The Problem of Pride
Today, we looked at King Hezekiah and his problem of pride - we saw that according to the world, pride is good thing, but according to the Word, it's not.
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good morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor if you're not new you remember that last week we had ice cream and that was fun we're fun here so if you don't know there's a cafe upstairs the whole second floor of this building is a cafe it's really cool there are game areas and all kinds of neat things it's not really churchy up there we serve really good coffee if you had a cup of coffee when you came in it was good it's good coffee someone came up to me once and they said this is nothing like church coffee so apparently there's such a thing as church coffee and it's not good the coffee here is very good so we serve that in that cafe check it out you can actually purchase an espresso be careful you'll be awake for about three days approximately if you have one of those they're very very strong on sundays we serve food and it's much more than a potluck it's good food we serve good food up there so after the service let's fellowship break some bread together now on the topic of the ice cream we had some times of confession about the ice cream a lot of people like it maybe a little too much but i heard a story about a couple they liked ice cream there was an issue they were getting older and their memories were not as good anymore so they went to the doctor see what they could do about it maybe get some ginkgo biloba no that's over the counter if you know what that is you're a nerd but or doctor or something like that so they asked the doctor what do we do we're forgetting stuff left and right well you know i don't think it's time for the medication just yet write things down if you think you might forget write it down so you don't forget it okay there's your prescription go back home so they went back home and the wife asked for ice cream i'd like some ice cream husband's not picking it up doesn't say anything she's like you know i really like some ice cream do you want me to get you ice cream right finally picks it up fine i'll get it for you what do you want what flavor vanilla she says how many scoops how much do you want two scoops do you think you might want to write this down like the doctor said no i got it how hard can it be well i'm going to add some extra items here all right but i got it fine i'll prove it to you vanilla two scoops okay want whipped cream on it whipped cream on there you sure you don't want to write this down because there's going to be more things no i got it i'll prove it to you two scoops of vanilla ice cream whipped cream keep going huh we're not there yet hot you guys this is making you hungry isn't it she's bringing out that that that coveting for the ice cream that's not the point of this anyway so the whipped cream then we're going to put some sprinkles on there jimmy's if you're from boston we're not going to get into that today it's weird they're sprinkles they're sprinkles they're multi-colored someone's from boston they're multi-colored you sure you don't want to write this down she's going on and on no i got it all right cherry on top there we go we're going to put the cherry on there excuse me put the cherry on there do you got it yes i got it he says it's going to be two scoops vanilla whipped cream hot fudge sprinkles not jimmy's multi-colored all right and we're going to get the cherry on top i got it fine so he goes in the kitchen to get it five minutes goes by ten minutes goes by he's like what's going on maybe he's heating up the fudge doing it right i don't know but now 20 minutes a half hour is a little too long on this so just as she was about to get up and go and check on him he comes out with a plate ice cream doesn't go on a plate with two eggs sunny side up two pieces of bacon two pancakes with hot fudge whipped cream sprinkles and a cherry on top she looks at the plate looks at him and says where's my toast took a long time to get to that punch we're going to talk about remembering things today so we find ourselves in the rest of the story this is a very long series because there's a lot to the bible people try to oversimplify this it's just not simple it takes a long time to get through it there's a lot in there that people just don't talk about and that's kind of what we're looking at throughout the series and not without applications so we're gonna talk about remembering some things we're talking about king hezekiah so these are the kings of judah we saw the kings of israel so you think if you don't know the bible very well like king david's times if david you might know about solomon you may know about rehoboam but this is where this whole split in the kingdom happens so ray baum's not as smart as his dad the split kingdom israel in the north judah and the south so israel just fell recently a couple weeks ago in this church series they fall to the assyrians now judah is still around you're going to see good king bad king good king bad king so here you got a kind of good king we saw hezekiah we saw that the point was right that works were a product of our faith he had faith but that faith produces works within us we looked at the book of james it says that there god's words not mine so that was the point now we're going to look at the other half of hezekiah we're going to see what happens here so we saw that he did a lot right so he constructed the walls the outer two walls all this stuff for the defenses and everything right the temple he praised and god comes through in a really big way 185 000 syrian soldiers died they're camped out to try to attack jerusalem god does that for them so this is the backdrop now we have to be thinking about we talked about books of the bible going in parallel today we're in second kings 20 second chronicles 32 and isaiah 38 and 39 second chronicles doesn't devote very much to the story but it's going to give us some important details we're going to look at that we're going to be in second kings isaiah gives us a little more i'll bounce to that when it's time so the lord rescues everybody rescues jerusalem from the assyrians this is the backdrop and now king hezekiah becomes famous he's made a name for himself somehow and he's getting all these gifts they're sending him presents and all these different gifts so if we pick up right there on that thought second kings 21 about that time hezekiah became deathly ill and the prophet isaiah here's where he comes in son of amaz went to visit him he gave the king this message this is what the lord says set your affairs in order for you are going to die you will not recover from this illness not good news when hezekiah heard this he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the lord remember oh lord how i've always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly always doing what pleases you then he broke down and wept bitterly so the picture you're going to get here if you keep reading is that isaiah leaves he gives this message just drops that on him boom and then walks out and it kind of says before he gets through the yard yes before he leaves the property the lord tells him hey you know what go back and give this a new one to hezekiah to tell him this he says i've heard your prayer so three days from now you're going to be healed and i'm going to add 15 years to your life well so isaiah is all doing here makes it he orders his servants to make an ointment and cover the boil apparently this was the sickness the boil and is going to heal him up so they do that then hezekiah says to isaiah meanwhile this is happening in the mean times kind of makes the bible confusing it jumps around a little bit what sign will the lord give me to prove to me that this is going to happen so it's obviously before it happens isaiah says give him a little choice well here's what's going to happen do you want the sundial to move forward 10 steps or backward 10 steps and it's the sundial of ahaz and if you've been paying attention that's his dad well he's like moving forward is easy because it always goes forward right like a clock make it go backwards so sure enough that happens the shadow on the sundial moves back 10 steps so it'll be like sitting there watching your clock just go all by itself but there are no electronics which means the sun has to literally move in the sky backwards like let's just say 10 hours kind of crazy it happens he's healed now there's something that's not in second kings or second chronicles it's a poem or like a prayer the hezekiah devotes so that is only in isaiah and let me read it to you isaiah not the whole thing 38 9 when hezekiah was well again he wrote this poem i said in the prime of my life must i now enter the place of the dead am i to be robbed of the rest of my ears delirious i chattered like a swallow or a crane and then i moaned like a morning dove my eyes grew tired of looking at heaven for help i'm in trouble lord help me what could i say for he himself sent the sickness now i will walk humbly throughout my years because of this anguish i have felt lord your discipline is good for it leads to life and health you restore my health and allow me to live yes this anguish was good for me if you've rescued me from death and forgiven all my sins for the dead cannot praise you then i cannot raise their voices and praise those who go down to the grave can no longer help in your faithfulness only the living can praise you as i do today each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next think of it the lord is ready to heal me i will sing his praises with instruments every day of my life in the temple of the lord prayer kind of significant if you read the psalms a lot should remind you of psalm 6 i think verse 5 and psalm 30 there's this kind of like petition to the lord quite often when people are in desperation or deeply praising lord the dead can't praise you if you let me die how will i be able to worship you so that shows up in the psalms if we keep reading second kings 2012 soon after this murdoch paladin son of valadin king of babylon sent hezekiah his best wishes and a gift for he had heard that hezekiah had been very sick hezekiah received the babylonian envoys and showed them everything in his treasure houses the silver the gold the spices and the aromatic oils he also took them to see his armory and showed them everything in his world treasuries there was nothing in his palace or kingdom the hezekiah did not show them so isaiah shows up what did those people want where are they from they came from the distant land of babylon oh what did they see in your palace isaiah says they saw everything hezekiah replied i showed them everything i own he says all my royal treasuries second kings 2016 then isaiah said to hezekiah listen to this message from the lord the time is coming when everything in your palace all the treasuries stored up by your ancestors until now will be carried off to babylon nothing will be left says the lord some of your very own sons will be taken away into exile they will become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of babylon's king then hezekiah said to isaiah this message you have given me from the lord is good for he was thinking at least there will be peace and security during my lifetime kind of selfish if we conclude saying kings 2020. the rest of the events and hezekiah's reign including the extent of his power and how he built a pool and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city recorded in the book of the history of the kings of judah hezekiah died and his son manasseh became the next king well look at manasseh next week so we see this pattern here whether it be this week or last week of hezekiah doing something and then the lord coming through in a really big way but here's the thing instead of boasting in the lord he boasts in himself so let's think about it what's the context what's going on here babylonians show up first thing pretty impressive did you see how god killed 185 000 troops and i didn't have to lift a finger how about that why aren't we talking about that that was pretty amazing because if they conquered me they would have taken all the stuff i just showed you you should be pointing to that hey did you notice like you might have been outside yesterday and we lost 10 hours right did you see the sun go in the sky we lost not talking about that at all that's not a thing hey i was going to die but the lord healed me in exactly three days that's pretty amazing no the babylonians show up and he says look what i did amazing look what i did so here's the thing we can add a fourth book if we want to make it a little more confusing that runs a little bit in parallel-ish if you read the psalms a lot you might have noticed you get to 25 and he says these are the proverbs that hezekiah's advisors collected maybe not written by him but his advisors gather them up 25 26 27 20 and probably 29 so get to auger chapter 30. maybe he didn't read them because proverbs 27 says this don't brag about tomorrow since you don't know what the day will bring let someone else praise you not your own mouth a stranger and not your own lips important we're going to do a little bit of review today that's important good teaching is fairly repetitive if you read the bible a lot you know it's very repetitive as we can see the account three times today but it takes us a while to get stuff doesn't it if we're being honest they're like sale signs i worked in sales for a long time and it's like it takes like what ten times for someone to realize something they have to see it a lot of times so we'll do a little review today here's the thing remember i talked about first corinthians in the first situation this pastor worship that they're doing divisions in the church bad chapters 1 through paul he gets kind of mad says i'm glad i didn't baptize any of you although he admits he does then says i'm going to beat you with a stick that's basically how it goes one through four but in the midst of that who is apollos he's an eloquent speaker who is apollos right who is peter the lead apostle who's paul me like who's paul right who are we i just planted apollo is just watered but god causes the growth so yes we do something we're vehicles but god causes the growth it's the important thing to remember so we talked about our faith in our works but here the lesson is don't get stuck on the works thing people right you got to be doing some but but god that's the problem here god causes the growth but how quickly we forget how quickly we forget so i kind of think of this mark eight so the situation that happens a lot of people don't know there are five thousand fed and then there are four thousand feet so first time they only have five loaves two fish they feed everybody all 5000 people there's maybe more because women and children a lot of people there big miracle 12 baskets of leftovers so but if we get to mark eight it says four thousand people seven loaves that's all they got and maybe a few small fish and they have leftovers seven baskets this big miracle hub they feed a lot of people jesus ki he just blesses it and then it just keeps coming now the disciples god working hand in hand with us you feed them right so they're distributing it so jesus is multiplying it he's causing the growth but they're like you know feeding the people do some service here get in the boat going to leave and disciples go we forgot to take bread really that's not the only thing you forgot you forgot what jesus did think about it that's very prideful the lord just fed thousands of people you're not still amazed by this this is amazing and then all you can think about is what your part in it was right but like we distributed it yeah we're really good at that so oh we forgot to do what we're really good at what so jesus says something important a lot of people just pass by we're gonna talk about a little greek today it's okay i'm gonna try my best for now i'm good at reading not saying but anyway he says remember don't you remember that's how he addresses them and he gives them like a math quiz like the first time how many baskets are left over you know remember the five loaves how many baskets a leftover 12 you know the second time seven loaves how many leftovers seven you know they answer the questions instead of just going you know i'm being shamed don't you remember don't you remember how quickly we forget why pride pride pride is a feeling of deep pleasure satisfaction derived from one one own achievements right one's own achievements the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated we'll talk about that or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired like hezekiah's we forget because we become wrapped up in ourselves if we go to the parallel account in 2nd chronicles we get some reasoning second chronicles 32 24. about that time hezekiah became deathly ill he prayed to the lord who healed him and gave him a miraculous sight so this is the one sentence or one line two sentences one line one verse version of that whole thing we went through but hezekiah did not respond appropriately to the kindness shown him he became proud so the lord's anger came against him and against judah and jerusalem then hezekiah humbled himself and repented of his pride that's the problem as did the people of jerusalem so the lord's anger did not fall on them during hezekiah's lifetime right and he's like at least it won't fall on me good luck sons now this will be like a digression but we're going to review just a little bit because it's important and this is going to be hard when we talk about pride that's difficult and i know for most of you watching news something's coming to mind but here's the thing if you know the bible really well there's a lot of leveling the playing field when we get prideful so how ironic that's bad pride but you're prideful paul levels the playing field a lot romans one two three yes the gentiles sin but you jews teach yourself you've sinned two three we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god so he sets up what he's going to say something we have to think about so let's do a little review we've talked about bad teachings in christianity and we've noticed there are a lot of them and i always kind of liken it because i'm a foodie i like my restaurants it's kind of like five-star restaurants maybe not in naples but everywhere else in the world there are more like fast food places than there are five-star restaurants so there's more common like commercial stuff it's really not good for you for being honest sometimes they have ice cream it's good but there's more of it so same thing it's no different in christianity in america and i'm not saying it's great anywhere else but here we like to commercialize stuff and so we need to make it cheap and easy right we want it quick cheap easy give it to me fast and so it's been commercialized so the bigger churches the it seems that the more you do that well the bigger you're gonna get but like a nice little french restaurant or something like that you're going to get like a really good meal there it's going to be better but it's small and then someone will come in an american typical market they'll sit down and be like i know how you can get more customers and they go no thank you you know go away don't ruin my restaurant so there's a lot of bad teachings out there and i talked about one and let's review this real quick so we can get to the next one you might have heard it you might have posted it if you did don't do it again the bible says fear not 365 times have you heard that it says fear not 365 times it's not true it's not even close so there's a thing called reading your bible and then you would know this does not sound right it does not sound like fear the lord like that's more prominent if you read the word of god a lot you get that it's not just in the old testament oh gene you're going old testament no philippians new testament book one of the friendliest letters of the new testament paul still says chapter 2 verse 12 work out your salvation with fear and virgin say trembling now the greek word is terror terror our american translations are afraid of that terror that connotates trembling you're so scared you're like ah work out your salvation with fear and terror that's the new testament so the bible says fear not 300 what is that what are you talking about so here's the thing i get the concordance out so strong's concordance gives all the words in the bible and you can count if you're crazy enough to like me so it bothered me and i started counting i got to about 84 times it says fear not about 84. even if i'm off by 16 we get to 100. that's not even close to 365. not even close but words for fear 533 times let's just round down in case i'm wrong by 33 500 times and most of those times it says you should fear especially the lord so pastor gene calm down what's wrong with that well think about it for a second what's the next thing people say oh but you know we're supposed to just be in awe of god right so we're trying to make him santa claus so he's going to just like give us stuff there's no accountability we don't have to worry fear of the lord that's going to stop a lot of your sin that's what that does but we want to get rid of that because it's not all have sinned it's all ours constantly sinning and falling short of the glory of god right you know read it right so here's another one pride pride you ever hear the phrase pride and joy sounds innocent you might have even read it in the bible it's crept its way in there first thessalonians 2 20. you're my pride and joy in some versions don't say that when you read it in the greek it says you're my glory and joy but in english it doesn't make sense in our minds so innocently i think the translators say well what would we say in english say pride and joy but they weren't thinking you've just created a contradiction you've made pride a good thing and it's never a good thing in the bible it's bad proverbs 17 6. right so grandchildren are the crowning glory of the ages parents are the pride of their children it's not what it says we'll talk about that word in greek later but i think it's innocent but if you keep reading you read more proverbs proverbs 16 5 the lord detests strong word the proud they were they will surely be punished pride goes before destruction and haughtiness another word for pride before a fall better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud could it be more clear the bible translated correctly always says that pride is a bad thing but we're proud of a lot of things aren't we our identity and that bothers some people but here's the funny thing we talked about this if you've been here for a while we've had these conversations if you're new everything is seen through this lens and when you really do that it's weird because you look at things through a worldly lens which this tells you not to it's very different twists it right so it's like it gets all twisted up through that lens so give you the pastor lens i think when i'm looking at it through this uh-huh pride's a bad thing and so you get american christians who maybe they're identifying more with their politics and they'll rant raven i get it you've got to have a whole month for pride you're shoving this down my throat stop it now i'm watching watching the argument that same person who complained about the pride right it says prides us in and they'll say that right they'll say that they'll turn right around and say yeah and i'm proud to be an american that's interesting pride in the bible is never a good thing never now you're going to say what about my national pride and i'm going to answer what do you worship there should be nothing above the lord nothing above jesus i'm happy to be here disclaimer ready disclaimer happy to be here i do what the bible says i honor my authorities very honoring loving we're all about our community here the politics really if i said honest politician you're gonna laugh but those are the people that are running the government so we honor them but that's not where my hope is we talked about that last week that is not i'm not looking for the government for hope that's in the kingdom of heaven we're citizens of that kingdom so let me explain to you what the bible says about this for real for real because if america was a christian country it would look totally different totally different it's not so philippians work out your salvation with fear and trembling philippians 2 let's turn the page philippians chapter 3. so paul goes you know what it's no problem for me to warn you about this again like i have in the past beware of the dogs they're false teachers he calls them dogs later he'll say their god is their belly it's their appetite their dogs beware of these false teachers they're no good in fact if anyone had a reason to brag it would be me i'm from the nation of israel i'm a citizen of israel so he names his citizenship right i'm circumcised on the eighth day i'm a hebrew if there ever was one from the tribe of benjamin he's naming all his like credentials where he's from a pharisee if there ever was one really well-trained guy know the bible really well but guess what it's all garbage compared to knowing jesus christ my lord garbage and the greek there i'll say it wrong skivala right so today you might say like rubbish like it's rubbish it's actually in this context in the biblical context more akin to c-r-a-p that's how the force with which paul is saying that i am oppressive let's modernize it you know watch out for those false teachers guys it's bad stuff all right but i could brag you know i went to seminar or whatever i'm a pastor i'm this i'm a proud american but it's all crap compared to knowing jesus it's exactly what paul says except he doesn't call himself pastor gene but anyway read chapter three read it read it for yourself there's a reason i didn't put that up on the screen don't believe me don't believe anybody check your bible he's doing the right thing look for yourself and you'll see this is how paul contrasts his pride in his nationality with knowing jesus that is superior my citizenship to the kingdom of heaven is above all else and when you do that you see this world for what it is it's ridiculous the whole thing's a circus i want jesus to come back and that's the narrative over and over and over in the bible it won't be perfect until jesus comes back that's it and by the way he does continue at the end of that chapter by reminding them your citizenship is in heaven that's it so we're going to nerd out just for a minute i'm not going to take a lot of time on this because i've heard people say this so let's put the greek on the screen we're not going to be here for long don't worry don't get nervous so so i've heard people say there's such a thing as good pride no there's just different words for that right in the english language so when it says pride it's just bad so same thing fear well it's not really fear it really means aw no there's a word called oh for that and if it was a better translation they would have just put the word ah there right so you hear people do that right like they do you like i don't know anyway those type of christians right no it never really means fear or terror you know is it really it's just it's is it a mistranslation i don't know but greek is the same they have different words for things and so these are three words that sometimes get translated is pride the middle one is the only one of the three that should pretty much always get translated as pr it's bad so the first one kahima i have my greek teacher watching online right now so i'm going to get a text later so that'll be funny that's to boast that's the best word we have for it but but it's an interesting kind of boast and the concept i spent like an hour on the phone with her trying to get this idea but i think i got it it's good it can be good when you're boasting about someone else like you're elevating them do you speak greek yeah oh you're agreeing with me way too much so anyway i was like we got a great guy who's going to bring you right up say it right sorry my reading is pretty good my biblical greek is pretty good reading it pretty good but my pronunciation is absolutely horrible so i spent a lot of time with my greek teacher on the phone with this one so you can elevate somebody else right it's my little kahima like you know you're my boast you're you're doing really really well so that can be good iparifanos bad that is pride no good never any good al we're going to talk about that a little bit sometimes gets translated pride when i understand it's a very ancient word only occurs i think two times in the new testament so arrogance it's also bad again the second one pride never great why because it's when we make it about us we make it about us so if we boast in someone else not bad depending on how far we go with it and so we see both in the bible so sometimes paul will go on and on like second corinthians 11 12 the fool's boast in there that's kahima that's he'll he'll say that's bad so it can be a bad thing if it's about you that's the word being used there all right i'm done with the greek what not quite so even our affiliation with god can become prideful even our affiliation we can become prideful about that and we have to be careful with it anytime it's about us this is not popular it's not good so first john 2 16 for the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure a craving for everything we see and pride in our achievements and possession these are not from the father but are from the world they're not heavenly they're worldly not good in the bible pride is when we're more focused on the world than the word that's when we're more focused on ourselves than god whether it be god himself or more focused in our part in that affiliation whether it be like the disciples right see how good i passed out the bread that you multiplied miraculously but we do this kind of stuff pride causes us to forget pride is when we forget others who have helped us others who may quite frankly be better than us we forget others in general and we focus on ourselves we forget where we've come from or the position we were in like hezekiah did we forget about people who are currently in that position and we even look down on them in an unwarranted way now that word will bring up first john 2 16 in the original the best translation that word in first john 2 16 for pride that's actually how most translations render it but that's that a la zuniya that's what that is that's arrogance that's what's really there and so this is kind of my translation for it the gsv if you will for everything in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the arrogance of life is not from the father but is from the world so most english translations everything from the kjv the king james bible to the niv will say lust there for that word in modern greek it could be like a desire or a wish but it's lust because of the context in this book you're lusting you want it in a bad way you're lusting after these things arrogance exaggerating or disposed to exaggerate one's own worth and importance often in an overbearing manner an offensive attitude of superiority this feeling of superiority causes us to forget our place we forget we forget jesus we forget that jesus is superior we're going to close with the book of hebrews today and i want to just briefly explain the context really important you understand context when you look at texts not just singular verses hebrews the whole point is that jesus is superior that's it over and over and over again they're they're jewish christians right so they were jews first like jesus and the apostles they become christians and they're like ooh like thessalonica their own people are persecuting them so they're like i don't want to do this anymore it hurts so the author preacher we don't know who it is don't waste time speculating just read the book concentrate on the point of the book of hebrews not who might have wrote it and when you read it you see jesus is superior to everything jesus is superior to the prophets to the angels he's the superior son he's superior to moses to joshua to melchizedek the priesthood he's the mediator of a superior covenant chapters eight through ten eleven so we live by faith examples of faith twelve disciplined lives the lord received discipline so should we and then we get to chapter thirteen now last week we saw that focusing how how do we do this we fix our eyes on jesus solution to all of your problems so that's where we left off last week hebrews 12. let's turn the page important word hebrews 13 if i didn't say that keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters don't forget to show hospitality to strangers for some have done this have entertained angels without even realizing it remember me niskome i'm saying that right remember that word pops up a lot remember those in prison as if you were there yourself remember those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your bodies this word is like an eternal memory something you should be constantly aware of remember keep this here that's right so that you don't have a fat head you have a flat head keep that in your memory always remember so look at this remember where you were remember what was happening to you remember then hebrews 13 7 remember your leaders who taught you the word of god think of all the good that has come from their lives and follow their example of faith imitate them jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever amen then it talks about doing good for others that that is actually like our sacrifice that's how we worship so it's kind of like romans 12. how do you worship not by singing lies you worship by loving others that's real worship obey your leaders imitate them we should be in a constant state of remembrance and imitation of jesus period fix your eyes on him he who humbled himself to the point of death even to death on a cross imitate that and here we see remember those in need remember and imitate your leaders we must be in a state of humility not thinking of ourselves but in remembrance of jesus that is our proper alignment let me pray from you for you from the end of hebrews 13. now may the god of peace who brought up from the dead our lord jesus the great shepherd of the sheep and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood may he equip you with all you need for doing his will may he produce in you through the power of jesus christ every good thing that is pleasing to him all glory to him forever and ever amen you