About those new microphones. Hey, praise the Lord, it's good
to be with you this morning. And there's no better place to
be, nothing better you could be doing this morning than
worshipping the Savior of the world.
Do you believe that this morning?
I mean, there may be some, you know, churches on the beach or
up in the mountains that you might rather worship in, but
there's nothing better you could be doing this morning than
worshipping the Savior of the world.
We're going to finish up our series Be Humble last week, I
think Pastor Shane mentioned. I just want to give a little bit
more explanation. We were supposed to be in
Guatemala last Sunday, but we ended up having to postpone our
trip. There was a ton of rain.
And with all of the flight delays and the rain, there were
mud slides that were blocking roads.
And then the government, something was going on down in
Guatemala with their government and they were putting roadblocks
in. And so they said if you come,
there's a good chance that you're going to get stuck in
Guatemala City for the week. And they said we would probably
suggest you not come. So we ended up postponing the
trip. Now, I wasn't here, obviously
that gave me the opportunity I already had planned to not be
here. And my son Sam plays volleyball
and he goes to tournaments and, and I don't get to go to those
because I'm usually here. And so I decided I was going to
take that opportunity to go down to Nashville.
The wonderful thing was we had the afternoon session and so we
had the opportunity to go to church and I always love to go
to church. Listen, guys, please, please
don't take for granted the opportunity we have to gather
together and worship. And, and no matter where I go, I
don't care if I'm on vacation or at a volleyball tournament or
wherever, I always love going to church and worshiping for the
body Christ. So last week we worshiped with
the Gateway Church down in Nashville.
It was pretty cool. I didn't realize, but one of our
own, Karen Fleming, attends there now.
She moved down to Nashville and I had the opportunity to see her
and it was just cool being there.
It's great to be a part of the church, isn't it?
That reminds me of a a story. There were these three guys
talking. One was a Nazarene pastor, one
was a Catholic priest, and the other was a rabbi.
And the Nazarene pastor, I mean, just like me, he just loved the
church. He said.
I love going to church. I love the Nazarene church.
What I love about the Nazarene church is it's just one big
family. But but I love that in the
Nazarene Church, if you're faithful and if you're humble,
you can really, you know, be, be moved up.
And he said, you know, I, I've known pastors that started and,
and, you know, small churches and ended up being district
superintendents. And, you know, you know, you
could even be elected general Superintendent if you're
faithful. Now that doesn't mean anything
to non Nazarenes, but there's only six of those in the church.
The big deal. And Catholic priest looked at
him and said, man, that's really cool.
But you know, the Catholic Church, I mean, we are a big
church. I mean, we got Notre Dame maybe
in the College Football Playoff, I don't know.
But but you know, with a Catholic Church, I mean, if
you're faithful, you could go from being a small village
priest. You could become a Bishop, maybe
even an Archbishop. You might even become a
cardinal. And who knows, maybe even the
Pope. And they're both feeling good
about themselves. And the rabbi looks over and
says, man, guys, that's really awesome.
What about this? Could you guys become the
Almighty? Could anyone in your church to
become the And the Nazarene pastor said, no, absolutely not.
It's that that's crazy. And that the Catholic priest
said, no, that's sacrilegious to even suggest that a mere mortal
man could become the Almighty. And the rabbi looked at him and
said, one of our guys did it. All right, today we're going to
talk about that one guy that made it the Almighty, the Savior
of the world. We're in Philippians chapter 2.
If you'll stand with me, I'm going to read verse one through
11. We've been working through it
for the last three weeks and we're finishing our series here
today. And we, we stand for God's word
because we believe God wants to speak to us through it.
And I really believe that today we have an opportunity to
worship and I think his word will draw us there.
So here it is. Therefore, if you have any
encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from
His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness
and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded,
having the same love, being one in spirit and one of mind.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not
looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interests
of the others and your relationships with one another
have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature
God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to
His own advantage. Rather, He made Himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human
likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, this is where we're focusing today.
Verse 9 Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place gave
him the the name that is above every name that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under
the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Amen. You can have a seat.
So Philippians 2 is a, is a call to humility.
It's called a humility, but it also focuses us on Jesus over
the last three weeks that we talked about.
Humility is part of humility is unity that we find ourselves in
Christ, that we are all made one in Christ.
And, and part of being unified together is the humility of
knowing that that we're all in this together and we're all
saved by Christ and we're all made one in Christ.
And so it starts with unity, but then there's the call to
selflessness. Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit. Rather value others above
yourselves. And so humility is putting
others 1st. And then last week Pastor Shane
shared and we we looked at Jesus and we have the picture, the
example of Jesus. And there's the call to allow
Jesus to be our example and to follow him and to be Christ like
to follow his example. Today's the finale, verse 9 and
and I think this ends in the perfect way to talk about
humility, verse 9. Therefore God exalted him to the
highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue.
Confess that who Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. I love this.
Paul starts by calling us to unity, by calling us to
humility, by calling us to be servants, by calling us to
follow Jesus example. But he doesn't end with us, he
ends with Jesus. Therefore, Jesus was exalted to
the highest place. Let's work through this.
Verse 9 says therefore God exalted him to the highest
place. The therefore is drawing back to
verses 6 through 8. So let's just take a second and
let's look back at verses 6 through 8.
It's drawing back to that. It says Jesus in verse 6, who
being in very nature God did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage.
Rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a
servant being made in human likeness and being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled himself and by becoming obedient
to death, even death on a cross. So the therefore points back to
this. This is the example that Jesus
set. Therefore, God exalted him to
the highest place. Let's just look at it.
Verse 6 says He didn't look at equality with God as something
to be used to his own advantage. Jesus, it was the Son of God.
And we believe in the tree that that God the Father, God the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Scripture tells us all were one.
And at the beginning of time, all things were created through
Jesus. He was there.
And so listen, if anyone ever could claim to be important,
it's Jesus, God, the Son of God, the one through whom all things
we're created. But it tells us he didn't take
that and view it as something that he would exploit or use to
his own advantage. Instead, he humbled himself.
He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a
servant he took on flesh. Jesus, the one who all of us
were created through, became one of us, humbled himself.
It became a servant. Pastor Shane talked about this
last week, washing feet. Jesus actually washed the feet
of his disciples. Not only is he God, not only did
he take on flesh, but he humbled himself as a servant and washed
feet. And Shane told you he hates
washing feet. I think he should wash my feet
today, don't you? I think we should have him
practice humility. And I'll give you a yeah.
There we go. Listen, Jesus not only took on
flesh, but he became a servant. And verse 8, he became obedient
to death, even death on the cross.
See, it wasn't about what he wanted.
It was about the Father's plan. And so he was obedient.
And there were times where Jesus said, oh, if there was a way to
take this this from me, Lord, I would love that, but not my
will, your will be done. And so he was completely
obedient. So I want us to look at three
things. Three reasons that Jesus is
exalted 2 and two from the scripture.
And one, that's a bonus. But it's Thanksgiving week.
So I'm giving you a little a little bonus here.
See this week you may sit at a table with some other people and
they may ask you to tell them what you're thankful for.
If you don't know, I'm going to give you 3 things that you
should be thankful for. It's a little little bonus.
You walk out of here. You've already got Thursday
taken care of. Here we go #1 Jesus is the
perfect example of humility. He's the perfect example of
humility. We, we talked about it at the
beginning of Philippians 2. Paul says that you should be 1.
You should be unified. Jesus was 1 with the Father and
with the Spirit. Jesus was a part of the Trinity.
He was unified together, but he didn't take that as a way to
exploit, as a way to make it his name greater than theirs.
He was 1. He was unified with them, and it
was all about being together in the Father's plan.
And so he was unified. But second, Paul calls us to
selflessness. He says do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather value others
above yourself. Jesus became a servant and he
valued others above himself. He washed the feet, He healed
the people that needed healed. He spoke to the people that
needed someone to speak to them. Jesus valued others and then he
even gave his life on a cross so that we could be forgiven.
He was humble and obedient to death, even death on a cross.
John 15 says, My command is this, love each other as I have
loved you. Greater love has no one than
this to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Jesus was the perfect example of humility.
He's the only hear me again, the only perfect example of
humility. I know some of you have really
sweet little grandmothers, or maybe you got a friend, or maybe
you had a pastor in the past, or maybe you had a, you know,
Sunday school teacher growing up.
And you say that is a perfect exit.
No, no, no, no, no. There's only one perfect example
of humility, and that's Jesus Christ.
Praise the Lord that we have a Savior that set the the way,
that lived, the example that was perfect in obedience and
humility. That's something you can be
thankful for. This week we have the path in
front of us. He showed us the way.
Jesus is the only perfect example of humility, and we can
follow him. All right #2 Jesus is the Savior
of the world. Here's the really good news.
Jesus became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
And what happened there? If you're new to this whole
thing? See, we have all sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God.
That's what Scripture tells us. But Jesus became a man.
And Jesus, the Son of God, went to a cross and was obedient and
died on the cross so that we could be forgiven.
Jesus is the Savior of the world.
John 316 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish, but have everlasting life.
For God did not send his Son to the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him.
Here's the truth. We deserved condemnation.
Guys, just take a second. And I'm not trying to beat you
up here, but just take a second and think about the worst things
you've ever done, the worst things you've ever thought, the
worst things you've ever said. None of us is innocent, Every
single one of us. And and we kind of joke about
like one day you'll stand before God and that laundry list of
things that you've done will be in.
And the idea is, oh, I'm going to feel this great shame.
I got good news, guys. Jesus became obedient to death,
even death on a cross so that your sins can be paid for.
You don't have to sit before God one day and be ashamed and and
unworthy because Jesus, death on the cross paid for your sins.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ Jesus Not only the perfect example of
humility, Jesus is the only way to salvation.
Listen, if if you got nothing else to say, you're thankful for
this week, you have a Savior who offers you salvation and life
died so that you could be forgiven for your sins.
Anyone want to say Amen to that? Anyone thankful for that?
He's the Savior of the world #3 this is your bonus point.
It's not in Philippians 2, but it's all throughout Scripture.
Jesus not only was obedient to death, death on a cross, but
Jesus conquered sin and death. See, He did die, He did go to
the cross, but He rose from the dead and he lives today.
Jesus conquered sin and does see since the beginning, since he
took on flesh, people were after him.
King Herod was trying to eliminate him, went to great
measures to try to eliminate Jesus.
Throughout time, over and over again, people have tried to
eliminate Jesus. Over and over again people have
tried to get rid of His example, but Jesus conquered sin and
death. Yes, He died, but today He
lives. All right, so good news, you
have salvation through Him. Your sins are forgiven through
His death. Even better news, you are
offered life and life eternal through His resurrection.
Praise the Lord because He conquered sin and death.
We can live eternally and we are no longer slaves to sin and
death. We have victory in Christ.
Listen, the person you were, when you think of that laundry
list of things, when you think of the worst things you've done,
I've got good news through Jesus death, you're forgiven for those
things. But even beyond that, Jesus
conquered sin and death and his Spirit comes to live in us.
And we don't have to live that way anymore.
We can live right? We can live holy.
It's one of the things I think our church absolutely gets
right. We believe in holiness.
We believe that through the work of the Holy Spirit in our life,
we can actually live holy lives. So not only is he the perfect
example of humility, not only is he your salvation, he's your
life to this week, you can be thankful that Jesus offers you
life and victory over sin and death.
This week when we talked about in staff meeting, I said, what
is this? What does this tell you?
And Pastor Dale said, it tells me that we have victory.
We know who wins. I went to the UC football game
last night. I like going to the UC games.
I hoped that UC would win. I hoped they would pull out the
victory. You guys know how this feels,
right? You hope.
I mean, we're Cincinnati sports fans.
You hope. I love the hope we have every
year. This is our year.
We're going to do it. I had a lot of hope last night
until the third quarter when I said, you know what?
I think it's time to go home. I think it's over now.
I'm tired of being cold. I didn't know what was going to
happen. I hoped.
I hope Joe Burrow comes back and we play really well.
You know, I, I hope the stock market does well.
I hope our country does well. I hope a lot of things.
We can hope a lot of things. Here's the beautiful thing.
We know that Jesus is victorious.
And today we don't come to church wondering if we're, if
we're backing a winner. We serve the name that is above
all other names, the God that conquered the Savior, that
conquered sin and death. Praise the Lord, we have
victory. Verse 9 therefore, therefore, so
because of all that, therefore God exalted him to the highest
place, gave him the name that is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and
under the earth and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
God exalted him to the highest place because he is the perfect
example, because he's the Savior of the world, because he has
victory over sin and death. God exalted him to the highest
place and today he sits. He's the name above all names.
He sits on the ultimate throne. That's who we're here to
worship. Did you make the right call
today? You did.
We're here to worship Jesus and you can't deny this.
There may be some people that say, oh, Jesus isn't everything
you say is No, no, he is. 2.4 billion people on this earth
proclaim Jesus to be the savior. 2.4 billion people on earth call
themselves Christians more than anyone else.
Listen, I go around and I see bumper stickers on cars.
We got Star Wars fans, any Star Wars fans in the house?
OK, we got, we got Trekkies, Not as many of those.
Do we have any Star Trek people? All right, we got any big time
sport? We got any Ohio State people?
I wasn't getting. Oh, wow, OK, we got we got any
sleeping people. I mean, come on.
Listen, we, we can put our faith in a lot of different things, a
lot of different things, but there is one that reigns supreme
and that's Jesus Christ. And, and as I said, for
thousands of years, dictators, kings, powers, authorities have
tried to get rid of Christianity, have tried to get
rid of the influence of Jesus. Even some countries today try to
keep people from worshipping Jesus.
Guess what? In those places, that's where
it's growing the most. Why?
Because Jesus is the name above all other names.
He is the most famous, the most important, the most influential,
the most worshipped name in history.
God exalted him to the highest place.
Praise the Lord. God is good.
So humility is coming together and being one in Christ.
Humility is selflessness. Humility is obedience and
following Jesus example. I love how this ends.
It doesn't talk about us. See, I think we live in a
culture and, and I'll use a term here that I'm making up.
I think sometimes we treat Christianity as like what we
come to worship and, and it's kind of like the Oscars or the
Grammys, whatever you want to think of the award show, you
know, all these people come and they're here for this big,
they're all here for the same thing, this big event.
And I think we would all say today that, hey, we're here to
worship the saviour of the world.
But the truth is, you can see it at the Oscars and the Grammys.
They've all spent time getting ready because in reality, it's
kind of about them, isn't it? And they walk the red carpet and
they pose and they look at each other and they're making sure
every, you know, they're even making sure when the cameras are
looking at them that they're doing the right thing because in
their mind it's about them. Sure, there's something bigger
going on, but it's about them. And, and I think we fall victim
to this and Christianity. And I'm going to be honest with
you and say that sometimes I do make it about myself.
Last week I told you I went to Gateway Church.
I had the privilege of interning there when I was in college.
So like 20 years ago, 2022 years ago, 23 years ago, I interned.
Man, that's a long time. I interned at, at Gateway
Church, same pastor. And so I don't know what I
thought was going to happen, but I walked in the doors of the
church. It's it's not a huge church.
And I walked in the doors of the church and and I don't know, I
mean, I promise you, I didn't think people were going to like
fall all over themselves for me or anything.
But I walked in and I'm like, hey, you know, I'm Alex
Mahaffey. I used to intern here and I saw
the look on the pastor's face. All right, now this is a look.
I'm I'm giving you some internal secrets here.
OK? I saw the look of kind of panic.
I don't know if I told him my name, but I said I interned here
and I could see that he recognized me, but I could also
see that he really had no clue who I was.
Happens a lot to me. And then I noticed that, you
know, he slipped out for a little bit.
OK, now I'm really telling you my secrets.
Every once in a while you might see that deer in a headlights
look on my face. And maybe you've caught me off
guard and. And every once in a while, I'll
slip out and I'll go look up and try to figure out who you are so
I can come back in and say, oh, yeah, hey, Bill, how you doing?
And so you know what that happened.
We sat down. We're getting ready to worship
and, and Pastor Gary Henneke walks in now.
Pastor Gary Henneke was a long time pastor at Nashville First
Church. Many think of him as one of the
greatest preachers. I mean, he was known for his
wonderful preaching. He's a well known pastor.
And he walked in to Gateway Church and I was like, oh,
Megan, check it out. It's Gary Henneke.
Like like he's an awesome dude. And she's like, well, does he
know you? No, he doesn't know me.
Why would he know me? And can I be honest with you, as
I often do, I kind of started to make it about myself and I kind
of started to think, well, and, and I've, I've already told you
this in this series, I started to think, well, who am I?
Well, people don't know me. Do I matter?
And I'm giving you a testimony today.
I'm not. I don't want you to feel sorry
for me because it's not about me.
And the testimony is this, that last Sunday as I sat worshipping
while you were sitting worshipping, I was maybe making
it about myself a little bit too much.
And you know what God said to me?
It's not about you. It's about Jesus, the One, the
name of all above all other names.
And it doesn't matter if you pastor for 50 years and nobody
knows your name. It doesn't matter if people
recognize you when you walk into a room.
What matters is that one day all of us will fall down and worship
the one who's worthy. Praise the Lord, guys.
I have the opportunity not to get up and build my career every
week. Not to get up and make a name
for myself. I have the opportunity to get up
and tell you how great Jesus Christ is.
He alone is worthy. None of the rest of us are.
And as much as we tend to make it about ourselves, as much as
we tend to sit, we come to worship the Almighty God.
We come to worship the Savior of the world.
But way too often we come in like it's the Oscars or the
Grammys, and we're worried about who's looking at us, who knows
us, who doesn't know us, what they're thinking, how they
looked at us. And we forget that it's all
about Jesus. Today we have the opportunity to
worship the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the name above
any other name and it's not about us.
See, I love this. Paul starts with, hey, you
should be humble, you should be unified, you should be selfless.
You should follow Jesus example, but he doesn't say then you will
be awesome. He says no.
Therefore Jesus is lifted up. The name of Jesus is above every
name, and at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every
tongue confess that he is Lord. So humility is being one with
each other. Humility is humbling ourselves
and putting others above ourselves.
Humility is obedience. Today humility is worshiping the
one that is worthy of all of our worship and praise.
Guys, you have the opportunity today to join with 2.4 billion
people. I don't know if they're all in
church this morning. You have the opportunity to
worship the one that's worthy of everything.
You can watch the Bengals later, you can watch the Bearcats.
You can. You can follow the government.
You can root for whatever you want to root for.
You can follow the stock market, whatever you want.
Knock yourself out, but don't miss this guys.
There's one worthy of our worship and praise, and it's not
me and it's not you. It's Jesus.
It goes on and it says at the name of Jesus, every knee should
bow. Every knee will bow.
That doesn't mean they should. They're not going to, they
should. What it means is that one day
every knee will bow to Jesus and every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. Would you stand with me?
I want to read Revelation 5 to you.
This is a picture of that. It's a beautiful picture of that
worship team. You can come on up, Revelation 5
says. Then I saw in the right hand of
him who sat on the throne a scroll with riding on both sides
and sealed with 7 seals. And I saw a mighty Angel
proclaiming in a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and
open the scroll. But no one in heaven or on earth
or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside.
And I wept and I wept because no one was found to was worthy to
open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to
me, do not weep. See the lion of the tribe of
Jude of the root of David, and has triumphed.
He is able to open the scroll in its seven seals.
Then I saw the a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing
in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living
creatures and the elders. The lamb had 7 horns and seven
eyes, which which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all
the earth. He went, and he took the scroll
from the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24
elders fell down before. The Lamb, each one had a harp,
and they were holding golden bulls of full of incense, which
are the prayers of God's people. And they sang a new song,
saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals,
because you were slain. And with your blood you
purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and
people and nation. You have made them to be a
Kingdom and priest to serve our God, and they will reign on
earth. Then I looked and I heard the
voice of many angels. Picture this guys, many angels
numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 * 10,000
They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the
elders, and in a loud voice they were saying, Worthy is the Lamb
who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and praise.
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under
the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them say to him
who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and
glory and power forever and ever.
The four living creatures said Amen.
And the elders felt fell down and worshipped him.
Guys, I hope you got a little bit of a glimpse there of what's
happening and what will happen for eternity.
And listen, you're called to be humble, you're called to be
unified. You're called to be a servant.
You're called to follow Christ example.
But today I want you to know more than anything, you are
called to worship the 1. So I want to invite you to
worship today. Humility is worship the one who
is worthy. You can do that however you
want. We're going to sing a couple
songs. You can kneel in an altar, you
can bow down where you are, you can put your hands up, you can
cry tears. You can do whatever you want.
But today, humility is fully surrendering and worshipping the
only one who's worthy. Father, speak to us, lead us,
guide us. Thank you for your love and
grace. Lord, I thank you for your
salvation. I thank you for the victory we
have in you. And today, Lord, I want to bow
at your feet. I want to worship you.
I want to give you everything. We worship you now in Jesus
name.