"uncommon" Pt.1

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolve Church, and this is the Evolve Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Well, here we are, Evolve Fam, brand new year, 2021.

Let's go.

I hope you're excited.

I hope you're full of faith.

I hope you're full of hope for what we're gonna see God do through us this year.

I just want to pause for a moment and thank Brian Globish and Dave Kirschhner for the last two online experiences and the messages they brought to this house.

And I was just so in awe of their voices and the wisdom and the heart that came out of those two weekends and uh just so encouraged.

So thank you guys for speaking into our house.

I love you.

But I'm excited uh after a few weeks off at Christmas with Nicole and the kids and lots of rest and lots of downtime to be back in the saddle and uh to start a brand new series that we'll call it uncommon.

I want to pray and then we're gonna dig in.

Let's pray together.

Wherever you're watching from, would you just invite the presence of God into your living room, into your home, into your bedroom, into your vehicle, wherever you are.

Father, in Jesus' name, we open up our hearts to you right now.

As we uh go to the Bible together today, as we start this series of conversations about an uncommon life, it's with hearts open to growth, change, and transformation.

God, we want to be more like you.

Would you change us?

Would you fashion us?

Would you transform us, each one of us, bit by bit into the image of Jesus?

That's our prayer.

Amen?

Amen.

Look, I I love uncommon things.

I do, peculiar things, rare things.

Have you ever wandered through an antique store and come across just either gadgets or uh trinkets, old stuff, rare things, exquisite things, remarkable things.

I love uncommon things.

I have an extensive collection of unusual and out of the ordinary gadgets that I use to make coffee.

I picked up a new one in December called an origami pour over.

And it's super cool.

And I've loved making coffee with it over the last few weeks.

I have all these unusual gadgets.

Uh for this, I get persecuted, not gonna lie, just a moment where I get a lot of flack for all my coffee gadgets.

I've even been called a coffee snob.

You know, some of you watching have called me a coffee snob, but I can handle it.

Why?

Because it's worth it.

It's totally worth it.

As I was preparing for this message uh over the last couple of weeks, one day, I don't remember when it was exactly, but I Googled the word uncommon.

And right at the top of the Google search was a website called uncommongoods.com.

And so I visited that website and I got sucked into this website.

I didn't spend a lot of time there, but it was pretty cool just to kind of peruse all of these uncommon goods that this website sells.

They're an online merchant, and uh they had things like um these mesh grilling bags.

They look like my toiletry case, but they're for grilling um like vegetables on the barbecue.

I know, isn't that crazy?

They had this smartphone paper airplane.

Uh it was like a little paper airplane that you could control with your smartphone.

Never seen one of those before.

Totally uncommon.

This one was wild.

They had these long distance touch bracelets.

That's right.

These right here, long-distance touch bracelets.

They come as a set of two.

You wear one and you give the other one to somebody you know and care for who lives long way away.

And anytime I touch mine, yours like vibrates.

And it's like, oh, that person's thinking of me right now.

These long-distance touch bracelets, pretty uncommon.

But this last one, a shiitake mushroom log kit.

There it is.

I've never even heard of a shiitake mushroom log kit.

What do you have?

This log sitting on your countertop to grow shiitake mushrooms, I suppose.

But seriously, where else could you find such wonderful and unusual and uncommon items all together in one place?

Uncommongoods.com.

I'm not getting paid.

They don't sponsor me, uh, none of that.

Don't go there right now.

Stay with me to the end of this message.

Go there after church today.

But it was a lot of fun.

So today's big question.

Are you ready as we kick off uncommon part one?

Your life, the life you're currently living, is it common or uncommon?

Your life you're living right now, is it common or is it uncommon?

That's today's, sorry, not today's big question.

Let's just start with that as a question.

I've got a better big question coming up in a little bit, but comment thumbs up emoji for me in the chats if you, any one of these statements, are you ready to get those thumbs up emojis going here?

Thumbs up emoji in the chats if you want to stop sleeping in.

If you want to not be late all the time, if you want to feel closer to God.

Thumbs up if you want to eat healthier.

Thumbs up if you want to feel not feel so anxious and fearful all the time.

Thumbs up if you want to save more money.

Thumbs up in the chats if you want to exercise more.

Thumbs up if you want to have more time to read your Bible.

Thumbs up if you want to share a meal with extended family or friends.

Don't we all, seriously, um, I would love to just go out to a restaurant with some people that I love and share a meal.

Thumbs up if you want to figure out how to love your neighbors better.

Thumbs up if you want to stop feeling so angry.

Thumbs up if you want to read a book before bed instead of binge watching some streaming show on uh an entertainment site.

Thumbs up if you want this season of COVID-19 to be over.

Thumbs up if you want to get out of debt.

Thumbs up if you want to connect with your kids better.

Thumbs up if you want your marriage to feel stronger, thumbs up if you want to feel truly rested, thumbs up if you want to stop relying on that substance, whatever that substance is.

Thumbs up.

Guess what?

These are all very common wants.

And you can tell by the thumbs up emojis in the chats on Facebook and Church Online and YouTube.

These are all very common wants.

I venture a guess that most people are consumed with those kinds of wants in their life right now.

Those kinds of wants impact your thoughts, impact your time, impact your routine, impact your habits, impact your faith.

To be uncommon means to be out of the ordinary.

It means to be rare, to be unusual, remarkable.

And over the next four or five weeks, we want to talk about what it means to live an uncommon life as a follower of Jesus.

What if we were meant to live a different way?

And so today I want to lay some groundwork for what this series is gonna be about and kind of put some layers down that we can build on.

But next week we're gonna talk about an uncommon self-care.

You need to be in the room for that.

The week after that, we're gonna talk about an uncommon schedule.

The week after that, week four, we're gonna talk about uncommon adulting.

You need to be in the room for that.

You do.

Teenagers, young adults, um, moms, dads, uncles, aunts, grandparents, you need to be in the room for that.

And uh, we got a couple more ideas, we're gonna see how the next few weeks play out.

But today I just want to lay some groundwork for this series.

And so here's today's actual big question.

Are you ready?

Are you aware that a life surrendered to Jesus is meant to be an uncommon life of growth?

Are you aware?

If you're watching right now and you haven't made the decision yet whether or not you want to follow Jesus, that's okay.

If you're watching right now and you've been you've identified as a Christian for like decades, years and years and years, I just want to ask you, both of you, everybody watching, are you aware that a life surrendered to Jesus is meant to be an uncommon life of growth?

In this faith adventure, at some point, many of us have arrived at, and some of us are almost on the threshold of arriving at, the decision to accept Jesus.

Salvation, that's what we kind of call it in the church world, that's the starting place.

And that work, it's all on Jesus.

It's a finished work, it's a price that He's already paid.

We just receive that gift.

And it comes with an open heart and a desire to submit and surrender our life to Jesus.

And in that choice and in that decision, and in that prayerful moment, we receive all of the gifts that come with the sacrifice that Jesus made.

Salvation brings a sense of hope and purpose, forgiveness.

It gives a sense of mercy and grace for how we live, opens up our relationship with God.

But salvation is a decision, it's a moment.

Many of us have come through that moment.

Some of us are on the threshold, others are questioning whether this is for you.

But salvation is the starting place.

Spiritual transformation and growth, that's all on you, with God's help.

Salvation, free gift, Jesus paid for that in full.

Spiritual growth and transformation, that's on us with God's help, with the Holy Spirit, with what we've received from Jesus, but it's all on us.

Spiritual transformation and growth is not optional if you have surrendered your life to Jesus.

That pursuit of growing spiritually, of maturing, of developing, of transforming bit by bit into the image of Jesus Christ that has to be a conscious, deeply spiritual, intentional pursuit today and every day and in every season.

Are you growing?

Salvation is this amazing, instant, full gift of grace made possible through the life, death, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus.

Pastor Mark Clark from the Lower Mainland of British Columbia this week, he said, Don't let them fool you.

Salvation is by good deeds and good works, just not ours, but Jesus' on our behalf.

And I am oh so glad because I'm a disaster, is what he put.

I love that.

Don't let them fool you.

Salvation actually is by good deeds and good works, just not by my good deeds or your good deeds, just not by my good works or your good works.

It's by Jesus' good deeds, Jesus' good works, which he already did, which he paid in full.

We embrace what Jesus has done for us, yes, but we have to refuse to just park there.

And I've met a lot of Christians who struggle.

They say, Pastor, I'm a Christian.

I've made the decision to follow Jesus, but they've parked in that salvation moment and they haven't become an owner of their own growth.

They haven't become an owner of their own spiritual transformation.

Once we've received that gift of grace through Jesus, then to grow is the goal.

And we grow through intentionality.

Yes, with God helping us.

Yes, with the gift of Holy Spirit, yes, with truth from the Bible, but with purpose and intentionality.

Healthy things grow.

And if you're going to be healthy spiritually, spirit, soul, and body in 2021, you're going to need to make the intentional choice, full of purpose, to be spiritually transformed this year, to grow.

It's uncomfortable, expensive, and painful every single time my son quickly outgrows another pair of hardly used shoes.

Let me tell you.

All the parents watching, can you relate, right?

That that growing quickly as our kids grow.

Man, it's uncomfortable, it's painful, it's expensive.

I'm like, man, we just we just bought those shoes, they're hardly used, and you're already pushing through the end, right?

Not fun.

It's painful, it's uncomfortable, and it's expensive and costly.

However, I'm grateful.

I want him to keep growing.

I'll pay the price because it means he's healthy.

It is gonna be costly, uncomfortable, it's gonna be expensive, it's gonna be painful for you to grow.

But grow anyways.

Grow regardless.

Are you aware that a life surrendered to Jesus is meant to have, meant to be an uncommon life of growth?

And as I was praying and preparing, this question kind of rose up inside what would happen this year?

What would take place?

What would we see God do through us if in 2021 Evolve as a Jesus-submitted community made the decision to level up in 2021?

What if we made that decision corporately, together as a family?

What if we linked arms and said, come on, let's do this together?

And then as individuals and as homes and as families, we all began to move forward?

What if we made the decision to level up this year, to take ownership of our own faith walk, to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth?

We're not babies or infants.

We're not looking for a mentor or a pastor or a small group leader to feed us.

No, we take responsibility for our own growth.

What if we lived as intentional about our own discipleship, our own growth, as we did about the passion to see other people come to Jesus?

In this faith adventure, salvation is the starting place, and that work is all on Jesus.

We receive that free gift.

But spiritual transformation and growth, that's all on us.

With God's help and the Holy Spirit, yes, but spiritual transformation and growth is not optional if you've made the decision to surrender your life to Jesus.

Salvation is this amazing instant full of grace, full of hope, made possible through the life, death, sacrifice, and resurrection of our Savior, of Jesus Christ.

And once we've received that gift of grace, then to grow is the goal.

Grow.

Healthy things grow.

So let's look at Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21.

Hebrews 13:20

If you got a Bible, turn there.

If not, I'm going to put it on the screen here for you to read along.

Hebrews 13.

May God, who puts all things together, makes all things whole, who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, the covenant that we have with God the Father.

May God who led Jesus, our great shepherd, up and alive from the dead.

Pause.

Salvation, this amazing instant full of grace, gift made possible through the life.

Through Jesus, you have been put together.

The Father has made you whole.

He's put you together.

Your life has been marked by the sacrifice of Jesus.

You have an eternal agreement with God the Father through Jesus, this covenant, this right relationship.

There isn't anything between you and God holding back that relationship anymore.

And then it goes on to say, may God now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please Him.

Make us into what gives Him most pleasure by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah.

There is an uncommon growth that God wants for you and I this year.

There is an uncommon, deeply spiritual transformation that God the Father wants for each one of us, individually, yes, but corporately together as a family this year in 2021.

Your life in surrender to Jesus is meant to be fashioned into something, formed and fashioned into something that gives God most pleasure.

Not just some, but the most pleasure.

To have a life fashioned in a way that gives God pleasure is going to require time.

It's going to require growth.

It's going to require change.

Are you up for that this year?

I pray that we are together.

Hebrews 13, verse 21, in the Passion Translation, may He, God, work perfection into every part of you, giving you all that you need to fulfill your destiny.

Hebrews 13:21

God is working out the inner character, the inner habits, the inner thoughts, the inner intentions of our lives, making it into what will be perfection.

Why?

So that we can fulfill the destiny, the purpose, the plans that he has for us.

And may He express through you all that is excellent and pleasing to him through your life union with Jesus.

It's through this union with Jesus, through this salvation moment that we're equipped to grow.

Jesus is the anointed one who is to receive all glory forever.

Hebrews 13, 21.

Let's not read this wrong.

In this common world that we love, live in, and serve, it's so easy to read that verse like this.

Listen, it's so easy to read it, and may He express through you all that is excellent and pleasing to you through your life union with Jesus.

I said it fast.

And may He express through you all that is excellent and pleasing to you.

No, that's not what the text says.

It is uncommon to live a life that is captivated in pursuit of being excellent and pleasing to Him.

And so this is the starting point for this series.

Are you pursuing and captivated by growth where your life becomes pleasing and excellent, not to you, but to the Father?

It's common to live a life that only desires to be excellent and pleasing to me.

We see that in the world that we live in all the time.

We're surrounded by examples of people who are pursuing what it means to be pleasing and excellent to themselves, their own motives, their own intentions.

But it's uncommon to live a life that's captivated with this pursuit of becoming pleasing and excellent simply to the Father.

Receiving the gift of salvation is the start.

It's wonderful, it's beautiful.

There's something deeply spiritual that takes place when we make the decision to surrender our lives to Jesus.

I'm not discounting the salvation moment or the salvation experience.

But the salvation life is lived out, worked out, fleshed out for decades, generations, for years.

After we've received the gift of salvation, we must work out our own ongoing salvation with the priority of living this uncommon Jesus-surrendered life that's excellent and pleasing to the Father.

So today's big question: are you aware that a life surrendered to Jesus is meant to be an uncommon life of growth?

In this faith life, whether you're a week in, three months in, nine years, 40 decades, that salvation moment is the starting place.

Jesus paid for that in full.

We don't have to do that on our own.

It was done through Jesus' works, through Jesus' deeds, not ours.

However, this spiritual transformation and growth, with the power of God and the gift of Holy Spirit, it's on us to do the work of growing in this season.

Pastor Rick Warren wrote this: your Heavenly Father's goal is for you to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ.

Living a life of love and humble service.

Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up.

I don't want to be a part of that statistic.

I never want to be a part of that statistic.

And I want to invite you into just a heart shift right now where you would say, Father, I don't want to grow old as a Christian.

I want to grow up as a Christian.

Spiritual growth is not common.

It's uncommon.

But we can do it together.

This week, this month, this year, and every year following, we can do it together.

The reason that millions of Christ's followers don't grow is because they never intended to grow.

It was never their intention.

They went into this experiencing the gift of salvation and all the feels that came with that, but they never changed.

They never intended to change.

Spiritual transformation and growth is not an automatic byproduct of becoming a Christian.

It requires an intentional commitment, day in, day out.

Once we've made the choice to receive that gift of salvation, we have to want to grow.

We have to decide to grow.

We have to make the effort to grow, and we have to persist in our growing.

Philippians 2, 12 and 13, and I want to end with this passage.

And you may have heard this language before.

I've already already used it in the message so far, this work out our salvation, right?

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

There it is, salvation, this free gift, and growth.

Growth that requires some working out with fear and trembling in surrender to the Father, who is working in us to will and to act in a way that will fulfill his good pleasure.

God wants us to grow.

God wants us to rise up with a heart motive, to live a life that's excellent and pleasing, that gives him great pleasure.

I love the Passion translation of this text.

Philippians 2, 12 and 13 in the Passion Translation.

My beloved ones, just like you've always listened to everything I've taught you in the past, I'm asking you now to keep following my instructions as though I were right there with you.

So Paul's writing to this letter to the church and Philippi.

They're out of unity, they're out of sync.

There's lots of crazy things going on in their city.

And Paul longs to be with him, but he can't.

He's in prison right now.

And he longs to be with him.

And he says, you know what?

Let's, let's, if I was there with you, let's keep growing, let's keep being obedient to this mission of following Jesus, as though I were right there with you.

And he goes on to say, now you must continue to make this new life, the new life that comes at salvation, make this new life fully manifested as you live in the holy awe of God.

I love that.

Let's continue to make this new life fully manifested as we live in the holy awe of God, which brings you trembling into his presence.

God will continually revitalize you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases him.

Come on, that's so good.

We must continue to make this new life, the life that we've received freely from Jesus, make that life fully manifested how in each and every season of how we're doing life, of how we live in this holy awe of God the Father.

Only through this radical and uncommon life, this uncommon growth, this uncommon living, do we find ourselves trembling in his presence, where we're revitalized by the Father, implanted with this passion to do what pleases him?

Come, this is good.

I hope you're getting this.

There is an uncommon growth that God wants for us in 2021.

We're gonna dig into it.

Next week, we're gonna talk about self-care.

We're gonna talk about relationships, we're gonna talk about your schedule, your habits, your routine.

What does it mean to live an uncommon life?

What if we were meant to live a different way?

But what would happen if Evolve, as a Jesus-submitted community, made the decision to level up in 2021?

To take ownership of our own faith walk.

Become an owner of your faith.

Not just a consumer.

Take responsibility for your own spiritual growth.

You, you take responsibility.

Why?

So that you can lift others.

Live as intentional about your own discipleship as you do about seeing other people fall in love with Jesus.

In Jesus, we're given a new life, fully.

Nothing missing.

There's a powerful transformation that happens in your spirit when you choose to surrender your life to Jesus.

As we bring this message to a close in a few minutes, we're gonna pray a powerful prayer together.

And somebody watching for the very first time today is gonna choose to surrender your life to Jesus.

You're gonna say, Pastor, this is the life I've I've been wanting.

This is the life I desire.

I want this.

I want this free gift.

And then I want to work out my salvation.

I want to grow.

I want to be transformed.

But we can't just stay in that moment.

We we have to grow.

So this series is gonna be all about uncommon growth.

Today's big question are we aware that a life surrendered to Jesus is meant to be an uncommon life of growth?

Beautiful growth.

Challenging growth, maybe even costly, painful growth, but growth nonetheless, because healthy things grow.

So, how?

How are we gonna do this?

We're gonna unpack this in the weeks ahead, but I want to close with these statements.

We're gonna do this by taking inventory of how we're living and making the necessary changes to our actions, making the necessary changes to our habits, to our thinking, so that we become more like Christ and excellently please the Father.

Once we make the decision to get serious about becoming like Christ, we must begin to act in new ways.

It's gonna change you.

It's gonna cost you something.

It's gonna cost you some friendships, some relationships, some habits, some routines.

It's gonna cost you something.

There are some old routines that you're gonna need to let go of in pursuit of surrendering your life to Jesus.

There are some new habits you're gonna have to learn and develop in order to pursue this surrender of your entire life to Jesus.

There are some new ways of thinking that you're gonna need to be intentionally changing in your pursuit of surrendering your life to Jesus.

And it's gonna be different.

It's not gonna be common.

You might even stand out.

But there's gonna be a purpose in this change.

There's gonna be a purpose for this growth.

There's gonna be a purpose, a mission, a calling, an adventure attached to the uncommon life that Jesus is inviting us into.

Would you step up to the challenge?

Would you make a commitment today?

Maybe you're like a lot of people that in the last week you've made some New Year's resolutions, you made some decisions to make some changes.

And maybe you've stuck with them in the first week of January, maybe you've already fallen off the wagon.

I don't know.

But what matters most is will you commit to growing spiritually this year?

Will you commit to an uncommon life of spiritual growth?

It's gonna be beautiful.

It's gonna net you something you've never had before.

It's gonna unlock a sense of zeal and passion and purpose and how you're living in a way that excellently pleases the Father.

We can do this.

We're gonna talk about it together.

I'd love to see you back in the room next week for part two of Uncommon as we talk about uncommon self-self-care.

But let's pray.

Let's pray together as we close out part one.

Father, I thank you for your love.

I thank you for the gift of Jesus.

I thank you that in your infinite wisdom and mercy and love, you made a way for us to be in right relationship with you.

And God, this quote from Rick Warren rattled me.

It's rattling me still that there are millions of Christians who live out a Christian experience never really growing up.

They get older, but they don't mature in their faith.

As evolve, as a community of faith, as a local church here in the city of Edmonton, other people that have leaned in from other cities and provinces across this nation of Canada, we don't want to be that statistic.

We want to be a people committed to maturing, to growing in our faith.

We want to take ownership of our faith.

We want to be good stewards of the spiritual gift that we've been given.

God, maybe this week is the hardest week.

We've made it through 2020.

We come out of the gate with some heavy political stuff south of the border, other stuff locally, scandals from politicians traveling.

God, this weary world still rejoices because of Jesus.

And so we desire to be a people that carry that, not just as a decision we made one day, but as a transformational life that we're living in each and every season.

God, some of us are struggling financially right now.

The weight of 2020 is beginning to catch up.

We're worried about this year.

Some of us are struggling relationally.

We've hung on as long as we could, but maybe we're feeling tempted to call it quits.

God, you see us.

Would you give us the faith to just dig our heels in and with courage and with passion and with commitment, just commit for the next four or five weeks to learn about spiritual transformation, this uncommon life of growth that you've invited us into.

By your spirit, by your word.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, hop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit EvolveChurch.com.

We hope to see you soon.