Steven Furtick — Piece It Together
I saw something recently that grabbed my attention, it was a memorandum that was sent to Jesus, son of Joseph, at the wood crafter carpenter shop in Nazareth, from the Jordan Management Consultant Firm in Jerusalem. Obviously this is fictitious, but it was written as if Jesus had hired a consulting company to tell Him who to choose as His disciples. And the memorandum reads like this, I got a kick out of it. It said:
Dear Sir, thank you for submitting the resumes of the 12 men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests, we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist, and vocational aptitude consultant.
It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprises you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability, and proven capability.
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable, and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine moral.
We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the Manic Depressive Scale. One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He's a man of ability and resourcefulness, he meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He's highly motivated, ambitious and responsible.
We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right hand man. All of the other profiles are self explanatory. We wish you every success in your new ventures. Sincerely yours, Jordan Management Consultants.
It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprises you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability, and proven capability.
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable, and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine moral.
We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the Manic Depressive Scale. One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He's a man of ability and resourcefulness, he meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He's highly motivated, ambitious and responsible.
We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right hand man. All of the other profiles are self explanatory. We wish you every success in your new ventures. Sincerely yours, Jordan Management Consultants.
Aren't you glad that God doesn't pick people like people pick people? We're talking about being unqualified, and how what seems to us, sometimes, to be the reason God can't use us, is often the very reason that He chooses to use us. And nowhere do you see this more than with the disciples.
The more I read through the New Testament, the more amazed I am at the patience and grace of God, that Jesus didn't just throw them over the side of the boat. I mean, no matter how many things they saw Him do, and no matter how many ways they saw Him move, and no matter how many acts they saw Him perform that were miraculous, it seems like they still didn't get it.
Most of them fled at the scene of the cross, many of them didn't even believe after His resurrection, and I want to share one of those stories with you. It's kind of mind blowing the way that the disciples didn't get it, like so often we don't get it.
And if I'm giving this a title, I want to call it "Piece it Together" because I want to talk about how sometimes we can miss the big picture, because we don't see the pieces in proper perspective, it happens in all of our lives.
So Jesus and the disciples are moving away from the Pharisees one day, and it says in Mark 8:14 that "The disciples had forgotten to bring bread along their journey, except one loaf they had with them in the boat. And Jesus speaks up and gives them a warning 'Be careful, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees, and that of Herod.' They discussed this with one another and said 'It is because we have no bread.' Now, aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them 'Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see, or understand, or your heart's hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember?'"
I think sometimes that's the central question of our relationship with Christ, "Don't you remember?" So often it's not something new we need to learn, but something we need to remember that takes us to the next level of our faith. "Don't you remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000? How many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?' 'Twelve' they replied. 'And when I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000 how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?' And they answered 'Seven'. And He said to them, 'Do you still not understand?'"
He tries to get them to remember the last time they had a need, the last time there were hungry people, not enough provision. And He's trying to get them to make the connection between His past faithfulness and their present circumstance. "Don't you get it? Don't you remember?" But it's hard to see it when you're in it.
You know, like now we look at the disciples and it's very easy for us to judge them. "You don't trust Jesus, He can multiply, He's a great God." But it's a little different when it's our situation. It's a little different when we're looking at it up close and personal. It's a little different when we're under stress.
The disciples weren't thinking about legacy, they were thinking about lunch. We don't have any bread, and you know, most of our life isn't spent thinking about grand, abstract, theoretical, theological concepts. About the superfluity of God, it's a word I made up. We're not thinking like that, we're just thinking about the stresses and the strains of every day life.
But your ability to piece it together, and to see the big picture is what sets you apart from somebody who simply has potential, and somebody who realizes their potential. You gotta learn to see it in pieces though, and not everybody can see it.
I remember when Holly first started talking to me in a motivational sense, to tell me that it was time for us to start our church. Now, we've had our church for over ten years now, God has blessed it tremendously. We've seen thousands of people have their lives changed through the church, and it's easy to see on this side all of the plans that God had, but you know, when you're standing on the other side of it, when you're in the boat, it's a little different.
Once you're reading Mark 8, you can see the big picture of Jesus' ministry. But when you're in Mark 7, Mark 8 isn't so easy to speculate about. And I remember Holly telling me, she was like "You gotta do this because God's given us some people and God's given us a team, and God's given us an opportunity, and God's given you an ability. It's time for you to step out and start this church, and I'm with you."
And she could see it, somehow she could see it. My wife could see it, and I couldn't see it, but the thing about the way that God works in our lives is, He doesn't show us our potential all in one frame, our potential is revealed in pieces.
Potential is revealed in pieces. So, when Jesus was walking with the disciples, He didn't show them everything all at once. Theologians call this concept progressive revelation. It means that He showed them a little bit, and then a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more. When He told Peter that "Upon this rock I will build my church." Peter had no idea everything that entailed. Jesus didn't show it to him all at once because potential is always revealed in pieces.
And I wonder if you can see your own potential today, I couldn't see my potential to do what I'm doing right now. It took somebody from the outside who believed in me to look at me and help me connect the dots in my own potential.
I came across this scouting report from the 2009 NBA season, and they were talking about one particular player, and they had one of the teams pre-draft scouting reports on this player, and it was submitted by an NBA former head coach, and it listed all of this weakness, these perceived weaknesses of this particular NBA player, and here's some of the things they said. They listed 15 of these perceived weaknesses.
One was "He's not a true point guard." "Out of control at times." "Shot selection", "Ability to defend position at next level." "Lateral quickness", "Limited upside", "Back up fringe starter.", "Average athleticism." "Average size." "Average wingspan." "Frail frame." "Relies too heavily on outside shots". I won't read all of them to you, but I'm glad that Steph Curry didn't decide that he had no future in the NBA based on one scout's opinion of his potential.
And I came to say that sometimes in life you quit too quickly, because you don't see your potential, because see here's the thing about all of those perceived weaknesses, they may have been true, but what one scout said, is he said, "If you like Steph Curry, you saw a glimpse of what he could become."
I want you to know that God likes you. I don't know if you're convinced of that yet, I know you might'a had a teacher that didn't like you, or maybe a spouse that left you, that decided they didn't like you, or maybe even a parent that didn't like you. But God likes you, and He sees what you can become. He sees the potential in your pieces. They go on to say that people who didn't like Steph Curry didn't see what a tremendous worker he was, and how much he cared about the game.
If you look back, you can see it. And that's a difficult thing about potential is, it's very difficult to see in the present moment. Sometimes it's only looking back that you can see it, because it's revealed in pieces. You have potential, tremendous potential.
Sometimes you can't see it because it takes time to put it together. You know, you have this gift, and this ability, and this experience, and this thing, and that thing, and here's the other thing, and it doesn't look like much. You consider what God is calling you to do, and it doesn't feel like you have what it takes, but I want you to understand that not only is potential realized in pieces, but provision is released in pieces.
Jesus points the disciples back to the pieces, the fragments of bread that were left over the last time they were in a desperate situation, the last time they had a problem, and He said "Don't you remember the pieces? The pieces of provision that were left over?"
I don't know if you have my toy here, I actually have big plans tonight, I'm gonna take this home, and give it to my daughter, and I'm pretty excited about it because I have three children, two boys, one little girl, and my daughter, Abby, she loves her princesses.
And I'm excited to take this home and play with it, with Abby, cause I've been busy lately, and I can't wait to play with it, cause see, it's amazing, this is gonna be great, and I'm gonna take it home. Cause see it's got this whole palace, she's gonna love it. She's only five, it doesn't take much to impress a five year old. She's gonna freak out, we're gonna play with the palace, you see, cause Sebastian and all the slide and everything, Hang on a second.
Y'all, I think I have a defective Princess Undersea Palace. This is messed up, cause I bought this, and what I got is broken. It's brand new, it's not used, I didn't buy it at a yard sale. It's, see, I guess what I'm trying to get you to see is that sometimes in life the pieces don't look like the picture.
Sometimes in life we have a picture of what we think God is gonna do through us, and in us, and for us. Some of you had a picture that you would be married by now, you had a picture of what that man would look like, of how he would speak to you. Of the nice, beautiful, things he would say to you and do for you, and you had a picture, but sometimes, when you open the box, see this is what the whole first year of marriage is like, by the way.
It's the difference between the picture and the piece, so we want to ask the question, "What do you do when the picture doesn't look like the pieces?" What do you do when you have a picture of what being a parent is going to be like, and you think you're gonna raise kids, and it's gonna be amazing, and you're gonna raise these kids to be world changers, and God says "Okay, you want to raise world changers?" "Change a diaper." You wanna raise a world changer?
It always starts with a piece, and if you wait for God to give you the fully assembled picture, you're gonna always be waiting, because God does not deliver His promises into our life in fully formed pictures. It always comes in pieces. And I found out a lot of people give up on themselves, and they give up on their dreams, and they give up on their calling, and they even give up, they even give up on their destiny, because when they were seeing the picture, they weren't expecting it to come in pieces.
That's why they ran when Jesus was on the cross, Jesus was fulfilling His purpose, the very thing He came to do, but the disciples couldn't see the big picture in the pieces. What'll happen to you in life is you'll get, you'll get stuck on a piece, and you'll think "Well this isn't very much. This isn't."
Can I encourage you? Don't judge the picture by the pieces. If you judge the picture by the pieces, you'll always miss out on what God sees in you.