It's In The Middle
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Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. I hope this inspires you. I hope it builds your faith. I hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. We're focused this week on the word of salvation. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he said to a thief that was crucified with him, you, of course, would know that the crucifixion was not

Anomaly in Jesus time it was a common form of capital punishment And so Jesus died the death of a common criminal beside two common criminals one of them mocked him said if you were really who you Say you are you would get down off that cross and you would get us down to save us and while one mocked him the other one who was on his right side recognized the distinction

of his divinity or at least his innocence and said we deserve this and you don't and sir I'm not quite sure who you are but when you come into your kingdom remember me and Jesus said today somebody shout today I'm gonna wake you up you're gonna talk back to me today at least at Valentine I can't do anything about Concord I'm not there

But somebody at Ballantyne in the back of the room from Jackson, Mississippi or Toronto, Canada or Charlotte, North Carolina, shout today. Today you will be with me in paradise. The word of salvation. I had the privilege this weekend to perform my brother's wedding ceremony. I don't do a lot of weddings, but I'm good at them. I just am typically preaching on Saturday nights. Our campus pastors do such an excellent job

with the wedding officiating, so I was kind of nervous doing his ceremony. I don't want to mess up my man's wedding because, hey man, he's got this girl here at the altar, and he might not get this chance again. She might change her mind, so we've got to get this done. It's my little brother, but he's a lot taller than me, and he serves in the United States Air Force. They honored me. Yeah, praise the Lord. Yeah, he's cool. He could beat me up, but I've got mind game on him, so he doesn't know that. But

He asked me to do his wedding and his fiancee Brooke and they asked me to come and I was privileged to do it. Holly said I did a good job. In fact, she said exactly this. She said, "You did so good officiating that wedding." She said, "I kind of wish I could marry somebody else so you could do the wedding." Wasn't sure how to receive that compliment. I rebuked her. Kind of a twisted compliment. But anyway, I only bring it up.

Because truth be told, although I really love the opportunity to do the wedding, I kind of have a problem not with weddings. I'm not anti-marriage. Do not send me emails. Send them all to Jonathan Josephs, your Ballantyne campus pastor. It's not that I'm against love. I have nothing against it. It's just that

We all agree, especially those of us who have been married for more than 10 years, that marriage has very little to do with the flower arrangement you choose or how many layers of cake you can roll out that you're not going to eat anyway because only the top one is real and all the other stuff is just decoration. It doesn't matter how many shades of magenta your bridesmaids are standing there dressed in.

What happens in marriage happens in the middle. Somebody shout, "It's in the middle." That's my sermon today. I want to say it's in the middle that a marriage is made. It's in the middle that a Christian grows. It's in the middle that you find out what you're made of. This sermon is like a Tootsie Roll Pop. What you bought it for is in the middle.

It's in the middle.

The way we typically focus on the moment… I believe God can save you in a moment. I really do. If you're here today and you're thinking you have to memorize some Bible verses or there are certain habits you have to correct in your life… Are y'all tired of hearing me preach? I've been preaching to y'all for 11 years now. For 11 years I've been saying this same message. God can save you in a moment. If you believe in your heart,

that God raised him from the dead and confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you shall be saved. I know it because that thief did not have to enroll in a theological school. He didn't have to go through a catechism class. He didn't have to prove the legitimacy of his faith by giving up certain things. Come as you are, but don't expect to stay that way. And Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. Part of me thinks that would be kind of nice if I could just

Be married and stay married without a process. Well, I'm kind of a process preacher. I really am because one of my core beliefs is that God is in the process. Don't get me wrong. He can move in a moment. Something can happen in your soul when the word of God goes forth that is so strong that the chains are broken and you are never the same. Why not today?

The Apostle Paul said that today is the day of salvation. He said that to the Corinthian church backslidden. He said now is the time of God's favor. Somebody shout now. Not when you get your act together, not when people approve of you. Now. Now is the hour. Today is the day. The privilege of my life is seeing someone in a moment make a decision to follow Christ in a moment for the weight to be lifted.

for the chains to be broken in a moment. Yet, what about the middle? Because I know that he can save me in a moment, and I know that when I die, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I'm going to heaven when I die, and I'm glad about it, and I don't have to fry and burn. I know all that, and I'm real glad about it. But one thing the thief and I did not have in common, because we both deserved the cross that Jesus died on, but I didn't get to go to paradise the moment that I trusted Christ with my life.

So this message is not about paradise. This message is about process. This message is not about flower girls. This message is about the fight for faith in the middle. And I want to present it to you in a way today that hopefully in the next 29 minutes can help you to understand why it is that sometimes even though you got saved, you don't feel saved and what to do next.

in the middle. Touch your neighbor and say, "I need to know what to do in the middle." Because when I die, I'm dead. I'm gone. I'm in heaven. I'm there. But here and now, I need God's... See, the thing about me is I got saved, but I still need some saving. Maybe you don't, but look real good at the person next to you and see if they look like they still need saving.

See if they look like there are still some times in their lives, come on Blakeney, that they still need saving.

It's a seven mile Journey and the miracle is in the middle. Did you notice that we've been studying from this Emmaus Road where? Jesus just shows up beside these two Disciples LD don't put too much of this on Instagram stories because I don't want them to see it I wanted to have to watch it online later. Those of them are sitting home in the snow Don't be putting it online right now. I wanted to catch it later and and and Jesus just shows up right in the middle of

of their conversation. It's a man named Cleopas, and some scholars suggest perhaps his wife, his companion, and he were not expecting the presence of Christ to show up, but he showed up in the middle of their disappointment. He showed up in the middle of their disillusionment. He showed up in the middle of their "we thought so." He showed up in the middle of the "what now?" He showed up in the middle. God will meet you in the middle. It's in the middle.

And they walked, the Bible says, seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And when they got there, check this out in Luke 24, 28, when they arrived and approached the place, the village that in their mind was their destination, the village called Emmaus.

When they got to the place they thought they were going, Jesus continued on, I love the next two words, as if he were going further. Like he's a man on a mission. He's got people to see and things to do. And only 39 and a half days before he is ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And so he acts as if, show them again, as if.

He were going further and sometimes it feels as if God is leaving you I would suggest that some of the moments when it feels as if he's walking away from you He is creating a desire within you so that if you draw near to him He will draw near to you God is trying to set your faith free from the need to feel it to have it. I

As if. Somebody say as if. The next time the devil tries to tell you God has left you, that God has abandoned you, look him right in the eye and say with your hand on your hip, in your best white girl teenager voice, say as if. As if he would leave me. He said he would never leave me, never forsake me, never abandon me. He won't stop what he started. He is and he is mine. And he's with me

in the middle as if he were going further, and they asked him to come in and stay with them. Professional pointer. Be careful when you ask Jesus to come in, because if he comes in, he's going to take over. So God is not going to settle for a shout-out. He's not going to make himself a cot in the foyer of your heart. He's coming in the kitchen. I feel God on that, and I don't know why. Touch somebody and say, "He's coming in your kitchen."

He's coming in your kitchen. He wants to get into the ingredients. Watch what Jesus does. He walks in. This is verse 30. He sits down at the table, takes their bread. Remember, it's Cleo's house, but Jesus reaches right across the table. It's Cleo's bread.

and just starts doing stuff. See, I need you to know that God is not going to come into your life and stay on standby so that when you kind of sort of need him and maybe can fit him into your schedule, maybe I can get a little Jesus juice when my boyfriend isn't calling me back. Maybe I'll pray. See, Jesus, when he comes into your life, I feel the Spirit of God. It's all up in me right now. I feel it.

God said I'm taking over today is the day of salvation. I'm taking over your thoughts I'm taking over your imagination. I'm taking over your desires Salvation is total surrender. This is how I used to preach when I was 23 man This is how I used to preach to people who thought that God could be a part of their life. I

If God gets in your life, he's going to get all up in the middle of it. God is going to change who you have listed in the contacts of your iPhone. God is going to change who you friend on Facebook. God is going to change what you do at 1130 on Friday night. God isn't just going to wait for you to get to church on Sunday morning and bless you with a goose bump. God wants...

I know where to preach. I know where the love is. It's in the middle. Somebody shout, "It's in the middle!" Anyway, is it okay? Jesus doesn't ask any permission. He sits down at Cleo's kitchen table, takes Cleo's bread, blesses Cleo's bread, breaks the bread, and gives the bread, and when he gives the bread that he broke,

which is also the bread that he blessed, which is also the bread that he took. When he takes over your life, he blesses your life. But the same hands that bless your life are the same hands that must be trusted when your life is broken.

I mean when your heart is in a million pieces. See, I need to preach this, because sometimes we think when we get saved that everything is going to be sanitized and everything is going to be safe. We think that when we get saved… See, this is the kind of preaching that will help you when life is doing its best to tear you apart. You can know beyond the shadow of a doubt… Somebody shout, "I'm still saved!"

I'm saved when I'm happy. I'm saved when I'm sad. I'm saved when they're with me. I'm saved when they walk away. I'm saved when I'm up. I'm saved when I'm down. I'm saved when I'm blessed. I'm saved when I'm broken. I'm saved in the palace. I'm saved in the pit. God is with me in the middle. Three things I want to give you. Three things I want to give you about the middle. I was saved. I will be saved.

I'm going to be with him forever, but I need him to be with me in the middle." This is not a moment-to-moment contractual arrangement with God, because we kind of think, "His grace will save you and his grace will get you to heaven." You're on your own in between. I want to declare that the same grace that will get you there, wherever your there is,

Is with you here if you will believe the words coming out of this country preacher's mouth today That God is in the process and number one the gift is in the middle They sat down to eat with Jesus and

But they didn't even do what they sat down to do because while he was breaking the bread, the process of the way that he broke the bread revealed his presence to them. God is in the process. And the gift is in the middle. Today, you will be with me in paradise. What an awesome promise to that thief. But I got a better one for you because that's pretty good, right?

I mean, come on. You're a dying thief, and you're trying to slip in before the door closes. You're trying to get on Noah's Ark, and it's already halfway out in the water. And with your drowning, dying breath, you half-heartedly make a request just in case it works. And that guy got in. Okay? Today you will be with me in paradise. But God has made you a better promise. For he says to each one of us today,

Help me say it God not today You will be with me in paradise, but today I will be with you in the process You see to me that's even better that I have not only his statement, but I have his spirit I am sealed with a guarantee that he is with me and

Not just when I raised my hand, not just when I went down in the baptismal waters. That was awesome. Your wedding was beautiful and we all appreciate so much the catering service, but we're not waiting. Please. Like God left you on earth to wait to go to heaven. Have you noticed that so much of what we talk about in terms of salvation has to do with us getting out of here? Like Christianity is God's cosmic evacuation plan.

But what about the middle?

See, the gift is in the middle. Can I show you something Peter said one time? Peter knew something about the middle. One time he was in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the storm. All of a sudden, in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the storm, here comes somebody walking toward him, and he's not quite sure, but he thinks it might just be Jesus. So he cries out.

middle of the sea, in the middle of the storm. If it's you, tell me to come." He gets out the boat, and he does pretty good. By the time he gets where he's going, God reaches down and grabs him. That's a picture of the grace to get started and the grace that will be there in the end. But what about the middle? He was walking on water above what could have killed him.

And all of a sudden the wind and the waves on the right and the left caused him to lose his focus

the man in the middle and he sinks and so Peter said sometimes you are so focused on what's behind you I'm preaching to somebody and you are so focused and Concerned and anxious about what's ahead of you. You are missing the presence of God He is not the great I was and he is not the great I will be he is the great I am

And his presence is not just for heaven one day the kingdom of God is at hand He's here in the middle and a little later in his life Peter was writing to a persecuted church who was going through a fiery trial and they were in the middle of it and he said to them This is like first Peter 1 verse 9. He said you are receiving I've been studying this all week. I hope y'all like this as much as I did and

Sometimes it's tough because I've been thinking about it all week, and you have a real job and real bills. I'm just getting up here trying to tell you this stuff. I don't know if you see it, but he said, you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. What's he saying? One day it will be complete, and there will be no need, but you don't have to wait until one day when.

Children show us how to do this better than because adults are so goal focused and we think that things have to be a certain way Before we can enjoy God's presence before we can enjoy what God's given us So we set certain destinations in our mind and when it gets like that then I'll be Complete but God wants to teach you how to get it in the middle. I believe this is life-changing I believe this is life-changing

I was riding my bike. I don't do this much, just on vacation. I'm scared to ride my bike on the road. The way some of y'all drive with Elevation Church stickers on your car. Scared me to death. But we were riding through. We were riding. We were on family vacation, and we had rented bicycles, and we were riding to a restaurant, and it started raining outside, and

I started going through all this negative cycle of emotions about the rain, and I knew it was gonna rain, and I told Holly it was gonna rain, and she said it wasn't gonna rain, and now it's raining, and we're too far to turn around and go back home, and so now we got to ride in the rain. All of a sudden, I see Elijah. He pulls around me, and he shouts at the top of his lungs, epic, because he saw a mud puddle, and for him, the mud puddle looked like the perfect thing to aim at.

Riding in the rain. Now to me it was annoying, to him it was epic. I was already steering to go around it and he was going right. When I thought about that picture I thought about some of you going to work this week and I saw you not aiming around the thing that you...

They don't want me to preach like this, because we just want to talk about heaven and the streets of gold. When we get there one day, when I'm flying around with wings and me and Aunt Thelma are drinking hot tea and the sapphires… No, it's here, and now it's in the mundane. It's in the mud. It's in the dirty. See, God is a gardener. He likes to get down in the mud, down in the dirt, down

Down into disappointment. God is in the middle. The gift is in the middle. I see you riding your bike. I see you pedaling through the puddle this week. I'm not going around it. Grace will get me through it. It's in the middle. Shout somebody!

Y'all are so sleepy. All right, let me illustrate this. Come here, Jonathan and Anna. Come here. Do you remember? Write this down. This is point number two. I'm closing real quick because I know y'all got to go, and I don't want to stop. But this is number two of my message. So if you need to leave, if you've got something to do, leave right now because I'm in the middle. And when I get to the end, it's going to be worth it. But this is the middle of my message that I was thinking about.

illustration some of you will remember it that I preached this illustration I was trying to illustrate can y'all help me I was you be Cleo you be Clea and and I was preaching on Confidence and I talked about how far I feel like I have to go and and and then I'd like exactly Sit down sit down. He's sitting on he's got me come here. Come here. He's got me and

You got somebody else on this row that can help too? Okay, okay, come on, come on. 'Cause he said my point before I could say it, so I figured he should help me with this illustration. And this guy, this is perfect. You don't know how perfect this is. 'Cause not only is the gift in the middle, but watch my second point, you won't believe this. The goal is in the middle. See, man, God knew you needed to help me with this. Come on. So...

We were talking about in that sermon illustration about how sometimes you have to look back and see how far God has already brought you. Salvation means, "I am not what I once was." How many can say that? "I am not what I once was."

But the same time you raise your right hand, how many of you could lift your left hand and say, "But I'm not what I want to be"? That's you. You are what I want to be. I chose you because you're much better looking than him to be what I want to be. We talked about living in the gap. What I expect

When I hear about salvation, you know, like in a wedding ceremony, they say, "And the two will become one flesh." Notice, they will become. They will become, but it's not gonna happen there at the ceremony. It's gonna happen in the kitchen when we're trying to decide who does the dishes. They won't help me preach. They just want to go to heaven. When we all get to heaven. Awesome! But in the meantime,

Here I am, and I'm not living in paradise. I'm living in process. Help me preach, please, or I will leave this stage right now. I don't need to know the third point. I know it already. And here I am in the middle. And I look back, and it's awesome, because I'm not what I was. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. I am not what I was. And I found out that if I will walk with God...

He will change me and conform me to the image of Christ. Now my expectation is, watch this, that as I move toward God's purpose for my life, as I get closer and closer to God, that this gap will shrink. Guess what? Let me show you something. The Bible says that when they recognize Jesus in the process, when he broke the bread and gave the bread, watch what happened next. Can we go back to Luke 24?

31. The moment they recognized him, he disappeared from their sight. This is what happens, and this is going to explain a lot of why you don't feel like a good Christian, why you don't feel like you're growing. Don't get me wrong. Salvation is a gift, but it is a gift that you must grow into. My expectation is that as I walk with God and as I make decisions to follow him,

and I make decisions to eliminate certain things from my life that are causing me to drain energy and focus that could be applied toward my purpose, that this gap behind me will get bigger and the gap in front of me will get smaller. But guess what God does? When you take a step, when you make a move, when I step, you step. Watch this. God moves too. You're going to love this gold digger. See...

In my mind, the goal was that this gap goes away. Here's what God knows. If you think that you have arrived, arrogance is sure to follow. So what God is going to do… I need to do this. This is version 2.0. God is going to make sure that as you grow, when I step, you step. The gap stays. So you look back and you say, oh,

I'm moving forward, but you look forward and it doesn't feel like you've gone anywhere But I want to let you know you're right where you need to be See you for both gaps here It is the same grace that created this gap between where I was and where is the grace I?

I step, you step to keep moving forward. So God says to everyone who's in the middle of something right now, in the middle of change, in the middle of process, in the middle of becoming, in the middle of a storm, in love to fire, you step, I step. Keep stepping. Step. Stay in the middle. Step. Faith. Step. Stay in courage. Step. Stay blessed. In my hand.

I need both gaps. I need a gap that makes me grateful and a gap that makes me grow. So y'all better sit down. I gotta start closing and I want to preach about these gaps. I don't know why it is that we think that the first gap is the grace of God and the second gap is anything but. The same grace that did that

will do this. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it." So the disciples get where they're going, to Emmaus, and God says, "Oh, you thought that was the final stop? No. It's just the middle." Oh man, if you could see your life like God sees your life, you wouldn't give up in the middle. The good stuff happens in the middle. I love Netflix because I can just pause it

And sometimes if the tension is real high in a show, I'll pause it not to stop it, but I want to see Where we're at on the timeline now. Here's what I know If there's unresolved conflict in the show, I want to know wait a minute how much time is left for

Because if we're still in the middle, come on somebody, your dream is not over, your purpose is not finished, this is not the end. It's just a... We, what the disciples didn't know. We know the cross isn't the end. We know the grave isn't its final destination. It's just the middle. It's just the middle. The gift is in the middle. The goal...

is in the middle. I press toward the mark, forgetting what is behind. I will not quit in the middle. Encourage somebody next to you. It's just the middle. It's just the middle. This is just the middle. This is not the end. It's just the middle. And I think it is significant that when they reached Emmaus and Jesus revealed his presence,

through the scars that he suffered for their salvation. He disappeared so that they would turn around and when they got to the place they thought they were going, they found out. Surprise! Look at verse 32. They got up and they started talking to each other and they said to each other, "Were not our hearts within us while he talked with us as we went?" That's where you get it. That's where you grow. That's where he shows up in the middle of the night

When it's just you and Pastor Pillow and nobody left to text, you will hear his voice in the middle. Whoever this is for and whatever you're in the middle of, I want you to look at the cross again. Because the Bible says that what they thought was the end, Emmaus, where they intended to stay in disappointment and eat some bread and go to bed, once they saw who was with them all along and realized what had been happening along the road that seemed to them trivial,

in something as mundane as a seven mile walk. They turned around, they got up, and they returned at once to Jerusalem. And you thought this series, Seven Mile Miracle, was about the first seven miles. And you thought salvation was just about God getting you out. But the second seven miles is when you turn back around and stop running from what God saved you out of.

and start running toward what God saved you for. And they got up at once, in a moment, and returned to Jerusalem. This may be the strongest message on salvation that God has ever given me. Because when I looked at the cross where he died, and I realized that he died on a hill called Golgotha, which is the place of the skull in Aramaic,

And on one side of him was one thief, and on one side of him was another. And the cross that brought our salvation was right there in the middle. I realized that the way that he died is symbolic of the way that I now live. I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live I now live it is here now if you're looking for the grace of God Don't look to your deathbed and don't look to your past He is the great I am if you're looking for the grace of God put your eyes on that middle cross between two thieves

On your left, you'll see your past. On your right, you'll see your future. But don't look at your past. You're not going that way. And don't even worry about your future. God is already there. If you're looking for the grace of God, it's in the middle. I need somebody to praise God right here for his grace in the middle. He is with me in the middle. He is with me in the middle.

And maybe, Stan please, maybe it's not about God getting me out. Maybe the reason he died is because he wanted to get in. Your faith is hanging between two thieves. What was is gone. What will be is unknown. If you're looking for the grace of God, if you're looking for the glory of God, the glory is in the middle. I know it's in the middle.

Because when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got thrown in the fire, God didn't get them out of the fire. But late at night, when the flames were at their highest, seven times hotter than they normally were, because they would not bow before the Babylonian king. The scripture says that a fourth man went in the furnace with the three who were thrown in. God didn't get them out. He got in the middle with them. Now, if you know this message is for your soul, just raise your hand. If you know it's for your soul. I want...

I want the same grace that got me out of my sin to lead me into everything that God saved me for. I want to learn to see his power not just in my perfection. I mean, even the thought that I'm going to reach that on this earth is ridiculous. I want God's presence in the process. When he took it, he blessed it. He broke it. And that's where they say, in the common, mundane life.

The miracle is in the middle. Not when you get out, but while you are in it. I know you're still struggling with the addiction, man, and I know even your wife doesn't know because you're scared to tell her. God is with you in the middle.

Not just when you've been five years clean. God is with you in the pig pen. He is with you in the middle. And the same grace that stayed with you in the pig pen is going to bring you out. Don't you dare quit. This is just the middle. This is just the middle. This is just the middle. God is with you in the middle. Well, his presence is here. John said, I looked and saw a throne and

This is a beautiful picture because he said that the throne was sitting in the middle of praise. I want us to do something right now. This may be a little uncomfortable for you, but the reason you've been feeling stressed out and worn out

The reason you've been trying to do what Jesus did not do on the cross, which is save himself, the reason you've been so strained and the reason you've been so drained is because you've been trying to save yourself, and you've been at the center. If you are looking for the peace of God, if you are looking for the power of God, if you are looking for the presence of God, it's in the middle. For him to be in the middle, you can't stay there. Lift your hands. Say, "Glory and praise

Power and strength. This is what they're singing in heaven around the throne. Worthy is the Lamb of God. We're singing it now. Salvation belongs to our God, to the Lamb who sits on the throne. Be power, dominion, majesty forever and ever. Put him at the center. For it is by grace you have been saved. Through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

Come on, if you're in the middle of a storm right now, I need you to lift your hands and call on him. His glory will show up in the middle of your storm, in the middle of your struggle. Come on, he's in the midst of his people. He inhabits the praises of his people and thrown him out.

Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.