Ordinary Opportunities To Offer The Unordinary

Look back over this day and ask yourself … "What did I do with the opportunities God gave me?" You might ask, "What opportunities?"

· You work beside the same people day after day.

· You walk the hallways with the same people day after day.

Ziggy cartoon … "Opportunity, knocked while you were out."

Are we missing the ordinary opportunities to offer the unordinary?

"The opportunities of today may never come again."

John 13:2-5 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

Jesus was aware of the opportunity that was before Him. It was of the ordinary as He and others had observed a supper meal together on many occasions. But upon this occasion Jesus took the opportunity to offer the unordinary.

The difference between the "ordinary" and the "unordinary" is the "un." The … unaware/aware … unaccomplished/accomplished … unanswered/answered.

1. Unaware … rose up from supper (4)

rose: aroused, collecting one’s faculties

· No one seemed to be "aware" of the need.

· To become aware says we must get up from where we are.

2. Unaccomplished … laid aside His garment (4)

laid aside: set with purpose; upright & active position

· To accomplish the unordinary we must lay aside what we are doing.

· A resolve is needed to accomplish the unordinary in light of the ordinary.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3. Unanswered … began to wash (5)

began: to start, implication of precedence (cf. vs. 14)

On Wyoming mission trip … we visited a small pizza restaurant … 25+ people coming in swamped them. They were under manned and were working hard to serve not only us, but everyone else there. Several of us got up and began to clean off tables and take the dirty dishes to the back. We asked if we could help make pizza. The manager said, "You don’t have to do that." Tom Cummings said, "We know, but Jesus would want us to."

· To answer the call of servanthood we must begin to do.

Matthew 25:34-45

Day after day … ordinary opportunities present themselves to us to offer the unordinary.

"Day after day we must take up the basin and towel." - Michael Card

Amen!

This sermon was preached by Robert AuBuchon at First Baptist Church Camdenton. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.