Well, good morning. It's good to see you all.
If you have your Bible, you can turn to Second Chronicles 26.
Second Chronicles 26. We are breaking for one week in
our Matthew series. Just want to offer an end of
year reflection and an encouragement, hopefully a help
to us in the coming year. And so we'll be in Second
Chronicles 26 today. Now, before we read God's word
here in a moment, I want us to step into the setting really and
the purpose of this passage. In Second Chronicles 26, we are
given the story of a king. The King's name is Uzziah, King
Uzziah of Judah to be particular.
He's a king whose reign spans many years.
That includes both remarkable success and tragic failure.
If you're familiar with the story of King Uzziah, you may
already know that. But he comes to the throne at a
young age. He comes during the season when
the nation needed stability. The nation needed leadership.
It needed renewal. And under his rule, Judah
experiences military victory. Lots of them.
It experiences economic growth. It experiences national
strength. There's a lot of prosperity in
Judah under Uzziah's reign. But this chapter is not simply a
record of his achievements. It's really a spiritual
biography. The chronicler, the one riding,
is not interested in how powerful Uzziah became, although
that is significant. The rider is interested in why
he prospered and later why he fell.
Now, the text repeatedly draws our attention to Uzziah's
relationship with the Lord. And one of the things you'll see
very clearly is that when you when Uzziah sought the Lord, God
helped him, and when he trusted in himself, he was brought low.
And that is what makes this passage especially fitting for
us as we pause for a moment today to reflect on the year
behind us and prepare to enter into a new one, Lord willing.
So times of growth and stability and success are often moments in
our lives when God's that we see that God's people are most
tempted all right. And they're not tempted to
abandon the Lord outright. They're tempted to slowly shift
from humble dependence to quiet self-reliance.
This passage invites us to give thanks to God for his help, and
invites us to give thanks to God for his help without us taking
any credit for it, and invites us to heed a warning before
pride takes root in our own hearts.
So as we listen, as as you hear the word of the Lord in a
moment, I want you to pay close attention to the turning point
in the passage, the moment when strength gives way to pride and
blessing gives way to discipline.
This is not merely the story of a king long ago.
It is a gracious word from God meant to guard his people as we
step into a new year and into the continued work of the Lord.
So let us hear now the word of the Lord from Second Chronicles
26. I'm going to read verses one
through 23. If you're able to stand, would
you please stand now in honor of the reading of God's Word, verse
one and all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years
old, and made him king instead of his father and Messiah.
He built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king slept
with his father's. Uzziah was 16 years old when he
began to reign, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name was Jacoliah of Jerusalem.
And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to
all that his father and Messiah had done.
He said himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who
instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought
the Lord, God made him prosper. He went out and made war against
the Philistines, and broke through the wall of Gath and the
wall of Jabna and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in
the territory of Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines.
God helped him against the Philistines and against the
Arabians who lived in Gerbil, and against the Mennonites.
The Ammonites pay tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread even
to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong.
Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate and
at the valley gate and at the angle, and fortified them.
And he built towers in the wilderness and cut many
cisterns. For he had large herds both in
the Sheppala and in the plain. And he had farmers and vine
dressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the
soil. Moreover, Uzziah had an army of
soldiers fit for war in divisions according to the
numbers in the muster made by jail, the secretary of Messiah,
the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the King's
commanders. The whole number of the hurt of
the heads of fathers houses, of mighty men of valor was 2600.
Under their command was an army of 307,500 who could make war
with mighty power to help the king against the enemy.
And he's I have prepared for all the army Shields, Spears,
helmets, coats of mail, bows and stones for slinging in
Jerusalem. He made machines invented by
skillful men to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows
and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he
was marvelously helped till he was strong.
But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction, for he
was unfaithful to the Lord, his God, and entered the temple of
the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
But Azariah the priest went in after him with 80 priests of the
Lord who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and
said to him, It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense, the
Lord, but for the priest, the sons of Aaron who are
consecrated to burn incense, go out of the sanctuary, for you
have done wrong and it will bring you no honour from the
Lord God. Then Uzziah was angry, Now he
had a censer in his hand to burn incense.
And when he became angry with the priest, leprosy broke out on
his forehead in the presence of the priest in the House of the
Lord, by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest,
and the priest, and all the priests looked at him, and
behold, he was leprous in his forehead.
And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go
out, because the Lord had struck him.
And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being
a leopard, lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from
the House of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the
King's household, governing the people of the land.
Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last,
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, Amos roots.
And Uzziah slept with his father's, and they buried him
with his father's in the burial field that belonged to the
kings, for they said he is a leper.
And Jotham his son reigned in his place.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word. And God, we come before it this
morning humbled by the fact that you have spoken to us, that you
have revealed yourself through your Word.
Father, what a gracious, kind, loving thing you have done to
give us the written word. And so, Lord, we hold it in high
regard this morning when we ask Father, that You would use your
word to instruct our hearts and our minds and our hands today,
that You would help us to be faithful men and women, faithful
boys and girls, to Christ. Our Lord, your Son, the one who
came to to earth, gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins on
the cross. I was buried but raised on the
third day. And so, Lord, we gather this
Lord's day to read your word, to hear it, to believe it.
And we ask Father that you would instruct us by it.
It's in the name of Christ, I pray.
Amen. Command.
You may be seated. So this passage lays out for us
a mighty man of God in one sense, right?
I mean, it's pretty incredible to think of Uzziah's
accomplishments and all that the Lord brought his hand to do, but
it's also sobering. You can almost feel the air come
out of the room as we read verse 16.
You just see that Uzziah became strong in his own eyes.
Essentially, he began to trust only in himself.
And it's meant to be sobering. The Lord has put this in Second
Chronicles 26. For you and I to be sober
minded, all right? For you and I to be helped in
our journey with the Lord. So it's sobering because what we
have just read is not the story of a wicked king who failed
early all. Right.
It's a story of a godly king who succeeded greatly and then
slowly loses his way, right? And that, that's what should
make us listen carefully. That's what should perk up our
ears and our minds as we hear the word of the Lord this
morning. His eyes downfall did not come
during the season of hardship. He was prosperous, right?
Didn't come during the period of opposition.
He had defeated many of God's enemies.
It didn't even come in a period of decline.
The the Kingdom was thriving. It came after years of blessing
and stability and strength. In other words, you might think
about this text in this way. This text is not written
primarily for people who are in crisis.
Many of us are. Many of us have been.
Many of us will be in a crisis. But this text is not written
primarily for people who are currently in a crisis.
It's written for people who have been helped by God, people who
find themselves in a prosperous place, right?
And that's why this passage is especially important for us
right now as we come to the close of another year.
Many of us can rightly say that the Lord has been kind to us.
All right? I can look back across the last
year, and I cannot at all say that the Lord has not been kind
to me. He's not been kind to my family
or kind to you and your families are kind of this church, right?
He's sustained us in difficulties and suffering and
turmoil trials. He's provided for us, right?
We're all here clothed today. I assume you were able to eat.
I assume you slept under a roof last night, right?
He's provided for us and he's protected us, right?
He's he's guarded us from the schemes of the enemy and he
strengthened us not only a number, but in maturity.
He's he's grown us up right. He's matured our faith and our
love. The scripture warns us that
seasons of blessing carry their own spiritual dangers, but they
carry their own issues. Success can quietly breed
self-reliance. Strength can slowly turn into
pride if we're not careful. Yuzai's life teaches us the
truth that we must not forget as we step into a new year.
So if you're taking notes, this will be in your worship guide
there. Strength comes from humble
dependence, Ruin comes from proud independence.
Strength comes from humble dependence, while ruin comes
from proud independence. We'll give you a second to write
that. This chapter reveals this truth
to us across 3 movements. First, we're going to see how
God graciously built and strengthened Uzziah as He sought
the Lord. Second, we will see how pride
corrupted and strength brought swift and severe discipline.
And then finally, we're going to consider how God calls His
people to remain faithful not through self-confidence, but
through humble dependence upon Him expressed in the ordinary
means of grace. This is not a sermon that's
meant to rob you of gratitude today.
I don't want to deflate your joyous bubbles this morning as
you come on the heels of Christmas and booking for the
door of the next year. That's not meant to rob us of
gratitude at all. It's meant to guard gratitude.
It's been to strengthen us in it.
It's not meant to make us fearful.
I don't want you to leave today being afraid.
I want you to leave today with a desire to be faithful, to
continue to walk faithful with God.
This text is not simply meant to help us finish a year well.
It's meant to help us step into the next year with wisdom, with
strength, all. Right.
We need to understand, or to be able to understand, both the
strength Uzzi enjoyed and the ruin he later experienced.
We need to begin where the text begins.
It doesn't begin with his failure.
It begins with God's grace all. Right.
Before we see how pride corrupts Uzziah's strength, we must first
see how the Lord graciously built Uzziah's strength.
So let's look first at how God graciously builds those who seek
Him. Right.
Point #1 God graciously builds those who seek Him.
We see this in verses one through 15.
Just due to the nature of the length of the text.
I'll reference the text as we go rather than rereading it.
OK, but before we ever read of Uzziah's pride, the the writer
here is careful to show us something else.
Uzziah's strength begin with humble dependence upon the Lord.
It was humbly dependent upon God.
His story does not begin with ambition.
Lots of 16 year olds have a lot of ambition, Right, but doesn't
begin with his ambition. It doesn't even begin with his
innovation. We don't read about that till
later in the passage. It doesn't begin with personal
brilliance. We're not told that the 16 year
old is some sort of sage. What it begins with is Uzziah
seeking God, seeking the Lord. We're told the king, Uzziah
became king at just 16 years old.
Now, that detail matters not just because it seems young to
us, but it matters because Addison at such a young age,
Uzziah would have been acutely aware of his need for counsel
and guidance and help all. Right.
But the text makes clear that he did not rule alone or
autonomously. He was not seeking his own
strength in his rule. Right.
Verse 5 tells us that he set himself to seek God in the days
of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God.
He set himself to seek God, and Zechariah instructed him in the
fear of God. Uzziah's early reign was marked
by teachability. He's humble, seeking the Lord.
Uzziah's early reign is marked by submission.
Submission to God, submission to Zechariah, likely submission to
other counsellors, and it's marked by spiritual dependence.
He set himself to seek the Lord. He's spiritually dependent upon
God. The writer then gives us one of
the most important summary statements in the chapter.
I would say that it's one of the most important theological
statements in the Old Testament, at least in the historical
books. And that's this.
In verse 5, it says as long as he sought the Lord, God made him
prosper. As long as he sought the Lord,
God made him prosper. You may underline that in your
Bibles or write it in your notes.
As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that's not a
sentence of automatic ease. Seeking the Lord is not a life
of ease. Amen. 2 of you agree.
Surely your lives have been more difficult than that as you
follow the Lord. It's not a life of automatic
ease. Seeking the Lord is not a
formula for personal success. Even there are many Saints, old,
current, future. We would look at their lives and
we would not say that's a life of success.
They die brutal deaths. They're impoverished.
Sick. All right, I mean there's.
There's a lot about them, many sites that we would say it's not
necessarily a guarantee of personal success.
The statement as long as he sought the Lord, God made him
prosper. That's a statement of covenant
reality. It's a statement of God's
covenant with his people. It's a statement of God's
faithfulness to his covenants when his people are faithful to
him. God delights to strengthen those
who walk in humble reliance upon him.
He delights to do this. Matthew Henry observes, He says
those that have God for them need not fear who can be against
them, but God will be sought by those that expect help from him.
Amen. God will be sought by those that
expect help from Him. We should notice carefully how
the text attributes Uzziah's achievements.
I don't want you to miss this, but the chronicler repeatedly
emphasizes God's agency or God's sovereignty in this.
In verse 7, we see that God helped him against the
Philistines, and verse 7 and 8 we see that God gave him fame
and victory. In verses 9 through 10, we see
that God enabled him to build cities, towers, infrastructure.
In verses 11 through 15, we see that God gave him an organized,
disciplined army. You see God's sovereignty at
work. You see God's work in Usiah's
life. It's not Uzziah's work, right?
Uzziah's strength was real, yes. His success was visible, yes.
His Kingdom was stable, yes. But the text never allows us to
say that it was self produced. We can't look at Uzziah and say
Uzziah did that. We say God did that.
God worked in Uzziah's life. Everything that we see flows
from God's gracious help to him. Now, this is a crucial
theological point. Prosperity is not entitlement,
it is stewardship. Prosperity is stewardship.
God's blessing is not given so that his people might admire
themselves to look into the mirror and to examine their
muscles and all that they've done all right and to say, look
how great I am. God's blessing is not given so
that people admire themselves. No, God's blessing is given so
that they might continue to rely upon him.
So prosperity is stewardship, not entitlement.
John Calvin captures as well when he warns nothing is more
difficult than to preserve moderation when prosperity
smiles upon us. Nothing is more difficult than
to preserve moderation when prosperity smiles upon us.
The danger is not strength itself.
I don't want you to hear this as a sermon against strength.
The danger is forgetting where the strength comes from, right?
I want you to be strong. God wants you to be strong.
God means for the weak to be strong in His marvelous grace.
He means for us to understand that His grace is sufficient for
every need, for every moment, right?
He wants you to be strong in Him, strong in Christ.
And that text that brings this text very close to home for us
as we look back over the past year, as you examine your life,
you examine your family, as you examine the life of this church
over the last year, many of us can testify honestly and
thankfully that the Lord has helped us.
He's been good, He's been kind, He's shown us his favor.
He has sustained us through difficulties.
He's preserved unity in the body.
He's granted growth, He's provided materially, and He's
borne spiritual fruits among us. We don't want to minimize that.
In fact, this passage invites us to consider those things, to
name the blessings, to be mindful of all that God has
done, and to give God the full credit for those things.
But it also reminds us why those blessings came.
It's not because we were clever. Right.
You don't have clever elders. You don't have clever deacons or
other leaders in the church. It's not because we were strong.
It's not because we've been sufficient in ourselves.
It's because by God's grace, we have sought the Lord.
We have set ourselves to seek after God.
The apostle Paul later says, by the grace of God, I am what I
am. And all of us can look in our
lives and we can say that by God's grace I am what I am.
By God's grace, we are what we are.
So this first section of Yuzai's life teaches us how to reflect
on the past year rightly and how to approach the next one wisely.
Gratitude without humility leads to pride.
Gratitude with humility leads to continued dependence.
We want to give thanks to God. We want to be grateful to God.
You understand the two God addition to those sentences is
an addition of dependence, right?
The question before us is not merely has God helped us?
The answer to that is really clear.
The deeper question is, will we continue to seek God in the
prosperity that He's provided in the life that He's given us?
The practices that Mark use, eyes, early reign, submission to
God's Word, godly instruction, reverence for the Lord, those
things are the very practices that God uses to preserve his
people today. And that's where we'll end up in
the sermon, Bible, prayer, fellowship of the Saints.
These things are not signs of weakness.
They're confessions of dependence.
They're how we say week after week, year after year.
Lord, unless you help us, we cannot stand.
You might compare this to a young Craftsman.
He's apprenticed under a master early on.
He listens closely, He follows instructions carefully, and so
he grows steadily. His skill increases, but only so
long as he remains under guidance.
The moment he assumes mastery without submission, the mistakes
begin to multiply. Growth.
Hear me now. Growth without dependence
becomes dangerous. So it was with Uzziah, and so it
can be with us. Uzziah strength was not the
problem, Forgetting the source of his strength was the problem.
For strength comes from humble dependence, while ruin comes
from proud independence. But the very strength that God
graciously gave to Uzziah became the context for his greatest
danger, right? The same success that flowed
from humble defend dependence slowly created the conditions
for proud independence. And so the story takes a tragic
turn now to understand the warning this passage gives us.
We must now see how pride corrupted God-given strength and
provoked the Lord's discipline. And so point #2 pride corrupts
strength and provokes God's discipline.
Pride corrupts strength and provokes God's discipline.
Just read verse 16 again. But when he was strong, he grew
proud to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the
Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn
incense on the altar of incense. But the tragedy of Uzziah's life
is introduced to one of the most chilling sentences in all of
Scripture. But he was strong.
But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction.
When you just let that sit for a moment.
But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction.
I want you to notice very carefully what the text does and
does not say. It does not say that Uzziah fell
because he was weak. It does not say he fell because
of external pressure or political failure or moral
collapse in private life. Now.
It says he fell because he was strong.
Now strength itself is not the sin, but strength became the
occasion for pride, which is sin.
It says he fell because he was strong, right?
The word translated grew proud there that he grew proud.
It carries the sense of being lifted up, swollen, inflated,
right. Uzziah's heart rose higher than
his calling. He began to assume that success
in one area entitled him to authority in every area.
Nothing was off limits for Uzziah.
And so he commits this deliberate act of presumption.
He enters the temple to burn incense.
Now this is a result, a role that God had reserved
exclusively for the priest. This is not a small mistake.
This is not a lapse of judgements.
This is not just a moment of confusion.
The law of God was clear that the boundaries are well
established. And remarkably, Uzziah is
confronted by faithful priests who courageously tell him the
truth in verse 18. It is not for you, you desire to
burn incense to the Lord, but for the priest.
And then later they say, go out of the sanctuary, for you have
done wrong. And then we get the moment where
pride fully reveals itself. It's not merely in his action,
but in the response to correction.
Verse 19 tells us that Uriah Uzziah became angry.
Why was he angry? Correction, Correction.
You see, pride always resents restraint.
You think about the first sin. Serpent appears, comes to the
woman, tempts her to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil, which I've been told commanded by God not
to eat from. Did God really say you can't do
this? Did God really say you would
die? You're not going to die.
You're going to be like God. God doesn't want you to be like
him. He's the fun police.
He's keeping you from something that's going to be amazing.
And so Eve looks at the tree and sees the fruit that is
desirable, good to eat, and she takes from it pride.
It's the very first sin. It's the sin at the bottom of
all of our sins. Pride hates restraint.
Pride does not want to be told. You can't do that.
You think about the struggles of your own heart with sin, with
temptation, right? Something appears to you good,
it looks lovely. God really say you can't.
One of my favorite ways that I find myself being tempted is to
presume upon the grace of God. Seems that Satan is really keen
to remind me, if you sin, God will forgive you.
Which answers Paul's question in Romans 6.
Did we go on sinning so that grace may may abound?
By no means. Pride resents restraints.
It always bristles at rebuke. It always assumes it deserves
exceptions. That's a rule for thee and not
for me, right? John Calvin observes this.
He says ambition and pride are so closely allied that when 1
takes roots, the other soon follows.
Uzziah just simply could not accept the limits, not even
God's limits, not even the ones he had laid down in his law.
And so comes one of the most sobering scenes in the Old
Testament. As you know, as Uzziah stands
enraged in the temple, angry at these priests for standing up to
him, leprosy breaks out on his forehead.
That's interesting because the forehead is the very place where
the high priest would wear the symbol of holiness.
God's judgement is immediate. It's visible, and it's
unmistakable, right? The punishment fits the sin.
Uzziah sought unauthorized access to God's presence, and so
he was banished from it. He exalted himself, and so God
publicly humbled him. He grasped at priestly privilege
and is rendered ceremonially unclean.
And from that day forward, Uzziah lives in isolation.
He's cut off from the temple, he's removed from public life,
and he dies alone. The king who once built cities
is now separated from them. The The man who once enjoyed
God's help now bears the mark of God's discipline.
Matthew Henry writes with sobering clarity when he says
pride was at the bottom of his sin, and God would thus let him
know how hateful pride is to him.
Brothers and sisters, this is where the warning has to press
upon us. That's not a harsh warning
necessarily. It's a loving warning.
It's as a father to his child. Don't touch that hot stove.
Don't put your finger in the socket.
Don't run out into the street. All right.
This passage teaches us that pride rarely announces itself
loudly. Now you can recognize a prideful
person. You can see a prideful person.
Usually they're loud. You just look at any wide
receiver in the NFL, you have to be prideful to play the
position. I think all right, you have to
have some amount of arrogance and cockiness to succeed.
So we can recognize it often in others.
But if you examine your heart with wisdom, I think you'll see
that pride rarely announces itself loudly.
It rarely begins with you thinking you're the goat, right?
It often grows quietly in seasons of blessing.
It'll whisper things like we're doing well, we've got this
figured out, we don't need help like we used to.
You can't miss this. Pride doesn't always look like
rebellion. Sometimes it looks like
confidence without prayer. Sometimes it looks like good
works without dependence. Sometimes it looks like a
leadership without listening. And here's the dangers.
We head into a new year. We're often most vulnerable.
Not when we are struggling, but when we are stable.
Not not when we're desperate, but when we're strong.
That's when we're vulnerable. So God's discipline in this
passage is not petty at all. It's purposeful.
Scripture reminds us elsewhere that the Lord disciplines the
one he loves. It is disciplined is to is meant
to arrest pride before it destroys us completely.
But discipline is still painful. It's no less a grace of the
Lord, it's just painful. And the text here is urging us
to learn the lesson without having to walk the same path.
Learn the lesson without having to walk the path.
You see, pride is ultimately a form of unbelief.
Pride assumes that we can manage God's gifts without God Himself,
right? It attempts to enjoy the
benefits of grace while quietly sidelining the giver of grace.
RC Sparrow once noted this. He said the essence of sin is
playing God, and that's exactly what Uzziah does.
He steps into a role that God never gave him.
God is not threatened by your weakness.
Brothers and sisters, I want you to hear that very clearly
because I think it's important for you to understand that God
loves to take the weak things of the world and confound the
strong. God is not threatened by your
weakness. He's not threatened by a man who
says, Lord, I have no idea how to lead my wife, can you help
me? I have no idea how to raise my
children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, can you
help me? He's not threatened by a wife
who says, I have no idea how to submit to my husband, can you
help me? I have no idea how to raise my
children hand in hand with my husband in a way that would
honor you. Can you help me?
I can go on and on. I have no idea how to read your
word. Can you help me understand your
word? I have no idea how to pray.
Can you help me know how to pray?
Right again, You can go on and on and on and on.
God is not threatened by your weakness.
He comes swiftly to your aid when you confess your weakness.
So we can't say he's threatened by weakness.
No. But he will oppose our pride.
He will oppose our pride. And so we're reminded again that
strength comes from humble dependence, while ruin comes
from proud independence. Uzziah's story ends in tragedy,
just plain and simple. But.
But it's recorded for our instruction, not for our
imitation. He's not the last half.
God does not give us this warning to leave us fearful.
He gives us this warning to keep us faithful.
Having seen how pride corrupts strength, we now need to
consider how God calls His people to live wisely and
dependently so that His grace might continue to sustain us.
That's point #3 faithfulness is preserved through humble
dependence on God's means. Faithfulness is preserved
through humble dependence on God's means.
Messiah's story ends quietly and tragically.
After this dramatic moment of judgement, the text tells us
that he lived the rest of his days separated.
It's cut off from the House of the Lord.
He's removed from public worship.
He's isolated from the life of God's people.
And then he dies. Scripture gives us one final,
sobering footnote to Isaiah's life.
All right, to Uzziah's life. Sorry.
It's in Isaiah 6. One, in Isaiah 61, the prophet
tells us that it was in the year that King Uzziah died that he
saw the glory of the Lord high and lifted up, holy and
glorious. And what this shows us is that
even when human strength collapses, God remains
enthroned. His glory does not diminish
because His people fail. His purposes do not fail.
And we see that his people are preserved not by kings, not by
their successes, not by momentum, not by some other
thing you think is preserving you.
No, you're preserved by the grace of God, by the one who
sits enthroned high and holy and glorious above all.
God preserves his people through humble dependence expressed in
the ordinary means. It's not in dramatic moments.
I'm not saying there won't be dramatic moments, but that's not
where preservation takes place. It's not a heroic self effort as
if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you say, I've got
this right, you just kind of will yourself to accomplish
something great. No, you're preserved through
steady spirit, empowered practices that continually
reorient your heart towards God. That's how you're preserved.
That's how the Lord keeps his people.
One of the ways I want to show you that God does this.
Number one, God keeps us humble through his word.
God keeps us humble through His word.
I failed you. I don't have these on the
screen. If you want to write them down,
feel free to do so. God keeps us humble through His
Word. Uzziah's early years were marked
by instruction in the fear of the Lord.
He prospered as long as he sought the Lord.
We read and seeking the Lord has always begun with listening to
His Word. Always there are scriptures,
these beautiful Bibles we hold. They remind us who God is and
who we are. They remind us that he is high
and holy, that he is infinite, and that we are none of those
things. We are desperately dependent
upon God for everything. Everything.
The scriptures confront our pride.
They expose self deception in US.
They anchor us in truth. You may write in your notes
Second Timothy 316 through 17, all scriptures breathed out by
God that is profitable for correction and teaching, for
reproof, for training and godliness, so that the man of
God may be equipped for every good work.
If we're left to ourselves, we tend to remember our successes
and forget our dependence. It's easy, so easy to get caught
up in the whirlwind of daily life, just living life, and to
get caught up in your successes and to look and to be grateful
for how good things are. You know, they're not the best,
but they're good, all right? Or you have some moment of
blessing that you're able to rejoice in.
It's easy to get caught up in those though, and forget your
dependents, to forget those simple words that Christ prayed,
teaching us to pray. Give us this day, Our Daily
Bread. We're dependent upon you, Your
Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
That's a declaration of not my Kingdom, not my will, yours, O
Lord. But the Word of God interrupts
that drift that we find ourselves in, drifting away from
faithfulness into pride. And if you make reading God's
Word at Daily Habits, you'll find that it interrupts that
drift. It keeps you, sustains you, it
preserves your life. Psalm 16 You have made known to
me the path of life, and at your right hand are pleasures
forevermore. Psalm 119 I've hidden your word
in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Your word is like sweet honey to my lips.
John Calvin famously said that the Word is like a mirror in
which we see both God's glory and our own need.
Regular Bible intake is not merely about information,
brothers and sisters. There's a lot to know.
There's a lot to learn. It's not merely about
information. It's about orientation.
It's about orienting your life around the center of the
universe. It's about submitting yourself
to the Lord on high, day after day after day.
It keeps you grounded in reality.
It keeps you from thinking more of yourself than you ought to.
It helps you give an honest evaluation of your life.
And so as we head into a new year, the question is not
whether we will be busy. A lot of conversations in our
family about how busy we have been this year.
I suspect that won't change a whole lot in the year to go.
Busy's not the enemy as long as busy is busy doing good right
things. So the question isn't how busy
will we be, but whether we will be anchored.
Will I be tethered to the Lord? Will He be an anchor for my
soul? Bible reading?
Hearing the word preached, meditating on scripture, these
are not optional add-ons to the Christian life.
I hope you hear that clearly. They are how God keeps our
hearts low and our eyes lifted to the right things.
The second thing I want you to know is God keeps us dependent
through prayer. God keeps us dependent through
prayer. God keeps us anchored through
His word. God keeps us dependent through
prayer. If the Word reminds us of what
is true, then prayer trains us to live as if it is true.
Prayer is the daily confession that we are not sufficient in
ourselves. It's how we say again and again,
Lord, unless you help me, I cannot stand.
I want you to know pride Withers where prayer flourishes, and it
does so because prayer keeps us aware of our need.
See this a lot just in counseling people.
All right, It's, it's not really amazing.
It's it makes a lot of sense. How many people will come for
counseling, Real problems, real issues going on, real things to
talk through, Right. And when you talk about prayer,
you know, if it's a marital thing, do you guys pray
together? You pray for one another.
When was the last time you prayed for one another?
Do you pray for your problems? Do you seek the Lord?
It's amazing how frequently people aren't praying.
We, we don't pray as if our life depends on it, and our lives
really do depend on it, because our lives depend on being
dependent, right? We cannot be independent
Christians. We must be dependent upon the
Lord. So it's amazing how many
problems can be solved just through prayer, seeking the
Lord's face, recalling His word back to him, asking the Lord for
help, praising God for the blessings He's given you,
recounting the gospel in your prayers.
Lord, how could you save a Wretch like me?
Oh, how gracious you are. It's amazing how the problems of
the day to begin to wither or begin to get solved just simply
through prayer and the orienting of our hearts toward God.
Uzziah stopped asking. He started assuming things, and
that shift from dependence to presumption was deadly for him.
RC Sparles said this. I thought it was great.
He said that prayer is the ultimate expression.
Prayer is the ultimate expression of creatureliness.
It's the ultimate expression that you are the Creator and I
am a creature God. It keeps us in our place, which
is not to mean beneath God in terror.
No, it's to be before him in trust.
Keeps us in our place before the Lord in trust.
A prayerless life is not a neutral life.
It's a quiet Declaration of Independence.
God, I have this figured out. God, I can do this.
I can handle this. Those are the kind of things
we're saying when we're not dependent upon God in prayer.
And so as we move into a new year, prayer does not need to be
impressive to be faithful. I do want you to understand
that. You may say, well, I just don't.
I don't pray like those people pray at church.
So what? Most people didn't pray like
that when they first started praying either.
But prayer needs to be regular. Regular morning prayers that
say, Lord, help me today. Evening prayers that say, Lord,
thank you for sustaining me today.
Corporate prayers that remind us we stand together in need of
God's grace. Faithful prayers, regular
prayers, not impressive prayers #3 God keeps us faithful through
the fellowship of the Saints. God keeps us faithful through
the fellowship of the Saints. God keeps us anchored by His
word. God keeps us dependent through
prayer #3 God keeps us faithful through the fellowship of the
Saints. You see, one of the most tragic
aspects of Uzziah's judgment is his isolation.
He ends his life cut off not only from the temple, but from
the people. All right, fellowship is one of
God's chief safeguards against pride.
When we're in community with other believers, they can see
what we cannot see in ourselves, right?
They they encourage us when we are weary.
They correct us when we begin to drift.
But pride, it thrives in isolation, while humility will
grow in community. Hebrews, The book of Hebrews
tells us that God uses exhortation, daily mutual
exhortation, to keep our hearts from being hardened by sin.
What that means is that regular worship, meaningful
relationships, shared life in the body of Christ, these things
are not luxuries. They are a means by which God
uses to preserve us. You see, faithful is not
sustained alone. You need the community of the
Saints around you. And so I exhort you that as we
step into a new year, God is not calling us to fear success or to
shrink back from responsibilities.
He's calling us to remain dependent, dependent, faithful.
He's calling us to keep seeking Him in the same ways that He's
promised to bless us. You see, the path forward is not
complicated, but it does demand consistency.
It demands faithfulness. You sit under the Word, private
readings, corporate worship. You speak to the Lord in prayer
privately with your family, with the body of Christ.
You walk closely with God's people.
These are not impressive disciplines.
Nobody looks at that and says, man, this is mind blowing.
Well, this is the way God has sustained his people from the
beginning of time. That they they are powerful
disciplines because God has promised to work through them.
That's why we call them a means of grace.
You may think of Bible reading, prayer, fellowship of the Saints
as the conduit that God uses to turn the faucets of his grace
and blessing on and to pour it into your lives.
It's conduits. They're tools that helps you.
But you know, what's beautiful about this is I don't stand here
this morning and say this as a theory.
We don't have to theorize about this.
We, we say it as a testimony together.
We, we could testify to the Lord's goodness through the
means of grace for employing those.
But because we've seen it to be true among us, I've seen it in
your life, I've seen it in my own life, I've seen it in my
family's lives. As we look back over this last
year, what if you consider not even the last year?
What if you consider the last 11 years?
You can trace the unmistakable hand of God at work through
these very means. I was like in a conversation
with a dear brother the other day who was talking about a
brother of his who is a pastor and he's young.
And I was telling him I was praising this young pastor
because I think he's committed to one of the most important
things, which is just the exposition of God's Word.
And I remember being young and stupid, very stupid and, and
ignorance and all sorts of other ugly words that my wife doesn't
like me to use about myself. But they're, they're accurate.
Lots of mistakes. But eleven years ago we
committed to just preach expositionally through the
Scriptures just to say what God's Word says, to read it, to
explain it to the people and to exhort them to believe it and
live it. You know what's beautiful about
that? I can't look at that and say,
look how great Kyle's been. Oh no, no, no.
Look how faithful God is to his word.
Look how amazing God is. I already told you I was stupid.
I was too dumb to have that idea.
That's just the grace of the Lord through the Spirit leading.
That's all it was. And so we can trace his hand at
work among us. We've not relied on novelty or
being spectacular. We've not tried to make the
church a spectacle in any way. We haven't traced trends or
shortcuts. By God's grace, we've committed
ourselves to the ordinary, steady practices of the
Christian life, the faithful preaching and hearing of God's
Word, prayer together and in our homes, life shared in the
fellowship of the Saints. That's it.
Those things drive what we do here.
And God has been kind. Ioffer this as a reflection of
Thanksgiving. He's been so kind.
He has preserved us through trials that should have undone
us. He's grown us, not just in
maturity and not just a number. He's grown us up.
He's sustained the unity of our church.
He's borne fruit among us. This place is full of children.
Praise God. He's raised up leaders.
He's strengthened families. I believe that.
God has anchored generations. I believe that.
And none of this has happened overnight.
And let me be very, very clear, in case I haven't yet been, none
of it can be credited to us. Amen.
It's the quiet, cumulative work of God, honoring humble
dependence over time. That's all it is.
This guy named Eugene Peterson, he famously called the the life
of discipleship, a long obedience in the same direction,
just a long obedience in the same direction, faithfulness
that does not look dramatic in the moments, but it proves
glorious in the long run. And that raises a question, a
question that's worth lingering, worth lingering over as we step
into the future. What might God do in the coming
decades if we simply continue patiently, prayerfully, humbly
along the same? Path.
What might God do? What might this church look like
20 years, 30 years, 50 years, 100 years from now, after many
of us are long, long, long gone? What might it look like if we
remain anchored in the Word, dependent in prayer, and
committed to one another in love?
What might the lives of our children look like if they grew
up seeing Christianity not as a phase or as a performance, but
as a steady, joyful life of trust in the Lord?
What might their lives look like?
What kind of legacy might be handed down to our children, our
children and grandchildren and great grandchildren?
Not merely memories of a church, but memories of a living example
of faithfulness before God. You see, Scripture reminds us
that God is glorified not only in dramatic conversions and
decisive moments, but he's glorified and enduring
faithfulness and people who finish well, who remain
dependent, who refuse to drift into pride or self-reliance.
And so as we move into the new year, the call before us is not
to reinvent ourselves. Do your diet, commit to working
out all those things you do every year.
But listen to me. The call from God is not to
reinvent yourself. The call from God is to remain
dependent. It's to remain faithful.
It's to keep seeking the Lord. It's to keep walking humbly.
It's to keep trusting that the God who has helped us thus far
will continue to help us steal. Why?
Why do all that? Well, because a legacy of
faithfulness under God is one of the most God glorifying gifts we
can ever leave behind. We do not remain faithful by
guarding our own strength. We remain faithful by guarding
our dependence on God. For strength comes from humble
dependence. Ruin comes from proud
independence. And if that's the kind of legacy
we're going to leave, if we desire not merely to look back
with gratitude but to look forward with hope, then the path
before us is clear. You don't need a new foundation
unless you're an unbeliever, You're a believer.
You don't need a new foundation. You don't need a different
gospel. We don't need to become
something other than what God has already called us to be.
The call before us is simpler and far more demanding in its
perseverance. It's to continue seeking the
Lord with humble dependence. That's the call in Uzziah's life
reminds us that strength is not the enemy, but forgetting the
source of our strength is the enemy.
His story warns us of the danger of beginning well and drifting
later, but it also presses upon us the opportunity that is
before us, which is to walk faithfully, steadily, and humbly
before the Lord, not for a season, but for a lifetime.
So the question that remains is not merely what God has done
among us, but how will we respond to His kindness?
Will we guard our hearts against pride when we recommit ourselves
to the ordinary means by which God preserves His people, when
we resolve by His grace to continue in a long obedience in
the same direction? You see, this passage leaves us
with a sober warning and a gracious invitation.
Uzziah's life reminds us that it is possible to begin well, to be
helped by God, to experience his real blessings, and yet to drift
into ruin. If humble dependence gives way
to proud independence, Uzziah's story stands as a caution not
only against open rebellion but against quiet self-reliance, and
it presses upon us a truth that we must carry into the days
ahead. Strength comes from humble
dependence, and ruin comes from proud independence.
So what does faithful faithfulness look like for us
now? Well, again, it does not mean
that you should live in fear of success.
It does not mean that you should shrink back from your
responsibilities. That means living an anchored
life, a faithful life, anchored in the Word of God, dependent in
prayer, committed to the fellowship of the Saints.
These are the means that God has appointed to keep his people low
before him and strong in him. They're how God preserves us
from pride and sustains us in faithfulness.
And so, as you step into a new year, will you resolve, not in
your own strength, but by God's grace, to continue seeking the
Lord, to sit gladly under His Word, to speak to Him daily in
prayer, to walk closely with one another, and love and
accountability? Let us not assume that
tomorrow's faithfulness will take care of itself.
It will not. It will not.
Let us pursue faithfulness deliberately, humbly, joyfully.
Listen. If you're not a believer, if you
hear this warning and you feel the weight of it, I want you to
hear this clearly. The gospel.
Regardless of what our culture says, the gospel does not begin
with what you must do for God. The gospel begins with what God
has done for sinners in Jesus Christ.
Where Uzziah felled in pride, Christ walked in perfect
humility. Uzziah reached unlawfully into
God's presence. God opened the way for sinners
to draw near by His own obedient life.
He opened the way through his life, through his atoning death,
and through His victorious resurrection.
He bore the judgement of sinners so that sinners might receive
mercy. He was cast out so that we might
be brought near. So again, if you're an
unbeliever, hear me today. The call of the gospel is not to
clean yourself up and prove your worth.
The call of the gospel is to repent.
It's to turn from self-reliance and trust holy in Jesus Christ.
It's to lay down your own pride and to receive His grace.
Please hear me one more time. If you will humble yourself
today and come to Christ, He will not turn you away.
And for the rest of us who are believers, let us remember God
has been faithful to us. He's helped us, and the same God
who has sustained us thus far will continue to do so as we
walk humbly before him. So may we not merely finish this
year with gratitude. Let's begin the next with
resolve. May we guard our hearts, May we
pursue faithfulness, May we commit ourselves anew to a long
obedience in the same direction, all because we understand the
strength comes from humble dependence and ruin comes from
proud independence. We pray with me.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you, Lord, for the ways that it presses against us, that
it confronts us, especially today as it confronts our pride.
Father, I ask that you would reveal to us any of those dark
ways that we are becoming or have become self reliant, where
we're seeking, maybe even unbeknownst to us, to live a
life of independence apart from You.
Thank God, would you reveal it and would you kill it by Your
Spirit so that we might be faithful Christians, men and
women and boys and girls who faithfully love you with all our
heart, soul, mind and strength? God, would you help us as a
church and as individuals be the kind of people who are committed
to your Word, who are anchored to it.
Help us to be the kind of people who are dependent in prayer, and
help us to be the kind of people who love those around us.
Would you unify us as the body of Christ?
Would you strengthen us in the days ahead?
And God, would you protect us from self-reliance and help us
to remain dependent believers in all that we do?
We do believe, Father, that this is how we will most glorify You
as a church, and so we ask that you would help us to be faithful
to it. Father, I pray for anyone here
who doesn't know you as their Lord, as we've made this call
and this appeal to the gospel, as we've called sinners to
repent this morning. Father, would you grant them
repentance and faith today? Would you draw them to yourself
and let nothing, nothing hinder them from coming to you?
Would you give them a new life in Christ?
Holy Father, we praise you and we thank you for your great love
toward us. I'm going to give you a moment
now to reflect on the message, to reflect on God's Word, to
seek the Lord how you see fit, how you're being LED.
Respond to Him in prayer this morning.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace and your mercy.
We thank you that you are steadfast in love, that you are
always faithful, and that you're good to every generation.
It's our joy to serve you. Amen.