In Between Introduction
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
(Genesis 1:1, ESV)
“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
(Revelation 21:5–6, ESV)
Introduction
Let’s jump into the wayback time machine together. The year is 2001. Katie and I are newlyweds and about to celebrate our first-year anniversary together. Now, don’t make fun of the selfie. Remember, this was in the days of film cameras! There was no screen to see how we looked! We were holding up a Canon point-and-shoot camera and hoping and praying it was pointed at our face and wouldn’t know how it looked for weeks until we developed the film.
We wanted to do something fun together for our first anniversary so we thought we would go camping. Katie’s family was a tent-trailer camping family. They did the whole tent-trailer with kid bikes and the whole kitchen sink type of camping all throughout her childhood and she has many wonderful memories from those times. But not backpacking. My family didn’t really do the outdoors much except when my dad would use those times to connect with work colleagues. I experienced a few camping trips, hunting trips, and even fun fishing trips with his guy buddies, but not much.
So, for our first anniversary we decided we would go backpacking. You know, becoming one with God’s nature and being tough and rugged. I wasn’t an incredibly experienced camper, so I felt a great responsibility to make sure it went well. As one did in those days, I went to the store, looked at a book on hiking trails and picked our route, and bought a paper map and laminated it. We prepped and planned to take off in early August on a three-day hiking loop that we gave ourselves five days to complete. We thought we would just take it slow, go easy, enjoy the time together, and not feel pressed or worried.
We went up just north of McCall. If you haven’t been up to that part of Idaho that is where things really start getting lush and green from there on up through the north of the state. Very thick vegetation even in the late summer. It is a very nice change from the dry dessert that Boise butts up against. We parked, put on our backpacks, and took off.
The beginning was a nice hike across some open fields and ridges. There was small burn area that was beautiful with newly growing trees and wildflowers. And then it began to change.
As best I could tell, this is where our path was supposed to be. In fact, I could barely even tell if there WAS a path. As I looked down this ridge and into the valley below, every now and then I could pick out some downed trees in the distance where someone had come along and cut out sections of the logs. I assumed that was where the path was supposed to be. But for the most part the hillside was just a maze of downed trees and brush. And not just any brush—there was some sort of plant or weed that was about three-to-four feet high everywhere and we had to use sticks like a machete to bushwhack our way down this hill. I think we covered only a couple of miles in our whole day of hiking, hacking, climbing over and under trees, and constantly stopping, checking the map, and making sure where we were going.
By the time we got to the bottom, we found a nice clearing in between some trees, but I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I had a map, and I knew we could easily get back out to the car. We were in a fine spot to camp for the night and we had water, but this was not going as I had hoped. I felt very responsible for Katie on our first backpacking trip, and I wasn’t sure what we should do at this point. Should we go on? Should we go back? If we went on, was it going to get worse? I still couldn’t see any trail to speak of. What if I got us off on the wrong track? What even would BE the right track?
Beginning and End
I am sure many of you have had that feeling. There are enough men in this room that I am quite sure there are at least a couple of stories in here that began with the phrase, “It’s okay, I don’t need the map.” Yes, you did need the map. I’m sure there are house projects that started out good but turned sour and way bigger than you thought they would. Everyone has homework assignments that you thought would be easier than they were. Work projects that spiraled out of control.
I know for me it is very frustrating to find myself in the middle of something that is much more difficult than I was hoping for. I think this happens to all of us in many areas of our lives. I don’t know about you, but I look up sometimes and wonder, “How did I get here?” And I find that I even feel that way in my Christian walk sometimes. I know that coming to faith was right and good and such a joyful thing for me. God was so kind to offer a new life through faith in Jesus. I cherish my relationship with God, and I know I love God and he loves me. But this, the middle, the in between moment of life sometimes feels like I must be lost. That I must have gotten off the path. Or I question if there even is a path here!
We see the Psalmists talk this way often. For example:
“Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.”
(Psalm 25:16–18 ESV)
It is the common human experience to struggle.
We started today with these passages from Genesis and Revelation. When we look at the beginning of Scripture and the end of Scripture it looks so wonderful!
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
(Genesis 1:1, ESV)
“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
(Revelation 21:5–6, ESV)
Scripture starts with God’s perfect creation. The joy and the beauty of seeing God desire to share HIS joy by creating everything and more specifically by creating us! People! Image bearers of God almighty! People that he breathed his Spirit into. And then, at the end, God also making all things new again. A new creation. People once again brought back to God without sin and able to walk with him, face-to-face on the new earth.
We start with those verses today because God has been kind to let us know how things started and how things will end. He gives us a map that shows the beginning and the destination. I don’t know about you, but when I think about creation and when I think about the new heavens and the new earth, I can see that God clearly loves me. That God loves us. He has done it all! He created all things by his very own power, and he will surely recreate all things in that same power. God is not a detached God, aloof, only winding the clock up (so to say) and then letting it go. No, our God intimately “spoke” over all creation and comes himself in the end to judge and make all things right. God’s revealing of his creative acts are meant to assure me and you that he himself is present, that he cares, and that he will ensure that all he promised will happen. I love it when I think about God and his care for us through creation and the new creation. All of this—everything we see and everything we experience from beginning to end—is being done that we might see and know God and know his love for US!
Then, when we look at the end, we can see God is bringing us to end. I can’t imagine how amazing it will be for God to gather me and you to himself and then embody us in a new, sinless body, bring us into his city and give us a place he himself prepared for us! You and I, we will get to walk with God again just like Adam and Eve, yet we will never choose sin. We will get to rest as God provides. We will get to enjoy as God is our ever present joy!
Those bookends are like the beginning and end of the trail map. We know things start off well and will end well, but what about the middle? I think we all can often think about the story of God and look back and treasure what he has done for us in the past, and we can look forward with hope for what will be true one day. But we look at today and it can just seem hard and without a point. We might wonder, “Why can’t we go immediately to the end, to the good part? Why must we be here, now?”
Signposts and Words
Let’s go back to our camping trip for a moment. There we were, in this clearing of trees, and we decide that we will setup camp for the night and then, in the morning, decide if we think we should continue on. We setup the tent, begin to purify some water, and look for some wood for our fire. (Can you tell we are still bubbly newlyweds? We are taking pictures of each other collecting water! That doesn’t make it into the photo reels today…). And as we are out collecting wood, I see what I think is a 2x4 on the ground. I think to myself two thoughts, “Why in the world is a 2x4 out here in the woods?” while also thinking, “How fortunate—good firewood!” And as I pick it up, I realize it is not a 2x4. It is a long, skinny sign. In fact, it is the trail sign. It is fairly weathered and falling apart, but it has the trail name on it and mileage with a small arrow pointing off the end. There is no way from how I found it to be sure which way it was supposedly pointing. And by the milage on the sign, we clearly hadn’t gotten very far that first day.
In that moment, I was a mix of emotions. Now, if you know me much, you know I would have kept pushing on if it was just me. I would have kept whacking weeds and trekking just to get to the end. That is the goal, we aren’t stopping! I’m sure some of you have even experienced that aspect of my personality here at church—pushing, pushing, and pushing to the end. I’m so sorry—like everything else it can be a gift and a major flaw! I didn’t know at that time how my wife would handle that prospect of pushing on without a clear path or knowing where we were going (today I think she would have done well with it now!). And having a literally sign that tells me this path hasn’t been used in a long, long, time, made me very hesitant.
Praise God that isn’t the type of sign you and I receive as we are here, in this in between moment! Our path may look similarly overgrown, and we may even feel like we have lost our way at times and don’t know how to get back, we may even doubt the purpose of what we are doing, but all of that is never true. We do have a way to know why we are here, where we are going, and what to do. We see all this as we look to Scripture. And when we look to Scripture and ask, “How then do I live in this in-between moment? Why am I here?” we do not find that God is silent. We do not find a rotten sign. Rather, we find that God is quite concerned that we know much about this “in between” moment and how to walk down this path of our life today. We might argue that God is more concerned that we know much about this in between moment (more than the beginning or the end) because of the volume, clarity, and purposefulness with which God reveals to us his purposes in this in-between state we live in today.
Our God is lovingly caring for his people—his beloved sons and daughters—not only through creation and re-creation, but also in the in between. Especially in the in between! It is here, in between the perfect work of God in creation and his perfect work in recreating us and the new heavens and new earth, that we see the depth of God’s love, grace, and mercy for us. Here, in this in between moment, God is lovingly meeting you and I and preparing us FOR that amazing future:
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,”
(2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV)
This in between moment isn’t meaningless nor is it just a holding pattern as we wait to land with God one day on the new earth. This in between moment is God’s plan to prepare us! This in between moment is where we will truly see and understand who Jesus is and why God sent him for us!
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
(1 John 4:9–10 ESV)
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
(2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV)
It is here, now, in the in between moment that we truly see Jesus and are being sanctified—grown—by God to BECOME the glorious ones we are meant to be. Even though God will one day complete his work in the blink of an eye for all of us, the work being done now is still incredibly important. The work now is using this in between moment to show us more of God and make us more like God!
This year in our preaching we are going to focus on the in between—this moment we live in, how it often feels hard and confusing, but how this moment it is exactly what we need and what God has given us to know him, to rightly walk with him, to grown in love and joy in him. How this moment it is exactly what we need and what God has given us to know him, to rightly walk with him, to grown in love and joy in him.
Now, clearly, that is such a broad topic that we could put all of Scripture under that title. But there are some important questions we often ask ourselves and ask God in this in between moment. Over the course of this next church year (2025–2026) we are going to look at several section of Scripture and how they each speak to God’s care for us “in between” in specific ways.
2 John: Walk In Between
One question we often want to know is what is our purpose here today? If we aren’t immediately taken to be with God what should we be doing? Jack is going to take us through 2 John and help us see how God is encouraging us to walk (or live) our life In Between. 2 John speaks well to our PURPOSE here in between. And we will all see in John’s second letter that God has called us to Love God, Love Others, and to Make Disciples of Jesus. How fortune is that! Our church’s motto is also our life’s goal and purpose…it’s like there is a purpose to that. And, as John reminds us, we need to be careful to not deceive ourselves that our purpose is anything other than this. The easy life calls to us and wants to sway us to abandon the good yet hard path of God’s call on our life. But John encourages us to walk the walk God has given us in this In Between moment.
1 John: Light & Love In Between
We also often struggle to know what to focus on here in between. This is a hard place with many distractions, competing loves, and many ways we are drawn away from God. Demer will preach through another one of John’s letters, first John. In that letter, John exhorts us that it is knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ BETTER that helps us to see, savor, and be satisfied with God’s purposes for our life. This letter helps us to know WHAT to focus on. John encourages us that God has given us both his LIGHT and his LOVE in this in between moment. THE light of the world has come—Jesus Christ. Jesus illuminates for us all of God’s ways and, importantly, he illuminates God’s love for us. And it is this love, God’s condescending and sacrificial love, that transforms and transfixes (or focuses) us on our God as we walk out this life he has given back to us through his conquering work. This is WHAT we want to be looking to and thinking about all the time in this in between.
Jonah: Grace In Between
In this in between time we are also very aware that we are failing. At least I am very aware that I’m failing often. That can be very discouraging and I think we often see God as disappointed with us and discouraged that we aren’t moving faster and further down the trail. But that isn’t true. Demer will also preach through Jonah. In Jonah we see that, amidst this plan that God has for us, that our God is a god of grace! Grace: undeserved merit and favor, given to his people through faith, is meant to be the TONE or TENOR of our life and relationship with God here in the this in between moment. God is sharing with us his HEART towards us, and it is a heart of grace. We need to be reminded again and again that God is looking on me and you IN Jesus with grace. In the book of Jonah, we see God’s grace to all people as God desires to show is hesed (his steadfast love) to all his people through his grace (which he eventually reveals in Jesus Christ). Jonah also speaks to us about God’s MISSION and our MISSION here in this in between time—taking part in God’s plan and desire to draw people to himself.
Genesis: God’s Plan In Between
And then, as with any process, we all want to understand the lay of the land better. Knowing the beginning and end are great, but is there any way to know better what the daily and yearly path will look like. I am going to anchor us with a sermon series that takes us slowly through Genesis. It is amazing how right from the very beginning God has a PLAN that he lays out for us. Much of the path and roadmap we are looking to follow throughout our life is setup right from the very beginning in Genesis. In Genesis we immediately see our God himself. how our God has a plan and a purpose for all his people, and he lays much of our foundational knowledge about himself and our path even before we have lived!
We will also see how the Advent of our Lord Jesus (his coming that we celebrate at Christmas), his triumphal entry (Palm Sunday), his necessary sacrifice (Good Friday), and his glorious resurrection (Easter)—events that all happened long ago, still have amazing implications for our lives today in this in between moment. Today, we live in between and we want to plumb the depths of the sure joys God has given us today as we walk with him and are prepared for life with him through his Holy Spirit.
In the beginning, God
This morning is not only an introduction to our entire series, but it is also an introduction to Genesis. Genesis 1 is where we started today as we think about the grand bookends of Scripture and our place in between those. As we start this series, and as I also get us started in Genesis, I want us to start where Gensis starts and remember one simple truth this morning. It’s the verse we have already seen, but just the beginning:
“In the beginning, God...”
(Genesis 1:1, ESV)
As Katie and I sat there debating what to do in that lost path north of McCall, something dawned on us. The goal of that time was to spend time with each other. It was meant to be a celebration of our first anniversary. We could whack our way through weeds and spend the next five days hiking through a dense undergrowth if we wanted to. But we decided we would be spending way more time worrying about the path and journey than we would about each other. We ended up hiking out that next day and simply setting up our tent in Ponderosa State Park in McCall for the next couple of days. We took advantage of the showers! We walked into town to get in our “hike” and had fun dinners. We sat in the tent and talked or sat at picnic benches and played cards together. By God’s grace, we remembered that the whole point of that path we were on was not just the path itself. It was about relationship!
God is doing the same thing here right at the beginning of Genesis:
“In the beginning, God...”
(Genesis 1:1, ESV)
Yes, you and I need to know the path we are being called to walk. As we have already said, God gives us amazing clarity on our PURPOSE in Scripture (Love God, Love Others, Make Disciples of Jesus). God graciously tells us of his HEART of grace for us and our MISSION to help others see that same heart of grace. From the very beginning God lays out the foundations of his PLAN for us, his people. But first and foremost, the story of Scripture, what God is giving us in the Bible, is simply himself.
“In the beginning, God...”
(Genesis 1:1, ESV)
Stop and think for a moment about how amazing that is! God could have given you and I an instruction manual that was hundreds of thousands of pages long. A book that we could open and flip to with each daily need and see what we are supposed to DO. A place where you could go to the index, look up “How hard must I work today?” and find an answer. “What do I do when my kids won’t listen to me?” “What type of job should I choose?” Yes, some of those types of answers are in our Scripture, and they matter dearly. But they weren’t given to us that way. Those types of answer—the very type of answers we are going to look throughout this year—were given to us through a story that is meant to help us see that it is GOD, and our relationship with him, that is the main purpose.
Sometimes that is a hard idea for you and me. If you and I were to say act that same with others around us it would be incredibly wrong. “Hey Luke, I’m here and I am going to give you the privilege of relationship with me!” That would be so wrong on so many levels because I am SO not special to have relationship with. I can’t offer Luke or anyone what they really need and what will bring anyone true joy. But GOD?! God giving us himself is the most wonderful gift we could have ever been given. What a gift he is! This is the unexpected thing we get right from the very beginning of Scripture. God is giving us himself! He wants us to know more about himself THROUGH the story and THROUGH our path, our purpose, and our plan with him. Who would have thought THAT is what God wants to give us? That he would want to give us himself. That is the most loving gift that a perfect, all knowing, all caring, all loving, and all satisfying God could give—himself.
Our anniversary trip was meant to be about our relationship together. Yes, we had a plan, we had a purpose, we had many goals and even a heart to love one another throughout that trip. But if we missed that it was about relationship with one another first and foremost, the rest really wouldn’t have mattered. For the unbeliever, the most wonderful news you could hear from me today is you have a chance to walk with the very God of this universe through faith in Jesus Christ. He truly wants you to come and know him through Jesus and through this path that is your life. And for you Christian, you and me, walking this path of life means we are walking with God. That is incredible! Through highs and lows, joys and difficulties, twists and turns I get to find that God is there with me giving himself TO me. And he is doing the same for you. As Jesus said:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
(John 17:3 ESV)
“O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.””
(John 17:25–26 ESV)
How often I forget that! How often I want to make this life about what I am accomplishing, what I’m doing, and when I get discouraged, how hard it is and how I should be pitied. But this in between is all about getting more of God! And it is all about getting more of God in any way that may be necessary.
I have a friend who was asked to take a pastor job at church where a very popular and very well-loved pastor was retiring. And his immediate thought was, “Who wants to do that? How could I ever match up to this pastor?” It was a huge internal struggle for him. There seemed to be no upside to taking the position and only risk as people would never think he was good enough. And even though people were encouraging him to take the position, he wrestled with this thought and went to the Lord again and again, frankly trying to figure out how he could say no to the request. And as he was standing there one night, washing the dishes after dinner, and pondering what to do, the Holy Spirit deeply impressed on him a question:
“What if in all of this you get more of me? Would that be worth it?”
What do you say to that but YES! Again and again, yes LORD! If you will give me more of you, then take me through any low, any suffering, any difficulty if I might know you more! When we look at the story of Scripture this is what we see again and again. Through all the difficulties, through all the turns, through all the revelations what God’s people get time and time again is more of him!
Friends, what if just like scripture starts out by saying:
“In the beginning, God...”
(Genesis 1:1, ESV)
We also started out our life by saying, “in the beginning, God.” What if the question of our life is to care about our path, God’s plans and purposes for us, but to never forget and never stop to realize that this—this life with its bushwhacking and feeling lost at times—is all worth it if we get just that one thing—GOD! I personally cannot imagine a more wonderful thing to be given, and it makes all this in between eternally worthwhile.
Application/Response
Friends, as we embark on this journey this year to think about our life here in between God’s great creative acts I hope we see many wonderful aspects of God’s plan, God’s purpose for us, and even his great love for us. But all of those can become things we try to get, accomplish, or strive for. Will we be most excited that God is offering us the most amazing gift ever—himself?!
I pray that as you think through this sermon today and how to respond to it that you think through a couple of questions:
Where are you on this journey and path with God? Do you feel lost right now? Discouraged? Alone? What is it you are hoping to find? Be honest with yourself. If you were to be really transparent what is it that you would hope would change in your life tomorrow, what would you find from God in this next season? Maybe you are unbeliever today—I would encourage you to pray and ask to let you walk with him in faith. For you Christians, as you seek whatever it is that, whether you find it or not, ask yourself a second question:
Would God be enough? What if in everything you are hoping for and wanting if God is doing something more important. What if he is trying to give you himself? Would that be okay? Would you go through whatever path he has placed in front of you simply to have more of him?
Pray
Communion
Benediction
