Derek Smith, Lead Pastor LHBC
2 Chronicles 26:16-21
But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, 18 and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.” 19 Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy[a] broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. 20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him. 21 And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s household, governing the people of the land.
In a small quaint little community the Baptist church and the Methodist church were on opposite sides of the same street, pretty much next door to each other, they were only divided by the one main road which runs through the center of town.
One day the two pastors decided to stand by the street and hold signs on the side of the road. One preacher held a sign that said “The End Is Near” and the other’s said “Turn Back Now”.
All of the sudden a man in a giant S.U.V drove by honking his horn and screaming “bunch of Jesus freaks!” and some other not so very nice things.
All of the sudden they heard tires screeching followed by a loud crash and then an explosion. One preacher looked at the other and said, “maybe we should of wrote ‘Bridge out.’”
Some people in life are headed for a crash and they don’t even know it. Enter the story of King Uzziah. King Uzziah was an incredible man of God and a great King. At the beginning of 2 Chronicles 26 the Bible says he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and he set himself to seek God. Uzziah pursued God and depended fully on God’s law to direct the nation. However, toward the end of his life he got prideful. Verse 16 says when he was strong, he grew proud and this led to his demise. His strength became his greatest weakness when he allowed it to go to his head and lost his humility before God and others. He ignored the law of God and declined the counsel of godly men and it led to his destruction.
Pride was the original sin, it is what made the devil the devil. Additionally it can be argued that pride is the root of every other sin at its core. Pride is thinking too highly of oneself. Pride is the comparison trap, it’s looking at others and considering myself superior to them in some way. Pride is me contending with God for first place when I should gladly submit. Chuck Swindoll said it like this, “the world’s smallest package is a man wrapped up in himself.”
Proverbs 16:18 tells us that pride goes before destruction. Nothing will destroy a person like pride. Today, you and I must repent of pride. We must repent of our selfish ambitions and expectations. We must repent of our ungodly comparisons with others. We must repent of our unwillingness to obey the law of God and to listen to the counsel of other Christ-like people. The signs all around us tell us not to travel the road of pride. If we do most certainly we are headed for a crash. Turn around before it’s too late.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Father God, You despise pride and so should I. I repent of my selfish pride today and declare that I am totally dependent upon You. Thank you for Your Word which is a lamp to my feet and thank you for placing other godly counselors in my life. Help me Lord to listen to Your voice and the counsel of others. In Jesus name, amen.
MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:
Isaiah 26:3
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.