Extraordinary

First and foremost, I want to just honor Pastor Leon and Miranda for giving me this opportunity to not only preach this morning, but just, I get to, I love what I do here. I love being able to lead you guys in worship every week, week in, week out. It's really, truly a blessing. So I just wanted to, just real quick, give some honor where it's due to Pastor Leon for leading this church so incredibly well and Miranda as well. I also want to mention the teams that I lead really quick, because they, everything that you're seeing in this room, the lights, everything here is put on by the tech team back there.

They do it incredibly every single week, week in, week out, as well as the band up here, Eric, Miranda, Stefan, when he's in, he's, they're such a great, great team. And I want to specifically mention my buddy, Chase, who came in this morning to help us out, did such a phenomenal job, super thankful for you coming in this morning. And so we are in week five of our right in the eye series. It's been a wild ride. And we've seen a lot of what can happen when we don't trust in God, when we, when we think that we can do things right on our own.

And don't know about you, but I know for me, it never goes right. It never goes well when I try to do things on my own. And, um, today we're going to be talking, um, about the topic of being extraordinary, um, because that's who God has called us to be. That's who we are. Uh, that's who we're supposed to be more or less.

Um, all of these messages, today's message, uh, the previous four weeks, next week's final message will all be online at saltchurch.org slash messages, slash, slash, take two. We're good. Slash messages. Um, so if there's somebody as, you know, we're talking today that you're like, man, they really need to hear this.

And because you're not listening, you were thinking about the other people who should be hearing this. Um, they'll be all online at saltchurch.org slash messages so that you also can go back and listen to them. Um, we have the Bible app. If you can throw that slide up there, um, the Bible app, all of the notes are going to be in there today so that you can follow along with where I am, um, in, in the message.

Uh, all my notes, all the scriptures, they're all going to be up there. All good, great, and dandy. That way, we can all be on the same page together. Um, coming up, starting today, actually, we're going to begin collecting boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Um, that'll be today through November 7th, if I'm correct in that.

There should be a slide. There we go. Perfect. Thank you, Matthew. Um, so today through November 7th, and this is just an opportunity for us to give back to our community.

Um, you know, we have shoeboxes out in the, uh, foyer lobby area up front where you walked in. Uh, you can take those box, fill them up with, um, I believe there's a, um, just a list of things that you can fill it up with. And it just, it's a way for us to give back to our community. Um, speaking of which, we have our annual turkey drop coming up November 14th. Um, this is my first turkey drop, so I'm super excited about it.

Um, I have heard a lot of really, really cool things. Um, we're going to have free food, got, uh, bounce houses, cotton candy, all that fun stuff. Uh, and then we're going to have a DJ come out and just hang out with us for a couple of hours. It'll be after both services, our 9 and our 10.30.

Um, a face painting too? Oh, we got a face painting. I'm going to, that sounds awesome. I'm going to get my face painted. Um, so that's what we got going on.

We got the Operation Christmas Child and turkey drop, a couple of ways for us to outreach. Um, that turkey drop is going to be awesome. Come in, bring frozen turkeys. We're competing. What was our number last year?

128? 128 frozen turkeys were brought in last year. I believe that we can crush that number this year with, with the, with the spirit of, of worship. We got 200 as our goal for this year that I believe we can get that this year. No problem.

Um, I'll go ahead and pray for us once more. Um, and then I'm going to give you kind of a pre-sermon. I'm not really going to preach quite yet. I just got a couple of questions, a couple of things I want you to think on as we're getting ready to go into the sermon. I just, yeah, I got to tease a little bit.

It's, it's got to happen. Um, so let's go ahead and pray and then we will get right into this. Father God, thank you so much for this opportunity, uh, to be in your house this morning, God. I pray, uh, that these words are not my words, but they are straight directly from you. And that we all are able to be impacted by you this morning in ways that we haven't been impacted before.

So in your name we pray. Amen. First question this morning, what kind of person do you want to be? I know we don't have, uh, our lives are so busy at times that we don't really get the time and the chance to opportunity to just sit and think about what kind of person we want to be. But I want us to just take a second, seriously, just take like five seconds.

What kind of person would, do you want to be? When somebody, you know, when we, you know, all are going to inevitably, you know, pass away one day. When we're gone, what do we want people to remember us by? What are the things that we want people to say about us? Or how about when we leave church today, what do we want people to talk about us?

Or when we, uh, you know, when you leave work and, you know, you're, you know, your coworkers talk about you. Like it's, it's, it's the truth. My coworkers talk about me. Um, and it's okay. What kind of person do you want them to know you as?

When you are leaving the family dinner, Thanksgiving's coming up in a couple of weeks or Halloween in a couple of weeks. When you're leaving your family parties or wherever you may be, what kind of person do you want to be? What kind of person do you want them to know you as? When maybe. I'm obviously not a parent, but when your kids are talking about you behind your back, what kind of parent do you want them to think you are?

Same type of thing for us, you know, I've got a lot of teenagers. What kind of person do you want your friends to think you are? Do you realize and recognize that that's up to you? It's 100% within our power to decide what kind of person we want to be. What if you decide to become extraordinary?

Not extraordinary at something, just an extraordinary person, something that you can define. I'm not talking extraordinary at something like Miranda's singing, you know, she has an extraordinary voice, or Eric's ability to play drums, or Joe's ability to make the lighting in here look great. I'm not talking about those types of things that we can be extraordinary at. I'm talking about us as human beings. It's not about what we do that makes us extraordinary.

It's about who we are. Right? So, what if for just one week, one week, because a lifetime is too much, two weeks might be too hard, let's just try one week. Every time you're going to make a decision, think, what would an extraordinary person do? What if, for one week, you aim to be an extraordinary friend, husband, wife, daughter, son, employee, boss, whatever it is that your roles are.

George is up here taking pictures of me. George, what is it going to take for you to be extraordinary in what you're doing right now? And every time you had the opportunity to leverage your authority, whether that's at work or in any capacity, you decided to sit and say, what would an extraordinary person do? Every time we had the opportunity to make a decision, we said, what would an extraordinary person do? You are at your best, and I believe that you are at your best when you are aspiring to, not settling for, when you are aspiring to, not settling for, when you are trying to become something better, when you are trying to become who Christ has made you to be, who the Lord has called you to be, not when you are just settling for where you are.

You know, asking the question, how good can I make it? Not, how little can I get away with? What can I do? Not, what can I have done for me? Just one more quick question, and then I will, I'll go ahead and get into the sermon, because I know this is, you know, we're still on this pre-sermon a little bit.

How many times do you get to live your life? Just once. Now, there's some people who have a worldview that you'll, like, you know, come back and reincarnation and all that type of stuff, and if that's you, okay, I don't get it. I don't understand it personally, but I think that would make both, if you live more than once or if you only live once, I feel like that would make both of our worldviews want to be extraordinary, because I wouldn't want to come back as, I don't know, like a squirrel or something. I just, like, like, I'm going to be extraordinary at what I'm doing so that I can come back in whatever else form.

But especially if you only live once, why not make that life extraordinary? Why not make that life worth living? Why not make that life worth what God has called you to make it worth? And it seems like positive thinking, but let me turn it around and ask it this way. What if your son or your daughter, your husband, your wife, whoever, what if somebody is listening to this message, and you get, or your boss, and you walk into work tomorrow morning, and, you know, they say, hey, I know you go to Salt, and I know Andrew preached that message on being extraordinary, but you don't have to worry about that.

You just forget about it. I know, I know what he, he told you. I know it, I know it, you know, or, or you're looking at your kids, and you say, hey, stop being extraordinary. I didn't raise you to be that way. Just, just, just be average.

We're not called to just be average. And as, here we'll start to get into the, into the sermon piece. So if you're taking notes, it's called, this morning's message is called Extraordinary. So you can go ahead and use that as your heading. Um, what would an extraordinary life look like?

If you are a Christian, you have to reach for the extraordinary. It's, it's simply what we are called to do. If you're a Christian, and that is, you're a person who takes Jesus, and the teaching of Jesus seriously. If you're a person who, at some point in your life, actually embraced Jesus as your Savior, or if you're Jewish, you take the Old Testament seriously, and you believe the Old Testament, God is actually God. If you're that kind of person, or if you're that kind of Christian, then you've got to live an extraordinary life.

You've got to ask the question, what would an extraordinary person do? Because if you're a Christian in particular, you believe there's a personal God, and that God has a personal plan for your life, and that God knows your name, and he loved you so much, that he sent his son Jesus to the world to pay for your sins. And that God has a relationship with you. So, if we are made, if we believe that we are made in the image of God, then why wouldn't we want to live that extraordinary life, right? If you believe that you were made in the image of God, you believe that time is linear.

God started something, and God is going to finish something. And that which God has begun, God will finish. And that history is actually going somewhere, and that all things are being created, and everything happens ultimately for a reason. For the glory of God. That is our reason.

It's for the glory of God, like we were just singing about in a second. You know, you are worthy of it all. The glory is yours. You have been invited by your Heavenly Father to participate. Right?

You believe that every single day... Matters. You believe that one day you'll be held accountable. You believe that one day you'll get to present your life before your heavenly father and say, look how I did. You believe that every second matters, and that you matter, and the opportunities matter.

Now, this is not easy for us to just, you know, go ahead and be like, yeah, I'm extraordinary, because we don't live in a culture that tells us that it's okay to think like that. And here's what else you believe. You believe that every person that you have ever been eyeball to eyeball with was made an image of God and deserves to be treated as someone who has been made in the image of God, and they deserve for you to treat them in an extraordinary way. That's what you believe. So what are you doing by messing around, by playing around, by settling for, by getting by?

If we just settle for where we are right now, if we just settle with who we are right in this moment, where are we going to go? What are we going to do? And I truly believe believe that we should be ashamed of ourselves for that. Embarrassed. It's like an eagle living in a chicken coop.

Eagles are not made to be in chicken coops. I don't know much about eagles, but I know that they're not supposed to be in chicken coops. And I can confidently say that much. So, if you are an eagle, if you are called to live an extraordinary life, you believe that you were purchased with the life of Jesus, is the Holy Spirit within you. Right?

You can't live like everybody else. Everybody else has an excuse. They think that this is all there is. Do you guys believe that God is something up to something in the world? Why not allow the Holy Spirit that is within us, the same way that it was within Samson, like we talked about last week, the same way that it's within Gideon, as we'll talk about in a couple minutes here, why not live like God is up to something?

God created Israel to be extraordinary. God created Israel to be extraordinary. And they started looking around and acting ordinary. So, again, what are you doing by messing around, playing around, settling for? We got to stop settling.

And we're going to go ahead and start talking about our story today, which is just about Gideon. I'm not going to give you the whole story. You can go through, read that on your own. But I want to tell you the story of Gideon. But I want to tell you the story of Gideon and why it's an important story.

Because Gideon, like some of us, believed in God, but became ordinary and became an ordinary person. He began to believe about himself. And he began to believe about his world, what himself and his world told him about himself and his world. Right? So, what the culture is telling him, he started to believe and he started to proclaim and proclaim over his life.

And that, it's kind of where I think our world is getting to now. All right? And in this fascinating story, God shows up, kind of shakes Gideon and says, what are you doing? How did you become so ordinary? How is it that you forgot your destiny?

How is it that you forgot the Spirit of God rests on this land and rests on these people? Wake up. I want you to start acting like a Gideon who believes he can do extraordinary things. Not because it's some positive mental thinking, not just because of your potential, but because the God of creation rests on you and on these people. So, we'll go ahead and start reading.

We've got Judges 6, 1 through 4, as well as verse 6. So, if you have your Bibles with you, you can go ahead and flip there. If not, it'll be right up here on the screen. So, Judges 6, 1. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

Now, the Midianites are distant, distant, distant cousins of the Israelites. They had a feud going on for many, many, many years, and at this particular time, the Midianites had the upper hand. Just a little context there. They're like your, you know, your distant cousin that you like, you see at the family reunions, and they just, they come in, they're a little bit older than you, they bully you a bit, and you're just kind of like, come on, man. Like, I had a cousin like that.

It was kind of frustrating at times. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in the mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country. So, again, here's that older annoying cousin, like, hey, you have crops? I'm going to come and take them all.

Like, just kind of how the relationship was between the two of them. They camped on the land, and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza, and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep, nor cattle, nor donkeys. The Midianites impoverished the Israelites, and they cried out to the Lord for help. Can you put verse 1 back up there? Just a little, little irony in this right here, right?

It says, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. For seven years, he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Can you go back to verse 6 for me? And here, they cried out to the Lord for help. What?

Why are they coming back to who they just tried to leave? Like, when things got hard, it's this perpetual circle that we've been talking about of deliverance, and then destruction, and disobedience, and it just keeps going in circles, and circles, and circles, because the Israelites think they can do it on their own. They think they can, I don't know what they think, but we think it too. I remember when I was a kid, first getting into music, first getting into worship leading, I thought I was Phil Wickham. If you guys don't know who he is, he's a fantastic worship leader from California.

I thought I was Phil Wickham. I tried to sing like him. I was Phil Wickham. I was 12 years old with a $30 guitar. I was 12 years old with a $100 guitar.

Cool, true. But I was Phil Wickham. And so, my mom comes up to me as I was practicing for a, for a, probably just some Wednesday night youth something. She goes, hey Andrew, you don't sound like yourself. I was like, I don't know what you're talking about.

Like, I sound great. Thinking I sound like Phil Wickham. Twelve years old, keep in mind, voice is cracking, you know, before I can even breathe. And so, she goes, no, no, no, no, Andrew, you have to find your voice. You have to find who you are.

You have to find, And so, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Like, that's, sure, I'm Phil Wickham. I can sing just like Phil Wickham. And I really, like, my 12-year-old brain really thought I sounded like Phil Wickham. So, I went, led worship.

It was terrible. It was awful. Because I thought I was Phil Wickham. Because I was trying to be something that I wasn't, right? So, I came back to my mom, and I was like, listen, you're still wrong, but tell me how I sound more like me.

And, you know, because I'm prideful. I'm a bit arrogant, and if you know me, I have a hard head. But I came back to my mom, the person who tried to help me before I even did anything. I was like, hey, I didn't do what you said, and now I'm kind of facing the consequences of possibly never leading worship again. Because I tried to do something that wasn't me, right?

And she came back to me, and she was, it just, it's funny that we turn away from what it is that is trying to help us. So, in this instance, you know, Israelites, in verse 1, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. It's terrible. It's awful. They're, you know, they're not really eating.

They don't have any crops or cattle or anything. And then here in verse 6, they cried out to the Lord for help. When you copy something, you are made captive by it. When you copy something, you are made captive by it. And I can speak for that.

I was made captive by Phil Wickham's voice. I met him one time, and thought I was him. And it was terrible. But I was made captive by copying something. Israelites here are trying to copy Midianites, and therefore made captive.

So, like, this entire time, you know, Israelites are on the phone with God, like, hey, like, I promise if you come down here, I'll never do this again. Like, and we make those promises to God, don't we? I was talking with the band during rehearsal this week, and it's like, the story of the Bible is like, hey, don't do the thing. And then we do the thing. And God says, hey, it's okay, I forgive you, but don't do the thing.

And we still keep doing the thing over and over and over and over and over. So here the Israelites are on the phone, essentially, with God. I promise if you come right now, we won't do this again. We promise, don't we promise? You hear that?

We all promise. Like, they're all like, hey, God, look, all of us are here. We promise. We're never going to do it again. And so that's the nation of Israel.

They went through this over and over. Now, if you don't hear anything else I say, if you check out again, or this isn't interesting to you, here's something cool. When the nation rebelled against God, and when the nation repented and turned back to God, guess what God did? He would turn back to the nation. In fact, that's what God does with all of us, because he's a God of mercy.

He is so merciful that he does not shield us from the consequences of our dumb decisions. Because by not shielding us from the consequences of our dumb decisions, we face the full-on consequence of our dumb decision in hopes that we will never, ever do those things again. And when God will invade our lives and forgive us to restore him, this is what God does. And you say, how many times, how many rounds do I get with God? And the answer to that is as many rounds as you need.

Because God's mercy will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever run out. Because he loves you too much to not let you face the full-on consequences. So moving forward, we got Judges 6, 11 through 16, and this is where Gideon comes into play. Okay, the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abysserite? I'm going to guess that one.

Where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. So he's literally hiding right now. Like, he's hiding in a winepress to do his job because he's so afraid of, he's like, he's in a hole, right? So when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Keep in mind, this guy's hiding right now, like he's fearful.

But the angel of the Lord is with you, mighty warrior, right? And I love Gideon, he's such a nice guy. And he replies here in verse 13, pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied. But if the Lord is with us, why has all of this happened? Now this is great because you've all asked this question in your own way.

And I know you have because I have and we're all humans. It's like, God, if you're good, then why the bad? If you're for me, then why is the world against me? Why do I still not have a job? Why am I single?

Why can't we have kids? Why, why, why, why, why? If you're good, why the bad? If you're good, why the bad? Right?

So, Gideon, pardon me, my Lord, but if the Lord is with us, why has this happened to us? Why did I lose my job? Why did this friendship end? Why did this relationship, whatever it is, God, why did this circumstance happen? Why did this circumstance happen?

But here's where, as we continue through verse 13, where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian. Right? Like, essentially, he's like, God, you're calling me mighty warrior, but I'm sitting here hiding. Like, I'm hiding in this wine press to do my thing.

Job, because I'm so afraid of what's about to happen. So the Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have, and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Right? Go in the strength you have. Not the strength that will be given, not the strength you want, the strength you have.

He's calling Gideon as he is, right? Verse 14 is really, really cool. This is the second half of it. Am I not sending you? Go in the strength you have, because it's not you.

I'm the one sending you, God is saying here to Gideon. Now this should be the part where Gideon's like, Yeah! Like, let's do it! Like, yeah! Let's go do, let's go destroy the Midianites, yada, yada, yada.

But instead, in verse 15, Gideon, in all of his politeness, says, Pardon me, Lord, but how can I save Israel? So here he is again. So polite. My clan is the weakest in Manasseh. And I am the least in my family.

So he's like, he's gotten in this headspace of I'm the least of the least of the least. Right? It's the, I go to a junior college and I'm not even doing that great. I, my family isn't rich. I'm not talented or cute or, or I haven't figured out Twitter.

And I have eight friends on Facebook and most of them are me in different profiles. Anyway, um, I, you know, I, I'm barely making, I've got bad habits. I'm not extraordinary. I'm like everybody else. Now, here is, uh, the way the Lord answers is, Oh, never mind.

I must be at the wrong house. Like, that's what he says, right? No, absolutely not. It's not how the Lord answers Gideon here. Just, I gotta make sure you're paying attention.

I, sometimes, you know, you gotta check in, right? This is not how the Lord answers, but we sometimes are saying, Oh God, if you just do this miracle, when one by one, starting with me, if you could just for 30 seconds, open our eyes to what we can see, the way that you see us and the way that our lives could be. Gideon, do you feel like a warrior? No. Well, you are.

No, I'm not. Yes, you are. No, I'm not. Yes, you are. So Gideon, who are you going to believe?

Are you going to believe the estimation of you? Or are you going to believe what God is calling you, right? Are you going to step into this false confidence of, I'm not a mighty warrior, of, I'm not who God has called me to be? Or are you going to step into who God is calling you to be? What if God sees you differently?

And what if you just spent your whole life just going along with what everybody else is doing and what everybody else is saying and living your life the way that everybody else lives it, dating the way that they date, spending money the way that they spend money, and dreaming just as little as everybody else. And what if God sees you differently? St. Augustine said, there won't be any sin in heaven. It won't be that we can't sin.

It's that we will see so clearly, we will choose freely not to sin. And that's the beauty of salvation. That's the beauty of what Jesus did on the cross for us, is it's not the freedom to do what we want to do. It's the freedom from those things. It's the freedom from those thought processes.

It's the freedom of those emotions, of those things that we're doing. It's not the freedom to spend money the way we want to. It's not the freedom to date the way we want to. It's not the freedom to do the things that we want to. It's the freedom from those things.

So how does the Lord reply in Judges 6, 16? The Lord answered, I will be with you, right? So here he is, Gideon, God, why me? I'm not a mighty warrior. I'm just another guy.

I'm just, I'm just ordinary. So the question here is for Gideon, for each of us, is God, will you be with me? And he says, I am. I will be with you. So the question here to the college student, to the mom, the dad, the president of the company, or business owner, or account executive, or whatever it is, is God, will you be with me?

I want us to all actually ask that. God, will you be with me? You have the freedom to do what you want, when you want, with who you want to do it, and you can live the rest of your life and do what is right in your own eyes, and you'll be just like everybody else. But you will miss, you will miss, you will miss the opportunity to be extraordinary the way that God created you to be. And this is the decision and the belief that begins to change everything.

Gideon is, God's not giving Gideon some extraordinary gift. Gideon, I'm not giving you the one-on-one on how to deliver your nation from the Midianites course. I'm not giving you the one-on-one on how to get a job, or how to spend your money, or how to date the way that God's calling you to date, or anything like that. Gideon, I'm asking you to believe when I tell you that God is with you. Put your name here where I'm saying Gideon.

Miranda, I'm asking you to believe it when I tell you that God is with you. Would you simply live like a man who is confident that God is with you? Would you live in that confidence in the way that God has called you to live? What the angel told Gideon in private, God has announced to you publicly. You are a mighty warrior.

You have the freedom from those things, right? And more than 1300 years later, another Jew would ask a similar question to the angel that asked Gideon. Paul, the Christian hunter who became a Christian, asked the Christians in Rome, if God is for us, who can be against us? Which is... Romans 8, 31.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Now, that's, you know, it's a great verse. What then shall we say in response to these things and the things that are coming up against us and losing our job, losing something, or when God is calling us to do something? What do we say in response to these things if God is for us, who can be against us? Now, how do I know that he's for me?

How do you know that he's for you? How does Gideon know that he's for Gideon? How does Paul know that he's for Paul? The answer here is in verse 32. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

That is the presence of the gospel. That is the essence of the gospel. Do you know how valuable that makes you? The value of a thing is the price that it will bring. So, how do we figure that out?

You know, let's put this water bottle right here. Let's put it up on eBay. I'm going to start this water bottle at $200. Any of you going to buy this water bottle for $200? But I touched it.

Like, it's a water bottle. Like, $200 for this water bottle, right? Right? It was touched by me. But that water bottle doesn't have any value, especially not for $200.

Now, maybe if you're, like, really, really thirsty or, you know, you've been in the desert forever, maybe $200. But even then, if I just put that up on eBay, it's not selling for $200. But I'm going to keep dropping the price, keep dropping the price, keep dropping the price, keep dropping the price, keep dropping the price, until eventually somebody's going to pay me $0.13 for it, because that's about all it's worth. But the value of a thing is the price that it will bring.

Embracing this idea has a ripple effect. It will change the trajectory of your life and take you from despair and chaos to purpose. This is extraordinary, and it gives you the potential to be extraordinary. And here's the end to Gideon's story. Gideon takes a baby step.

He honors it. Then he takes a bigger step, and God honors it. God uses cowering Gideon, the Gideon who's hiding in the wine press, you know, hanging out with his wheat. And he used him to deliver his nation because he stepped out of the pit of ordinary. He quit looking around and started showing up.

So Gideon, again, he's scared to death, and I'll let you go through and read the story on your own, because it is really, really powerful. He's going to deliver his people from Midian. So what does he do? One night he sneaks out and destroys, like, one idol. He's like, hey, I destroyed that water bottle.

God's like, hey, good job. Keep doing it. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again.

Right? And so when we ask this question of what would somebody who knows what God's with him, you know, worshiping and all of that type of stuff, when we take that idea of what would we do if we understood truly that God is with us, how would that affect the way that I live, the way that we live our life, when we decide to believe that God is with me? Pastor Stephen Furtick at Elevation said, It is dangerous to think of yourself more highly than you ought. It is equally as dangerous to think of yourself less than God does. It is dangerous to think of yourself more than you ought, but he's right.

It's probably equally as dangerous to think less of yourself than God does. I mean, this isn't a message about trying to get you to be good. This isn't a message about challenging you to be extraordinary. This isn't about trying to keep you out of trouble. Be good.

Stay above the line. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't.

Don't do this. Thou shalt not this. This isn't about that. This isn't about keeping you out of trouble. This is about you reaching your full potential.

God has something for you, and I don't want to miss it. I don't want you guys to miss it, but that's got to be a choice that you make. This isn't about being good. This is about being extraordinary. This isn't about staying out of trouble.

This is about reaching your full potential. You can spend your life doing what you want, when you want, with whom you want, just like everybody else, but you will never be the best version of you. You will never be extraordinary. So I'm going to get Chase to come up here and just play a little bit underneath. We should all ask, what would an extraordinary person do?

If you're a Christian, you have got to ask this. What would you do if you were confident that God was with you, in you, and for you? Don't settle for ordinary. Don't settle for what everybody else is doing. We're not called to settle.

Eagles in a chicken coop. You just for a moment in time, open our eyes, and open your eyes to see yourselves that way. You see us as men and women that God is for, with, and in. And that focus, that filter, would be the filter through which we filter our every thought, every decision, every reaction. And that we, by God's grace, would be extraordinary bosses, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, employees, piano players, whatever it is that we're doing.

Whatever you are. And that would stop you from falling short of the old you. And you would ask the question, what would somebody who's me do? And I was absolutely confident that God was with me, and in me, and for me. So what happens when we switch our minds to understanding that God is with us?

He is in us. He is for us. I'm going to go ahead and pray. Just ask yourself that question this week. God, if I understand that you are with me, and for me, and within me.

What does that make me as an extraordinary person? How do I carry myself as an extraordinary person? Father God, thank you for this opportunity to truthfully be challenged by you. Thank you for the story of Gideon, God. Thank you for this opportunity to become the person that you're calling us to be, God, to step into the extraordinary and step out of the ordinary, to stop settling for whether that's financially or in our relationships, God, but to step fully into the extraordinary of who you are calling us to be because you are within us, because you are for us, because you love us.

While this is a handful at times, God, we trust you fully and we are so thankful for who you are, not only for what you've done. Would you enlighten our hearts and our minds so that we can just catch a glimpse of how you see us and give us the courage to step into it and live that way. We pray these things in your name, Father. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.