Christmas/New Year/ Ministry: With The Mind Of Christ-6

MINISTRY: With The MIND Of CHRIST-VI—

—Philippians 2:9-11(2:1-18)

Attention:

There is a young woman on YouTube who has been in the process of making an abandoned single-room cabin livable. The cabin is located somewhere in New Hampshire or Maine.

She is doing the majority of the work to this tiny cabin by herself.

Early on, she had to get an exterminator to stop a raccoon infestation. She has had to rely on a few contractors. One completed the driveway. Another dried in the cabin on the outside. Her Dad has helped her on a very few projects with the house.

BUT, It’s easy to tell that she is unskilled at carpentry on any level. She has had to rely on word-of-mouth & YouTube videos for her ‘skill-learning.’

I don’t watch her video offerings often, but when I do, it’s almost painful for me to watch her blunders, because she is of the ‘measure once, cut twice’ persuasion. And I often wonder if she’s really learning anything. I suspect that she is NOT going to pursue a career in carpentry.

*It seems that she merely thought it would be a simple process to restore a cheaply purchased cabin so she could have a place of her own in the woods, yet without a real plan to achieve it!

The young woman is restoring her cabin with an ineffective ‘skillset’, armed only with a ‘personal ambition to own a house.’ She seems to fit into the category of those who are “loaded down with sins” & “led away by various lusts.” And so she is categorized with those who are “always learning & never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”(2Tim. 3:6-7).

In contrast to her, those who are God’s people are EXPECTED to minister WITH the mind of Christ Jesus, their Savior & Lord! Because in Him alone “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom & knowledge”(Col. 2:3)....

It’s one thing to know Jesus as your Savior, but it is quite another to live by His direction as your Lord!

Need:

The apostle Paul counseled the Philippian church to minister empowered with the mind of Christ Jesus.

God’s people are to minister with the mind of Christ Jesus.

How do God’s people minister with the mind of Christ Jesus?

4 characteristics of (Christmas/New Year)ministry with the mind of Christ Jesus.

Since Christmas 2025 we’ve been looking at what it means to celebrate ‘CHRISTMAS: With The MIND Of CHRIST’....

And since we’ve extended that exploration into the New Year & beyond, our focus has shifted somewhat, in that we’re discovering that:

‘MINISTRY: With The MIND Of CHRIST’...

1. ‘LOVES As JESUS LOVES’(:1-4)

&

2. ‘GIVES As JESUS GIVES’(:5-8)

....TODAY we’ll also discover that....

3—MINISTRY with the mind of Christ ALSO...

RECEIVES AS JESUS RECEIVES(:9-11)

Explanation:(:9-11)Invites Exaltation in Jesus’ Power

:9—“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him & given Him the name which is above every name,”

Upon Jesus’ death via ‘the Cross’, He was “highly exalted” by God(Heb. 1:3-4). And that “exaltation” came to Jesus’ as a result of His flawless & sinless(Heb. 4:15) obedience(:5-8).

A consequence of Jesus’ exaltation, was His being “given” “the name which is above every name.” His “name” is singularly, the ONLY ONE by which men can be saved(Acts 4:12).

Acts 4:12—“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

•So then, no one can rightly claim, salvation by any other means(Jn. 14:6)!

Jn. 14:6—Jesus to His disciple, Thomas,—“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, & the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Furthermore, no one can rightly claim allegiance to God apart from the revealed Christ of God, Who has come in the flesh(1Jn. 4:2-3).

1Jn. 4:2-3—“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, & every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, & is now already in the world.”

:10—“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on the earth, and of those under the earth,”

As a result of Jesus’ exaltation(:9), & consequential authority—possessing “the name which is above every name”— “Every knee” will be brought to “bow” before this same Jesus.

Isa. 45:22-23—YHWH-God to Israel—“I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.”

All people of all time, no matter where they are—whether living “on earth”, or the ‘dead’ in hell(“under the earth”), as well as those living “in heaven”—will all be brought to acknowledge “Jesus” as the Christ...And so, all will openly acknowledge Him as the Son of God(God in human flesh)...And so, all will openly acknowledge the fullness of Almighty God as responsible for the intended salvation of every individual of mankind!