Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Autumn 2013 | Page 51
People say pride is like bad breath—
it’s hard to tell when you have it. But
everyone else knows, right? Some of
you are arrogant, but you almost don’t
know that you are. Thinking back on
my own life, I’d like to protect you
from such pride and to teach you to
humble yourselves so that God gives
you grace.
Second Chronicles 16:9 says, “The
eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth to give
strong support to those whose heart is
blameless toward him.” This is what
we all want —to say God is going to
look at me, and he is going to strongly
support me.
And yet, the context of this passage is
the story of King Asa, who hears the
word of God and starts changing all of
Judah. He calls on the people to repair
the altar and destroy all the idols. He
gathers the people together to make a
covenant to be for God. They start
sacrificing to the Lord again. At the
end of the chapter it says there was no
more war until the 35th year of King
Asa’s reign.
Then crazy things happen. In the
36th year, the armies of Israel come
against him. So what does Asa do?
He asks the King of Syria to form an
alliance. A prophet comes to King Asa
and says, “Don’t you remember the
army of Ethiopia? Remember how
massive it was? But you still won, right?
Why? Because you trusted in the Lord.
Now you’ve done a foolish thing by
relying on this other king and not on
the Lord.” The prophet tells Asa he’s
going to lose.
This is the context in which God is
looking for someone who actually
believes and relies on him. That is the
person who will have his strong
support.
King Asa thought if he got that
other king lined up, he would win.
But that’s not how it happens in this
“God opposes the
proud. He physically,
literally does
something to oppose
the proud, and yet he
gives grace to
the humble.”
Book, which says, “I want you to
dwindle down your army to 300,
because I want to show you that this is
about me and not about you.” It’s
about humbling yourself.
Things don’t always work out like we
think they will. They just don’t. But
some of the best things in life are the
things we did not plan.
It’s so amazing when you win these
wars, when you ask yourself, How in the
world did I pull that off? But you know
it wasn’t you. And there’s a rush in
knowing, God’s with me right now.
There’s no way I could have done that.
God did that through me.
I hope this time at Wheaton has
helped you become a new person. You
can probably look back and praise God
for how you’ve changed. But be careful
because as you grow, there may be areas
in your life that slip.
Reading through my old sermons
recently brought me to tears as I looked
at the boldness I used to have. I read
one sermon where I talked about how
even the birth of my son paled when
compared with the times I’d had with
Jesus. As I read, I started to cry and ask,
“What’s happened to me?” Some of the
successes and pressures started to take
me away from that time where I was
like a little kid coming before Jesus. I
felt the Lord saying to me from
Revelation 3, “Strengthen what
remains and is about to die.”
The horrible thing about King Asa was
that when he was confronted about the
lack of reliance on God in his life, he
didn’t repent. Instead, he put the prophet
in stocks. Then in his 39th year, the Lord
put severe disease on his feet. Then he had
to repent, right? No, instead he found the
best doctors. He didn’t turn to the Lord.
He died two years later.
I don’t want to go down King Asa’s road
of self-pride. I am going back to God.
Humbling myself.
You guys have persevered and worked
hard. If you couple such achievement with
total reliance on Jesus, amazing things will
happen in your life.
I ask you to believe that this prayer I am
going to pray over you will do more for
you than a diploma. The eyes of the Lord
will run to and fro throughout this group
looking to support those who believe and
rely only on him.
Lord, you hear my voice because of
the blood of Jesus, because I trust that
Jesus died on that cross for all of my
sins. It is by grace we’ve been saved,
through faith, not by works. So
not one here can brag. Lord, I want so
badly for a new generation to rise up
who really believes your word. I pray
your Holy Spirit would fill these
students in a unique way. I pray that
you would humble the proud, God, so
that they will draw close to you. May
they live supernatural lives so that
everyone who looks at their lives years
from now thinks, That could not have
happened. We don’t want to live
ordinary lives that are explainable apart
from you. That’s not life at all. I pray
these students would get to experience
you, know you, love you, and be
empowered by you. In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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