Embrace Ordinary // Julie Biddle

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Now let's dive into today's message.

Today's speaker, then, um, and her family have been active at the refinery for over 10 years.

She's got an incredible message today, and she's bringing all kinds of energy.

So please return that to her and be ready to really be blessed by Julie Biddle.

No pressure.

Lots of energy.

Thank you.

I know, right?

Well, yeah, it's hard to believe over 10 years that we've been at the refinery and serving in different ways.

Um, most oftentimes you typically see me on stage probably leading worship.

Um, two of my three favorite humans were actually on stage right here this morning.

In case you missed them, I do have a picture of them up on the screen.

Um, this is one of my favorite pictures from this summer.

Uh kind of fun here.

Um, if you don't know our family, so Sean, the one in the middle, my husband, is typically the one that does not smile regularly for a picture.

Like it's hard to get him to actually make a normal face in a picture.

Um, but you'll notice in this one, the opposite is true.

My girls have their goofy faces on, and he has his brilliant smile on.

And so it just shows you just how much my girls are part of my husband.

Um, and so yeah, so Lainey, she's our oldest.

Um, she's a senior this year at Soada High School, hard to believe.

And then um, my youngest is Cadence, and she's a fifth grader at Hopewell Elementary.

So we're over in the Dublin area, go to Dublin schools.

Um, and then the especially good-looking one there in the middle is my husband Sean.

And we celebrated 22 years of marriage this past year, so this summer.

Um, yeah, just crazy.

Um, so another interesting thing about Sean and I, if you don't know us, um, we aren't just life partners, we're actually business partners.

We're a couple preneur.

Uh, for the last nine years, we have owned and operated a marketing company, and I bring that up specifically because this morning we're gonna talk about story.

And so, Sean and I, we actually have been certified and study story in our marketing, and we actually use it in all of our marketing because the human brain is actually wired for story.

So, what's the whole point of marketing, right?

It's to get people to pay attention to what you're saying about the business, right?

And so, when we use the power of story in marketing, it connects to the human brain and it helps these businesses get their word out there to the people that need their products and their services.

And so I wonder, have you ever thought about how deeply humans are driven by story?

Story is actually a sense-making device.

The human brain is wired for story, and story helps us make sense of the world that we live in.

It helps us in processing and understanding what has happened to us and what is happening around us.

And every good story has a middle, well, has a beginning first, right?

And it has a middle and it has an end.

And when we're talking about our own story, if you are anything like me, you want to know the ending, right?

I want to know where this is going.

I want to know how the problem I'm dealing with gets resolved, I want to know whether the thing I'm working toward is actually gonna be successful or not.

And underneath all of that, I think what I really want to know is does this part of my life matter?

Does this season make sense in the context of the whole story that I'm living in?

I think there's a deep desire in all of us not to live a wasted life.

We want our lives to count for something.

But so much of our time is spent doing these mundane tasks and staying busy with things that do not always feel the most worthwhile.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, that sense of wanting your life to have meaning and the moments that you have on earth to be worthwhile and to count for something, I think that's completely normal.

Like we care about what God is doing in the world and we want to understand how our everyday lives fit into it.

And so that's one of the reasons we turn to scripture, because it helps us understand this bigger story going on that we are already a part of.

I love this quote from N.T.

Wright.

He says, We read scripture in order to be refreshed in our memory and understanding of the story within which we ourselves are actors, to be reminded where it has come from and where it is going to, and hence what our own part within it ought to be.

You see, the story of God that scripture outlines for us, at the very beginning, it starts in Genesis.

In chapters one and two, we see the story begin with a world that is beautifully aligned.

Creation is in sync, relationships are whole, minds are at peace and rest, and humanity is literally walking right alongside God.

But then, in chapter three, the story drastically changes, right?

When we decide to take charge, we put ourselves at the center of the story and everything begins to break apart.

But thankfully, that's not the end of the story, because God is so kind that he gives us scripture verses that give us glimpses of what the ending of this story will be like.

In Philippians 3:20, he promises that we'll have a new body.

Philippians 3:20

I was with my 89-year-old grandmother a few weeks ago, and she is really excited about having a new body.

And then in Revelation 21, 4 and 5, it tells us there is a day coming where there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain.

And then Revelation 21, 5, the one seated on the throne makes this promise.

He says, Behold, I am making all things new.

As believers and disciples and followers of Jesus, that is where our story is going.

Creation is restored, God is dwelling with his people, and all things are made new.

That's our end of the story, where we will dwell forever in this new heaven and the new earth that God will create.

And now we've all seen shows and we've read books, right, where our human brains have attempted to try and picture what heaven will be like.

But if you've ever taken time to let your mind wonder and think about what heaven will be like, it's kind of a hard task.

Like, I don't know that our minds can fully comprehend or even grasp what heaven will look like or be like.

I mean, maybe it's got lots and lots of rooms.

Maybe there's a big, big table, maybe a place where we can play football, right?

Come on, everybody wants to sing it now, right?

But what we can be certain of is that heaven is going to be incredible, unlike anything we have ever experienced beyond anything we can think or imagine.

And so it makes sense that we would yearn for it and long for that ending of our story.

But we're not there yet.

We are living here in the middle of the story.

And in story structure, the middle of the story is not exactly the best part.

I want you to think about any story you've read in a book or watched on TV or at the movies, like the middle part is messy.

It's where the plot thickens, and there are trials and suffering and pain and confusion.

And we are living in that messy middle.

Woo-hoo.

Where people suffer.

And families grieve and relationships break, and where we wake up and make lunches and go to work and answer emails and sit in meetings and drive to soccer practice and buy groceries and make dinner and then wake up and do it all over again.

And if we're not careful, like we can begin to believe that the most meaningful part that we are playing in God's story is just found in the ending when we reach heaven.

But what if this part, the middle, these moments of our story matter too?

You see, Jesus, when he taught his disciples to pray, he gives us a hint at how we are to be spending our time waiting here in the middle of the story.

He teaches us to pray, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

See, Jesus did not teach us just to sit on our hands and wait for heaven.

He taught us to pray for God's kingdom to come here in the messy middle.

And if we are praying for God's kingdom to come, we should be expecting Him to invite us to participate in what He is doing.

Because we are part of the story.

We have a part in this story to play.

And if you're like me, that might immediately make you start thinking about a list of things that you ought to do, right?

But this is not about adding more to an already full life or trying hard to make it meaningful.

Here's what I want us to understand this morning.

The spirit makes ordinary life extraordinary.

And as we explore what that means, I want us to keep asking this one question: what would heaven look like here?

In this relationship, in this disappointment, watching the football game on another Tuesday morning, in these middle chapters of our story?

And you may not know exactly how to answer that question yet, but that's why we're gonna camp out in Romans 8 today.

Because Paul helps us understand who the Spirit is, what he is doing in us, and how his presence literally changes the way that we live.

So if you brought your Bible, open it to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Quite literally, we're gonna camp here, so just keep it open the whole time.

And then I'm gonna go ahead and read, starting in verse 1.

It says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mindset on what the spirit desires.

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace.

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the spirit.

If indeed the spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

You see, Paul says that we are no longer called to live according to the flesh.

We are called to live according to the spirit.

And I want you to notice that the spirit has a capital S.

So he's not telling us all the things we need to do to like be more spiritual.

He is actually talking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.

And so if you are a newer believer, or maybe you haven't taken much time to like think and wonder and discover who the Spirit of God is, we're going to let this passage of scripture today like help us get a better grasp of him.

But first, I want you to know that as part of the Church of the Nazarene, we believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So we believe that one God exists in three distinct persons.

The Father, the Son, who is Jesus, we typically know him the best, I think, and the Holy Spirit.

And this is often referred to as the Trinity.

And the Trinity simply means three and one.

Like we believe there's only one true God.

And so the Father, Son, and Spirit are not parts or pieces of God.

Each fully possesses the entire nature of God.

The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father.

They are distinct in how they relate to one another and how they work in the world.

And so there is a distinctiveness to each person of God, and there's also this like cooperative union within the Trinity, and they all work together in helping us as believers.

And so God the Father, He's the source and the creator of all things.

God the Son, Jesus, became human to save and rescue humanity.

And then God, the Holy Spirit, is the helper who lives inside believers and changes their hearts.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are completely equal in glory, in honor, and in power.

And so that can be pretty hard for our minds to grasp, but this is where we get to exercise faith.

This is where we just get to trust and believe what God says is true.

And so I wanted to reiterate that this morning because I don't know if you caught it or not, but in verse 9, it's gonna be up on the screen again, just in case you missed it.

Paul actually tells us that the Spirit of God what?

Lives in us.

Whoa.

Like, did you get that?

Like, let me show you some more verses from scripture because we, if we, if this Holy Spirit thing, right, is like living in us, I want to know more about him, don't you?

Right?

So, John 16, 7, before Jesus went to the cross, he told his disciples something that probably sounded insane.

He said, It is for your good that I am going away.

Anybody watch the chosen have watched any of it?

Yes, a little bit?

Okay, so like it's more even more visual, I feel like, if you watch the chosen.

Like, can you imagine the disciples sitting next to Jesus, have been with him, walked with him in his ministry for the last three years, and he says, It is for your good that I am going away.

I probably would have tuned out the whole rest of it and been like, What?

You're not going away?

Like, that's not for my good.

That can't possibly be good, right?

But he assures them in other verses of scripture, he goes on and he explains that unless he goes away, the advocate, the Holy Spirit will not come.

But if he goes, he will send them.

And then in 17, he says, You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

You see, Jesus is promising that the presence of God will no longer only be beside them, God's presence will be within them.

And so in John 14, 26, he goes on to explain that the Spirit will teach them and remind them of what he said.

In John 16, 13 and 14, he said the Spirit will guide them into all truth and he will tell you what is yet to come.

And then in 1 John 3, 24, it tells us that we know God lives in us because of the Spirit that He has given us.

Do you understand what all of these things mean?

The creator of the universe, the all-powerful, all-knowing God, has chosen to make his dwelling place in you and in me.

God has literally taken up residence in your life.

Is that not incredible?

I mean, let that sink in for a moment.

I mean, look around this room.

Like if you believe that the presence of God is here, if he's in every believer, it's a fact.

He's here with us.

Yes, right.

And then 2 Corinthians 5.5, it tells us that God has given us a spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come.

So, what is to come, we talked about it already.

It's heaven, it's all things new.

But while we are in this messy middle, God graciously gives us part of Himself for safekeeping and as a pledge that we can hang on to and carry around with us the promise of what is to come.

Do you see how the Spirit makes ordinary extraordinary?

Not because of anything we have done or that we have suddenly become impressive, but because God Himself is fully present in the life we're living.

All right.

I got a little excited.

Thanks for hanging on there with me.

But Paul's not finished yet.

Would you believe me if I told you it gets better?

Well, even if you don't, we're gonna read it anyway.

Okay.

So, verse 11, we're picking up right there.

All right, it says, And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

All right, verse 11, Paul tells us that the spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us.

Don't miss it.

Don't miss it.

The spirit is the one that raised Jesus from the dead.

Did you just hear that?

Like after three days of being in a tomb, being so brutally bruised and beaten, the spirit is the one that raised Jesus back to life, walking and talking with his disciples and praying and healing again as if he had never even died in the first place.

Now that power is at work in you.

That is resurrection power.

So we're called to live a resurrection life.

I'm curious, have you ever thought about like if you walked out of here today and you died and then you were raised again tomorrow morning, how would you live?

A lot differently, right?

I know I would.

Yes, and so, yeah, so I mean, this is why scripture tells us that we're dead in our sin, but when we accept Christ, we're given a new life.

But that resurrection power, it's not simply power to do something spectacular.

It absolutely can do something spectacular.

Don't mishear me on that.

But it is power to become alive in all the places where sin and fear and selfishness and the patterns of this world have been draining the life out of us.

It is power to put the old way of living to death and begin living a new kind of life.

A life that looks more like Jesus, a life that lives fully loved, a life that gives the people around us glimpses of what God is making new.

A life that brings heaven to earth.

In verse 12, Paul states that we have an obligation to put our old ways of life to death.

It is by the Spirit that we can put sinful patterns to death and live.

In some translations, it says, truly live.

Anyone else want to truly live?

Like, how do we do that?

Verse 14, it says, for those who are led by the Spirit.

So we follow his leading, we respond to Him, and we let Him change us.

As believers who have the Holy Spirit living in us, when we follow the Spirit's leading and we recognize His presence and His power in us, the Spirit transforms us into looking more like Jesus.

And when we do that, we become a living example of what God is making new.

Verse 15.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children.

So see, Paul reminds us that we do not live by the Spirit as fearful servants that are trying to earn God's approval.

We do it as his children.

The Spirit does not only give us power, he assures us that we belong to God.

And we are beloved sons and daughters, learning to follow our Father, learning to become like Jesus.

I want to read you this same couple of verses from the message translation.

It'll be up on the screen so you can follow along with me, but it says, This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life.

It's adventurously expectant.

Greeting God with a child, like, what's next, Papa?

Don't you love how visual that is?

After reading this translation, I asked the Lord for some wisdom about like what does adventurously expectant look like?

And he reminded me of something that happened this summer.

So I mentioned our youngest daughter, Cadence.

And for the story to make sense, you need to understand that she has an eight o'clock bedtime because she wakes up very early every single day.

So in the summer, like she wanted a later bedtime, and we told her no at first because she does not sleep in.

So until you learn to sleep in, you cannot have a later bedtime, right?

But as you can guess, as most 10-year-olds will do, she would figure out any way she could to delay her bedtime.

And so there were many nights when it was about 8:30, and I was very ready for her to be asleep, and I would tuck her in, give her kisses, and I'd be at the door getting ready to leave when she would say, Mom, what are we doing tomorrow?

And most of the time I would respond with a very exhausted cadence, I don't know.

It is just time to go to bed, right?

But after several nights of this, knowing my exhausted response was coming, she stopped me before I could interrupt her and she said, I just really like knowing what we're going to do tomorrow because it makes me excited to wake up the next day.

That is living adventurously expectant.

Do you ever go to bed at night talking to God and asking, What are we doing tomorrow, Lord?

Who do I get to love on?

Who do I get to help?

Who do we get to who do I get to share my testimony with today, Lord?

Is there anyone I get to pray for?

I know I don't go to bed like that.

Quite the opposite.

Lord forgive me.

But man, I want to get there.

Like, what's next, Papa?

What does heaven look like here?

The same ordinary day, but living with an anticipation and an expectation that because God's Spirit's presence and power is in you, you can follow the Spirit in the scenes that you're living in.

The Spirit makes ordinary life extraordinary.

But what about the days when we cannot imagine asking, what's next, Papa, with that adventurously expectant attitude?

The days when we are grieving and overwhelmed or do not even know what to pray.

The Spirit is there in those moments too.

And we can depend on the Spirit in the scene we would not choose.

So let's keep reading in Romans verse 18.

It says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

For the creation waits an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved.

But hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Like who hopes for what they already have?

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

It probably does not come as a surprise to most of you that, you know, following the Spirit does not mean that bringing heaven to earth will be easy or something will feel like doing every moment of every day.

Because we're still living in that unfinished middle.

And so there will be present sufferings.

But Paul says that those sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

And so we can still carry the presence and hope of heaven into our suffering.

And the Spirit helps us do that.

Verse 26 says, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Have you ever been so upset or grieved that there were no words to put to it?

The grief and the emotion are so deep that you cannot explain what you're feeling.

You cannot even like find the words to describe how painful or wrong or like broken it feels.

The Lord gave us the Holy Spirit for those moments too, and we can bring heaven to earth in the midst of them.

You see, Paul says that when we do not know what to pray, the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

I'm reminded of a period in my life when I was in that place.

Several years ago, we lost a very dear family member, extremely suddenly in a car accident.

Christopher was Sean's cousin, and he happened to marry my best friend.

And they had three boys around the same ages as our girls, so we did a ton of life together when we lived in the same town.

And when Christopher was taken suddenly overnight in a car accident, it just felt like the only question I had was why?

Like, why would you let this happen?

Why would you leave her without him?

Like, why would you leave these three boys like to grow up in this world without their dad?

Like, if you're a god of love, like how is this okay?

Yeah, I copped an attitude with him.

That's kind of what I do.

But I was confused and I was upset with the Lord, and I remember spending like the first 48 hours just literally yelling at him.

And there was lots of tears and lots of confusion.

And then I remember sitting on the back porch in silence, because I had no words left, which he was probably grateful for.

And as I sat there, I felt this like wave of peace come over me, and then I heard the tiniest whisper that I know was God.

And he said, I hate it too.

I never wanted it to be this way.

So in my moments of grief and confusion, the Holy Spirit reminded me that we have a God who cares deeply for us.

And he didn't want it to be like this either.

We actually were not made for pain and for suffering and grief.

But that did not change what had happened.

It did not take away the grief.

But in the middle of it, I knew he was there and he was with me.

And maybe that is what heaven looks like sometimes.

Not that the pain disappears or everything broken is immediately restored, but that we experience this closeness and this presence and this comfort almost as if we are actually in his presence, like we will be in heaven.

So when we ask the question, what would heaven look like here?

We are not always asking what we need to do for someone else.

Sometimes we are the person that needs comfort.

Sometimes we need someone to sit beside us, someone to pray and intercede for us.

And when we ask for help and accept the help, we're letting others embrace their invitation to bring heaven near.

Verse 28 is where we pick up next, and it's a very quotable memory verse that a lot of people know by memory.

And it says, In all things, God works for the good of those who love him.

But remember the context now that this verse falls in.

It is from within the context of creation groaning, of people suffering, and the spirit interceding that Paul says, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him.

And verse 29 tells us the purpose for which God is working.

He's conforming his people to the image of his son.

And that just means we're becoming like Jesus.

And part of becoming more like his son is experiencing suffering.

We really only get a three-year glimpse of Jesus' ministry.

And in just three years, there was a lot of suffering.

Like this week, go back and read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and write down all the places that Jesus suffered.

He suffered a lot.

And so it should be expected that we're gonna suffer too.

It's a necessary part of becoming like him.

And Paul actually told us earlier in verse 17, he said, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

But even our sufferings cannot stop God from continuing his work in us and bringing his story toward the ending that he has promised.

We as God's children experience and offer real hope for this messy, middle, unavoidable sorrows.

My best friend and her boys are a shining example, not by their own strength, but by the power of the Spirit.

They are showing how it's possible to endure suffering while still hoping for what is to come.

And I've watched their neighbors and their friends and all those around them are watching, and it's causing them to ask questions and be curious about how are you able to do that?

And so we do not have to pretend that the pain is good or act as though it does not hurt.

We ask the Spirit to help us, to intercede when we have no words, and to keep turning our hearts toward hope of what is still to come.

You see, suffering makes our hope grow stronger.

It enables us to wait eagerly and patiently for the day that God will make all things new.

So that is what it looks like to depend on the Spirit in the scene that you would not choose.

All right.

Everybody hang in with me?

Okay.

What then shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies.

Who then is the one who condemns?

No one.

Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long.

We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

I was not given a handheld mic because I would have dropped it.

Right?

Yes, this is a mic drop moment from Paul.

He has so many.

He's probably my favorite author in scripture.

I just love it.

But commentators, they have called these verses a hymn of assurance, a triumph song, and the highest plateau in all of God's word.

This section asks five questions.

It says, Who can be against us?

How will he not also?

Who will bring any change?

Who is he that condemns?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And spoiler alert, the resounding answer is absolutely nothing.

Not one thing can separate us from the love of God.

And that truth makes us more than conquerors.

Not just conquerors, more than conquerors.

So, as believers, we belong to someone who loves us and are part of a story that is greater than ourselves and far greater than this world.

And my hope is that you realize how God has equipped you with the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, which is fueling God's work within and through his people.

And this security in the love of Christ should give us complete freedom to respond when the Spirit leads.

See, the Spirit will never lead us in a way that contradicts the character of Jesus or the truth of Scripture.

But oftentimes, he will lead us to do things that feel very uncomfortable, a little unusual, and it's almost always something that we would never have thought out on our own.

In April of 2021, my dear friend, a wise woman of God and a faith mentor for me, Linda Henry, she experienced a pretty tragic sudden health scare and ended up in the ICU.

Many of you may know her name, she attended here for many years.

But because of Linda's health, in combination with COVID still being a very serious threat for Linda's age and pre-existing conditions that she had, it was not safe to visit her.

But the hospital she was rushed to just happened to be right around the corner from where I dropped my daughter Cadence off at preschool four times a week.

And I remember feeling this like really strong, compelling need to go to the hospital parking lot and pray for Linda.

I mean, it was crazy.

Like I'd be driving past the parking lot of the hospital, and it was like the steering wheel like pulled me.

Like I couldn't get away from it.

And so I did not know what room she was in.

I did not even know what part of the hospital she was in.

So I parked outside in my car.

I picked different spots every single time, and I looked up that huge building and prayed over every single window I could see multiple times a week.

You'll see that building up here on the screen.

I took a picture of it because I wanted to remember.

And it probably looked a little strange if you were sitting there next to me in the car.

It definitely felt strange sitting in a hospital parking lot praying over windows.

But I could not shake the feeling that this was what the spirit was asking me to do.

So I prayed.

And Linda lived.

And I did not know what part my prayers were going to play in Linda's story.

I only knew what the spirit was asking me to do in mine, inviting me into an ordinary moment in my day to participate in something I could not fully see or understand.

We simply have to learn to recognize and respond to what the spirit is doing in the scene in front of us.

Sometimes it is simply a strong sense that we should pray for someone, give something away, send the text, make the phone call, offer forgiveness, sit with someone who is hurting, say something encouraging, give a hug, or just stop what we're doing, pay attention and be present with the people who are with us in these moments of life.

These are all like really ordinary things, right?

But this is exactly where the spirit so often does his work.

He is present in the mealtimes, in the emails, in the conversations, the school drop-offs, the hospital parking lots, and all the ordinary scenes that make up this middle of our lives.

And so Romans 8 teaches us that when we follow the Spirit in the scene we are living, when we depend on the Spirit in the scene that we would not choose, and we respond to the Spirit with confidence when he leads, the ordinary moments can become places where people experience the joy and the goodness and the comfort and the peace and the love of God, which most definitely will feel like heaven.

So that is how the Spirit makes ordinary life extraordinary.

Jesus taught us to pray, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And we are still waiting for the day when God will make all things new.

But because his spirit lives within us, heaven begins right now.

And we have a part to play.

So in all these ordinary moments, I want you to take this question with you.

What would heaven look like here?

And pay attention and trust that the Spirit who is already with you and already leading you will tell you what it is to do.

Let's go and let's embrace the ordinary.

Will you stand and let's pray together?

Lord, what an absolute gift the Holy Spirit is to us.

Forgive us for the moments where we are not adventurously expectant.

Where we are not asking, what are we doing tomorrow, Lord?

What will heaven look like here?

What's next, Papa?

Lord, forgive us.

But man, I ask that as we leave this place and go into this week, Lord, that we would bring heaven to earth, that we would pick up and play our part.

And Lord, I ask that for everyone in this room, Father, who has heard this message today, people online as well that are listening, that you would make the Holy Spirit in them just abundantly clear.

And that they would be brave and courageous and step into doing and the leading of the Spirit in their lives.

And Lord, if there are people in this room who are not believers, they have not accepted your gift and therefore do not have this Holy Spirit that we've talked about tonight or today in their lives, Lord, I ask that today would be the day.

That they would want that.

Because it is so incredible.

To have you with us, your presence and that comfort and the peace.

God, I cannot imagine my life without it.

So, Lord, if there is someone in this room who does not know you, I pray for bravery and courage this morning that they would ask who they came with, they would come up and talk to me, they would come up and talk to someone on the staff and become your child today.

Lord, take us into our week and help us ask what would heaven look like here.

We love you and we're thankful that we get to be part of your story in bringing heaven to earth.

Amen.

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

If you're ready to take a next step in your faith, please reach out to us through our website at refineryohio.com, or you can email us at office at refineryohio.com.

We hope you have a blessed day.