1. The first prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your prosperity (3-15a)
2. The second prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your press clippings (15b-16)
3. The third prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your position (17-20)
4. Conclusion: The epitaph of pride (21-23), the epitaph of Paul (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
This afternoon, we will be looking at the recorded life of King Uzziah which is told throughout chapter 26. But for right now, we’ll just read his epitaph. We’ll just read verse 23.
2 CHRONICLES 26:23
I haven’t seen one in a while, but several years ago, they used to have a commercial on TV for Tombstone frozen pizzas. It had a man standing in front of an old-timey firing squad. The executioner came up and asked the condemned man if he wanted a cigarette. He said no. Then he asked if he wanted a blindfold. Again, he defiantly said no. So finally, the executioner asked him what he wanted on his tombstone. To which the condemned man said, pepperoni and sausage. It doesn’t take much to figure out what we might want on a Tombstone Pizza, does it? But it’s a whole different story when it comes to figuring out what we want on our real tombstone. People try to sum up entire lives in things like obituaries and epitaphs and tombstones. I’m sure that many of you have sat with families as they have tried to come up with the exact right words for an obituary that would sum up the life of a lost loved one. What we’ve just read is a sad example of an epitaph. A sad example of a life that went wrong. A life that was as full of promise and potential as any in Judah’s history. But a life that was ruined by falling into the terrible trap of pride. Uzziah was the king of Judah. God had specifically and specially called him to that position. To lead God’s chosen people. To shepherd God’s chosen people. God specifically and specially called Uzziah to that role, just like He has specifically and specially called many of us to be undershepherds of His flocks. But Uzziah didn’t finish well. Just like many who God calls today don’t finish well. I read some disturbing statistics from George Barna and Focus on the Family this week. 1,500 pastors leave the ministry due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches—EACH MONTH. Over 50% of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce. 80% of seminary graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first 5 years. Almost 40% of pastors who were polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since the beginning of their ministry. One of my Liberty professors handed us an article on the first day of class. It said that 19 of 20 seminary students who entered the ministry would fail to finish their ministry well. And people think the military is a dangerous profession. At least in the military, you usually know who the enemy is and the direction they’re coming from. But that’s not always the case in the ministry, is it? It’s not always the case, because most of the time the enemy is from within. Enemies from without are usually pretty easy to deal with. They’re time consuming and draining, but you can deal with them. But the enemy on the inside is different. He’s sneaky. He’s cunning. And many times he’s almost invisible. But even though he’s almost invisible, he does have a name. His name is pride. And just like he did in the life of Uzziah, he is in the business of setting traps. He set traps in Uzziah’s life. And Uzziah fell into them. And because he fell into them, he failed to finish well. I don’t want that to happen to any of us here today. I want each of us to leave here determined to finish well. But in order to do that, we need to recognize some of the traps that are before us. This afternoon, we’re going to use the tragic story of Uzziah to look at three prideful traps that will keep you from finishing well. The first prideful trap is your prosperity. Back up and look with me at verses 3-5:
2 CHRONICLES 26:3-5
The first prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your prosperity. Did you notice that? “As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.” We’ve got a strange idea of prosperity, don’t we? We almost look at prosperity as something that God owes us when we’ve done certain things He’s asked of us. If we do step A, B, and C, God’s going to bless us with prosperity. Yes, prosperity can be a blessing from God. But did you also know that prosperity can be a test from God? Look at Uzziah’s life. By the time he was 16 years old, he was the most powerful man in all of Judah. But he wasn’t just a figurehead. History tells us that for several years, he was coregent with his father. Apparently he was a pretty good apprentice, because once his father died, the kingdom really took off. For the sake of time, we won’t read this entire section. But in your own studies, I would encourage you to go through here and see the areas where Judah prospered under Uzziah’s leadership. Verses 6-8 tell of Judah’s prosperity in the area of foreign affairs. It is interesting that the Chronicler specifically points out Uzziah’s success with the Philistines. The nation hadn’t had such success against the Philistines since David. Back up in verse 2, he also points out Uzziah’s success in rebuilding the strategic port city of Elath. They hadn’t had control over Elath since the days of Solomon. So, you can see that in the area of foreign affairs, Judah hadn’t prospered that much since the days of her two greatest kings. Verses 9-10 tell of Uzziah’s prosperity in the area of domestic affairs. They were having a building boom at home. Buildings, public works, economy, beauty and luxury—things had never been better on the home front. Verses 11-13 tell of Uzziah’s prosperity in the area of military strength. Other than their ally Israel to the north, Judah had the strongest military in the area. They were unrivaled in their manpower and equipment. As a matter of fact, verses 14-15 tell of Uzziah’s technological prosperity. They had the most advanced technology of the day. The text reads like they had invented catapults. Many commentators claim this to be impossible, because that kind of technology supposedly wasn’t available till at least 300 years later. But since that is the most plain reading of the text, I take that to mean that they were that far advanced in their technology. The bottom line is, any way you look at it, Uzziah was extremely prosperous. But that prosperity went from being just a test of God to becoming a trap of the devil. How has God prospered you? Has He given you a good church? Has He prospered you with growth? Has He prospered you with new ministries and new members? Has He prospered you with facilities and resources and money? Praise God! Praise God and pass the test. But don’t fall in the trap. Don’t fall in the trap that leads you to believe that you had anything to do with it. Don’t fall into the trap that says your church’s prosperity is because of you. It’s because of God. When you are obedient to Him, He will enable you to be content in prosperity without reveling in it. As a matter of fact, He will enable you to be content in either prosperity or poverty, just like He did with Paul. And that kind of God-given contentment is what will keep you from falling into the prideful trap of prosperity. As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, He mad him prosper. And as long as he sought the Lord, the Lord kept him out of the prideful prosperity trap. The first prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your prosperity. The second prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your press clippings. Look with me at the second half of verse 15 and verse 16.
2 CHRONICLES 26:15-16
The second prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your press clippings. I can just picture it—Uzziah’s name was everywhere. It seems like we’ve been in an election cycle since the last election. It doesn’t matter how you feel about the man, I think it’s kind of funny how everything in the world is George Bush’s fault. Everything from gas prices to global warming for some reason is his fault. But that’s what comes with sitting in the big chair, isn’t it? Things were going great in Judah. And when things are going great, guess who gets all the credit? The same one who gets all the blame when things are going badly. If a football team is winning, who is the best and smartest person in town? The quarterback. But when they start to lose, all of a sudden he forgot how to play. All of a sudden, he’s the whole reason for the team losing. It’s like that in our churches a lot of times too, isn’t it? When Sunday school attendance is down, it’s the pastor’s fault. If offerings are down, it’s the pastor’s fault. If there are weeds in the flower garden out front, it’s the pastor’s fault. If the bulletin left out an announcement, it’s the pastor’s fault. But we’re quick to dismiss those kinds of things, aren’t we pastors? It’s easy to brush those kinds of things off. “Well, I didn’t have any control over that!” But what about when things go well? What happens when the numbers on the attendance board start going up? What happens when the offerings and the Sunday School and the baptisms start going up? How do you react when you see the little snippet about how many kids you had in VBS shows up in the state paper? Are you reading your own press clippings? That’s what Uzziah did. Back up in verse 8, it says that his name spread abroad even to Egypt. Then verse 15 says that his name spread far abroad, indicating he was being recognized even farther away. He was a worldwide phenomenon. He was known all over the place. He was in all the papers and on the cover of all the magazines. He was famous for the awesome prosperity of Judah. But instead of humbly deferring all of that glory to God, what did he do? Verse 16 says that his heart was lifted up to destruction. He fell in the trap. He read his own press clippings and started to believe that he was the one responsible for what God was doing in Judah. He began to enjoy people looking at him instead of enjoying pointing them to God. The trap was set and he fell in. Are you falling into the numbers trap? Think about your conversations with other pastors. Are they all centered around numbers? When you start spouting off numbers nickels and noses, why don’t you throw in the numbers of people who are going through a divorce? Those in your youth group who have attempted suicide or fallen into the occult. Why don’t we ever want to count those numbers? Could it have something to do with our pride? Those are the press clippings we don’t want to read. We want to read the good ones. But pastor—if you’re going to take credit for the good press clippings, you’ve got to take credit for the bad ones too. Uzziah only read the good ones. He quit reading the ones that Zechariah was publishing back in verse 5. That was his prideful trap. And when he fell in, that was his undoing. The second prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your press clippings. The third prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your position. Look with me at verses 17-20:
2 CHRONICLES 26:17-20
The third prideful trap that will keep you from finishing well is your position. Uzziah was the king. But not only was he the king, he had ruled for 52 years—over half a century. That was longer than David. That was longer than Solomon. And the Chronicler acknowledged that Uzziah accomplished things that hadn’t been accomplished since the days of David and Solomon. Not only was Uzziah the king, he was secure in his position. He was accomplished. He was well known. You can imagine that he was popular since things were going so well in Judah. He was the king—but he wasn’t a priest. His pride had swelled to the point where he thought he could do anything he wanted. Now, notice what he wanted to do. He wanted to do what seemed like a good thing. All he wanted to do was have a little worship service. What was so wrong with that? Because by doing so, he usurped the position of the priest. In other words, he overstepped his bounds. And he thought he could get away with it. I mean, after all—he was the king. And when the priests confronted him, he got angry with them! He refused to listen to the people God had placed in his life to hold him accountable. He thought he was above them. Do you ever try to usurp your authority? Have you ever tried to “pull rank”? God calls pastors to be leaders. But he calls us to be leaders like shepherds are leaders. He calls us to lead like Christ led. And how did He lead? Like a lamb to the slaughter. Any time that we try to stand up for our rights—we’re wrong. The only kind of standing up we ought to be doing is standing up on the Word of God. Look at how Uzziah reacted when the priests questioned his authority. He was angry. If you get angry when someone contradicts you or goes against you or stands up to you—guess what? It’s pride. Look at Jesus—when did He get angry? He never got angry when people came against Him. He only got angry when people came against His Father or His Father’s house. But when people came against Him, what did He do? Isaiah 53:7 says “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” Do you show pride in how you use your position in the church? Do you encourage people to hold you accountable? Or do you pull rank on them and show hostility to them if they try? Your position can be a prideful trap that can keep you from finishing well. It did for Uzziah. And he finished poorly. Look at verses 21-23:
2 CHRONICLES 26:21-23
For they said, “He is a leper.” What a sad epitaph. All of the wonderful things Uzziah did. All of his prosperity. All of his fame and popularity. His honored and exalted position. All of 52 years of called out leadership over God’s chosen people. All of that, boiled down to four words—He is a leper. One of the most powerful kings in Judah’s history. Ranked right up there with David and Solomon. And remembered for a disgusting, foul disease. I can picture a field next to the caves where the kings of Judah are buried. Outside of the royal cemetery. One lonely marker. A marker that simply reads—Uzziah, leper. So, if you had to sit down and write your epitaph today, what would it be? What do you want on your tombstone? I can tell you that if you fall in the prideful traps of your prosperity, of reading your press clippings, and your position… I can tell you that your epitaph will read like so many others we see today. Like those 1500 that leave the ministry in disgrace each month. Like those 19 out of 20 who fail to finish their ministry well. He is a leper. But, if by God’s grace, you stay out of those traps it can be a different story. If you always see God as the source of your prosperity. As His test to grow your contentment in Him. If you quit reading your press clippings and give all glory and honor and praise to God. If you quit abusing your position and treating it as some sort of authoritarian position. If Christ is shown to be the source of all goodness in your ministry. If Christ is the only one who is lifted up. If Christ is the only head of your church. Then you can have an epitaph like Paul did. Shortly before Paul died, he wrote a letter to his son in the faith. And in that letter he wrote his epitaph. In 2 Timothy 4:6-8 he wrote, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” That’s what I want on my tombstone. What about you?
