In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of being offended at the ordinary. He emphasizes that many people have preconceived notions of how God should work and what He should look like. The speaker uses the example of Jesus teaching in his own country, where people were offended at him because he did not fit their expectations of a divine figure. He also mentions the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples after his resurrection, where he appeared as an ordinary man cooking food for them. The speaker concludes by asking the audience if they are offended at the ordinary image of God or if they truly love Him.

I want to speak to you about being offended at the ordinary. So Father, thank you, God, with all my heart for the touch of your Holy Spirit in this house tonight, for the touch of your Spirit upon your Word. Lord, you are leading us, you are guiding us, you are helping us as your people to understand things, Lord, that maybe we have been resistant to understand. So help me tonight to convey this simple truth before we go to the communion table and help us to understand it. God, there's such power in simplicity and we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Matthew chapter 13, beginning at verse 53. Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables that he departed from there and when he had come to his own country, he taught them in their synagogue. So now he's among his own people, his own family is there, he's with his own basically, he's with his own clan, he's with his own people. So that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? So they were offended at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house. Now he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Now it almost looks like that last verse is disconnected from the rest of the passage, but it's not. A lot of people don't really draw the understanding that being offended at who God is has a direct link into a lack of faith. They all had a perception in their mind, like maybe you and I do from time to time or did, of what God looks like, of how God has to do things. Of if God comes, what it has to feel like. A lot of people today run around from church to church looking for some kind of new superstar, some kind of zap. They want to lay on the floor, they want to shake, they want to ride. They've got this thing about how God does things. And of course, God always has to send emissaries in a white suit with a flowing scarf, with a fan blowing it off to the side. And it has to be somebody that takes a handkerchief out and throws it at them when they fall over. Because that's their perception of how God works. And the people in this particular hometown of Jesus would have been the same. When the Messiah comes, this is what the Messiah is going to do. This is what the Messiah is going to look like. Some may have vocalized it and many others just thought it. He's going to come and this is what he's going to do. This is how he's going to speak. This is the kind of heritage he comes from. This is how he's going to walk. This is how tall he's going to be. Everybody's got a perception of when God comes, when the Messiah comes. And you remember the promise was he's going to wipe away all tears. He's going to be the fulfillment of everything God's ever promised. He's going to make us a blessing in the earth. He's going to set us free from our captors. All of these promises are there and they all know these promises. And suddenly one day, this young man is raised up in their midst, comes into the temple, begins to teach them in the synagogue. And they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? In other words, why does he have the power to do these things? And where did the knowledge he has come from? Is this not the carpenter's son? Now, number one, they're offended at his profession. I mean, God doesn't come as a carpenter. That's what they said. God, God, this is God. I mean, if anything, he makes lightning bolts, not chairs and tables. And he doesn't go to people's houses and fix the railings and the doors and their hinges. That's what a carpenter would do. I mean, this can't be. He's making these outlandish claims to the power of God is upon him. And God has sent him and God is working through him. But surely if God was going to work through somebody, it wouldn't be a carpenter's son. And isn't his mother called Mary? Mary, Mary, number one, the number one doctrinal question, does God have a mother? Come on. I mean, for the Hebrew people, this was huge. Does God have a mother? Is it possible? He's got a mother. Her name is Mary. How can he be the son of God? We know who his mother is. And surely God, surely God would pick somebody of a higher estate than Mary. Mary, who with her betrothed husband, Joseph, had to go into the temple when Jesus was born and had to offer a sacrifice of turtle doves, which is the sacrifice of the poor and his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters. Are they not all with us? In other words, like if he really is God, wouldn't he hang out with more influential people? Wouldn't he be with the movers and shakers of society? I mean, these are just ordinary people, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters. There's always people that have a problem with sisters getting a little close to the ministry. You ever noticed that? So where did this man get all of these things? And they were offended at him. You know, a lot of times people get offended at the ordinariness of how God works and the ordinariness of who he works through. I'm reminded of John chapter 21 when Jesus is raised now from the dead. This is now the risen Christ. And the disciples had gone fishing. They were a little confused and hurt and wounded and they were struggling. And they just said, Peter said, I'm going fishing. He was a natural leader. So everybody just followed him. He wasn't led of the spirit to do what he was doing. And so they fished all night and they caught nothing. Jesus calls unto them from the shore. And once they came back to shore again, he asked Peter three times, Peter, do you love me? And the last time is, I think the most profound of all things. He asked him, he said, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? And so Peter is looking at an ordinary man. He's not even recognizable as the son of God. You understand? He has no, he's not glowing. He's not 16 feet tall. There's no burning fire coming off the top of his shoulders. He does not look, he's just an ordinary looking man. Which caused them a little, they knew him by the spirit, but to look at him naturally, he just looked like an ordinary man. And this is the risen Christ. The risen Christ with all the promises and all the power. And what's he doing? He's making biscuits and fish on a fire for hungry people. And what he's saying to Peter is this is the image of God. This is what God looks like. Are you offended at my image or do you love me? Do you love ordinariness? Like I say, a lot of people don't love to be ordinary. That's why they never get the miracles. That's why they never know the power of God. That's why they can knock on the door from the sun down until their knuckles bleed. And they never get anything from God because they're simply not satisfied with being ordinary. And letting an extraordinary God do a work that only God can do through them. Praise God. And the scripture says, he did not do many mighty works because of their unbelief, because they didn't believe that God works through ordinary people. Amazing. And a lot of people don't get the miracle because they feel so ordinary that how could God ever work through me? But you forget that's who he is. That's what he does. Remember the apostle Paul said in the Corinthian church, consider your calling, not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise, not many strong, but God has chosen what? The foolish things of this world. God has chosen things which are nothing to bring to nothing, everything that stands in its own strength. God has chosen the weak things of this world. That's who God works through. And because people are offended at the ordinariness of God and who he hangs out with, they just don't believe it could possibly be him. He still hangs out with ordinary people. Praise be to God. He still, he still indwells ordinary people. He still leads ordinary people to do just ordinary things. You know, and we don't, we look at the fish and the biscuits on the coals and the fire. And we say, well, that's, that's not extraordinary until you start looking and wondering, where did the fire come from? Where'd you get the fish? How about the biscuits? You see the willingness to be ordinary brings you into the extraordinary power of God. That's where God begins to work. That's where God begins to provide. That's where the supply of God begins to flow. That's where healing starts to happen. That's where words of knowledge start to be spoken. The, the, the willingness to just be ordinary and to let God be God. And he said, a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and in his own house. Now, I don't know about you, but I recognize that I am now the temple of the Holy Spirit. And by God's grace, I'm going to be content to be ordinary and to have the extraordinary power of God flow through my life. That's what he's talking about. He couldn't do many wonderful works because they didn't believe that God could just be ordinary. That God could actually be the son of a carpenter. That God could have a mother called Mary, who's not of high estate or noble birth. That God, the son of God could have brothers and sisters that were just nondescript maybe in their community. A lot of people don't get the miracles because they don't like the brothers and sisters in the house. It's true. It's true. They don't like the people of God. They don't like who God hangs around with. They don't like the people that Christ surrounds himself with. And so they don't believe that God possibly could be working in this situation. And because of that, they don't get any mighty works done in their own life. Praise be to God. Oh, the beauty of being ordinary. Everything in the kingdom of God is upside down from this world. Everybody in this world wants to be high, wants to be admired, wants to be on the cover of fashion magazines, wants to be, thank God we're not there. Can you see how miserable their lives are when you check out of the grocery store, right? Don't you? You see it. Who wants to be like that? Confused and 16 times divorced and always in some scandal so self-focused that they amount to nothing. Oh, thank God. Thank God. I was checking out of a grocery store one day and there were two ladies standing in front of me and there was, you know, the rack of magazines and one lady said to the other, she says, oh, thank the good Lord. I was born ugly. Look at the mess my life could be. A prophet is not without honor, except in his own house. You are the house now. You're the house. And so do you honor the one who chooses to hang out with you? And if you do honor him, are you willing to believe that he can do mighty things through you? Mighty things that may not get you on the cover of a magazine, but you might find something in your hand that you know came from God to give to somebody who's hungry. You might find yourself speaking things that you know that you didn't come up with, but somebody is speaking it through you. You might be given thoughts that you know are not your own. And suddenly these mighty works are flowing because you believe that Christ himself delights in hanging out with ordinary people. Oh, thank God. So I am not offended by his work and I'm not offended by his family. I'm not offended. I'm not offended by you. I'm not offended by his work in you. I'm not offended. You might be a little farther ahead in the road and a little farther back, but I'm not offended because I know that my savior hangs out with ordinary people. And I thank God for that with all my heart. And my prayer for you and my prayer for me is, Lord, do mighty works and help us to believe, Lord, that you delight in taking us in our weakness and becoming our strength, our confusion and becoming our clear thinking. In our nothingness and becoming everything to us and to us. And when we find ourselves without resources, you become the resource that flows through our hearts and our voices and our hands. And you do mighty, mighty works, mighty works to us. And I beginning to see that baking biscuits and fish for somebody that's hungry and helping them find their way and through their own confusion and darkness is a mighty work in the sight of God. It really is. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Let this be your prayer today. I'm not offended by your work, Lord. I'm not offended by how you choose to do things and who you choose to associate with. And by God's grace, I'm not going to be offended at my brother or my sister in the house because I don't want to be cut off from the mighty works you want to do through my life. I don't want to sit here as the judge of your family. I don't want to be the judge of how you choose to do things. I don't want to be left on the outside when you're speaking of mighty things and suddenly to be left on the outside because I've chosen not to honor you and the way you work. Oh, the older I get, the happier I'm becoming because I'm starting to see something of God that you don't see it in your youth sometimes. You see it as you get older for whatever reason. Maybe we're just too thick to see it when we're younger. But you get older and you begin to see, oh God, there's a secret that is revealed to those who love you. There's something of you that we can see that the religious don't see, the self-focused don't see. The people with their preconceived notions of who you are, they don't see it either. But suddenly you begin to realize, oh God, oh God, you're willing to be mighty in my life. And I pray that you'd be mighty in my brother and sister beside me too as well. Help us Lord not to be offended by you. Offended at who you are, offended at how you work. Help us Lord not to judge things by the sight of our eyes and by our own understanding, but give us the grace my God, give us the grace Lord to love you and to honor you and to honor your work. We ask it in Jesus' name.