Christmas Eve 2023 So many church people are looking for spectacular God encounters and tend to live mountain top to mountain top. What about the valleys? Most of us live 95%+ of our lives in the valley or the mundane and that is where God is doing deep consistent work that will produce kingdom fruit. So many times the valley is where God does deep intimate transformative work. Look at the bible characters that we have gone over. Each of them was labeled in scripture as available and most were declared righteous and already faithfully serving God in the mundane when he tapped them on the shoulder with a supernatural encounter. I don't think God arbitrarily chooses to use people. I believe He uses people who have been faithful in the least to promote them into the bigger things. (Luke 16:10-12 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?) 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” God has chosen the weak base things and yet we are consistently looking to the super star and elites as the ones we follow and pattern our lives after. We even have people today labeled as influencers in areas of society that get paid to tell people how to be like them. Idolatry. I know people that have sacrificed their family and ministry gifts in pursuit of worldly recognition. The sad thing is that many in the church pat them on the back as people to be admired and followed when they did the very opposite of good stewardship. They abandoned Gods ways for the worlds and because we have a wrong idea about what biblical success is, we celebrate what God mournes. Then we gloss over the ones who the Kingdom celebrates. We pity the widow that gave her 2 mites but the bible says she is to be remembered because she gave sacrificially. Blessed-Prosperous- the Bible’s definition of blessed and prosperous is very different that the worlds. We neglect to honor the very things that God has blessed us with because we have them in the mundane category. (stay at home mom analogy) 1 Corinthians 2:-1-5 2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Video- 1 Peter 4:8-11 ​​And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” 9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. When the Holy Spirit empowers the mundane members of the body of Christ, the supernatural transformation of Christ happens. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. Each of us doing our part in the mundane and allowing the supernatural Christ to encounter us. Are we prepared to respond when Christ encounters us? Show some scriptures of people who were not ready to respond. Beauty of diversity and even preference. Take Away: Am I prepared to respond when Christ encounters me?