The Art Of Being Unordinary | Part One

Well, good morning.

Well, good morning, 11 o'clock.

Hey, 11 o'clock service.

We're going on to this next series today on the art of being unordinary.

And this is a great transition from the last series that we just completed.

And I'm going to just encourage you if you've got any writing materials or you've got uh digital digital iPads or iPhones or Samsung's or Android, whatever.

There's no judgment here, whatever you have, Android or iPhone.

But uh that you bring them out and that you use it to take some notes.

I just want you to lean in today to what we're going into uh during this series.

Oftentimes this this topic is the um like the start of this series is generally the the one that springs us into uh the rest of the services leading uh or following in the series.

So I just want you to be able to take notes and be because I know some of you have like big binders full of notes that you take from KCC and from our messages, and you can just resonate on them throughout the week.

Uh when Jesus came onto the scene, everything changed.

It's the separation between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

There was a huge division from that one point.

And sometimes when we look at the scripture, we don't realize what the difference actually was.

Other than there's this separation, there's this challenge between old and new, old ways and new ways, ordinary ways and unordinary ways.

And so today we're gonna talk about this unordinary way that Jesus led us into.

And before we do that, we're just gonna take a moment and pray.

Father, we thank you today that you've led us in great worship.

Thank you, Lord, that you've stirred our hearts for gratitude in gratitude and thankfulness for all that you've done for us and all that you've called us towards.

Lord, our future, our hope is in you.

And today, Lord, we just realize that when you're in the house, when you're here, all things are available to us.

And so we draw from you today a moment in your house is better than a thousand moments somewhere else.

A moment in the house can change your life forever.

Family, direction, a destiny, a projectory or a trajectory.

Father, I thank you that in this time there can be a change.

And so we open our hearts to you today to fill our hearts with your truth in Jesus' name.

And everyone agreed, said, Amen, amen.

Amen.

So ordinary is a standard that people conform to.

It's usual, it's the typical, it's the expected, ordinary.

Oftentimes, ordinary is what people project to be ordinary.

They want to be, they target it, they do life the ordinary way.

And oddly enough, it's what we hope our kids are, just ordinary.

I was saying that uh on Saturday morning when I take our kids out to play soccer.

Uh, I've a youngest who's uh in the 5'6 league, um 5'6 year old league.

And I look back and they're just like crashing the ball everywhere they go, they're crashing the ball, and there's this one kid at the very back who's just like picking dandelions.

And the parents are like, what are you doing?

Just be normal, like run with all the other kids, and he's doing like stops in the middle of the field and does a fortnight dance.

And it's like, what are you doing?

Just be ordinary, and so we and then the kids grow up and they say to the parents, just be ordinary, just be normal, dad, just be normal, mom.

Come on, just be ordinary.

Ordinary is what we want, it's what we expect, and even at a subconscious level, we try to be ordinary.

Personality-wise, there's this personality test that you can take, and it's called the disc profile.

And 69% of people are categorized in the S category, which means they're steady, they're stable, they don't like to rock the boat, they don't like things to be adjusted off or off kilter, they want things to be just in order.

They don't like chaos, they don't like change, they like stability.

69% of the world wants you to be ordinary.

It's like a thermostat set in the room that just says, this is the average, this is the temperature that everybody likes.

Just set it to normal.

This is the temperature, and I can tell you in my office, how many of you, when the heat comes on, you like it cold in the house?

How many, see, we've got differences.

How many of you like just to sit in the the heat, just to swelter in the heat?

Yes, I know there are some of you that are like that.

And that there's nothing ordinary about us.

There's no normal temperature.

There's like our bodies regulated temperature, but we all have different expressions and desires.

It's always ordinary that we're being pressed into and pulled back to.

Well, this is just the ordinary temperature.

This is just the ordinary way of doing things.

This is just the way everyone's always done it.

And they call this the most people idea.

Most people measurement.

Well, most people like it at this temperature, so we keep it there.

Most people have, and maybe you've heard this, have a bad marriage.

So, and go through problems.

Most people go through big issues, most people struggle with debt and financial problems.

It's normal, ordinary.

Most people's kids are messed up.

And most people experience difficulties and extreme difficulties when raising a teenager.

I have a teenager now, a 13-year-old girl.

And I hear people say, oh boy, you've got a teenager.

Watch out, it's gonna be those teenage years.

And I'm thinking, no, that's not gonna be my ordinary.

My teens are not going to be like that.

Like your projected normal.

It's not the measurement that I use to evaluate my life, it's not gonna be the measurement that's normal for everybody else.

Most people have this problem.

Well, that's not gonna be our our testimony, our witness.

So, what if I told you today that ordinary is not as safe as it seems?

What if I told you today that being ordinary is a trap?

What if I told you today that God doesn't tell us to live ordinary lives and never intended us to live ordinary lives, and that our best life is being who God called you to be, not a replica of someone else.

Or the base average of everyone, and we sit in that center.

God has called us to move in a way that's counterintuitive to the way people act, different than the way most people function.

Our goal in this series, and my goal in the next few weeks, is to convince you that you were not born to be ordinary.

In fact, you are not ordinary.

Turn to the person beside you and say, you were not born to be ordinary.

You were not born to be ordinary.

You have to own this.

You own this in your spirit.

I am not ordinary.

Ordinary does not move you forward.

In the Bible, Peter writes this in chapter 2, verse 9 of one of his books.

He says, You are chosen, which means you are called out.

You are a different generation, you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.

You are to be different, you are to be peculiar.

When you walk into a room, people, what this guy's different.

He's not ordinary, he's different.

And sometimes the whole world is gonna just say, you know, you stand out, there's a spotlight on you, and uh, you know, just can't you fit in?

And the issue is we're not called to fit in.

Just because everyone is sitting on Instagram all day, head buried in their phone, on social media, checking everything, you know, like making themselves look like everybody else who's online doesn't mean you should.

Doesn't mean it's normal or God's intention for you.

Our call is to move outside of ordinary into something different.

We're called to be a peculiar people so that we can bring God praise.

You're never going to bring God glory being like something you were never called to be.

The choice is to stand back and say, Lord, what have you called me to be?

What have you called me to do?

You see, we were created by a creator God in a unique, one-of-a-kind way, and there's no one else who's like you.

When you look in the mirror, there's no one else like you.

There's no one else like you, and believe it, you've been given a calling, you've been given a purpose, but there's no one else like you.

That's God's design for us.

We're all created uh in in a in a and fashioned, the Bible says God knit you individually together in your parents' in your mother's womb.

He put you together, he fashioned you, created you with purpose inside your mother's womb for a purpose.

So people settle for the ordinary road.

They settle for the ordinary, and we know this in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

It says this you have a choice.

Enter the gate through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many are those who find that way.

There are two ways there's the big way, the highway, that looks like wow, you can't miss it.

And the Bible says, many people go down that main road, but then on the other side, there's a narrow gate and a narrow way, and on that way, the road leads to life, and few are those who find it.

How many of you want to be one of the few who find life, God's way for us?

Because when you find that life God's way, you're not living, measuring up to everyone else.

Well, everyone else is in this place.

Everyone else, most people look like need this.

I should need that too.

Most people have this, I should have it too.

Most people, most people know God's called you to a narrow way where you find your life the way you were created for.

These pathways, the by uh Eugene Peterson, he wrote this same verse, but he he paraphrased it himself.

He says, This don't look for shortcuts to God.

The market's flooded with people giving easy-going formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time.

Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do fall for it.

The way to life and to God is vigorous and requires total focus.

You might say, Pastor Brody, I like literally, I come to church and I just want to just enjoy a nice message, right?

Like, give me something nice.

Don't tell me I have to change, don't confront something in me.

I just want to fit in because I'm one of those S personalities.

I love stability.

I don't like chaos or change.

I love having things in order.

But then when God calls me to do something, I've got an intention.

I've got to be intentional and say, God, what are you wanting from me?

And I I don't care if it makes me stand out, if it means that the spotlight is on me, then it's on me.

But if you think about it, it's ordinary.

If it was so good to be ordinary, why isn't it working for the majority of people?

Why isn't the ordinary way of people operating marriages, why are they still ending up 50% in divorce?

If it was ordinary, why are so many people under financial pressure?

Why are people still hurting and depressed and down?

And the epidemic of depression is still raging within the youth?

Comparison and just sense of just emotional uh distrust.

Why is it still there?

If ordinary, everyone is doing it, shouldn't it be okay?

Shouldn't it work out?

When it doesn't, maybe ordinary isn't God's intention.

If ordinary is so great and everyone's chasing it, why isn't it working?

If you're a Christ follower today, if you're a Christian today, John 10, 10 says this says that the enemy comes to rob, kill, steal, destroy, but God came, Jesus came, that they might have and you might have abundant life.

The Bible doesn't say the enemy comes to rob, kill, steal, destroy, but that he came so you could have an average, normal, mediocre, middle of the road life.

He says your life is supposed to be abundant, over the top, different than other people.

Now, what does this mean?

It means that it shouldn't be ordinary to feel hopeless.

It shouldn't feel ordinary to expect lack.

It shouldn't feel ordinary to walk under guilt and uh judgment.

It shouldn't feel ordinary to feel or to be alone.

It's not ordinary to be feel the inability to change.

Because if God is for us, who can be against us?

Because you've been given every good and perfect gift, it comes from God, and every spiritual blessing, it comes from Him.

And you're seated in a different seat, in a heavenly place, not here on earth, you're seated in a different zone.

There's nothing ordinary about you.

Heaven in earth.

We live with this heaven in our heart, the kingdom of God in our heart.

This is our heart, our heart's beat.

I looked at the um, there's an ills uh an example in in the Bible where in Acts chapter 3, and the book of Acts is all about the activity of Jesus' disciples that were not ordinary.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

He took ordinary men who are fishing every day, walking on the beach, wrapping up their nets, ordinary people, and he literally who had a testimony.

They said, Who are these people?

They're just ordinary people.

But when they Jesus got a hold of them, he called them into something great.

They said, Who are these men?

They turn the world upside down, they're history makers, they're they're world changers, there's something different about them.

And the whole book of Acts is about the activity of these men.

And one of the first stories comes in Acts chapter 3, when John and Peter are walking together.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Now, John is a type of that represents the love.

He just carried such deep love for God, for Jesus.

The Bible talks about him resting his head on Jesus' chest and just talking to him.

He was the one who was close to Jesus all the time.

He was his his buddy, his sidekick.

He was like right on him.

And then Peter, on the other hand, was unordinary.

He was the bold one.

He's the one who took out his sword and said, I'll take on the army.

Took off an ear on one of the guys when they came to grab Jesus.

Jesus had to stop him.

Whoa.

Like, settle down, Peter.

He's like, I'll get them for you, Jesus.

Like, I'll take them on.

And Peter was unordinary.

Now, John, love, ordinary.

Like, it's what we should all be doing.

And Peter, unordinary.

They walked together.

And when they walked to the temple, there was a man who was lame there since birth, and they would carry him and they put him in the temple gate.

And he would beg for silver and gold.

He begged for money.

And John and Peter walk up to him and they say, they see him, and it's Peter who says to him, look at me.

And the man's like, huh?

What does this look like?

That's kind of odd.

Look at me.

And the Bible says he fixed his gaze upon him.

He just fixed it.

And it's like really awkward.

Like totally unordinary.

Just like.

That's what the Bible says.

Like you read it yourself in Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

He fixed his gaze on him.

And the man's like thinking, what am I gonna get right now?

I'm gonna get silver, gold, this guy.

Am I safe?

And he says, Silver and gold I don't have.

It's like, well, then what are you doing looking at me like that?

Like, silver and gold I don't have.

But what I do have, I give to you.

In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.

And the man couldn't get up, so he Peter comes and grabs him, and the Bible says he picked him up.

Unordinary.

Picked him up.

And as soon as he picked him up, the man's ankles and feet and knees and legs, everything fit together.

Click, click, click, click, click.

And the Bible says he began to run and jump and dance.

He says, it didn't take John loving him to change him.

It took something unordinary.

Weird.

Silver and gold, I don't have, but I do have.

Get up.

Grabs him, picks him up.

You pick up a lame person.

It's an odd situation.

Like it's just, it takes something out of you because there was an ordinary faith in Peter.

He wanted something different.

He wanted something real.

He wanted it.

And the Bible says that it came from a place where it was out of that spirit that people would come into church and they'd walk in and they'd be like, what is up with this place?

Surely God is in this place.

And they would announce it.

Surely God is here.

Because I feel him.

I know him.

But don't ever be ashamed of your present that presence in this place.

If if it feels awkward, it's okay.

If it feels unordinary, it's okay.

When heaven touches earth, it's unordinary.

It's it's different.

It's awkward.

It's like, what do we do now?

You try and be in charge of like leading a service when that happens.

Like, oh my goodness, where are we going with this?

I don't know.

God, you know, it's easy just to sing a song, but when you got to move into that spirit of unordinary, you move into that spirit.

And so I realize God wants us to move beyond the mold.

So what does this look like?

Let's look at a few ways this looks of being unordinary.

We're unordinary.

Number one, in our perspective.

If you're coming here today and you're thinking, okay, what's my perspective?

Your perspective should be faith-filled.

It should be big thinking.

You're called to leave your best work with God, and that you realize that if God is for you, who's there against you?

Like your perspective on life is you're the head and not the tail.

You're above and not below.

You're the one who's the lender, not the borrower.

This is a perspective that we carry in our heart when we serve God.

Now, this perspective is different than the ordinary ways in the world.

The ordinary ways in the world, they would say this.

Like Jesus said this.

If you want to be the best and the greatest in the kingdom, learn how to be the least.

Okay.

That is not ordinary when it comes to world systems.

You don't buy books that say how to be the best.

Go and serve at the lowest parts.

Serve people.

When you go to indigo books or chapters, go grab a coffee and look at the section where it says, you know, business tactics and how to reach the top.

They're going to teach you all about how to use power moves to get seen, how to be in the spotlight, how to take advantage of other people, how to climb the ladder, how to put yourself out front, how to do all those things.

And yet Jesus says, No, this is gonna be unordinary, but it's my way.

Come from the bottom.

Serve.

He says, do this.

Instead of just doing what needs to get done, he says, when so when your boss tells you to go one mile, go two.

When someone tells you that they need something like your shirt, give them your jacket too.

I want you to be generous.

I want you to serve.

I want you to bless.

I want you to love.

I want you to speak kindly.

I want you to lift people up and not tear people down.

And as that happens, you realize that I've watched this as people serve this way and they come in low, God raises them up.

God lifts them up.

Good things come their way, favor comes their way, doors open to them.

It's not ordinary to serve your way to the top.

It's ordinary to cutthroat.

Who can I cut down?

Who can I climb over?

Who can I get on, get above?

Who can I tear down with my words instead of coming and saying, I'm gonna bless, I'm going to encourage, I'm gonna support, I'm gonna lift up, I'm going to come in and be a blessing.

And what happens is God's principle creates success.

That is a perspective that is a believer is unordinary.

I'm telling you today, ways that you're unordinary, but this the scripture is full of this different perspective.

Another way to live unordinary is in your priorities.

Your priorities.

Matthew chapter 6 says this seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things will be added to you.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So he's talking about clothing, housing, transportation, welfare, all things, he says, you've got to seek it first in your priorities.

Well, I'll tell you this: there is not that spirit in the world today.

It's ordinary.

You don't seek first God's kingdom, you seek my kingdom first.

Me first, me feels sad.

Let me eat ice cream.

Me feels entitled.

Me feels reason to be uh, you know, to be able to speak poorly against someone.

Me feels that I'm having a bad day, so I can like wreck someone with my words.

Me, me, me, me.

It's this me monster that grows up inside of us.

And the Bible talks about this me spirit, and it says it's in the wrong priority if it's first.

It's ordinary to put me first, but God says, put his kingdom first.

So we see this very simply in the tithe.

The tithe is the principle of the tithe is that your first of your income belongs to the Lord.

That 10%, that's what the tithe means.

It means 10%.

It says to start, that 10%, it belongs to God.

And when you give of that 10%, you're giving in obedience.

It's putting God first with your resources.

In fact, it goes so far as to say if you withhold your tithe, you're actually robbing from God because it belongs to him, has his name on it.

It's his.

This is a priority in our lifestyle, in our in our way of living.

And we can only do things like I want the best for our church.

And the best thing I can do for the church is to say, put God first.

In order for God to do big things, we have to do it his way.

I may not even like his way.

I'm upset.

That guy just wrecked my reputation.

He's calling me down.

I don't like it.

But I still have to like choose to approach him properly and walk without offense in my heart.

I have to let God deal with the beam in my eye before I deal with the little speck in his.

Judge me first, God, before any judgment comes on someone else, because I'm not I'm not capable of judging them.

But I feel it.

It's my priority is to put God first and his ways first.

The habit of talking to God is not ordinary.

Praying to a God you can't see.

It sounds ludicrous.

But how many of you pray?

You pray.

The Bible says, pray without ceasing.

Priority, worship, driving in your car.

Thank you, Lord.

Give thanks to God today.

Sing a hallelujah.

The presence of these cars as they go by.

Sing a hallelujah.

You know, I'm gonna sing whatever you got in you.

Like you just let it out.

It's not normal to see people worshiping God on their average, on their day.

But it's our normal, it's all our ordinary.

And it may be unordinary for others, but it's our ordinary.

Being here today is not ordinary, it's a beautiful day outside.

But being here today is unordinary because we want to fellowship together and believe God.

Um we are called to live unordinary in our patterns.

The Bible says this very clearly.

It says, don't be conformed to this world's patterns, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, by taking his word and allowing God's patterns and God's ideas to become our patterns and our ideas.

God brings the best out of us, his intention is for the best for us.

And this might indicate like a pattern of your family.

Sometimes you have to look in your own home and go, okay, I'm so comfortable with my patterns, but is my pattern God's pattern?

That's why it's so important to have people around you in your life who uh good communities like small groups and community groups where you're a part of that they can be like, hey, the way you're talking doesn't fit the pattern God intended for us.

Really?

I didn't know that.

Well, let me help you.

I'll show it to you.

And now it's your choice whether you conform to your own pattern or you can or you are transformed by God's pattern.

Let's talk about this, work it out together.

And the Bible talks about like iron sharpening iron.

You both get you both get better through it.

So patterns have to be looked at.

Lastly, we're called to be unordinary in our passion.

When you say passion, you say passion.

Something you didn't say, you just laughed when I said it.

But this is a passion.

The ordinary life is the life that sits in the grain.

Nothing special, not really committed, not really connected to what God is saying for us to do.

And it's it's the heart that says, don't go all in.

Don't don't put yourself out there because you might fail.

Don't go all out there because you're just gonna stand out, you're gonna look different.

But God is telling us to go into that world and to go into it with a passion.

Too often in society today, there's just a lethargy approaching like our family, our kids, our marriages, our church, our community, the social system.

And instead of just saying, you know, whatever was allowed to continue, or whatever is allowed to continue, instead go into it with a sense of like if God is for me, who can be against me?

And I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So what am I going to do?

And what passion and am I going to use to make a difference in my world?

There's a story in the Bible about a man, a king named Joash.

And this king was talking to the prophet, and the prophet was talking to the king, and he the the prophet shot an arrow, and he said, You Joash, man, your your life has this great trajectory.

It's gonna, it's good.

And he said, tell you what, like he took a bunch of arrows out of his quiver and he gave them to Joash.

He says, Tell you, strike these on the ground.

Strike them on the ground.

And Joash kind of like took the arrows and tapped them on the ground, struck the ground.

And the king approached Joash and he said, Joash, where was your fire?

Why did you self self like self-uh detonate on this?

Why did you not take those arrows and say, This is my life?

And when I told you to smash them on the ground, why didn't you take those arrows and just smash them on the ground with effort and life in you?

Why did you pull back?

I don't want you to just do the things that are just like tap, tap, like I'm not making a difference.

I want you to take my word.

I want you to take my message, and I want you to show some resilience, show some passion, show some energy in it, show some some support and saying, you know what, you've got strength with me.

And he says, you self-sabotage your life.

And too often I think as people, we we come together, and it's wonderful we come together, but our view on ourselves is so small.

God wants us to live larger, and it's got to come from here.

And so we have to say, Lord, breathe on the flame and on the amber that's in my heart and fire me up.

Fire me up, cause me to live like I've never lived before.

Cause me to live with the flame in my heart so that I can live like a torch into the go like a torch into the world.

This is the spirit that we carry today.

And I know that the church today is full of people who are who are just hungry and they're waiting.

I'm saying, you don't need to wait anymore.

Just step up, step out, be unordinary, pray when everyone else is looking for answers.

Step in and say, Let's pray.

Let's connect with God.

Worship in times when you're in trouble, when you're feeling down and disconnected.

Approach God and throw on the worship and just say, I'm gonna just sing my way through this.

I don't care how you sing, just sing your way through.

I'm gonna approach God and it's gonna be his way over my way.

Go for it.

If it where everyone else isolates, you need you rally people around you, you rally the community.

When people are saying, you know what, I'm feeling down, I'm gonna disconnect.

You come to church, you go to small group, you connect in a deeper way so that there isn't that opportunity from the enemy to separate you.

God's ways are different than our ways, they're unordinary, and it's okay.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you bow your heads with me this afternoon?

Father, we thank you today for your word.

Lord, I know that there are so many in this place who are even struggling with what they see in themselves, what they see in society, what they see in their own experiences.

But Father, your way, your way, trusting in you is the only way.

It's the only hope we have.

And so today, Father, would you cause us to rally together and to support one another and to be that strength for each other, Lord, so that no one is having to carry things on their own but can step into the calling that you've made for them.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Out in the lobby today, we still have a tribute to Sean.

And Sean passed away after 41 years with us.

And one of the things that Sean had is, and he demonstrated to his last breath, as long as his body could hold, he said, I'm gonna live my life.

I'm gonna live my life with every bit of passion I can I can give until my last breath.

And he did that.

He did that well.

Even to the a few days before he was calling me while I was away in Ottawa, and he called me and he was talking to me, and he was still, it was this as if he was still on track.

He's like, hey, I've got a job for you, Brody.

I'm like, okay, all right.

I need you to do this, this, this, and this.

He's he's concerned about our ministry here at the church and our children and youth.

And he wanted God's work to continue even till his last breath.

When everyone else would have fallen apart.

He's like, God, I want to do more.

And may that heart be in us.

That same heart that was in Sean, that same passion that was in Sean, may it live and reside in us as well.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give the Lord a hand clap.