The sermon named "The God of the Unordinary", delivered by pastor Mike Salomon, primarily delves into the unconventional nature of Jesus' birth, underscoring the surrounding heavenly worship. Accentuating God's unchanging essence, Salomon elucidates that the divine principles that were established millennia ago by John remain applicable today, with God still ruling, angels persistently worshiping, and Jesus maintaining His worthiness of all honor and tribute.

Exploring the peculiarities of Jesus' birth, pastor Salomon explains the hardships Mary and Joseph encountered during their journey to Bethlehem. He underscores the humbleness of Jesus' birthplace and the simplicity of His arrival, focusing on the fact that Jesus was laid in a manger due to the lack of room elsewhere.

Salomon also elaborates on the significance of shepherds being the first to know of Jesus' birth, notwithstanding their lowly societal standing. It exemplifies God's propensity to work extraordinarily through ordinary individuals and circumstances. The sermon wraps up by reinforcing the understanding of Jesus being an unordinary savior acquainted with our struggles. 

Pastor Salomon encourages non-believers to submit to Jesus, embrace His offer of redemption, and accept forgiveness for their sins. A symbolic celebration of communion served as a reminder of Jesus' selfless sacrifice for our salvation.

The sermon's essence is the extraordinary nature of Jesus’ birth and its impact on humankind, emphasizing the divine decision to perform unordinary miracles through regular individuals. The central theme revolves around the redemptive and empathetic nature of Jesus, our unordinary savior.

Why God Uses Ordinary People?

God will use ordinary people which could be unordinary. When we look at the life of Mary and Joseph, there's nothing great about them.

They're just average, normal people who grew up in that little hick town of Nazareth where nothing extraordinary usually happened. They were peasants. They have nothing. They have nothing unusual to offer the world around them. But these are the people that God uses. And when God uses them, even in the midst of their parents' suffering and their questioning and their 90-mile journey at the end of their labor, what do Mary and Joseph do? They submit to God and they follow his plan.

See, I contend that every single one of us here has two choices to make in this life, two paths to follow. We've called the proverbial fork in the road. God is a good guy who has a plan for our lives, and there are no mistakes. He does not make one mistake. There's never been a mistake in your life. You might say, Well, Mike, you don't know my life. You don't know the hurt, the loss. This it's not a mistake, though.

Let's see why.

Going to Bethlehem - Doing the Unordinary

In the corporate world, there's this saying: "Location, location, location. Location is everything". But Bethlehem was a very insignificant town. I would call it a hits town. Not much is going on there. It's a suburb about 20 plus miles outside of Jerusalem, but there's not a whole lot. And wouldn't you expect if God in the flesh was coming into the world now, wouldn't he go to a better city, a better place?

Like, if Jesus were to be born today, we'd expect him maybe be born in Miami, right? Not up in Southwest ranches like some town that's just not a whole lot going on if you're from there. I'm sorry, but there's just not a whole lot going on. You would expect that, but this isn't where he is born. So what makes Bethlehem so important?

What makes Bethlehem so important is Caesar Augustus was in power, thinking that he had power, thinking that he was in control of everything. But what we see in the story is that God was ultimately using him as a pawn to get his people back to Bethlehem. Why do I say this? Because in Micah there's this prophecy hundreds of years before this took place about where Jesus would be born. And it says, what you owe Bethlehem.

Here's our little city. What about this little city? God, you who are little, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth from me, one who is to be the ruler in Israel, who's coming forth of old, from ancient of days. The term that Daniel uses, meaning that this ruler who's coming to Bethlehem is somebody who is eternal in nature. And we know this to be Jesus Christ. That is what I call doing the unordinary from the ordinary.

The God of the Unordinary

And so God is using ordinary people to do the unordinary, using His extraordinary power to bring about one of the most significant events of this world I've ever known. And see what we can learn from this church is that God has your life in control, that he is working meticulously to work all things together for good in your life. The good things, the bad things, the hard things, the depressing things, the sad things, the joyful things. That God is a God who's orchestrating the whole plan of our life. And he does not fail.

He does not make one mistake. There's never been a mistake in your life. You might say, Well, Mike, you don't know my life. You don't know the hurt, the loss. This it's not a mistake, though.

God is well aware of everything in our lives, and we have to rest in this knowledge of the goodness of God. And when God uses us, and submit to God and follow his plan, as Joseph and Mary did, even when it also brings suffering and pain, big rewards await us.

So, when we question God, and he challenges us, and we say, are you serious right now? Is it just me, or does it feel like a lot of our life is this experience where we expect God to do something that we think is great or grand in our life or something maybe that we deserve? And when it seems like a lot of times he does the complete opposite of what we expect, we must take a deep breathe, and follow Mary and Joseph's example.

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