We have new superstars! Nurses, truck drivers delivering food. A month ago it was musicians, film stars and footballers. Strange times huh!

In 1 Samuel 15; Samuel is on the hunt for a new King. He has arrived at the house of Jesse who has 8 sons, one of which David, the youngest, is not there as he’s looking after the sheep. The 7 impressive other sons are on full display.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Can you imagine standing before the prophet and him looking into your eyes and saying no, you’re not the new King. Are all your sons here Jesse? So God chose David, the youngest, the one doing the menial tasks.

But God is not looking for extraordinary people, but for ordinary people who can do ordinary things extraordinarily well because they serve a supernatural God. He sees you not for what you are in the world’s eyes, but for what you are and can become by his grace!

The principle in evidence here is that our weakness is the opportunity for the display of His strength. Our ordinariness is the platform for his extraordinariness. Our being average is the opportunity for the display of his superlative power and glory and honour.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

Isn’t the following story it? When we cut away all the religious trappings it’s about simple obedience.

Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” Judges 6:11-16

Paul reminds us.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Oh! There are some big beasties in the Bible. Moses, Elijah, Paul, and we all look and go huh, but over centuries it is the ordinary that God has used to display his extraordinary power. It’s the ones often looked over, the ones who can be passed by or missed that God has delighted in using. Will you offer your ordinariness to God so he can work through you?

I guess most of us are comparatively ordinary people whom the world might call nobodies, but we can be nobodies that God uses to change the course of history and advance his Kingdom. Are you an ordinary with a heart to serve your God without prominence, notice and applause? Is it your heart to say I will serve you whatever that means? Then offer up your life right now, without conditions.