DEC 7 2025 | From the Cradle to the Cross S1E2 | Ordinary Moments

Sea Change Church · From the Cradle to the Cross · "Ordinary Moments" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · December 7, 2025
Luke 2:25-35
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

victory, and we lean on you, King Jesus. Amen. The Gospel According to Luke 2:25-35. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed - 'And a sword will pierce through your own soul also,' - so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel. This is the word of the Lord. (Instrumental music) Good morning. Open up your Bible to Luke 2:25-35. Today we're in the Cradle of the Cross series, looking at the, the childhood of Jesus. Really important things that are happening here, prophetic things that are happening, um, incredible people in the story. We've had Magi show up.

We've had, uh, kings or, or the Herods of the region, uh, mentioned in these passages. We've had angels that are going to show up. This is, uh, not doing it chronologically, this story of the birth of Jesus. And what is interesting about today's passage is the ordinariness about it. There's no angels. There's no Magi. There's no kings. There's just ordinary church Sunday style ritual that is happening. It's Mary and Joseph coming to dedicate their baby, like we saw last week with the Robertson's baby. It was amazing, and we'll do more, uh, child dedications.

I love 'em. But they're coming to just do a church custom, normal church custom, showing up on a normal day, do the dedication. Imagine the scene. It's bustling. The temple at this time would be full of people, hundreds of people, maybe a thousand people that would be there every day. Sacrifices are going on. You have the, the, uh, you know, the, the, the neighing of the animals, you have the, the slaughter that is happening, you have the priest, you have all the rituals that are happening, people, um, people trading and selling doves and all these things.

Jesus talks about that later on. But just imagine the scene at the temple that is happening. And this little family shows up with a baby to just do a purification rite, a redemption rite. We'll talk about that in just a second. And there's two people that they run into, and I would say those two people could very easily be you. Uh, they're just normal churchgoing, faithful people who are faithful in the ritual of their lives, they're actively being prepared, but you, you have Anna and you have Simeon.

And they're no one of note. They're just faithful people. They're not well known, they're not the Michael Jordans of the world, the Taylor Swifts of the world, the high political people of the world that everyone wants to be near. They're probably in their 80s to 90s, some would say close to 100 years old, so if you find yourself aging and think that you, uh, have no purpose or place anymore, this story definitely speaks to that. You are... We're all here until God's through with us, and he wants to use you in every moment.

I put, in a world that celebrates powerful and the platformed. People love a platform these days. What a waste of time sometimes, unless you're using it for God. In a world that celebrates the powerful and the platform, God entrusted the revelation of his son to two senior people, overlooked, ordinary worshipers whose only qualification was faithfulness. And I love that, because in the, in this moment, you see this radical thing happen.

The, the Messiah is recognized in the temple, but he's not recognized by the chief priest. He's not recognized by the head priest. He's not recognized by the Sadducees. He's not recognized by the Pharisees. He's not recognized by anything when the king of glory is brought in, in an ordinary way, by an ordinary family, could be your family with your children. He is recognized for two people who were on the lookout for God in an ordinary moment.

I feel like we live in a culture that somewhat despises the ordinary. Right? We're, we're, we're always looking to that, that, that, that pop of dopamine, we're looking for that thing that is big, the, the, you know, the big swing of the bat, the, you know, we, we just, we, we, um, aggrandize these m- these, these, you know, life-changing moments and we're looking for them all the time, but rarely do you find or not often do you find the person that is faithful in the ordinary.

Uh, there's two words today, uh, that I wanna have. And before that, I wanna say extraordinary moments belong to ordinary people who stay ready. I have two words of the day, one you're gonna see, I'm gonna add another one. But I wanna ask you this question upfront. How f- how ready are you to find God in the ordinary moments of your life? Do you find him in the line at Starbucks? Do you find him when you're waiting to pick your children up?

Do you find him when you're in a three-hour traffic jam on the 5 Freeway, like I was and some of you were this week? Um, prayin' for an individual who was struggling, but did shut the freeway down, so we were stuck in that. Do you find God in the midst of that? Do you see him on a normal Sunday morning? Or do we avoid the ordinary just trying to make moments happen? William Booth, uh, we'll talk about him at, later on in the end of the sermon, so no, no reason to show him yet.

William Bo- Booth said, I'm... He says, "I don't wait for a movement of God." He says, "I step into becoming a movement of God. I'm not just waiting for the movement of God." He says, "I'm, I'm becoming that every day, I'm giving the opportunity, I'm stepping into it." He started the Salvation Army, if you don't know it. There's two key words. The first word is a Greek word, we did a whole sermon series, if you wanna go back on Spotify. It was, uh, about kairos, and this Greek word means a moment where God steps in.

He bursts onto the scene, he comes onto the stage, he appears in a moment that you didn't expect him. Chronos is, uh, is, is time. It's on your watch, right? It's on your phone. But this kairos moment is when God steps in. I put a kairos. So, that's your first word. A kairos moment is a divinely appointed moment, a critical window, and they do close. Kairos moments end, right? It wouldn't be a moment, it would just be a foregone conclusion if it wasn't, if it w- if it wasn't to do with a kairos moment.

When God breaks into ordinary life with a purpose, with an opportunity or a revelation, how ready are you in the ordinary moments of your life? Because what I want to do today is redeem your ordinary so that you can start living more extraordinarily in the ordinary moments of your life, the moments we wish were over so we can get to the good stuff. The other word I want you to write on your notes is ordinary. I want you, all week, I want this to be a Thursday sermon when you're writing your email, what can I add to this little email to bring kairos into this moment, to become the movement of God in this moment? When you're driving, when you're doin' things with your kids like you don't wanna do, like I, I hated putting my kid...

I would rather change diapers than put my kid into a child seat. Becau- if you ever pinch 'em, you ever pinched a kid on the child seat? You get... We would get 12 seconds of this. (laughs) (laughs) You know it's comin', right? Just get ready. (laughs) The torture chair. They hate it. Ah! I'll change, I'll change 10 diapers for every time I don't have to put a kid in the child seat. When we got out of the child seat, mm-wah, I was so happy when we got out of the child seat.

(laughs) Wife wants to put me in it sometimes. (laughs) We're gonna get into the scripture here in just a second, but I wanna set this up for you guys. Most of the ordinary (sighs) - most of our life is ordinary until suddenly it isn't. God doesn't always give us loud moments, but he always gives us the important ones. The question isn't does God move, the questions is do we recognize Him when He does. Do we steward the moment well? Simeon and Anna were ready for their moment and they knew what to do with it when it came.

The way you live in your ordinary is going to profoundly affect what you do when the kairos moments come into your life, if you're ready for them. Two key ideas today and then we'll jump into the scripture. One is I want you to honor the ordinary. How do you honor the ordinary? My wife and I were in the traffic together and, uh, we actually knew that it was going on and, uh, we made a- we made a bad choice. I said let's go through Rancho Santa Fe. We'll drive through that way.

"No, no, I think it l- it's clearing up." (sighs) We owned it. We were half-way, and then we're sitting there at Via De Navia, we're an hour and a half in, and we're like, "Eh, it's- it's on us. We can't be mad at anybody." We owned it. We could have gone through Rancho Santa Fe. We said what can we do in this moment? What can we do in this moment to honor this moment? She goes, "You know? We can just be together because it's awesome for us to be together." And so we talked and we shared, and that was good for about an hour, but then we just got- but then we- then we- (laughs) ...it's been a long time.

Honor the ordinary. Number two is prepare yourself for the extraordinary. Extraordinary means extraordinary when the supernatural comes in, the supernatural moment. Any time God speaks to you and tells you how ch- gives you understanding about your spouse, your kids, your employer, the person on the street. He speaks to your heart and gives you a word, it is a supernatural moment. You will understand supernatural moments when they come if you are trying to listen to God regularly during the ordinary parts of your life.

When you can hear God speak to you when you're taking out the trash, then when that big moment comes, you're gonna recognize it more. No one in this scenario recognized that the King of Glory had shown up to the earthly temple in his city, Jerusalem. No one recognized it, except two elderly people who were waiting for it. Go to verse 27. Let's go to verse 25. "Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout." Circle righteous, circle devout.

"Waiting for the consolation of Israel." Circle waiting. Righteous and devout and waiting. We'll get to that in a moment. And he was waiting for consolation, and some of you are waiting for consolation. "And the Holy Spirit was upon him." That's key. Now it wasn't in him- within him. We have the Holy Spirit within us 'cause Jesus died on the cross and we're the temple now. Back then, the Holy Spirit would like hover and be upon you. It is within us now. It's a big difference.

Jesus is- we've become the temple, so we can discuss that more. But, uh, that is what is happening there, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Verse 26, "It had been revealed to him," he had gotten a word from the Lord by the Holy Spirit, "that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." Now I- I love this "revealed" to him. When do you think it was revealed to him? Well, maybe an angel did come. Maybe Gabriel did come, right?

Maybe we're gonna see Gabriel later on in the story. He spoke to Daniel. Remember, last week was about the Wise Men and Daniel. He shows up. He's the angel that shows up to Daniel and to Mary. So that- we'll talk more. Pastor Harry's gonna be preaching on that in a couple weeks. But he had been spoken to by the Holy Spirit, and it doesn't say that an angel came. It doesn't say, uh, that anything other than the Holy Spirit just related to him during a- it seems like a normal moment in his life to wait for this 'cause God is going to move.

Has God spoken to you? Is there any aw- do you have any awareness of something that God wants to do in your life? And are you waiting for that consolation? And as you're waiting, are you waiting devoutly and are you waiting righteously? Or are you waiting in your comfort zones 'cause you're tired of waiting? It's a good question. Verse 27. "And Simeon came in the spirit," mm, "into the temple. And when the people brought..." And when the- excuse me.

"And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law." Went on from that, verse 27. "He took him up in his arms and blessed God." And he said, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all the people, a light of revelation to the Gentile, and glory for- to- glory to your people Israel." And he begins to prophesy in that moment.

He is satisfied when he holds God's consolation in his arms. He stewards it well. God will be o- will- wants to share with you what he wants to do in your life, and he'll probably share it throughout ordinary moments. You're probably not gonna get angels. You're prob- you know, the thing, this purpose, this thing we all want? Your purpose is to live a righteous and devout life in the ordinary, and when God shows up, act upon that moment.

And so we see him waiting, and then he holds it, and he stewards it well in that moment- in that moment. What is happening? He's- he's has an ordinary life. He's been there for years upon years, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Imagine his day. Simeon, Holy Spirit's on him, he goes to synagogue, church, the temple. He goes to what we call church in- in- in our understanding. He shows up with the spirit of God on him, ready for action. Ready to be there day after day after day.

I- I don't know when the Holy Spirit told him that Messiah was coming. Maybe he was 23.I don't know, it doesn't say. But he waited devoutly, righteously for consolation. How you wait actually matters. One thi- one thing I, I wanna say is in the ordinariness of this moment, it's so ordinary, everyone just bustling and moving, all kairos moments of God happen on the heels of the ordinary moment. You're not gonna get kairos, kairos, kairos, kairos.

It's gonna be ordinary, and then God (smacks hands) breaks in and a window is opened. That window might be to share Christ with someone at your kids' school, or with someone on the police force that you work with, or whomever. There will be a moment where God opens up and He works in that moment, and it says that, in the Scripture, that these moments have been preordained, pre-prepared by destiny, if you wanna use that word.

And the Calvinists would love this, the Calvinists and the Presbyterians in all of us would love this, that God has these preordained things where He's going to call you into them. Now whether you're gonna step into them is another thing, and whether you're gonna be prepared in the moment is another thing. I, I don't wanna be caught off guard by kairos moments, and God will do that sometimes. He's just gonna step in, boom, surprise, wow, boom. I haven't found, I personally haven't found that as much with God.

What I have personally found is He gives me an understanding of something He wants to do and I'm waiting for that moment. That tends to be what it is, because He can build in faith and our growth in that way as we're waiting for the consolation. What are you waiting for? What are you aware of? How often does a kairos moment come into your life and perhaps we, and let me use the word we 'cause I don't wanna say you, let me say we, we miss it because we're doing all the other stuff that the temple requires, but we're not waiting for the thing that matters most?

All kairos moments happen upon the ordinary moment. I want to awaken you to the ordinary moment today, I want you to be in the line at Marshall's getting your Christmas stuff thinking, w- "God, what are you doing?" I want you to be studying at Point Loma Nazarene or UCSD or USD, and as you're studying, going through your chem homework and it's taking forever and you wish you weren't doing, what is God doing in this moment?

"God, I'm aware, I invite you into this moment." When you're gardening, when you're taking out the trash, when you're changing a diaper, when you're having a conversation you don't want to have, when you're doing things that you don't want to do, or things you want to do, you are saying, "God, I am here. I am waiting for consolation. Speak to me, God. I want you to be in this moment redeeming the ordinary." Because all kairos moments that you're wait... Those are the ones we're waiting for, right?

Happen on the heels of the ordinary. God breaks in. And so we see these ordinary people in a very ordinary situation where they were doing this. M- Mary and Joseph, just quickly, I just wanna give you a quick context, Mary and Joseph are there for a reason. They're fulfilling normal and ordinary customs when heaven broke into their ordinary. Two things that they're doing. They're giving a sin offering. So a woman after, um, would be considered, back in the day before Jesus, can't go into the whole thing, but, but a woman after, uh, birth would have a, a, a, a time where they would be unclean and they would then have to come in and they'd have to offer an offering to cleanse as Christ's death on the cross cleansed us from all that.

There's all different types of things that made us unclean. Childbirth was one of those. It shouldn't, it shouldn't have. Christ fixed that on the cross. Can't go into all that. But they were giving a sin offering and it was from a Leviticus 12 law. And the thing that is important about it is they were supposed to bring a lamb, but if you couldn't afford a lamb, you bring (sings) two turtle doves. You know the song? That's what it's from.

It says in Leviticus 12:8, "If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall bring two turtle doves or two pigeons for one burnt offering and the other for a sin offering." Jesus and, uh, excuse me, Mary and Joseph were poor. Jesus had no place to lay his head at his birth, they had to flee to Egypt. They were actually political refugees. (laughs) They had to flee someone who was trying to kill all the children of that age, but they were ultimately poor.

And this shows why the Gospel is so different than so many other religious narratives. It is the one that is the most intriguing to me as I read through whether it be Greek mythology or I go through the stories of, you know, Hinduism, and I've studied comparative religions. There's just something so non-secuitous about God sending His Son as a poor child that has to flee other political groups and powers and, and the offering that He has to bring is an offering for the poor, and it shows that Jesus relates to the poor, He relates to the needy, He relates to those that have been outcast, He relates to the migrant, He relates to those that are struggling, that are fleeing.

That is who Jesus relates to because that is His history and that wher- where He comes from. And let me just say this. When it comes to our political opinions, one way or another, we better remember that. I'm not telling you what you should think about what. I'm just saying we better have a little caveat in our heart that that's where Jesus came from and He did it for a reason, because He goes to the outcasts, He goes to the poor.

And so we see that and we have to care for the poor. I would say one thing for a kairos moment, I was thinking of this on the way here. Keep some cash in your pocket. Uh, no one carries cash anymore, right? Um, keep some cash in your pocket j- just for the, just for a kairos moment. I just wanna encourage you. Go to the bank, get ones, fives, 10s, whatever, and just say, "God, use this." I have a feeling that if you do that, you're gonna, you're gonna become the moment.... just a little thought.

The other thing is they were giving a redemption for the firstborn. Jesus is being presented here, and you had to redeem the firstborn. So that goes back to the Israelites leaving the Exodus, where God saved the firstborn child of all the Israelites, and they ran o- they, they left, um, uh, Egypt. Remember that? And then all of the firstborn of the Egyptians were, were s- were, were killed. That is, was the plague that was upon them.

In the scripture it says to them, "Because I did that and saved your firstborn, you need to redeem your firstborn." That's why Jesus is being dedicated. It is a redemption that goes back to Israel leaving Egypt, and it goes back to the verses Numbers 13 and then ... or excuse me, Exodus 13 and Numbers 18. You can look at those on your own. But that is redemption. So these are some ordinary things that are happening in it, that is happening there. And in the moment, in this ordinary moment of just church ritual, these two people come out, Anna and Simeon, and they begin to prophesy.

She's a prophet, we'll look at her in just a second, and Simeon ... They begin to prophesy and speak about Israel. They begin to speak of the Messiah, and all of a sudden God drops into that moment and he's there. In 2019, no, it's 2003, I was working for a organization called Soul Survivor. It was a British organization. See the British flag? That's why I wear it a lot. Um, it was a British organization, worship organization, and there was a young worship leader and his name was Matt Redman. You might have heard of him.

He's written a ton of songs. He is an amazing guy, one of my favorite people, and he's the real deal. I'll just tell you, legit real deal. And I was working for them and I was doing marketing, and I wanted to write books. I really wanted to write some books. And that was the thing, and I felt like God had told me I was gonna do it and it wasn't happening and they said, "Adam, can you show up early? Because Matt's books are," his brand new book, Face Down, "is arriving and you're gonna get the privilege of carrying those all in from the parking lot and setting up the booth." (laughs) And I had f- ... A long time ago God had said to me, and I really believe this, like I'm just a janitor for Jesus. Like I'm happy ...

I am just as happy, I ... God as my witness, and I, uh, I wanna make sure. How do you say that? Uh, I just wanna say before the Lord, not God as my witness, let me say this. 'Cause you used to say, "Your yes is yes and your no is no." So let me just say yes is yes. I could be the janitor here as easily I could be your head pastor. I mean that. Like I just wanna serve the Lord. And I'm not saying that to humble brag or anything like that. I just wanna serve the Lord.

And so that was a mindset that he built into me through some very incredible mentors in my life and some of my heroes in the faith. Like Jesus, whatever you want me to do, if I can just kiss your feet, sweep the floors, whatever that thing is. And so I said, you know, granted, I was a little bummed, you know? But I carried the books in and I set 'em up and this guy walks in and starts talkin' to me, and we have this conversation.

Finds out he's the president of the, of the publishing company. And his name's Bill Greig and it's a publishing company and we talked, it was great, and then he, he left and I went on my way and cleaned the booth up and it was a great thing and 18 months later I was, um, I was ... had this idea for a book and I, and I wrote this, this book, uh, and I just, you know, I said, "God, if you call me to write, I'm gonna write." So I just started writing whether he had a contract for me or not, and I pressed God and I prayed. I said, "Lord God, if you want me to publish this book, then you're gonna make it happen." And I pressed save.

I'd been working on it for like eight months. The next day, the next day, I get a phone call, 'kay, from Bill Denzel. Bill Denzel's a book guy worked for, worked for the, the book company for Bill Greig. He says, "Adam, Bill met you in Matt's booth at the, at the, at the" whatever. "He liked what you had to say. We're looking for a pastor who can write on, on kids and raising children. Would you like to meet tomorrow and talk about publishing a book with us?" I was like, "Nah, I'm good." (laughs) (laughs) So I ended up writin' for them. I wrote two books for them and then I ended up writin' for David C. Cook or whatever else, and did some ... and fun stuff.

That was when publishing still existed. It doesn't really exist anymore. All I wanna say is for me in that moment, the thing that mattered most was just putting books up for somebody else. (laughs) And I wanna say in the moments of our lives, that was one of the most transformative moments of my life that I never saw coming. I didn't see that coming. I didn't know it was gonna happen. I just wanted to show up and do what Christ had called me to do in that moment. And so may I ask you, in the moments of your life, where are you stewarding those moments where God can step in? The final thing is this: prepare yourself for the extraordinary.

Simeon and Anna didn't stumble into the extraordinary. They shaped their lives around it. Their daily faithfulness became the doorway for God's moment to enter. Go to Verse 25. "Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him." I said a moment ago, how you wait matters. If you're waiting to get married, I'm gonna tell you, how you wait matters.

Don't think that there's not baggage that comes when we don't wait according to God's ways, or blessing that comes when we wait according to God's ways. Or you're waiting for the next job, or you're waiting for a child, or you're ... Whatever you're wait- ... We're all waitin' for something, right? We're all waitin' for something. How you wait matters. Let me give you the resume of Simeon. Go to verse ... Let's see. I'm gonna tell you what go to verse to go to in a minute. Go to Verse 25. This man was righteous and devout.

Righteous. What does that mean? I'll give you the basic understanding of that. He did what was right. Righteous means to do what is right. He didn't take, uh, cut corners. The other thing, he was devout. That means his life was a devoted life.The things that he did, he devoted. He devoted his time to God, he devoted where he was. He was regularly in the temple. That's the one thing. He was in the temple. Same, we'll see here at the end just as we close.

He was regularly at the temple. Where you are and who you're with matters. They say, I was reading last night, statistics, s- that 70% of your habits will be affected by who you hang out with. It said by the four people you hang out with the most, maybe not including your family but it was speaking extracurricular as well, 70% of your habits will be affected by who you hang out with. Did I learn that when I was 19? (laughing) You got a crew you used to run with? You remember your crew?

Your Wind and Sea rats, remember them? (laughing) Whoever else? Your El Cahone, like, dirt bike boys, I don't know. (laughing) Your mentors, the people that inspire you. 70% of your habits are going to be greatly affected by the four people you spend the most time with. That's so powerful. Sometimes you're like, "Okay, I've gotta change some friends." (laughs) He was devout. He was in the temple. He was hanging... Where you are, where you are matters.

That's right. You know, sometimes we just need to change our geography. Just change your geography. How you make it. Let me just give you his resume. Simeon's resume to be in this God moment, the first person in the temple, besides Anna, who recognizes who Jesus is. Let me give you his resume. Righteous, devout in his waiting with the Holy Spirit upon him. That's all you need. That is the resume you want. Now the question is, is it the resume you want?

Final, Verse 36, let's get to Anna because we can't miss this incredible woman of God and we're gonna close. "And there was a prophetess." Mm. Prophetess. She's spittin' prophecy. "Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, from the tribe of Asher." That was a forgotten tribe. That's important. You can look it up later. If you feel forgotten, Christ sees you. She was a widower. She was a widow from the tribe of Asher. She was forgotten.

If you know widows back in the day, they had no... they didn't have a Social Security system. They didn't... they were the lowest, most, um, oftentimes rejected, despised group of people that would be taken advantage of over and over again. Jesus talks about it a lot. God chose her. "She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years, from when she was a virgin." How you wait matters. "And then as a widow until she was 84, she did not depart from the temple, worshiping and fasting and praying night and day." Let me just give you her resume.

Right? Daughter of a king? No. Uh, super smart? Beautiful? Was she like, you know, some of the other women that you see in the Bible? No. Let me just give you her resume. Uh, "And then as a widow until she was 84, she did not depart from the temple, worshiping, fasting, praying night and by day." You see, Anna was pure, she was faithful, and she strategically placed herself for a moment of God. Strategically placed herself for a moment of God. The problem is that's not the resume most of us want.

We don't want that resume. We want a platform, we want more followers, we want more money, we want more stuff. And these two people just wanted to see the moment of God, God can come in that moment. In 1865, William Booth, you can see a picture of him right now on screen, was a kinda broken down, um, pastor, was, was struggling with his denomination. He kept wanting to preach to the poor and people that were out there, and they're like, "No, you shouldn't go out into the streets.

The Bo- the, the word should only be preached within the church and you're gonna, you know, mess things up." And he had this, this, this heart for the poor, but he was really struggling and he wasn't doing well, didn't have a lot of money, and he was trying to work in the East End. And he was going back to his house one day after he had preached and the sermon was not very effective, 1865, and went to go get on the, the, the stage coach, it was a bus or the stage coach, but he missed it. He missed his stage coach so he had to walk... He had to walk through the East End, and I just stayed in the East End in Hackney not too long ago, but the East End is like, it's the roughest part of, of England. It's like the roughest part, mate.

And so it's super rough, right? You can get beat up there. It's down by the docks if you've been to the East End. Have you heard of the show EastEnders? There's a reason they call it that. He walks through there and when he's there, he sees those that are... that are the, the worst of the worst. He sees those that are... that are struggling, those that are poor and impoverished. And he said in that moment he realized what his destiny is, was, and his calling.

And he went back to his wife, Catherine, and he had a partner that could agree with him, and being in unity, married couples is important. Fight for unity. Do everything you can to fight for unity and to be on the same page. And he shared it with his wife and he said, "I wanna share the Gospel with those that are the furthest out, that those are the worst." He said, "I wanna share the Gospel with the worst." And he began what would be called The Salvation Army.

Salvation Army has gone into, you know, 100 plus co- uh, coun- you know, countries, it's had thousands of places that are still there that are feeding the poor, serving the poor, closest to the, to the broken. And it was in a moment because why? 'Cause he missed the bus.In the moment that y- what could h-... You miss the bus, what do you do? (groans) And you just go, ah. No. His eyes were open, he was aware. And in that moment, he changed the world.

I wanna encourage you. I love this statement. "I'm not waiting for a move of God, I am a move of God." And that isn't an arrogant statement saying, "I'm, I'm God." It's saying, "I'm going to move for God and I'm praying that God moves in that moment." May you redeem your ordinary moments. May you begin to invite God with a faithful spirit, because this is one of the most powerful passages in Scripture when Jesus is recognized in the temple and there's no fanfare.

It's just people doing what God has called them to do to change the world. Let's be a group of people that changes the world for Jesus for these reasons. Amen? Amen. Amen. Let's stand if you would. It is communion Sunday and we're asking Joe Brandy to come up and lead us in communion. All right, Pastor Adam, thank you for that amazing word. Um, actually if you wanna sit down, um, (laughs) sorry. It's all right, bro. We're a team, we're a team. We're good.

Um, pastor was preaching about, um, how God can break into the ordinary to create a Kairos moment. How God can break into the ordinary to make a Kairos moment. And before Jesus, um, celebrated the Lord's Supper with his disciples that he had chosen in the upper room, uh, it was the time of Passover. It was a time where Israel was celebrating their deliverance from slavery from Egypt, and there had to be a Passover lamb that was slain and put over the door so the Angel of Death would pass over, uh, that family. And then Jesus says that basically, "I am the Passover lamb." There was that Kairos moment in kind of this ordinary, like, sacred moment. That he said, "I'm stepping in.

I am the Passover lamb." And then he says to believers all throughout time, "Whenever you do this, do this in remembrance of me. You're proclaiming my death." And we celebrate as a family of God, uh, the broken body and the shed blood. Let it be a Kairos moment. And he says, "Examine yourselves." Whether you haven't come to faith yet in Jesus and put your personal trust in the Lord Jesus, this can be your time to put your personal faith in the Lord Jesus, and there's prayer people that will pray for you. And if you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus, it says examine yourself.

Is there something you need to confess? 'Cause there's a new week right around the corner. The Lord Jesus on the night of his arrest, he took bread. And after giving thanks to God, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, "Take and eat. This is my body given for you, and do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, he took the cup saying, "This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me." 'Cause every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes. If you love Jesus and believed in him, this is a way to proclaim that you need him, he is your savior, you are his people. And so now, let us rise together. And a little bit of administration. (piano music plays) This side will walk up, take the elements, go back, sit down, pray, talk to God. This side come up, same thing, and then we'll eat it as a corporate one.

So if you love Jesus, come on up and have your meal. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior. And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting. He passed and we follow him there. Over us sin no more has dominion.

For more than conquerors we are. Oh, oh turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you. He promised, believe you. ... and go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Oh, no.

no. Oh, oh, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Um, what makes Christianity different than all other religions? You know, every religion says you're supposed to do something good. And we know all the things we're supposed to do and we haven't done, things we're supposed to say, haven't said. Pick your thing.

Our God loves us so much He sent the eternal Son of God to step into the world, born of the virgin, to live a perfect life that we couldn't live, where Adam failed, where we failed, where Israel failed. He died. God's wrath was poured on Him, not on you if you believe, and He defeated death and rose. Our God loves us so much that He died for us, and then He gives us this visible, tactile picture to eat together to keep on remembering that God loves you so much that His Son died. Let us eat together.

And then He says, "Drink. This is my blood, the new covenant." Oh, gracious God, may we who receive the sacrament live in the unity of your Holy Spirit that we may show forth your gifts to all the world. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. And all God's people said? Amen. Amen. I will ask you to stand. Yeah. And then I'm gonna bless you. Hold on. Yes, you're standing, and then we're gonna pray the Our Father and then you'll bless us.

Bless them. We're gonna do the Our Father. Sounds good. Awesome. We're gonna do it standing up. Yes. We're gonna be standing though- Of course. Yes. Maybe... Yes. All right. Let's do it. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who've trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

May God bless you in the ordinary making it extraordinary.