Be Humble or You'll Stumble - Part B

So here is God with that name giving it to Jesus Christ, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Now, as amazing as this passage is theologically, that really isn't Paul's point. Paul's point is ethically. He's using Jesus as an example for us.

So what Paul is trying to say is, look, here's the principle. God exalts the humble. Writer Andrew Murray said, Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how an attitude of humility invites God to work wonderfully in your life. But before we begin, here's a resource that will nourish your soul with God's amazing truths. Reading the Bible can lead to asking some serious questions like, is the rapture real or how can I overcome anxiety? These two questions are among those answered in Pastor Skip's Picks, a new DVD of four impactful messages by Skip Heitzig. Imagine knowing somebody who knows everything about you.

Now imagine somebody who knows everything about you and loves you anyway. That's what we're dealing with when we deal with the knowledge of God. This collection of some of Pastor Skip's most memorable teachings also includes what most people don't know about heaven. And it's our thanks for your gift of $25 or more to connect more people to God's life changing word.

Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888. 800-922-1888 and request your copy of Pastor Skip's Picks. Okay, let's get into today's teaching. We're in Philippians chapter 2 as we begin our study with Skip Heitzig. A thought struck me as I was going through the study this week. I'm going through this, I'm looking at what God's estimation is of Jesus in exalting Him and this thought struck me. God the Father's treatment of Christ, view of Christ, estimation of Christ is the polar opposite of the world's estimation of Christ.

For the most part it is. So here's an example, when Jesus came to heal the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue in Luke 8, it says, they laughed Him to scorn. When Jesus said, no man can serve two masters, you can't serve God and money, we are told the Pharisees sneered at Him. When Jesus raised up Lazarus from the dead, the leaders plotted to put Him to death. When Jesus stood before that same crowd, the Sanhedrin in Matthew 26, they spat in His face, they beat Him, others struck Him with the palms of their hands. And when Jesus was given by them to the Romans, it says they struck Him, they mocked Him and they led Him away to be crucified. So how did the world treat Jesus?

With rejection and extermination. How did God treat Jesus? With hyper-exaltation, super-exaltation. Now the focus of Paul is the upward trajectory after the cross, the upward trajectory of being exalted.

God highly exalted Him. What I want to do is sort of expand your knowledge of that and let you know that the exaltation of Christ came in four phases. First of all, there was the resurrection.

Jesus died at the hands of sinful men. But it says in Acts chapter 2, Peter says, this Jesus whom you crucified, God has raised up to new life. Resurrection, first phase of the exaltation.

Second phase, His ascension into heaven. The disciples were there when it happened. They stood on the Mount of Olives, they're standing there with Jesus and suddenly He starts like floating up.

They're watching. He vanished out of their sight. He left, He ascended up into heaven where He sits at the right hand of God. It takes us to the third phase after the resurrection, after the ascension, His dominion. Jesus after the resurrection said, all authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. So Jesus took His rightful place of dominion with the Father in heaven. And the fourth phase was a new position for Jesus, intercession. Intercession.

Here's what I want you to think of. Jesus is not inactive. He's not just sitting around heaven looking at the Father going, so what do we do today?

Are we just going to hang out together? No, He's very busy. He's very active. Jesus died on the cross. He acted as Savior by becoming the sacrifice. Today He is playing the role of the great high priest.

So this is what the book of Hebrews says in chapter 7. He, Jesus, always lives to make intercession for us. You know what intercession is, right? He's praying for you. How does that make you feel? Jesus Christ is praying for you, speaking about you to His Father.

Can you lose with that? I mean, I don't know how you feel when somebody goes, hey, I've been praying for you lately. You go, thank you, that makes me feel really good. Jesus is saying to you, I've been praying for you lately. He ever lives to make intercession for us. So His work of redemption is over.

His work of intercession is ongoing. He is our heavenly attorney. No lawyer jokes here.

You can't get a better attorney. Mary is not your heavenly attorney. The saints are not your heavenly attorneys. Jesus Himself is the one who talks to the Father on your behalf.

Humility is always hopeful. Look at verse 9 again. God has super exalted Him. He has highly exalted Him and given Him, does it say a name? It says the name.

Thank you. The name. Definite article. He has given Him the name which is above every name. In other words, God the Father has given Jesus a designation, not a common name, but some superlative name that marks Jesus far and above all others, all comparison. Now, what is the name that is above all other names?

Well, you could say, well, it says in verse 10, at the name of Jesus. Yes, but that was His name at birth, and that is, that was, I mean, when you hear Jesus today, everybody knows who we're talking about. But 2,000 years ago, if you say Jesus, you know what they're going to say to you?

Which one? It was such a common name that Jesus had to be called Jesus of Nazareth, because there was Jesus of Cana, Jesus of Capernaum. There were so many different people named Yeshua. Jesus was such a common name. So when Paul says God has given Him a name, the name above all names, we're told what that name is, but not until verse 11. It's not the name of Jesus, His common earthly name. It says, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is what?

That's the name. Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Here's what I want you to see. Here's what Paul is saying. God the Father is calling Jesus Christ the Lord.

This is monumental. In the New Testament, there are two uses of the term Lord. The first term is sort of a term of respect. It's the equivalent of sir, small l for Lord.

So you might say to a master of a house, Lord, but you use it in the small lowercase l. It's a term of respect, sir. The second and most common usage is God the Lord, because the term Lord was a typical Jewish term for referring to God, and here's why. Jews had long believed that the name of God was ineffable, that is, unpronounceable.

You as a human being should never utter the name of God. And because of that, we still don't know how the original name of God is to be pronounced. We only have four letters in Hebrew, four consonants.

That's all they left us. And that is the equivalent of YHVH or YHWH. Some might say Yahweh or Yahweh or Yahowa or Jehovah. We don't really know how it's pronounced, because when they got to the name of God, they didn't pronounce it. They would either bow and say Hashem, which means the name, or they substituted it with the Hebrew term Lord Adonai. So much so that even today, the English translation of your Old Testament, most modern translations, will render the Hebrew tetragrammaton, the YHVH, as Adonai, or the Lord. It says in English, the Lord, the Lord. So the Lord was their designation for God. So God is giving Jesus the supreme, divine title as the Lord of all. Now this was predicted.

This isn't something that should throw you. It's like, really? God the Lord is calling Jesus? God the Lord? Yep, it had been predicted back in Daniel chapter 7. Daniel gets a vision of the Son of Man. The Son of Man was a title Jesus called himself, right?

Listen to the vision. To him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is the one which will not be destroyed. That's a description of lordship.

That's a description of sovereign control for the Son of Man. It had been predicted. It was also preached, Peter in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost says, this Jesus God raised up, being exalted to the right hand of God, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Not only that, but it will be proclaimed.

It will be proclaimed. John gets taken up in a vision and sees heaven. And he hears all the angelic hosts and all the people who are in heaven praising God. And we are told in Revelation 5, they say, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.

It is the wholesale worship of the Father and the Son as Lord. Now when Jesus comes back, Revelation 19, he's coming with a sign. He's coming with his own name that is written on him like in a banner.

And you remember what it's going to say? King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So I just want you to get this. The reward for Jesus' humility is being super exalted by God the Father with this designation as Lord of all. In fact, you know this verse really well. You know if you were out on the street, you could finish it if I were to say, hey, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and tongue shall confess. You know this verse. What you may not know is Paul is quoting this verse from the Old Testament.

He's not like, this isn't new material. He's not saying, here's something cool, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Let's sing that. He's quoting Isaiah 45. Now listen to it in the original from the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 45. I am God, here's the quote, I am God and there is no other. Unto me every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

So here is God with that name giving it to Jesus Christ, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now as amazing as this passage is theologically, that really isn't Paul's point. Paul's point is ethically.

He's using Jesus as an example for us. So what Paul is trying to say is look, here's the principle, God exalts the humble. God exalts the humble. 1 Peter chapter 5, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you, you in due time. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Humility is sometimes painful but humility is always hopeful.

You're going to be raised up. When? In due time.

What time is that? I've been down here in Humilityville for a long time and it hurts in due time. God knows just the right time to raise you up, to lift you up.

Here's the grand point. Trust God enough with your life that you don't live for people's affirmation but you wait for God's exaltation. You see, some people just live to be affirmed by people.

Pat me on the back, tell me I'm nice, tell me I look good. I need that all the time, I need that. But I'm saying trust God enough with your life rather than having to live for people's affirmation, you will wait for God raising you up, God's exaltation. That's Paul's grand point. Humility is sometimes painful. Humility is always hopeful. It will be rewarded.

Here's the third and final truth. Humility is ever needful. Now could we just step back from this whole passage and understand that what Paul has been saying is that this is how we ought to treat each other.

We ought to treat each other a certain way. Back to verse 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind humility let each esteem others better than himself.

Let each of you look not only on his own interests but also on the interests of others. That's verse 4. Then it says let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus. He got really low, God raised him up really high.

Now I want you to think about this. Here's the thought, I'm kind of boiling, each time I'm just boiling this down a little further. If Jesus Christ can humble himself, you can humble yourself. What do you mean? Somebody gets in our face, we kind of puff ourselves. Do you know who I am?

Reality check here. If Jesus Christ can humble himself, you can humble yourself, buckaroo. What do you mean Jesus? If he's Lord of all and God the Father designates him as Lord over all so much so that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, if that guy humbled himself, guess what? I think you can give up a little pride. And the other point complementary that if God the Father in due time exalted Jesus and has stated the principle over and over again five times in the New Testament, he will exalt the humble, then he'll exalt you.

If God can exalt Jesus, he can exalt you. So here's the principle, the way up is down. The way down is always the way up. Hey, fastest way to get down, I don't mean get down with your bad self. I mean, you want to go down, just puff yourself up. You might not be today, but you're going down. And if you want to be raised up, you go low. You humble yourself before it happens to you, and it will. So the way up is down, the way down is always the way up. Jesus said, Luke chapter 18, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Principle of scripture. Question, how do I know when I've arrived at humility? Well, that's the thing about humility.

You never do, because once you think you have, you haven't. Humility is that thing. The day you think you have humility, that's the day you lost it. You're walking around going, man, I'm really getting good at this humble thing.

Out the window. So following Jesus will cost you sacrifice and service, but following Jesus and obedience and humility also pays. God will reward humility, and it will bring unity. It will improve the lives of people around you. When you and I look out for other people's interests, it makes a dramatic impact.

I want to close with this true illustration. It happened just this last week. So at the beginning of the service, you saw the little video announcement of Feed New Mexico Kids, right?

Holly was on the screen talking about it. So what that showed me is that there's a lot of self-sacrificing, loving people here who are willing when they go to the grocery store to spend a little bit extra and think of kids who don't have something and make sure they have something. And God has so blessed that and so rewarded that, that last week, she gets a call from a ministry leader here in town saying, I want to give. I've been given a huge donation of cookies.

I want to share this donation with you. She goes, like, how many cookies are you talking about? He says, I want to give you 350 pounds of cookies. She goes, okay, I'll take them. So she gets a truck and brings the cookies, picks them up and drives them here to the church.

When she gets to the church, a staff member comes up to her and says, hey, you came at just the right time. Somebody heard about Feed New Mexico Kids on the radio and they just donated 160 quarts of milk. Stable milk. Shelf stable milk.

The expiration date hasn't arrived. It's good milk. So she just thought about that. She goes, what kind of a God is it that we serve who is that merciful that he sees New Mexico as the number one state in the United States for childhood hunger, but he thinks that kids this year ought to start their school year off with some milk and cookies.

I love that. It makes a dramatic impact in people's lives. How much is God into humility? How much is he drawn to humility? Well, in Job 22, we're told God saves the humble. In Psalm 10, God listens to the humble. And in Isaiah chapter 57, God says, I dwell with the humble. I think he's into it. I think he responds to it quicker than just about any other attribute when you're humble, broken, needy. You go low. God says, I like that.

He's drawn to that. One final thought. I mentioned Adonai as the Hebrew word for Lord, but it's uniquely written. Adonai has a personalized ending and it just doesn't mean the Lord. It means my Lord or the Lord who is my Lord. Adonai, he is my Lord, sovereign over my life. So when Thomas saw Jesus after the resurrection, he said, my Lord and my God.

He personalized it. The first step toward God, if your life is not in his hands yet, the first step toward God is humility, never pride. You never walk up to God and go, do you know who I am? I work really hard at getting you to like me. Wrong approach.

I'm sincere, devout, deeply religious. Not a good approach. Not a good tact. If you go, God, I got nothing. Ah, what's that? I got nothing. I'm broken. I'm a sinner. I need you. I need forgiveness.

I have nothing to offer, but I will receive what you want to give me. God says, no, I'm all about that. He'll respond to that. God saves the humble. He listens to the humble. He dwells among the humble because he knows the truth and that is the truth. He is the Lord and you are not.

You need him. And if you have never personally asked Jesus to be your Lord, your master, your savior, that's what you need. You can't say, I was raised in the church all my life. I went to church. I went to mass. I have people in my family who are in the ministry. Have you personally surrendered your life to Christ? Is the issue.

Is the issue. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of God. You come humble. You come broken.

You come needy. You ask for forgiveness. Bible calls that repentance and you'll be saved. That wraps up Skip Heisig's message from the series Technicolor Joy. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep these teachings coming to you while connecting others to God's word.

Here's an important truth. God doesn't need us to accomplish his work in the world, but he desires to use us and bring us into his plan. That's why we share these Bible teachings on this broadcast so friends like you can be equipped in your faith as the Lord works through you.

And right now, you're invited to help strengthen others' faith by connecting them to God's word. Here's how. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity and come back tomorrow as Skip Heisig shares an encouraging message to help you get in top spiritual shape. We can't be passive in spiritual matters. We do have to be aggressive. We have to, when it comes to spiritual health, we need to exercise our faith. We need, in short, to work out what God is working in to us. That is the thrust of this passage.

And why must we do that? Why does Paul think that he should devote two verses to kind of hammering this thought home in this correspondence to the Philippian church? Well, it's because Christianity is more than just a decision to make Jesus your Savior. It's also a determination to walk with Jesus as your Lord. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heisig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.