Where You Are

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Chuck Allen here. And I want to talk about where you are. Because where we are as followers of [00:00:15] Speaker B: Jesus is we are in the middle. Have you ever noticed how much of life is lived in the middle? I mean, between birth and death, between spiritual birth and heaven. Not beginning, not the breakthrough, not the finish line. The messy, messy middle. It's the place where you thought you'd be further along by now. It's where the prayers feel repeated. It's where the change feels slower than you expected. It's where you start wondering whether all [00:00:47] Speaker A: this spiritual language about growth is actually true. Because your life still feels so doggone, unfinished. And into that space right there, scripture speaks. [00:01:01] Speaker B: Romans 8 puts it this way, beginning in verse 29. For God knew His people in advance, and he chose them to become like His Son. And having chosen them, he called them to come to Him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with Himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. I want to make sure that you hear four phrases, and in this. [00:01:28] Speaker A: In this beautiful passage, he chose you. He called you, he made it light. In other words, he justified you. He glorified you. Friend. That is everything about that is motion. [00:01:47] Speaker B: It's a journey, which means this. If you're not at the end yet, you're not stuck. You. You're just standing still. You're becoming. Because in the middle, which is where we are, it. It's a journey, and you are becoming. You're just not there yet. Somewhere along the way, a lot of us picked up this idea that faith is about arriving. Like you, like you. Say yes to Jesus, and that's it. [00:02:17] Speaker A: Done. Finished, box checked, hung the certificate on the wall. All is good. But Paul doesn't say new life has arrived. He says this means According to 2nd Corinthians 5:17, this means that anyone who [00:02:32] Speaker B: belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone. A new life has begun. Begun like a seed in the ground, like a sunrise, just breaking the horizon. Like a baby that's learning to walk, falling down, getting up, falling down again. Which means, of course, it's not done yet. It's incomplete. And that's not failure, y'. All. That's formation. Okay, I can't say that loud enough. That's not failure. That's formation. [00:03:04] Speaker A: There's a word for this middle space. We talked about it at Sugar Hill Church a couple of weeks ago. Sanctification. It's that long, slow, holy work of God that shaping your life into something that actually looks like Jesus. [00:03:19] Speaker B: Paul writes to the Philippians, he says in Philippians 1:6 I am certain that God who began the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished. He began. He will continue. He will finish. So if it feels unfinished, that's because it is. And here's something worth remembering. God's not embarrassed by the process. He doesn't panic when you take longer than you expected. [00:03:48] Speaker A: He doesn't get irritated because you need another lesson. He doesn't abandon the work because it's slower than you hoped. He is patient. He is faithful. He is present. So wherever you find yourself today, in [00:04:03] Speaker B: the midst of the tension or in the waiting or in the messy middle, you are not behind. You are simply becoming. And the God who started something in you hasn't walked away from it. Not for one second. My friend, you are becoming, which is a beautiful thing. Because if salvation is the start and if heaven is the gain and the [00:04:32] Speaker A: finish line, then everything in between is simply you're not there yet. Which is good news for every follower of Jesus, because you can always get back on track with a Jesus that [00:04:48] Speaker B: welcomes you right where you are. So, my friend, today go live with that absolute certainty that God's not done with you. He has an extraordinary plan for you and wants the best for you, even if you're not done yet and you're just kind of in the middle where you are. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for listening in to today's weekday podcast.