Humiliation | Part 1a

If anybody ever walked through some stuff that you really didn't think you could do much about and somebody looked at you and said, how do you put up with that? Well, what else can I do? What else am I going to do? It's just life. Jesus could have done something about it. My point is his incarnation magnifies his humiliation. We've been in a series taken from Philippians chapter two. I want to give you several things to write down real quick and they're each very brief because this verse, verse five in Philippians two is a transitional verse. It's taking this mindset, this behavior that we should have in our lives and translating it and we see this transition over into the life of Christ so the two can be brought together. Verse three is talking about living free of strife and vainglory. Another way of putting that is not walking competitively, not making everything a competition and vainglory would be our way of saying conceit. You ever met anybody conceited? I want to ask, have you ever been conceited? But you wouldn't answer so have you ever met anybody that was like that? Made everything a competition and was filled with self-glory. The word's telling us don't operate that way but in a lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own interests but also on the interests of others. Let this mind be in you and we get this portrait of Christ. Verse six, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. The first thing I want you to write down in your notes, number one, write down incarnation. We've talked about it over the last three weeks, incarnation, how deity was wrapped in humanity so that humanity could get to know deity. Jesus wrapped himself in flesh, became a man in this earth to die for our sins, to be raised

from the dead so that we could have a relationship with our father. God came to man. That's the message of Christianity. So often religion is all about how man gets to God but I'm a believer in Christ that he came to me when I couldn't get to him, that when my earth couldn't touch heaven, heaven came to me and manifested in my life. That's the message of Jesus. Virgin born, Emmanuel, God wrapped in flesh comes to this earth to save that which was lost. So number one, write down incarnation. Number two, we see in verse eight, being found in fashion, look as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death and not just any kind of death but even the death of the cross. Number two in your notes, write down humiliation, humiliation. We see the humiliation of Jesus, not just the incarnation but the humiliation. And I want to touch on that just a little bit because when you look into Jesus coming to this earth, when you think about deity being wrapped in flesh and coming to this earth, it was an act of humility just for God to come to man. And I feel like that just needs to be echoed again and again and again for anybody that thinks they can make their way to heaven had heaven not come to the earth. You don't understand salvation. When I couldn't get to him, he got to me, hallelujah. And not only did he come to me, he came to me in a way that I could relate to. And that is the beauty of the gospels is that we see this relational Jesus that knows what it's like to be weary, that knows what it's like to weep, that knows what it's like to be hungry, hungry as a man, feeding like God. Come on, somebody. As much God as though he were never man but as much man as though he were never God, that's the incarnation. And then Philippians 2 begins to speak of his humiliation. Now don't mistake humiliation and humility for the same because they're not. It's what we receive by people and by circumstances

where we're humiliated by folk, or humiliated by our circumstances. Humility is something that we offer. We can choose to be humble even when we are humiliated. And Jesus was humiliated, and I'll give you a few examples of his humiliation so that we can just pull in this relationship and understand how relatable our Savior is, is that he's King of Kings and he's Lord of Lords, yet in his judgment, they played a game with him that historically is known as the King's Game. But it took on a whole new level and meaning with Jesus because this is why he's crucified for being a king and speaking of the kingdom of God. King of the Jews is written above him on the cross in three different languages. He's mocked as a king, so they put a crown of thorns on his head and they mock him as a king when they laid the purple robe over his shoulders. He was mocked as a king, and even though he's king of the universe, he opens not his mouth. That was humiliating for him to be king, but mocked as a king. Biblically, there are three offices that God ordains, that of a king, that of a prophet, and that of a priest, and Jesus holds all three offices, and they mocked him as a king when they put that crown of thorns on his head,

and then they mocked him as a prophet when they blindfolded him and hit him in the face and said, okay, prophet who knows all things, tell us who it was that just hit you. Can you imagine how humiliating that would be for Jesus to be mocked like that and yet open not his mouth when he could have told every detail of the person that had just hit him in his face because he's God and he knows all things, but he remains humble in his humiliation and he opens not his mouth. And then on the cross, it is said, well, he saved others, but himself he cannot save. That was humiliating to speak of a savior and being unable to save. Three offices, prophet, priest, and king. Jesus is mocked in all three offices. He was mocked all of his life. He grows up in a little town called Nazareth that had such a bad reputation that when he announced his ministry, they said, well, nothing good can come out of Nazareth, so they mocked him for the neighborhood he grew up in. I'm talking to somebody today that may feel like you've experienced some humiliation in your life because of where you came from or because of what you look like,

but this savior whose name is Jesus completely relates to walking in humiliation and being humble in the process. His own kin at one point mocked him and said, if you really are who you say you are, why are you staying on the down low? Go show yourself to the world. His own forerunner who was his cousin, John the Baptist, who announced one day that he must decrease so Jesus would increase would later come back and send his disciples to Jesus and say, are you who you say you are? Are you the one that is to come? Or do we need to look for another? Can you imagine Jesus getting that message from John the Baptist, his forerunner, that had leaped in Elizabeth's womb when he first heard the name Jesus, that had baptized Jesus only after saying, I'm not worthy to unloose your sandals, who heard heaven speak, the father speak from heaven when he baptized Jesus saying, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased, yet later, when in prison, mocked his own faith and his own message when he questioned if Jesus was really the one. Humiliation for the disciple Peter who got the revelation that Jesus was the Christ to tell folk three times, I don't know that man. See, it's easy to read the gospels

and overlook the humiliation that Jesus walked out in his life. You feel like folk have disrespected you. You feel like circumstances have disrespected you and you don't know who to talk to. Let me introduce you to a man named Jesus who as God was mocked as such, who as king was mocked as king, who as prophet and priest was mocked in those areas of his life. Listen, he's not only a prophet, he invented words. Amen. He knows humiliation. He's relatable. Incarnation, humiliation, if anything his humiliation is amplified by his incarnation. Because there are some things I've put up with in life and you might look at me and say I can't believe you put up with it. There's a lot of things I put up with in life I had to put up with. I couldn't do nothing about it. If anybody ever walked through some stuff that you really didn't think you could do much about and you just kind of grin and bore it because what could you really do about it? And you were mocked and ridiculed and folk humiliated you and somebody look at you and say how you put up with that? Well what else can I do? What else am I gonna do?

It's just life. Jesus could have done something about it. At any moment he could have done anything he wanted to do. My point is his incarnation magnifies his humiliation. Let me finish Philippians two so we can hang out there a little bit longer. But the humiliation is not where the story ends. The story doesn't end at the cross. Now you can't hear that and not say amen. I said the story don't end at the cross. That's not where it ends. No, verse nine says wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. So number one in your notes write incarnation. Number two write humiliation. Number three write exaltation. Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 23, Jesus said that God exalts the humble. James chapter four verse six, God exalts the humble. When you walk in humility that's not the end of the story. If you've been humiliated that's not the end of the story. The message of Jesus doesn't end with one of humiliation. No, verse nine says God also hath highly what? Exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. God spoke it and it is. There's no name like the name of Jesus. Whether you love it or hate it, there's no name like the name of Jesus. I don't see the unbelieving actors and the unbelieving script writers

and the unbelieving producers that blaspheme the name of God. I don't see them using any other name. I see them using the name of Jesus because even the devils have to acknowledge that name. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? Whether you love it or hate it, you cannot deny the power of the name of Jesus. It has power. Why? Because God has exalted him and even in his transliterated form it's powerful. I had somebody correct me one day because I was preaching Jesus and they called me out in the foyer and they said I just want to correct you that Jesus is actually Yahshua. I said well bless your Hebrew heart. I know Yahshua, Yahshua, Yahshua, Yah God, Shua, salvation, that Joshua Old Testament name is the closest you'll get to the name of Jesus but I understand that I speak English and Jesus is the transliterated name that we would speak in English taking from Yahshua. When you speak the name of Jesus, you just got the same power in every language. Whether you're from Asia to West, the South, the North, which one did I leave out? There was 16 dialects present on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was sent and one word went out,

it was the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit translated that message into 16 dialects and 3,000 people got saved and all went back to their homeland preaching the name of Jesus whether they preached it in the language they heard or the language they spoke, it doesn't matter. It has the same power. When you represent it, what it means, it means that God saves, there's power. God exalted his name. There's no name like his name. I'll say some, yeah, all right. Lord have mercy. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth and things under the earth. Read it out loud, Shreveport and Bossier and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Lastly, write down adoration, incarnation, humiliation, exaltation and adoration. Say it out loud like you got it. Incarnation, exaltation. I'm sorry, let's do it again. Incarnation, humiliation, exaltation and adoration. That's the story of Jesus from glory to glory. Now go with me to Psalms 113. Psalms 113, humility is attractive. Humility is attractive.

I think we're naturally attracted to humble people. Well let me say it another way, because I didn't get nothing but the baby's response on that one, so let me try it another way. Arrogance is unattractive. And there's a few folk that just don't get it, and mistake arrogance for confidence. But I don't feel like we are naturally attracted to conceited and competitive people that have to make everything a competition. Now why you gotta walk in my house and ask me what size TV is? I mean, who does that, who walks in, how many inches is that TV? Everything's not a competition. And not everybody loves you as much as you love you. Now okay, let me say it another way. Not everybody loves me the way I love me. You say, well, you know, you shouldn't love yourself. Listen, even when God spoke to husbands in Ephesians five, he said, love your wife like you love yourself. In other words, if you treated her as good as you treated you. Okay, let me get. Yeah, can I stay right there? Wives, submit yourselves, I'm just kidding. I mean, both those verses are hard when it comes to the relationship, but notice what the commandment toward the husband is. Love your wife like you love yourself.

What did the father say? What did he say through his son? He said there are two great commandments. Number one, that you love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. And number two, that you love your neighbor as you love yourself. In other words, we treated everybody else as good as we treated ourselves. Okay. Watch this in Psalms 113. The point I was trying to make is that when we walk around competitive and conceited, it's unattractive. Let me talk to the singles in the house, because y'all, where y'all at last night, last night, last night, this morning, late getting here, I'm messing with you. And you know, you men, you young men that think about marriage, this and that, he that findeth a wife, you find a good thing. Yeah, I mean, it's your burden to find. 8 and 945 didn't get none of this. This is why you come to 1130, you don't know what's gonna happen. I wouldn't have had time for this if it wasn't for the previous two services. But Proverbs 18 teaches me that he that finds a wife finds a good thing. That means the burden of finding is on the man.

Now, if you're one of those men in the house that are married and you say, well, she found me, well, you just got grace. And an aggressive woman. That said, come here, I've been praying for you. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And if that worked, praise the Lord. But for those of you single men that might be worried about this and that, recognize humility is attractive. Being competitive and conceited is not. So just live like Jesus, amen. But watch this in Psalms 113, because we get a picture of the humility of God that you might have not ever noticed before. The Lord God, the Lord our God, the creator is a humble God. He walks in humility. Now, if you have a little something and you're still humble, people will commend you for it. You ever had somebody in your life and you knew what they had, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them? You wouldn't know it by talking to them? Because humility is not necessarily what you wear, humility is how you act. And you say, man, you would never know this guy, you wouldn't know maybe his knowledge or maybe you wouldn't know his wealth, maybe you wouldn't know it when you talk to him because he's very humble and it's attractive.

But think about this, there's been nobody like God who can still be humble, he made everything, he owns everything and could do anything. Therefore, humility is a choice for God. You can't humiliate him, he's God. anything to make him more God, he's all God. There is nothing we offer him except praise, and even then, it's still an offering that he doesn't have to accept. He's God, and yet he's humble. Watch this in Psalms 113. Let's go ahead and begin in verse one. Praise ye the Lord, praise all ye servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun under the going down of the saint, not just the 1130 service on Sunday, but from the rising to the setting of the sun, the Lord's name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. There's nothing that's not beneath him. He's the most high God. Verse five, who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high? Shreveport Mosier, let's read that out loud. Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high?

There's nobody higher. Nobody makes him who he is. Nobody made him who he is. He's an I am God, personal and ever-present. Everything exists. Everything that exists came out of him. No man sculptured him. No man made him. He's God. Whoo! Man, that's heavy. But look at verse six. Who humbleth himself to behold? Let me just stop right there before I read the whole verse. Who humbleth himself to behold? To behold what? To behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth, which means he's so high just to behold what's in heaven. Just to behold what is in earth is an act of humility. Think of somebody that you know that's gotten to a point that you say they're not touchable, they're not reachable. Like it wouldn't matter if you knew somebody that's in some high office right now because in any generation, and no matter who's sitting in the White House, it's not like you can say, oh yeah, I know the president. Well, call him real quick for me. But we're talking about God.

Hey, now come on, listen to me. He says here, who humbleth himself to behold. What does that mean? That means it's an act of humility just for him to look. It's an act of humility just for him to listen. It's an act of humility just for him to pay attention. It's an act of humility just for him to hear my prayer. It's an act of humility for him to receive my praise. There are a lot of people I may wanna applaud, but they don't hear it. I can applaud somebody that I'm watching on a TV screen, but that don't mean they hear it. But I can applaud God Almighty and he'll inhabit my praise. That's an act of humility that where two or three are gathered together in his name, his spirit is not a respecter of persons. His spirit doesn't say, no, I don't come unless you got at least 3,000. This auditorium seats just less than 1,500. We've had people that were coming through that say we're looking for an auditorium that has seen at least 2,000. We'll say, hey, we see 1,500. We're looking for 2,000. We can't stop by if you can't get at least 2,000 in the house. Well, then go on with your 2,000 self. Can you imagine God if he said get 3,000 and I'll show up? But yet where two or three are gathered together in his name, he's there. Think about this God that religion told us about

that I had to get everything exactly right in my life. I had to get everything perfect and then maybe I approach him. But no, this God says a broken spirit and a contrite heart I will not despise. This God says I'll remember you in your lowest state. When religion told me he would only hear me at church, I found he listened to me driving down the road in my old pickup truck and I had to pull over at the next parking lot to break down and cry because the Lord met with me right there. I was driving up 259 from Houston to Shreveport years ago. And somebody had given me a song to listen to about the cross. And man, ministry in these days was so much, it was difficult in a different way. And I was struggling on whether or not what I needed to do and just really down on myself and down with the ministry and discouraged. And I listened to this song and I just started crying. It was about the cross and I was just crying in my little Chevy S10, driving up 259, pulling my little Wells cargo trailer after preaching in Houston and coming back home to Shreveport to unload that trailer at LSUS University where we met on Sunday mornings. And I'm driving down 259, coming north, and I heard this song and it ministered to me and I remember praying, I said,

Lord, whatever my cross is, if this ministry is my cross, if pulling this trailer is my cross, I bear my cross. I said, Lord, whatever you have for me, Lord, your cross, I take daily my cross. I looked out the window to my side and there was a man dragging a cross up the interstate, up the road. He had an orange cone on the wheel and he had it over his shoulder and he was walking up the road with that cross. I'm like, what? At the time, I'm praying, Lord, if this is the cross. I was so moved, I was like, I must be seeing things. I made a U-turn on 259 to go see, was I seeing things? No, this was a literal man that felt led to walk across the country pulling a cross. I would later see it on the news and had met the man. At the very moment, I'm listening to a song about the cross and I'm telling the Lord, if this is my cross, I'll bear my cross, only to meet a man and say, yeah, the Lord told me to take this cross across the country as a reminder that we gotta bear our cross. And I'm like, Lord, I'm down. Lord, I'm discouraged. Lord, I'm thinking about quitting. Lord, I'm almost done with this and you meet with me now? Not after I preached my best sermon. Not after I just wrote a book. Not after I just had this traumatic moment.

No, I'm down and yet you met with me. You better know this, God will meet with you. Outside the church, outside your suit, outside your prestige, he'll meet you broken, messed up, makeup running, hair out of place. Well, I wanna thank you for allowing me into your viewing area today and I hope that you were blessed by the ministry of God's Word. Our broadcast is made possible through the faithful financial support of our members and partners here in this viewing area. And I wanna encourage you to prayerfully consider supporting the work of this ministry so that we can take the message of Jesus as the manifested Word of God, reaching more people in more ways and in more places than ever before. Thank you for your support. Can you imagine the Lord knows the future? The Lord knows where I'm going and he yet walks me out days of drought. He said, the only reason I humbled you in the wilderness was so that you would know man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.