From Ordinary to Extraordinary

Why God Uses the Ordinary

 Why God Uses the Ordinary
 God is purposeful in His choosing of the weak.
• I Corinthians 1:26-31
• “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in
weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with
distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake;
for when I am weak, then I am strong. I have become foolish.
II Corinthians 12:9-12
 Why God Uses the Ordinary
 People around you see something extraordinary and
recognize God.
• Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and
understood that they were uneducated and untrained men,
they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having
been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed
standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.
Acts 4:13-14
 Why God Uses the Ordinary
 You see something extraordinary being done through you and
recognize it is not of yourself.
• But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are
you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or
piety we had made him walk?”
Acts 3:12
• But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the
sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for
we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Acts 4:19-20
 Just Ordinary
 Ordinary people have ordinary trials.
• Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous
famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So
Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
Genesis 26:1
• In what land was this famine?
• Trials are the normal experience of God’s people, even
when they may be right where He wants them to be.
 Just Ordinary
 Ordinary people have ordinary trials.
 Ordinary people have ordinary fears.
• Genesis 26:2-7
• Ordinary people panic when trials come.
 Just Ordinary
 Ordinary people have ordinary trials.
 Ordinary people have ordinary fears.
 Ordinary people have ordinary sin.
• Because we sin doesn’t mean we can’t be used by God.
• It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines
looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.
Genesis 26:8
• (NLT) Isaac fondling Rebekah
• (KJV) sporting with Rebekah his wife
• Isaac’s sin was not in sporting with his wife. The sin was lying which made a mockery of
God’s promise embodied in his name.
 Just Ordinary
 Ordinary people have ordinary trials.
 Ordinary people have ordinary fears.
 Ordinary people have ordinary sin.
 Ordinary people have ordinary hassles.
• The Philistines continued to fill in the wells that Isaac dug.
• What does all of this have to do with the purpose of God?
- Every well Isaac dug forced him a bit closer o the promised land.
 Just Ordinary
 Ordinary people have ordinary trials.
 Ordinary people have ordinary fears.
 Ordinary people have ordinary sin.
 Ordinary people have ordinary hassles.
 Ordinary people have ordinary family problems.
• Isaac stubbornly insists on blessing Esau.
• Just because your home is not “perfect” doesn’t mean you have
an excuse not to obey what God wants from you.
 Nothing Ordinary
 We couldn’t handle God’s plan if known all at
once.
 We wouldn’t rely on God but on our own new
found knowledge.
 Genesis 37, 39
 From Ordinary to Extraordinary
 How to Be Used by God