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Guest (Female): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, we’re passionate about helping you understand God's word and apply it to your everyday life through clear, practical Bible teaching.

That's why we want to invite you to sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical encouragement, ministry updates, and information about upcoming resources, all delivered right to your inbox. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com. That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: He was in heaven, hearing the praise of the angels in intimate fellowship with the Father. But in obedience to the Father, who sent His Son into the world, He emptied Himself of that prerogative and came to the earth. Now He is among disciples, Pharisees, Sadducees, antagonists, Romans, and haters. Not the praise of the angels that He had in heaven. That's why in John 17, Jesus said, "Restore to Me the glory that I had with You before the world was." The prerogatives of deity. He emptied Himself of that.

Second thing that He emptied Himself of was his independent authority, or the independent use of authority. That is, He came to the earth as a servant of the Father. He would say, "Not My will, but Your will be done." "I came," He said in another place, "not to do My own will, but to do the will of My Father who sent Me." So He voluntarily emptied Himself of the prerogatives of deity, though He was still God in human flesh at that time. Emptied Himself of independent authority, being submitted to the will of the Father all the way to the cross until the ascension.

That's called the kenosis, the emptying. Now let's apply that. That's theological; let's get practical. Paul says, "That's your attitude should be like Jesus." Let this mind be in you. Don't be high-minded, conceited, selfish, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Ultimate example: Jesus. God, who emptied Himself of the prerogatives of deity, emptied Himself of independent authority, submitted to the Father, willing to suffer, willing to pay the ultimate price in submission to the will of the Father. Think like that. Live like that. Have that kind of an attitude. That's how this is applied.

And being in found in appearance of man, He humbled Himself, became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

One day every single human being—Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic—will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord because He will come back and the world will recognize Him. They will mourn over their unbelief, mourn over Him. But His name will be King of kings and Lord of lords. Everybody will be forced to confess that. Everybody will one day understand that. Some of us have made a decision to make that confession now and not wait for then.

When every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, some knees and some tongues have bowed and confessed now. It's called salvation. We've received Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is voluntary; it is not enforced. We love Him as our Lord. We love Him as our Savior. And I would suggest if Jesus Christ is not yet your Lord and Savior, that you also bow the knee now and make the confession now, so that you will have the joy of your Lord for eternity.

You say, "No, I'm not ready to do that." Okay, one day you will. And that day will be too late. This is the age of grace; there's coming an age where it will not be the age of grace. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But there's something I want you to look at. It says God has highly exalted Him. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father. Jesus is back in glory with His Father.

But God has given Him the name which is above every name. Now what's interesting about that verse? He didn't give Him a name, but the name. It's a definite article. It is some exalted name or title that God the Father has given to Jesus. What is that name? Well, some in reading this would say, "Well, it is His name, Jesus." Okay, perhaps. However, the name Jesus was a very common Jewish name, not just in the New Testament but back in the Old Testament. Joshua.

Jesus and Joshua: same name. Yeshua in Hebrew. Joshua. In the Greek language, Jesus, or the English transliteration of it. So we would say, "Well, it's Jesus," you know, the angel said, "You'll call His name Jesus, Yeshua, Joshua, which means 'God saves,' for He will save His people from their sins." But I want you to keep reading, because it could be that the name that the Father is going to give or gives to Jesus is mentioned in verse 11: that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ—here it is—is Lord.

Lord to the glory of God the Father. I think what Paul is saying is the Father in heaven gives the Son the title Lord. The Lord gives Jesus the title Lord. You remember Psalm 110? This is how it begins: "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.'" Very important text because Jesus in Matthew 22 brings this up. He said to the religious leaders one day, "What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?"

And they said, "The son of David." And so Jesus said, "Well, then why did David, in the Spirit, call him Lord?" And he quotes Psalm 110: "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.' If he's his son, how can he be his Lord?" There's a good answer to that. They just didn't have that when Jesus brought it up. But I think what he's talking about here is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The name designated by God the Father is His own title: Lord, Lord of all.

Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's the name to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I cannot tell you how many people that verse has bothered and stumbled. People come up to me worried: "What do I do? It says I have to work out my own salvation."

It sounds like it's a self-help salvation. That you are saved by doing good works. You've got to work it out. If you don't work it out, you won't be saved. That's why context is always important. Any text separated from its context becomes a pretext. Here's the context. It says "work out your own salvation," but keep reading: "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." So verse 12 is not Paul saying God helps those who help themselves.

Work out your own salvation. You won't be saved unless you earn it. But be honest. Most people believe you get saved by doing good works. "Well, you know, I've done a few good works in my time, Pastor, and I've gone to church and I've done some nice things for poor people and therefore, when I die, I think I've done enough good works to kind of push me over the edge into heaven." That is how most people on earth who believe in a heaven think that's how you get to heaven.

By the way, that's exactly how Martin Luther thought you get to heaven, at first. And I bring this up because last Thursday, I happened to go down to Wittenberg, Germany, to the very church that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the door in Latin that sparked the great Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk in Erfurt, Germany. But he was a troubled soul. He struggled. He struggled with being good enough to go to heaven, honestly.

In fact, there's an old German word that summarizes this called *Anfechtung*. And it was this existential dread of, "I've got to do certain things in order to get to heaven and I feel like I've not done enough." Today we would call it probably depression, but he was living under this cloud. And so he would go to confession, and he would go to confession every single day. As an Augustinian monk, he went to confession. Sometimes it is recorded up to six hours a day.

Here's why. Martin Luther thought, "I have to confess my sins. If I don't confess my sins, my sins won't be forgiven. But I can't confess my sins unless I remember my sins." So he would do everything he could to jog his memory to remember every single thing he had done wrong because if my sin is not confessed, my sin is not forgiven. But if my sin is not remembered, my sin cannot be confessed. So he would just struggle with confessing every bad thought.

And the priest that he confessed to was Johann von Staupitz, who got tired of Martin Luther confessing that long. It's like, "Dude, really? Every day? Why every day?" "Because I get my sins forgiven today, but tomorrow's a new day, I start sinning again." So eventually von Staupitz said to young Martin Luther, "Look, you're coming to me every day confessing your sins. Go out and commit some real sins: murder, adultery, something that can be forgiven. But all these little peccadilloes is ridiculous."

And that is because he was weighed down with his sin and thought he had to do good works to get to heaven because of what he was taught in the Catholic Church. Eventually Staupitz said to Luther, "You know, there's a job opening in Wittenberg at the university there to teach the Bible. You ought to go there and teach the Bible." So Martin Luther went to Wittenberg, started teaching the Bible, started teaching the book of Psalms. Read Psalm 22 and something grabbed his heart.

Psalm 22: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And he thought, "Even Jesus suffered from this deep remorse of being separated from the Father. Why? It must be because He bore our sin and that was the separation." So theologically, he was getting that right. But why is it that I feel so burdened? So he started reading and teaching the book of Romans. And he made it through chapter one, got up to verse 16 and 17. It talks about the righteousness of God.

"The righteousness of God is revealed from heaven from faith to faith, as it is written: 'The just shall live by faith.'" When he read that, he thought—and these are his words—"I don't love God; I hate him. He is so perfectly righteous, He has such a high standard, I can never attain to it. That's my problem. I'm confessing my sins to get right with Him. I have to do certain things to be right with Him. God is perfect in His absolute righteousness."

But he kept reading that verse over and over again and he thought, "But it says after that, 'the just shall live by faith.'" So what's the connection? And it dawned on him as he studied that verse. The term "the righteousness of God" wasn't just God's own attribute of righteousness that He had within Himself, but it's the righteousness He gives freely. Imputes is the word we would say. Freely to anyone who will believe in Him. Believe that what Jesus did on the cross was enough because it says the just shall live by faith.

Now he realized this. It doesn't matter how high God's standard of righteousness is. Yes, I can never attain to it. I don't have to. It's a free gift. He gives me the righteousness of Christ. That is, He treated Jesus like you and I deserve to be treated so that He could treat you and I like Jesus deserves to be treated. And he saw that, he thought, "That's the gospel." Set him free. He said, "When I discovered that, it's as if I walked through the gates of paradise." And he was set free.

Anyway, I diverted. Back to our text. Work out your own salvation. Notice how he writes that. He doesn't say "work for your own salvation." He doesn't say "work at your own salvation, work toward your own salvation." He just says "work it out." If I give you a math problem, I know that the hard science of mathematics will prevail if you follow the rules. But here's the math problem: you now need to work it out. You're not going to change a thing. The rules are in place. Just work it out.

Or perhaps here's a better example. If you're a musician and a composer gives you the score of music, he or she has put the notes on the scale. There's the measures; you know the timing, you know the beat. You know the musical notes that you are to play. The composer has done all the work. You as a musician need to work out the melody. You see the point? You see the difference? So work out your own salvation, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

That's the beauty of it. God says, "Work it out. Work out the problem. Work out the musical score." "I don't know how." "Don't worry. I'll work through you, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." The word for "God works in you" is the word "energizes you." He gives you the capacity. Whenever I fly to Phoenix, Arizona, I love the airport because all the terminals are connected with this moving walkway. Have you ever been there and you go through the terminal?

"I've got to go to that terminal way down there." No problem. Just start walking, but walk on the moving walkway, because you'll get there really quick. Now I notice some people walk without the moving walkway and I can stroll and I pass them by even if they're running. I say, "Okay, you're working for it, I'm working out it." So if I'm late for a plane, like I was—I thought I was once—I was so glad for that moving walkway because it energized me. It propelled me.

Now I was walking, but it was pushing. It was energizing. So work out your own salvation, but God provides the walkway for you to get there. He's going to work in and through you. So it's a beautiful, beautiful example of context. Do all things without murmuring and disputing. Wouldn't you love to write that in your teenage son or daughter's bedroom? As a big sign: do all things without murmuring and disputing. Maybe in every room in your house.

That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Our attitudes are important. Our communication is important. Nobody likes a complainer. People will turn you off. They'll listen to you once. You keep complaining and keep doing it: automatic switch-off. Eventually, nobody cares. Do all things without murmuring. That's kind of talking under your breath.

And disputing or arguing. Bad attitude. But he says because you want to be harmless, blameless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Now the word there for "lights" is the word *phoster*. It would be used of the stars shining at night. So if it's a very dark night and you look up at the sky, there's no light pollution, the stars are dazzling.

And sometimes the stars, given the right atmosphere, can be enough to guide you at night. The moon helps, but even starlight can. Interesting thing about light: light is electromagnetic energy. It travels at 186,000 miles per second. And we are told that the light you are seeing from the stars, many of them are so far away that the light that comes to your eye left the star thousands of years ago. Traveling at 186,000 miles per second, but they're so many light years away that you are just now, after thousands of years, seeing it.

Okay, you and I—you and I shine. We are to be glow-in-the-dark people. The world is dark, so glow. The world's a mess, so have a message in the mess. Glow in the dark, shine your light. Well, it might take so long to get there. Let it shine anyway. Holding fast the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and I rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.

Paul was in prison. He did not know if he was going to live or die. He didn't know what the verdict would be. He knew that he had a court date before Caesar himself. He had appealed to Caesar. He was waiting to stand in front of Caesar Nero and have the opportunity to share the gospel even with that Roman emperor. But he didn't know what the verdict would be. He might live and he said, "You know, in the last chapter, I'm sort of in a quandary here. I have a desire to depart, just to die and be with Christ, but to be here is more needful for you. So yeah, it's sort of a toss-up."

But he says, "I am being poured out as a drink offering." Now that, I think, is Paul saying, "I'm at a place where I can already see the handwriting on the wall and it might be that I will die here." Because he uses the same phrase at the end of his life, which doesn't come now but later on. He writes to second Timothy and he says, "For I am being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord our righteous Judge will give to me, and not to me only but all those who love His appearing."

So that is the end of Paul's life. He uses that language, but he uses it here thinking, "This might be it. This might be the time where I pour out my life." Now the idea of this imagery was a drink offering. Remember in the Old Testament, ever hear the term "drink offering"? These were libations where they would pour like wine onto a sacrifice that is on the burnt altar. So it was an act of worship and Paul sees the giving of his life for the Lord in prison as a form of worship.

Right, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12. I might be literally giving my life for the gospel in prison. I might be pouring myself out as a drink offering. If so, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you all be glad and rejoice with me. In chapter one, he said, "The things that have happened to me have happened for the furtherance of the gospel." I've been arrested, I'm in prison, but don't worry. I want you to rejoice. I'm okay with that. I'm rejoicing. God is present. God is using me. And now again, for the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.

Guest (Female): Every day, friends like you help connect people around the world to the life-changing truth of God's word through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. And this month, we'd like to thank you with a practical resource designed for the challenges of everyday life. When you give, you'll receive *Biblical Wisdom for Everyday Living*, a collection of four lifestyle booklets from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Through *Pray This Way*, *Technicolor Joy*, *Unforgiveness: Forgiveness vs. Sweet Revenge*, and *Standing Firm in Unsettling Times*, you'll discover biblical wisdom for prayer, joy, forgiveness, and finding peace when life feels uncertain. We'll send this special collection as our thanks when you give $30 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer.

Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, bringing biblical truth, encouragement, and hope to those who need it most. And this month, we'd love to thank you for your gift of $30 or more by sending you *Biblical Wisdom for Everyday Living*, a collection of four lifestyle booklets from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

*Pray This Way*, *Technicolor Joy*, *Unforgiveness: Forgiveness vs. Sweet Revenge*, and *Standing Firm in Unsettling Times*. These practical resources will help you apply God's truth to everyday challenges and grow deeper in your walk with Christ. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.