Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Uzziah The Leader Who Became a Loser │ Msg 1414 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Uzziah The Leader Who Became a Loser │ Msg 1414 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Centuries ago, Isaiah painted a grand mural of the Lord's
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Speaker 1: glorious coming back to Earth. The scene is out in
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Speaker 1: the wilderness, rugged and formidable. In the distance, a voice
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Speaker 1: cries out, clear the way. Listen. It's the voice of
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Speaker 1: someone shouting clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord.
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Speaker 1: Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God.
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Speaker 1: Fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills,
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Speaker 1: straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then
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Speaker 1: the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all
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Speaker 1: people will see it together. The Lord has spoken. Those
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Speaker 1: words appear in Isaiah forty, verses three through five. The
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Speaker 1: picture of God's glory his cavode. As we read in
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Speaker 1: the Hebrew language, cavode, its basic meaning is to be heavy, weighty.
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Speaker 1: God is heavy with splendor and weighty magnificence. That's the idea.
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Speaker 1: In contrast to God's covode, Man's glory is as insubstantial
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Speaker 1: as a blade of grass that withers when the breath
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Speaker 1: of the Lord blows on it. Asaiah writes in verse seven. Yet,
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Speaker 1: how we loathe to admit that, how tempting it is
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Speaker 1: to claim the credit ourselves for the mighty works that
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Speaker 1: God alone does in and around us. Like a teenager
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Speaker 1: flaunting her mother's diamonds, we sometimes slip his royal robes
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Speaker 1: over our own tattered rags, and then strut around as
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Speaker 1: though they were ours. Perhaps no one feels that temptation
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Speaker 1: stronger than those who serve Him in public ministry, those
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Speaker 1: who have been called to hold His glory in sacred trust.
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Speaker 1: Whether their work becomes a movement of God or calcifies
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Speaker 1: into a monument to themselves depends really on one crucial factor,
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Speaker 1: and that factor is who gets the glory. No matter
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Speaker 1: how gifted we may be, no matter how valuable others
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Speaker 1: may think we are, no matter how many people hang
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Speaker 1: on our words or listen to our songs or heed
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Speaker 1: our counsel, we have no right whatever to take lightly
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Speaker 1: God's name, or eclipse his glory, or rob him of
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Speaker 1: his praise. Soon as we do that, the movement of
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Speaker 1: God halts, and a monument to our own glory is erected.
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Speaker 1: And how quickly those monuments come crashing down, taking us
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Speaker 1: with them. There's a tragic example of this in the Scriptures.
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Speaker 1: It's about the rise and fall of a king whose
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Speaker 1: name was Usiah. I want to read his story as
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Speaker 1: it is recorded in Second Chronicles, Chapter twenty six, verses
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Speaker 1: one through twenty one. It's an amazing passage, so I
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Speaker 1: want you to listen carefully. Second Chronicles twenty six one begins.
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Speaker 1: All the people of Judah had crowned Amaziah's sixteen year
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Speaker 1: old son Usiah as king in place of his father.
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Speaker 1: After his father's death, Usiah rebuilt the town of Elath
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Speaker 1: and restored it to Judah. Usiah was sixteen years old
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Speaker 1: when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty
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Speaker 1: two years. His mother was Jekaliah from Jerusalem. He did
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Speaker 1: what was pleasing in the Lord's sight, just as his
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Speaker 1: father Amaziah had done. Eusiah sought God during the days
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Speaker 1: of Zachariah, who taught him to fear God. And as
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Speaker 1: long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God
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Speaker 1: gave him success. Uzah declared war on the Philistines and
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Speaker 1: broke down the walls of Gath, Japna, and Ashdod. Then
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Speaker 1: he built new towns in the Ashdod area and in
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Speaker 1: other parts of Philistia. God helped him in his wars
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Speaker 1: against the Philistines. His battles with the Arabs of Gur
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Speaker 1: and his wars with the Meunites. The Mellionites paid annual
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Speaker 1: tribute to him, and his fame spread even to Egypt,
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Speaker 1: for he had come very powerful. Usah built fortified towers
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Speaker 1: in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate,
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Speaker 1: and at the angle in the wall. He also constructed
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Speaker 1: forts in the wilderness and dug many water cisterns. Because
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Speaker 1: he kept great herds of livestock in the foothills of
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Speaker 1: Judah and on the plains. He was also a man
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Speaker 1: who loved the soil. He had many workers who cared
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Speaker 1: for his farms and vineyards, both on the hillsides and
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Speaker 1: in the fertile valleys. Usiah had an army of well
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Speaker 1: trained warriors ready to march into battle unit by unit.
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Speaker 1: This army had been mustered and organized by Jael, the
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Speaker 1: secretary of the army, and his assistant Maysiah. They were
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Speaker 1: under the direction of Hannonaiah, one of the king's officials.
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Speaker 1: These regiments of mighty warriors were commanded by two thousand,
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Speaker 1: six hundred clan leaders. The army consisted of three hundred,
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Speaker 1: seven thousand, five hundred men, all elite troops. They were
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Speaker 1: prepared to assist the king against any enemy. Usiah provided
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Speaker 1: the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail,
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Speaker 1: bows and slingstones, and he built structures on the walls
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Speaker 1: of Jerusalem designed by experts to protect those who shot
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Speaker 1: arrows and hurled large stones from the towers and the
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Speaker 1: corners of the wall. His fame spread far and wide,
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Speaker 1: for the Lord gave him marvelous help, and he became
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Speaker 1: very powerful. But when he had become powerful, he also
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Speaker 1: became proud, which led to his downfall. He sinned against
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Speaker 1: the Lord, his God by entering the sanctuary of the
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Speaker 1: Lord's temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar.
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Speaker 1: As Ariah, the high Priest, went in after him with
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Speaker 1: eighty other priests of the Lord, all brave men. They
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Speaker 1: confronted King Eusiah and said, it is not for you, Eusiah,
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Speaker 1: to burn incense to the Lord. That is the work
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Speaker 1: of the priests alone, the descendants of Erin, who were
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Speaker 1: set apart for this work. Get out of the sanctuary,
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Speaker 1: for you have sinned. The Lord God will not honor
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Speaker 1: you for this. Eusiah, who was holding an incense burner,
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Speaker 1: became furious. But as he was standing there raging at
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Speaker 1: the priests before the incense altar in the lord's temple,
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Speaker 1: leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead. When as Arria,
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Speaker 1: the high Priest, and all the other priests saw the leprosy,
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Speaker 1: they rushed him out, and the king himself was eager
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Speaker 1: to get out because the Lord had struck him. So
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Speaker 1: King Uziah had leprosy until the day he died. He
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Speaker 1: lived in isolation in a separate house, for he was
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Speaker 1: excluded from the temple of the Lord. His son Jotham
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Speaker 1: was put in charge of the royal palace, and he
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Speaker 1: governed the people of the land. I did not learn
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Speaker 1: by theology first at seminary. I learned it first at home.
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Speaker 1: I learned it at the knee of my mother. As
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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I was only a preschooler when
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Speaker 1: I heard my first serious theological statement. As I recall
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Speaker 1: in a frustrated moment, she made the statement, which contained
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Speaker 1: only ten words, but they were memorable. May God help
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Speaker 1: you if you ever do that again. I learned at
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Speaker 1: my mother's knee what the fear of God was all about.
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Speaker 1: I was a teenager, however, before I asked my first
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Speaker 1: serious theological question, and it wasn't at home, and it
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Speaker 1: wasn't in a church. It was in a car. Let
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Speaker 1: me explain. I come from a musical family. My mother,
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Speaker 1: now deceased, played wonderful piano and sang lyrical soprano. She
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Speaker 1: had a wonderful voice. In fact, she taught piano for
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Speaker 1: over thirty years. My sister sang contralto and still sings beautiful.
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Speaker 1: My brother sings bass, and I sang tenor. It sounds
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Speaker 1: like a country western tune. And I give you that description,
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Speaker 1: doesn't it. We used to stand around the piano and
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Speaker 1: my mother would play. My father played a great harmonica.
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Speaker 1: Most hymns don't have that written in the score, so
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Speaker 1: he sort of picked what was left out and we
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Speaker 1: made scary music. Four years together as a family. One fall,
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Speaker 1: early one fall, my mom noticed in the Houston Press
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Speaker 1: one afternoon that there was a concert that would be
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Speaker 1: given at the downtown First Methodist Church under the direction
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Speaker 1: of the Great Walter Jenkins, who had led the master
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Speaker 1: work of George Frederick Handel four years. In fact, he
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Speaker 1: had it memorized. He was to direct a choir that
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Speaker 1: was to be a volunteer choir, and we were to
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Speaker 1: audition if we wanted to be a part of that
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Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty voice choir. Mother thought that was
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Speaker 1: a great idea. I was only fifteen. I wasn't too
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Speaker 1: sure about it, and yet we all auditioned, and to
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Speaker 1: everyone's surprise, we made it. And we began a rehearsal,
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Speaker 1: a series of rehearsals night after night for about four
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Speaker 1: or five weeks before we did our three performances. It
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Speaker 1: was with full choir, a full orchestra, and a massive
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Speaker 1: pipe organ, and being only fifteen years old, I had
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Speaker 1: never sung in anything that magnificent, and being tender in spirit,
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Speaker 1: especially as it relates to music, I will never forget
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Speaker 1: the night of the first performance. As Doctor Walter Jenkins
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Speaker 1: stood and just before he had us stand, we listened
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Speaker 1: to the tenor recitative comfort Ye, my people, and then
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Speaker 1: the aria. Every valley, every mountain, every hill made low.
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Speaker 1: It's a wonderful rendition. And then we stood after the
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Speaker 1: aria for the first piece, which goes and the glory,
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Speaker 1: the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
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Speaker 1: flesh shall see it together, For the mouth of the
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Speaker 1: Lord hath spoken it and I don't know that I
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Speaker 1: got more than about ten notes out before I dissolved
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Speaker 1: in tears. If you have ever sung in a great choir,
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Speaker 1: and if you've ever had the privilege of being surrounded
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Speaker 1: by great voices that eclipse your own voice, you know
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Speaker 1: something of the thrill of music. And we were singing
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Speaker 1: of something that was that was transcendent. In fact, the
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Speaker 1: piece concludes, as only Handel could have chosen with worthy
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Speaker 1: is the lamb that was slain to receive power and
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Speaker 1: riches and wisdom and honor and glory and blessing. Glory.
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Speaker 1: I wrote home that evening in the back of the car.
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Speaker 1: My dad was so thrilled to have had us all
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Speaker 1: in the performance, and my brother and sister and mother
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Speaker 1: were talking of it. I was very quiet. I was
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Speaker 1: struggling with the word. In fact, I asked the question,
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Speaker 1: what is that Glory? I could understand power and riches
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Speaker 1: and wisdom and honor and blessing, but glory, what is that?
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Speaker 1: We got home and I checked the World Book and
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Speaker 1: didn't even have it listed. And then I went to
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Speaker 1: Webster's Dictionary and found a magnificent a series of definition synonyms.
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Speaker 1: Really great honor and admiration, worshipful, adoration, splendor, magnificence. It
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Speaker 1: was about twelve thirteen years later I was in my
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Speaker 1: second year at Dallas Seminary, under the very capable instruction
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Speaker 1: of doctor Bruce Walkee, and in a Hebrew course that
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Speaker 1: was tough. And yet I did a quick flashback to
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Speaker 1: my year when I was fifteen in that car as
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Speaker 1: doctor Walke was going over a particular word he discovered
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Speaker 1: and amplified for us out of Isaiah's prophecy, and it
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Speaker 1: was cobbod kabod for heaviness. And he struck a core
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Speaker 1: word in my mind when he said, and this is
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Speaker 1: the word for glory three hundred and seventy six times
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Speaker 1: used in the Hebrew scriptures, forty five of those times,
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Speaker 1: and rightly so, used only of our God, who is
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Speaker 1: the King of glory. My heart leaped within me. The
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Speaker 1: King of heaviness, the heaviest of all the heavies. He
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Speaker 1: is the one who is impressive and noteworthy. He is
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Speaker 1: the one who is full of praise, worthiness, and splendor
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Speaker 1: and adoration. The passage we were looking at in the
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Speaker 1: Hebrew class was Isaiah forty two five through eight. I
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Speaker 1: direct your attention to this significant section of Scripture. I
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Speaker 1: learned of the fear of God from my mother. But
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Speaker 1: I learned of the glory of God from my God himself,
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Speaker 1: through the art of music and the magnificence of that
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Speaker 1: choral from the teaching of a mentor, and the intricate
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Speaker 1: workings of the Hebrew text, but mainly in the years
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Speaker 1: to follow, from God himself. And I dedicate this message
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Speaker 1: today to all of us engaged in ministry of any kind,
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Speaker 1: ministry of the word, ministry of music, ministry of education,
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Speaker 1: ministry of counseling. This is a message for us to
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Speaker 1: take and hold as a sacred trust. I have a
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Speaker 1: sense of timing in this that it is the right
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Speaker 1: occasion to speak it. We are watching these days with
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Speaker 1: an ache in our hearts, as kingdoms of men are
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Speaker 1: crumbling about them that once were under the guise of ministry.
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Speaker 1: And we sorrow, We grieve as we watch fellow men
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Speaker 1: and women falling in ministry because of the failure to
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Speaker 1: hold the glory, the heaviness, the splendor that belongs only
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Speaker 1: to God, and failing to give it all to him.
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Speaker 1: They've taken it, and they've loved it, and it's ruined
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Speaker 1: them and it could ruin us just as well any
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Speaker 1: one of us. Isaiah writes of God's own word forty
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Speaker 1: two five. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the
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Speaker 1: heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth
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Speaker 1: and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it,
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Speaker 1: and spirit to those who walk in it. I am Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: I am the Lord. I've underlined that I am the Lord.
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Speaker 1: Does that mean we have no part in his ministry
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Speaker 1: and in his work? No. Look at the list of
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Speaker 1: things that follow. I have called you, so we have
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Speaker 1: been called. I have called you in righteousness. I will
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Speaker 1: also hold you for the hand. We are being helped,
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Speaker 1: we are being guided. I will watch over you. We
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Speaker 1: are being protected as in a shield of God's divine providence.
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Speaker 1: I will watch over you. Furthermore, I the Lord will
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Speaker 1: appoint you. Look at this He will use us. I
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Speaker 1: will appoint you a covenant to the people. Look at
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Speaker 1: the areas of ministry as a light to the nations,
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Speaker 1: to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,
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Speaker 1: and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. I
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Speaker 1: am the Lord. He repeats it in scripture for emphasis.
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Speaker 1: Exclamation points weren't used. Repetition is used. I am the Lord.
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Speaker 1: I am the Lord. Remember it. That's my name, he
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Speaker 1: says in verse eight. It's not your name, and it
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Speaker 1: is not for you to use slightly, or misuse or abuse.
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Speaker 1: I will not give my glory to another. There it
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Speaker 1: is again. Come, oh, it is my heaviness of splendor,
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Speaker 1: and I won't let you borrow it. I won't let
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Speaker 1: you take it. Nor my praise will I give to
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Speaker 1: graven images. The word is idols. You build idols. My
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Speaker 1: praises don't go to your idols. You build empires. They
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Speaker 1: do not receive my praises. My praises come unto me,
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Speaker 1: and come unto my works. They come unto my name.
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Speaker 1: It is true. In John seventeen twenty two, Jesus in
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Speaker 1: a prayer speaks of the glory that God gave to him,
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Speaker 1: and he in turn gives to his own. But he
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Speaker 1: tells us there it is for the purpose of unity.
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Speaker 1: In other words, he gives his glory to the church
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Speaker 1: as a body of people to represent in unity his
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Speaker 1: message and his works. John who writes that, also is
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Speaker 1: the one who writes in the third letter words of
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Speaker 1: great rebuke to diotrophies who attempted to take the place
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Speaker 1: of the Lord in the church, and he loved first place,
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Speaker 1: says John, and he brings words of reproof to diotrophies.
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Speaker 1: So this is not to be confused with that sharing
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Speaker 1: of the glory in John seventeen. This is unto the Lord.
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Speaker 1: I am the Lord that is my name. I will
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Speaker 1: not give my glory to another, no matter how gifted,
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Speaker 1: no matter how useful, no matter how valuable, no matter
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Speaker 1: how many people follow, no matter how many hang on
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Speaker 1: your words and listen to your records and sing your songs,
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Speaker 1: no matter how many would say you're the reason I'm
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Speaker 1: still alive. From your wise counsel, I am the Lord.
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Speaker 1: My glory I will not give to you, and I
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Speaker 1: will not give my praises to your idols. That's the formula,
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Speaker 1: very simple formula to follow that will keep a ministry
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Speaker 1: a movement of God rather than a monument unto ourselves.
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Speaker 1: Number one, remember his name, Number two, reflect his glory.
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Speaker 1: Number three, rejoice in his praises. Remember his name, reflect
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Speaker 1: his glory. Rejoice in his praises. Hold all of it
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Speaker 1: in a sacred trust. No amount of time in ministry
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Speaker 1: ever gives anyone the right to take his name, or
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Speaker 1: eclipse his glory, or steal his praises. The tragedy is
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Speaker 1: the longer we're in ministry, the more loosely we handle
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Speaker 1: such statements, and the easier it is to rationalize around
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Speaker 1: the fact that we are abusing the right of ministry.
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Speaker 1: Let me give you a statement that represents everything I
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Speaker 1: have to say. Ministry monuments result in disaster. Ministry monuments
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Speaker 1: finally crumble, and disaster occurs. Illustration. A king named Usiah
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Speaker 1: second Chronicles, Chapter twenty six, please turn their next Second
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Speaker 1: Chronicles twenty six is a relatively unknown account of a king.
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Speaker 1: His name was Usiah. According to this sacred record, while
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Speaker 1: Usiah was in his mid teens, his father was assassinated.
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Speaker 1: He heard of a conspiracy, and he fled to Lakeish.
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Speaker 1: And while in this region he was found, and the
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Speaker 1: conspirators found him and took his life. Perhaps in the
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Speaker 1: presence of his own son, he was killed. Certainly the
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Speaker 1: word traveled immediately to Usiah if he was not there
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Speaker 1: at the time, and as was the ancient custom, the
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Speaker 1: son took the father's place on the throne of Judah
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Speaker 1: Verse one, and all the people of Judah took Usiah,
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Speaker 1: who was sixteen years old, and made him king in
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Speaker 1: the place of his father Amaziah. Now, if you're Jewish,
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Speaker 1: you will love this vignette of history. If you're a parent,
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Speaker 1: you will be like me, amazed because you once were sixteen.
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Speaker 1: If you're like me, you've reared several through the sixteen
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Speaker 1: year old temporary insanity period of time, and you are
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Speaker 1: scared to think that a sixteen year old could take
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Speaker 1: the throng. You know, the Bible never once speaks disparagingly
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Speaker 1: of youth. I challenge you to find a scripture that
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Speaker 1: decries someone because he is simply or she is simply young.
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Speaker 1: In fact, God, using Paul's pen, says to young Timothy,
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Speaker 1: don't let anyone despise your youth. Young in ministry, that's
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Speaker 1: not your problem. It's encouraging to think that Timothy was
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Speaker 1: in his forties when Paul wrote to him as a
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Speaker 1: young man. I find greater comfort in that is years
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Speaker 1: past a young man. But Timothy, don't let anyone despise
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Speaker 1: your youth. God has used the young throughout the generations.
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Speaker 1: One comes to mind in Charles Hadden Spurgeon, the most
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Speaker 1: prolific colorful preacher in Victorian England, who at the age
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Speaker 1: of seventeen was called to his first pastorate. At the
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Speaker 1: age of twenty was called to the chapel, and by
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Speaker 1: twenty two they were standing in the snow to hear
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Speaker 1: Spurgeon preach. By twenty five the numbers were so great
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Speaker 1: they were required to build Metropolitan Tabernacle. The thousands of
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Speaker 1: people that came by carriage and horseback, often by walking
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Speaker 1: across great sections of London to attend a service to
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Speaker 1: hear young Spurgeon preach. His name is a legacy in
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Speaker 1: the land of Great Britain. He was young, and he
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Speaker 1: remained in that pulpit from age twenty to the end
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Speaker 1: of his life. In his mid fifties, suffering of ill health,
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Speaker 1: he finally stepped aside and shortly thereafter died, but he
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Speaker 1: knew no other pulpit. For twenty five years after his death,
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Speaker 1: they published his sermons once a week, besides all of
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Speaker 1: the publishing he had done in his lifetime, and they
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Speaker 1: finally stopped, not running out of material, but they simply
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Speaker 1: decided to stop. The man is prolific. If you're young
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Speaker 1: and you're in ministry, that's fine. Nothing to be ashamed
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Speaker 1: of and everything to be excited about. But learn a
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Speaker 1: lesson from history. Learn a lesson. You can be young
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Speaker 1: and still walk with God. Look at Usaiah verse three.
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Speaker 1: He was sixteen years old when he became king, and
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Speaker 1: he reigned fifty two years. And verse four he did
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Speaker 1: what was right in the sight of the Lord. There
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Speaker 1: is something to say for staying a while in a ministry.
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Speaker 1: There is something to say for staying thirty forty if
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Speaker 1: God grants you fifty years in a position, if He
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Speaker 1: is still using you, and you don't see yourself as indispensable,
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Speaker 1: and God is blessing your leadership. So it was with Issiah.
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Speaker 1: Why is it that he was doing right in the
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Speaker 1: side of the Lord? Verse five. He continued to seek God.
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Speaker 1: He spent time in prayer. He was engaged in the
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Speaker 1: disciplines of holy living. He walked humbly with his Lord.
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Speaker 1: He was careful with his authority, being influential, He was
28:42
Speaker 1: wise in his decisions. Here is a man who also
28:46
Speaker 1: chose the right mentor. His name was Zachariah. Verse five.
28:51
Speaker 1: He continued to seek God. In the days of Zachariah,
28:55
Speaker 1: who had understanding through the vision of God. Some Old
28:58
Speaker 1: Testament texts read he had understanding in the fear of God.
29:04
Speaker 1: And I prefer that he walked with a man who
29:08
Speaker 1: walked with God. He stayed close to a man who
29:11
Speaker 1: reminded him of the respect he must sustain for God.
29:16
Speaker 1: He didn't hold God's things loosely, nor did he practice
29:20
Speaker 1: them as evidences of his own strength. He remembered the
29:26
Speaker 1: name of God. He reflected the glory of God, and
29:29
Speaker 1: he rejoiced in the praises and blessings of God. And
29:34
Speaker 1: God's hand rested on Kingysiah. Look at his exploits. The
29:41
Speaker 1: scripture in this passage is full of them. It says
29:44
Speaker 1: in verse five at the end, as long as he
29:48
Speaker 1: sought the Lord, God prospered him. Of course, that's always true.
29:56
Speaker 1: God added blessing to his life. God gave him good health.
30:00
Speaker 1: I take it God also used him with strength in
30:04
Speaker 1: his work. If you just take the verbs of verses
30:08
Speaker 1: six through sixteen, you'll see a story of an incredible biography.
30:15
Speaker 1: Says he warred against Philistines, the ancient enemies of Judah.
30:20
Speaker 1: He took them to task. He beat them in their
30:23
Speaker 1: own grounds and at their own game, and he built,
30:26
Speaker 1: he tore down their walls at Gath and Jabnet, and
30:30
Speaker 1: the wall at Ashdod. He built cities in the area
30:32
Speaker 1: of Ashdod. He not only conquered them, he did great
30:36
Speaker 1: exploits among them. The Philistines were at his feet verse seven.
30:42
Speaker 1: That's the reason because God helped Usiah young, growing, learning
30:49
Speaker 1: but humble before his God, significant individual. Verse eight. The
30:55
Speaker 1: Ammonites gave tribute to Usiah. Watch it. Verse eight. His
30:59
Speaker 1: faith extended as far as Egypt. His name was a
31:03
Speaker 1: household word. He was known all over the country. He
31:09
Speaker 1: was a man eminently gifted and blessed of God. Moreover,
31:13
Speaker 1: verse nine, he built towers, tells us where he built
31:16
Speaker 1: him in verse nine, Verse ten, he hewed many cisterns. Furthermore,
31:23
Speaker 1: he loved the soil. Verse ten concludes, I take it
31:26
Speaker 1: he was a farmer at heart. He loved to work
31:29
Speaker 1: in the soil. He loved to see the vineyards flourishing,
31:33
Speaker 1: and in the process. He maintained a strong army. Look
31:37
Speaker 1: at verse eleven. He had an army ready for battle.
31:41
Speaker 1: The number of the warriors verse twelve twenty six hundred.
31:46
Speaker 1: The entire army numbered over three hundred and seven thousand soldiers.
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Speaker 1: Verse thirteen, who could wage war with great power to
31:55
Speaker 1: help the king against the enemy. He had the salute
31:58
Speaker 1: of his people. Here he is creative, strong, strategic, unique,
32:10
Speaker 1: and famous. Look at verse fifteen. He even gathered around
32:15
Speaker 1: him people of creativity Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, he made engines
32:20
Speaker 1: of war invented by inventive men. The Hebrew says, these
32:27
Speaker 1: engines of war were invented by inventive men to be
32:31
Speaker 1: on the towers and on the corners for the purpose
32:33
Speaker 1: of shooting arrows and great stones. He had a war machine,
32:39
Speaker 1: and he put creative men into it, and the city
32:41
Speaker 1: of Jerusalem became a citadel of strength and military might.
32:46
Speaker 1: And he was strong because he was marvelously helped. Verse
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Speaker 1: fifteen concludes his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously
33:01
Speaker 1: helped until he was strong. You say, oh, wait, I've
33:13
Speaker 1: been reading of strength, and now it says he was
33:16
Speaker 1: helped until what does that mean? Well verse sixteen. When
33:23
Speaker 1: he became strong, his heart was proud. The entire door
33:31
Speaker 1: of Usiah's life swings on the hinges of verses fifteen
33:35
Speaker 1: and sixteen. He grows, he increases in strength. His fame
33:42
Speaker 1: spreads as far as Egypt, they're talking of Usiah. The
33:46
Speaker 1: city is built, the city is fortified, the flags fly,
33:50
Speaker 1: the armies march, the parades are held, the people are
33:54
Speaker 1: singing their songs, and they're all turning to Usiah. And
33:58
Speaker 1: he one day believed it. And that's when his demise began.
34:08
Speaker 1: When his favorite piece of furniture in the palace was
34:10
Speaker 1: a mirror. When he suddenly began to believe his clippings.
34:19
Speaker 1: I don't know if it happened quickly or imperceptibly. I
34:23
Speaker 1: only know it happened, and the blessing of God lifted
34:31
Speaker 1: from him. I take it that he borrowed God's name
34:40
Speaker 1: and absorbed God's glory and enjoyed the praises that should
34:47
Speaker 1: have gone to God. He became conceited, we would say today.
34:54
Speaker 1: Jay Oswald Sanders in a book you must buy and read,
34:58
Speaker 1: Spiritual Leadership Rites. Egotism is one of the repulsive manifestations
35:06
Speaker 1: of pride. It is the practice of thinking and speaking
35:10
Speaker 1: much of oneself, the habit of magnifying one's attainments or importance.
35:17
Speaker 1: It leads one to consider everything in its relation to himself,
35:21
Speaker 1: rather than in relation to God and the welfare of
35:24
Speaker 1: his people. The leader who has for long been admired
35:29
Speaker 1: and deferred to by his followers, is in great danger
35:34
Speaker 1: of succumbing to this peril. Actually, egotism is nothing more
35:42
Speaker 1: than the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity. The man,
35:49
Speaker 1: in his stupid pride begins to believe in himself, and
35:56
Speaker 1: there was nobody around with guts enough to tell him,
36:02
Speaker 1: your arrogant, the glory has departed from your leadership. Find
36:14
Speaker 1: a place in your Bible to write down several of
36:22
Speaker 1: the telltale signs of ministry slippage? Will you, I think
36:29
Speaker 1: there are five I detect in these verses we have
36:33
Speaker 1: read and will read telltale signs of ministry slippage. How
36:41
Speaker 1: can you, as a congregational member detect that your pastor
36:46
Speaker 1: is slipping? How can you, as a Bible class member
36:52
Speaker 1: tell that your teacher in his or her ministry is
36:56
Speaker 1: beginning to slip? How can you tell when it's becoming
37:00
Speaker 1: a personal empire rather than a work for God's glory?
37:05
Speaker 1: What are the signs? I must say that they are
37:09
Speaker 1: often subtle and will take a discerning mind to spot.
37:14
Speaker 1: As long as you are enamored of the leader and
37:18
Speaker 1: have him or her pedestalized, you will not detect those things.
37:24
Speaker 1: But when you think clearly and God is the God
37:27
Speaker 1: of your life and the Lord of your direction, not
37:30
Speaker 1: your teacher, not your pastor not your counselor, you will
37:34
Speaker 1: be given enormous discernment, and you will be able to
37:38
Speaker 1: spot the signs of ministry slippage when the movement has
37:43
Speaker 1: stopped and the monument building has begun. Let me give
37:47
Speaker 1: you two or three of them now, and as we
37:49
Speaker 1: work our way through the balance of this chapter, I'll
37:52
Speaker 1: give you the other two. First, when greater battles are
37:56
Speaker 1: fought within than without, the ministry has begun to slip.
38:06
Speaker 1: He used to fight philistines. Now he's fighting his own image.
38:11
Speaker 1: He's fighting for his own name. He's become protective, defensive, stubborn, arrogant, conceited.
38:25
Speaker 1: According to verse sixteen, his heart was proud. That's the
38:30
Speaker 1: first sign. And again, you can't read my heart, and
38:36
Speaker 1: I cannot read yours. But that's where it starts in
38:40
Speaker 1: your heart, which is the Biblical word for your inner being,
38:45
Speaker 1: your mind, your inner person. Down there, you entertain thoughts
38:51
Speaker 1: that are arrogant. You carry yourself with a confident sense
38:58
Speaker 1: of self assurance. The need to pray and to lean
39:06
Speaker 1: and to rely on others and on God is conspicuous
39:11
Speaker 1: by its absence you. You are now struggling for your
39:20
Speaker 1: own name, and your battles are no longer against the Philistines.
39:25
Speaker 1: Your battle is now within yourself. I'll show you that
39:28
Speaker 1: in a moment, specifically in Uziah's life, the storm that
39:33
Speaker 1: was within his own being. First, when greater battles are
39:37
Speaker 1: fought within than without, the leader has begun to slip. Second,
39:43
Speaker 1: when more attention is directed to the leader than to
39:47
Speaker 1: the Lord, a monument is beginning to be built. When
39:54
Speaker 1: you must cowtow to the sayings of the Leader, regardless
40:00
Speaker 1: of the declarations of holy scripture, when you must fulfill
40:04
Speaker 1: his list for your holiness and his demands for your faithfulness,
40:12
Speaker 1: when his name becomes prominent at the church, on the ministry,
40:18
Speaker 1: in the school, at the class, in the organization, watch out.
40:28
Speaker 1: Let me put it straight so that folks like us
40:31
Speaker 1: can understand it. Pride stinks. The problem is the proud
40:39
Speaker 1: person is the only one who doesn't smell it. Others
40:43
Speaker 1: smell it, but a proud person doesn't know he stinks.
40:51
Speaker 1: Several years ago, in another state, involved in another ministry.
40:55
Speaker 1: I happen to be a guest along with several others
41:01
Speaker 1: in a particular program that was going to be aired.
41:05
Speaker 1: A very famous individual lined it up and frankly couldn't
41:10
Speaker 1: believe I was to be a part of it. He
41:12
Speaker 1: said it that I was, and I had the time
41:14
Speaker 1: to do it. But unfortunately he was not able to
41:18
Speaker 1: meet one of the other people that were to be
41:21
Speaker 1: engaged in this particular ministry for a period of several days.
41:25
Speaker 1: And he asked me if I would meet that individual
41:28
Speaker 1: at the airport. And I was to be there with
41:31
Speaker 1: another colleague. Neither one of us at all known, and
41:35
Speaker 1: we were to meet a man who expected to be
41:37
Speaker 1: met by the star and the producer of the program,
41:41
Speaker 1: and he was not there to meet him. I said,
41:44
Speaker 1: you know, call the friends and am. I said, I've
41:46
Speaker 1: never seen this man. I don't know when I will
41:49
Speaker 1: see him, that I will know him. And he said, well,
41:52
Speaker 1: he's about this tall, and I'm sure he'll be He'll
41:55
Speaker 1: be addressed in a suit and a tie, and many
41:57
Speaker 1: people in that particular eraro aren't flying in suit and tie.
42:01
Speaker 1: And he said, you'll stand out, and he said you'll
42:03
Speaker 1: you'll know him, and he happened to be the president
42:06
Speaker 1: of a of a small Bible college, and so we
42:12
Speaker 1: waited at the airport and sure enough people got off,
42:14
Speaker 1: and before long, very obviously the president of this little
42:20
Speaker 1: school got off, and he was looking around, i'm sure
42:24
Speaker 1: for our friend and didn't see him, and was most
42:29
Speaker 1: perturbed that we would meet him and not the man.
42:34
Speaker 1: And I apologized. I said, may I take your back,
42:38
Speaker 1: I'll handle my bags. And I said, I'm sorry I
42:45
Speaker 1: didn't get you. Just call me doctor. Oh okay, And
42:54
Speaker 1: I said, you know, we didn't know who you were.
42:56
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not that we didn't know who you were,
42:58
Speaker 1: it's just we had didn't know what you look like.
43:01
Speaker 1: He said, oh, really, what does the president look like?
43:05
Speaker 1: I wanted to say a jerk, but I didn't. I
43:11
Speaker 1: have a few feelings about it today that you can tell.
43:15
Speaker 1: And that night at the motel, I played a classic
43:20
Speaker 1: trick on him that he never did find out who
43:24
Speaker 1: did it. But I tell you, oh forgot, this is
43:30
Speaker 1: being taped. Guy probably probably doesn't listen to anything else.
43:36
Speaker 1: So I'm safe. When you are arrogant and you are conceited,
43:42
Speaker 1: and you think you're something on a stick, you're a jerk.
43:46
Speaker 1: I don't care who you are, I don't care what
43:48
Speaker 1: your role is. I don't care how many bucks you make.
43:51
Speaker 1: You're a first class jerk. Pride stinks, and he won
43:59
Speaker 1: the attend. He wanted the man. He wanted to be known.
44:04
Speaker 1: He wanted to be something. He's zero. I just read
44:11
Speaker 1: in Isaiah that he gives us breath for our very beings.
44:18
Speaker 1: You know, sixty times a minute we get a little
44:22
Speaker 1: pulse of grace, or for that guy, probably one hundred
44:27
Speaker 1: and forty times a minute. He just you'll notice in
44:36
Speaker 1: verse sixteen his heart was so proud he acted corruptly.
44:40
Speaker 1: Now you won't believe this. Look at this Issiah. Here's
44:44
Speaker 1: a man that God is blessed, and because he was proud,
44:48
Speaker 1: he began to act corruptly. That's the way it works.
44:52
Speaker 1: First to heart, and then the actions comes out in
44:56
Speaker 1: little comments, comes out in a little little arrogance that
45:00
Speaker 1: comes out in a little sneer, little sarcasm. Before along
45:05
Speaker 1: a little jaded spirit. And he was unfaithful to the
45:11
Speaker 1: Lord his God. For he entered the temple, not the
45:15
Speaker 1: temple man. That's where the cavo is. That's the glory
45:21
Speaker 1: of God in there. But when you're arrogant, there's no
45:24
Speaker 1: place you don't go. There's nothing that intimidates you. And
45:32
Speaker 1: he walked into the temple of the Lord to burn
45:36
Speaker 1: incense on the altar of incense. That's the priest's job.
45:39
Speaker 1: That's not the king job. Kings have no business in
45:43
Speaker 1: the temple. And the censor and the incense are to
45:48
Speaker 1: be handled with such care, such distinctive sacred manners, humbly
45:59
Speaker 1: before God. And he walks in with arrogance, and he
46:03
Speaker 1: grabs the censor with plans to light the incense. Third,
46:10
Speaker 1: when God's help is nice but not absolutely essential for
46:15
Speaker 1: survival ministry, slipping easy to get slick and clever, easy
46:26
Speaker 1: to develop a perfunctory attitude, to no longer lean on
46:31
Speaker 1: the everlasting arms, to be so concerned about how one
46:37
Speaker 1: looks and how people feel about you that you're winging it.
46:43
Speaker 1: You're spending more time on your appearance than you are
46:47
Speaker 1: cultivating a heart. You're not preparing, you're just winging it.
46:52
Speaker 1: On the way to the class. You've dealt with that
46:55
Speaker 1: passage before you can do it again. You've sung that
46:59
Speaker 1: song hundred times. It's one hundred and one. Sing it
47:03
Speaker 1: sing it, play it. You don't need God. Now you
47:09
Speaker 1: talk like you need him, and we use terms that
47:12
Speaker 1: are so right. They are all mouthed words, But down
47:18
Speaker 1: deep we are ultra swave. And our ministry turns into
47:24
Speaker 1: a performance. Boy, do they leave impressed? Wow? And they
47:35
Speaker 1: talk about you all the way home and not your God.
47:48
Speaker 1: He came to the place of glory, and he had
47:52
Speaker 1: no problem, because you see, monuments aren't impressed with glory
47:56
Speaker 1: unless it's on them. Please observe what happened. Someone very
48:05
Speaker 1: courageous called his hand as Ariah the priest entered after him,
48:10
Speaker 1: and with him eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men.
48:14
Speaker 1: Look how the text puts it. You think it didn't
48:18
Speaker 1: take courage to confront that arrogant soul. Valiant eighty one
48:25
Speaker 1: men stood in front of Usiah and said, don't you
48:29
Speaker 1: do it? They opposed Usiah the king and said to him,
48:34
Speaker 1: it is not for you, Usiah to burn incense to
48:37
Speaker 1: the Lord, but for the priest the sons of Aaron,
48:40
Speaker 1: who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary.
48:47
Speaker 1: You have been unfaithful and will have no cove o
48:49
Speaker 1: from the Lord. There it is again no honor comes
48:52
Speaker 1: from him. Ye come othe, ye kabad fits you? Where
48:59
Speaker 1: is the glory? Number four? When worthwhile reproofs are resisted
49:10
Speaker 1: rather than received, When worthwhile reproofs are resisted rather than received.
49:20
Speaker 1: If you have a courageous mate, you better listen. If
49:24
Speaker 1: you're a gifted man and you have a wife who
49:27
Speaker 1: is not intimidated by your gifts, you better listen. She
49:33
Speaker 1: is going to tell you straight if she's worth her
49:37
Speaker 1: salt and her reproofs are better than life itself. Preachers
49:47
Speaker 1: need good, strong wives, unintimidated, straight thinking, loving, but honest wives.
50:01
Speaker 1: You've heard me tell the story. I love it about
50:03
Speaker 1: the preacher who was young and good preacher. One of
50:07
Speaker 1: his followers would sit on the front and just ooh
50:12
Speaker 1: in awe with his every sermon. One day, Missus Johnson
50:17
Speaker 1: said to him, you know you're becoming one of the
50:22
Speaker 1: greatest expositors in this generation. Wow. In an unguarded moment,
50:31
Speaker 1: he believed her, got in his car to go home,
50:35
Speaker 1: and his wife slid in beside him and put the
50:38
Speaker 1: four kids in the back seat, and rather exasperated, and
50:42
Speaker 1: he said as he drove, Missus Johnson says that I
50:48
Speaker 1: am becoming one of the greatest expositors of this generation.
50:52
Speaker 1: His wife didn't say anything. Said, I wonder how many
50:59
Speaker 1: great expositors there are this generation, she said, one less
51:05
Speaker 1: than you think good reproof, you're gifted, wonderful. Get over it.
51:22
Speaker 1: You're blessed of God, wonderful. Give him every bit of
51:26
Speaker 1: the praise. Thank him for the breath in your lungs
51:31
Speaker 1: and for the voice in your vocal cords. Give him
51:35
Speaker 1: thanks for your education, which you didn't deserve from mentors
51:40
Speaker 1: who had more to do than spend time on you.
51:44
Speaker 1: And a mind that is at his disposal anytime he
51:47
Speaker 1: wants to crack it. It cracks. To live any other
51:53
Speaker 1: way is to live like a jerk. The scene gets
51:57
Speaker 1: ugly in the temple, you would believe it. But the
52:00
Speaker 1: man is at such odds within himself. There's a storm
52:04
Speaker 1: raging inside him. And look how it's translated. But Usiah nineteen,
52:10
Speaker 1: with a censer in his hand, there's a sacred implement
52:13
Speaker 1: for the temple, with his censer in his hand for
52:17
Speaker 1: the purpose of burning incense, was raged. The word means
52:23
Speaker 1: to be at a storm within oneself. And while he
52:28
Speaker 1: was enraged with the priest, I take it that he
52:30
Speaker 1: lunged for one of them. Leprosy broke out on his
52:37
Speaker 1: forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord,
52:39
Speaker 1: beside the altar of incense, and as Ariah, the chief priest,
52:44
Speaker 1: and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he
52:46
Speaker 1: was leprous. And they hurried him out of there, And
52:50
Speaker 1: he himself also hastened to get out because the Lord
52:53
Speaker 1: had sitten him. Can you believe it? The Lord prospered him,
52:58
Speaker 1: The Lord helped him, The Lord mightily helped him until
53:02
Speaker 1: he was strong, and the Lord smote him when he
53:07
Speaker 1: went too far. Number five. When the consequences of sin
53:15
Speaker 1: are ignored rather than feared, you're in deep trouble. Sometimes
53:28
Speaker 1: consequences affect a person and he misreads them. When you're arrogant,
53:34
Speaker 1: you tend to blame or feel sorry for yourself. When
53:39
Speaker 1: consequences began to dog your steps and hound your heels,
53:43
Speaker 1: you tend to say it's somebody else, it's those people,
53:49
Speaker 1: it's that critic. It's just bad luck, and we ignore
53:58
Speaker 1: the consequences rather than fear them. Look at the end
54:08
Speaker 1: of his life, King Eusiah was a leper. To the
54:11
Speaker 1: day of his death. He lived in a separate house,
54:16
Speaker 1: being a leper. Twenty three Eusiah slept with his fathers,
54:22
Speaker 1: and they buried him with his fathers in the field
54:26
Speaker 1: of the grave, which belonged to the kings, For they said,
54:31
Speaker 1: he is a leper, what an epithaph. Ladies and gentlemen
54:43
Speaker 1: in ministry, gifted colleagues, blessed teachers, counselors, friends, fellow pastors
54:54
Speaker 1: and missionaries, educators remember his name. I am the Lord,
55:10
Speaker 1: reflect his glory. I give my glory to no one
55:18
Speaker 1: rejoice in his praises. I do not give my praise
55:24
Speaker 1: to your idols. Never ever forget ministry monuments result in disaster,
55:35
Speaker 1: horrible disasters. I'm going to do something very different as
55:44
Speaker 1: I conclude this message. I'm going to ask you who
55:50
Speaker 1: are in the category of ministry as I've described it.
55:55
Speaker 1: You sing regularly for the Lord. You do the work
55:59
Speaker 1: of counseling. You are an education as God's minister. You
56:05
Speaker 1: are a pastor, you are a teacher. You are on
56:08
Speaker 1: the staff of this or some church. I'm going to
56:12
Speaker 1: ask you to stand stand wherever you are in this congregation.
56:16
Speaker 1: If you're in the chapel, please stand there. You may
56:19
Speaker 1: be one of our own pastoral staff members. You may
56:22
Speaker 1: be one of our teachers. You may teach a class,
56:25
Speaker 1: a neighborhood Bible class. Look around, folks, these are people
56:32
Speaker 1: you should never envy. They are in places of intense,
56:39
Speaker 1: intense battle. If you are a mate of a such person,
56:46
Speaker 1: would you stand as well. These are the people for
56:53
Speaker 1: whom we must pray for wise counsel to their mates.
57:00
Speaker 1: These are people who must pray, who must serve Christ
57:06
Speaker 1: only for his glory and to hold all of the
57:09
Speaker 1: results very very loosely. Not people of great image, not
57:15
Speaker 1: even people of great significance, but people of gift. They
57:20
Speaker 1: would be the first to tell you I am wholly
57:24
Speaker 1: dependent on my God for what I do. Let's all
57:30
Speaker 1: bow you who are standing, remain standing. I shall pray
57:36
Speaker 1: especially now for those in ministry. We live in tumultus days,
57:43
Speaker 1: our Father. There are battlegrounds, and there are victims that
57:53
Speaker 1: litter the landscape. There are heartaches at this very moment
57:58
Speaker 1: going on. How greatly we are challenged by the truth
58:06
Speaker 1: of your book, How deeply we feel in our hearts
58:14
Speaker 1: that you are the Lord, and to you goes the
58:18
Speaker 1: glory and the praises. Give us the courage to face
58:26
Speaker 1: the mirror of your word and to see even the
58:31
Speaker 1: first markings of arrogance. Rebuke us for laziness, for times
58:39
Speaker 1: of winging it and faking it. Forgive us for becoming
58:45
Speaker 1: perfunctory about the material we are presenting, having presented it
58:50
Speaker 1: often so many many times before. Give us a passion
58:56
Speaker 1: for your holiness. Forgive us for selfish deeds and conceit
59:04
Speaker 1: that has motivated us before. And rebuke us this very
59:08
Speaker 1: day for walking in the flesh and not in the spirit.
59:16
Speaker 1: Show us ways to stay off the pedestal. Give us
59:19
Speaker 1: the courage to encourage that in those who follow our teaching.
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Speaker 1: May we model humility best of all, and may it
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Speaker 1: be authentic, not stinking conceit that apes humility. May we
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Speaker 1: not be proud of how humble we are, Oh God,
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Speaker 1: This role is an unenviable role. At times we would
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Speaker 1: shed the mantle if it were ours to do. And so,
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Speaker 1: in dire need and trust we bow before you, our God,
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Speaker 1: counting on you to guide us through this pilgrim land.
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Speaker 1: We have seen the life of Usiah. God help us
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Speaker 1: if we ever do that again. In the strong name
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Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. And everybody said amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message Usiah The Leader who Became a Loser
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Speaker 2: was copyrighted in nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety four, two
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Speaker 2: thousand and three, two thousand and six, twenty twelve, twenty fifteen,
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Speaker 2: and twenty twenty four, and the sound recording was copyrighted
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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four by Charles R.
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Speaker 1: Swindall Incorporated.
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Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. The duplication of copyrighted material
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Speaker 2: for commercial use is strictly prohibited.