Finishing Strong Pt. 5 - Men's Bible Study by Rick Burgess - Feb. 20, 2019

alright guys welcome in let's go get started thank you all for being here thank you all for listening wherever you may be listening today we thank you for being with us we are in the Wednesday Bible study we are going through a book called finishing strong by Steve Farrar if you are joining us or you just started listening to us and you'd like to go back and hear some other Bible studies that we have done the best way to go find the most archives is to go to Burgess ministries comm and click on media you'll see the men's Bible study listed there you can walk back through all those audio clips now if you want to watch on youtube there there are some some that go back but not as far back because we didn't start doing that too a few studies ago and of course the Rickon above a podcast channel always has the weekly ones that have been published there as well you can also follow on social media you can follow me on Twitter you can follow the Rick and Bubba show on Twitter the Rick and Bubba Facebook page so we want to have this Bible study set up that the only way that you're not able to hear it or watch it is if you just don't want it so in what usually happens is it's posted about about two o'clock Central Time every Wednesday and then stays there indefinitely so let's let's open up with a word of Prayer and jump into today Lord thank you for today thank you Lord that we have an opportunity and the freedom in this country to talk about the things we're going to talk about today and I pray Lord that you continue to refine us into the men that only you can make us in Jesus name Amen and certainly I know women you're listening as well some of you now we're gonna take on something I want to be clear again on what this series is about because I have talked to some people that are a little bit confused about what we mean by finishing strong and finishing well I don't want you to get in your mind that this is a Bible study that's only dealing with as we age that that's not what this is about what it's really talking about certainly that's part of it but what it's about let's say did I finish my 20s well did I finish my single life well am i finishing my is my marriage am i improving on that or am I gonna have some moral failure in my marriage well will I succeed in my marriage under the authority of Christ is my wallet with Jesus Christ continuing in the right there as it continues to get stronger without me falling away so it's not just about hey I started out young and when I land when I died or when I got old I didn't do anything that compromised my faith it's talking about every stage of life us finishing that without any sort of compromise that would embarrass or being conflict what we claim claim to believe and today we're going to talk about one of these areas that seem to always be a problem and that is when we find ourselves being deemed successful or our pursuit of success now is there anything wrong with the pursuit of success not not in itself no but there's all kinds of problems that come with success because there's something always you know alluring about success that seems to start taking us into a situation of pride which we'll talk about today self dependence I don't really you know when Jesus talked about how difficult it was for wealthy people we would probably call that successful people because we we always equate that with success and we'll talk about that today he didn't say that wealth was bad or sinful in and of itself as we've talked about he just said these people that experience this kind of wealth or success have a difficult time submitting to my authority and being broken and weak enough to actually depend on me they get to the point where they're more dependent on their said they don't know what they need why do I need Jesus he says so that's why it's difficult for these people I love this about talking about self-awareness that the the quote from Thomas Carlyle that starts chapter 5 the status brothers and they're not quite rich first cousin pride are quite right first cousin pride is the name of the chapter which is funny were from Steve Farrar and Thomas Carlyle said the greatest faults is to be conscious of none you know these people the greatest faults is to be conscious of none and so he begins to talk a little bit about the world's definition versus is Jesus's call on his disciple here's a definition of success success is attaining cultural goals that are sure to elevate one's perceived importance in that culture now the key word here is noticed that what we were learning is sieved importance that doesn't mean it's real people say perception is reality it may be but it not not to god it's not okay so he says that you're perceived that somehow you're important in your culture and so you can see yourself to be successful because I'm important but see success doesn't elevate your importance at all it may elevate your perceived importance he says you know the world elevates successful people in one of three areas so remember just because you think success elevates your importance doesn't mean it really does not by God's standards it matter fact the way we look at things are actually in conflict with that because here's it he says there's three areas in our culture that we deem people to be successful he's successful because he's powerful and we'll get into that day with Uzziah he's powerful we think powerful people are successful because why they have people that follow what they say you know you remember he talked about one of the some of the examples of that you know people think they're successful if you walk into a place and say hey I want this done and people do it he said well that person must be successful powerful he said they are they're also given what privileges that's number two oh if you're privileged then you're successful if we see people giving you special rights or special favors then we think that you must be successful and you know this was talked about in the book of James when he says you know the wealthy people in here think that somehow they should have the best seats here when they come in to church because of their wealth they have a privilege he talked about the time remember when they accidentally had messed up his room and they upgraded him to her Presidential Suite and he said man it felt good because I'd been shown privilege I've been given special treatment and we all like special treatment and we'd be lying if we said we don't like special treatment we do that we talk about this all the time when I first started in radio I found out because this it's not this way more people would call me for tickets to fill in the blank and these are lot times will be people that had no issue of getting tickets they had no issue buying tickets they didn't need any help financially they wanted to say they got their ticket in a special way I knew the radio guy so I called the radio guy he got me a ticket you know by the way we get to meet the minion we got a backstage pass now this person probably could have done this got tickets and whatever just by simply going in buying them and it's not that they can't do it they wanted to say they got it in a special way I will show some privilege I got connections and so what we think is these people rush they must be successful look they have connections and of course the other one which our country just loves wealth oh if you're wealthy oh if you're wealthy if you're wealthy you're successful I mean that's there's no greater indication of your wealth than your big house and your really cool car oh I notice the brand of that car it must be successful and a lot of times what you don't know in our culture is most of these people and Dave Ramsey talks about this a lot are in dire debt and it's all gonna collapse on them because they know that you define these things as successful so they're pretending to be successful when really they're not I'm gonna tell you something I know some guys that will get up today and they will not get out of their overalls till they go to bed tonight and they got more folding money than somebody who's got a house that looks good in a car that looks good who is broke now they got all the status symbols but they're nowhere near as wealthy as far as currency then this guy who's really unassuming but it's taking care of his money and it's managed his money well he didn't have in status samples he drives a simple truck you wear simple clothes he kind of simple houses houses not trashed but it's simple you know he's got a little land you know usually an indicator is if that if that little simple house is sitting on hundreds and hundreds of acres of land you know I mean you may be thinking about that your big house is sitting on a half acre he's probably got more money than you do but but anyway but these are status symbols right so in America that's what we look at in a lot of cultures but in ours as well but here's what for our warns us against which is so important we must be careful buying into the world's definition that success means elevation of status we must even take our success and we must filter it through the grid of Scripture we as followers of Jesus are never supposed to let the world define things and us go along with the world standard of anything so even when it comes to success what does the Bible say success is what this one was one of the things that I always talked about and I talk about this all times with coaching especially with males is males like they struggle with the word meek which is a was what were called to there were to be meek because the world says oh meat means weak but it does it well you know as anybody prepared to say that Jesus Christ was weak anybody to say that there was something we can pitiful about him no but what what meat meekness truly is and if we would teach our sons this and our daughters - but I'm talking a lot of times this is a male problem meekness means that I am powerful but I keep it under control I'm like a horse is powerful it's like Jesus has that bridle on us and we're powerful we're strong we may have gifts they have talents but but we let it out at the perfect time in the right amount and we never lose control will become tyrannical we never go after people try to destroy people but when there's time to make a stand we do so it's strength under control it's not weak he says see my people are have incredible strength but they're under control they're under my authority and so then he gives us into this example of Uzziah of the king and boy Uzziah there's you know we start out with Uzziah and we kind of get all fired up about him and and all that's going on with him because he starts out great well we're gonna see a lot of these people aren't we so so when you look at use ayahs routes and this is going to be coming out of second chronicles and verse in chapter 26 we talk about use I if you want to keep up with that and go back and look at some of the scriptures we'll go over but so he was he was incredible in the beginning he's a great young man you know he really he said if Uzziah was in your church you would he would be the young man you say this is the guy he may rise up one day to be the pastor of this whole thing he if he was a young man you say he's definitely the leader of our youth group there's no question about them if they're if there is a young man to look at that is the standard we want everybody to be it would be young use and you just see this over and over again as a matter of fact he also had what we love what's that had an impressive resume we all like that so listen to how Uzziah started he was 16 years old when he became king he reigns 52 years in Jerusalem and and it tells us all about that and he came in there after his father and he is one of the great grandsons of Solomon and listen how many times do we see this and we go through the kings and chronicles in 1st and 2nd Kings and he did right in the side of the Lord according to all his father had done and he continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah who had an understanding through the vision of God and as long as he sought the Lord God prospered him don't miss this as long as he sought the Lord God prospered him so here's a guy who believed everything God said it at a young time in his life I can relate to that he saw God he wanted a relationship with God he talked to the Lord he did his best to live a life pleasing to the Lord we certainly know that you know there's there's some tough teenage years but young used I hung in there he got off on the right foot his priorities set correctly from day one it was a very fortunate young man and as he talked about today we would look at him and say that is a young man that is living out the example that all young men should follow that's true so but we also know that in second chronicles 26 King Uzziah gives his impressive resume now I don't know if we want to get done in an hour it's such a long resume I don't know that I can read all of it to you but bottom line is and you can you can look at this in the chronicles 26 but it tells you every he went out and he waged war against the Philistines he brought broke down the wall of Gath in the wall of these different places he built cities and it just goes on and on and on all the things that he did his army was huge they were ready to be called into action any time at one point the elite part of his army was over three hundred thousand he built all the the best equipment for his for his military he had the best of the best and his fame spread afar for he was marvelously helped and then here comes the big until in verse 15 so all this I just gave you goes some starts in verse 6 but in 15 here comes a word everything's going great he's doing everything the way it should be done he's being blessed he's being prospered he's been giving victory he's devoted to the Lord until or those unseals or if but however until he was strong hmm that's it that's an interesting statement and until he was strong notice notice the word until there so his fame spread afar but his fame also became his hinge became his problem hence his fame spread afar was he was marvelously helped until until he was strong until what well look at verse 16 if you have your Bible go to verse 16 and chronicles 26 and then we'll go back to kind unpack it a little bit so it says until he was strongly as 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 and we'll talk about that here in a minute so the key in 16 but when he was strong he grew proud to his destruction so what happened three things happened here why was it unfaithful to it to the Lord now number one he began to focus more time and attention on the external rather than the eternal he became victim of the barrenness of a busy life he had so much going on and it was all going so well and I told you this before but it fits so good with this again when at one of those moments when God put an older man in my life of great respect and great wisdom and I was rattling on and on and on about when I first started getting into speaking and teaching and I was so excited I had so much fervor and I was yes and I'll be there and I can't wait and I'm travelling here and I'm going and I can't wait to be there and this man looked at me and he said I this has been a great conversation but I got to give you one piece of advice you need to pray more and speak less and then I was like sir he said here's why gods give you some gifts he's giving you some platform he's giving you some influence but what's going to happen is you're gonna become so consumed and so busy with all these incredible opportunities and all these accolades and all these things people want you to do that you're gonna stop spending time with the Lord sound familiar you're gonna stop spending time with the Lord and you're gonna start going to these events going into these classes go into these places doing these interviews and you're gonna start leaning on the gifts God gave you as opposed to leaning on him and you will be able to pull it off and before long you'll cease being effective and it'll all start being about you and how good you can do fill in the blank so you need to turn down all these opportunities because eat you look Francis Chan is going through that in his life right now he was the guy who got elevated and I'm not saying he's had some moral failure but what I'm saying is he himself has admitted that he got pushed into the limelight so fast until he gets to a point it was a very humble thing to say he said I'm at this conference with these great theologians and suddenly they kick over to me hey get up and discuss I forget what who is he listen I didn't know what they were talking about he was terribly embarrassing and I'm not going up to the stage now here's all these men that are you know far advanced than I am on theology and depth of biblical understanding they've thrown a word at me to talk about it I don't even know what it is he's it was terribly embarrassing and it didn't take long from that realize that I was just trying to pull it off I didn't know what I was talking about so see we can push people too quick and and we talked about you know we've talked about that before and then there's people who've had a fall and they want to get back to quick and many times the and sherry and I talked about this yesterday and she tells me all the time do not neglect to continue to spend time alone with the Lord don't ever get you scheduled so busy that that's home you know and this is something God showed me and I'm and I'm trying to stick with it and I've had other men that say it helped them to picture a circle in your mind it's important picture a circle in your mind and that circle is a certain size okay whatever that's so you had come with your own size based on your age and what's going on where that circle is the size that your wife is not neglected if you have one if you don't have one your time with the Lord is not neglected that'll be in there your children are not neglected because we have a responsibility to them your time with the Lord is not neglected your time of prayer is not neglected and you're able to manage your work manage the things outside of work manage your maybe hobbies but most importantly your relationship with Christ the ratio with your wife relationship with your children and if you're a single person then remove the wife and children and keep the rest of it in there and you say if I do anything more than what I'm doing inside this circle something in here is going to be neglected and you refuse to let anything come in that circle and make that circle bigger and I had to learn that I had learned the word no and I had to learn it because I said I will not grow the circle so if somebody comes up and says we think that you should do blah-blah-blah-blah well I won't go okay let me add that to the pile and in circles and it stretches out I say let me look in the circle and something's got to go for instance I will not coach lacrosse after this year no way I love my son I love spending time with him I love being part of this and I love these other guys but when my son graduation Broadwood christian school i won't be back at Broward Christian school ever again you know unless it's some kind of going back for some kind of reunion or whatever I'll have to do that because I don't I can't I'm not gonna spend time with Briarwood anymore after all my kids are gone because I've got other things that I do feel like called I need to do so I'm gonna take Briarwood commitments out and I'm gonna put that in I'm not gonna shove it in there leave Briarwood commitment still in there you know I've loved my time with that it's been well served but it's almost over so something else I can't do right now I'll do that men's ministry I've been working the youth ministry and I love our youth ministry and I've enjoyed being part of that but this men's ministry thing is beginning to grow and going out nationally so at the end of this year I'm not gonna teach you youth anymore I love them and I've spent great time with them but I don't have time to do that and men's ministry one of the two is going to get neglected and my call is the men's ministry now that doesn't mean I'll never speak to a youth conference or I'll never spend time with youth but I'm not gonna have that commitment anymore preparing for that when I need to be preparing for the men's ministry because if I keep that in there it's getting where the men's ministry is growing so much that I can't do both so I have to prioritize this is the kind of stuff we're talking about you don't get yourself so busy and so strung out and so frayed at the edges that you're not committed to the things that grow you as a man of God and you're neglecting your wife you're neglecting your children in order collecting the things spiritual in your life he said I love this he said every we get so focused on making it succeeding and get ahead and this is this is what we all have to watch out for who we are what a great statement this is a write down your reading who we are is much more important than what we accomplished who we are is much more important than what we accomplished and if you're not working on who you are and you accomplish great things it's not going to mean much and this is the next thing you said and this is how he summed it up what happened to you Ziya what a great line this is and then I have taken this this week and really pondered this in my heart and examined it you Zayas character did not keep pace with his accomplishments he was getting more and more accomplished but his character stalled so for a time his accomplishments in his character were running side by side which is what we see for as my accomplishments grow my character is growing with it so when I am given more responsibility I've got the character to do it right what happened is character for Uzziah stopped at about 50 and accomplishments went 60 70 75 80 85 90 hunt and it's like this and so now he's accomplished a lot but his character hasn't grown and now he's set up for this big fall that's coming I love that line we talk about this a lot don't be caught up in the world's definition of success when was the last time he talked about this and you tell this his books a little bit dated because he's talked about the importance of Time magazine anybody here care about Time magazine anymore but I'm but I'm talking about somebody's like where's that on the internet but anyway so Time magazine would what put imported people on the cover he said when was the last time that Time magazine ever put a successful husband or successful dad on the cover you got to follow this guy you know well I see on the cover time he's a successful husband why is this guy on the cover time he's successful dad oh there's no better dad than this guy he did it all right but we do see what successful businessman we see what successful celebrity successful entertainer successful coach I think it's so sad sometimes that people in our culture especially where we live they get more moved and they get bigger chills on a speech from a football coach and then they do read Romans chapter 8 biblical truth in these great people of the Bible and God speaking his word does not impact them the way some coach speech does you know what that tells you if that's you either a you don't know the Bible very well because I don't know how you would ever compare the two and I love a good coach speech too but I don't love it more in Scripture matter of fact I've got now is I got noticed some of these coach speeches I thought were so great I've listened to them and actually sound kind of stupid because I realized biblically they're not even correct on what they're saying you know me have you ever been to that where a football coach tries to awkwardly toss scripture to a football coach speech and it doesn't really work and so and I'm not saying there's not some great godly men here coaches don't misunderstand me I'm just talking about our priority priorities is it's either that or the coach means too much to you or that game means too much to you if you rather hear a coach give a speech than the Apostle Paul there's something wrong with that you know if the Gospel of John doesn't move you as much as some coaching video or some you know I remember was this thing that came on last chance to you what an embarrassment what a terrible embarrassment I mean I remember going to watch that because I loved that kind of stuff and I was like who is this guy this guy's awful and then you remember the second says he came back you thought he was gonna get better like he said I got to watch myself what were we all change if we could watch ourselves which I thought was a great point and then he was just as bad again I mean he might have been worse he didn't learn and so we're supposed to hold this guy's some high regard because he won a bunch of championships at a junior college but but but but he's a foul mouth you know egomaniac but yet some of us would rather hear if I told you he was speaking today you would rush to it but if I told you that we had you know say for instance you know I'm actually going to see head lit in this weekend I'm doing event for him Sunday night but I said hey Edie Litton who's a pastor that we all greatly respect and he spoke at a man church he's speaking in a luncheon today you and you had to fit between the coaching him you fight picked the coach and the coach wouldn't give you anything as much as that let me give you I assure you so that that's how we how we give this elevation to certain things that we really should because that's not what the Bible gives elevation to and then he talks about character is this so good about how the character didn't keep pace with his accomplishment listen to this great life truth thank you Steve Farrar for this character isn't something you mandate is something you model you can demand character who people that you're in leadership over demand character of your children demand character of your employees demand character of your players but you cannot demand character that you have not implemented and modeled for them you can't because you know why I know you're gonna he's gonna do it he's gonna say it again it's so true though guys if there's one thing that the Bible has taught me in the last ten years of my life is we may not always live out what we profess that's possible I say to another people do it all the time I've done it but it's impossible for me to believe one thing and live another so I live the truth what I prioritize and what I live is the real truth and we talk about this all the time so if you're telling your kid let me tell you something I better not ever see you again fudging on your tests that's that's not character but then we fudge in our taxes and he hears dad talking about it no I told so-and-so you know I put their donors a business expense and then the very same child that's been told not to cheat on a test because that lacks character watches their dad cheat on his taxes which also lacks character so now you're saying well I want you to have character you can't just mandate it it has to be modeled so what we live is the truth about us and if you don't think kids see that they make you see it better than anybody one of the saddest things I ever had was a kid told me one time that their daddy was evil and I didn't know that I start telling ahem and then I won't say but they said that you know that their dad did things that I saw doing and I he said but when he when when my dad gets out of your sight let me tell you what happens that's all the show he's putting on and his kid knew it of course no no no no surprise that dad is no longer in a relationship with that kid but but what it was as daddy was putting on a show so good I believed it and the kid says to me don't compliment my dad my dad's evil that's all the show and you know what I've had men before say this to me I don't feel I'm I let my wife respects me now sometimes they'll say love me and then when I get down to it I realized that in Ephesians that when God says for wives to respect their husband that's how we interpret love that way with you all know that or not and ladies if you're listening know that women need to be loved men they be respected that's out of the Bible and and of course I've seen Danny do this before and I talk about a lot that circle that it's calling for in marriage is what husbands love your wives wives respect your husband women women respect the husband who loves them and men love a wife he respects them and here he goes yes we're supposed to work we interpret love differently men and women are equal but they're not the same but a lot of times we have to ask ourselves a tough question could it be that our wives don't respect us because they know us could it be that now sometimes a woman is being rebellious and she's mistreating her husband that certainly happened sadly and my wife will tell you that's part of the fall every woman when and when they're in sin they want to to take their husband and move them out of a place of authority and put themselves they're my wife's open about that Dallas to women about that and certainly sometimes that's the case but a woman under the authority of the Lord really would prefer her husband to love her as Christ loved the church and then she'll respect her husband there's many times that a man is not respected is because the person who's supposed to respect them knows it and they're not worth your respect so it's not something that can be mandated respect can't be mandated character can't be mandated character has to be modeled which Garner's respect and also gives an example of character I cannot expect something out of my kids that doesn't exist in my own heart I cannot expect something out of my family or my kids that doesn't exist in my own heart so so that that's where the rubber meets the road I remember one of the things I was taught and I hope I'll help some of the younger guys that may be listening this or maybe in the room when I first became a follower of Jesus Christ in this this part I didn't really know much I knew that I've been changed I knew that sherry and I our marriage had been anointed I knew that this was a new beginning and we were in church and we were there and now I was gonna find it was like to be involved in God's church and I was excited about that but because I worked early and this is when all the kids were little I would sleep the latest on Sunday and you say well that's reasonable and I'm not saying it wasn't and so sherry would get up and she would get everything rolling I would finally sleep the last minute get in the shower and then I would come out grab whatever breakfast was there and get my bow and say let's let's go to the car and God got just so convicted me your children are not buying it and I'm never thinking what am I feeling worried about this but what's the big deal about this Sherry's not mad about it what's the big deal and what God was teaching me is the man's influence in that house as a spiritual leader which I was not yet share as a spiritual leader because I had not got to that place yet but this was a good step in that direction they think you're going to church to keep mama happy they don't think it's a priority to you I don't even see you till you going out the door the first person keeps walking in their room saying we're going to church is their mama your wife it's not you and you know what kids expect their mamas to care about things like church but if you really want them to think this is abnormal you'd be the first person at the door you wake them up let your wife sleep you fix the coffee I don't attempt dressing them when they were younger because that's that was more to be I that happened one time and it would never happen again but but what I'm saying is this but the first face they start seeing on Sunday morning the Lord's Day was their daddy this is your dad let's get up let's start getting our self ready we're going to the house of the Lord and we're gonna worship change the whole dynamic so dad's buying in on this so this isn't something mama came up would with that dad's begrudgingly going along with no it must be priority men and women are equal husbands and wives are equal but they're not the same and and this is exactly what we're talking about don't ask our kids to buy into something they don't think we're buying into sec the third thing that happened to use i he was tripped up by his own success how many times have we been upset with the lord because we don't think he's made us successful or not enough say Uzziah had more success than he can handle you can handle it I look back many times and I think this is going to be confirmed I don't know that God gives us these kind of answers I think Adrian Rogers was right when he said I'm not sure that the Lord of lords the King of Kings the great I am the beginning of everything is gonna do a Q&A with us in heaven but I'm so glad you guys got here is probably lot of things you want to ask me you know he said we may spend the first 100 years just crying wholly on her face you know me but God has all but confirmed I used to be really bitter my failure led to me part of me drifting from the faith and not continuing to to be sanctified or justified and in part it was I was mad because I ended up going to a smaller school for football I thought I was one of the best recruits in the state arrogant 18 year old and I thought I I should be one of the elite players out of state and when that kind of fell apart and had an injury and all that a lot of times I'd look back and I have to admit even when my older sons begin to play for Auburn which is where my dad played and and I had a chance to go fall to go play there or Tennessee or Mississippi State and I want to go to Auburn and that didn't work out and I won't get into all that because I'm you know we've forgiven some of the things I maybe didn't understand some of the things that happened because I think this is probably more true than the way anybody treated you or whatever was that God knew I couldn't handle it you know I mean I remember you know sitting there and going man but would it you know I this here's my dad talking about to my son about men what about this experience and I'm just over here like I didn't experience that you know and I ended up leaving football didn't even finish and all that over being bitter about it but what I think the problem was in Cherry now I've talked about this what are the things that God kept me from because I Got News for you if you think I could handle that platform now if I was gonna go and do press conferences and talk about how great Jesus was but that one don't happen what was gonna happen is the things I did at Troy would have been 10 fold with that kind of platform so really what God said is I'm not sending you there because you can't handle it and I'm certainly not going to continue this football road because you're not this is not committed to me so you so I'll let you have it and see so never forget sometimes you're not successful or you're not where you are you don't have a bigger platform because God knows he can't trust you with it and so it's so sometimes you need to be thankful that he hasn't given you something that you can't handle yet he said that you don't know how many times God is being gracious by not allowing you to be out speaking on his behalf just yet think about that think about even in the Bible think about think about Peter before Pentecost different animal after Pentecost like we said he telling everybody he completely understands what Jesus is here and he says my father has revealed that to you so you know that I'm on Diana Peter posed amongst us there was all this crazy talk about nothing I'm gonna let that happen so what does Jesus say don't go tell anybody what you say Peter was not ready to be given the platform because he didn't have it right he didn't understand what Jesus was doing he had a partial understanding but he was gonna be dangerous you ever wondered about that my Jesus said for him not to go say what we thought he got right but you got a read on he doesn't get the crucifixion right so Jesus says hey don't go tell people who I am because you don't understand it now when Pentecost came you may have the floor now now you got it so you his there's grace and how how God allows us what he would like for us to have on his timeline if we're willing to be ready to be given that kind of responsibility when you're given responsibility it's a test it's test now see God doesn't tempt us but he does test us and you Zayas gonna fail and so many people do I talked about the time that about did you read the thing in there about with the father who said he want his kids so bad to see this waterfall that he was willing to put them at risk and how bad he felt about it he was so thankful later that the kids didn't fall but they could have and he said I was so obsessed with them seeing this waterfall I was willing to risk their lives to see it water falling that important that's what we do with success I'm Willie I'm so willing to be successful I'll destroy my children I'll put them at risk I'll put my marriage at risk I'll put my faith at risk whatever has to be put at risk for me to be successful I'll do it and that is exactly the wrong thing to do it's not nothing's worth that warned words be said if God puts something in my hand without first doing something to my heart my character will lag behind my achievements and that will always be the way to ruin say that again if God puts something in my hand without first doing something in my heart my character will lag behind my achievements which is what happened to you Zion happens to so many and that's always the way to ruin so let's look at verse 16 what happened after the unti Oh in second chronicles 26 so we go to 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 at the altar of incense so here's what we find now if you don't understand really what's going on here he was so proud that that now being King was not enough I'm gonna be king and I'm gonna be preached but God has not had not said you could be king and preached you can be king they will be preached and they will burn incense in to the altar in the temple you that's not that's not in the responsibilities of the king but he won't do both because now he becomes so proud so famous certainly what why can't I burn the incense I do you not heard about my fame and all the things I've accomplished but this was in violation to the Lord meaning I'm now not walking with the Lord enough to know I shouldn't be doing this I'm now coming with malroux's I love when he says he must have ignored the instruction of his great-grandfather Solomon who wrote in Proverbs have you ever had this wrong by the way how many of you say that pride comes before the fall that's incorrect that's not what the Bible says pride comes before destruction a haughty spirit comes before the fall pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit comes before a fall and Uzziah had ignored the very thing that his great-grandfather had said this is all about pride oh here we go - pride pride is so subtle that we usually don't recognize it listen hey let's get real for a minute Rick Burgess I hate let me tell you something I struggle with pride no at the end the right kind of pride is I'm proud of my son I'm proud of my wife man I'm that's the that's that's that's not that's not wrong but it's saying here's what's the wrong kind of pride I have to be the best I gotta be I got to be recognized I'm not being recognized I got to be number one and I can tell you I there's been times that I've seen people talking about something that I knew I was part of and I found myself going well they're not mentioning me why don't I get a mention how silly is that but it's happened well you know you got that for me you know and then my wife will say probably from the Bible probably from the Bible you know what I mean just because you said it one time you got it from the Bible - probably not from you he's just saying the same thing you saw in the Bible there could be some parallel spiritualism here you're the mean and oh gosh you got that other bubble stone you know no probably from the Bible the other means so so anyway so you know but I got hey I got to be number one I got to be I got to be it I remember when I said this and we did stadium fest three years and we want to do an event where you could come in here bands hear speakers and we didn't win you think anybody there's nothing wrong with events that are spiritual that people sell tickets to I'm not saying that we fell like for those of us that didn't do this for a living we should go find the money and if you want to come hear this and see this now we're gonna pay the band's we're gonna pay the speakers we're gonna pay for the staging we're not ask somebody to donate it but we're gonna raise the money to pay for it I remember saying and one of the things I was asked about I said you can tell you the biggest miracle I saw at the stadium fair certainly people came to know Jesus praise the Lord for that that's number one but you know what might have been the biggest miracle is we had over a hundred churches of different denominations work together on that event and nobody got credit for it that's first thing we said for our stuff by the way we need you but you know your credit for it so whose event is if nobody's the Lord's not one church's name's gonna be on here saying you're presenting this and a lot of times they'd be like hmm I mean let me let me pray about that because why Wow because you want to say what hey this was our event any success you heard about this got to be tied to our church is our name where's our logo gonna be no logos you can help you can give us volunteers you can raise money but nobody's gonna get credit for it and to credit we had over a hundred churches that work together and did that which might have been the greatest miracle but pride so CS Lewis if you if you've read mere christianity raise hand if you have okay we all need to if you've read the chapter that he has on pride he refers to as the world's greatest sin Wow I mean that that's that's a big discussion the world's greatest sin why because pride led to the fall you said what do you mean well what did Satan sell them on God won't stole something from me he's afraid you're gonna be like him God doesn't have what's best for you he's trying to rule over you and he's afraid you'll be like him right so so it all started with pride so pride is part of the fall it's absolutely part like the talked about sure he said part of the fall with with women is that they want to be in charge a part of the fall of men is they're willing to let them I mean you realize how many times that you know you know the biggest compliment we get on what we're doing with men's ministry now that we got something going we're discipleship is really rolling you know what the big the biggest company I get wives thank you all for this I'm so glad something it has changed my husband so a lot of them don't want to be in charge they don't have choice and and so so anyway so he says we talk about pride the world's greatest sin I love how CS Lewis in his instachat Iran pride if you've read this chapter and you're convinced that this does not apply to you then it certainly does apply to think you don't struggle with pride is the proudest thing to say Uzziah would have read the chapter and said I'm glad I don't struggle with that have you ever notice how pompous and we are in vocal we are about sins we don't think we struggle with but now you start getting the things that we start with then we don't talk a lot about it you know somebody I'll tell you what I don't like some homosexuals well that's easy to say if you don't struggle homosexuality that's real easy to say but what if we talked about pride today I don't like prideful people well I don't like those homosexuals don't like man maybe shouldn't be getting drunk from a person who's never drank and you know a person who's never scrubbed any struggle for you but the question is are you ready to be vocal in your own life and am I ready to be vocal about in my own life the things I do struggle with or my just always gonna talk about the things that you know it's no big sacrifice for you not to do something you never have a desire for you know to be changed is to be radically changed you know don't you ever sell someone who may struggle with homosexual sin and suddenly you're gonna talk about how awful that is which it's it is sin but at the same time you're over there looking at porn on your computer or you're flirting with the secretary over at the office or you're sitting there acting like you're looking at fox news stories you're looking at all the banners stuff at the bottom that's got half-clad women on it which by the way I'm get to the point why they want to download their stuff anymore I have to go in here and cut things off of it trying to look at news stories when all these little things are all around enough half-naked women and you know you've given soft porn I Got News for you if you are being sexually active in your heart and with your body with anybody other than a wife you're his biggest sinner is any homosexual at least I've met a man who struggles of homosexuality that said I will never compromise my sexual purity I will never do it I struggle with it i don't--all I struggle with it he said but I have told the Lord I'll be consecrated to the Lord if I never have desire for a wife then I guess I'm not supposed to have a wife but let me tell what I'm never gonna do I'm never gonna act on this desire because I know it's sin I will be celibate and I'll be sexually pure and I will just serve the Lord I don't know many heterosexual young men ever made that commitment I don't know meaning now there's something there doing it but I'm just talking about hopefully they've made that commitment but but so see we better be sure we understand with with our arrogance and our pride that every one of us is gonna come to Jesus the same way and that's through that cross at the foot of the cross everybody is equal nobody is gonna strut into heaven another Adrian Rogers quote so Uzziah could not handle success success handled him and this is that thing that has haunted a lot of my brothers and my inner inner circle we've been talking about this lot this keeps coming up in this book Satan is patient sometimes he'll wait 40 years if it takes waiting 40 years he will wait so as I came out of the gate strong but you know what Satan said I can't get in for 40 years I'll wait I'll wait 40 years so you said we don't ever get to the point where we think we've arrived and that somehow we can leave the authority of Jesus Christ or somehow we can stop our brokenness and think man I think I think I made it Satan's willing to wait for us to say that one thing I think I'm good I think I'm good and and and I've talked to me in before that I can tell that the reason why they're not involved in a Bible study the reason why they're the that that they're not doing anything beyond what they've always done because they think they're good I've done it I believe Jesus died for me no cross I've been justified you know I mean I know about pretty good I'm good I don't do really bad things I'm a good good guy he runs the arrogance of that statement I mean so certainly you don't struggle anything I mean so you've gotten to the point that you know you've got it figured out is anybody ready to say that I believe that anybody can really say that I mean when when we talked about this before when Billy Graham is got scripture written in gigantic letters all over his house when he's got to we can't see any more and he's still memorizing Scripture so Billy Graham is still memorizing Scripture at the end of his life but you're good oh you got it I actually heard a guy say one time that his testimony was that he believed in Jesus when he was 12 and he's been good ever since and of course I want to know what his plan of action was I thought well maybe that's true but then I got into his life and I realized he sparks the attends church he doesn't know that much about the Bible's have some of the basics and he's never been in a Bible study that I could document so I'm gonna go ahead and go out on the limb that say that that if he hasn't done anything since the day he went down he got baptized at 12 in some church attendance and a Sunday School class every now and then I'm gonna bet that he hasn't arrived because I don't think that's possible but why is Paul straining and pressing on so so you don't need to but Paul does I mean Paul says I have not achieved it yet but you have what an arrogant statement and I bet you that person will tell you they don't struggle pride you start we're probably not I'm good I really think because there's nothing more prideful as we said to that hey I struggle fraud I absolutely do and reading this chapter I would say I was looking to go man I got work to do I got a lot of things I got to look at my life just from going through this and I so I can handle whatever God puts out there for me and so I don't collapse like yous idea his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense at the altar of incense so keep in mind Uzziah now wanted to usurp the role of the priest he was not allowed by God's law to do this but he charged in anyway why he was blinded by pride and see when you're blinded by pride what happens next will also happen to you and me the priest come up to him and say hey Uzziah don't do this see if you're not blind you might get that far and you go oh my gosh what am i doing thank you what was that was I really about to burn incense you got the sensor in your hand you can't bust up in him to Temple and do this you'd know that so some of us may can get to that point but but but don't get to the point that when they come to you and accountability some guy pulls you off to the side or your wife pulls you off to the sides and says hey you're not supposed to do this it's okay to say gosh thank you I am so see that that's that's humble to recognize product to recognize but let me tell you what's what lacks humility is to be enraged when somebody tries to hold you accountable which is what use idea it says he was enraged you know these people are the scoffers the Bible calls them scoffers here's let me tell you this and right and this is something that God gave me and I and and maybe I got it I don't know where I got it from so I don't be prideful about this but this hit me because I've been through this I'm being held accountable and holding other people accountable humility is when you go to someone and say you have sinned but so have I I understand the sin because I certainly have seen it I'm letting you know that you're in sin right now but I want you to know I've also seen it arrogance is when somehow hold you accountable and you say I have sinned but so have you say that's arrogance you ever met those kind of people if you go and try to hold them accountable anything they're gonna push them back to you everything you ever did or everything anybody else ever did or they'll start comparing their sins to other people let me tell you what we should never do is minimize sin ever don't ever minimize sin and the response to somebody holding you accountable about your sin is not to talk about their sin now when you go hold somebody accountable you can talk about your sin to say look I'm not saying any better than you we're held to the same standard I've made this mistake in your making it now or maybe you're making this mistake I've made that mistake you know this is I'm not being sanctimonious I'm not being self-righteous I'm just holding you accountable cuz I love you but I know a lot of people like Uzziah you hold them accountable they'll make fun of it you know this guy hey man I got to talk to you about I don't really think the way what you said to our secretary yes that's not instead of hey thank you I don't know what I was thinking you right that's a great point should I go apologize let me apologize to you but you know what the scoffer does the use I as of the world do Oh everybody back away everybody get away from me I might rape 1 Secretary's hey don't let your wife get around me right because I can't handle it they make fun of it they scoff and say that's not that's not a person who's repentant that's a prideful arrogant person who's scoffs at accountability and Uzziah became enraged I love when four are said and I agree with him he said I believe if you saw I would have said I am so sorry I don't know what I'm thinking thank you for giving me clarity in this moment I can't believe what I've become forgive me Lord for desecrating your temple forgive me Lord for attempting to go burn the incense and usurp the priest please Lord forgive me that God would have forgiven him right where he was but he didn't he scoffed and he was enraged I loved CS Lewis again pride is a spiritual answer it eats away the very possibility of love or contentment or even common sense it takes them all the way when you become consumed by the cancer of pride you don't know how to love you're not content with anything and you've lost all common sense it's pretty straightforward use I that you're not supposed to be doing this we all know you shouldn't be doing this and you know you shouldn't be doing this but I'm King and I want to be priests too and nobody's gonna tell me any different no common sense no love and zero contentment with what he already had Martin Laura Jones says this prayer and if Martin lloyd-jones had to pray this every day I bet we do he said I pray this every day Lord keep me from Pride every day Lord keep me from pride for our says he's added to that which I thought was good he said he praised this Lord keep me from pride helped me to recognize it helped me to be aware of it helped me not to be dazzled by it seduced by it and intoxicated by so he said I went a little further because he said I need more work than Martin lloyd-jones needed you know he said no just protect me from Pride don't even let me have a desire for the things that the pride loves don't let me be intoxicated by applause they'd only be intoxicated by recognition don't let be intoxicated by getting special treatment don't let me be intoxicated by wealth don't let me be intoxicated by fame that's what a lot of pastors who become famous fail they can't handle the accolades it's one of the things I love about my pastor he doesn't want to be a celebrity and to me need to and and if that becomes the push and that becomes the goal then now you've lost weight now if you start getting recognized I'm Billy Graham's recognized but he remained humble so it's okay to be recognized but but if that can't be the goal that can't be everything you're doing I'm gonna put out this message because people will talk about it and put it on social media I bet I'll get a couple of quotes out of it put it out on Twitter people reckon how could you retweet this this this this thing God showed me now enough that's your motivation then that then that's arrogant and pride he said Lord keep me from Friday he says encourage one another daily Hebrews 3:13 so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness encourage one another daily so that none of us may be hardened by sins deceitfulness here's some symptoms of pride the use I knew better symptoms of pride arrogance a holiday spirit to think too high of ourselves and expect privilege I will be priest and I will be king another sign of pride and aversion to accountability just what I thought about you scoff at accountability you could become enraged at accountability if somebody remotely suggests that you've done something wrong you treat everything like it's a from a Pharisee when sometimes it's just from a brother or a sister every time somebody says you've done something wrong don't play the Pharisee card don't play the legalism card there's certainly some of that out there but you've got to be able direct it recognize and be humble enough to say this is true accountability this isn't a person being a Pharisee this isn't been a person being self-righteous this isn't a person being legalistic this is a person that's just pulling the biblical truth and I'm out of line with it know the difference and don't think all of it is the former consider that some of it is the latter and then and then you think about this verse 19 but you die with a sensor in his hand for burning incense was enraged and we talked about the accountability that he would not now let's talk about what might have happened he could have been repented he could have been reconciled but he didn't we see that and then when he went and went to burn the incense what happened the results of disobedience leprosy leprosy began to break out on his face immediately and here are the results of him not listening number one leprosy number two now because I'm a leper I'm living in quarantine no more servants no more chariots no more palace now I'm in quarantine that's how you died cut off from the temple hey not only did you not get to burn incense you were welcome here at the temple now you can't go the temple at all because you're a leper and then the last one this is really and we'll leave on this buried near the Kings but not with them buried near the Kings but not with the Kings why verse 27 Uzziah rested with his father's and was buried near them in a field that belonged to the Kings for the people said about Uzziah think of all the things he thought it was gonna be remembered for this is important guys on the way out but what was he remembered for he had leprosy that's it that's his legacy of all the things he did because of his disobedience his arrogance and his pride because he did not finish well his legacy is he's a leper you know he burned he tried to go number enough incense thank you but you know he had some victories and what I don't I don't know what you're talking about but I know he's the one that went in the temple and tried that God gave him leprosy you said well Rick how's that fly today don't know it hey may I say who I like is Oh so-and-so yeah you know he left his wife what yeah cheated on her with a secretary you don't like the pastor cheated on this is why no no I'm the one who wrote that great book oh no hid the last thing we heard from him he cheat on his wife oh he's not the one who went the prosecute no he's a hey yeah so sorry man he had the men's ministry oh no no you know what happened him does oh yeah he got caught stealing from the church he got caught what what'd you steal from his company and then that becomes the label see that's my finishing well and finishing strong is important because the legacy we want to leave is he was devout to the Lord God Almighty all the way through not being remembered from your minds of the Lord so this lesson today be careful with success be careful with pride because it can be something that can be success can be a great platform for the Lord but it can also be used by Satan who is patient to terrorists and the terrorists there don't let your legacy be he was the one had leprosy you told me that guy let's pray lord thank you very much for today thank you for this message thank you for the conviction thank you for the challenge I pray Lord that your hand be upon everybody represented in this room and to everyone who's listening today if something in the Holy Spirit has prompted correction in our lives that we don't just wait to that passes we act on it and repent of the sins that may still be in our lives protect us as we were just taught to pray protect us from pride don't allow us to be consumed by don't let us ever get to the point that we think that we've accomplished anything that you didn't allow our mandate and may the glory be yours not ours in the name of Jesus we pray amen thanks guys you

Channel: Rick & Bubba

Views: 3,012

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Keywords: burgess, lewis, bussey, speedy, bible, christian

Id: FAlutxttiFY

Length: 61min 32sec (3692 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2019