Made for the Middle

So we're going to continue on our series called sickles and swords. And the big idea behind this series was born from a prayer time a few weeks back on a Tuesday morning, if you don't come to Tuesday morning prayer, our hope is that you don't just come to Sunday morning, but, man, you get to a Tuesday morning because that's when the real business is done in the church. Man, my favorite day is Tuesday because we get to gather and pray together. And, man, it's powerful. I'm telling you anyway, this fell out of a prayer time from Joel, chapter number three, the Bible says this, hammer your plow shares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Train even your weaklings to become warriors. This is what really stood out to me, this part right here, train even your weaklings to become warriors. I know that in our culture, calling somebody a weekly is offensive, but simply, what that means is somebody who is less experienced or not yet to a place of maturity, and so you don't say you're weak, so you're out, no, you're weak. Now we're going to train you. And when I read this portion of Scripture, I really felt a mandate come on me by the power of the Holy Spirit saying, Matt, it's time to train people who are in need of training. It's time to teach people how to be protected and stand up to protect themselves. There are people who are young in and experienced in the faith, and it's time. We're in a season now where we're supposed to train them. Come quickly, all you nations everywhere, gather together in the valley. Swing the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come tread the graves for the wine press is full. The storage vats are overflowing with the the wickedness of these people. 1000s upon 1000s are waiting in the valley of decision there. The day of the Lord will soon arrive. Pastor Carrie preached a brilliant message two weeks ago talking about this valley of decision and what takes place there. But here's what I ultimately believe, as we read the Scripture, is that God's saying, Matt, there are people in the world, people in the kingdom, that are in this valley, this place where they're deciding between life and death, and it's your responsibility as the church number one to reach into the valley, not avoid the valley. See, I think that so often what we do as churches is we try to put our stuff together. We wear our Sunday best, we build our little buildings and make everything nice and try to make it pretty so that we avoid the mess that is the valley. But the reality is this, everybody this side of heaven, we're going to live in this valley of decision, whether you have responded to faith in Christ or not, you're living in the valley of decision, because we're stuck in a place between two promises, eternity and Eternity, Eternity where God created us from. We're created. He knew us before we were created in our mother's womb, and then in eternity that we'll be able to go back to if in this valley of decision, we choose the person of Jesus and the power of the cross, y'all hear what I'm saying, and so we're in that place, and that's where this series was born. The idea is this to turn our harvest tools into weapons for protecting the harvest. See, it's one thing to always collect and gather the harvest, but it's another thing to stand guard of the harvest. What about the people in our world that have turned their faith over to Jesus, have surrendered their hearts to the person of Jesus? Do we just let them go now? No, no. Now it's time to disciple them. It's time to train them, it's time to empower them, it's time to encourage them. Because we're staying in this place of decision. It's our responsibility as believers to protect the weak, provide truth for the lost and provision for the found. It's both, and it's not either or. We don't say, Oh, you're found, so you're good. No, we're going to give provision for you so you can continue to thrive in your relationship. However, it's in this place of the valley where we feel stuck, and this is. The word that I feel like God gave me this week, some of us in our rooms, we feel stuck. We feel stuck in our profession, we feel stuck in our marriage, we feel stuck in our relationships. We feel stuck. We have vision for what we thought God wanted to do, and we know where we've come from, but we feel stuck in this place where we're kind of like just trudging through the mud, where we're spinning our tires, where we're doing a lot of work, but we're not going very far. We feel stuck. We feel stuck in the middle. We feel stuck between light and dark. We feel stuck between life and death. We feel stuck between good and evil. We feel stuck. And when you feel stuck and you're in that place in the middle man, there's nothing I believe that is more difficult than making that middle place matter. It's easy to wake up and just go through the motions when you feel stuck. It's easy to go, go to work and just go through the motions when you feel stuck. It's easy to become undisciplined when you feel stuck. When you feel stuck, you don't have vision when you feel stuck. You don't have hope when you feel stuck. You'd rather stay in bed and sleep when you feel stuck. You y'all hear what I'm saying. It was late in 2022 that I began to realize for my life, there was some instances where I just couldn't see the way that I used to be able to see. I can remember, in fact, I got into Angelique one Sunday, and I said, Ange, why are we changing stuff up with the confidence monitor in the back of the room? And she's like, let me check on it. Pastor, Matt, I'm not entirely sure. Let me, let me check. She comes back and she says, We didn't change anything. And I said, You mean to tell me I can't see anymore Angelique. And she's like, No, I didn't say that. I just, I'm not like, I just, we didn't change anything. So fast forward to the spring of 2023, and I realized a little bit more, I'm not able to see things at a distance the way that I used to be able to see. So I went to the eye doctor, and he confirmed for me, Yes, Matt, you're not able to see the way you used to be able to see. He started talking about things like, well, when you get to this age, and I'm like, Come on, man, you want to fight me? You know, like, are we? Are we doing this for real? And he says, well, it's not bad, but you might want to look at getting a prescription to sharpen your vision. And I was like, I don't want to sharpen my vision, because I can see everything up close to me. I can see very well. I have no issue seeing this. I have issue with my vision from afar. So I'm in the middle of this place where I can see up close, but I can't see far away, and I'm feeling stuck, because I'm a Okay seeing here me. But what happens with that? You become so enamored with yourself that you forget to have vision for everyone or anyone else. What was I doing? I was choosing to stay stuck in the middle. Rather than finding faith for the middle. I chose to stay stuck in the middle. See, in the middle is this place between where you're good and others are good too. As long as I'm good, then everybody else can take care of themselves. But there are others of us that we can see far away, we can't see up close, and we're good as long as everybody else is good. But really, your life is going down the tubes, and it's hard to get vision for that place in the middle, isn't it? It's hard to reconcile why the middle really matters. And so what we tend to do is we either settle one or the for one or the other, or we become so stubborn in the middle that the life of God can't flow through us. We experience the fullness for ourselves, or we experience the fullness for others. But God doesn't want us to settle in one place or another. He doesn't want us to get stubborn for one place or the other. He wants us to stay in the middle. Because it's not either or, it's both and, and sometimes you'll have to get a corrective lens to get vision beyond where you're naturally gifted and. Amen, and that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm here to tell you that God has made you for those middle seasons. He has made you for that place where you're naturally gifted, but also where you're not naturally gifted. He's made you for that place, that place where you feel stuck, where you feel overwhelmed, where you feel like all sides are caving in. You feel like the weight of things is getting too heavy. You're made for that place. You're made for the middle I believe that it's the middle seasons that inspire movement, but they also require dependence. They help us to discover what God's best is for us, and God's best for us is actually stability in him, not settling and not stubbornness, but stability in him when we're leaning into his power and presence. And I think there's a story in the book of the Bible that beautifully illustrates this point. So if you got a Bible, you can open up to Numbers, chapter 16. Numbers, chapter 16. Now I want to tell you, as I've been studying this for the last week and reading through it, I wanted to read all 50 verses of this, this portion of Scripture, there's 50 verses in this chapter. I want to read all of them. Pastor Carrie said, Listen, I love you, but you read really slow. And I was like, fair enough. So I'm not going to read all 50, but I would challenge you, open up your Bible during your time this week and read the whole chapter number 16 of numbers. So I can't read the whole chapter. So Imma do is imma catch you up. So there's unrest amongst the children of Israel, specifically around leadership decisions. So there's this guy in the Bible who His name is Moses, and he came to Pharaoh, and he led the children of Israel out of Egyptian captivity. He took them out and and so they're wondering at this point in time, and they end up wondering for 40 years, and all of the people wanted to blame Moses because of their wondering, but the reality was, it was because of their complaining. Anybody ever wanted to blame a leader or somebody you were following because they were the problem when really it's probably you're complaining. That's the problem. I know, man, that's so tough. That's why I have to say it like that, because so we can it's a spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down. Some of y'all been complaining about the season that you're in and you're stuck there because you're complaining, not because of the leadership that God put over you. Just look at your neighbor and say, Amen, isn't that tough? That's that's a tough pill to swallow, isn't it? Lord, help us get that one down. Help us get that one down. Anyway, there was some unrest. They were wanting a new leader. Anybody ever thought? Well, if we could just get a new leader, we gotta get new some, then everything would be okay. Some among the group begin to preach and spew division among the people of God. And so they were talking about the problems with Moses and Aaron and how bad they were doing in their leadership. They even accused them of being self appointed in their leadership. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, they were bringing division. Can you imagine they're like, Nah, we want this president. No, we want this president. We could never imagine anything like this, debates going like crazy, reels on social media. I mean, can you imagine what could have been happening? Must have been happening during this whole deal. They were titling videos that were just absolute click bait. You know what I'm saying? I know it's hard for us to imagine today, in 2024 that type of division, but that's the type of stuff that was taking place in here. And God was like, enough is enough. Here you are trying to get somebody to decide about a leader, but ultimately I'm the one leading the people. You don't have to decide Moses, Aaron or somebody else. You've got to decide God and God alone. That's it. Either we believe is the answer or we don't. But I love how Moses, in this portion of Scripture, remained humble and he remained honorable before God and the people he wanted them to be covered. In spite of the other side demanding you make a choice. Can I tell you something? This is just free. The devil's work is always to get you to make a choice. Choose sides. Choose sides, choose sides. No, I'm not choosing the right and I'm not choosing the left. I'm not choosing this side or that side. I'm choosing his side, and whatever God says. Is what I'm going to do, and I'm not going I'm not going to hang my hat on anything other than what the Scriptures say. And that's the bottom line. The enemy always causes us to feel the pressure of choosing sides. Stop it. Stop it. You don't have to choose sides. You choose Jesus. So that's where we find ourselves. Let's jump into the Scripture. Shall we?
There's so much division that God begins to issue some judgment. And what's happening is that sweeping across the people is a plague, and people are falling dead because of their choice to choose sides against God. So Moses and Aaron, in their humility, in their seeking after God, say this, Moses said to Aaron, Quick, take an incense burner from the place and place burning coals on it from the altar, lay incense on it and carry it out among the people to purify them and make them right with the Lord. The Lord's anger is blazing against them because they've chosen sides, and the plague has already begun. Hurry Aaron. Go get this. So Aaron did as as Moses told him, and he ran out among the people. He didn't say, No, Moses, you do it. I don't like the middle Moses, you do it. I don't want to be stuck. Moses, you do it. The plague had already begun to struck people down, but Aaron burned the incense and he purified the people. He stood there in the middle between the dead and the living. He stood right there, between the dead and the living. And what happened? The plague stopped. The plague stopped. The judgment of God stopped. There was a valley of decision that the people were in, and because somebody chose to get in the middle, to stay in the middle, but be in the middle with purpose, the plague stopped in that day. There was a division between life and death. There was a division between blessing and cursing, there was a division between good and evil. However, 14,700 people had died in the plague, in addition to those who had already died in the affair involving Korah. I'm telling you, you want to read the rest of this chapter. It's so good. I wish I had time to preach this. I told somebody, no, I can't anyway. Then the plague stopped and Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tabernacle. Let me just start by saying this, nobody likes the middle. I don't care if you're in the middle, if Moses in the middle, if Aaron's in the middle, nobody likes being in the middle. But I'm here to tell you today that you were made for the middle, and the reason that God made you for the middle is because he knows that the middle matters. I love how Moses and Aaron determined. You know what the middle matters. It doesn't matter that these people are standing against us. It doesn't matter that they misunderstand us. It doesn't matter that they've misrepresented us. It doesn't matter that they've been misinformed. It doesn't matter that they are mistreating us. All that matters is the middle matters because it because it determines life and death. What happens in the middle will determine life and death. I told you there's eternity and eternity, and then there's temporary and what happens in the middle matters because it determines life and death. Listen, the middle is the least comfortable place that you can live on Earth, because what you're doing is you're trying to do a new thing, but you're still experiencing some old problems. You're carrying the fire of the incense out in the middle of the people, and you're still seeing people die, and you're thinking, God, I'm doing everything that I can. Why are they choosing against you instead of for you? You're doing everything that you can, and you're exhausted and you're overwhelmed. The middle is the most uncomfortable place that you can live, which is why most people don't make the impact that they're called to make, because we avoid the middle but do you remember what Dr Richmond said last week? He said comfort is the greatest hindrance to impact. If you want comfort, you won't make impact. You. The amount of impact you make would be determined by the level of discomfort you're willing to embrace. I'm here to tell you that you were made for the middle. You were made for the impact, and it's in the middle, in the middle, that miracles take place. If you can withstand what comes first, because you will be misrepresented. People will lie about you. You will be misunderstood. People will be dying around you. Well, if your God was so good, then why does this happen? People will misunderstand and then they'll mistreat you too. Come on, everybody, stay in the middle. It's worth it, because it's miracles that take place in the middle. Miracles take place in the middle. I believe that God has called those of us who follow Jesus to be in the middle. See, I don't know where this idea of this Christian country club came from, but it's like so many people in church are like, well, when we give our lives to Jesus, amen, we're just going to sip at the shores of heaven, and we're just going to, you know, like, just sit there and just enjoy. We're going to kick back and just lay in the sun. It's going to be amazing. I don't know who told you that, but they lied to you. That's not what's happening. This is a battle for life and death. This is a battle life hangs in the balance, and that's why it matters who we're praying for, who we're believing for, in the way that we're carrying the goodness of God. I got six thoughts on the middle. Six thoughts on the middle. I hope that by the end of this message, in seven minutes and 14 seconds, you're going to understand that the middle matters. The middle matters, knuckle bump your neighbor and say the middle matters. Why does the middle matter? Why does the middle matter? The middle matters because it's where death stops and life begins. It matters because it's where cursing stops and freedom comes. It's because it matters because it's where life hangs in the balance. And if we're Christ followers who won't stand, then I'm here to tell you that lost people will lose I can't I can't make that stand. Pastor, Matt, they might not understand me. Can I tell you something? They most certainly won't understand you. They're not supposed to. Your responsibility is not to convince them. Your responsibility is to compel them to stop choosing death and to start choosing life. You can't make anybody make a decision. You can only inspire them to make a decision, but you can only inspire somebody if you'll make a stand. That's why the middle matters. The middle is messy, and it only gets messier when the plague stops. Think about standing in the middle of life and death, death, life, life, death. Come on. Don't just brush past that. Think of the mess that was in the middle. Think about at Aaron's feet. He was carrying the strength, the power, the life, the presence of God we've been led to believe in our church world that everything is going to be pretty. It's not going to be pretty. It might be ugly. It might be messy. Death, life, heartache, heartbreak, disappointment and pain, hope, wholeness, life, healing, side by side. People have told me we can't come to Mercy city. It's too messy for us. So go find a church that's not messy. I don't know if you'd be able to find one. It's actually, you see what I'm saying. Come on, man, it's going to be a mess. Even those of you who try to put on your little church smile, you're a mess, aren't we? Come on, everybody. Why does the middle matter? The middle matters because it's where death stops and life begins. Who matters? The middle matters because it's where people meet. It's where people meet with God and it's where people meet with one another. The middle matters for them, those who are lost, those who are without the understanding of God. The middle matters for you. It's where you and I begin to learn that we're not here to settle and we're not here to be stubborn. We're here to be stable in the presence of God, where we're going to become reliant on God that we take the purpose. Person of God to meet, not only our needs, but also the needs of the people that we're going to meet in the middle of the middle matters for people. It's where we begin to learn to passionately go after the things of God. So we can show them too. Can I ask you a question if you don't show them the goodness of God. Who will, who will? What? What is the third thought on the middle, in the middle, it matters what we carry, carrying the life giving fire of God, so that the people who are desperately in need because of their disconnection from him. Can find him the power people who need hope, the need is real, transformational power. It's not some cute little church service, it's not a flipping cookie, it's not a cup of coffee. All that stuff is bait to bring people in so that they can experience the life giving, transformational power of a living God. They don't need us to carry coffee in the middle. They don't need us to carry a cookie in the middle. They don't even need us to carry a parking vest in the middle. We do all that stuff so we can get in the middle, so that they'll receive from us in the middle. But they need us to carry the power of God. They need us to carry the presence of God. That's what we need. Church didn't change my life. An encounter with Jesus changed my life. That's what they need. That's what we need when do they need it? For thought is this, when do they need it? They need it right now, before it's too late. The middle matters, because none of us are promised tomorrow. And while there's unlimited possibility in the middle, there's not unending opportunity. There's a shelf life of the opportunity in the middle. See, there are going to be two dates on all of our tombstones, the date we were born and the date that we died. There's a shelf life on the middle. So when do we choose to go, well, we ought to choose now, because I don't know if tomorrow's coming. And I'm not trying to gloom and doom and scare you into something that you're not ready for, but I'm trying to help us face the reality, the possibility of what's to come.What are you going to do with the dash between your dates? The middle you were made for it. So you thought it was about your birthday. You thought it was about your death day. That's not about that. It's about the dash between the dates. What are you doing with the dash? Because the dash is when your story is written, and the dash is when their story is written. Fifth thought is this, where can I just encourage you to look around? Because the middle of where you are is the place that you call to us the middle you mean at this school. Yes, that school you mean in this position. Yes, that position where you wake up tomorrow is the middle that you're made for the family that you wake up in. That's the middle that you're made for the wife that you wake up next to. That's the middle that you're made for, the influence that you have. That's the middle that you're made for. So many of us spend so much of our lives looking outside the middle. I just wish I could have influence there, or I wish I could get influence back there. Can I tell you to stop? That's not what you're made for. You're made for the middle that you're in right now, people pray all the time. Well, God, I just wish you would take me to this mission field or that mission field. Can I tell you something? When you leave this building, that is your mission field, when you take your wife and kids to brunch, that's your mission field, your waiter, your waitress, that's your mission field. You wake up to lead your team tomorrow, that's your mission field. Stop. Waiting, watching, looking where I'm going to go. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. That's the middle you're made for last, but certainly not least. How? How is the middle so important? Because it's where it all starts. It all starts with a personal relationship with Jesus by believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth. Romans 10, nine and 10 say, because all of us, every single one of us, have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard. Romans, chapter. Three. Verse 23 says, and because of that failure, because of that falling, because of that sin, life, all of us, all of us deserve the death side of the middle, but because of the person of Jesus, we can be offered the life side of the middle. See, Jesus was the one who ultimately stood in the middle, so that you and I can now stand in the middle. But it all starts with Jesus. That's how the middle will impact somebody's eternity. Some of us came to church alone this morning, because we are looking for comfort in the middle.And next week, I believe that you're not going to come along the person that you've been praying for. You're going to reach out to him. Ooh, I can't wait to preach next week this message, but it's going to be amazing. But this week, the middle matters. You were made for the middle. You were made for the middle. The enemy's been lying to you, telling you you are stuck. You're not stuck. You're planted in the place where God has you come on. It's a change of perspective. It's a shift of your paradigm. I'm not stuck. I was made for this. Oh man. Lincoln. Nebraska, shut up. Seward, shut up. You were made for this. You were born for this God designed you for this to make an impact. Let's step outside of our comfort zone. Let's step into that place of impact, and let's make the middle count. Come on. Would you stand on your feet in all of our rooms? Stand on your feet in all of our rooms? If you would say pastor, Matt, that's me. I've been believing a lie. I've been feeling stuck. I've been feeling stuck, but I believe I was made for this. I believe I was made for more. That's you. Would you just lift both hands to heaven. I want to pray for you. I've been feeling stuck, stuck in my marriage, stuck in my job, stuck in my life, I just feel stuck. My God, look at the hands. Oh, we're going to stay faithful. God, we're going to we choose to surrender our mindset to you. We're not stuck. We were made for this. We were made for the middle. I'm not stuck. I'm not hopeless. All hope is not gone or lost. I was made for this, and so God, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, over every person that has their hands lifted high, I declare in the name of Jesus that you would give them fresh insight, fresh vision, fresh wisdom, to stand between the living and the dead, not thinking the enemy is about to overtake me, but to realize that God, the God of the universe, made me for this, made me for this, and I remain faithful. I keep watching, I keep waiting, I keep hoping. I keep praying. Hope will stay alive in Jesus, mighty name. Oh. Jesus.