Hey, at all of our campuses, can we pray together right now? Father, we honor you Wow. To be in your presence when so many other things we could be doing right now. But Lord, you have brought us here from all corners, from all stories, from all different backgrounds. You've brought us together into a family that is united to giving you glory.

Thank you. We don't take this moment for granted. We don't just check it off of a box. That's part of our routine, Lord. No, we stand in the midst of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords giving you all glory, all honor and all praise saying thank you Jesus, that we have an opportunity to stand before you as sons and daughters, that you have made a way for us.

Now, for every person in the room, every person at a campus, every person watching online, Lord, would you move in our hearts? Would you change us? Let us not be the same as we leave today, as when we stepped in here, make us different. Lord, take us out of Egypt and take Egypt out of us. We honor you, we praise you, and we love you.

In Jesus' name that we pray and everyone said amen. Amen. Welcome to church. We're so excited. Hey, would you guys at Lincoln Road, do me a favor?

Would you help me welcome in everyone at all of our campuses who's watching online right now? And I know we did it before, but we need to give one more big welcome round of applause to everyone watching for Mission Trip right now. We have 116 students and leaders going to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Man, that's awesome. I love that.

I love that we have students who are giving up time, that are giving up their time, their their summer to go and, and to lead others to Jesus, man, that that's what it's all about. And you should be proud of that. We, uh, if you're watching in right now, your admission trip, we want you to know that we love you, we're praying for you, and that we're believing that God is gonna use you to do amazing things this week. So no matter what happens this week, know this, that God is going to use you in a powerful way. Hey, if we haven't met yet, my name is Blake.

I'm part of the team here at Venture and congratulations, you made it to Summer. Well done. You look great even across the screen. I mean, this is summertime, y'all. Is anybody like a summertime person like summertime?

Anybody? Not a summertime person. Like give me winter all day long. We'll pray for you. Okay?

Yeah. Lemme tell you this. I'm, uh, okay. Full disclosure. I'm like, I love summer and hate summer, right?

Like, I'm like Olaf at some points, but then I'm like, Olaf, that melted in frozen with summer two. Because here's the deal. Summertime, you get to go on vacations, you get to have fun, you get to swim in the swimming pool, you get to go to the beach, do all that stuff, and it's really, really, really hot. Can I get a amen? Amen.

That's right. People, I feel like if you're from South Mississippi, you know this, maybe you're watching from 75 degrees San Diego, that's good on you, amazing. But like for us down here in the dirty south, like it is hot y'all. And that's why for us in summertime, we just find large bodies of water to congregate around. Like this is what we do.

Like it could be a lake, it could be a river, it could be a sewage, but no, I'm just kidding. Now we're not gonna do that. It could be the beach. Like it could be any of these things. That's what me and my family did this past week.

We officially rang in the summer season. My wife, she's an educator. And so by the time that May gets around, we're like clawing our way to get to like the last week of May, like Memorial Day weekend. We're like heaving. We're like, oh, okay.

We made it like we started thinking about this vacation we were gonna take for I, I don't know, since February maybe. And so we always go on Memorial Day weekend with family and we have an amazing time. But I think that this message series that we're in is aptly named. Aren't we there yet? Because if is there is a theme around the summer and trips and going, and maybe you're on one right now, y'all.

We were not out of our city traveling to where we were headed before. My 5-year-old daughter looks up and she says, daddy, and I said this, you're about to do it, aren't you? You're gonna do it, don't you? Don't you do it, daddy, are we there yet? Baby, we have been traveling for seven and a half minutes.

There's not a chance that we're we're there yet. We've got a long ways to go, but that's the question we asked during the summer, right? Are we there yet? That's what this message series is all about, is over the next few weeks, we're gonna be looking at our lives as we follow Christ. And there's so much right?

You, you feel this, maybe you feel this in, in your own life. It's like there's so many times that we just wanna look at God and say, God, we not there yet. Like, do we have to go through this season again? Do I have to go through this again? I thought that I was already past this part, thought I had already leveled up to the next level of Christianity or whatever that may mean.

Why do I have to stay here? Why does it feel like I'm going through the same season over and over and over and over and over the next few weeks? What we're gonna learn together is that God does his best work, y'all in the times where it feels like we're stuck the most, he does his best work in our lives. He does his best work in our hearts when it feels like we have nowhere else to go. And so today, that's what I want us to talk about.

But I kind of wanna stay in the summer vibe for a little bit because you know, as they say, it's summertime and the living is, no, it's expensive. It's very, very expensive. Have none of you been to the grocery store recently? Yes. It, it is crazy.

So we were like I was saying, we were on this trip and I had such high expectations like do you ever get to that point where you're looking at a thing and you're like, this is going to be it. Like this is the thing that I'm most excited about. I've been looking forward to this and it is going to be perfect. I'm gonna go to the beach, I'm gonna go to Publix. My wife Lawrence, she was like, Blake, let's just go to Walmart.

It's so much cheaper. I was like, no, we're going to Publix because Publix is at the beach and when I go to the beach, I go to Publix. That was my mistake. But we did it anyway. And so we're there and but from the very get go, y'all, there was this thing, it was like what I had set up in my brain for this trip to be.

And then realizing that I had also brought a 5-year-old and an 18 month old with me, that that just didn't mix. It didn't match. Like, uh, I don't know who says that families can take family vacations. If you have any children under the age of six 10, even you don't have vacations, you have trips. You just go on trips.

That's what you do. And so the whole time there was this, this back and forth like, how much sand is hatcher gonna eat? We don't know, but we're gonna find out. Like all of these things I felt myself constantly tugging back and forth, back and forth of having this expectation and then it not living up to the expectation and being stuck in the middle of this idea of the life that I wanted, the trip that I wanted and the trip that I got. Do you ever feel that way?

Maybe about in your own life? It doesn't have to be about vacations. It can be about the season of life that you're in, thinking that you should be further along or that the life should be better for you than it is right now. We call this an expectation gap. It's like maybe you've been sitting at two different sides and you're trying to look and say, okay, I'm supposed to be doing it this way, but now it's not really working out that way.

I thought I would be further along by now, but I still feel stuck. I don't know which way to go. I have a gap in my expectation. We all feel it. And for some of us, it's stronger than others.

Maybe for you, you got the diagnosis you weren't looking for, maybe for you, the story that you had imagined for yourself didn't nearly work out and you were tripped up early on in life by things that were or were not in your control. But today, what I want us to do is looking and add some anchor points in Scripture. I want us to see that believing in Christ and following after him. It is exactly what we need to live in this life, no matter what life throws at us. And no matter what expectations we may have had of what our life should have been.

There's a word I learned recently. It's a phrase actually. It's called liminal space. Liminal space. And the the definition says that liminal space is the period of transition where you're no longer where you were, but you're not yet where you're going.

You're not where you were, but you're not where you're going. It's the middle space. In fact, the the word liminal comes from the, the Latin word lemon. It's not like the zest. Y'all like, hold on.

It's L-I-N-E-N. So lemon, it's, it's this idea of a threshold of a door doorpost, right? So you're standing like right in the middle. You're, you're not in this room, but you're not in that room. This happens with my daughter all the time.

She goes out to the back porch, she opens the door, she stands right inside the middle and she just looks, and I say, heavenly grace, we say that you've probably said this to your own kids. In or out, in or out, not in and out, in or out. Pick one. We're not trying to cool the entire backyard. We need to pick one of these.

And that's where this idea of lial space comes in. It's this this middle space of you're not where you were, but you're also not where you're going. You're just kind of stuck. In Christianity, we have a same term, another phrase that we use that means the same thing. It's called the already not yet in our faith as we live our lives.

Do you feel this tension too that when we give our lives to Jesus and we get the promise and we receive the promise of his son, of, of leaning into the victory that we have in Christ, but we're, we're not yet where we feel like we need to be, life keeps coming down back at us, keeps crashing into us. So what I want us to do is look at these anchor points in Scripture, the already and the not yet, and learn how to live in the messy middle. Learn how to live in that liminal space. But to do that, can we first, before we go to the Scripture, can we first go to the Lord in prayer asking that he would speak to us? Let's pray.

Father, we do ask that it would be your words that are spoken today. Any word that I say that is not of you that has no purpose here, father, may it be forgotten forever. Lord, may your words ring true in this moment and let them change us. 'Cause we know that your word never returns void. We honor you, father.

We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So let's unpack these together, shall we? The already and the not yet, what does this mean for us?

How do we live? And that the first thing I want us to see is the already our first anchor point is looking back and seeing the already that has been accomplished on our behalf, which is Christ's victory, the victory that Christ is one on our behalf. Go to Colossians chapter two, verse 13 through 15 says this, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hello, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins. Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemn condemned us.

He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross man. And I don't know if, if that doesn't get your blood pumping, man, that's something good right there. Because when we think about the life that we're in, no matter what your story is, no matter what you're facing in life, no matter what's happening in this very moment, one thing that you can be assured of, that you can take confidence in is that there is a foundation of faith that is waiting for you that was accomplished by Christ Jesus on the cross. We gotta go back to Gospel 1 0 1, y'all.

If we're going to live in this life, if we're going to allow God to form us as a people, as a community at all of our campuses in church online, if we don't want to be overcome by what we face in this world, we've got to reflect and to take in and to make our foundation the victory of Christ on the cross. He is everything. This is where it starts. It's in Him and what he has accomplished on our behalf. And that is for those of us who have trusted in Christ.

So let me take it back to the beginning. For each and every one of us, there is no way that we could earn favor with God. No way. In fact, Scripture says that we are dead apart from God, apart from Jesus, apart from the work that he did for us. Each and every one of us have something in us called sin.

Sin is where we try to live our lives on our own accord, on our own terms, try to form this world and fashion it in our own image, try to build kingdoms for ourselves, raise them up, and that sin begins to leak out on the world and it keeps us separated from a holy, righteous, perfect God. Romans 3 23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is nothing and religion tries to step in. Every other religion that has ever been known in the history of mankind has always been about man trying to earn his way, step by step, going back up the mountain to try to get to God every single time it fails because there's nothing that a dead person can do to be raised again. There's nothing that we can do a praise be to God that he did not see fit, to stay on the mountain himself and look at us from a distance.

But instead he said, no, no, no, I am. I love you so much. I want my glory to be across the oceans, across the sea, en encompassing the entire world. That I love my children so much that I refuse to let them stay separated. So I'm going to pay the ultimate penalty of sin and of death.

I am going to give my only son. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's something to lay claim to in your life. That's something to put a stake in. If you're hurting today, if you're struggling today, maybe you came for the very first time and you're at the end of your rope lay claim to Jesus because he gave his life for you.

He took the nails for you. He gave everything for you. And here's the kicker, here's the beautiful thing, is that when he died and gave his life, he didn't stay dead. He said, no, no, no, no, I now have victory. Look at what it says in Colossians two, 13 or 15.

He says, and having disarmed the powers and the authorities, the the evil that would try to keep him down, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. He takes authority back in the already that we live in as we live under the authority of King Jesus. Because he is now seated at the right hand of the Father. And death no longer has a claim on us. Hell no longer has a claim on us heartache and brokenness and sickness.

They are realities of this world, but they no longer lay claim to us because of what has already been accomplished by Christ on his cross. Romans chapter eight, verses one and two says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who trust in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death through Christ's work on the cross are past is forgiven, and our future is secured. That's how we live in the liminal space. That is one of the anchor points that we hold on to.

No matter what you're facing, you can always look back and see that the greatest act of love that was ever given on your behalf happened on a cross of calvary 2000 years ago. If you're ever doubting that friends, if you're ever wondering where God is, if you're saying, God, where are you in this diagnosis? God, where are you in the middle of my pain? God, where are you in my brokenness? God, where are you in my divorce?

In my failure, in my bankruptcy, in my addiction? Where are you? He's still where he was on that day when he goes on seated at the right hand of the Father, say, I am here and I have accomplished everything on your behalf. I'm for you. We can lay claim to that.

We see it. I love what John's thought said. It says, the resurrection is the vindication of the crucifixion. It is the public declaration that what appeared to be defeat is really victory. And what seemed to be a failure is actually success.

The beautiful thing about following Jesus, y'all, is that every dark season of our life can be transformed into light because of the empty tomb. We can live in the light of that eternity. We live in the light of the empty tomb. Every heartbreak that you've experienced can be turned around and used for good. Every failure that you have ever experienced.

Because our lives gain the truest meaning when we live in the truth, that he is risen, he's risen. If you want a motto for your life, something to look back to, something to hold onto to the, the tumult and the ups and downs and the rollercoaster hold onto that. He is risen. He is already risen, and our lives are already in him. But in the middle of it all, we're still walking.

We're still walking. Where are we going? And why aren't we there yet? Why haven't we got there yet? What more is there?

You see, if we're gonna walk this road, well, we have to have two anchor points. We've got the already we've taken in and received the grace and the mercy of Jesus, but y'all we're headed somewhere. There is a point to all of this. Does anybody ever ask themselves the question? What's the point?

I, I, I ask myself that probably once a week. Now what's the point, Lord? What are we doing here? What are you, what are you doing? God?

And I was taken back to, to a passage of Scripture that opened my eyes to this because I want you to see it as well. We're gonna go to Revelation chapter five because we have to see that there is a point to this, that the not yet of where we're headed is our destiny. And that God has a plan that he is going to bring forth, that he is going to see happen over the whole earth. And you are a part of that. Your life is a part of that.

What happens in your life is a part of that. He has a plan. Everything has a purpose and nothing is wasted. But in order to, to really take that in, we need to go to where we're headed. And thank the Lord, he's given us a view.

I'm so thankful that we have a view, a glimpse, even just a little one of where it is, that we are going one day, all of us who believe in Christ and are following after him, all of those who are going to believe in Christ and follow after him, that there is a destination to this journey. There is a fulfillment that is coming. You know, it's so hard. There's so many things in life that you just can't see. I don't know what I'm gonna be doing two weeks from now.

I don't know what I'm gonna be doing for lunch. I don't know what I'm gonna be doing in August. I don't know what I'm gonna be doing next year, the next five years, the next 10 years, man, I just got a new uh, TV service and now I can't even watch the Braves play anymore. Like I can't, I, there's just some things you can't see. And if it wasn't for God himself, we wouldn't be able to see what's at the end of the line.

But thanks be to God that he gave us a view, a glimpse. So can we go there together? Revelation chapter five. I don't want you to miss this moment though. It, it can be so easy to do.

So it can be so easy just to let these be words on a page. But I wanna encourage you and challenge you in this. This will be the greatest thing that you read and hear today. Probably one of the most important is a vision of where we're headed as a people. This is this.

Then I saw, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll. But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside of it. And I wept. And I wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or to look inside.

But then one of the elders said to me, don't weep. See, look with your eyes and see the lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David has triumph. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals. And then I looked and I saw a lamb looking as though it had been slain standing where?

At the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. And the lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and he took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders, they fell down before the lamb. And each one had a harp that they were holding.

And they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which were the prayers of God's people. And they sang a new song, s saying, you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood, you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth. And then I looked and I saw, and I heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.

And in a loud voice they were saying, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them saying to him, who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praised and honor and glory and power forever and ever. And all the creatures said, amen. Amen. We're headed somewhere.

Y'all we're headed to a destination. There is a fulfillment to this. Did you notice the scroll that God the Father was holding in his hand at the moment? This was his plan. They call it the tail loss, the fulfillment, the ending.

And there was no one that was able, that was worthy. Not just able, not just, not just good enough, not just not just having the ability to, but there was no one worthy to see God's plan unfurled into eternity except for one. John was weeping and weeping because there was no one to see. God's plan saw out through to fruition. And for so many of us, we sit in that same place.

God, what are you doing? Where am I going? I can't do this alone. And God looks at every single one of us and says, it was never your responsibility to hold the scroll. 'Cause I've already given it and I'm giving it to the one who's worthy the plan for your life.

You need to hand it to the one who's worthy. You need to hand it on over to him and say, I'm gonna let you live this Lord, because you are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise. And there will be a day that we step face to face with that king. And we look at him full on in the eyes and we see him and it'll all make sense. It will all make sense.

I love the Chronicles and Narnia books. It's one of my favorite. Uh, in the last book called The Last Battle, there's this character named Jewel. And they say this, it says, it was stepping into their version of eternity in the books. And it says, I have come home at last.

This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land that I've been looking for all my life. And though I never knew about it until now, there's gonna be a day when we step in and all of the hurt, all of the baggage, all of the addiction, all of the difficult seasons, all of the heartache that you've endured in your life and trusted God with, you're gonna stand face to face with the king of eternity. And you say, this is my home.

This is where I belong. And it all makes sense now because heaven isn't just a destination, y'all. It's our destiny. It's our destiny. That's why Jesus prays and your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Why are we still in the messy middle? Why are we still in this liminal space with one foot planted in the already in the other foot planted and the not yet? Why are we still here? Why are we still enduring this? Lord?

Why are we still in the season of suffering? Why am I still in this journey? Again? Because it's not just about getting out of here and into heaven, but it's about getting heaven into us and out into our world. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

We're not just zapped up to heaven. Heaven comes down to us and we make it known to everyone around us. We live in faith here because of the promise that is assured to us there. I wanna encourage you wake up every single day saying, yeah, I've already been claimed. I already live under the ruler rulership and the kingship of King Jesus, and I know exactly where I'm headed.

So it doesn't matter what happens to me in the middle. It doesn't matter what takes place in my life in the middle. I'm here to serve one purpose and one purpose alone. It's to give God glory and honor and praise for the rest of my life. Because I know where I'm headed and I know where I've been, and I sure enough, am a lot further than where I was.

I'm going to a different place. And we live in the liminal space. How do we do it? Paul gives us an idea in Philippians three verses 12 through 14. This is not that I've already attained all of this, or I've already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I don't consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing that I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to towards the goal, to win the prize for which God has called me heaven word in Christ Jesus. Here's the challenge for you today, friend. As we move and we ask the question, are we there yet? As we live in the messy middle, in the liminal space, in the already not yet. Press on.

Press on, keep moving forward. Wake up every day with the confidence of the already and the assurance of the not yet in your heart and in your mind. And press on. Let every step forward in this life, be fueled by the hope that we have in our future. Let it be fueled by our hope.

Take courage in this. We're gonna move into a time of response today at all of our locations and online. I'm gonna ask you to do this. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? This can be a lot to take in.

I don't know what season of life you find yourself in, but I wanna challenge you today to keep going. For those of us who are here today, maybe you're here for the very first time and all this Jesus stuff is new to you, and you're still figuring it all out. There's no better, no better challenge, encouragement that I could give to you today than to trust Christ. Make him king of your life. Allow those anchor points to take hold in your heart.

Be changed. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to have all the answers. Just say yes. Say yes to him.

I say, Jesus, I'm here to follow you. There's a prayer that I love. It's uh, it's attributed to St. Patrick. He was a missionary to Ireland and he saw a lot of stuff.

Terrible stuff, hard stuff. He was kicked out, brought back. It was crazy. But he also saw an incredible move of God. And the reason he was able to do it's 'cause He, he pressed on and he stayed centered in Christ.

I I wanna pray this for all of us in this moment. And then I want you to move into a time of response. Maybe at our locations. You wanna come down and take communion to remind yourself of the already what has been accomplished for you. Maybe you wanna come to the cross and just say, thank you, Jesus.

Maybe you need prayer. We'd love to pray with you. Our teams would. Maybe you just need to worship and put yourself in that same moment in Revelation chapter five, where we are standing in the throne room and thousands upon thousands of angels saying, worthy, worthy, worthy. Holy, holy, holy, day and night.

Holy, holy, holy. Because do you know who is at the center of that throne room? Not around it. I'm in the corner, not in the door. But at the sinner was Jesus.

He's the sinner of it all. This was the prayer of St. Patrick Christ with me. Christ before me. Christ in me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, and Christ on my left. Christ, when I lie down, Christ, when I sit down and Christ, when I get back up, Christ in the heart of every person who thinks of me, Christ, in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me Christ, in every eye that sees me, Christ, in every ear that hears me to him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Lord, we come to you in this moment, giving you all glory and praise. You've accomplished for us what we cannot accomplish on our behalf.

You've given us life. You've rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and brought us evermore into your light. We honor you for that. We are not the same. So in this messy middle, in this already, not yet, would you give us the strength to press on, to keep going, to not give up, to not lose hope, but the trust that we know exactly where we're going and you're the one that's taken us there.

We worship you, Lord. And we respond now to your call. See Christ and we pray. Amen.