Broken Crowns | "King Uzziah"

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the rest of us we are in week four of our series broken crown and if you missed any of the series I encourage you go online and check it out and last week we talked about King David and in fact Pastor Joel spoke last week it was Father's Day but that message wasn't just for us fathers it was for all of us so make sure that you go back and check it out he did a fantastic job but today we are gonna look at a brand new king and it's a king that you may be familiar with my name but you may not know his story and his name is King Uzziah and here's what I love about King Uzziah king is I had something in common that you and I have in common he had something lurking in his soul that you and I struggle with so we can all identify with him in fact we're gonna play a little game right here okay and we're gonna see if we can figure out what was lurking inside of him that is lurking inside of us so here we go it's the one thing that keeps you from celebrating others accomplishments and achievements it's the one thing that keeps you from learning new things it's the one thing that keeps you from saying I don't know it's the one thing that keeps you from saying I'm sorry it's the one thing that keeps you from being honest with yourself and with others it's the one thing that keeps you from admitting you need help and the list could go on and on and on but the word we're looking for is what it's pride its pride now aren't you glad that you came today aren't you glad that we're gonna talk about pride I know I know it's something we all struggle just for curiosity though I'm just looking to who admits it how many of you ever struggle with pride okay just raise your hand you started leave your hands up you struggle with pride before okay now here's what you need to know okay leave your hands up okay I'm preaching to you so if your hands are up I'm preaching to you but listen if your hands are not up I'm really preaching you okay so just to make it a level playing field right from the beginning that is a word that we are all familiar with and listen its Billboard had a top 10 list of issues we struggle with pride would be number one it wouldn't be anxiety okay it wouldn't be fear it wouldn't be depression it would be pride there's something that is lurking in all of us and the pride we're gonna talk about is not a pride in your work it's not a pride in your family it's not a pride in your kids achievements okay it's not it's not the bumper sticker you put on the back your car this is my kids an honor roll student it's not the one you put on the back of the car that says my kid can beat up your honor roll state like that's not the pride we're talking about we're talking about a pride that affects us in a negative way in fact one of the authors that I read Artie Kendall he said this about pride he said pride is like cholesterol he said there's a good cholesterol that we all need that's in our body we have to have it to live but there's also a bad cholesterol that will kill you and just like there's a good pride that we all should have there is a bad pride that will destroy our lives and destroy others that's lurking inside of all of us and we all wrestle with this we all battle with this and we are not alone we are not the only people to do this in fact as we look at King Uzziah life we see that he was a man who sought after God he was a man who walked with God but he had one issue that tripped him up and that was pride so we're gonna look at this together if you got your Bibles second chronicles chapter 26 you may have your phones you may be on our Bethlehem Church app second chronicles chapter 26 verse three and we're gonna dive in together here's what it says it says Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem for 52 years his mother's name was Jack Alya she was from Jerusalem and he did what was right in the eyes of Lord this is important okay so he walked with the Lord just as his father Amaziah had done he sought God during the days of Zechariah who instructed him in the fear of God as long as he sought the Lord God gave him success now this is important verse to know about Uzziah because when we talked about King Rehoboam and the first week of this series we said it matters the voices that you listen to it matters that you listen to the wise voice and not the foolish voice so imagine King Uzziah he sixteen years old when he became king and the first thing that he does is he listens to the wise voice he listens to Zechariah Zechariah said if you will fear God you fear God and seek after the Lord that God will give you success and this is important because we said it's the fear of God that leads to the wisdom of God it matters how you and I order our world both publicly and privately it matters what we put first and so this is exactly what king uzziah did and because of this God gave him incredible success in fact it says that he built towns and towers and he strength in the military and really he was a kind of a Renaissance man before the Renaissance scripture says that he was a farmer as well as an inventor I mean he was a popular person in fact we know this because verse 15 says that is fame spread far and wide for he was greatly helped until became powerful now watch this stay right here his fame spread far and wide his name was great why because he sought after the Lord because he walked with the Lord but watch this but after use I became powerful here's the Ark in the story his pride led to his downfall now you may not know Uzziah story but you know this story right like this is a story that's been playing out across generations and generations and generations all across humanity this story has played itself out and again this is the story that it's like a broken record in our lives and in our society like in fact there are times when you and I take the leading role in this movie because there are times where we lead with pride and isn't this true like power leads to pride like power has this ability this capacity to lead to pride both in our lives and in our society and that's exactly what happened to King Uzziah so let's read on let's read what happened in verse 16 it says he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense watch Azariah the priest with 80 other courageous priests now they added that in because they had to be courageous to confront the king so that these 80 priests courageous priests the Lord followed him in and they confronted King Uzziah and said it's not right for you you Ziya to burn incense to the Lord that is for the priests the descendants of Aaron who have been consecrated to burn incense now what they were saying is listen Uzziah you are trying to take authority that has not been given to you that's what pride will do by the way because you to take things that have not been given to you in fact CS Lewis one of the most popular authors wrote a book it's really a monumental book called mere christianity if you've never read it encourage you to go read it incredible book but here's what he says about pride he says pride gets no pleasure out of having something only having more of it than the next man it is the comparison that makes you proud the pleasure of being of being above the rest once the element of competition is gone pride is gone now don't you hate CS lewis like he's so right he's so right let me give you let me give you a few lessons on pride okay that we see from the story and use I as life but is equally true in our life too so I want you to write down the first and here it is the first is pride always seeks to take what is not been given pride always seeks to take what has not been given isn't this true pride is an appetite that is never satisfied it's never satisfied you see you would have thought that King Uzziah would have been satisfied with the fact that he was king of Judah a God had given him authority you would think that that would have been enough that that he saw success that his fame spread both far and wide but that wasn't enough for him he wanted to take authority that had not been given to him you see God had established the authority of the king and God established authority to priests and what Uzziah decided is he decided because I'm King I can take whatever authority I - or maybe he was saying with his actions I don't have to be under authority at all and that's what pride does in all of our lives you see its pride in our lives watch this this says if I want something I'm gonna take it it's pride that once what others have it's pride that is never satisfied in what has been given to you it's pride that leads to affairs it's pride that leads to greed and not generosity it's pride that says all decide the rules and not God hello Adam Eve the rest of us it's pride and when we are led by our pride watch this when we are led by our pride we are choosing to remove the hand of God from our lives in fact verse 18 says this about you XYZ's leave the sanctuary the preset for you have been unfaithful and you will not be honoured by the Lord God in other words here's what he's saying God's hand will not be for you God's hand will be against you and this is the second thing we see about pride write this down pride causes God to oppose you it causes God to pose you in fact first Peter says this he says God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble but God opposes the proud and literally presses his hand down on the proud now let me be your friend today okay and be your friend what you and I don't want those of you at 2:11 listen what you and I don't want is to be in opposition we got you will not win that fight you will not win the fight opposing God that was the struggle with Uzziah that he placed his life in opposition to God in the hand that was once for him was now against him and isn't this the posture of pride we see this in Uzziah the posture pride is always I know better than you know I know better than you no that's pride in fact I learned this lesson early on in my marriage right marriage will do something to your pride but I learned this early on in my marriage when my wife and I went on our honeymoon and I don't know if you're a mountain person or a beach person like my wife and I we love the beach we love the water we love the Sun that's just we like the mountains but we really love the beach and so we decided that we were gonna go to the beach we're gonna go to the Caribbean on an island for our honeymoon and so we saw out and we we flew over to the Caribbean and our idea was just to spend a week on the beach now here's what you got to know about my wife my wife's idea of vacation is the beach but her idea of the beach is inactivity it's sitting in a chair okay it's looking out in the water in doing nothing okay just breathing it in and relaxing like that's her idea of vacation inactivity my idea is activity okay completely opposite all right some of you guys are like this like my I can only sit in that chair so long until I go I just can't do this any longer like I got to get out in the water I got to do something like gotta be active and so the resort we were staying at I noticed that they had these little sailboats they were tiny sailboats these Hobie cats sailboats and so I got this great great idea that we should go sailing now my wife just want to sit there but I'm like no we got to do something over here all week okay installed like let's go sailing and when I said that my wife asked me a great question she said how much experience do you have sailing and I said well not but I mean how hard can it be right that's pride its pride speaking so I convinced her and we got on this little this little Hobie cats little sailboat and and there was a designated area you gotta you gotta get picture this there was a designated area that you're supposed to be in but what I knew is because we've gone on some walks that around the corner about about a quarter mile around the corner there was a private beach and I thought how cool how romantic would it be for us to just go take this little sailboat around the corner to this private beach and so we set off and man things are going really really good I mean she's looking at me I'm looking at her it's like you I got this it's not that hard okay so we're heading out and then we leave the designated area and we're heading to the beach and all of a sudden we hear these sirens and we hear this person on this loudspeaker yelling at us to return back to the designated area where we're supposed to be and you know I'm kind of a maverick but you know I didn't want to get kicked out of the resort I'm a honeymoon so I obliged said okay no problem we'll turn around and so we turn around but then I realized the problem you see going to the beach or trying to get to the beach the wind was at our back the wind was with us and when we tried to turn around the wind was against us and we kept going farther and farther and farther out to sea I couldn't get us back and you need to know that my wife her greatest fear on this earth her greatest fear is to get eaten by shark okay like it's her greatest fear I think it's a great way to go I mean if you got to go like it's kind of an epic way to go right I mean that's neither here nor there but that's kind of the way I feel about the situation but I'm telling you we were going further and further and further I mean this went on for over an hour like and I'm starting to think like we're never gonna be returned to be able to return back we need some help and then finally finally we were able to get a little help God came out and he assisted us and told me what I was doing wrong and and we were able to to get back and we finally got back to the beach and I'll tell you that's the last time we went sailing together we never did that again because we want to stay married but um but here's the point the point is some of us are living our lives watch this trying to sail against the will of God the hand of God the will of God is on the opposition to you and let me tell you you will not win that fight it could be just gonna throw this out there it could be that the reason why your life is difficult is because you're living in opposition to what God said and you're not gonna win well maybe Fame may be success pry whatever it is maybe you're living in opposition to God in fact Luke chapter 14 verse 11 says this it says for those who exalt themselves as exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted those who exalt himself that's exactly what Uzziah did let's read on here's what it says verse 19 so Uzziah who had his censer in his hand ready to burn incense became angry and while he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the Lord and the Lord's temple watch this leprosy broke out on his forehead and when Azariah the chief priests and all the other priests looked at him they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead so they hurried him out indeed he himself was eager to leave because the Lord had inflicted him what does Luke say for those who exalt themselves those who choose not to live under Authority God humbles them God's hand is against them and watch this in one moment he went from pride to humility from King to leper see leprosy was the the great disease of the ancient times in fact it was a debilitating disease and curable disease that left its victims disfigured and because of its contagious nature those inflicted would be subject to isolation look verse 21 here's what it says so King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died and he lived in isolation in a separate house for he was excluded from the temple of the Lord let me tell you the third thing that we see from the story that pride does in our lives pride is a prison that will isolate you from others the pride is a prison that will isolate you from others listen when you are full of you when you are full of you there is no room for anybody else let me tell you what pride does pride devalues everybody else in the room pride to values everybody else in the room that's exactly what use I did use I walk into the temple and he devalued the authority of the priests that's what pride does in fact I'll say it this way pride walks into a room and says Here I am that's the posture of pride the attitude of pride it walks into room says Here I am humility walks into the room and says there you are let me take this one step further guys let me make this practical for us it is pride that comes home from a hard day's work and goes in the door of your home and says Here I am serve me make me a meal let me sit in my chair I've earned the right to take a break humility here's what humility says humility walks into your house after a long day's work and says you don't exist to serve me I exist to serve you to serve your family to play with your kids to help your wife that's the difference between pride and humility pride always walks into the room it says Here I am pride always engages in conversations and says what I have to say is more important what you have to say it's pride its pride in fact the Apostle Paul says that this the way about pride he says don't think only about your own affairs but be interested in others too and what they are doing he said don't think about your own affairs don't be about yourself don't walk in the room and make it all about you but be about others you know tangibly speaking listen it's kind of like our phones you know you and I got a phone and our phones have two lenses right there's two lenses one lens focusing towards you and there's one lens focusing away from you and you have a choice when you pick up your phone you have a choice you can either push the button focusing the lens on you or you can push the button focusing the lens on others listen pride focuses the lens on us humility focuses the lens on but watch this this is true a pride pride doesn't just isolate you from others it isolates you from God let me give you a powerful thought here in fact Psalms chapter 10 verse 4 King David writes this in his pride watch this the wicked man does not seek him in all his thoughts there is no room for God such an insightful verse in all his thoughts there is no room for God in his pride now listen for many of us many us maybe watching online maybe listening my very 2:11 for many of us here's what we think the reason why I can't trust God the reason why I can't follow God it's because I can't connect all the dots I can't put all the pieces together and we would say it is our intellect that keeps us from following Christ it is our intellect that keeps us from following Jesus and here's what the author is saying it's not your intellect that your pride it's your pride that keeps you from following Jesus it's your pride that keeps you from submitting under Authority it's not your intellect it's your pride and this was true for King Uzziah you see King Uzziah no longer sought after God he no longer sought of after God he removed himself he removed himself under the authority of God and he so chose to take authority that had not been given to him he walked into the temple and he said to the priest Here I am I'm the king I get to decide to do what I want when I want to do it and it wasn't his authority it was the priests God had not given him that authority now let me say something about authority okay and we don't like to think about this this is something we process often but let me tell you about Authority Authority is a moral issue it is a moral issue just like any other issue it's a moral issue when you and I choose not to be under the authority that God establishes it is a moral issue if we're listening and we're thinking listen I don't to be told what to do that is a moral issue if you can't be under authority that God is established it is a problem it's a character issue and if you're a teenager listening watching listen God has established Authority in your life and to remove yourself from underneath the umbrella of that authority means God is going to be an opposition towards you adults the same is true with us maximum freedom is found under authority it always is and when we choose to remove ourselves under out from underneath the authority it doesn't lead to more freedom it leads to less freedom that's the picture and that's exactly what Uzziah did but watch this this this is something that I missed until I dug in a little bit deeper you know when I read this and I saw that they got his struck Uzziah with leprosy I thought well that's that's God's judgment it's God's judgment on him for walking into the temple and not and not being under Authority but watch this the more I dug the more I realized it wasn't his judgment it was God's correction in his life it was God's discipline you see in Mosaic law Mosaic law said that watch this lepers fell under the authority of the priests so what did God do see Uzziah said listen use I said I'm not gonna be under Authority but his leprosy forced him under the authority that his pride resisted God said you're gonna be under Authority one way or the other use I said I'm not I'm not gonna be under thought I'm gonna do what I want to do when I want to do and I said no no no no no you're not gonna oppose me and God placed him under the authority of the priest that is what pride does that's what it does to us now I want to do something real quick I want to give you a picture of pride in fact I think that pride is like a ladder it's like a ladder now you can call this ladder whatever you want you can call it the social ladder you can call it the corporate ladder or whatever you want to call it and we can all get a picture of this isn't this what life is all about for a lot of people life is about climbing up the ladder you know taking one step and here's what pride says pride says it's all about taking another step it's all about taking another step and then we think if I can just take another step that'll satisfy my pride but Uzziah what we see in his life is Uzziah took a step that had not been given to him listen we may think if I can take another step if I can get the car if I can get the truck if I can get the job if I can get the partner whatever it is we take another step it will satisfy our pride but listen here's the problem there is always another step there's always another step and we can live our lives listen trying to take one step after another listen that is called pride it's dangerous it will destroy your life and destroy others over and over in scripture we see this in fact as Jesus was spending time with his twelve closest people as disciples he was constantly talking about pride he was trying to instruct them just like he would be trying to instruct us today in fact two of his disciples were named James and John now James and John were brothers they were they were probably in their late teens so just imagine that for a second okay like nobody in teenage years struggles with pride I know but I mean they're probably in their late teens and God Jesus had given them a nickname I love this but before I tell you what it is I want to ask you a question how many of you have ever enjoyed in your life time wrestling okay me you don't have to say me you might not like it now Manson went on okay there's a lot of guys in here okay how many of you remember the good old days of wrestling like I mean the good old days like I know there's the WWE but I'm talking like WWF mid-south wrestling like going all the way back to the 80s like growing up I'm get some applaud like growing up testosterones like rising in the room okay like you remember growing up I was a huge fan of wrestling like mid-south press and not not the stuff today but like the good of the good stuff right okay and I always loved the tag teams the Rock and Roll Express the Freebirds like the Midnight Express some of you remember these you know the road warriors like I don't know who your favorite tag team wrestler is but listen to this James and John were given a nickname by Jesus in fact when Jesus met them he said listen you you guys you guys need a nickname okay your brothers and I'm gonna give you a nickname here's the nickname he given how about this for like a tag-team duo it was the sons of thunder like you can go back and read I mean the sons of thunder such a great nickname and so Jesus gives them this name the sons the Thunder listen if you had the name the sons the Thunder if Jesus gave you this nickname it probably is because you're just a little bit off alright you just a little bit crazy and he probably he probably just said hey man you know I'm like I'm gonna give this to you you guys are the sons of thunder man you're not all there you're not all right okay so but it's okay I'm gonna help you and there's one day you go you can read this description it's a great story there's one day where the sons of thunder James and John went into the city and they weren't welcomed in the city and so they they left and they came to talk to Jesus and they said hey Jesus we went in the city and they wouldn't welcome us so we got an idea how about you send fire from heaven and annihilate the whole city true story and Jesus was like this is why I called you sons of thunder exactly right here gracious gracious but there was another time and I love the story it's one of my favorite stories in Scripture was another time that James and John were actually with the other disciples and it says that their mom was present so their mom was with them and to go to Jesus and they say hey Jesus we got a great idea we've been thinking we got we got this fantastic idea like when you set up your kingdom and you're on your throne we got this idea how about how about the sons of thunder James and John just sit on you're riding your left like how cool would that be now the other disciples you can read this the other disciples just look at them okay and they're probably ready to kick the Pride but Jesus says boys boys boys sit down I'm about to teach you a lesson and he teaches the most powerful lesson about pride and humility in fact you can read it later in mark chapter 10 but mark chapter 10 verse 32 here's what it starts off by serif 42 says so Jesus called them together and said you know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people and officials flaunt their authority over those under them but among you it will be different whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else and then I love this for even I the son of man came not to be served but to serve others and to offer myself to give myself as a ransom for many see let me give you the fourth thing that we see about pride the key to the prison of pride is humility humility see that's what Jesus was saying to them Jesus was saying them listen there may be people in this world and they lord over their subjects pride their authority there may be people and they have money or they have power but among my disciples among my disciples Christ's followers it will not be true of you you see here's what leadership looks like for my followers it's not walking into a room and saying Here I am it's walking into a room it's saying there you are and listen Jesus the creator of the universe if he wouldn't demanded that people serve Him it wouldn't have been arrogant it would've been appropriate and so James and John do as we do and here's what they say Jesus we want to climb the ladder like we want to be on your right in your left that's pride its pride that causes us to take another step to climb the ladder and isn't this true when you when you and I are climbing the ladder here's the problem with climate number one there's always another step but number two we are always positioned looking up and the problem with always looking up is that you forget about the people below you John Ortberg said this he said the problem with living our lives always climbing the ladder as we go right past Jesus because he is always climbing down so I don't know what you think about pride and humility but I do know that the moment when everybody thought Jesus was his greatest failure it was actually the moment of his greatest triumph it was the moment that he did what you saya and you and I could not do he served he laid aside his rights and he served and watch this this this is important Paul says in Philippians 2:9 because he did this therefore what did God do God elevated he did what he elevated him to a place of the highest honor and gave him a name that is above all other names that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory with the father now listen listen listen listen God has this tendency to elevate people who understand humility but watch this he opposes he presses down on those who lead with pride I don't know where you are today I don't know where your greatest struggles are I don't know if you're living a life that is in opposition to God if it feels like the will of God is against you if it feels that way it's probably because of pride but when we lead with humility God puts wind in our sails when behind us he gives us success and the things that we do he blesses our obedience and when we're walking in humility we're walking into conversations and saying it's not about me it's about you and when people leave conversations with us they don't feel better about us they feel better about themselves I want to take a moment to pray for us across all of our campuses and and venues so would you would you just bow your heads and close your eyes and I want to do something that we did in the first service I want to create a little space because here's how I know how the Holy Spirit works as we talk about pride I know that the Holy Spirit brings things to our life that are specific to us they're specific to us I know he did that for me so what is the area the Holy Spirit is brought to you that you need to confess that you need to say God I'm leading with pride and not humility and just have a time just a personal confession right now in repentance for some in this room maybe you think it's your intellect that's keeping you from God it's not your intellect is your pride and you need to choose to humble it yourself as Jesus did to lay aside your pride it's used to put your faith and trust in Jesus [Music] so Heavenly Father God you say that you oppose the proud as you give grace the home got a thank you that you led with humility God you gave us the picture you gave us the example we didn't have to guess we didn't have to wonder you showed us and God I pray that your blessing would not just be on our lives that we believe with humility that we'd be about others that we would cheer for others the God I pray as a church that we would lead with humility God I pray as a church that that even in this season of blessing God that we wouldn't be satisfied or God that we wouldn't think it's about us because it's not about us pastor Jason says it's about Jesus it's about you it's so Heavenly Father God we thank you God we thank you for your greatness we thank you for your mercy that is new every day God would you forgive us of our pride the God this week that we would walk in humility that we would walk into the room that we walk into our homes and say here you are there you are not here I am God we love you and we thank you Jesus name that we pray and everybody said [Music]

Channel: Bethlehem Church

Views: 1,546

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Bethlehem Church, Sermon, Hope, Pastor, Church, Broken Crowns, King Uzziah, Uzziah, 2 Chronicles, Pride, Lessons on Pride, God, Jesus, Isolation, Pride is a prison, Isolate, Mark, Posture of Pride, Competition, Humility, Opposition, Humble, Authority, Morality, Sons of Thunder, James & John, Jesus Disciples, Mosaic Law

Id: A-HLY2DQs0U

Length: 37min 45sec (2265 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2019