Kraig Mewbourne - July 10, 2022
God of the Mundane
“Christians are not immune to the problem of being mundane and seeing it as a problem. We have breathed in the same fumes as the rest. Our hearts burn for our deeds to be noticed and celebrated. We want to do something big and have it thrust into cyberspace for all to experience. Those who follow the Man of no reputation pine for one, resumes at the ready…We think the small, mundane, ordinary things we do each and every day are worth nothing before God because they are worth nothing before the gods of this world.” 1.) Whose example are we following? Philippians 2:1-11 (NIV) 2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Matthew 27:11-14 (NIV) 11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. 12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. 2.) What story are we believing? “The story of what God has done has been replaced by the story of us, a tragicomedy featuring all of what we have done and have not done. We look at our own story and see nothing spectacular… Maybe Adam and Eve got a little bored with gardening and animal husbandry. Maybe they looked at God as they were walking in the cool of the day with Him and liked the eternality and authority in HIs story better. Maybe they wanted more than the ordinary existence they had been given. Regardless, they wanted to be like God. THey did not want to be found in God’s story so much as write a better one. So they fell headlong into the abyss of unbelief and hate and explicit, conscious rebellion. Worse, they pulled us in by the heel.” Colossians 1: 15-20 (ESV) 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by[f] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 3.) What are we willing to be? Matthew 10:38-39 (NIV) 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV) 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” “Are you willing to be numbered among the nameless believers in history who lived in obscurity? Do you have the courage to be forgotten by everyone but God and the heavenly host? Are you willing to be found only by God as faithful, right where you are? Are you willing to have no one write a book about you and what you did in the name of Christ? Are you willing to live and believe - in stark contrast to the world around you - that there is a God of the mundane?”