August 7th, 2022
The Art of being Unordinary
Spurgeon
Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
—2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (MSG)
(Philippians 3:17 NIV)
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
—Philippians 3:17 (NIV)
Being unordinary requires outliving criticism
When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.
11 Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.”
—Nehemiah 4:1-3, 7-8, 11 (NIV)
WHAT IS GOD WANTING TO DO IN YOUR LIFE where critics ridicule, stir up trouble, and attempt to end the work?
1. I realize this is
.
4:4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own
heads.
4:9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
4:15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.
16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
There is only one way to avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. —Aristotle
2. I remember how it
.
4:14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
4:20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”
3. I refuse to come
.
Nehemiah 6:2-3
But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?
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Next Steps:
1. Today, I accept Jesus and desire to follow Him.
2. I desire to live an unordinary life and will commit to every week of this series.
3. I am facing criticism in my life and refuse to quit!
4. I know that our church is growing and will park in the back parking lot.