You don’t have to humble yourself. God will do it for you.

Steve Brown:
You don’t have to humble yourself. God will do it for you. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re sick of guilt and manipulation, and if you’re looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of Biblical truth, you’ve come to the right place. This is Key Life, with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’ve been looking, and it’s been a long time, because it’s an important text that Philippians 2:1 through 11. We spent a long time in it, and I’m going to try to land the plane, at least by Monday, but maybe even tomorrow. But we’re looking into paradoxes that are illustrated by the amazing teachings in Philippians 2:1 through 11. It ends by saying, this is the 9th verse.

Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place.

And we are looking at some counterintuitive paradoxes that are really important and that only Christians understand. The first one was you must relinquish in order to possess. And the clear teaching was simple. Let it go. It’s not important. Let it go. And when you let it go, it returns to you in a way that makes letting it go worth letting it go. And then we spent a good time yesterday talking about another paradox. You must humble yourself in order to be exalted, Philippians 2:7, made himself nothing. Philippians 2:8b, he humbled himself. Philippians 2:9, therefore God exalted him. And then I took some time to go throughout Scripture to look at how this is one of the central themes of Scripture. Do you know what bothers me about politics? Well, I just thought about maybe 10 things that bother me about politics, but the main thing that bothers me about it is the self-righteousness. There’s money, and leverage, and power, and this isn’t a left, right, conservative, liberal thing. It’s a fact that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And not only that, those who get that power are incredibly self righteous. They don’t allow anybody else to be wrong. They don’t cut slack for anybody. They cancel people out. They remove people, even friends, because their views are not the proper views. It is self righteousness on steroids. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if one of our politicians would stand before the press in a press conference and say I’ve got a confession to make I have really made a mess of things. My heart was right. I was wanting to do it right, but I just made a horrible mess of it and if you would forgive me I’ll do better next time or I’ll work at being better next time and maybe I will be better. I don’t know about you, but I don’t care about their political views, that’s a person I would vote for every day. I pray by name for a lot of our politicians. And I say, Lord, there’s so much money and so much power and so much leverage, and it’s awful what it’s done to them. Break them. Bring them to repentance and bring them to you. And Father, do that for me, too. Sometimes I think I didn’t need to pray that prayer for me because God does it in the circumstances of our life. And if we’re aware of it, then we see it, and we see how it works in our lives. I was one time speaking for a conference in Canada, and it was gathering of some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in the country, our country and theirs. I remember thinking, when I got off the airplane, they’re very fortunate to have me. You know, I’m articulate, I’m a good communicator, and I have some important things to say. Then they introduced me at that evening session, and you know what happened? I don’t, even telling you this, if you’re in our television audience, you can see that I’m blushing. I’m not proud of that. But do you know what happened? I made a fool of myself. Sometimes I say, I didn’t make a fool of myself, but I could see it from where I was. But this time, I didn’t have to see it, it was the reality. The words wouldn’t come. I stumbled over everything. I forgot the points. It was just awful. And these people had power and money, and I made a fool of myself. And then my room, as I remember it was on the 10th floor of the hotel where the conference was taking place. And I went from that session to an elevator, and it was packed with people who would just watched me make a fool of myself. You know, when you get on an elevator with people who think that you’re an idiot, everything gets silent, nobody says anything. They just go to the floor where they’ve mashed the button. I got off on the 11th floor and actually ran to my room, got in and got on my knees and said, God, how could you do this to me? And I could hear his laughter and his sense that he loved me and that what happened was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. The next sermon I preached was a lot better. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
And that was Steve Brown. Thank you Steve. We are still soaking up all the goodness found in Philippians 2:1 through 11. And we’ll continue from right here tomorrow. So join us, won’t you? What’s your favorite thing from Australia? Kangaroos? Koalas? Hugh Jackman? I think one of our favorite Australian exports is Adam Ramsey. He joined us recently on Steve Brown Etc. and we spoke about the subject of honoring one another. Take a listen to part of that episode, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Adam Ramsey: When I was asked to write this book, I was asked to write it. This is no reaction against my church. In fact, honestly, my church, they are amazing. They honor me way more than they should. And so, when they gave me this topic, I just naturally assumed, oh, they, they hate me. They want me to write about the hardest possible thing when it comes to our life together as Christians, which is honoring one another. But, as I began to look into it and read and research and write and get after it, man, this word just comes up again and again and again in the Scriptures. And there’s something really beautiful that struck me with this word as I began to see it again and again in the Scriptures in the way that we’re meant to treat one another in an honorless world, in a harsh and divided world, our honor actually becomes a living prophetic sermon to the world about what God has done in us. So, I loved writing this book.

Steve Brown:
What does it mean to honor?

Adam Ramsey: Yes. I mean, to honor just means to give weight to, is probably the simplest and easiest way to say that. So, we’re called to honor our fathers and mothers, we’re called to honor authorities. This book, focuses on honor within the church, so honoring and giving weight to one another. And I think the grounding for that, to kind of give the theological boundaries there, the grounding for that is we’re first and foremost called to honor God above all things, and that’s just a part of what worship looks like. And then the horizontal implications of that is we are called to then honor one another. And even when it’s people that man, really frustrate us that we did not want to honor. At the very least, we are called to honor the image of God in one another and refuse to dehumanize each other, instead dignifying each other. And so, there’s all kinds of applications for that honor, but at its essence, it means to give the right amount of weight and esteem to.

Steve Brown:
One of the interesting things about the Bible, and especially the New Testament is that we’re supposed to love our neighbor and honor our neighbor. They have the image of God too and all that, but there’s far more in the New Testament about each other than about them. Why is that?

Adam Ramsey: Oh, absolutely. The one anotherness of the New Testament is massive. I mean, Jesus said it in John 13:35.

That by this, the world will know that you are my disciples in that you love one another.

And he says, he doesn’t say love one another as yourself in that context. No, when Jesus says in John 13.

A new command I give you, love one another as I have loved you.

We might be tempted to think, oh, I’ve heard that, that doesn’t seem very new, Jesus. Love your neighbor as yourself and all of that sort of stuff there. But Jesus, what makes it a new command is he says.

Love your neighbor as I have loved you.

Not as yourself

as I have loved you.

And how did Jesus love us? He gave himself away for us. He died for us. And so, the bar gets raised there when it comes to the Christian realities of one another. Francis Schaeffer basically says in one of his books.

That the watching world is given permission here by Jesus to judge the authenticity of our faith by the way we treat one another.

Now, that’s how sobering that passage is there.

Matthew Porter:
This was such a great episode, or should I say, any absolute ripper. Can we send it to you on CD for free? Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to order that CD, or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for the free CD featuring Adam Ramsey. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.