The Art of Being Unordinary 5 | Unordinary Confidence

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For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

Good morning, good morning.

Happy Canada Day weekend.

Yeah, that's right.

It's not Canada today, but it's Canada Day in our hearts, right?

Today.

We're closing in on the end of a series here, The Art of Being Unordinary.

And so turn to your neighbor, say you're called to be unordinary.

That's right.

You're looking really unordinary.

Yeah, that's right.

So we're closing in on the end, and I've just been so appreciative of some of the people who've been speaking in the last few weeks and just sharing on their own perspective on being unordinary and breaking the mold that culture would call us to live by and moving forward into what God has intended for us as our very best.

Ordinary is a standard that people conform to.

It's the usual, it's the typical, it's the uh what's most expected.

And ordinary is oftentimes what people project to be.

They compare themselves to what most people experience or most people have.

So we have to be careful that we don't slip into this most people mentality that most people expect to have.

Uh, you know, in your marriage, you're gonna have uh it's gonna be difficult, and uh your marriage is gonna break up, and most people have bad marriages, and most people have bad relationships.

And I just want to say, my wife and I are celebrating in a few days.

Fifteen years of 15 years, that's right.

So I'm telling you right now, is my own testimony to you, what most people, in quotes, experience doesn't have to be your experience.

Amen.

What if I was to tell you this week that ordinary is not as safe as you think it is?

That in fact, that ordinary is a trap, and that God hasn't called you to live an ordinary life.

And so our goal in this series is to actually move you and convince you to a place that you were not born to be ordinary.

And it's okay not to be ordinary, and it's okay to be different than the cultural mold.

So today I'd like to speak to you about an unordinary confidence or an extraordinary confidence.

But before we do that, let's pray.

Father, we thank you this morning for your presence.

It is so real.

Thank you for the living hope in Jesus.

It's not just an idea or a way of thinking, a philosophy of our mind.

But Father, you are the living hope, and you're here with us today in this place.

Your presence is here.

And today, Lord, we just open our spirits to you, and we open our soul to you, and we open our heart to you today, Lord, to transform us by your word, make us better, God.

Amen.

Amen.

So I'm going to be reading to you today from Numbers chapter 13, starting in uh Numbers uh in Numbers chapter 13.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention Numbers 13 · chapter mention

I'm just gonna be bouncing around a little bit, but I've I'll just set the uh set the stage here.

Um Moses had instructed people, the people, as they had come out of Egypt, he had a million uh immigrants with them.

They were just moving through the desert land on the way to uh a promised land that God had spoken that he was going to give to them.

And they were approaching a land, and Moses instructs 12 people, 12 men, to go out into this land and just assess it, spy it out, take a look at the mountains, or take a look at the fields, take a look at the people who live there, take a look at their walls and their defenses, take a look at how many people are in that city.

Like, bring a report back to me.

And if you can, bring back some food, like bring back some evidence that the land is actually productive, and that there's actually resource in this land.

And after 40 days, those twelve men were out spying out this land.

Uh, they returned from they returned, and starting in verse 26.

They said this they reported to them and the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.

They gave Moses this account.

We went into the land to which you sent us, and it flows with milk and honey.

Now, for those of you who are lactose intolerant and uh may not be your land, or you get bit by bees and you swell up like a that's not it's not the promised land for you.

But it was for these people that back then.

Milk and honey represented the the milk, there were cattle, the honey, there was like bees can't produce honey without having some kind of a nectar, having some type of a, like there were flower, it was a flowering place, uh, it was a place of fruit and a place of product produce.

It was a place that was alive.

And so it was a it was a place that was flowing with with milk and honey.

And he said, here is the fruit.

And they the the grapes were so big that men had to carry them between the two men.

Large grapes, Costco-sized grapes.

But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.

We even saw descendants of Anak there, those were giants.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.

Amen.

But the men who had gone up with him said, We can't attack those people.

They're stronger than we are.

And spread, and they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.

They said, The land we explore devours those living in it.

All the people we saw there are of great size.

We saw the Nephilim, they were like Goliath's family.

And we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.

We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes.

How do you see yourself?

Hopefully larger than a grasshopper.

Hopefully better and more resourceful and powerful and productive and capable than a grasshopper.

God had better plans for the Hebrew people.

He had better plans for the people leaving Egypt, a place of property, a place where they could build families, uh, build homes and raise families, a place where they could plant vineyards and plant fields and actually grow produce and live life and prosper.

How many of you believe that God has prosperity for your future?

That you would prosper in all things, that your families would be joyful.

I love singing these songs today because these songs remind me that He's broken off every chain.

He's given us freedom, he's given us joy, he's carrying our burdens.

Like, what is there to be worried about?

He gives us freedom, he gives us joy when we have things that are too heavy for us.

He carries our burdens, he's our living hope, he's available to us today.

There's so much that we can be grateful for and we should be thankful for.

But there is something better.

There's something more that God has a promise for you and for us together, and he's bringing us to a place of this promise.

Now, if you've been to a place where maybe you're you've been in this place for so long, you're like, well, I don't see the promise.

Maybe God's asking you to move, to move forward, to lean in a little bit, to actually engage and become like a part of the movement.

Not watching from the sideline, but participating in it.

God's got a purpose for you.

Proverbs 418 says this the path of the righteous is like the morning sun.

It gets brighter and brighter until the fullness of day.

How many of you believe that your plan the God's plan for you is to get better and better, brighter and brighter, move forward into greater increase and greater opportunity and greater influence.

That's God's plan for us.

But too often we see ourselves as grasshoppers.

We see ourselves with that type of confidence, the confidence of a grasshopper, the capability of a grasshopper, the strength of that grasshopper.

So we all have at one point a report.

And we all have at one point a report that we're gonna hear.

And the good news is that oftentimes that report has uh a truth to it, and that truth is good news.

Look, we bring back grapes, like look, look at the produce, look at the resource that's actually in this land.

And the grapes were like a symbol of God's the opportunity that was available to them.

It was a symbol that God was actually going to care for them, that God's got this.

And this place of promise has good things in store for us.

And by bringing the grapes, it was an analogy that God is with them.

This, like, if God would have brought them to a place that was a promised land and took them to a place where there were just like tiny little grapes.

Is this really God's promise for me?

No, but he took them to a place where there was grapes.

God has grapes for you.

Good grapes.

God has grapes for you.

Grapes, grapes, and more grapes.

You gotta believe God for grapes.

Look for grapes.

How many of you want the grapes that God has for you?

That's the grapes that it's grape, grapes.

The report I intend to bring you every Sunday is this.

And my heart to you is this, is that, and some of you need reminding of this every week.

Some of you may need reminder of this every day, that there are grapes and more grapes that God has planned for you.

That there are grapes and more grapes for your life.

You need to start believing.

We need to start believing together for something big that God has for you, something good that God has for you.

We need to start proclaiming that over our lives, over our spouses' lives, over our families' lives, over our business lives.

We have grapes and more grapes.

People aren't gonna know what you're talking about.

But you just have to put it on a bumper sticker.

God has grapes for me.

And people are like, what?

Resource, capability.

I love John 10, 10 says the enemy comes to rob, kill, steal, and destroy.

But the God has come.

Jesus came to give you life and life with abundance.

Grapes, grapes, and more grapes.

He's got this plan for you.

So my job is actually to encourage you to come to life.

And sometimes, it's not like that today, but sometimes it's like talking to the Valley of Dry Bones.

You know what that's like.

You you've woken up some days and be like, oh my gosh, Valley of Dry Bones is right here.

And you gotta speak to yourself.

Come alive.

Come alive.

Come alive.

You're not a val, you're not a dry, dried up place of rubble.

You're an army.

You've got capability, you've got potential, you've got possibility, you've got all things working together for your good.

Like it's all there.

So speak to your speak to those bones and say, this is what the Lord has promised for you.

So believe in it.

And sometimes that requires like a physical activity.

Where your body goes, your brain will follow.

It's just like sometimes you have to clap your hands.

The Bible says, clap your hands.

The Bible says, sing, the Bible says, dance.

The Bible says bow down.

Like there's a response to this word, and there has to be a response in your spirit.

Like David danced with all his might.

He was responding to the word of the Lord.

This word of the Lord is going to be challenged.

It's going to be challenged.

I believe God's got uh grapes and more grapes for us, but it's gonna be challenged.

And it's it's good news.

And there's a time when we have to realize that our disappointments may be there, and we can't allow our disappointments to domesticate our faith, to make our faith small in response to our disappointment.

We've got to stop and say, Lord, no, you're you said this, and therefore I'm gonna believe it, and I'm gonna walk with it, I'm gonna trust in it, and I'm gonna grow with it, and I'm gonna put roots down in it, and I'm going to hold firm in my faith, believing that all things work together for good.

So those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

We pull this together.

There's good reports for us.

I believe he wants KCC to be a place of healing, a place of hope.

I believe, like when I when I see grapes and more grapes, I see, I see our children's ministry full.

Full to overflowing.

I see people actively serving in the church, serving those in our community, meeting the needs of our community, meeting the needs of our neighbors.

I see people in the parking lots full as people come into the house of the Lord to actually be refreshed and to refresh others and to build in terms of their community.

I see this.

The church being effective in the in the mountains of arts and entertainment and government and education and family.

I see the church being effective in making a difference in the city.

That is grapes, grapes, and more grapes.

So don't allow your disappointments to domesticate your faith.

Pray big prayers.

Pray big prayers over your kids, over your families, over your businesses.

Our future is actually worth fighting for.

One of the most important things Caleb did at this point is he actually, as soon as they started talking about the giants, Caleb cut in and he silenced the people.

It was the language of shh.

Shh.

Stop.

I know there are giants there, but who have we got behind us?

We got the God who split the Red Sea, who leads us with a flame at night and a cloud by uh by day, or it was the other way around.

Cloud at He leads us.

Who brings bread to our doorstep?

Who makes it so our shoes don't wear out?

I wore my Canada Day preacher sneakers today.

Anyways, that's literally what he did to the people in the desert.

Their shoes didn't wear out.

Bread came to their door.

It was Uber.

Uber Uber in the desert.

At once, he said, you've got to go into your future, you've got to occupy your future at once.

And sometimes it requires you to be an at once person.

I am a very stable, calculated, conscientious individual.

I'm not so stable that I'm boring, but I may be to some people.

Some people are very like spontaneous.

And what I love about the spontaneity of some people is they don't think too much.

They just go and do it.

And there needs to be some of that in the church that says, at once they just jumped out and obeyed the word of the Lord.

At once they obeyed the promise.

At once he Caleb's like, at once we should stop, move, and take possession of this land.

40 days, I want to live there.

That was the spirit that was in David.

We're gonna have battles, we're gonna have these challenges that are in our lives, and you're always gonna have people come with a bad report.

Why are you doing that?

Why are you making these decisions?

Why are you making these moves?

We see it all the time as leaders, and and I see, like I like to say, um God is with us when we make those moves.

God is with you.

Now, social media may say something different, or popular opinion may say something different, but when God is with you, make the move and make it quick before you convince yourself out of it.

Now I'm I'm a calculated person, but sometimes I just need to move faster.

Amen.

Social media would have you believe that other people are experiencing all these grapes without contention, but I'm gonna tell you today, your future is worth fighting for.

And whenever God moves you into a place of grapes, he's gonna move you into a place of giants.

And so you need to be prepared to fight.

I love the story of Nehemiah.

They built and they battled, they had uh a shovel in one hand and a sword or spear in the other.

They were willing to go in and possess their promise, but they were ready to fight at the same time.

And so, whenever God moves you to a place of grapes, it will be in that place of giants.

And oftentimes we think, we when we look back, we look back at all the successes that we don't look at the challenges that were part of the process of those successes.

And we need to remind ourselves yes, there were giants in the way.

There were giants that that came against us.

There were giants in in the way at one point, but we but the Lord was with us and the Lord helped us overcome.

Even looking back at the history of KCC, KCC is in this place today, and I I honor those who went before me and went before our team that actually helped us move into this place.

But I'm gonna tell you, I I grew up in the church and I knew that there were giants.

And you got a giant killer right there in Pastor David.

He's a giant killer on our team.

Our team, they have giant killers.

They go into battle and they're caring, they're packing.

I don't know what it would have been in that day, but swords and like they were they were Pastor uh Don Irwin is here today, who administrated our church for a number of years and had built helped build the school.

And today, uh, and Carolyn and I I'm so grateful for all the work that you did in helping build the school.

Today we've got a school, and we've got an online school, and we've got opportunity and potential and a future ahead of us.

Anywhere there are giants and grapes, there are great, anytime there are grapes, there are giants.

And the good news is this the grapes are reachable and the giants are defeatable.

They are defeatable.

They are defeatable.

The question is, are you gonna fight for your future?

And the challenge comes down to a grasshopper mentality.

How you overcome this grasshopper mentality.

Grasshoppers are small, they they they are insignificant, they're oftentimes brushed aside, they're common, they're ordinary.

But the people decided to choose.

To live in the desert instead of possess the promise at that point.

They chose a whole generation chose to move on past the promise because of an idea that they didn't feel themselves as qualified to move into the promise.

So we need to, number one, guard your heart.

Out of your heart flows the issues of life.

So you need to guard what you believe about yourself.

We need to guard what we believe about ourselves.

That there are you are not a grasshopper.

You are no grasshopper.

In fact, you create futures.

You create a future.

You know, the bird doesn't have to be asked how to create a nest.

It's this instinctive, it's part of who it is.

A bird just goes and creates a nest.

But you go out and you create futures.

God made you and designed you to create, to create something ahead of you, and you need to create it.

Humans are creating a future even when we're not thinking about it.

We're creating.

The Bible says it flows out of our hearts.

It's who we are, it's our life spring.

We create life, we create future.

And your future starts in here.

So you need to first guard it.

That word guard means to set a centurion in front of your heart.

A soldier in front that you monitor and you watch what can and cannot penetrate, what you will and won't believe.

Whose report will you believe?

The good report or the evil report?

And the fact is, ten out of the twelve believed the evil report.

It was only two of the twelve that believed the report of the Lord.

And because of it, everyone else had to pass away.

And those two went in to possess the land.

And this was the reason behind it.

Joshua, one of the twelve, who believed the good report.

He said, you know, Joshua chapter 1, verse 8.

Joshua 1:8

Can anyone say it to me right now?

For I know the thoughts and plans I have for you, says the Lord.

What is it?

Thoughts of good.

Thoughts of good.

Give you a future, give you a hope.

Not to harm you.

It's like that was in the heart of Joshua.

He guarded his heart.

He walked around with that mantra.

God has a plan for me.

God has a future for me.

His plans are good for me.

His plans aren't to harm me.

His plans are to prosper me.

His plans are to favor me.

I'm gonna guard my heart and know that when God is with me, I'm favored and highly, highly accepted and welcomed into his home.

The future, your future is not external, it's internal.

It starts here first.

It doesn't matter what happens out there, it starts in here first.

Your future doesn't happen to you, it happens through you.

And so you need to walk with that spirit in you that says, I'm not gonna, it's not what giants, what happens to me in terms of the giants, it's how I see myself in the face of the giants that matters.

So how do you see yourself in the face of giants?

Because the truth is you will face giants.

You will face challenges.

And I, as a pastor, I know I look around the room, I won't look anywhere specific, but I know that there are people in this room who are facing giants today.

And you need to see yourself as no grasshopper.

You're the giant killer, you're the giant slayer, you're the one who goes into battle with five stones, smooth stones, and a sling and the Lord, because the Lord is for me, and the Lord is with me.

This grasshopper mentality is a distorted view of your life.

It's a mentality that makes you feel small, but you're not small.

It will cause you to underestimate yourself, to disqualify yourself, to doubt yourself to the future.

But the fight is there, and the fight is real, and you are more than capable.

So you say, Lord, it's not who others say I am, it's who you say I am that matters.

And so sometimes the church is coming to a place where it sees itself as small and oh, we're just Christians.

We're gonna be small, we're gonna be meek and humble, and we have to walk around kind of with our head down and just allow others to trample over.

It's it's less about humility doesn't mean thinking less of yourself.

It's it means thinking less of yours of self and thinking more of him in you.

So I'm saying today as Christians, put your shoulders back, put your chin up, walk tall in who God says you are.

Have confidence in who that God is for you, not against you.

And put your confidence in the Lord and run into, you've got a strong tower you can turn to.

Some people have a line of credit, you have the Lord.

Some people have uh, you know, a big pay, you know, a big bank account, you have a strong tower.

You can run to, so we run to the Lord.

Every spiritual blessing comes from Him and belongs to you.

So don't put yourself down.

Putting yourself down doesn't lift God up.

You shrinking doesn't make God bigger.

Hiding your light doesn't make God's light shine brighter.

You let your light shine.

You are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth.

Act like it, walk like it, walk tall, have that unordinary confidence in you that says, where do they get that confidence from?

And it comes because the Lord is in us.

I am Brody with Christ.

I am brody, and Christ is in me.

I am Brody in Christ.

That's my true identity.

It's a secret to who I am.

And so, how can I be hurt when I'm hidden in Christ?

Christ is in me, he's strong, he's powerful in me.

I walk tall because of that.

Amen.

Do you hear what I'm saying to you today?

The psalmist said it this way: he said, Listen, with God, I can run through a troop, I can leap over a wall.

That was pretty bold.

I'm one man and I'm a wrecking crew.

And I can go through a troop of soldiers, I can leap over a wall.

There's no wall that will stop me.

And that's the spirit that we carry today.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you just bow your heads with me for a moment this morning?

Father, we thank you today for the incredible, how incredibly made we are.

We're just, we look at your design, your creation, and we say thank you, Lord, for all the potential and opportunity you've given us for the future that we can create.

And we thank you, Lord, that you've brought us to a promised land where there are grapes and more grapes.

There's life and life abundant.

There's opportunities that are present to us.

And today, Father, we take our our eyes off the things of earth and we place our eyes on you.

Because you're the one who gives us our our strength.

You're the one who gives us our fortitude.

And today we lean into you.

We lean into you.

We lean into you with all of our heart because we know that we can we can trust in you.

And so today, Lord, even in this place, would you resurrect our spirit?

Would you place that confidence in us that says yes to God?

Yes to the good report.

Even when the world is saying no, we say yes, we believe, we trust, we trust the report of the Lord that you've got a promise for us.

We love you this morning.

We love you this morning.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you give the Lord a hand this morning?

Let's see.

Thank you for listening.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.