Stuck in the Middle with You

Stuck in the Middle with You
By: Bobby Sullivan

Click on the link below to watch the Service:
https://www.facebook.com/icbridgewater/videos/885528588557477/

Introduction. Clowns to the left, jokers to the right here am stuck in the middle with you is a Stealers Wheel Classic but has some truth to what it was like having Jesus stuck in the middle of two thieves.  It also represents what some of our lives are when we are stuck in the middle of our mess.

How many of you have ever felt like a mashed potato lately, or deep fried? I’m here today to tell you God is about to turn your messed up misery into a majestic mansion!

We are in a time in history that for the most part all of humanity, meaning the entire human race is now STUCK IN THE MIDDLE. We are on pause, on idle, on hold and for some have come to a complete stand still!  Where before, if you looked to the left or the right you had options but now you just have opinions and obstacles.

You’re in a crisis when you used to be coasting.

It is now in your comfort where there are little distractions that God is now trying to have conversation with you.  He now has your ear and he is closer than you ever imagined.

You maybe unsure about a lot of things but Im here to tell you today,   “God is not just living in eternity he is living in your reality!”  Life is getting very real for many! God is saying to you today, he is about to release a revelation of restoration for you in your current reality!  

God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end and he still is concerned about you when you stuck in the middle.

Take this story not as an historical event that you read about but transform it into a current reality, you can imagine walking with the disciples, listening to the heart wrenching cries of Mary the mother and the accusations of the Romans.

Think about your walking with Jesus, giving up your possessions, changing your career, leaving it all behind to march forward with Christ, being at the last supper, seeing the miracles, seeing the leper cleansed, walking on the sea, private teachings. In other words, you witnessed EVERYTHING!  You have invested everything. The man that you put all your time, treasure and talent into hanging from the wood of a tree! You were going to watch him conquer the world but he could not even conquer the ones crucifying him!!!

WHATS UP WITH THAT?  Now instead of him being stuck in the middle. You find that you are!  Now what?  What’s next, Where and what do I do now?

TEXT: John 19: 41-42 NLT ^{41 FRIDAY “}The place of crucifixion was near a

Garden, where there used to be a tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”

John 20:1 New Living Translation (NLT)

20 Early on Sunday morning,^[a] while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

FRIDAY- they put him in

SUNDAY- he got out     What happened on Saturday?

Friday is your reality!        Sunday is the Resurrection   What about the Rest of Saturday?

Some people want to shout RESURRECTION, you can’t REST either because your stuck in the REALITY of Friday.

We want to experience the REZ of your problem but your still crying in Friday with no hope of resting in Saturday so your stuck in the middle.

GOOD NEWS!! He will rescue you in your reality on Friday-He will provide a revelation of rest on Saturday – So You will experience a resurrection of redemption on Sunday

So, How do you conduct your life in the middle? How do you exist in a season of unrest?

• My response in the middle is more important than the reason why I’m in the middle:

Other than Social Distancing, and doing what we are told, our reality is real. You see the Resurrection down the road but how we react and respond to this current reality will determine if we can enter into the rest of the Lord while we are waiting for the Resurrection!!!

• We can’t blame or control the reality. There are some things we can change and others we cant.
• What you can control is how you react and respond in the middle. My response is more important than the reason why!
• Friend it is time to untie knots that are in your mind, your heart, and your life. The can nots and the do nots you have in your mind. Erase the will nots, may nots, might nots that may find a home in your heart. You need to be free from the could nots, would nots, and should nots that obstruct your life.
• Don’t worry, don’t freak out, don’t panic, don’t stress, don’t give in, don’t throw in the towel and don’t’ surrender. Surrender is for those without options. Surrender is for those who have nothing to fight back with and for those who have lost their will.
• Don’t be distracted by the Whys in your reality!

If you stuck in the middle, quit trying to figure out Why your there and start coming up with right response while you are there.

ROMANS 12:12 NLT “Rejoice In our confident hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying.”

It’s in the middle where you learn to depend, grow, mature, lean on, and stretch. The middle ground is the transition between what was and what’s about to be!

Unfortunately we may have to go through the suffering of silence on Saturday to witness the resurrection on Sunday! Listen, the silence of God is not the absence of God. Just because you cant see what he is doing, does not mean He is not busy working on our behalf!

With that said, I don’t want you to silently suffer in your season of uncertainty.

Between your REALITY and your RESURRECTION, you must rest in the confident assurance that Life and death are in the power of the tongue!

Just because its dark in your tomb right now does not mean all hope is gone. Some just have to open there eyes again and stop looking at your current situation through the backdrop of your eyelids!

MATTHEW 6:25-34NLT “²⁵ “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? ²⁷ Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? (WORRY IS WARFARE)

²⁸ “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, ²⁹ yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. ³⁰ And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? GOD CARES FOR YOU IN THE MIDDLE

³¹ “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ ³² These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. ³³ Seek the Kingdom of God^[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

³⁴ “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

There is a method in the middle. You must master the mundane in the middle of you misery. If you can do that you will be able to manage your misery in the middle!

REALITY-DILEMA-DECEPTION-DECISION

If your listen to the enemy’s deception in your dilemma, you will be forced to make a decision in the middle.

Typically anytime you make a decision based on the deception of your dilemma, it ends in death. Something will die! Dreams, desires, aspirations, relationships, your preference and plans.

When you make the right decisions that is not based on your dilemma and deception, God promises deliverance.

The Middle had a dilemma, a decision, deception, death.

Listen you can only be delivered from the curse of the middle if your dependant on….well….DAD!  (24:04) 

Who do you know that was caught in the middle?

How about Mary the mother of Jesus.

Her Reality-Son was Dead

Her Dilemma-It went against everything God promised her. Think about this…………….She didn’t ask for Jesus. He was just POOF in her.

Some of you right now are going through something that you didn’t even ask for? Who would have thought the thing you were thinking of 3 months ago would be the thing your running from now?

HER DECEPTION: was the devil telling her this was the end.

• The Promise is not void because of the pain.

You don’t ever want to make a decision in the middle of your pain (migraine)

PETER:

His reality was his mentor is dead

His Dilemma was he was a disastrous train wreck of a man. Jesus told him at the last supper you will deny me 3x. His Dilemma was he did what he said he would never do.

The enemy makes you think that your worth is connected to your works. That is the ultimate deception which is a HUGE Dilemma!

Peter had to make a decision that he would focus on the character of Jesus and not the concerns of the critics. May I also add the concerns of carnal Christians.(33:28

Things can have a drastic and dramatic change in your life while your in middle of mess if you make the right decision and turn. That turning may be repentance, learning to say, NO! Admitting you were wrong, or even saying to someone, YES you are right I need a change of attitude. I need a check up from the neck up!

At some point your decision must line up with Gods destiny for you! Remember when I said, “Gods delays are not Gods denials?” They may be detours! Remember he sees the beginning and the end? Which means, He sees the traps! He sees the potential distractions that will cause you to make the wrong decision on your way to your destiny!!! 

Some of you today are going to make a different decision in the middle of your dilemma!  SHOUT THIS IS THE DAY!!

John 3: 16-17 The compassion of Christ is in 16/The character of God in 17

God always makes a way in the middle

2 Corinthians 5:19 NLV “¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.”

God made a decision in the middle to send his son because Satan was deceived enough to think that his name was greater than the fathers. Death on the cross was your receipt for salvation and because Jesus voluntarily gave up his life you are now delivered from the grave of guilt and the shame of sin!

Just like Jesus was stuck between 2 thieves, some of you are stuck in the middle between 2 robbers who have tried to steal from you! That’s right a joker on one side and a clown on the next.

The resurrection was an interruption in Satans construction of his kingdom!