years old. He was a Cy Young Award winner as the best pitcher in baseball in 1985, and he led the league in strikeouts in 1985 and 1986. They were superstars, and they led the Mets to a World Series win in 1986. It looked like they were both sure-bet Hall of Famers, and they would lead the Mets to many more World Series championships. But pride and faith in self led to destruction. They gave honor and glory to self, and they self-destructed. Instead of using the gifts that God had given them to bring glory to God, they attempted to bring glory to self. And guess what? They found it was unfulfilling. They turned to drugs to cover the emptiness, and before long, they were mere shells of themselves. The Mets would not win another World Series championship, and both men repeatedly had run-ins with the law. Never again would they reach the success of their early years. Darryl Strawberry, who is now a Christian, is quoted as saying this: "I have a lot of regrets; there's a lot I'd like to do over, but I wasn't honest with myself when I looked in the mirror." Proverbs 29:23 says, "One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor." You see, so often pride in oneself leads to destruction, which leads us to point number two: Pride needs rebuked.
Let's go to verses 17 and 18. It says, "But Azariah the priest went in after him with 80 priests of the Lord, who were men of valor. And they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, 'It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn the incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.'" We see here that his pride was rebuked. The men who needed to confront Uzziah did. They came together and addressed Uzziah, the powerful king, reminding him that even he needed to be humble and remove himself from the place that he wasn't supposed to be. They understood that not living according to God's Levitical law was not in his best interests. They could not, in love, allow him to continue in sin. We also see this rebuke gave Uzziah a chance to repent and leave. The judgment didn't come immediately; it was a warning. King Uzziah's pride needed rebuked, and when we are full of pride, it needs rebuked as well. And this is why it's important for us to be in Christian community, to allow others to get close enough to us that they see our sin and can speak truth. Practically, this is honestly one of the benefits of small groups. If you don't have anyone in your life that is willing to say hard things to you when you need to hear hard things, I would encourage you to join a small group; get in Christian community. We all have a choice: How do we respond when we hear hard things? Pride often doesn't allow us to listen to wise counsel, even when we are approached in goodwill. As you consider these things, remember that there will be times when you are the one who needs to give a rebuke. Ignoring red flags because you want to see the good in people does not benefit them or your relationship with them. However, before rebuking someone, I challenge you to check your heart: Is it your desire to see them repent and to align with the will of God, or do you just want to put them in their place? If you just want to put them in their place, you are not the one for the rebuke. But if you truly are desiring to see them to repent and to align with the will of God, it could be that God is putting you in their life for a reason. Something I tell our staff here all the time: We need to be people who have thick skin and soft hearts. Thick skin when unwarranted criticism comes (and it will), and a soft heart to hear constructive criticism when it's warranted. I heard a funny story about Muhammad Ali. At the height of Muhammad Ali's boxing career, he was one of the most famous people in the world. He was the heavyweight champ; everyone knew who Muhammad Ali was. And he was not known for humility; he was brash. People either loved him or hated him. So one night, he gets on a plane; he's going to be traveling across the country. Before takeoff, the flight attendant approached him and said, "Mr. Ali, you have to put on a seat belt." And he looked up at her proudly and said, "Superman doesn't need no seat belt!" Well, she responded back without hesitation and said, "Yeah, well, Superman didn't need no airplane either! Put on your seatbelt!" You see, pride needs rebuke. Pride makes you look foolish. So how does God respond to this sin? When we repent and humble ourselves before God, admitting our guilt and confessing our need for Him, a beautiful thing happens: He forgives us. We need to be willing to listen when others warn us of sin. We have the responsibility to receive and rebuke others from further sinning. In order to love sinners, we must take their sins seriously. We must take our sins seriously, just like God does. We must be willing to call it out for what it is and have a desire to get rid of it. It is in no way admirable to continue living in the sin of pride. We were not made for sin, and to allow others to remain in it without confronting it is unloving and it's unhelpful. The sin of pride needs rebuked.
It gets us to point number three: Pride has consequences. Let's look at verses 19 and 20. Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priest, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead. And they rushed him out quickly, and he found himself hurried to go out because the Lord had struck him. Pride has consequences. Rather than heeding the warning of the men who confronted him, Uzziah's response was this: it says he became angry. Immediately, we see the consequence of a sin as leprosy breaks out on his forehead. While God could have struck him dead, in His mercy, He chose instead to inflict Uzziah with leprosy. This gave him no choice but to part from the temple and the priests. He was also forced to submit to them according to the laws of leprosy and endure isolation away from the temple. God's judgment is a rightful consequence when people and nations won't submit to Him. Preparing this sermon has been so convicting. I have learned the hard way that pride has consequences more times than I'd like to admit. A prime example of this happened when I was in 11th grade. And if you knew me as a young man, I sincerely apologize for anything I might have said or done to you. This was actually thrown back in my face a few years ago at a Christmas Eve service. A lady comes into the service who I had not seen in like 20 years since high school. She comes up to me; we start talking, and people kept coming to me asking me questions. So finally, she says, "Wait, do you work here?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm the executive, the executive pastor." And her response was priceless. She said, "What? You're a pastor?" And I said, "Yeah, sometimes God uses the least likely." So we finish up our conversation; she starts to walk away, and she turns around and she says, "I just have to say, I did not see that coming!" So I kind of dropped my head, and I'm like, "Man, I'm really hoping that nobody saw that!" And sure enough, I look up, and my good friend Matt Godshaw, he has this smirk on his face. And if you know Matt, you know the smile that he had on his face. And he walks up to me and he says, "Bro, that was awkward!" The consequences of sin. But that's not the story I was going to tell. The story I was going to tell was, "Does anybody remember Mrs. Weaver?" Did anybody go to Mifflin High School and have Mrs. Weaver? I loved Mrs. Weaver, and for some reason, she liked me. I have no idea why. When I was in 11th grade, she taught two communications classes that were identical. One was in second period, and one was in seventh period. I had the seventh period class, and we'd always ask the second period class, "What did you do today?" So one day, we were supposed to recite a speech in her class, but I got the scoop from a friend that the second period class showed up prepared for the speeches, but she told them they were being delayed until the next day. This was a giant relief to me because my plan was to study for the speech throughout the day. I was a hardcore procrastinator in those days, so I quit studying. And in addition to that, I told everybody in the class not to worry about the speeches; we were going to do them tomorrow. So I was thoroughly unprepared to recite a speech when seventh period rolled around. So we got to class; everybody sits down, and she says, "Okay, who wants to go first to do their speech?" Immediately, everybody started to panic. So I spoke up and I said, "Mrs. Weaver, you didn't make the second period class do speeches today!" And she had a very good explanation for why second period wasn't going to do that, and we were—I don't remember what that was—but I remember thinking, "I wish I would have known this!" So at this point, I'm feeling very responsible for this mess. My pride had to do something, and all teachers in the room were about to cringe. So I stand up and I say, "Nobody go up! She won't fail us all if we refuse it; she'll let us do it tomorrow!" She was looking down at her desk, and I will never, ever forget the look on her face when she looked up in complete shock at what I had just said. She said, "Excuse me?" And with great pride and brazenness, I said, "We're not doing speeches today!" So she sat there stewing for about five minutes, and then she said, "The first person to come up gets a hundred percent, no matter how little of the speech that you know. Everybody after that gets the grade they deserve, and I will give you all zeros." So I tried to calm everyone and I said, "She's bluffing! Don't go up!" But sure enough, one kid—and I know who he is to this day—gets out of his seat. He marches to the front; he knows about two sentences of the speech, and she says, "Well done! You get a hundred percent!" So one by one, everyone goes up and gets the grade they deserved, except for me and my one stupid friend. We were both too arrogant and dumb to swallow our pride, and we both got zeros. We paid the price for our pride. Our pride led to consequences. See, we often have a propensity to minimize and excuse our own sin. We often regret the consequences of sin rather than truly regretting the offense against the holy God. We blame-shift, thinking we have good and legitimate reasons for our sin. We only partially confess, and we often return to those same patterns of unrepentant sin. We say, "I made a mistake," or "I was joking," or "You misunderstood me." The sin of pride has consequences.
It takes us to point number four: Pride disqualifies. Let's look at verses 21 through 23. "And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper, lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, wrote. And Uzziah slept with his fathers. And they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, 'He is a leper.' And Jotham his son reigned in his place." You see, pride disqualifies. King Uzziah was removed from his royal duties. His son, Jotham, would share co-regency with his father. This was due to divine judgment of God. A once mighty king was removed from his powerful position, shamed and humiliated. His great name was tarnished with pride. Thinking he was great, he became small. King Uzziah's pride disqualified him. See, our sin doesn't affect us only. We know that Jotham ruled before he was probably ready. King Uzziah forfeited his duties due to pride. When a spouse chooses their own happiness over the well-being of their family, their children suffer. When we're lazy at our jobs and someone has to pick up the slack, they suffer. When we steal or cheat, someone else takes the loss. The most prominent example of pride disqualifying someone is Satan himself. We read about this in Revelation chapter 12. He was never equal to God, though he desired to be. His power and knowledge were then and always will be limited. Satan was a created being, an angel created by God to bring glory to God. But pride disqualified him. His desire to be worshipped like God was rooted in pride. God judged Satan harshly for his pride and removed him from his position. He cast Satan out of heaven, and a third of the angels joined him to oppose God. This is a stern warning to us when we aim to bring glory to self instead of glory to God. That is pride; self-pride opposes God. It is sinful, and it will be judged. Pride ultimately disqualifies our witness. We see in the story of Uzziah: pride leads to destruction, pride needs rebuke, pride has consequences, and ultimately, pride disqualifies.
As we close, you may be compelled to be examining yourself. Like I said earlier, I've done a lot of that this week. So I want to leave you with some examples of how pride and humility may be manifesting themselves in your own life. Some of these examples may surprise you. Example: This is taken from a book called "From Pride to Humility." So here are some signs that might be an indicator that you have pride in your life. These are convicting: complaining, a lack of gratitude, anger, seeing yourself as better than others, having an inflated view of your importance. How about this: perfectionist, talking too much, seeking control, being consumed with what others think, being devastated by criticism, being unteachable, being sarcastic, a lack of compassion for others, being defensive (that one's convicting for me), a lack of admitting when you're wrong, a lack of prayer, voicing preferences and opinions when not asked (that one hits hard), minimizing your own sin, maximizing the sins and the shortcomings of others, being jealous, not having close relationships.
Now, the opposite of pride is humility, and here are some qualities of a humble person: seeing yourself as having no right to question God, biblical prayer, being overwhelmed with God's undeserved grace, being thankful, being patient, seeing yourself as no better than others, being a good listener, preferring others over yourself, being thankful for correction, having a teachable spirit, seeking to build others up, serving, being quick to admit when you're wrong, granting and asking for forgiveness quickly, repenting of sin, and being genuinely glad for others. Now, please don't see this as just a list of do's and don'ts. God knows we won't walk this out perfectly; He is after our hearts. Though we all fall short of the glory of Christ, but as believers in Christ, we have good news. For those who've been called by God the Father, have come to a saving faith in God the Son, and have been sealed with God the Holy Spirit, our pride will be forgiven. God the Father sees the righteousness of Christ in us. Our role is to repent, to turn from pride, and to live in a manner worthy of Christ so that we can bring glory to God.
James 4:6 says, "But He gives us more grace; that is why Scripture says, 'God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.'" Let's pray. Father God, Lord, we declare You righteous and holy and just. God, we know that You give us Your Word to reveal who You are, partly so that we can live in a righteous manner. God, I pray that we can use this text today, apply it to our lives, so we can live lives that bring glory to You. God, convict us of the pride of our hearts; help us to repent and turn away. We pray for the Holy Spirit to work within us. In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray, Amen.