We're focused this week on the word of salvation. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he said
to a thief who was crucified with him… You, of course, would know that the crucifixion
was not an anomaly. In Jesus' time it was a common form of capital
punishment. Jesus died the death of a common criminal
beside two common criminals. One of them mocked him and said, "If you were
really who you say you are, you would get down off that cross, and you would get us
down too. Save us." 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. Sir, I'm not quite sure who you are, but when
you come into your kingdom, remember me." Jesus said, "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. 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. I was kind of nervous doing his ceremony. I don't want to mess up my man's wedding,
because, hey, man, he has this girl here at the altar, and he might not get this chance
again. She might change her mind, so we have to get
this done. It's my little brother, but he's a lot taller
than me. He serves in the United States Air Force. He's cool. He could beat me up, but I have mind game
on him, so he doesn't know that. He asked me to do his wedding, and his fiancée… 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, I kind of wish I could marry somebody else so you could do the wedding." I wasn't sure how to receive that compliment. I rebuked her. Kind of a twisted compliment. 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, can 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. That's my sermon today. 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. I admire the thief, and I'm thankful that
he was saved on the cross, but most of us don't get to be in paradise the day we get
saved. The fact of the matter is we don't get raptured
up to heaven the moment we make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives. We are left here on this earth so we can bring
heaven into our situations. 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 some certain habits you have to correct
in your life… Are you 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. 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. 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 the chains are broken and you are never the same. Why not today? The apostle Paul said, "Today is the day of
salvation." He said that to the Corinthian church, backslidden. He said, "Now is the time of God's favor." Not when you get your act together. Not when people approve of you. 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. What about the middle? I know he could 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 really glad about
it. One thing the thief and I did not have in
common… We both deserved the cross Jesus died on,
but I didn't get to go to paradise the moment I trusted Christ with my life. 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. I want to present it to you in a way that
hopefully can help you understand why it is that sometimes, even though you got saved,
you don't feel saved, and what to do in the middle. Touch your neighbor and say, "I need to know
what to do in the middle." When I die I'm dead. I'm gone. I'm in heaven. I'm there. But here and now I need God… The thing about me is I got saved, but I still
need some saving. Maybe you don't, but I still… 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 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. Jesus just shows up right in the middle of
their conversation. It's a man named Cleopas and, some scholars
suggest, perhaps his wife. He and his companion 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. They walk, the Bible says, seven miles from
Jerusalem to Emmaus, and when they got there… Check this out in Luke 24:28. When they approached 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 farther." Like he's a man on a mission. He has 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. So he acts as if he were going farther. 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. 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, "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. I am his and he is mine, and he's with me
in the middle." "As if he were going farther." They asked him to come in and stay with them. Now professional pointer. Be careful when you ask Jesus to come in,
because if he comes in, he's going to take over. 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 wants to get into the ingredients. Watch what Jesus does. This is verse 30. He walks in, sits down at the table, and takes
their bread. Remember, it's Cleo's house, but Jesus reaches
right across the table, takes 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." When he comes into your life… I feel the Spirit of God. It is all up in me right now. 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 God could be a part of their life. 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 11:30
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. "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 he blessed, which is also the bread
he took… When he takes over your life, he blesses your
life. The same hands that blessed 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. I need to preach this, because sometimes we
think when we get saved everything is going to be sanitized and everything is going to
be safe. 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. There are three things I want to give you
about the middle. I was saved. It happened. 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. We kind of think his grace will save you,
and his grace will get you to heaven, but 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… God is in the process, and the gift is in
the middle. They sat down to eat with Jesus, but they
didn't even do what they sat down to do, because while he was breaking the bread, the process
of the way 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 have a better one for you. 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. With your drowning, dying breath, you half-heartedly
make a request, just in case it works. That guy got in. "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, not, "Today you will be with me in paradise," but "Today
I will be with you in the process." 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 not just when I raise 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 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, because
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 in the middle of the sea,
in the middle of the storm, "If it's you, tell me to come." He gets out of the boat, and he does pretty
well, and 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 at 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 cause
him to lose his focus on the man in the middle, and he sinks. Peter said sometimes you are so focused on
what's behind you and 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. A little later in his life, Peter was writing
to a persecuted church that was going through a fiery trial. They were in the middle of it. He said to them in 1 Peter 1:9, "You are receiving…" I've been studying this all week. I hope y'all like this as much as I did. 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, and I don't know if you see it. 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. Adults are so goal focused. We think things have to be a certain way before
we can enjoy God's presence, before we can enjoy what God has given us, so we set certain
destinations in our minds. "When it gets like that, then I'll be complete." God wants to teach you how to get it in the
middle. 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. You scare me to death. We were on family vacation. We had rented bicycles, and we were riding
to a restaurant. It started raining outside. I started going through all this negative
cycle of emotions about the rain. I knew it was going to rain, I told Holly
it was going to rain, she said it wasn't going to rain, and now it's raining and we're too
far to turn around and go back home, so now we have to ride in the rain. All of a sudden I see Elijah. He pulls around me and shouts at the top of
his lungs, "Epic!" He saw a mud puddle, and for him the mud puddle
looked like the perfect thing to aim at, riding in the rain. 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 and when we get there one
day, when I'm flying around with wings and Aunt Thelma and I are drinking hot tea on
the sapphire… No, it's here and now. It's in the Monday and the mundane. It's in the mud. It's in the dirty. God is a gardener. He likes to get down in the mud, down in the
dirt, down in the 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." Let me illustrate this. This is point number two. I'm closing. If you need to leave, if you have something
to do, leave right now, because I'm in the middle. When I get to the end it's going to be worth
it, but this is the middle of my message. I was thinking about an illustration. Some of you will remember that I preached
this illustration. I was preaching on confidence, and I talked
about how far I feel like I have to go. Come here. He said my point before I could say it, so
I figured he should help me with this illustration. This is perfect. You don't know how perfect this is. Not only is the gift in the middle, but the
goal is in the middle. God knew you needed to help me with this. So we were talking 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 at 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"? We talked about living in the gap. What I expect when I hear about salvation… Like in a wedding ceremony they say, "And
the two will become one flesh." Notice they will become, but it's not going
to happen there at the ceremony. It's going to 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. I'm not living in paradise; I'm living in
the process. Here I
am in the middle. 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 has gone, the new has come." I am not what I was. I found out that if I will walk with God,
he will change me and conform me to the image of Christ. My expectation is that as I move toward God's
purpose for my life, as I get closer and closer to God, this gap will shrink. Guess what? Let me show you something. The Bible says that when they recognized Jesus
in the process… When he broke the bread and gave the bread,
watch what happened next. 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 you
must grow into. My expectation is that as I walk with God
and make decisions to follow him and 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, 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,
God moves too. You're going to love this. 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 God is going to make sure that as you grow, the gap stays. So you look back and say, "Oh, look. I'm moving forward," but you look forward,
and it doesn't feel like you've gone anywhere. I want to let you know you're right where
you need to be. See, you need grace for both gaps. The same grace that created this gap between
where I was and where I am is the grace I need to keep moving forward. 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 the storm, in the middle of the fire, "Keep stepping. Stay in the middle. Stay in faith. Stay in courage. Stay blessed. Stay in my hand. Stay in the storm. I'm with you in the fire." God is in the middle. I'm in the middle. I need both gaps. I need a gap that makes me grateful and a
gap that makes me grow. I don't know why we think 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 pause it. Sometimes, if the tension is really high in
a show, I'll pause it not to stop it, but I want to see where we're at on the time line. 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?" If we're still in the middle… Your dream is not over. Your purpose is not finished. This is not the end. It's just the middle. We know what the disciples didn't know. We know the cross isn't the end. We know the grave isn't his final destination. 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." This is just the middle. This is not the end. It's just the middle. I think it is significant that when they reached
Emmaus and Jesus revealed his presence through the scars he suffered for their salvation,
he disappeared so that they would turn around. When they got to the place they thought they
were going, they found out, "Surprise." Look at verse 32. They got up and started talking to each other. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts
burning within us while he talked with us in the middle on the road as we went?" That's where you get it. That's where you grow. That's where he shows up: in the middle. 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, whatever you're in the
middle of, I want you to look at the cross again. 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 returned at once to Jerusalem." 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. They got up at once, in a moment, and returned
to Jerusalem. This may be the strongest message on salvation
God has ever given me. When I looked at the cross where he died and
realized 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 the way 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. 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,
right now, for his grace in the middle! He is with me in the middle. 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 into 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 a fourth man went into the furnace with the three who were thrown in. God didn't get them out; he got in the middle
with them. If you know this message is for your soul,
just raise your hand. I want the same grace that got me out of my
sin to lead me into everything God saved me for. I want to learn to see his power not just
in my perfection. 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, broke it,
and gave it. It's in the middle. Common…middle. Mundane…middle. 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,
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 pigpen. He is with you in the middle. The same grace that stayed with you in the
pigpen is going to break you out. Don't you dare quit. This is just the middle. This is just the middle. God is with you in the middle. His presence is here. John said, "I looked and saw a throne." This is a beautiful picture, because he said
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, and 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 trying, the reason you've been so strained, and the reason you've been so drained is that
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. So lift your hands and 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." 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. Enthrone him now!
