SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther once asked a question, what will you do in the days of mundane faithfulness?
SPEAKER_00: And I've always liked that phrase, mundane uh faithfulness, kind of this idea that uh even in just the average ordinary things of life, there's the opportunity to be uh to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Um what we do to live faithfully in those mundane, ordinary days of life?
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a good question, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a I mean it's a good question for a lot of reasons, but mostly because that's where we live most of our of our days, is in the routines and just the the the average everyday things uh of life.
SPEAKER_00: We go through dramatic highs and lows, uh, for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the uh just kind of these life-altering moments of good and bad.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Steven preached a couple of weeks ago about you know, how can we trust God when when it hurts?
SPEAKER_00: And uh and that's a that's a good question.
SPEAKER_00: It's um and he did a he did a really good job.
SPEAKER_00: If you if you missed it, I'd encourage you to go back and uh and and listen to it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and yet the reality is we experience those moments as dramatic because they're not the norm.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the norm is sort of the everyday things that we uh that we go through.
SPEAKER_00: Those those moments of of school and work and and raising kids and doing laundry and uh and doing the dishes and going to doctor's appointments and and just trying to make it from from day to day.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're like me, it can be hard to, I don't know, just maybe have have a lot of expectation for those for those days.
SPEAKER_00: Um it feels more like, all right, it's just another day to get through until I can get to something a little bit better, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or get to something a little bit more uh more exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Uh or in certain seasons, it's kind of waiting around for the next bad thing to happen or the uh or for the other shoe to drop.
SPEAKER_00: Now maybe you're getting ready for another year of school, you're in the midst of a busy uh career, or parenting and shuffling kids around, or even just the routines of retirement.
SPEAKER_00: What do we expect from these routines?
SPEAKER_00: And what do we expect from God in the midst of those things?
SPEAKER_00: This is the question that we're asking this morning, the question that we're that we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Is God at work in the ordinary moments of life?
SPEAKER_00: Do those ordinary moments matter?
SPEAKER_00: And and if they do, um what does God have to say about them?
SPEAKER_00: Where where does God show up in the in the midst of them?
SPEAKER_00: Uh Paul Tripp, he uh he kind of put it this way: he said, if God doesn't rule your mundane, then he doesn't rule you, because that's where you live.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so we need to trust God when uh things are difficult, we need to thank God when things are great, uh, but we need to be aware of his presence and relying on him and trusting on him every moment of every day and uh uh and walking with him through uh through all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so uh and so this is our this is our question for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Is God at work in the ordinary moments of life?
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna look at two uh two short uh verses.
SPEAKER_00: So if you'll uh stand, um if you are willing and able, we're gonna read two verses, one from the book of 2 Corinthians and then one from the book of uh 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is uh this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away.
SPEAKER_00: Our inner self is being renewed day by day.
SPEAKER_00: And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, he says, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I want to pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for the gift of your word, that we can look to it, and in it we see you, and we're able to draw close to you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray that you'd be at work in us uh this morning, be at work in my heart, be at work in all of our hearts as we as we look to you to see what you have to say to us about uh our everyday lives.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would give us uh wisdom and encouragement, that you would challenge us, uh, but most of all that you would help us to see Jesus clearly.
SPEAKER_00: And that through seeing him and uh knowing him we might be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for uh for your church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh thank you uh that you allow us to come and be together as your people and in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray that you'd use all of this for your glory and for our good.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna kind of flip back and forth between these verses a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're using your Bible, you've got to kind of keep your finger in there and we'll go we'll go back and forth a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But uh but the question, like I said, we're asking, is God at work in the ordinary moments of life?
SPEAKER_00: And uh and we're gonna try and answer this question by uh by looking at uh a couple of other questions uh that are related to it.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing that we're gonna ask is uh why do we doubt God's at work?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If we're asking the question, is God at work in kind of the ordinary moments of life, then then we've gotta ask, why do we doubt that in the first place?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What is it that causes us to wonder if he's really present and if he's really if he's really at work?
SPEAKER_00: Um uh you know, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16, that we read, he says uh, we do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is how he starts.
SPEAKER_00: We do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does it mean if Paul's writing this?
SPEAKER_00: It means that we lose heart, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh it means that uh it means that we are constantly uh losing heart and getting discouraged and forgetting what's true and good about God and uh and who he is.
SPEAKER_00: We have a tendency to grow discouraged, even apathetic about life and uh and our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And at the heart of this discouragement, at the heart of maybe uh this apathy is a misunderstanding uh about about God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We ask the question, is God even here?
SPEAKER_00: Does he even care about uh about these moments?
SPEAKER_00: Um when we ask those questions, it's it's because we we uh we misunderstand who God is and what uh and what he's like.
SPEAKER_00: See, I know I struggle to uh uh to see and believe God's working in those boring everyday moments sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Uh like I said, sometimes I think it's just you know, you're moving so quickly and going from one thing to the next, there's not even time to uh to really think about it, or I'm just trying to get through to something uh to something better.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so and so what causes us to wonder those things, and it's this misunderstanding we have about God.
SPEAKER_00: We misunderstand that he actually cares about those seemingly insignificant moments in uh in our life.
SPEAKER_00: It can be easy to think, well, God's He's so big, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's he's got a lot on his plate.
SPEAKER_00: He's dealing with wars and earthquakes and all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: How could he have time uh for uh for me as um doing the dishes or as uh or as I'm driving to the store?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we think, I don't want to bother God in these small moments because I know there's gonna be a day where something big happens and I want him to be all rested up, right?
SPEAKER_00: So that so that he can really show up and help me uh when uh when I when I need him most.
SPEAKER_00: But all of that's rooted in a misunderstanding of who God is and how he works.
SPEAKER_00: See, God doesn't get distracted, he doesn't get preoccupied, he doesn't have to choose between showing up for you and showing up for or showing up for me.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get tired, he doesn't get disinterested.
SPEAKER_00: Think about our verses.
SPEAKER_00: How often does it does uh 2 Corinthians say we are we are renewed?
SPEAKER_00: Day by day, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Day by day.
SPEAKER_00: Not sometimes, every second of every week.
SPEAKER_00: And what type of moments does he care about?
SPEAKER_00: That 1 Corinthians 10 verse, what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, right?
SPEAKER_00: Eating and drinking is like the thing we maybe think about the the least, right?
SPEAKER_00: Besides breathing.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's just something we do uh because uh we like to stay alive, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and yet uh and yet God cares about us even in those moments and cares about what we're thinking and what's going on with us in those moments.
SPEAKER_00: There's a moment in the Old Testament where the Israelites, they uh they've been exiled out of the promised land, and uh they're starting to come back and they're wanting to uh rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: They're wanting to rebuild their city, they're wanting to rebuild the uh the temple, uh, but it's going very slowly.
SPEAKER_00: All right, it's there's all this opposition, there's all these other uh nations around them that are trying to slow them down or keep them from being able to uh to finish.
SPEAKER_00: And so so they're obviously discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're trying to, they're they're asking, you know, what's going on, God?
SPEAKER_00: We thought this was what you wanted, uh, but it doesn't seem to be going very well.
SPEAKER_00: And so they get to the point where they've actually sort of accomplished something, right?
SPEAKER_00: But it's such a small thing, they're still kind of discouraged and uh and they're still trying to figure out, is this even worth it?
SPEAKER_00: And and God shows up and he speaks to them, and this is and this is what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't despise the day of small things.
SPEAKER_00: Don't despise the day of small things.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying it may be a small moment, but even small moments are evidence that God's present and that he's at work in your midst.
SPEAKER_00: There's uh there's another story in the Old Testament where uh Elijah the prophet, he's he's sort of been involved in all of these big events and these uh you know big kind of miraculous things that have happened, uh, but those things are over, and now he's sort of uh kind of running from his life, he's hiding, and he's just going through the motions, trying to figure out, all right, what's uh what's next?
SPEAKER_00: And uh and he's discouraged too, wondering, all right, God, where are you at now in in this moment?
SPEAKER_00: And God says, All right, I'm gonna um I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna and I'm gonna speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: And so he tells Elijah to go and stand outside.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and the the Bible tells us uh first uh there was uh there was this uh massive wind that came, and this wind blew, it was so powerful that it broke some of the rocks off that were around him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh and so the wind uh came past Elijah, and it tells us God was not in the wind.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says there was an earthquake, and the ground shook, and the and and and the earth and the things around him rattled, uh, and and the Bible tells us God was not in the earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says there was this big fire, and there was this fire that burned, and uh and it tells us again, God was not in the fire.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says there was a small whisper, and a small whisper passed by Elijah, and Elijah couldn't help but fall on his knees because he saw God in the whisper.
SPEAKER_00: It was in the whisper, the quiet whisper of that moment, that God showed up.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna be honest.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand everything that's going on in that passage, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand everything that uh that God's trying to communicate there.
SPEAKER_00: But I do think it's interesting that God wants Elijah to know in that moment, he's he's not just in the big moments, right?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just show up when uh you know in in these amazing, miraculous things.
SPEAKER_00: He's there in the small, quiet whispers, in the everyday moments as well.
SPEAKER_00: Think about think about Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospels tell us he he performed all of these miracles, he he spoke to huge crowds, he did all these amazing things.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospels also tell us that he ate fish with his friends on the beach, and uh and he went to Zacchaeus' house for dinner uh to uh to spend time with him.
SPEAKER_00: He played with kids, uh he spent time with an old woman who had been sick to make sure that she was okay and to talk to her, and to see her, and to notice her.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is is like.
SPEAKER_00: We're told about those things because uh because he was present and he was active in those small everyday moments of people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's interesting, he doesn't spend time in those moments grudgingly either.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get the sense that he's there, but really he's thinking about the next big thing he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: We see Jesus' heart in those moments.
SPEAKER_00: He's not rushed, but he's fully present.
SPEAKER_00: He's not annoyed, but he's full of love and compassion and even joy for the person that's right there in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: He's the same way with us in every moment of our lives, uh, big and small.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there was uh there was a kid at um the the last church I worked at, is uh his name is Will.
SPEAKER_00: He we um uh we probably moved there when he was about five years old, uh, and we were there for 15 years.
SPEAKER_00: So I saw him kind of grow uh grow up from uh you know from a pretty small small kid, and um you know he was in uh kids' ministry with us, and he was in youth group with us, and uh, and you know, all through it he um uh he he would never say that he was uh that he was a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, and his parents his parents prayed for him all the time.
SPEAKER_00: They um uh you know they talked to him about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We uh you know, we would talk to him at church, all these things, and he just never seemed quite uh quite interested.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, and and and it was just you know, day after day, year after year, uh hoping that he um uh that he would be uh that he'd be interested in uh in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he and he never and uh he never was.
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, so we moved and we got here, and maybe and maybe a few months ago, I got a text from uh from the guy who's the pastor at uh at the church there now, and he said, Hey, I just wanted you to know, uh, but Will became a Christian this week.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, what what an amazing thing that that you know his parents' uh faithfulness, uh, you know, that the faithfulness of his church, ultimately, that God's faithfulness through such a long period of time uh to bring him uh to finally know uh know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not a single one of those moments of his life was was wasted.
SPEAKER_00: Not a single conversation that his parents had for him, not a single mistake that his parents made when they got frustrated with him or uh um or um uh uh you know or discouraged by um uh by what was going on in his life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh not one conversation with someone at church, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: God weaved all of those small moments together over 20 something years uh to work together to bring him uh to uh to faith.
SPEAKER_00: There are no wasted uh moments.
SPEAKER_00: Every moment of our lives is God-infused, even the ordinary ones, uh for his uh for his purposes uh and for his good works for uh for us.
SPEAKER_00: So why do we doubt God's at work?
SPEAKER_00: It's because we don't understand, it's because we forget that he's present in every moment of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't see those moments as big moments or small moments, he sees those as moments to be present and to walk uh with us and for us to walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so uh why do we doubt God's at work?
SPEAKER_00: Um next, um, how does God work?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If he's present in those moments and he's working, well, how does he uh how does he do it?
SPEAKER_00: Our 2 Corinthians verse doesn't just say that God cares about every moment, but that he's renewing us day by day.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There's something active that he's doing in those moments to renew us and to restore our souls and to draw us towards him day by day uh by day.
SPEAKER_00: He's not passive when he shows up in our moments.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's active and he's at work in us.
SPEAKER_00: The process uh that he goes through to uh to change us and to renew us and to uh and to draw us to himself is called sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a kind of a big word.
SPEAKER_00: We've we have two main words that we talk about uh when we're thinking about uh faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's this there's justification and there's sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: All right, justification is uh is what happened when Jesus uh died in our place for our sins on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's what he did uh in that moment to uh to make uh rebellious sinners like us uh family and uh and to make it possible for us to be in relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he died on the cross in our place, and we put our trust in him, and when we trust Jesus with our lives, we are justified.
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of this momentary thing that happens, and and in that moment we belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that can change that.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that can uh snatch us from uh from his hand, uh, the um uh Jesus tells us.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so justification is this moment where we belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification is every moment after that.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's the it's the process from uh from the the moment we trust him uh to the last day of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so how does God work?
SPEAKER_00: He works in He works in process in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, that process is slow.
SPEAKER_00: He works very slowly.
SPEAKER_00: But but I think slowness is part of the point.
SPEAKER_00: It's the slow, deliberate process of learning to love and trust God uh and be changed by him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we that's what we need.
SPEAKER_00: It's what he knows we need.
SPEAKER_00: We we all wish it would happen faster, right?
SPEAKER_00: I wish uh it would happen faster in my life, that uh that there were things about me that would uh that would be changed already.
SPEAKER_00: I I know Kelly wishes it would happen much faster than uh um than it than it is happening.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, like I said, I think the slowness is part of the point.
SPEAKER_00: It's how God works uh in us.
SPEAKER_00: It's the difference between uh uh a microwave and a crock pot, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you think about a microwave, uh when I'm in a hurry, right, I want something to eat, I throw it in the microwave, I can stand there and watch it for like the one or two minutes, uh, and uh and then it's done.
SPEAKER_00: And and I've got food, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of chewy.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not hot all the way through, right, because I'm in a hurry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh and so um uh but it's done and I and I have something.
SPEAKER_00: Um now maybe it's just my you know microwaving skills need some work, but um uh uh but I think that's just part of the point, right?
SPEAKER_00: It gives you something quick uh and uh and okay.
SPEAKER_00: But a crock pot, uh you cut up all the stuff, you put it in in the morning, uh you don't stand there and watch it, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're you're gonna be bored out of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You uh you put it in there, you turn it on, and then you go about your day.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, you have something delicious, right?
SPEAKER_00: You have something that's tender and good, something that you uh that you want to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the slowness is part of the process.
SPEAKER_00: The slowness is part of the point.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh the slowness is what makes it uh good.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is what God is doing in us.
SPEAKER_00: Our sanctification works the same way.
SPEAKER_00: It's this slowness because He you know He tells us that uh that what He started in each one of His people, He will carry on to completion.
SPEAKER_00: So He knows what the end is gonna look like.
SPEAKER_00: For each one of us that belong to Him, He knows that the end, uh, when we uh when we go to be with Him forever, uh we will be made perfect.
SPEAKER_00: That's the end.
SPEAKER_00: He He knows where we're heading, He knows that we'll that we'll get there.
SPEAKER_00: What He's concerned about us day in and day out is the is the process, is what He's doing to slowly change us into people who know Him, uh, who trust Him, who love Him more day by day.
SPEAKER_00: But what do we want?
SPEAKER_00: We want instant change, right?
SPEAKER_00: We want to be able uh to snap our fingers, or at least Jesus to be able to snap His fingers, right, and uh and make us better and uh and take away all our problems and uh and fix us.
SPEAKER_00: I think part of why we do that is just because we we get impatient, right?
SPEAKER_00: Part of it is because the process of sanctification, the process of growing and and changing is hard, right?
SPEAKER_00: We go through really difficult things in that process.
SPEAKER_00: We see things about ourselves that we wish we didn't have to see about uh about who we really are and the and sort of the the ugliness of our sin and the things that we've said and done and thought.
SPEAKER_00: We have to we have to let go of control more and more in our lives and give that control uh to uh to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a it can be a painful process.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, even the painful parts.
SPEAKER_00: God is using to make us into the people that He longs for us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Slowly, but surely.
SPEAKER_00: I read someone who said, she said, I realized that I want to be sanctified.
SPEAKER_00: I do not want sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're talking about, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like we we want the end product.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be better than we are.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be the person that we imagine that we could uh that we could be, and even that God promises that we could uh that we could be.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we don't want to go through the slowness uh to get there.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the this is what Jesus has for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way God works.
SPEAKER_00: And He's proven over and over again that it does work.
SPEAKER_00: See, our hearts are much harder and more stubborn than we want to admit.
SPEAKER_00: We fall short of glorifying God, even in eating and drinking.
SPEAKER_00: So definitely in all the things that we uh that we do.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is it that softens our hearts and changes us into the people that are more and more of who he wants us to be?
SPEAKER_00: It comes through a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: It comes through a relationship with Jesus, and relationships are inefficient.
SPEAKER_00: Relationships are slow.
SPEAKER_00: Relationships take time to grow.
SPEAKER_00: They don't come from just a few quality moments, they come from a quantity of time over a long period.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Big moments, little moments, we see every moment as a chance to draw near uh to God and to grow in that relationship with uh with Him.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen this even with my kids, you know, since we've moved here, we um we have a golf cart, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so I've I've learned that if I bribe my kids with McDonald's, all right, they'll they'll get on the golf cart and uh and drive to McDonald's with me.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: And and what that means is I have 40 minutes of them trapped with nowhere to go except to listen to music and talk to me.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so um uh uh and so it's totally worth uh the the cost of a value meal, right?
SPEAKER_00: To be able to get that time uh to spend uh with uh with them.
SPEAKER_00: If we went in the car, it would take like five minutes and it would totally defeat the purpose, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um McDonald's isn't that good, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um but uh um but for that time together, it's uh it's worth it for us to be able to grow in our relationship together.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The slowness and the time it takes us to get there in a golf cart is uh uh is the point.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's the time.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how God sees uh every moment that we spend with him as worth it because we're working and drawing uh closer uh to uh to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's using the quantity of everyday, ordinary moments to draw us closer to him and to shape us into the people that he wants us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians uh chapter 5, verses 5 and 6 says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
SPEAKER_00: So what's he saying here?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying it's through through the Spirit, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We eagerly await what God's doing in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We want him to do something, and we look forward to what he's doing and see the results of it.
SPEAKER_00: But he says it's not the big things that we do, sort of the you know, the the big religious moments.
SPEAKER_00: Uh ultimately, he says it's faith working itself out through love.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we're changed.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we're drawn near to him, this is how the good things that God is doing in us become realized in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So is God at work in the ordinary moments of our life?
SPEAKER_00: Uh yes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because he cares about every one of those moments.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because he's present and at work in every one of those moments, too.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, because he's using those ordinary moments to sanctify us.
SPEAKER_00: But what what exactly does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: Practically, how does he sanctify us every day?
SPEAKER_00: So, our our last point, our last question, how is God working, not just working, but how is he working in us?
SPEAKER_00: Remember that question Martin Luther asked that um talked about at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: What will you do in the days of mundane faithfulness?
SPEAKER_00: In the days of everyday faithfulness?
SPEAKER_00: I think the answer is actually in the question he asks.
SPEAKER_00: What we do in the midst of mundane ordinary days is the same thing that we do every day and any other time in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We look in faith to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's faithfulness in each of those moments.
SPEAKER_00: We ask him to fill us more and more with his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what helps us to not lose heart, to have our souls renewed day after day with the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 3 puts it uh puts it this way.
SPEAKER_00: It says, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
SPEAKER_00: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: If you've been raised with Christ, if you belong uh to Jesus and are connected to him by faith, uh, then set your mind on things that are above.
SPEAKER_00: Every moment, there's no uh there's no insignificant moment where we can't set our minds on him and what he might be doing in that moment and in us in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Uh a woman, uh, Brittany Prophet, she wrote, uh she wrote this.
SPEAKER_00: She said, So when life feels mundane and you're bored with life, redirect your focus to God's faithful care over your life, his provisions that come from his grace and mercy toward you, and strive to do all things for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we find joy when life feels mundane.
SPEAKER_00: Not through a vacation, a new gadget, a new church, a new car, but through pursuing the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Whether we eat or whether we drink or whatever we do in whatever moment we're in, do it all to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think I think this helps us as we approach our spiritual lives, and I think it helps us as we approach kind of our practical lives.
SPEAKER_00: Um in our spiritual lives, I think I think it helps us in just that uh that day-to-day uh reading the Bible and praying and sort of the means of grace that we uh that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's true for me, uh my guess is it's it's true for you at some point or another.
SPEAKER_00: Um when I when I read the Bible uh on my own, I don't always read it and then have like fireworks go off, right?
SPEAKER_00: And like have some great epiphany, right, uh some uh some thing come to me that I've never thought of before.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that happens, right?
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes God works that way.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also a lot of times where I read the Bible and I pray, and then I get up and I go to work, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then I and I go through uh and I go through the the rest of my day.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, and it can cause us to ask, like, all right, well, what's the point then, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is is God is God doing anything in those moments if I don't feel like he's doing anything, right?
SPEAKER_00: If I don't, if I don't feel the change in that in that moment as I read and then as I as I close uh close my Bible or as I pray.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is where trusting that God's at work in every moment helps us.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We may not feel something big, we may not see a difference, but God's using that time to shape us into the kind of people he wants us to be through his word and by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we see those changes clearly, right?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe over longer periods of time, even we can look back and we can see, oh yeah, I see what God's doing in my life, I see how I'm more thankful, I see how I'm less angry, I see how I'm more patient, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we can see how God is at work through those things, but we don't always see it from moment to moment and uh and day to day.
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't mean that he's not working, right?
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that those moments aren't vital for the sanctification that he's doing in us, for that slow process of changing us that he's at work in.
SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes we see it, right?
SPEAKER_00: The moments when we most need help or comfort or wisdom or courage, we find that we have it.
SPEAKER_00: Because we find that we find that we have it in him, and that we're trusting him in that moment more than we ever thought we might be able to.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking even uh singing this week about some of the stories that I've heard from people of loved ones that even as they, you know, as their mind starts to go and as they can remember less and less, sometimes the things that they do remember, like Bible verses, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or like hymns that they've been singing their their whole lives.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't they don't remember those things because they just read that verse once uh and uh and moved on, right?
SPEAKER_00: They don't remember that song because they sang it once and moved on.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's because they've spent a lifetime in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: They spent a lifetime talking to Jesus in prayer, they spent a lifetime at church worshiping together, and God has used moment after moment after moment of those things to sink it deep into their uh into their souls.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing the same for us.
SPEAKER_00: He's changing us in that way, even when we don't feel it or maybe don't see it all the all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I think about it even in the way that I became a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You know, for some people, they have these big moments where they can say, I can tell you, you know, I can tell you where I was, I can tell you the moment, I can tell you the thing that the person said or did uh that that changed that changed me for uh forever.
SPEAKER_00: And those moments are incredible, right?
SPEAKER_00: I did not have that kind of moment.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I I can't tell you the day, I can't tell you what somebody said uh to make me uh or to help me um believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I know that at the beginning of the summer, when I was in high school, I randomly showed up at a church, not knowing much about church, about Christianity, or or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: And I just started to go one week after the other.
SPEAKER_00: I started going to youth group on Tuesday nights, I started going to church on Sunday mornings, and then I started to read the Bible on my own, and I started to ask questions of the of the pastors uh that um that I had about things, and I talked to other uh other students that were there that were Christians and asked them about their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and all I know is that at the end of that summer, I believed.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: At the end of that summer, I was I was trusting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know at what moment that happened in those three months.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, uh, like I said, I don't know exactly what contributed to it.
SPEAKER_00: All I know is that it was a process, and God wove a thousand little moments together over the course of that summer, uh, so that at the end of the summer I could say uh that Jesus was my Savior, and then I had and then I had trusted him.
SPEAKER_00: And and and and maybe that's some of you here today too.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are trying to know God.
SPEAKER_00: You feel like you're doing the things uh to try and get to know him better or know about him more, um, and uh and you're just not sure if it's working, or you're not sure uh if it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Um God's at work in those moments, right?
SPEAKER_00: Stick with those things.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to pursue him, continue to look to uh to him, because he longs for you uh to know him.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and he's and he's at work for you to know him.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, do it all to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Practically, because God's present at work in every moment, we can glorify him in everything, like we've uh like we've said.
SPEAKER_00: To walk with Jesus is to see every moment, every encounter, every situation as holy because he's present there in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the way we respond to our family, it's in how we interact with our coworkers and our roommates, uh, a chance encounter with a neighbor, a discipline situation with one of our kids, um, uh caring for an aging parent or uh how we treat a waitress or how we spend our money.
SPEAKER_00: It's in every moment along the way to look to Jesus and to ask him, him to know what it looks like to glorify him in those moments.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Stephen Weber put it put it this way: he said, mundane faithfulness is unheralded.
SPEAKER_00: It's couples who keep their marriage vows, workers who do their job conscientiously day after day, year after year, parents who steadily care for and nurture their children, and there are many areas where mundane faithfulness can be applied in the church setting.
SPEAKER_00: It's in everything we do, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's in every moment of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I think it even shows up in our attitude towards the things God gives us to do.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes uh uh sometimes the challenge is not doing the things, right, but what we're thinking about in our attitude in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, even something like doing the dishes, right?
SPEAKER_00: I maybe once or twice I have found myself standing at the sink washing dishes and thinking, why can't people just rinse these dishes out before they put them in the sink?
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't be that hard.
SPEAKER_00: Right as I as I scrub uh the things that are in there.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and maybe then I start to think, well, what's wrong with this person?
SPEAKER_00: And what, you know, and I start to and I start to spiral into thinking about what's wrong with everything else uh and and uh in my world, right?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of saying, God, thank you for this moment, uh, to love you by serving my family, right?
SPEAKER_00: Now, it seems like a simple thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: But God knows in the moment um what that does to my heart when I focus on myself, right?
SPEAKER_00: When I when I use that moment uh to uh to indulge selfishness, right?
SPEAKER_00: He knows what it does uh to uh to harden my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows what it would do to soften my heart and to draw me towards him, to see him in that moment, and to be thankful for it in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: So every moment, uh even the unseen ones, um when we're when we're praying and when we're serving and when we're loving uh the people around us, even when nobody else sees it, right, God sees it.
SPEAKER_00: He's with us in the midst of it, uh, and he's present.
SPEAKER_00: So um I want to close by reading something uh this uh by she's uh uh she's a writer named uh Tish Harrison Warren, and she uh she wrote this a while a while back.
SPEAKER_00: When she was younger, she went on a mission trip to Africa.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I felt like I needed to do something radical, something big for God.
SPEAKER_00: And so she went and she lived in Africa for a while and uh and served over there, and then she came back.
SPEAKER_00: And she was like, I now I had to figure out like what does it look like for me to live uh to glorify God and to live faithfully just in the everyday, not so exciting part of uh part of life.
SPEAKER_00: Um being back in in uh in my normal routines.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what she uh she wrote.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a little bit long, but I think it's but I think it's a good way to kind of sum up what we're uh what we've talked about.
SPEAKER_00: She said, now I'm 30-something with two kids, living a more or less ordinary life.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm slowly realizing is that for me, being in the house all day with a baby and a two-year-old is a lot more scary and a lot harder than being in a war-torn African village.
SPEAKER_00: What I need courage for is the ordinary, the daily everydayness of life.
SPEAKER_00: Caring for a homeless kid is a lot more thrilling to me than listening well to the people in my home.
SPEAKER_00: Giving away clothes and seeking out edgy Christian communities requires less of me than being kind to my husband on an average Wednesday morning or calling my mother back when I don't feel like it.
SPEAKER_00: I've come to the point where I'm not sure anymore just what God counts as radical.
SPEAKER_00: And I suspect that for me, getting up and doing the dishes when I'm short on sleep and patience is far more costly and necessitates more of a revolution in my heart than some of the most outwardly risky ways I've lived in the past.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what I need now: the courage to face an ordinary day.
SPEAKER_00: An afternoon with a colicky baby where I'm probably going to snap at my two-year-old and get annoyed with my noisy neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: So, courage for that kind of day, without despair, the bravery it takes to believe that a small life is still a meaningful life, and the grace to know that even when I've done nothing that is powerful or bold or even interesting, that the Lord notices me and is fond of me, and that he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: We can have confidence that he's present and at work.
SPEAKER_00: Because he gave us himself on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We're about to celebrate that with communion here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We know that he cares.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was um willing to sacrifice himself.
SPEAKER_00: And we can have joy in loving and serving uh every moment of our lives for him, because we know he already takes such joy and such delight in us.
SPEAKER_00: Does God uh show up?
SPEAKER_00: Does he work in the ordinary moments of life?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he definitely does.
SPEAKER_00: He works because he loves you and he loves to be with you in every moment of every day.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us.