From Ordinary to Extraordinary

It always amazes me how God uses us ordinary people. I mean after all He is God and could easily accomplish His will without our help. He spoke the world into existence you don’t think that He could do other things with out us?
God chooses out of love and mercy to use us. It’s God’s grace that compels Him to take ordinary people like you and I and do extraordinary things through us. By ordinary I mean human. We all have physical limitations and we all struggle with sin. At our very best we are ordinary!

It was an ordinary man that God used to lead the nation of Israel out of bondage. Moses had grown up in royalty but fled into exile when he murdered an Egyptian. Then he lived as a shepherd tending to his father-in-law’s flock until God called him from ordinary to extraordinary.

In Exodus chapter 4 God has already commissioned Moses to this huge task, told him that He would be with him and that the people would respond to him. In verse one Moses shows his reluctance.

1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"

Here we can identify with Moses because we are often reluctant to follow God as well. Our reluctance is often caused by our fear. We fear rejection. We are afraid that our friends and family will not accept us the way that they did before we started following Christ. We fear failure. That we cannot live up to the person that God has called us to be. We fear acceptance. That people will accept the person we are in Christ and then expect us to live up to a higher standard.

God quickly shows His power to Moses in a demonstration using Moses’ Rod.
2 Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
3 The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."
In order for God to do extraordinary things through us a change of ownership has to take place. The staff that Moses had was much more than just a walking stick. Moses used it for protection, to carry things and as a tool. It was essential to his way of life. If you look down in verse 20 you see that the ownership of the staff changed.

20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

Moses took what he had and gave it to God and God used it. With that staff Moses struck a rock and water flowed from it. With it he also parted the Red Sea. It wasn’t Moses or the staff; rather it was God using them. We may not have much but if we give God what we do have He will use it and use us. As God does this we will begin to see our reluctance fade because we become more and more amazed at what God is doing through us.

The next thing we have to do is deal with personal corruption.
6 Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.
7 "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
A person who had leprosy was considered to be “dirty.” They had to warn people of their presence. Their desire was to be clean. When God tells Moses to put his hand back into his cloak and he pulls it our clean God is showing his ability to cleanse us. The bible tells us that when we confess our sins (our dirtiness) that God is faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9).

We have to understand that our sin keeps us from being that man or woman of God that we should be. He cannot live through and make our live extraordinary as long as we are living in sin. We have to deal with the corruption that is in our lives. We need to come to Him and receive His forgiveness and then move beyond that sin.

3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
Psalm 24:3-4

The final thing we have to do for God to make us extraordinary is honor personal correction.

8 Then the LORD said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

When I was a child my father disciplined me often (deservedly so). There were times after receiving my father’s discipline I where I mocked him or made fun of him (after he left the room of course). I didn’t honor his correction and I really had no intention of altering my life.

There were also times when my father just wore me out and I learned my lesson and made a conscious choice to not do whatever it was again. It altered my life!

God’s correction should always lead to us altering our lives. My dad never disciplined me out of meanness it was always out of love. The same is true for God! He corrects us out of love and His desire for us to become extraordinary.

This is the commissioning of Moses where God shows him his purpose. You and I receive our commission in Matthew 28.

19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

It’s while we are living our purpose and God living through us that He does extraordinary things through us. It’s important that we understand that our purpose is advance Christ. That is why we exist and that is how we find meaning in life.

God does not always allow us to see the big picture. Keep in mind that Moses never entered into the Promised Land. What he did do was everything that God had asked of him. You and I are without excuse when it comes to not following God’s desire for us. Because we can’t see what the future holds means that we need to follow God closer not shy away from him.

It’s also important to understand that we all fulfill the Great Commission differently. A lady once criticized D.L. Moody for the way he did his invitation. He told her that honestly he didn’t like it either and inquired as to how she told people about Christ. She said that she didn’t and Moody replied, “Well, then I like my way better than yours.” It’s alright to be different in how we live the Great Commission as long as we do live it!

Go this week and let God make your life extraordinary!


Matt Hofeld
Pastor, Mayfair Baptist Church
OKC, OK