Dharius Daniels - I Was Not Expecting This

I want to talk about this subject today, family. Here it is! I’m going to see if you have ever shared these sentiments. I was not expecting this; clap your hands right here in New Jersey online! I was not expecting this. So, family, today we are entering part three of a series of sermons that we’ve affectionately entitled «Greater.» Somebody say «Greater!» Come on, say it again like you mean it: «Greater.» Say it like you believe God’s getting ready to do it in your life: «Greater!» That’s it: «Greater.» This Greater series is what we are calling our Advent series. We are in a season of the Christian Liturgical Calendar known as Advent, and the word Advent, you’ve heard me say, comes from the Latin word «Adventus,» which simply means «coming.» So, the Advent season is a time when people of faith engage in intentional appreciation and celebration for the coming of Jesus. You see, the Easter season is the time when we celebrate the fact that Jesus rose, but the Christmas season is when we celebrate the fact that Jesus came down. And I’m telling you, He came down to lift us up!

What do you mean, Darius? I’m simply suggesting that, contrary to popular religious belief, Jesus didn’t come simply to or exclusively to save us from sin. Now, that’s not incorrect, but that would be incomplete if we stopped there. He didn’t just come to save us from sin; come here! He also came to rescue us from ordinary. Y’all are a little quiet on me in ATL and New Jersey today. I said, Jesus not only came to save us from sin; He also came to rescue us from ordinary! He adamantly articulates this in His description of His own mission in Luke chapter 4, verse 17. He said, «Unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, for He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.'» Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were on Him. He began saying to them, «Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.» He said, «I didn’t just come to save you from sin; I came to rescue you from ordinary.»

Because I’ve researched the words that the Bible uses to describe you and me, and none of the words in the Bible that describe God’s people are synonymous with or similar to «ordinary.» If you look at all the words the Bible uses to talk about you, «ordinary» is not one of them. And I want to know, am I talking to anybody honest enough to admit there’s nothing ordinary about me? If you knew where I had come from, if you knew what I had been through, if you knew what I had survived, you would have to admit there is nothing ordinary about me! Salt, light, chosen, peculiar, royal, beloved, anointed, selected, protected, chosen, head and not the tail, above only and not beneath—those are all words the Bible uses to describe you and me, and none of them sound like ordinary. If you were ordinary, you would have died a long time ago. If you were ordinary, you would have walked out a long time ago. And because you serve an extraordinary God who’s given you an extraordinary life, somebody give Him extraordinary praise!

He said, «I came to rescue you from ordinary.» You don’t want an ordinary anything! You don’t want an ordinary mind; you don’t want an ordinary ministry; you don’t want an ordinary marriage; you don’t want an ordinary career. You don’t need the anointing for ordinary; you can do ordinary by yourself! But the anointing comes on your life to enable you to do what you could not do on your own! Oh my God, it’s too early for us to be having church like this! But I want someone in this room to know you’re getting ready to get delivered from ordinary! Lord, deliver me from ordinary! Deliver me from ordinary people! Deliver me from ordinary mindsets! Deliver me from anything that’s inconsistent with what You have for my life! He didn’t just come to save us from sin; He came to rescue us from ordinary! The Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, actually corrects people in Corinth who were unaware of their calling and their commission to be extraordinary. He says to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3: «For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, 'I follow Paul, ' and another, 'I follow Apollos, ' are you not being merely human?»

Let me contemporize the text. Come on! Can I take it from the past to the future? Can I put this in 2022 language? Can I break it down so it can forever and consistently be broken down? Paul said, «You got too much power to be that petty!» He says, «You’re acting like people who don’t possess the power you possess.» He’s saying to them, «Why are you jealous? Why do you have strife?» He says, «I understand why people who are not people of faith have jealousy; they have a scarcity mentality. They believe that me getting something for me takes something from them. But when you’re a person of faith, you don’t have a scarcity mindset!»