Thesis
Pastor Linn uses the story of Gideon (Judges 6–7) to argue that God deliberately chooses ordinary, unqualified people so that when something extraordinary happens, everyone knows it was God's doing. The central invitation is to stop painting your own life and hand the brush back to God — accepting that the path forward will often get harder before it gets better, but that on the other side of harder, God always does His greatest work.
Key points
- 1
God meets ordinary, fearful people right where they are — hiding in a wine press — and calls them 'mighty warrior,' because He sees who they will become when they surrender to Him.
- 2
When we feel abandoned by God in our hardest seasons, He is still present and calling us to take one step of obedience in the strength we already have.
- 3
God intentionally chooses ordinary people so that when extraordinary things happen, the only explanation is that God was with them.
- 4
When you surrender the brush to God, expect it to get harder — God on purpose reduces Gideon's army from 32,000 to 300 to ensure no one can claim the victory for themselves.
- 5
God always does His best work on the other side of harder — 300 men route hundreds of thousands, because the victory belongs to Him.
- 6
Every stroke we make holding our own brush produces a life that is less than what God was painting for us; surrendering the brush is the only path to an extraordinary life.
Outline
The Extraordinary Life Question
Pastor Linn opens with a vivid picture of a funeral where hundreds of people say their lives were changed by one extraordinary follower of Jesus, then honestly acknowledges that most of us are ordinary — and asks what would happen if ordinary people asked God to make them extraordinary.
Meet Gideon: Ordinary in Hiding
Setting up Judges 6, Pastor Linn describes the Midianite oppression and introduces Gideon threshing wheat in a wine press — a humorous but telling image of a terrified, ordinary man trying to survive in secret.
God's Call and Gideon's Doubt
The angel of the Lord (identified as Jesus) greets Gideon as 'mighty warrior' and calls him to save Israel; Gideon protests his weakness and insignificance, mirroring the honest cries of people today who feel God has abandoned them in their hardest moments.
The Painting Metaphor — Who Holds the Brush?
Drawing on his own painting-class story and a masterpiece he later discovered in Jerome, Pastor Linn argues that while God was already painting a masterpiece with each of our lives, we took the brush back — and every stroke we make is less than what God intended.
Why God Uses Ordinary People
God chooses ordinary people precisely so that extraordinary outcomes demand a God-explanation; Pastor Linn illustrates this from his own difficult childhood, concluding that ordinariness may be our greatest qualification.
God Makes It Harder — Gideon's Army Cut to 300
In Judges 7, God deliberately reduces Gideon's army from 32,000 to 300, making the odds humanly impossible — a pattern repeated throughout Scripture with Daniel, Abraham, Joseph, and David — so that no one can claim the glory.
The Other Side of Harder
The 300 rout hundreds of thousands when God causes the Midianite army to turn on itself; Pastor Linn celebrates that God always does His best work on the other side of harder, cataloguing Bible-story victories that only God could explain.
Surrender the Brush — Call to Response
Pastor Linn invites the congregation to bow in honest prayer, raise a hand if they need to surrender the brush, and then use the physical paintbrush they received as a 30-day daily reminder to ask, 'Who is holding my brush today?'
Memorable moments
if it's you, if it's me, it's less, and I'll always be ordinary
God always does his best work on the other side of harder
on the other side of harder, lions refuse to eat. On the other side of harder, a young boy takes a sling and hurdles a rock, and it hits the exact spot and giants fall
is it possible that your greatest qualification is that you're ordinary, and that God says, can work with that because people will know it was me
I wonder what God would whisper in your ear. I wonder if he'd say, oh woman of honor, oh man amongst men, O life changer. Because he can see what God would do with you if God had the brush
every stroke that you and I made was less. It was less than what God was painting for us
Application
Pastor Linn closes with a concrete, daily practice: take the physical paintbrush home and place it somewhere you will see it every morning — on the bathroom sink or your car dashboard — and for the next 30 days let it prompt one simple question: 'Who is holding my brush today?' The answer shapes everything. If it is you, every stroke produces a smaller life than God intended. If it is God, you step into the extraordinary He already sees in you. That surrender looks like one obedient step at a time — saying what God would have you say, forgiving what He would have you release, and treating people the way He would treat them. Start there, and see what He does with ordinary you.
