All right, well thank you very much for being here tonight and I appreciate the invitation to come out to Faithful Word. Of course, it's always a huge honor to be at Faithful Word Baptist Church and I'd like to just begin, of course, first of all by saying thank you. I want to say thank you, of course, to Pastor and Mrs. Anderson for their invitation and friendship and just hospitality and, of course,
I'm sorry that we stole away your pastor. He's preaching in Sacramento tonight, so they had to send me as a replacement, so you're stuck with me tonight. But, of course, I just want to say thank you to Pastor and Mrs. Anderson.
I want to say thank you to Brother Chris Segura. He's always a great host and just hospitality and care, taking care of me and my daughter as, you know, picking us up, taking us out to dinner, all those things. He always does a great, great job
and I want to make sure that his bosses know that, that he does a great job. He took me to a good restaurant today, so he did a good job. And then, of course, I just want to say thank you to all of you for being here tonight. I know it's a Wednesday night. I know it's right in the middle of the week. I know it's busy. There's a great crowd here on a Wednesday night. I appreciate you being here.
Before I get into the sermon, I would like to just take a moment and just give you an invitation to some events that we have coming up in Sacramento. If you don't mind me doing a shameless plug, I'm actually going to put this on real quick for this announcement.
And I want to invite you to the Next Generation Youth Rally. And I'm wearing this hat just to show you that you are not the only church with cool hats, okay? And we've got a nice Next Generation Youth Rally hat.
And if you've got a teenager, we'd love for you to bring them out. It's April 9th and 10th. It's not too far away, but it's enough time for you to still make plans. And if you've got a 13-year-old to 19-year-old, as long as they're not married, they're welcome to come.
And we'd love to have you for the Youth Rally. The Youth Rally is a great event. And of course, there's preaching geared towards the teenagers. There's games. There's competition. There's a wrestling show, which I've never seen at a youth conference, but you know, that's just how the new IP rolls.
So I want to encourage you to be at the Next Generation Youth Rally. And of course, I also want to invite you to the Red Hot Preaching Conference. And we'd love for you to be a part of that. Of course, Pastor Anderson is going to be preaching there.
We're going to be hosting it, of course, in our new building. We'd love for you to join us. It's June 20th through the 23rd. So we're pushing it a month earlier this year. So we just want you to be aware of those dates, and we'd love for you to come out and visit with us.
I'm going to take this off because I'm not supposed to prophesy with my head covered, but I do want to just encourage you, of course, to be here. I'll put this here for now. And I want to invite you to those events coming up.
So we're there in 2 Chronicles 26, and tonight I want to preach about a concept that is seen throughout the Bible. In fact, every time that I read through the Bible, these verses that I'm going to show you tonight, they always jump out at me, and I always think to myself that I should preach a sermon on this subject.
And it's not just because it comes up in the Bible, but I think the reason that I see it, when I see it, that it jumps out at me so much is because of the fact that it's seen in the Bible, but of course we see this in real life as well.
We see this in ministry as well, and I think it's a lesson that is important for us to learn, to identify, and to be able to see in our lives.
And before I tell you what I'm preaching about, I just want to show you here in this passage, and of course in 2 Chronicles 26, we are reading about the story of a king by the name of Uzziah.
And what we're reading about in this chapter is about Uzziah's success, and I want you to notice how well this king is doing in life. Notice there in 2 Chronicles 26, look at verse number 3, the Bible says this,
16 years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jecaliah of Jerusalem.
Verse 4, and he, Uzziah, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did.
And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
Notice verse 6, and he, Uzziah, what we're going to get here is a list of all of his accomplishments, all the things that are going well in life for Uzziah.
Verse 6, and he, Uzziah, notice the Bible says, went forth and warred against the Philistines, and break down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabni, and the wall of Ashtad, and built cities about Ashtad, and among the Philistines.
And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gerbaal and Mehunim. Notice verse 8, and the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah.
So we read in verse 6 that he's going out, he went forth and warred, he's winning these battles, he's even going out of the borders of Israel, and he's going into Gath, and into Jabni, into Ashtad.
Here in verse 8, we're being told that the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah. They're not bringing him birthday gifts. This is like a tribute. They're under taxation, and because of the fact that he has conquered this land, they're having to bring him this gift, this monetary gift.
As a result, the Bible says there that the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name, notice we're talking about Uzziah here, spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt, for he strengthened himself exceedingly.
Moreover, Uriah, notice what the Bible says, built towers in Jerusalem, at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them.
It says in verse 10, and he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells, for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains, husbandmen also, and vine dressers, in the mountains, and in Carmel, and he loved husbandry.
So once you notice, the Bible's telling us he's going out to war, he went forth and warred, and he won battles. He's now building. The Bible tells us he built towers, and he fortified them.
He digged many wells. The Bible says he had much cattle. The Bible says he had a husbandmen also, and vine dressers in the mountains.
Notice verse 11, moreover, the word moreover, there's a second time we've seen this word, and it's God saying, not just that, there's more.
He says, moreover, Uzziah had a host of fighting men that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their account, by the hands of Jael, the scribe, and Maisiah, the ruler, under the hands of Hananiah, one of the king's captains.
Look at verse 12, the whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were 2,600, and under their hand was an army, 300,000 and 7,500, that made war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy.
So he has a great army. He has a great infrastructure. He's building towers. He's building wells. He's taking over cities. He's doing a great job. He's doing a great work.
We're told there that in verse 12 that the whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were 2,600.
We're told there that he had a great army under that. Look at verse 14.
And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the hosts shields and spears and helmets and habergeons and bows and slings to cast stone.
So he has a great armory. Not only that, notice, and upon the bull works, to shoot arrows and great stones withal, his name spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped,
till he was strong. And what I want to highlight for you here is that Uzziah is doing a great job.
I mean, as far as being a king, if this was your resume as a king, you would get hired.
I think if you and I were kings in the ancient world and a chapter was being written about us, this is exactly what we would want it to say.
This man is doing a good job. He's doing a great job. He's succeeding in life. Things are going well in life.
And I say all that to say this because I want to highlight for you something that we see in verse 16.
And I want you to notice what happens so many times when people experience success. Notice it there in verse number 16.
The Bible says this,
I want you to notice the Bible here tells us that Uzziah, he was doing well. Things were going well in life.
He was succeeding. He was prospering. We would say today he was killing it. He was just doing everything he was supposed to do.
And then the Bible tells us there in verse 16 that when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.
And this is what I call the success-failure story. It's evident in the Bible. We see it in the Bible.
But unfortunately, we see it in real life as well. My wife and I in September of last year celebrated 13 years in ministry.
And unfortunately, over the last 13 years of ministry, I have seen the story. I've seen the story more times than I'd like to admit.
I've seen them. I've seen them walk into church. Sometimes on a Wednesday night like tonight. Sometimes on a Sunday night.
Very often on a Sunday morning, they'll walk in through the doors and they'll come in and they'll be timid and scared and shy.
And things aren't going well in life. And their marriage is falling apart. They're maybe having trouble with their kids.
Their finances are not good. Money is tight. They're just not happy. And they think maybe we should give church a try.
So they come. They show up after the service. They sit through the service. They're quiet. They're not familiar with our style of church service.
They're not really sure how the hymn book works and they're not sure how to sing the song. So they sit there quietly as others sing around them.
They sit through the service. You can tell they're nervous. They kind of look around a little bit, especially when somebody says amen every once in a while.
They kind of turn around and they sit through the service. And after the service, a soul winner walks up to them and begins to talk to them.
Maybe brings them a little gift from the back and asks them the question, do you know for sure if you died today,
if you're on your way to heaven, and surely after talking for several minutes and going through the Bible, the husband bows his head and gets saved.
The wife bows her head and gets saved. The children, they bow their heads and they get saved.
And you know after that first experience, they decide to give church another shot. They come back for another service.
The kids like it. The kids don't even know what they like about it. They just like the security they feel in church.
It's a feeling they haven't experienced too much of. Slowly they start making friends.
Eventually they show up on a Sunday morning and this time they bring a whole crowd of people with them.
They've got aunts and uncles and cousins and friends. They bring all these people with them.
And they bring these people on this Sunday because this is a special Sunday. This is a Sunday that the whole family gets baptized.
After their baptism, they keep coming. They start coming more regularly, more frequently.
Eventually they become so involved in church that they actually identify themselves as the three to thrive crowd, the Wednesday night crowd, the Sunday night crowd.
After a stirring sermon on soul winning, they think maybe we ought to give that soul winning thing a try.
They find the soul winning seminar and they go through it. They underline the verses in their Bible and they memorize some of the verses and they go out.
And after the first time of going out soul winning and we partner them up and they're a silent partner and they watch somebody get saved and they think,
wow that was pretty cool and that wasn't so bad and they keep at it. Eventually they get somebody saved and they get better at it and better at it.
And eventually they're just full fledged soul winners themselves. They keep coming to church. They keep hearing the preaching.
They keep applying it to their lives. Slowly but surely they're making decisions. They're growing spiritually.
One day the wife makes a decision that she's going to get rid of her pants and be skirts only.
The daughters follow along and all the ladies, all the females in the family become skirts only.
They start volunteering and serving in different ministries. In the summer a decision is made that the kids aren't going to go back to public school.
The wife quits her job and she becomes a stay at home wife. She begins to homeschool the children. Things are going well.
And for the first time in a long time they're happy. The husband begins to apply the things he's learning at church, at his job.
He begins to fellowship with the other men in the church. He quits complaining about his job so much.
He quits showing up late. He starts working as unto the Lord. His boss notices it, gives him a promotion. His boss notices it, gives him a raise.
Eventually they upgrade their vehicles. They move to a nice neighborhood. They are what we would call blessed.
But then, but then it all turns. And unfortunately this story doesn't end with a happy ending.
The story ends with a divorce. Or with someone back on drugs. With somebody in prison. Or worse, and I've seen it, somebody dead.
The story ends with broken lives and deep wounds. And people wonder. And other people around the church they look at it and they talk about it and they say,
What happened? They seem so happy and they seem like everything was going well. And even the people themselves, they wonder, How did we get here?
Tonight I'd like to preach to you on this subject that I've entitled, The Delusion of Success.
The Delusion of Success. And I use that word very specifically. The word delusion is defined as a false belief or judgement about an external reality.
And when it comes to success in life, when it comes to a life that is blessed, there is the possibility of the delusion of success.
And I'd like you to notice tonight, I'd like to give you three thoughts regarding the dark side of success. Or the dark side of a blessed life.
I'd like to begin with point number one. If you're taking notes, and I always encourage people to take notes, maybe you'd like to write this down.
Point number one is this. The deceitfulness of success. The deceitfulness of success. I want you to notice there in our story, 2 Chronicles 26 and verse 16.
Notice the King Uzziah. The Bible says there, But when he was strong, things were going well, he was succeeding, he was growing, he was blessed.
And the Bible here tells us, when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.
I want you to notice this little phrase and I want you to remember it because we're going to see it throughout the Bible.
The same phrase or something very similar. His heart was lifted up. His heart was lifted up. You're there in 2 Chronicles 26.
I'd like you to go to 2 Chronicles 11. Now I'm going to tell you, we're going to look at a lot of passages tonight. I hope that's okay.
It's good that it's a Wednesday night. It's supposed to be Bible study night. So we're definitely going to study the Bible.
Go to 2 Chronicles 11 and while you go there, let me read it to you from Ezekiel 28. You go to 2 Chronicles 11, I'll read it to you from Ezekiel 28.
Here's what the Bible says about the devil. The Bible says, Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.
In Ezekiel 28 and verse 5, here's what the Bible says about the Prince of Tyrus.
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic has thou increased thy riches and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.
Do you understand that somebody could have their heart lifted up because of how much money they have in the bank?
Or how much they make every year at their job?
The Bible tells us here that somebody could have their heart lifted up because of their beauty.
We see there that Uzziah had his heart lifted up because of his success.
And here's what I want you to understand. When it comes to the deceitfulness of success, and if you'd like maybe you can write this down.
Success has the propensity to make people be lifted up with pride.
When things are going well in life, when everything's going smoothly, and you've got all your ducks in a row, that success has the propensity.
It has in it this idea that it's very easy for us to then begin to get lifted up and to look at ourselves and be very satisfied with how things are going and be lifted up with pride.
Success has the propensity to make people be lifted up with pride.
You say, well what's wrong with that?
I want you to notice there in 2 Chronicles 11, here we have a similar story but a different character.
In 2 Chronicles 26 we saw the story of King Uzziah.
In 2 Chronicles 11 we see the story of King Rehoboam. Remember Rehoboam, the son of Solomon?
2 Chronicles 11, look at verse 5. Notice what the Bible says.
And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, notice what the Bible says, and built cities for a defense in Judah.
That's good. He's building cities. He's building a kingdom. This is what kings are supposed to do.
Look at verse 6. He built even Bethlehem, and Etum, and Tekoa, and Betzer, and Shocho, and Adullam.
Notice verse 8.
Look at verse 11.
Not only was he succeeding, but he had money in the bank.
He had a store of victuals. He had a store of supplies and of oil and wine.
Look at verse 12.
And in every several cities he put shields and spears.
He didn't just have an armory in one place. He had armories throughout just in case wherever he got attacked he would be ready.
He fortified, the Bible says there in verse 11, and he fortified the strongholds and put captains in them.
He had a store of victuals and of oil and wine. Verse 12.
And in every several cities he put shields and spears and made them exceeding strong having Judah and Benjamin on his side.
And the priests and the Levites that were all in Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts.
People identify his success and they go to him.
Notice the Bible says there that the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him.
For the Levites left their suburbs and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing in the priest's office unto the Lord.
Now I don't want to get too much into this, but this is talking about the divided kingdom.
The fact that the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom had two different religions and the king of the northern kingdom of Israel had pretty much fired the priests and Levites.
And then the priests and Levites, they heard about how things were going down in the southern kingdom and they moved down there to go to church.
Let me just tell you there is no new thing under the sun.
You think, oh, I'm pretty special. I moved all the way across the country to go to church.
Well, they did it in the Bible as well.
Look at verse 16.
And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts, notice it, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers.
Notice the words.
So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong.
For three years they walked in the ways of David and Solomon.
Go over to chapter 12 and verse 1.
Chapter 12 and verse 1, you say, well that sounds good, but here's what you need to understand.
Success has the propensity to make people be lifted up with pride.
And notice the result of pride.
2 Chronicles 12 and verse 1.
And it came to pass when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and has strengthened himself.
Notice the words.
He forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him.
See, success has the propensity to make people be lifted up with pride.
And pride has the tendency to make people forget and forsake the Lord.
The deceitfulness of success.
The deceitfulness of success is that it causes you to then begin to think, I must be pretty great.
Look at how great I'm doing.
Look at the house I live in.
Look at the vehicle I drive.
Look at the clothes that I wear.
Look at how much money I'm making.
Look how well my life is going.
The problem with success, the deceitfulness of success is that it has the propensity to make us allow our hearts to get lifted up with pride.
You say, well what's wrong with that?
The problem with pride is that it has the tendency to cause us to forget and forsake the Lord.
He forsook the law of the Lord, the Bible says.
By the way, this is something that God had already warned them about.
Look at it. Keep your place there in 2 Chronicles.
We're going to be in that book, 2 Chronicles, a lot tonight.
But go with me, if you would, to the book of Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy chapter number 8.
Towards the beginning of the Bible, of course, you have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy chapter 8. Look at verse 10.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 10.
As we go through these passages, I'm not going to necessarily wait.
I'm just going to read it because my daughter and I literally flew in two hours before the service
and were flying out two hours after the service.
So they just won't give me a day off over in Sacramento.
So I got to be back tonight.
So we'll try to go through this quickly.
Deuteronomy 8. Look at verse 10.
Notice what God says to the children of Israel.
And he's talking about when they go into the Promised Land.
He says, when thou has eaten and art full.
The idea is this.
When you're no longer hungry, when you're comfortable, he says, when thou has eaten and art full.
And by the way, I would say that the problem with Christianity in America today is that we have eaten and are full.
In fact, we're pretty full in this country.
We've got more food than we could or should eat.
When thou has eaten and art full, God says, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given you.
He says, the right response when you've been blessed by God and you've eaten and you're full.
The right response is to bless God.
To bless the Lord thy God.
But then in verse 11, God says, beware.
He says beware of this. Why?
Because there's a propensity when thou has eaten and art full.
There's a propensity to get lifted up with pride and there's a tendency to forget and forsake the Lord.
So the Bible says here in verse 11, beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God.
In not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I commanded this day.
Notice verse 12, less.
The word less means unless.
He says when thou has eaten and art full and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein.
He said right now you're staying in tents.
Right now you don't have goodly houses.
Right now you don't have all the food you necessarily want.
We know that about the children of Israel in the wilderness.
He says when the day comes when you've eaten and you're full.
When the day comes when you're living and you've built goodly houses that you're dwelling in, verse 13.
He says and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply.
This was an agricultural, of course, society and they had flocks and they had herds.
For us, think of money.
When your money has multiplied.
When your investments have multiplied.
When your retirement has multiplied.
And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply.
And thy silver and thy gold is multiplied.
And all that thou hast is multiplied.
I mean, I would imagine that most people would not mind if Deuteronomy 8.13 was their life verse.
You ever heard of a life verse?
A verse you claim?
I think there are some Christians who probably say that's a pretty good life verse there.
And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply.
And thy silver and thy gold is multiplied.
And all that thou hast is multiplied.
But notice verse 14.
Notice the words.
Don't miss it.
Then thy heart be lifted up.
Why does he say that?
Because success has the propensity to make people be lifted up with pride.
You say, well what's wrong with that?
Well what's wrong with that is that pride has a tendency to make people forget and forsake the Lord.
Notice there verse 14.
Then thy heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God.
Which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.
So I'd like you to notice tonight, first of all, the deceitfulness of success.
What is it?
Success has the propensity to make people be lifted up in pride.
Pride is the tendency to make people forget and forsake God.
We see it there with Uzziah.
We saw it in Rehoboam.
But we've seen it so often in church life as well.
People come in.
Their lives are falling apart.
Things aren't going well.
And slowly but surely things begin to get better.
And as a result they are deceived by success.
So point number one is this.
The deceitfulness of success.
And I wanted to begin there because you need to understand the deceitfulness of success.
In order to grasp point number two.
Because the deceitfulness of success requires us then to develop point number two.
What's point number two?
Go back if you would to 2 Chronicles chapter number 11.
2 Chronicles chapter number 11.
We're back to the story of Rehoboam.
We saw number one the deceitfulness of success.
But I'd like you to notice secondly tonight the discernment of success.
The discernment of success.
Discernment, the word discern means to be able to perceive.
To see something correctly.
To understand something.
And you and I need to have some discernment when it comes to success.
We need to understand the discernment of success.
Because if we don't discern success we'll be deceived by success.
And by the way we're looking at this here with kings.
But this applies to everyone.
It applies to everyone in every area of life.
It applies to the normal church member.
It applies to pastors.
You don't think pastors can be deceived by success?
You don't think ministries can be flourishing and going well?
Things can be going well and people start thinking this idea.
Well look how amazing I am.
Look how great of a leader I am.
Look how well things are going.
There's a deceitfulness of success.
But then there's a discernment of success.
You say what is the discernment of success?
And this is not going to be complicated.
This is not going to just blow you out of the water.
You're not going to sit here and think to yourself.
Wow that was amazing I would have never guessed that.
But listen to me.
Some of the simplest things are the things that we need to be reminded of on a regular basis.
When it comes to the discernment of success the first thing we need to understand is this.
That blessings come from God.
2 Chronicles 11 look at verse 17.
I want you to notice how it's interwoven into these stories.
I think sometimes when we read these stories it's easy to read over some of these statements.
And maybe we don't see it but God is hinting at things throughout the text.
Look at it 2 Chronicles 11 and 17.
So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah.
That sounds good.
And made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong.
That sounds good.
And then the Bible says this 3 years.
God says they strengthened the kingdom and they made Rehoboam strong.
How long did that last? 3 years.
You want to know how long things flourished in the kingdom of Rehoboam.
You want to know how long things were going well in the kingdom of Rehoboam.
You want to know how long he was strong and he was being strengthened and everything was going well.
The Bible tells us it lasted 3 years.
So why does God just randomly tell us 3 years?
He says 3 years notice because then he says this 4.
The word 4 means because.
He's about to tell us why it lasted 3 years.
He says so they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong 3 years.
And then he says this 4 because 3 years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.
He says look Rehoboam walked in the ways of David.
Now we know that David wasn't perfect.
Obviously he was a sinner and he had major sins in his life.
But the Bible does tell us that David was a man after God's own heart.
David loved God and he walked with God.
And the Bible is telling us here as long as Rehoboam walked in the ways of David then God blessed him.
In fact God can tell us the exact amount of time that he blessed him.
He said I blessed him for 3 years because he walked in the ways of David and Solomon his father for 3 years.
What does that mean?
Here's what it means.
It means as long as Rehoboam was walking after the ways of a man who was walking after the heart of God, Rehoboam was blessed.
In fact he tells us exactly 3 years.
Because he only walked in the ways of David for 3 years.
Okay let's look at another story.
Go back to 2 Chronicles 26.
Let's go back to Uzziah.
2 Chronicles 26.
And look I'm not some charismatic, you know, health and wealth preacher, name and claim preacher.
I hope you know that.
I think we've known each other long enough for you to know that.
But what I'm showing you is in the Bible.
2 Chronicles 26.5.
Back to Uzziah. Look at it.
And he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God.
Notice the words.
I didn't put this in your King James Bible.
As long as he sought the Lord, as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
I didn't put that in your Bible.
You want to know the secret to success?
Look I'm talking about for a believer.
For a Christian.
You can go ahead and look at all these psychopathic, reprobate CEOs out there.
And all these ungodly business people and think oh well I'll be successful doing it how they're doing it.
But listen to me.
When you got saved and God became your Heavenly Father, you began to play the game of life under a different set of rules.
Obviously they reap what they sow and sin has its built in consequences.
But you and I reap what we sow.
You and I have sin that has built in consequences.
And on top of that, you and I have a Heavenly Father that's going to spank you.
And if he doesn't spank you, it's because you're a bastard and not a son.
It's because you're not saved.
That's what the Bible says.
And here the Bible says as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
Look at verse 6.
And he went forth and warred against the Philistines and break down the walls of Gath and the walls of Japneh and the walls of Ashtod and built cities about Ashtod and among the Philistines.
Verse 7.
Notice the words.
Don't miss it.
And God helped him.
And God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gerbal and Mehunim.
Let's look at another story.
Go to 2 Chronicles 15.
2 Chronicles 15.
Here's a story of another king, Asa.
2 Chronicles 15.
Look at verse 2.
And he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, Here ye meet Asa.
This is a prophet going to Asa and all Judah and Benjamin.
Notice what the prophet says to Asa.
The Lord is with you.
Doesn't that sound good?
The Lord is with you.
But wait a minute.
The Lord is with you.
Isn't that what made Joseph to prosper?
When they lied about him?
When they hated him?
When they sold him into slavery?
When they put him in prison unjustly?
When they did everything to try to hurt him?
What does the Bible say about Joseph?
The Lord was with him.
You know what happened to Joseph?
He prospered.
Why?
Because the Lord was with him.
But wait a minute.
2 Chronicles 15.
The Lord is with you while ye be with him.
Do you understand what we just read?
Here's how James says it.
Draw an eye to God, he'll draw an eye to you.
But the reverse is true as well.
When we forsake the Lord, he begins to forsake us.
I'm not talking about losing your salvation.
I'm talking about the blessing of God.
The help of God.
The providence of God.
The favor of God on your life.
Hey, the Lord is with you while you be with him.
Let's look at another story.
Go to 2 Kings 18.
You're there in 2 Chronicles.
Go back.
Pass 1 Chronicles into 2 Kings.
2 Kings 18.
I know it's not a deep theological thought.
But let us remember this.
Blessings for the believer come from God.
It's while the Lord is with you.
It's while you're walking in his ways.
It's while you're following him that God will help you.
2 Kings 18.
Look at verse 7.
Notice what the Bible says.
2 Kings 18 verse 7.
I didn't put this in your Bible.
And the Lord was with him.
And he prospered whithersoever he went forth.
And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not.
Listen.
Blessings come from God.
Let's go back to Deuteronomy.
Remember Deuteronomy?
Chapter 8.
Look at verse 14.
Deuteronomy chapter 8.
We were just there a minute ago.
Deuteronomy chapter 8.14.
Notice what the Bible says.
Then thine heart be lifted up.
We already talked about that.
And thou forget the Lord thy God.
Well what's so dangerous about forgetting the Lord thy God?
Here's what's dangerous.
Thou forget the Lord thy God which,
verse 14, brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.
He said don't forget the Lord who brought you out of bondage.
Verse 15.
Who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness?
Who brought you out of bondage?
The Lord thy God.
Who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness?
The Lord thy God.
Whereon were fiery serpents and scorpions?
You guys should be able to understand that.
And drought?
Where there was no water?
Who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint?
Look at verse 16.
Who fed thee?
By the way, he's saying this to Old Testament Israel, but this applies to New Testament Israel as well.
If the question is who brought you out of bondage, the answer is the Lord thy God.
If the question is who led thee, the answer is the Lord thy God.
If the question is who fed you this morning, the answer is the Lord thy God.
Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee and that he might provoke thee to do thee good at thy latter end.
Verse 17.
And thou say in thine heart.
See, this is the problem with success.
The problem with success is that if you do not have the discernment to say blessings come from God,
blessings come from God, then success could deceive you into thinking this.
Verse 18.
Verse 17.
And thou shall say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this well.
The problem with success is that we start thinking, oh, I did this.
It's my power and my might.
It's my intelligence and my strategy.
It's my go-getting-ness.
It's my character.
It's me.
My power, my might.
The might of mine hand hath gotten me this well.
Verse 18.
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God.
Look at it.
For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.
Listen to me.
If you got up in this today and you worked hard today and you made a lot of money today.
You say, I made a lot of money because I'm very strong.
You're strong because God allowed you to be strong.
Oh, I'm doing really well in life because I'm so intelligent.
If you've got a brain in that skull of yours, it's because God put it there.
You say, well, I have this great idea and I started this business.
God gave you that idea.
You understand that everything we have, look, you and I woke up this morning because God allowed us to.
All blessings come from God.
It all comes from the Lord.
James says it this way.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lies.
So the discernment of success is this, that blessings come from God.
But here's the thing.
And this is, you say, I know that.
Okay.
You're like teenagers.
You tell a teenager something and they're like, I know.
It's like, well, if you know, why aren't you doing it?
I know all that.
Okay, well, here's the part you may not have thought of.
Now, you guys are smart.
Maybe you have.
Go to Exodus 23.
Blessings come from God.
You say, well, why is it so complicated?
Why is there the deceitfulness of success?
Why does success sometimes deceive us?
Why do we need discernment to perceive and look at success properly?
Why do we need it?
Here's why.
Because blessings come from God.
But here's the other reason and the part that I want you to get.
That blessings come gradually.
Exodus 23.
Look at verse 25.
Exodus 23, 25.
And ye shall serve the Lord your God and he shall bless.
Isn't that good?
I mean, isn't that what you, I would imagine that you, if you're here on a Wednesday night,
that you would want it to be said of you, I serve the Lord my God
and he blesses me.
And there's nothing wrong with feeling that way.
It's in the Bible.
And ye shall serve the Lord your God and he shall bless thee.
Look.
Look what he says.
Thy bread and thy water.
And I will take away, he says, I will take sickness away.
Now look, I'm not Benny Hinn up here.
But God is saying even health is the blessing of God.
He said, I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
There shall nothing cast their young nor be barren in thy land.
The number of thy days I will fulfill.
I will send my fear before thee and I will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come
and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
He says, look, I'm going to bless your bread and your water.
I'm going to take sickness away.
He said, I'm going to protect you and I'm going to provide for you
and I'm going to put my providence upon you
and I'm going to put prosperity upon you.
Look at verse 28.
And I will send hornets before thee which shall drive out the high fight
and the Canaanite and the Hittite from before thee.
Verse 29, I will not.
Here's the catch though.
Because up to this point it sounds pretty good.
I mean, up to this point it kind of sounds like a Pentecostal sermon.
I mean, he's saying healthy and wealthy, blessed, right?
Get the license plate in your car that says blast.
But then here's what he says in verse 29.
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year.
What he's telling them is this.
And he's literally talking to the nation of Israel that's going to go into the promised land.
He said, I'm going to give you all this land but I'm going to give it to you gradually.
It's not going to happen in one year.
Say, well why not just give it to us in one year?
He says, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee.
He says, you're not ready to handle the entire land yet.
You're not physically ready.
And he's talking physically numerically to people.
He says, you're not ready to handle the land.
He says, I will not drive them out from before thee in one year.
Lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee.
Verse 30, by little and little.
I will drive them out from before thee until, look at it, until thou be increased and inherit the land.
He said, I'm going to drive them out by little and little till when God, until thou be increased.
Till when God, until you're ready to handle it.
So the blessings, they come from God.
But they also come gradually.
They come gradually.
Look, the blessings of God do not come quickly.
It's not the blessings of God.
We want the blessings of God to be like winning the lottery.
Right?
Just overnight.
Some of you literally are playing the lottery and then you're praying about it and it's kind of like,
I don't know how that works.
I guess as long as you tithe if you win, I don't know.
But listen to me, winning the lottery is not the blessing of God.
It's actually a curse.
But we hope for like a spiritual lottery, right?
We're like, Lord, please let there be some uncle that I don't know.
And maybe make him a sodomite and kill him.
And let him leave me millions, right?
And we think, man, if I just got millions of dollars overnight, that'd be the blessing.
But listen to me, that's not how the blessing of God works.
Because that would ruin your life.
In fact, blessings coming too quickly would ruin you.
I remember there was a guy in our church.
His name was Dale.
I'm only telling you his name because the name Dale is pretty generic.
I don't think you're going to find him on Facebook.
This guy Dale started coming to our church and he was an older man
and he lived just down the street from our church building
and he lived in a halfway house and he had struggled with drugs and alcohol
and we knocked on his door and got him saved and followed up with him
and he started coming to church, started riding our church van and coming to church
and slowly he began to grow.
He began to, obviously he first got saved.
We baptized him. He began to experience a victory in the areas of drug and alcohol.
He started soul winning.
He even sang in our choir.
This is the picture of our choir back then. This was years ago.
You've got all these independent fundamental Baptists and then there's Dale.
You can just tell that he's not like the others.
He wore a shirt and tie that day because we make people in our choir wear a shirt and tie.
He went out and found a shirt and tie. I was happy.
Dale's life began to grow. He began to mature.
Then one day, somebody in our church, and I don't fault this family,
they were just trying to be a blessing.
Somebody in our church, because Dale, he ended up moving a little bit
and he didn't want to burden our van so he could still walk to church.
They saw him walking to church and they gave him a car.
They wanted it to be a blessing. They got a new vehicle.
They were getting rid of an older vehicle. It was a good condition.
They gave him a car. They gave him a car. We never saw Dale again.
That's the danger of blessings.
I mean, some of you, literally, if you had a sodomite uncle that died
and you inherited millions of dollars, we might not ever see you again.
It's just the way it works.
But see, the blessings of God, they come gradually.
Here's the discernment about the blessings of God because
the thing about the blessings of God and why we need discernment is there are these two extremes.
One extreme is that they come so gradually.
They come so slowly that we don't identify them.
So we think to ourselves, God isn't blessing me. God doesn't care about me.
God doesn't see me. God isn't helping me.
But the truth is this, if you had a discernment for success,
if you got some discernment for success and if you really took an inventory of your life
and you said, wow, I got saved ten years ago. I got saved eight years ago.
I got saved five years ago. And by the way, getting saved isn't going to change your life.
It only changes your destination.
But if you say, I got saved and I started to come to church
and I started to actually do what the Bible says, that's what will change your life.
And if you actually look back and realize, wow,
slowly but surely the Lord has been blessing.
By the way, this is why God puts certain things in our lives to stop us to take inventory.
I think one of the reasons the Bible says this, one of the reasons that we have days and weeks and months and years.
His mercies are new every day.
Every year we can stop and look back at the previous year and say, look how long we've came.
Look how far we've came. Look what God has done.
The Lord recently blessed our church and helped our church.
Many of you know, many of you have been saying kind words and we appreciate it.
Our church just recently purchased a 3.5 million dollar location.
Four acre property, 400 seat auditorium.
We moved in two weeks ago on Sunday.
And our last Sunday in our old building, we had 250 in church that morning.
Our first Sunday in the new building, we had 300 in church. 300 exactly.
We actually had 299 for most of the service.
But then a guy that works at the shoe store next door to our property saw the activity,
decided to come in to see what was going on, stayed for 15 minutes and then left because his break was over.
And I said, count them. Count the guy.
I mean, game.
And the Lord blessed us last week.
And I don't say any of this to boast or brag. I hope you understand my heart.
Last week was our second week in our service.
How some of you know, we have this vision offering we do every year.
The Lord allowed our church family, and not just our church family, but many friends and family throughout the country,
to raise 184,000 dollars in one special offering.
We're going to spend it all on air conditioning.
All I'm saying is this.
Success has the tendency, if you don't watch out for it, for you to start thinking, for me to start thinking,
wow, we really got this thing put together now.
And we should remember that the blessings that we experience in our life, they come from God.
And they happen gradually.
And when I look back to 13 years ago, when my wife and I started Verity Baptist Church in the living room of our house
with three or four people, I remember preaching sermons on Sunday nights.
There'd be three or four people there on a Sunday night.
And we look back and we can see that God has been with us and God has blessed us.
But let us always remember that it is God who has helped us.
It is the Lord who has helped us.
It is the Lord, and your story is the same way.
Look at this place, full on a Wednesday night.
You guys started in a living room and the Lord has mightily blessed Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And the reputation of this church is known and your pastor is known throughout the entire world.
And it's the blessing of God.
But we have to remember, and this is what we need to remember, is that blessings come from God and blessings come gradually, slowly.
So if you don't have the discernment to see it, you might think, I'm not being blessed.
Well maybe you should stop for a moment and look at where you came from.
I think this is why God has you tied every time you get paid.
So you can stop and you write that check and you're like, wow, that was a good paycheck.
Why? So I can get lifted up with pride? No, so you can say glory to God.
Blessings come from God and blessings come gradually.
So I said number one, we see the deceitfulness of success. Number two, we see the discernment of success.
But I'd like you to notice thirdly tonight, the destruction of success.
Go to 2 Chronicles 23 if you would. Excuse me, 2 Chronicles 32.
Let's look at the story of another king, Hezekiah. Back to Hezekiah.
The destruction of success. Look at 2 Chronicles 32 and verse 24.
The Bible says, in those days Hezekiah was sick to death and prayed unto the Lord and he spake unto him and he gave him a sign.
But Hezekiah, notice the words, look at it, just look at it.
But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him.
Hezekiah did not realize that he did not get himself where he was by himself.
Other people helped him. Other people invested in him. The Lord helped him. The Lord was with him.
And the Bible says that he rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him.
Look at it, don't miss it. Have you noticed how this comes up over and over again in the Bible?
Verse 25, for his heart was lifted up.
For his heart was lifted up. But I want you to notice the destruction of success.
First comes pride, then comes destruction. Look at it.
For his heart was lifted up, therefore there was wrath upon him.
Do you understand? Do you understand that when you started and things were falling apart and things weren't going well?
And then you humbled yourself and you got saved. You humbled yourself and you began to listen to the preaching.
You humbled yourself and said, oh, that's how marriage is supposed to work.
Oh, that's how God wants me to lead my home as a man.
Oh, that's how God wants me to be as a wife with a meek and quiet spirit.
Oh, that's how God wants me to work as unto the Lord and not unto men, not with eye services.
Oh, that's what God wants for our finances.
Oh, that's how God wants us to spend our time.
Oh, God wants us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
God wants us to go out soul winning and as a result, God began to bless and God began to bless and God began to bless.
But listen to me, when you get over here, let's not forget he blessed you because you were a soul winner.
Do you understand that? Because you were in church. Do you understand that?
Because you were bringing up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Do you understand that?
He didn't bless you because of you. He blessed you because of him.
And when you and I get to the place where we think, oh, look how great I am, look how mighty I am, and our heart gets lifted up,
and then the Bible says the wrath comes upon us.
First comes pride, then comes destruction.
By the way, let me just say to you young people,
don't think that God's blessing upon your parents is going to automatically be given to you.
Because God blessed them, because God blessed them, because way back yonder they made a decision,
Dad made a decision, I'm not going to work on Sunday.
Dad made a decision, Mom made a decision, I'm going to read the Bible every day, I'm going to pray every day,
I'm going to be a soul winner, and then there's this whole, we're going to honor the Lord, and we're going to love God,
and we're going to walk with God, and that's why your family's been blessed.
And then you grow up in that, and you think, oh, that's just going to happen.
Even though I'm not doing what they were doing, it doesn't work that way.
It doesn't work that way.
Because your parents were not blessed because of who they were.
Your parents were blessed because of who they were following, the Lord.
And if they stop, the blessing will stop, and if you never even start, the blessing won't start.
First, first comes pride, then comes destruction.
I mean, I know we're looking at a lot of verses, and I've got to go because I have a flight to catch.
But can I show you another, go to Daniel chapter 5.
Towards the end of the New Testament, Daniel chapter 5, after Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations of Ezekiel, Daniel.
Daniel chapter 5, look at verse 18.
This is Daniel speaking to Belshazzar, interpreting the writing on the wall, look at it.
O thou king, O thou king, this is Daniel speaking to Belshazzar, O thou king, look at it.
The Most High God, I love that phrase.
The Most High God, I love that phrase, but that's not what I want you to see.
What I want you to see is the next word.
The Lord, the Most High God, look at it, gave.
The Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor.
And of the majesty that he, who's he? The Most High God.
That he gave him, who's him? Nebuchadnezzar.
And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations and languages trembled and feared before him,
whom he would, he slew, and whom he would, he kept alive, and whom he would, he set up, and whom he would, he put down.
Look at verse 20.
But, don't miss it, look, aren't you, isn't it, aren't you a little curious, like wow, this comes up a lot in the Bible.
End of 5-20, but when his heart was lifted up, please listen to me, don't allow this but to be in the tale of your life.
Oh, you should have seen them, they were doing great.
I mean, their marriage was going well, and their kids were doing well, and finances were good, but,
the Bible says here, but when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened, look at it, in pride, he was deposed.
You see the word deposed there? It means removed forcibly.
He was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.
Let us always remember, everything you have came from God, and everything you have can be taken by God.
And I'm not trying to threaten you, I'm not trying to scare you, I'm not trying to do anything, but just give you some perspective here,
and let us always remember that we are one core accident away from having God take everything we have.
And he gave it to you, and he can take it away.
He was deposed, he was deposed, look, we're just one, we're just one medical report away.
We're just one meeting away, you can go to work tomorrow morning and get a message that your boss needs to see you in his office.
You're just one announcement away, we're just, look, everything we have came from God, and he can take it.
He can take it whenever he wants.
By the way, this is why we should hold the things of this earth loosely.
We should live our lives in such a way, like Job who said, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Everything I have, God gave me, and if he wants to take it, that's his prerogative.
Look at it, verse 23, Daniel 5, 23, but thou has lifted, excuse me, Daniel 5, verse 20.
But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne,
and they took his glory from him, and he was driven from the sons of man, and his heart was made like the beast,
and his dwelling was with the wild asses, they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven.
Notice, I just love it, if you don't mind marking in your Bible, you ought to underline this phrase in your Bible.
Till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointed over it whomsoever he will.
God is the one who promotes, God is the one who puts down, God is the one, the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men.
And look, all of that is just saying what the Proverb succinctly says, pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
So we see the deceitfulness of success, what is it? Success is the propensity to make people be lifted up with pride.
Pride has the tendency to make people forget and forsake God. We see the discernment of success, what is it?
Discerning the fact that blessings come from God, and blessings come gradually.
So we need to look at them and identify that all our blessings came from God, but we also, because here's the other extreme of discernment of success, it's this.
One extreme is that we don't realize that God has been blessing us all along.
The other extreme is that we don't realize that God has been blessing us all along, and then one day we wake up and realize the blessings.
But because we don't identify that it's been God doing it, it's been the invisible hand of God, it's been God working on the other side.
I try to teach our church family, God's always working on the other side.
Joseph didn't raise himself out of prison, God was working on the other side.
Joseph didn't make Pharaoh have a dream, Mordecai didn't raise himself, Esther didn't save herself, God was working on the other side.
God kept the king awake, God made them bring him the books, God did this work.
Look, the blessings of God, anything that you and I walk into, God met us there.
It's always been God working on the other side.
We should remember that.
When you wake up one day and you realize, wow, my life's actually pretty good right now.
Let us always remember that it has been God, the invisible hand of God, working on the other side.
So we see the deceitfulness of success, the discernment of success.
We see the destruction of success, first pride, then destruction.
First pride, then destruction. Pride caused before destruction.
A haughty spirit before a fall.
You say, Pastor, amen, it's okay, we get it, we understand it.
So what do we do? What do we do?
Let me give you real quickly, just real quickly, two applications by way of conclusion and we'll finish up.
What do we do with all this?
What do we do with all this knowledge? What do we do with all this understanding?
What do we do? Number one, purposefully humble yourself.
Don't make God humble you, you humble you.
Daniel 5 verse 22, Daniel speaking to Belshazzar, look at it.
And thou his son, Daniel speaking to Belshazzar about Nebuchadnezzar, O Belshazzar,
has not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this,
but has lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven,
and they have brought the vessels of the house before thee,
and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine in them,
and thou has praised the gods of silver and gold and brass and iron and wood and stone,
which see not, which hear not, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is.
And whose art all thy ways has thou not glorified.
They literally brought, they brought, I don't have time to go into it, you can study on your own,
but if you remember in Exodus, all the vessels, all the different things that were prepared for the tabernacle,
for the service of God, they brought that out and they were having a drunken party drinking out of the vessels of God.
And here Daniel says to him, and the God in whose hand thy breath is.
Look, these are the types of things we should just underline in our Bibles.
The God in whose hand thy breath is. You've not honored him.
You've not glorified him. Thou has not glorified.
Go to 2 Chronicles 32. Look at verse 26. 2 Chronicles 32 verse 26.
2 Chronicles 32 verse 26. Look at it. This is back to the story of Hezekiah.
Not withstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
Look, when you wake up one day and like the prodigal son in the gutter, you come to the end of yourself and you realize,
oh wow, it turns out it wasn't my strength, it wasn't my intelligence, it wasn't my strategy,
it wasn't my charm, it wasn't my ability, it turns out it was the blessing of God upon my life.
When you get there and you wake up one day, just humble yourself.
Just humble yourself.
Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
Go to 2 Chronicles 12. Look at verse 12. Look at the story of Rehoboam.
2 Chronicles 12 verse 12. Notice what the Bible says.
And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him. Aren't you amazed how consistent God is?
God helps them, God blesses them, they get lifted up with pride, God takes away the blessing,
God judges them and God brings his wrath upon them.
They humble themselves and God forgives them.
Look at it. 2 Chronicles 12 verse 12.
And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him that he would not destroy them altogether.
Just look at how it ends.
And also in Judah things went well.
It's like God blesses him, lifted up with pride, everything goes bad.
He humbles himself and all things went well.
Look, I'm not saying that the blessing of God is going to be you driving a Lamborghini and living in a million dollar house,
or I don't know, maybe houses just cost a million dollars now.
I know in California they do.
Whatever the impressive number is, that, you know.
I'm not saying that's the blessing, but you know what the blessing of God is?
Is that you live your life at peace with all men.
And that though you have trials and we have tribulations and we have problems,
the peace of God that passeth all understanding and the comfort of the Holy Spirit
allows us to just go through life.
And you know, at the end of the day, we look at things and we say, it is well.
Things are going well.
I just think it's interesting that the story of Rehoboam there, or excuse me, of Hezekiah there.
Excuse me, Rehoboam, I'm looking at too many kings in 2 Chronicles.
And also in Judah things went well.
Isn't that what we all want?
Isn't that what you want for your children?
That things went well.
Isn't that what you want for your marriage? Things went well.
Okay, let's go to the New Testament real quickly.
I got to do this fast. 1 Corinthians 4.
1 Corinthians 4.
In 1 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul is talking to the Corinthian church
and he gives them several questions regarding humility.
I call these discerning questions.
The type of questions that aren't meant for you and I to answer,
they're meant for us to ask it,
think about the answer and ponder upon it.
And think about it on a regular basis. Look at it.
1 Corinthians 4 verse 7.
For who maketh thee to differ from another?
That's a discerning question.
Who maketh thee to differ from another?
Look, if you're so great,
if you're so different than everyone else,
if your house is so much better,
if your cars are so much better,
if your job is so much better,
if you're so much better looking,
if you're so great in comparison to everybody else,
if you're so different than everyone else,
then the question I got to ask you is this.
Who maketh thee to differ from another?
Brother Segura was confessing to me.
Maybe preparing me, I don't know.
Somebody wrote on the poster back there
a picture of me and Pastor Thompson.
They wrote, not to scale.
Now, I think that's hilarious.
I think it's hilarious.
The question I like, you know,
but what I think is funny is that, you know,
tall people, can I just get real kind of petty
and bitter right now?
Tall people, they really pride themselves on being tall.
But the question I was gonna ask them was like,
well, who made you tall?
Like, is there like a test that I failed
and then like, oh.
There's like an exam.
I mean, it's always interesting to me
that we get really proud about something
that we had absolutely no control over.
I'm not gonna say the expression,
but the point is this.
If you're so great, who maketh thee to differ?
If you're so smart, who made you so smart?
For who maketh thee to differ from another?
And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
What do you have that wasn't given to you?
What do you have that you did not,
that you create yourself?
Did you make yourself?
You say, I'm so strong, I'm so smart,
I'm so this, I'm so that.
What do you have that was not given to you and to me?
These are discerning questions.
For who maketh thee to differ from another?
And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it,
here's the point that he's making.
If you did receive it, here's the point that he's making.
If you didn't make yourself as beautiful as you are,
but somebody else made you that beautiful.
If you didn't make yourself as smart as you are,
but somebody else made you that smart.
If you didn't make yourself as strong as you are,
but somebody else made you that strong.
If you didn't make yourself as successful as you are,
but somebody else made you that successful,
the idea is this.
Why dost thou glory?
Look at it.
Why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?
The word glory means to boast, to brag.
The point is this, everything I have,
everything I have, anything that I have
that may be impressive to anybody,
which I understand is not much, I get that.
But anything you and I have that might be impressive,
if it was given to us,
then why do we boast about it as though it was not given to us?
You guys that want to preach,
if you get up by the grace of God
and the Holy Spirit helps you
and you preach a good sermon and somebody says,
wow, that was an amazing sermon,
don't let that go to your head.
Well, to God be the glory.
Praise God.
Praise the Lord.
Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?
Has not received it.
These are the types of questions
that are meant to keep us humble.
And here's what I'm telling you,
purposefully humble yourself
and don't be this person who says,
you know the prideful, humble person?
Oh, I'm real humble, I'm very proud of it.
Don't be that guy.
But true humility, true humility
is not thinking less of myself
because thinking less of myself
is still thinking about myself.
True humility is saying,
everything I have, God gave me.
Every ability I have, God gave me.
Everything that I'm slightly good at,
God just helped me.
Any victories we've had,
any successes we've had,
anything we've done that turned out well,
to God be the glory.
So we must purposefully humble ourselves.
Go to Galatians chapter six.
Galatians chapter six, look at verse three.
Galatians six, three.
And if a man think himself to be something
when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself.
He deceiveth himself.
Keep your place right there in Galatians.
Go back to Second Chronicles real quickly.
If you don't mind, just real quickly.
I know it's a Wednesday night
and I'm going a little long.
I came all the way from Sacramento.
Just let me finish this, okay?
Second Chronicles 17.
Keep your place in Galatians.
We're gonna come right back to it.
What do we do?
Number one, purposefully humble yourself.
Purposefully honor the Lord.
Let me show you a man here
by the name of Jehoshaphat, another king.
Second Chronicles 17, one.
And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his stead
and strengthened himself against Israel.
Doesn't that sound like all the other kings
strengthened himself against Israel?
And he placed forces in all the cities of Judah.
Doesn't that sound like all the other kings?
And set garrisons in the land of Judah
and in the cities of Ephraim,
which Esau his father had taken.
And he placed Jehoshaphat.
Doesn't that sound like all the other kings
that we've been looking at tonight?
Because he walked in the first ways of his father David
and sought not unto Balaam.
Doesn't that sound like all the other kings
that were blessed of God?
Verse four.
But sought to the Lord God of his father
and walked in his commandments
and not after the doings of Israel.
Therefore the Lord established the kingdom
in his hand and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat
presence and he had riches and honor and abundance.
Doesn't that sound like all the other kings
that were blessed of God?
Right?
Verse six.
And his heart
was lifted up.
Oh no.
Uh oh.
And his heart was lifted up.
It's starting to sound like all the other kings.
Right?
King Uzziah, his heart was lifted up.
King Hezekiah, for his heart was lifted up.
King Nebuchadnezzar, but when his heart was lifted up.
King Belshazzar, but has lifted up thyself
against the Lord of Heaven.
King Nebuchadnezzar, but has lifted up
because of thy riches.
The devil, thine heart was lifted up
because of thy beauty.
Deuteronomy warned, then thine heart be lifted up.
Now forget the Lord thy God.
And here in verse six it says,
and his heart was lifted up and we saw
that God blessed him and God helped him
and it kind of sounds like all the other kings
but this one, this one story is a little different
because I want you to notice how it ends.
Verse 12.
And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly
in the cities of store and he had much business
in the city of Judah and the men of war,
mighty men of valor were in Jerusalem.
Notice this story ends differently.
God didn't destroy him.
It ends with him continuing to be blessed.
So what happened?
Go back to verse six.
And his heart was lifted up.
Here's the difference.
In the ways of the Lord.
His heart was not lifted up in his own pride.
His heart was not lifted up and saying,
look how great I am.
Look how amazing I am.
Look at what I've accomplished.
His heart was lifted up and the Lord saying,
look how great the Lord is.
Look at what God has done.
Look at the accomplishments of God.
Look at what the Lord has accomplished.
Let me tell you something.
You want to brag?
Brag on God.
You want to boast?
Boast on God.
You want to glory, glory on God.
Look, stop trying.
We must stop trying to take all the credit
for all the good things that God has done in our lives.
Last verse, we'll look at it.
Galatians six, verse 14.
Here's what Paul said.
Galatians six, 14.
But God forbid that I should glory.
God forbid that I should boast,
that I should brag,
that I should glory.
Then he says this, save.
The word save means accept.
He says save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world.
You know what Paul said?
I'm not going to boast and brag about anything
but if I am going to boast and I am going to brag
it's going to be about the Lord Jesus Christ.
If my heart is going to be lifted up
it's going to be lifted up in the Lord.
I'm going to lift up the Lord.
I'm going to say to God be the glory.
Great things He have done.
It's a delusion of success.
It's this idea that we look at success
and we think that somehow we did it.
We orchestrated it.
We planned it and we strategized it
and listened to me.
I'm all for working hard.
If you know me I'm all for organization
and planning and strategy and systems
and excellence and doing everything we can
to make sure things work out well
but let us always remember
when they do work out well,
when they go based upon plan,
when things prosper and things are going
and things are happening and things are thriving
let us never think.
It was us.
Because you know that family I told you about?
I didn't tell you their name.
You know why I didn't tell you their name?
Because I've seen multiple families like that.
I've seen many families like that.
And I'm sure over the last many years
of ministry here you've seen them too.
And the problem is,
the problem is that if we do not have
the discernment to understand
that blessings come from God
and blessings come gradually
then we get the deceitfulness of success.
We get deceived by success
when we do not discern success
because success has the propensity
to make people be lifted up in pride
and pride has a tendency
to make people forget and forsake God.
And then we suffer the destruction of success
because when pride comes in
then comes destruction.
And it could be the very thing
that God meant to be a blessing to you
we turn into a curse.
So what do we do?
We purposefully humble ourselves
we purposefully honor the Lord.
We say to God be the glory.
Great things he hath done.
That's why our heads in our board of prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Lord we do love you
and Lord I pray
that the thought
in this sermon,
the warning in this message
that it would connect
with all of us
and help us to never be deceived
by the delusion of success.
Help us never to allow the things
that were meant to be a blessing
in our lives to be the very things
that drive us away
from the source of that blessing
because it's always been
about God.
It's always been
about God
it's always been
about us drawing close to God.
Help us never to forget it.
In the matchless name of Christ
we pray.
Amen.