Steven Furtick - Struggling to Trust God
This is an excerpt from: Now Turn North
How much trust you have depends on how much truth you've hidden. If you're having a hard time trusting God in an area of your life right now, it may be a sign that you have not hidden the truth in your heart deeply enough for that situation. When we haven't hidden the truth in our hearts, we always have to cling to traditions and certainties and old ways of doing things, but if we'll be more like Holly and get a good sense of where we're going, we can be in situations that are very strange but still have a very deep, solid sense of faith.
Well, I've already preached a whole sermon today. I feel like that was pretty good. But I want to talk about this man in John, chapter 5, that I read to you about. The Bible says he was hanging out in a place in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate, a pool where occasionally the waters would stir, and when the waters were stirred, there was a superstition that if you could get into those waters before anybody else did, you could be healed of whatever had happened to you. The Bible says a great number of people used to lie…the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. This verse is what really got my attention. In verse 5, it said, "One who was there…" Which made me wonder. Of all of the people Jesus could have healed that day at that pool at that time, why this one? "One was there…"
Last week, I preached on He Was the One. I guess that's what got me into studying John, chapter 5. I wondered, "Why this one"? You know, I'm kind of expecting this great moment of faith, like Zacchaeus, who climbed up in a tree so he could see Jesus, and Jesus was like, "All right. If you're going to go climbing up trees, I'll have lunch with you. Come on down. I'm going to your house". Or like the woman with the issue of blood who pressed through a crowd, even though she was ceremonially unclean, to get to Jesus. Or like those men who stood out shouting, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us"! Like, screaming out of need for Jesus. Since all of those factors were absent from the man in John, chapter 5, it left me wondering, after all week of studying, "Why this one"?
In fact, if you go on to read about this guy, he had a very damaged past. He had a little bit of a… I don't want to say this in a bad way that makes you think the things we go through are always the result of the sins we commit, but he had something to do with his illness, because Jesus, when he tracks him down a little later, tells him, "Hey, you need to stop sinning or something worse is going to happen". Even in the passage… If you read this, when Jesus asks, "Do you want to get well?" the guy kind of comes back at Jesus and doesn't really answer his question. "Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes ahead of me".
So, he's kind of blamey. It's not like he threw himself at the feet of Jesus when Jesus said, "Do you want to get well"? and said, "I'll do anything. I'll worship you, Lamb of God, Son of David". None of that. So, why this one? Last week, I shared that there are two lies the Enemy tells you. These are not the only two lies. The Enemy is the Father of Lies, so he has a lot of babies. The Enemy has way more than two lies, but there are two I want to deal with today. I dealt with them a little bit last week. He'll try to tell you two things sometimes: "You are no one," and, "You have no one". Either of those two things, if you begin to believe them deeply in your heart, will keep you stuck in a belief of insignificance or a state of isolation.
Watch how they work together. "I am no one. I have no one. Since I am no one, I have nothing to offer. They wouldn't want to hear from me. They wouldn't want to be with me. They wouldn't want to do that with me. They wouldn't want to accept me. I am no one. I have no one. I am no one. I have no one". In walks Jesus to one of the festivals and finds a man. The Bible simply says about him, "One who was there…" That's the only label. Well, his other label is he couldn't walk. He was one who was there who couldn't walk. He was one who was there who had fallen behind. He was one amongst many who could not do what other people could do.
Why this one? We've already examined that it was no great faith that he exhibited or demonstrated. We've already examined that there are probably things that would have kept the other people from thinking he was worthy of help. Why this one? And you wonder that about yourself sometimes, huh? "Why would God use me when there are so many people…"? I love what the man said because we think about this sometimes. He said, "Every time I try, someone else gets ahead of me". This man is prone to comparison. This man is prone to excuses.
The Bible says in verse 5, "One who was there…" Jesus didn't stay and heal everybody at the pool that day. Jesus didn't call for a line of people. This is a particular miracle Jesus performs at a particular time for a specific person…one who was there. Now touch your neighbor and ask them, "Are you the one"? It's the obvious question. "Are you the one"? There are a lot of people in church today. There are a lot of people online today. But what if you're the one? Ask them. "What if you're the one"? What if you're the one who needs to hear this message today more than anybody else in the room? What if you're the one God gave Pastor Steven this message for? What if you're the one who takes this word and walks out of here different than you came in?
Ask them again. "What if you're the one"? "One was there…" He was there in a place he didn't want to be. He was there in a place where he probably had contributed to being himself. A lot of times, we think God will get us out of situations if we didn't get ourselves into them. This is a miracle that should encourage all of the ones who have done dumb stuff and need God to deliver you from your own hand, your own decisions. Clap if you've screwed up a time or two and you need God to do something about the situations you created. (I love y'all. Y'all are such a real church. I said, "Clap if you screwed up". That was the loudest you clapped all Sunday. I pastor Elevation Church.) He was the one who was chosen out of all of the others. But there is one little detail in this verse that stood out to me as being maybe a little irrelevant at first.
Then I realized God doesn't waste any words. So, I found why he was the one in the same verse that said he was the one. Verse 5: "One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years". How many think that's a long time to suffer like that? Thirty-eight years. How many think 38 is old? The Bible doesn't say he was 38 years old; it says he had been in that state for 38 years. The crazy thing about it is when Jesus heals this guy… You expect people to be happy when God does something in your life. You have to understand that, sometimes, people want to think they're God and they should get to decide who God blesses and how God does things.
This man (verse 9) is cured. "He picked up his mat and walked". But look at verse 9, part B. "The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, '[You can't do that!] It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.'" "The law won't let you do that". Not God's law…their law. There's nothing in the Bible that says you can't carry your mat after you get healed on the Sabbath. That's just something they added to it after the law came through Moses. Do y'all remember Moses? He's the one who brought down the Ten Commandments from the mountain. Yeah, he was the one. He was the one who came down with the tablets from the mountain, and one of them was to honor the Sabbath, to honor that God rested from his work by resting from yours.
There was no part of that commandment, no clause of that commandment that said, "If you are healed from a crippling disease on the Sabbath, don't carry your mat around". That's just stuff they added on later. It was their law. So, now we have an interesting dilemma going on in John, chapter 5. It is their word versus God's word. It is man's law versus God's law. They said to the man, "You can't do that. The law forbids you from doing that on the Sabbath. You can't carry your mat. You can't do that". I love verse 11, because the man looked back at them and said, "That's nice to hear what you think I can and can't do.
But there's one thing I've noticed every day I've been coming to this pool. I've been coming to this pool every day for years now. I've been lying in my spot every day for years now. I've been asking for help every day for years now. I've been waiting for a change every day for years now. I've watched these festivals come and go every day for years now. I've watched pilgrims stream in and out of Jerusalem, in and out of the temple, for years now, and for every day I sat here, for every year I came here, for every prayer I prayed here, and for every request I made here, you never told me to get up and walk.
So guess what. If you don't have the power to give, you don't have to give the permission for me to do it". I love it, because watch this. He said (verse 11), "The man who made me well said to me…" "So, I hear what you're saying to me, but I know what he did for me". Now watch this. "What you said I can't do is in conflict with what he told me I could do". I hear God saying, "Take it up with the one who made me".
I see in this text every person in this room in a certain situation in your life where the law is powerless to raise you and effort is powerless to raise you and people you have depended on have been unable to raise you because they're human too. So, I'll tell you what let's do. Let's take a moment, just about 15 seconds, and see if we can worship the one who said, "Let there be light," and there was. Let's see. Can we worship the one who was there? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God".
Everything that was made was made through him. If he made it, he can change it. If he made it, he can raise it. And if he made it, he gets to label it. Thank him. He's the one! I love this word. High-five five people and say, "Get up right now". You've been lying down long enough. All right. Everybody still sitting, you've had 15 minutes to write notes. Get up and give him praise! You've got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! That's what he said. "The man who made me well said I could do it". So, you have to get this attitude. Right? Like, I hear my fear saying I can't, but the man who made me, well… If it's a conflict between the people who didn't make me and the man who made me, well…