In his book, “The Applause of Heaven”, Max Lucado tells the sad story of a man he came to know through a friend. The man’s name was Anibal. Anibal was a tough man. Max Lucado said that his tattooed anchor on his forearm symbolized his personality—cast-iron. His broad chest stretched his shirt. The slightest movement of his arm bulged his biceps. This was no meek man. This was a man who was tough in every sense of the word. But he was also a man in a prison cell condemned for murder.
As Max spoke with Anibal, they began to talk about becoming a Christian. They talked about guilt, and forgiveness. Max wrote that, “The eyes of the murderer softened at the thought that the one who knows him best loves him most. His heart was touched as we discussed heaven, a hope that no executioner could take from him.”
But as the conversation moved toward the conversion, Anibal’s face began to harden. Anibal didn’t like the statement that the first step in coming to God is an admission of guilt. He was uneasy with words like “I’ve been wrong” and “forgive me.” Saying “I’m sorry” was out of character for him. He had never backed down before any man, and he wasn’t about to do it now—even if the man were God.
In one final effort to pierce his pride (Max writes), I asked him, “Don’t you want to go to heaven?” “Sure,” he grunted. For a moment I thought his stony heart was cracking. For a second, it appeared that burly Anibal would for the first time admit his failures. But I was wrong. The eyes that lifted to meet mine weren’t tear-filled; they were angry. They weren’t the eyes of a repentant prodigal; they were the eyes of an angry prisoner.
“All right,” he shrugged. “I’ll become one of your Christians. But don’t expect me to change the way I live.” The conditional answer left my mouth bitter. “You don’t draw up the rules,” I told him. “It’s not a contract that you negotiate before you sign. It’s a gift—an undeserved gift! But to receive it, you have to admit that you need it.”
“OK.” He ran his thick fingers through his hair and stood up. “But don’t expect to see me at church on Sundays.” As I watched Anibal pace back and forth in the tiny cell, I realized that his true prison was not made of bricks and mortar, but of pride. He was twice imprisoned. Once because of murder, and once because of stubbornness. Once by his country, and once by himself.
The bible is clear. Pride goes before destruction. And although we may condemn more visible sins, Pride by far is the most deadly. Pride acts as the gateway to just about every other sin, and Pride acts as a barrier between you and God, and your will and God’s will.
That is why the bible speaks so harshly against the sin of pride. In the book of Proverbs God gives a list of things He hates, and the first one on the list is pride. Pride is included in the seven deadly sins, and over and over in the bible, we are warned that if we exalt ourselves, God will bring us down. For example, Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful king who forgot God, so God made him become like an animal and eat the grass of the fields. King Herod heard a chant from the crowd saying he was like a god, and since he didn’t humble himself, God struck him down and worms consumed his body. Satan himself exalted himself above God, and God flung him down to the earth. Over and over, either trough example or a direct command we are told…don’t be prideful and arrogant, but be humble.
That’s hard to do when we live in a world where everyone toots their own horn, building themselves up, and touting their accomplishments just to get noticed. And if you’ve ever received just a bit of praise, then you know how intoxicating pride can be, Shortly after Theodore Roosevelt died one of his children said, "Father always wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral." Even Christians can fall in to this, so this is a message for all of us to hear this morning.
This morning we are going to look at a man named Naaman. Naaman was a man who was a very proud man, like many of us within this church. Now as we look at Naaman’s story this morning, I want us to see some key things about him that would cause him to become prideful, and see how his pride almost cost him everything. So let’s look at this together.
Now the first thing I want you to see here is the Naaman was a man who had a great deal to be proud of. Look at vs. 1: “Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And He was a valiant soldier.”
Naaman could be proud of many things, such as his position in life. He was the commander of a very powerful army. Men took orders from him. Men feared him. Men showed him respect and honor. This was a position other men dreamed of having, and it is something that Naaman could be proud of. He was a very powerful man. He was also a very popular man. He had a good name, he was well respected and trusted even by his king, which was unheard of in those days. Most military leaders were feared by their kings. He was powerful, he was popular, and he was also an accomplished man. He had accomplished a great deal in life. It says that He had won a great number of battles. Naaman was a man any mom would be proud to call son.
And it needs to be said here, that Naaman had a right to be proud of all these things, and he should have been proud. You see, not all pride is sinful pride. If I’m proud that my kid is an honor student, It’s okay to put a bumper sticker on your car saying so. It’s okay to be proud of your grandkids and show pictures to everyone you see. It’s all right to be proud of your job, and tell others where you work at. It’s all right to be proud of things, families, and accomplishments. That’s not sinful.
Pride becomes sinful when it begins to cause a feeling of superiority over other people. Pride is sinful when it begins to inflate who you are and what you have done. We said it’s okay to put a bumper sticker on your car about your kid being an honor student, but if you put one up there saying my kids and honor student and your kid is dumb, that would be wrong! Sinful pride inflates oneself, and everyone else is deflated in the process. Pride is sinful when it causes you to not admit wrong doing, imperfections, and the role others have played in your life.
John Ortberg told a story about a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who pulled into a service station to get gas. He went inside to pay, and when he came out he noticed his wife engaged in a deep discussion with the service station attendant. It turned out that she used to date this man back in High school.
The CEO got in the car, and the two drove in silence. He was feeling pretty good about himself when he finally spoke: "I bet I know what you were thinking. I bet you were thinking you’re glad you married me, a Fortune 500 CEO, and not him, a service station attendant." His wife said, "No, I was thinking if I’d married him, he’d be a Fortune 500 CEO and you’d be a service station attendant."
Now Naaman had won many battles, but notice who had given him the victories. God did, and many of you have a lot to be proud of. We have people who own their own business, who have accomplished careers, who have wonderful gifts and talents that are used within the church, and so much more. You’ve accomplished a great deal in your life, but don’t think that you did it on your own. God warned the Isrealites to be careful that when they went into the promised land and had their bellies full, not to forget that it was God who got them there. And you are where you are today because God helped you to get there. It was God who gave you the abilities to do what you do. Now that doesn’t by no means lesson your accomplishments, but it acknowledges that without God you wouldn’t be where you are today.
Now Naaman had a lot to be proud of, he was a military leader, he was well respected, he had won many battles…but (it says) he had leprosy. Notice how that one but changed everything. All the great accomplishments, all the titles, all the glories no longer matter. All that Naaman could be proud of was cancelled out by this one phrase, “but he had leprosy”. He was a great man…but he had leprosy. Now, leprosy was a terrible skin disease that effected a person’s life in everyway imaginable. It deformed the body, caused a person to be ostracized by others and it was a certain death sentence. Matthew Henry commented that even with all of Naaman’s glory, not even the basest slave in all of Syria would trade skins with him.
Now spiritually speaking, we all have that one but in our life that cancels out all the other good things we have done. The bible says that we all have sinned, that all have fallen short of the glory of God, and no matter how many good works we can obtain, they are all but filthy rags because there remains that one but there, but we all have sinned. And that is why only the humble will see the kingdom of God because only the humble will admit that I have sinned, I have blew it and I need the blood of Christ to cleanse me. If you are one of those who say, “well, sure I’m not perfect but I’m no sinner.” “I go to church, pay my tithes, and volunteer at the red cross, so I’m a good person, not a sinner.” Just like Naaman, no matter how many accomplishments he had in the first part of that sentence, that last phrase canceled them all out, and no matter how many accolades you may have on the other side of you’re but, the other side remains. I’m a good person, but I am a sinner and I need Christ.
Now Naaman’s leprosy was deadly, and it must be dealt with and thanks to the courage and Christ like attitude of a captured Israeli girl, Naaman ended up heading to see the prophet Elisha who had a simple solution to Naaman’s problem. 2 Kings 5:9-10 says, “So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed." It was simple, easy, and really convenient.
But Naaman didn’t like the cure that Elisha had lined out for him. He didn’t like it for a number of reasons. He didn’t like it because of the way it was delivered. Remember that Naaman was an important man, and he brought his whole posse with him, this was a crowd who hung on every word Naaman said, they adored Naaman, and when he comes to call on Elisha, Elisha didn’t even come to the door to meet him. He sent his messenger to say, “Go take a bath in the Jordan 7x.” That pronouncement was practically the same as having the President of the United States go to a country doctor here in Starkville and having the receptionist tell him, "The doctor said take two aspirin and call him in the morning." This was not how Naaman was used to being treated. And when you are used to everybody treating you special, when someone refuses to do so, you get upset and irritated.
Now Naaman didn’t like the cure because it wasn’t the kind of cure he wanted. Look at 2 Kings 5:11, “But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.” Naaman thought that Elisha would act like a Tele-evangelist and put on a big show, you know invite the news crews, have a 20/20 special on his healing and all that. But the cure wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t showy, it was, well simple.
Now some of you are waiting for God to work in your lives in a spectacular way, and you are waiting for the fireworks, the parades and all that, but God doesn’t always work in spectacular ways, maybe God wants to work in your life in ways that may not be so spectacular. And the thing is, God’s ways are not debatable. You don’t get to choose how or when God is going to work in your life. While in the Navy, I had a friend who God was really tugging at his heart, and when I asked him if he wanted to be a Christian, he said, “Yeah, but not right now. I want to wait until I’m older so I can have some fun in Thailand. ” Friends, You don’t get to pick and choose when God works in your life, and by trying to do so you are missing out on what God wants to do in your life now. Let God do it His way.
Now I want you to notice the dangers and the consequences of Naaman’s pride. The first is this: Naaman’s pride caused him to look down on other things. When he was told to go wash in the Jordan river, he responded by saying in vs. 12, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?" Pride tends to exalt one’s self and what one has by putting down everything else. Pride looks at your job and says, my job is better. Pride looks at another and says, “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like this person.” Pride puffs up by trying to put others down. During a bible study a while back I was talking about pride and I illustrated it by saying how if you bought a new car how you would be tempted to look down on someone driving a beat up old Buick with black smoke blowing out its tail pipe, and an old lady spoke up and said, “Well preacher, you ain’t got no reason to be proud, at least that car is paid for!” Don’t look down on anybody. Remember in God’s kingdom, there is no pecking order, no one person is more valuable than the next. In God’s eyes, we are all important.
The second danger is this: Naaman’s pride caused him to be stubborn. If I don’t do it my way, then it’s no way. If Naaman didn’t get healed the way he wanted to be healed, then by golly he wasn’t going to be healed. He was willing to give up his healing, just to keep his pride! Imagine that. But we do it all the time, don’t we?
So often marriages are destroyed, families are broken apart, friendships are lost, all because someone wanted to keep their pride intact. Let me ask you, what are you willing to sacrifice in order to keep your pride intact? Some of you won’t admit wrong, you won’t compromise on petty issues, you won’t admit your need for help all because you want to hold on to your pride. Naaman was going to leave Elisha’s place, and he was going to leave with his pride intact, but there was one problem…he was still a leper. Naaman would leave with his pride but the leprosy still remained.
Some of you may not want to surrender your lives to Christ, because you don’t want to confess that you are a sinner, you don’t want to admit that you can’t save yourself, that you are not good enough, you don’t want to admit that all your education, all your worldly wealth, and all your worldly wisdom doesn’t make you superior to a little child who understands more about the kingdom of God than you, and you will not allow someone else, even if it is God Himself to tell you how to live your life. You want to keep your pride intact but at what cost, at the cost of your eternal soul? Is your pride worth that?
Now fortunately Naaman had people around him who cared enough to talk some sense into him. 2 Kings 5:13, “Naaman’s servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ’Wash and be cleansed’!" And when this powerful and prideful man did what the prophet had told him to do, the amazing thing happened. It says that he dipped 7 times, and on the 7th time his skin became like that of a young boy.
Now the command to dip in the Jordan river was simple, and by all medical accounts it didn’t make a bit of sense, in fact it was almost ridiculous, but here’s the thing, it worked. Many of the commands of God don’t make sense to us, to forgive…to love even to those who hate us, to give so that we may receive, to die to self so that we may live. To humble ourselves so that we may be exalted. These don’t make sense but they work.
When Naaman humbled himself and obeyed God, a miracle took place. Maybe today you are like Naaman, you are proud and you need someone to talk some sense into you. So let me try. Be man enough to admit that you were wrong. Swallow your pride and admit that you need help. And most importantly, humble yourself before God, confess your shortcomings, admit that without Him you are lost, admit that you can’t do it on your own, humble yourself and reach out to Him, so that He may lift you up. And He will!
