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The Name Above All Names
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Over these past two weeks, we've taken a journey unpacking Jesus as the name above all names, exploring the depths of what that truly means. We've understood that His name stands for many things — we've looked at Him as our refuge, as a city, and last week as a living tabernacle.
Today, we continue that journey by looking at Christ the wisdom of God.
In 1 Corinthians 1:24, scripture tells us that Jesus is the power and the wisdom of God. As a house, we've come to understand that wisdom is application. So if Christ is the wisdom of God, it also means that Christ is the applicating factor of God. Anything that needs to happen or occur can only happen through Christ.
In life, we may try many things to cause things to happen the way we want. But that is not how it works. Things only happen through Christ, because He is the applicating factor of God. If anything is going to occur, God needs to be involved — and God moves through Christ.
If there's anything you leave with today, let it be these three truths about Christ being the wisdom:
Abiding in Him — the theme of this year — means understanding His wisdom, because it's only by His wisdom that you are sustained and able to live.
Let's read 1 Corinthians 2:7–8:
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
Paul is saying there is a wisdom — a mystery — that people do not know about, and we have been brought in to understand it. This wisdom is now the person of Christ. That's why he says that if the rulers of this age had known Christ was the wisdom, they would never have crucified Him.
We hear the phrase "the mysteries of God" all the time — it's become Christianese. It sounds like no one else can enter unless they've done 60,000 days of fasting. But I want to debunk that.
The word "mystery" here literally means:
Pay attention to that phrase: confided only to the initiated. You have to be invited. And I want to make this very clear: the invitation was made by Jesus dying on the cross. When you said yes to Christ, you were initiated into being able to understand the hidden things of God.
Look at Matthew 13:10–11:
"And the disciples came and said to him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?' He answered and said to them, 'Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.'"
He said this in reference to the Pharisees. To them it has not been given because of one thing: they do not believe that Jesus is God. The disciples believed.
If you're making notes, write this down:
In order to understand the mysteries and the deep things of God, you must simply believe. That is the only barrier of entry.
Mysteries are hidden — which means they must be found out. There must be some activity on your behalf to search for these things.
It's like having a gift you didn't know you had. Someone tells you, "You're an encourager," and suddenly you see it. There are things about yourself that are hidden, but you find out as you journey. The same is true with the things of God.
The knowledge and revelation don't come magically by the click of your finger just because you now believe. As you study for school, so must you study the word and study Christ. He is more than a person. He's a place, a city, a system, a governance. That means He must be studied. In regard to His systems, the way He operates, the way He does things, His mind concerning matters — it requires study. It requires searching Him out.
Matthew 13:44–46 says:
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for the joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it."
Notice the effort of the person who found the hidden treasure. The treasure is Christ. He sees the value of it, sacrifices, and sells everything to obtain it. That's how we are meant to view knowing God. That's how we are meant to view knowing the wisdom of Christ — as something valuable, worth sacrificing for.
It's astonishing that after all the revelation Paul had, he would still say in Philippians 3:10:
"Oh, but to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death."
Even with all the vast revelation still carrying us to this day — teaching us how to live and relate with Jesus — Paul says, "Oh, but to know Him."
Some of us have to get to a place where your chief purpose and desire is to actually know the depths of Christ. Not to look puffed up in knowledge — but because knowing Christ and gaining revelation of His wisdom is the power of the application of the life of God in your life. That's the only way you'll see life unpacked and evidenced in you.
It's easier to do something when you know how to do it. If I gave the mic to someone unprepared to lead adoration, they'd blank out. But if I gave it to Minister Alice, she'd know exactly what to do — and we'd all sense the shift in the room.
That's exactly what happens when you have knowledge and revelation of a thing. There's a confidence, and you affect atmospheres.
So if you grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God, all the "seven steps to kingdom advancement in your marketplace" — you won't even need it. Those conversations are good and helpful, but if we prioritize them over gaining revelation of Christ, it's error. That's why we go into the workplace and don't know how to show Him. Some of our colleagues don't even know we're Christian.
Read the Psalms again in light of what we've been sharing. David had a revelation of Jesus, though he didn't fully know it. Everything he says in the Psalms reveals Christ, the wisdom of God. And even in his failures, he's remembered as a man after God's own heart — because of his relationship with the wisdom of God.
The aim of this message is that you get your priorities in order. Calling will come. What you're meant to do will come. But all of that comes by reason of you engaging with the wisdom of God — Christ.
Some of you don't know what you're doing in life. Forget about even focusing on that — unpack and get to know Christ, and it will be revealed. I always say it: we don't know how we got here. How we got here was by unpacking the person and growing in the knowledge of Christ. You stumble into purpose. You stumble into identity. You stumble into alignment.
My aim today isn't just that you'd encounter God in a beautiful service — it's that there would be a desire, a hunger within you to search Christ out. To create an appetite in you.
Remember: it's the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out. None of us have arrived. There is always more to search out when it comes to Christ.
Ephesians 1:9–11:
"Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in him. In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things together to the counsel of his will."
Quite frankly, this is the mystery: that all things are gathered together in Christ. That's the purpose of the Father.
God the Father is governed by His own purposes. Purposes influence actions. If His purpose is to gather all things into Christ, then every single one of His actions — every display of power, every word He speaks, every revelation, every moment of worship, every presence encounter — is for one thing: that you come into the fullness and are gathered into Christ.
Since God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore, His purpose has never changed. From before the world was created, the Father's purpose was always for all things to be gathered in Christ.
And since Christ is the power and wisdom of God, and wisdom is the application of God, that means the only way for all things to be gathered in Christ is by way of wisdom — and by the person of Christ Himself.
Colossians 1:16:
"For by him all things were created that are in the heavens and that are on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him."
Last week we saw that Christ is both the tabernacle and the way to the tabernacle. It's the same principle here: He is both the place and the way to the place. He is both the one in whom creation is made and the one through whom creation was made.
So at the point of creation, God's purpose was that all things exist in Christ. Not just chairs, not just this room, not just the earth and trees — we were also created through Him and for Him.
John 1:3–4:
"All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of all men."
Two things are highlighted:
In the kingdom of God, the thing that created something is the same thing that sustains it. If we were created by Christ, through Christ, and for Him — how can we live without Him? The purpose for us breathing, living, walking, every single thing — is through Him and for Him.
This is what abiding in Christ really means. It's a matter of sustenance — living for the reason you were created for.
If we are created by Him, we cannot live outside of Him. The best way to look at it: we are like fish trying to live outside of water. How can a fish survive out of water? It's not possible. That's their residence.
We cannot survive or live outside of Christ. You'll begin to see the symptoms and the strains. That's why there's so much contention in some of our lives — we've somehow found a way to live without Him, gaining wisdom from every source but Him.
It's like taking a broken Mac to Samsung and asking them to fix it. What can they do? They weren't the manufacturer. If we're to live, we must be in close contact with the Manufacturer. When anything fails, the One who is the application of God — the wisdom of God — can step in. That's what a life of abiding in Christ is. More than friendship and intimacy — it's living for your purpose of creation so you can function and operate smoothly.
Christ is the application and administration of God. If God is going to do anything, He does it in and through Christ. He is the DNA, the pattern, and the wisdom behind all creation.
So why is there suffering if God exists?
Because the world was created by Christ and through Him. When you take the world out of Christ — dysfunction. By the fall of one man, disobedience entered. And when disobedience entered, the repercussions of it — sickness, death, all these things — entered too. These are symptoms of the universe not functioning the way it was made to function.
If someone on evangelism asks you why they're suffering, you can tell them: the world was created through and for Christ, and now it is outside of Christ. Just as a fish flaps around out of water, that's the state of the world.
Anything created by Christ must be sustained by Christ. Animate or inanimate — all things.
When sin entered the world, all things were forced outside of Christ. The condition for things being in Christ is holiness and light — sin is darkness and death, and it cannot reside in Christ.
Romans 8:20:
"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, because of him who subjected it in hope."
All things were forced out of Christ. So now, a different facet of the wisdom of God must be applied — as the solution to all things.
The cross is the wisdom of God. Christ going to the cross is the wisdom of God, because that was the solution for the state of the world.
While we were outside of Christ, Christ came. He left His position, His office — His name and place. He disregarded His divinity and said, "I will take on flesh. I'll take on the state that is outside of Myself." He went to the cross and died for us and all creation for this one purpose: that all things would be gathered back into Him again.
That's the desire of God — that no matter what you do, even if you find yourself outside of Him, by wisdom, there is a way back in. And that wisdom is Him dying on the cross.
"He has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise."
This is the foolish thing that has become wisdom for us, power for us, and our way back into Christ.
When you believe, you're gathered back into Christ. As we unpack Him and learn about Him, we are reaching the fullness of Christ — fullness of expression, fullness of the image of Christ.
This is key: we always try to find ways and solutions outside of Christ, but it doesn't work.
He's the solution for the world. He's the solution for every single thing you're going through — every heavy weight, every circumstance, everything that looks like it's not giving way. He's the wisdom because He's the substance. He's the truth. He's the only one who can step in, because He's the Manufacturer, the Administrator. He knew the intended purposes; He knew how everything was orchestrated. He's the only one that can restore.
Restoration can only come through Him. Freedom can only come through Him. He was the creator of the original state, He's the wisdom by which all things were created, He's the wisdom by which all things are sustained, and He's the wisdom that is the solution.
A lot of the time we run everywhere and to everyone but Christ. You must run to Christ. Even if it feels like things aren't lifting, run to Christ until it lifts — because He is the only solution. He is the only way.
Christ is not just an add-on to your life. If you live that way, you will not see joy — you'll always see contention. Some of us feel there's always something. Get hungry and desperate for Christ. Look to Christ only. Cry out to Christ only.
When Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life," the Pharisees thought He was crazy. Many left Him. Then He turned to Peter and asked, "Are you going to go too?" And Peter said:
"To whom else shall we go? You hold the words of life."
To whom else can you go? There's nowhere else. There's nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. There's only one place — Christ.
He's the wisdom that created all. He's the one who will sustain you. He's the only one. We've over-complicated things. The practicality you're looking for can come from Christ if you go deep enough. Some of us say, "We need to be practical." No — you need Christ. You don't need to be practical; you need Christ.
Someone needs to tell Him, "I need You." Somebody utter the same words as Peter: "To whom else shall we go?"
This is your moment to get wisdom. In all your getting, get wisdom.
Lord, You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Faithful is Your name, O God. Open up my eyes to understand who You are. Open up my eyes to understand how to relate with You, how to call upon You, to understand who You are for me. You are the wisdom before time began.
I see downloads of insight dropping over the room. For some of you, instruction is coming. Directions. There are areas where you have lacked guidance. Keep your gaze on Christ and receive instruction — not just for next steps, but things you may need to cut out of your life. This is a confirmation for anyone who wasn't sure if that was the voice of the Lord telling them to cut something out. Wisdom is in the room. Whatever it is — even a fast that you must partake in — make a note of it. Cry for wisdom.
Jesus, we thank You for insight, revelation, and light, O Father — the person of Christ. We pray for grace to search You out and to trust You for wisdom and insight, Lord. As we enter this week, begin, O Father, to download wisdom and insight for how we should go, as we shift our gaze to You, Christ. We give You all the glory and the honor, in Jesus' name. Amen.
