Opening Illustration: Narrative of Krupy who used to be our worship leader in the Middle East. As soon as pride and corrupted wisdom entered his heart, God eliminated him from ministry and his calling was stunted.
Introduction: The devil was at one time a righteous angel! Therefore, he, too, is a spirit being. The prophet Ezekiel spoke of Satan before he rebelled. We are told he was an “anointed cherub [a powerful angel] who covers,” a reference to those angels honored to stand at God’s throne (Ezekiel 28:14; see also Exodus 25:20). Isaiah 14:12 tells us that his name then was Lucifer. “Lucifer” is translated from the Hebrew word heylel, which means “shining one” (Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew Lexicon).
However, at some point this high-ranking angel became corrupt. He turned egotistical, violent and selfish. Lucifer sinned against his Creator. And in doing so, he became Satan, meaning “adversary”. Other scriptures indicate that Satan convinced one-third of the other angels to join his rebellion in an attempt to overthrow God (Revelation 12:4, 7). Because of his rebellion, God said to him: “I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain [government] of God; and I destroyed you O covering cherub from the midst of the fiery stones” (Ezekiel 28:16).
Christ told His disciples that He had personally witnessed this momentous event (Luke 10:18). Let us see how Satan destroyed his own calling, even though he is a spirit being. And how can we also fail our own calling when we walk the same footsteps.
How can you fail (kill) your calling?
1. Iniquity (sin) (Ezekiel 28:11-15)
One of the ways Jesus changes us is to give us wisdom about what’s driving us to that sin in the first place. For example, maybe for some people, their sin of habit is pornography and they feel really guilty about it. But very few of them have ever thought and prayed on the question, “What’s driving me to look at this in the first place?” A big motivator for some is that they use pornography as a stress release. Well, now, if we want to move past this habitual sin, we’d need to learn how to live a lower-stress life and learn what godly, healthy stress relievers look like. But we’d never come to that point if we’d clenched our teeth and decided to “just stop it” in our own strength. What is the root issue of your sin of habit?
Most Christians are confused about how we move past a sin. The truth, as we were just saying, is that we do so piece by piece, bit by bit, with wisdom guiding the journey. Human willpower and gritted teeth alone don’t lead to changed lives. Paul realized it pretty quickly. Failure to recognize the strongholds of sin in our lives and not to tackle it in a godly way, can easily bring a demise of our calling.
Jesus had no sin in his life. “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:29-31). We must realize Satan is a legalist. He has a legal right to sift you if there is any sin in your life. Sometimes there are open doors in our life that must be closed. An open door is a place where you allowed Satan to meet a need in your life instead of God. Or it can be a wound in your life that has never been healed.
2. Filled with Violence (Ezekiel 28:16)
Violence in our homes, our schools and streets, our nation and world is destroying the lives, dignity and hopes of millions of our sisters and brothers. Fear of violence is paralyzing and polarizing our communities. The celebration of violence in much of our media, music and even video games is poisoning our children.
Fundamentally, our society needs a moral revolution to replace a culture of violence with a renewed ethic of justice, responsibility and community. New policies and programs, while necessary, cannot substitute for a recovery of the old values of right and wrong, respect and responsibility, love and justice. God's wisdom, love and commandments can show us the way to live, heal and reconcile. "Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal" are more than words to be recited; they are imperatives for the common good. Our faith challenges each of us to examine how we can contribute to an ethic which cherishes life, puts people before things, and values kindness and compassion over anger and vengeance. A growing sense of national fear and failure must be replaced by a new commitment to solidarity and the common good.
If our own personal lives are captivated by violence and enjoy any form of it, it will surely have detrimental effects upon our calling. Look at where Lucifer was and what he intended to do with God by using violence. He failed miserably and was thrown out of the heavenlies. His call was stunted and never restored to that position.
3. Corrupted Wisdom (Ezekiel 28:17b; Isaiah 5:21)
Another strength Satan can exploit is a strong desire to understand everything about every principle of the gospel. How could that possibly work to our detriment? Experience teaches that if this desire is not disciplined, it can cause some to pursue their searchings’ beyond the fringes of orthodoxy, seeking answers to obscure mysteries rather than seeking a firmer understanding and a better practice of the basic principles of the gospel.
Some seek answers to questions God has not chosen to answer. Others receive answers—or think they receive answers—in ways that are contrary to the order of the Church. For such searchers, Satan stands ready to mislead through sophistry or spurious revelation. Persons who hunger after a full understanding of all things must discipline their questions and their methods, or they can approach apostasy without even knowing it. It may be just as dangerous to exceed orthodoxy as it is to fall short of it. The safety and happiness we are promised lie in keeping the commandments, not in discounting or multiplying them.
Lucifer thought he had access to everything in the heavens, he had one third of the angels under his supervision and he was smart enough to topple God and replace Him. He was wise in his own eyes just as many of us think we are … It not only brought his downfall but also eliminated him from the heavens and his call of being the worship leader was dissolved.
4. Defiled Worship (Ezekiel 28:18)
The Israelites were always falling short of pure worship, or at least pure worship on a sustained level. And so the prophets came on the scene in Israel to rebuke, reprove, correct, and exhort the people. In the earlier periods the prophets had to deal with idolatry and pagan corruptions in Israel’s worship. After the exile that was no longer a major problem. But instead, worship was being corrupted by the indifference and selfishness of people. And so Malachi had to address a whole different set of problems in the nation. His first sermon, directed at the priests but certainly speaking to the worship of the people, deals with their making a mockery out of worship by bringing inferior offerings. God was not pleased with that kind of worship.
But on the other hand, if they are going to keep worshiping like this, the prophet declares, “O that someone would shut the doors so that you might not kindle fire on my altar gratuitously.” Malachi thinks it is better to lock the doors of the temple and keep the people out. If they continue to worship this way, then the fire they light on the altar will be worthless. In stating this the prophet uses the word “gratuitously, without a cause”; it forms a word play on their seeking God’s grace, for it is from the same root (khanan). “Grace” is undeserved merit; “gratuitous” is for no reason, without a cause. In this passage, the latter meaning applies, for their worship would be worthless, pointless, for no reason, a waste of time. God takes no pleasure in worthless worship; in fact, he rejects it! If people do not do it with love and devotion, but only out of compulsion to follow a ritual, their gift will be worthless, and they will be rejected.
Let us not forget the worship the Israelites gave to the golden calf and reaped dire consequences for corrupting their worship. God has zero tolerance to corrupted worship in our lives. The adverse effects that it might have is that we might lift that calling from our lives. The defiled worship was unaccepted and the idolaters were not granted entry into the Promised Land.
5. Pride (Ezekiel 28:17a; Isaiah 14:12-14)
Pride is the original sin - it's behind every sin, that's where it started with Lucifer and that's where it starts with us. Pride is what caused Satan's fall. He was thrown down with such force from heaven that in his wake there was a lightning bolt! (Luke 10:18) That was pretty hard, don't you think? Pride comes before a fall. So we have to look at our lives and see how many times we have fallen. But the bible says that a righteous man may fall seven times, but he can get back up. (Proverbs 24:6)
Satan fell and he can never get back up! He is trying to keep you down when you fall, it's up to you to get back up. It's not a time to get under guilt about it, it's time to just face it and address it. Then after he fell, love was removed from him leaving him alone which resulted in fear. Now he works day and night to get you to fear so you are separated from the Love of God.
Just as pride entered the heart of Lucifer who wanted to be greater than God and desired all the worship that God got for himself, he was stripped of his calling. Can we also be walking a similar path?
Application: Jesus Christ was sent to redeem us, cleanse us, purify us and at the same time protect our eternity and calling for Him. He has put many people in our lives to protect our calling. Sometimes what they say and do doesn’t always make sense or comply with our mindset. This gives us an opportunity to humble ourselves and let God work through these men of God that He has allowed in our lives.
Do we continue in a lifestyle if sin? Is our life filled with any form of violence? Do we yearn and live our life based on corrupted wisdom? What sort of worship we bring before God? Is pride evident in our lives?
