What was it about King Uzziah?

So me being the person I am, I cant just hear a sermon then go home and not think about it anymore.

Sunday past I visited New Birth Charlotte and Pastor Murphy preached from Isaiah 6:1-4. As he continued to speak through the scripture he gave an awesome illustration. As he was teaching Pastor Murphy talked about Uzziah's in our life. Those things that come into place before God. Things like control, Independence, worry, greed, etc. The illustration was designed to show how we mess up things when we try to fix them instead of giving them to GOD.

OK, OK. . .this is the illustration. Go into your kitchen and get two glasses. Fill one halfway with juice, a dark soda or kool aid anything with color. Fill the other halfway with some water. Now think about the situations in your life going on right now. Examples given in church. . .a decision to purchase a home. You go out and shop for it without praying for direction. So take a little bit of water and poor it into the juice. You decide to start dating but don't talk to God about the person. Pour more water in the juice. You find a new car that you like and again you make the decision to purchase before prayer. Pour more water into that juice. You go shopping instead of paying your bills (that was mine). . .that's a big one so pour the rest of the water into the juice.

Now. . .look at what you have there. An empty glass that represents you and a glass full of watered down juice which represents God. So now instead of enjoying a nice glass of juice you have a nasty mess on your hands. Because of our inability to give our daily situations to God we now find ourselves empty with no power. The one with all power now has to filter through our mess before He starts working for us. So what does this say? Here is what I got out of this.

Pride comes before every fall. King Uzziah became so prideful that he went into the Temple to light incense. That wasn't his job. He was out of line. God was with Uzziah and blessed him during his reign. It was when Uzziah began to think more highly of himself and start doing the things that God should be doing that God turned His back on him.

Control, independence, greed and worry are all different faces of pride. We try to control others and things because we don't think GOD can handle them. We are independent because we don't think that God can take care of us. We are greedy because we try to keep up with others and get all we can to make us look good. We worry because we don't have faith to trust GOD to fix it. You may not try to do these things intentionally and scary enough some of us are very aware of what it is we are doing.

GOD has blessed us like He blessed Uzziah to reign as a successful king. Uzziah was 16 when he became king. A young man trusted to rule over the kingdom. GOD placed priests in his life to help him rule with great success. God was with Uzziah until he became powerful. Do you know when GOD blessed Uzziah. When he was in battle. Uzziah was famous for creating machines that could protect the people and could hurl large stones. So the very thing that posed a threat, that seemed impossible, was what GOD gifted Uzziah for. Not to bore you I will wrap this up by saying that GOD is not blessing us so that we can play god.

Don't overstep your boundaries or you will be an example of what happens when one steps outside of the will of GOD. Uzziah was buried in a place outside of where the kings were. According to one source, it states that he was buried in "that lonely grave in the royal necropolis would eloquently testify to coming generations that all earthly monarchy must bow before the inviolable order of the divine will, and that no interference could be tolerated with that unfolding of the purposes of God..." (Dr. Green's Kingdom of Israel). In a nutshell, God will not allow anyone to get in the way of his plan, not even us. To do so, to act in pride, puts us outside of the will of God and in the path of judgment. Uzziah was banned from the kingdom and his son took over as king.

Don't be the reason why GOD removes you from your place of blessings because you want to control everything and everybody. Don't just give somebody else your seat because you have become so independent that you don't need GOD.

My prayer tonight dear GOD is that you will help me to release all things unto you. I pray that I begin to trust you like never before to provide and guide me. I know that you are the true source with all power and admit to my trying to play god. Help me even now to accept the help that you have provided while I patiently wait for you. Continue to unfold your plan and direct me in the path that I should go. Thank you for your mercy and grace. Thank you for not moving me into a place of loneliness because of my pride. Thank you for giving me another chance to experience your blessings in the midst of all that has taken place. You have blessed me for this battle and I will give honor to you.

Amen