Steven Furtick - Piece It Together (05/06/2017)
In Mark 8:11-21, Jesus warns His disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod, but they fixate on lacking bread despite witnessing two massive feedings. Steven Furtick stresses that God uses broken, unqualified people by piecing together our potential, provision, and purpose from the fragments of our lives—trust Him to assemble the big picture from the pieces.
The Warning About the Yeast
Turn your attention to Mark, chapter 8. We're in week 2 of a series called (Un)Qualified, how God uses broken people to do big things. Turn to your neighbor and say, I think he wrote this one for you. It sounds like something you need to hear.
Mark, chapter 8, verse 11. The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus to test him. They asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly, I tell you, no sign will be given to it. Then he left them, got back into the boat, and crossed to the other side.
I almost didn't even mention those verses, but they're so important as I put this sermon together that I wanted to catch them before we got to 14 through 21.
The Disciples Miss the Point
Here's the heart of the message. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.
Look how bright the disciples are. They discussed this with one another and said, It's because we have no bread. Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? Don't you remember?
Remember, when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied. When I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? They answered, Seven. He said to them, Do you still not understand?
Piece It Together – The Main Message
When I broke the loaves, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Don't you remember the pieces? I want to speak today from this subject: Piece it together. Piece it together.
On your way down to your seat, ask your neighbor, Do you still not get it? Do you still not get it? You may be seated. God has a calling for your life, but you're going to have to piece it together.
My main reaction to the text is essentially one of disbelief that the disciples could have seen all that they saw and still not see what was right before their very eyes. Don't you get it? There's not really an excuse. I don't want to come to their defense that they're sitting in the boat with the one who just performed two massive miracles, and they're still worried about missing pieces.
Jesus Teaches Awareness of Who He Is
Apparently, somebody didn't do their job, and so there's no lunch for the disciples. So Jesus is teaching a lesson to the disciples, and he's trying to take them to the next level of their awareness and understanding of who he is, what he came to do.
As he does it, he uses an analogy comparing yeast, which is the self-righteousness of the Pharisees, who he just left, comparing that self-righteousness to the yeast that is in the bread, and how if you allow yourself to get a little self-righteous, it's just a matter of time before it takes over every area of your life.
All they hear is bread, and so immediately they start to argue. Some scholars would say that the verses actually incorrectly translated in English instead of saying it is because we have no bread, they were saying something more like, why don't we have any bread? Like, Peter, Andrew, whose job was it to bring the bread?
But regardless of the construction of the question in Koine Greek, I think we can all relate to the premise that life is largely about recognition. I'm realizing more and more of the importance of recognition in my day-to-day life. Recognition, recognition of what is right before you often.
Why We Miss What's Right in Front of Us
When we read the text, it's easy for us to almost see the comedy in it that Jesus was trying to talk to them about the yeast of self-righteousness, and they're thinking about wheat and rye and pumpernickel. It's really not fair for us to do that because, well, we have a benefit that the disciples didn't have.
For one, they did not know that they were the main characters in Mark 8, verses 14 through 21. You do realize that when people were writing the Bible and when people were doing the things that were written about in the Bible, they didn't know they were going to end up in the Bible.
So they weren't thinking, boy, this is going to be a cool story they're going to preach about at Elevation Church in 2016. We see it a little differently because we're looking back on it. Have you noticed how many things look different when you're looking back on them and how difficult it is to see some things while you're going through that you can see clearly when you're looking back? Talk to me.
The Benefit of Looking Back
This is why it's so easy for you to give advice to a teenager, but it was hard for you to be one. You sucked when you were one, but now that you have one, you can tell them what? The big picture. That's the other benefit we have. The disciples were inside the frame. It's kind of hard to see the big picture when you're in the frame.
So it's easy for you to see what they should have seen when you're not going through what they were going through because they were worried about lunch. And a lot of times in our lives, I think we don't recognize the big picture because we experience life in pieces.
Jesus Chooses Broken People for His Team
Two groups are contrasted in the Scripture, and Jesus' direction here is an indication for us of the kind of team he is choosing. We could go back to the beginning of the gospel record and find Jesus piecing together his team, which even that, to me, says a lot about the way God works in our lives.
It's that when God sent Jesus into the world to save the world for a purpose, he didn't send him with a preassembled team to accomplish the plan. We trained church leaders here over the last week, and many of them will ask this question, or a form of it, where do you get your team?
That makes me laugh, because you think there's a warehouse. You think there's a build-a-team store. You think you can walk in and assemble the perfect team. Or even better, you think God's going to give you everything you need all at once when he calls you to do something. But touch somebody and say, you've got to build it. You've got to build it.
The Pharisees vs. the Disciples
And Jesus was piecing together his team, and he picked this guy and that guy. But what's funny to me about it is he's moving away from the team that you would have thought he would have selected for an important mission. That's the Pharisees. They were one of three Jewish groups. Their name literally means set-apart or separate ones.
Not only had they separated themselves from others, but in the process they had separated themselves from God. They were so focused on a few extreme points of the law that they had missed the big picture. To do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God.
But they had become so focused on the individual laws and requirements and rules that they had missed the big picture. The Bible says they tried to qualify Jesus, the nerve, the audacity for the creature to attempt to qualify the Creator.
God Uses the Unqualified
Who in the world do you think you are when you tell somebody they're not good enough to be a Christian, when you tell somebody that if they were a real Christian they would, when you tell somebody to get this in order and that in order, and then you can be in my church.
So Jesus moves away from all of that, this perfection, this picture of perfection that they were trying to present, and he moves forward into his mission, And he's well into his mission now, and he's using broken people.
The Hypothetical Management Report on the Disciples
In case you don't believe that they're broken, let's just talk about them a little bit. I pulled something up that it was pretty funny to me. It said, if Jesus had hired a management consultant firm to choose his team, how would they have evaluated these guys that were in the boat?
And I want to read to you just a hypothetical memorandum from the Jordan Management Consultant Group. I found this online, and it was written to Jesus. It says, 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 a staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise 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 brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.
James, the son of Alphaeus, 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 is a man of ability, ability, and resourcefulness. He meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.
All of the other profiles are self-explanatory. All that just to ask, aren't you glad that God doesn't pick people like people pick people?
You Got Here by Grace
This is only for the people who believe that you don't deserve a spot on the team, but you're glad you got one anyway. This is only for the people who are familiar with your weaknesses, and you know deep down that you know that you know that you know that if God didn't look beyond your faults and see your needs, you wouldn't even have a seat in the church auditorium.
But you got here by the grace of God, because he saw your potential. If you're bold enough, look at your neighbor and say, I got potential. I got potential. I got potential.
See, Jesus wants his disciples to see the potential, and I found out that a lot of people are so quick to recognize what's missing that they miss what's possible.
Potential Is Realized in Pieces
Can I break this down? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Because I really want to. Because I really want to show you what I studied. Because I really wanted to show you that they're talking about bread, but Jesus said, I am the bread of life.
You don't need to worry about who forgot about the bread. I am the bread. If I'm in the boat, you're going to have all you need. I am your potential. I am your possibility. I am your future. I am your hope. I am the bread of life.
But it's possible that you have become so familiar with your weaknesses that you can no longer see your potential. In many ways, you see what you choose to see. You see what you choose to see.
Seeing the Possible Instead of the Missing
It was about 2004 when I was speaking at a youth camp and Holly told me after one of the sessions on a Wednesday night at the youth camp, it's time. It's time to start the church that God put in your heart when you were 16. It's time.
She could see that God had given us some people that were in our lives for a purpose, and she said it's time. She could see it. I wasn't so quick to see it, because all I could see was what I didn't have. Where's the bread? Look how many money. I'm 25. That's all I could see. She saw what was possible. I saw what was missing.
You see what you choose to see. In many ways, you see what you want to see. You see what you've trained your eyes to see. All they could see was no bread, but they missed the one who was the source of their life. It happens all the time.
It happens when they told the Beatles they had no future as a band. It happened when they told Walt Disney he lacked imagination. All the time. See, you can't trust just anybody to be your talent scout. Let me say that another way. You can't trust yourself to be your talent scout, because you're too familiar with your trouble to see your talent.
Potential Comes Piece by Piece
Where's my bread? Where's my dad? You're missing what's right in front of you. You can't even recognize your potential. See, potential is realized in pieces. You're never going to wake up one day and feel like, well, now I've got what it takes. I feel like I've crossed over the readiness line.
If you do wake up and feel that one day, I haven't had that day yet, and I'm looking forward to that day, and maybe I'll revise the sermon when the day comes. But as of this point, I've been pastor in 10 years, and I've never felt ready. I've never felt ready. I've never felt ready.
This might scare you, but I've never felt ready to preach. I mean, I just got to go. I reckon this is about 1153. I don't think Chris has any more songs playing. Better get up there and do it. I'm prepared, but I'm not ready. I'm never going to feel ready. You're never going to feel ready.
Get Ready on the Way
I want to tell you what I tell Holly when she says I need five more minutes. Baby, you've got to get ready on the way, because if I wait for you to get ready for us to leave, we're never going to get there. So get your makeup. I'll drive. You can get ready on the way.
Touch three people. Say get ready on the way. I know they didn't feel ready. I know they didn't look ready. In 2009, there was a basketball player who wanted to play in the NBA. I found an article about his pre-draft scouting report.
This was a scouting report on his perceived weaknesses. There's a phrase. Perceived weaknesses. His perceived weaknesses through the eyes of a former NBA coach. Listen to what they said about him. There's 15 of them. I'll share them all. Not a true point guard. Out of control at times. Shot selection. Questionable. Stuck between one and two. Ability to defend position at next level. Questionable. Lateral quickness. Versatility to defend multiple positions. Limited upside. Questionable. Backup. Fringe starter. College system makes him difficult to evaluate. He went to a small school. We don't know if he's going to make it in the big leagues. Average athleticism. Average size. Average wingspan. Frail frame. Relies too heavily on outside shot.
But, y'all, Steph Curry's doing all right in the NBA. He's doing all right in the NBA. Aren't you glad the scouting report is not the last word over your life? All of those things might have been true. All of those things might have been true, but now that we're looking back, we can see what they couldn't see.
Fire Your Inner Scout
We can see Mark, chapter 8, verses 14 through 21. We can put the pieces together. Listen to what the warrior's coach said. He said, I hope that scout is no longer evaluating. Touch somebody and say, you need to fire your scout. You need to fire your scout.
Moses. They're going to keep you out of the Promised Land, talking about the giants and forgetting about the grapes. You need to fire your scout. Listen to what the GM of the warrior said. He said, What people who didn't like him didn't see is that he's a tremendous worker and cares about the game. If you look back, he has gotten better every single year.
If you liked him back then, you saw a glimpse of what he could become. God likes me. It took me a while to figure that out because I thought he needed me to be like the Pharisees. I thought my life was too broken because I think like this and respond like that, but I found out he likes me. I found out he likes me.
If you liked him, you could get a glimpse of what he could become. Some of you can't see what you could be because you don't like who you are. When you don't like yourself, you can't see the picture for the pieces. You can't see what could become.
Provision Is Released in Pieces
It's kind of hard to see the picture when all you have is the pieces. It's kind of hard to see the provision. That's the second thing I want to talk about. There are three of these that all start with the letter P. The first one was the potential and the second one was provision because potential is realized in pieces.
It's putting together what you have, not getting something you're missing. It's putting together what you have. I just said a lot. I said it real quick, so I need to back up over it and drive by real slow. It's putting together what you have, Ezekiel. What do you see in the valley? I see bones, but when they came together, they became an army.
A lot of churches have a lot of potential, but because they won't come together, they can't realize it. Potential is realized in pieces, and so is provision. Jesus multiplied the loaves and they went home with basketfuls of broken pieces because he saw the potential in a little boy's lunch.
God Sees Potential in Small Things
The Bible says that he fed 5,000, but that's not really true. It was 5,000 men. That society didn't even count the women and the children. It was somebody they didn't even count that had the seed of the miracle they all received, because God sees potential in small places and in overlooked people and in David in the field while his brothers are all lined up waiting to be fitted for a crown and waiting to be anointed with oil, but God calls for the one that nobody else saw the potential in, just the youngest one, just a little boy.
Just a fisherman and a tax collector. He pieces together the potential and pieces together the provision. If you don't understand that your provision is released in pieces, you'll miss it when it comes. Your emotional provision, your financial provision, your relational provision is going to come in pieces.
And you'll receive one piece in one season and one piece in another. And by the time you have everything you need, you don't even remember when it exactly got there, because it came in pieces.
Pieces Build the Picture Over Time
I receive my sermons in pieces. I'll write something down and go, that's pretty good. And I'll write something else down and go, that's pretty good. I'll write something else down and go, that's pretty good. I'll write something else down and go, that's pretty good. And if I get enough pieces, it's just a matter of time before I have a picture. Oh, that might preach if I worked on it a little while.
It comes in pieces, but the pieces don't look like the picture. So what happens is you get stuck on one part of your life where there's a missing piece. We don't have any bread. One part. Bread is sitting in front of you, but we don't have any bread. You get stuck on one thing.
You feel horrible about yourself. Stuck on one thing. Kicking butt in 15 categories, making a C minus in one, and all you can see is the C. Stuck on the missing piece.
Don't Get Stuck on the Missing Piece
Confession time. I was not the best dad this week. Not anything bad that I did. I slapped my kid across the room. Might have thought about it once or twice. Didn't do it. Thought about it before. Hadn't done it yet. It wasn't like that. I was just busy.
I released a book. I preached. I traveled. I preached. I trained. I got sermons and things. I'm out everywhere. So this week, I don't feel like I was the best dad. I don't feel like I knocked it out of the park as a dad this week. Graham had his first baseball practice for the year. I didn't take him to baseball practice. Somebody took him. I didn't take him. He got took. But I didn't take him.
But guess what? If I don't sell a book, he doesn't have a bat. So this week, I got to sell some books so you can have a bat, and next week, I'll watch you swing it. Tell somebody, piece it together. I'm not going to win at everything all at once. I'm not going to be everything to everybody all at once, but my provision comes in pieces.
So I'm going to be an excellent dad this week. I'm going to take him to school at least one day out of the week. I'm going to get that right. I bought something. Elijah, you don't even know I bought this yet, but I bought, and I told Miss Amy to keep it. I bought something for us to play with together.
Now listen, people. I don't even like Star Wars, but this thing looked cool to me. Let's see. It's called the Naboo Starfighter. Naboo. Naboo? Naboo? All right, let's take a vote. How many say it's Naboo? Naboo? Naboo? Naboo. All right, we're going to call it the ship.
The Pieces Don't Always Look Like the Picture
The ship, I saw it. I thought, man, we can play with that. And since I didn't get a lot of time with them last week, we're going to go home and fly this thing around. It doesn't matter that I'm not a Star Wars fan. My kids love Star Wars. And we are going to take this thing and enjoy it this week.
I saw that picture. I thought, man, they're going to love that. I'm sorry, man. I think they sold me a broken ship. I'll take this back to Target, because what do you do when this doesn't look like this? What do you do when the pieces don't look like the picture? When the process doesn't look like the promise?
Man, this is ridiculous. Look at this. This thing. I bought a ship, a $69 ship. Man, this has holes in it too. I didn't pay $69 for this. That's not what I pictured. But maybe it's in pieces on purpose.
God Hands You the Picture, Then the Pieces
Abraham, come out of your tent and count the stars, if you can. Okay. Now, as the stars are in the sky, so shall your descendants be. He's got the picture. See, God will show you the picture, and then he'll hand you a piece. What am I supposed to do with this?
This is essentially what the first year of marriage is like, by the way. It's when you had a picture, but you got a piece. All of the newly married people, you should look highly confused at this point in the sermon, like you don't know what I'm talking about.
This is what parenting is like too, because you have a picture of raising children. I'm going to raise a world changer. Okay. Change a diaper. Come on, come on, come on. Come on. I'm preaching, Donna. I'm preaching, Donna.
You know what? I'm trying to get you to see that you can't judge the picture by the piece. You can't judge the picture by the piece. Some of you are giving up on your picture because you're looking at your piece. But if you get enough pieces... I said if you get enough pieces... If Jesus said, don't you remember the pieces? If you get enough pieces... If you get enough pieces...
Bring Your Pieces to God
And you have a... Hold on a second. I'm glad I got one of these. Because this is going to show me how to make the pieces look like the picture. Shout, somebody! That's why people tell me it's coming in pieces. It's coming in pieces. It's coming in pieces.
God's going to give you everything you need, but he's going to give it to you in pieces. And you keep thinking it's going to come like a Naboo. Naboo. Naboo. Naboo is coming in pieces. Pieces. God said, Bring me your pieces. I know what to do. It's in pieces on purpose.
All kinds of pieces. All kinds of pieces. I realize this thing isn't broken. It looks broken, but it's broken in a way that I can build with it. God said, I put some deficiencies in your life because I want you to learn how to be interconnected with others. That's why I had to let you have some broken places so I would have something to build on. It's in pieces.
A lot of churches don't realize their potential because they want to have people with all the same size pieces. But God said, When I stock that box, I put in all kinds of pieces. Fat pieces, and skinny pieces, and long pieces, and short pieces, and yellow, and black, and white. I can't understand why anybody would want their church to be all white or all black. For what I'm building, I need a lot of different colored pieces. I don't just need one color. I don't just need one type.
There's Power in the Pieces
The power of the pieces. Don't you remember the pieces? Touch your neighbor one more time and say, There's power in the pieces. You have to see the potential in the pieces. Potential is realized in pieces. You're never going to feel like you have what you need, but if you take what you have and put it together with what you have and put it together with what you have and put it together with what you have and put it together with what they have and what they have, you're going to see the provision.
Provision is released in pieces. And my third point is purpose is revealed in pieces. It means you can't see it while you're in it. You can only see it looking back.
Purpose Revealed Looking Back
I see it now, like I see this church now, and I realize Holly was right. Well, you can say amen now too, because it's ten years in. But how about when we only had one loaf of bread? It's easy to look back and say, man, they were successful because they had this, this… Yeah, you see the picture. They saw the pieces. They didn't know what to do with it either.
Life handed them some pain, but they built with it. Life handed them some crazy stuff, but they pieced it together. It's interesting, because when you see the finished product of something…. Look at my book. Isn't this pretty? So pretty. It was made to look like a stained glass, because God uses broken people. He takes the pieces and puts them together.
I think Peter would have laughed if he could have seen the cathedrals that would be built in his honor. Do you think he ever imagined that there would be basilicas named after him? I visited some of the cathedrals named after these jokers in the boat. But God knows how to arrange the pieces. They didn't see it either. They didn't know. Even when they died, they didn't know we'd be preaching about them today.
The Stained Glass Cover Story
So, you write a book. I'm proud of this book. I hope you're going to read it. When you read it, you'll see the picture. But I don't read it after I write it, because by the time you can see the picture, I am through with the pieces. I am through. I don't even know what's in here. I don't care. I hope it's good, because I remember all the pieces of the process.
Somebody will say, You raised great kids. I did. They see the picture. You see the pieces. They say, Oh, man, he's a great guy. You go, Oh. They see the picture. You see the pieces.
One of the things about this cover of this book is that it's like the 20th one that we did. It's like the 20th one. It was just back and forth and back and forth, finding a last gasp, desperation attempt to create something that the publisher would accept and that I would also love.
I told Ryan Hollingsworth, put a stained glass motif on it. If it could be Moses, I'd like it to be Moses. He sent this back to me, and I knew. I said, that's the one. I don't even care what the publisher says about it. I'm telling you, that's the one. I will self-publish this mug. If they don't want to publish it, I will publish it, because that's my cover. I love the cover. I thought that represented what I was trying to say.
He emailed me back and said, I'm glad you liked the cover. He said, but if it's okay, I just want to tell you one little thing about the inspiration of it. He said, I don't know if you remember back around 2004 or 2005, you spoke at a youth camp at Covenant College in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I was a counselor at that youth camp. It was the first time I had heard you speak. You didn't even know me back then.
I don't know if you remember that, but… Of course, I did, because that was where I was speaking when Holly looked at me and said, it's time. He didn't know that. I didn't know that his inspiration for the cover was the stained glass in the chapel of Covenant College, which was the place….
Trusting God Piece by Piece
You have to come to a place in your life where you're convinced that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. That's from the stained glass in that college chapel. You probably don't even remember it. I said, oh yeah, I remember. I remember. I remember how Holly saw the potential when all I could see was the pieces.
When you're looking at something and it's right now… We have to have bread right now. We have to have lunch right now. When you're looking at something that close up, it doesn't look like anything. I can't see it from here. I can't see it. I see something. I'm busy. I'm trying. I'm in church. I mean…
But see, every time you take a step, you see a little more. With every step, you see it a little more. With every year that passes, with every victory, with every defeat. Take another step. Okay. I'm seeing something now. Here it comes. I'm seeing something. I'm going to take another step. I think something's happening. I think there's a design to this.
I'm trying to get you to see that it's not random. I'm trying to get you to recognize the beauty God sees in your brokenness. And all things work together. You're going to see it in the pieces. You're going to see it in pieces. You're going to see it in pieces, piece by piece, step by step.
If anybody's grateful for purpose, jump up on your feet and give God a praise. I see it now. Look at how beautiful that was, but I can only see it looking back. The key is, can you trust moving forward in what you'll only be able to see looking back?
I'm in this boat. I don't have any bread, but now last time he fed people, and last time he fed people, and last time he saw me through, and last time I'm going to piece it together. Purpose, provision, potential is in you. It's not a missing piece that's keeping you from seeing God do big things in your life. It's your ability to recognize the big picture in the little pieces.
Bring Your Broken Pieces to Jesus
The Pharisees wanted a sign. They said, we need a sign. We need a sign. Well, he was fulfilling the prophecies. He was speaking the word. They just couldn't see it in pieces. We can see it now. They couldn't see it.
The disciples were so worried about bread, but it's not about the bread. It's not about what you don't have. It never was. It's not about what you can't do. It's not about what you did. It's about seeing the potential, the provision, and the purpose in your broken pieces.
Can I give you a word of advice? Bring him your broken pieces. You'd be surprised what he can do with broken pieces. I need all the broken people who are believing God for a blessing in your life to lift your hands and open your mouth and give God a praise. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
See it now. I see it now. I see it now. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know. Thus saith the Lord. I'm so glad I've learned to trust him. Precious Jesus, save your friend. And I know that thou art with me, will be with me to the end.
Lift your hands. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him all and all. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace Jesus, to trust him all and all. Jesus, Jesus, to trust him more. Jesus, Jesus, how I've proved him all and all.