KD

You are significant to the purposes of God!
The Old Testament book of Haggai God is saying to us “make my kingdom your priority.”
The work of your hands may seem menial, but you play your part in working with Jesus to build His kingdom!
The final prophetic message through Haggai was for Zerubbabel. He is the governor, but he should have been king.

The last King of Judah was was Jehoikim, and the the Babylonian Empire had crushed he and Judah and carried them off into exile.

Jehoikim is Zerubbabel’s grandfather!
Zerubbabel was supposed to inherit a kingdom rather than a pile of rubble!
To make things even worse, his name – Zerubbabel – means offspring of Babylon!
But God is not done.

God gives Zerubbabel a glimpse of what is to come. Zerubbabel gets a glimpse of the finality of all things.
He is told of a battle to end battles, a great shaking,  and unleashing of evil… 
Then Jesus comes like a thief in the night, and everything changes!
God tells Zerubbabel that on that day “my servant will be my signet ring!”  Zerubbabel is a symbol of God’s authority!
King Jehoikim is an evil man who promotes idolatry, so God tears the ring off His finger. Jehoikim is finished.
But God says “Zerubbabel, the ring will come back to you!”

In the Gospel genealogies Zerubbabel is the link in both the line of Joseph and Mary.Through him the world will know the Messiah!
He is assured that the Messiah is going to walk into this temple you are building from rubble! 
A New Covenant will be authorized and empowered by the Holy Spirit and all the world will benefit from this new day!

Your story, your message, your life is absolutely significant to the purposes of God.

At first, the title seems a little backwards, doesn’t it?  I mean, Jesus is the King above all kings and the Lord above all lords.  Yet, Philippians 2:1-11 shows us that Jesus was exalted to that position because of His unmatchable humility.

“and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.”  Philippians 2:8-9

Humility defined the life of Jesus. And in Philippians 2, Paul urges us to reflect the same humility in our everyday lives.  This humility was demonstrated not only before God, but also manifest itself before mankind. 

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”

Jesus made himself nothing, so that we could gain everything. 

OK.  Here is where I get extremely challenged.  Philippians 2:3  says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”  WHOA! 

I don’t know about you, but this challenges my everyday motives in a deep way.  It blows me away to think how Jesus considered you and I ahead of himself.  Ultimately, His humility before God was made evident in His humility towards all of mankind. 

Here is the challenge: If we as the Church are to represent the nature and character of Christ, then our humility before God must prove itself in our humility to others.  It is impossible to have one without the other.  

And here is why this is so beautiful.  When we receive Jesus, we attain everything we will ever need, want or desire.  We gain everything.  There is nothing His presence in our lives cannot satisfy. 

Therefore, we no longer need live for ourselves and for our own personal gain, but now we are free to think about others, we are now able to serve others and put others ahead of our self!

Jesus humbled himself to nothing so that we could gain everything. 

Let us do the same for others.