Steven Furtick - Put It To Work (05/07/2017)
In this sermon "Put It to Work," drawn from John 5 at the Pool of Bethesda, the preacher shows Jesus approaching one long-suffering invalid among many, asking if he wants to get well, then commanding him to rise, pick up his mat, and walk—resulting in instant healing by grace, not effort. The message emphasizes that God's genius uses our hardships, limitations, and even "mats" (ongoing struggles or thorns) not just to heal us individually but to confront broken systems through grace, urging believers to stop asking God to remove difficulties and instead pray for Him to put them to work for His glory and our good.
Jesus Sees the One in the Crowd
How many want a word from God today? Me too. "Oh, come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was born with the precious blood of Jesus Christ". John chapter 5, the scripture says, Sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One was there who had been an invalid for 38 years.
You know, God doesn't see many today. He sees one. When I see you, I see a crowd. But when God sees you, he sees the exact circumference of all of the circumstances in your life. And he wants to enter into that place. And through all of those people, Jesus walked up to one who had been an invalid, unable to move and function for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to get well?
Verse 7, Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. There was a system at this pool where every so often the water would begin to bubble, and kind of like the jets on a jacuzzi would come on, is the way I picture it. But it wasn't timed electronically. It was that God was working, and if you could get in the water first, you could be healed from whatever was wrong with you. And this is why many people who had many problems have gathered around the pool.
The Command That Changes Everything
And the man said, I have no one to help me when the water is stirred. Then Jesus, verse 8, said to him, Get up. Tell the person next to you, get up. Pick up your mat and walk. And at once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and walked. Now I want you to give my sermon title to the person next to you today, but you have to look at them and say it with authority and confidence. Because I want you to tell your neighbor, put it to work. In fact, find five people and tell them, put it to work. And point at them when you tell them, put it to work. Put it to work. Put it to work. Put it to work. You ready to go to work? Let's go to work. Thank you, worship team.
We have a picture here in the Scripture for week three of Jesus as the genius. You know, he's not only the escape plan to get you out of this world, but he's the expert to show you how to do it right while you're here. Everybody say, expert. Now, the thing that makes an expert an expert is they know how stuff works. Anybody can look like an expert as long as everything is working. Like, I'm great with technology. Just don't let it fail. When it fails, I get frustrated. That's why God invented the IT department. On the eighth day, God made IT. Come on, somebody.
Jesus Knows How Things Work—and How to Fix Them
But when the Devil gets in my technology, I know who to call. I call Nick Dooley. He is our resident IT genius at Elevation Church. And Brother Nick is such a good man. In fact, he's the reason that University City… One of the reasons… You have Nick and Bernie and all these great people behind the scenes. They might not have geese on their shirts up in front of thousands of people, but they're working behind the scenes in formation to make sure we're open on time. Well, Nick is just awesome. One day I was asking him, Nick, when did you know you were awesome? Like, when did it hit you that I am pretty much good at everything? Because he is. He can fix anything. He can do anything. Which is pretty much the opposite of me.
I said, when did your awesomeness hit you? Is it possible it could hit me later in life? Or did it hit you as a young child? Is it something that you just have or you don't? Or can it be acquired? And he said, well, obviously I'm not a genius. I don't think of myself that way, he said. But I do always remember that from the time I was a little boy, I was always fascinated by how things worked. And I remember always wanting to take things apart and put them back together so I could figure out how they worked. And that's when I realized I am nothing like Nick. Never in my life have I been fascinated by how anything works. I do, however, get frustrated when it doesn't. How many of you are like Nick? How many of you are like me? Yeah, I just want it to work.
When I hurt my elbow a couple of months ago, there was a guy in the church that started working on my elbow, and I would come in and tell him it hurt, and I would point to where it hurt, and he would start using all these terms to tell me why it hurt. It probably would have been good for me to pay attention to what he was saying, but all I really wanted him to do is make it not hurt. In other words, just fix it. I don't need a lesson about it. I just need you to do something with it. But what he knows in telling me what's wrong with my elbow is something Jesus knows about telling you the secrets of your life. If you don't understand what's causing dysfunction, you won't know what to do to relieve it. If you don't understand why something isn't working, you're pretty much stuck when it does not.
And so we see in John chapter 5 a picture of Jesus coming upon a scene where nothing is working right. Our middle child, Graham, loves sports, loves baseball particularly. I think he would play any sport that I let him play, but I'm doing baseball right now, and we're focused on that. And he's really good at it. It's really amazing. I'm not biased. He's the best player in the league. But he was struggling with his swing a little bit when the season first started, and I took him out to his old coach for a tune-up. I said, work with him. Chad, I've got to get his swing right. And see, because all I know to tell him when he's missing the ball is, you know, hit the ball, because that's the extent of my knowledge about what's supposed to happen.
When Systems Fail and Nothing Works
And so I'm watching him miss the ball, and I want him to do better, but I don't understand the mechanics of the swing well enough. I thought I did. I mean, I grew up, played baseball a little bit myself, watched baseball. I can watch baseball. I can count strikes. I can count balls. But I don't know what to do to make the difference between a miss and a hit, or a little hit and a big hit. All I know to do is tell him, you know, put the bat on the ball. And then I start regurgitating stuff that I've heard other people say, you know, jump on it, Graham. I'm not entirely sure what jump on it means, or if that's the right thing to tell him. You know, swing early. I don't know. Just trying stuff, you know, because I'm not an expert. I don't really know.
And when his coach started breaking it down, this is a little nerdy, but I wrote in my phone all the things I heard him tell Graham to do about his swing so I could repeat them back. You know, load. So I wrote that down. Load. Explode. So I wrote that down. Explode. Get set. And so I put that down. Get set. And then he put spread. So I put spread. And it was like 17 things, and it got really confusing to me to think, how am I going to remember all of this to tell him to do? Because when you don't really understand how something is supposed to work, the best you can do is memorize and regurgitate and hope it works.
A lot of people live life just hoping it works, swinging away. And if that don't work, I'll swing harder. And if that don't work, I'll throw it on my back and go home, because this ain't working. Touch somebody and say, this ain't working. There come times in life when you look at what you're doing and what it's producing, and the only thing you really know to say is, this ain't working. You can look at me just as churchy as you dare to look at me, but if we followed you around for three minutes, we'd find an area of your life that isn't working. It might be a relationship. It might be something, especially if I could hook up something to your mind and see what you're thinking about. It might be your prayer life. It might be your eating patterns. But I could find something in your life that isn't working. It's a difficult thing to admit.
What I love about Jesus is that since he put the world together, since he was the agent that knit me together as well, he knows how, when it's been taken apart, to put the pieces back where they go and get it working again. I love people who aren't afraid to do the hard work. What I don't like is people who have the intelligence to do something great, but don't take the initiative to ever do it. That bothers me. Because I feel like there are so many people who would love to have what you have, and yet you have it, but you won't work it. I can't stand that. That drives me crazy for somebody to have an ability but not activate it.
Jesus Works with Purpose, Priority, and Perseverance
So, we're talking about genius. If you study the words of Jesus like we did in week one of this series, you find out his words were brilliant. But you can't get a full picture of the genius of Jesus just by observing his words. To really see his brilliance, you have to follow him on the job and watch him work. We have the words of Jesus, but I want to spend a minute today talking about the works of Jesus. And I can start just about anywhere because Jesus was always at work. He came to earth not to be served but to serve. He went to work.
As you study the gospel of John, you see case study after case study after case study of Jesus, the pristine one who came to earth spotless getting his hands dirty. Did you watch that show, what's it called, Dirty Jobs? I didn't have to watch it because I had a dirty job. My first job was I worked at a pet cemetery and cremation service. Everybody say, Dirty Jobs. Now, before you judge me, I need you to know that you are Jesus' dirty job. Okay, now we got that settled. Let's look for a moment at how Jesus worked.
When Jesus went to work, he went to work with a sense of purpose. In John, chapter 6, verse 27, he tells his followers in the crowds, he says, Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. In other words, it's good every once in a while to back up and ask yourself the question, What are you working for? What are you working for? At the end of this, what will there be? What will I have if I complete this task that I've begun? He said, What are you working for? But Jesus worked with a sense of great purpose. Everybody say purpose. Purpose.
He told the disciples about having a limited amount of time, because everybody does, and a vast amount to accomplish in a little bit of time. And he said, As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. And that's true of everyone in the room. You won't have forever to fulfill your calling. So when Jesus came onto the scene, he got to work. There were a lot of people who tried to distract him from what it was he came to do. But Jesus stayed on his grind. Touch somebody and say, Stay on your grind. Have some priorities in your life that other people can't pull you away from. Because night is coming where you won't be able to do it, so you need to do it while you can. Raise your kids while you can. Make a difference while you can. Use your youth while you can. Expend your energy while you can.
So he did it with a sense of priority. You have to prioritize your work. This is great management effectiveness training 101. You have to have purpose, you have to have priority, and you have to have perseverance. When it came close to the end for Jesus to go to the cross, he told his father, he said, I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And that's the way we glorify God. Glorifying God isn't just I lift my hands in church, I sing songs about him, I read a Bible verse to start my day. Finishing the work God gave you to do brings him glory on the earth.
Jesus Goes to the Hardest Places and Cases
I wonder, are you a quitter? I wonder, did you walk away from your assignment? I wonder, is there work left undone? Because you put your hand to the plow and look back. Work. Work. It's not a four-letter word. I mean, it is technically, but it's not a bad word. Work. Work. Work. Just get it out. Work. Work. Work. Work. I thought about telling you, when you come to church, you should come to work. I mean, you should be here to serve God. You should be here to bring something to this gathering, if you're a follower of Jesus. Because one day Jesus, in John chapter 5, he went to the pool of Bethesda. Now, he wasn't going to the pool to get a tan. He wasn't going to the pool to swim some laps. This was a pool where crippled people were colonized. This was a pool where people who didn't fit in would gather together. This was a pool where people with infirmities didn't have to live in isolation. Bethesda means House of Mercy. It was the pool outside of the Sheep Gate. This was not a five-star resort. You understand? When the pool is next to the Sheep Gate. Can you see the TripAdvisor ratings on this?
But they had nowhere else to go, and so they went here. And Jesus, who could have gone anywhere, went to the place where people went who had nowhere else to go. In other words, he was saying, I'll do the dirty work. I'll go to the places, and I'll touch the people. In fact, when he got there, he surveyed the situation, and there was so much wrong with so many people that he had to start somewhere, so guess what he did? He found the hardest job on the scene. Isn't that what it said? Isn't that what it said? It said, when he found the man who had been in his condition the longest for 38 years, when he found the job that looked the hardest… In fact, when he found one that was seemingly impossible, he said, I'll do the job. This is a job for Jesus. He went looking for work.
I believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, is still looking for work in the earth today. Now, I believe that we are the body of Christ, and that's why we have to keep opening campuses, and that's why we have to keep on spreading out, and that's why we have to keep showing up at the pools and the colonies where the cripple lay in our communities and say, Give me your hardest case. I'll work on it. Give me your hardest case. I have a power inside of me that is greater than whatever is going on in a situation around me, so put me to work. Put me to work, God. Make that your prayer a couple times this week. Instead of getting up and giving God a job order to do for you that day, why don't you wake up and say, God, you've been so good to me, why don't you put me to work? What can I do for you? How can I serve you? How can I make you smile? What can I do today that would make the world a little better? I spent so much time asking you to make my life better. What can I touch today and improve? What can I bless today by the work of my hands? Put me to work, God. I'm on the job. I'm showing up. I want to grind. Touch somebody and say, Get to work. Get to work. Get to work.
An Apology to the Man at Bethesda
Well, Jesus shows up, and he surveys the situation, and there is a man… Now, I want to break in right here. I have preached on this man in the past, and I feel that in front of all of you today, I owe him an apology. I'm assuming he made it to heaven. And I want to tell you, man, whatever your name is, the Bible doesn't tell me your name. It just says that you had a condition, because sometimes life will name you after what you go through rather than who you really are. So I don't even know your name. It's not given to me, but I'm going to call you Matt Man, because you were lying on the mat. So I wanted to say, Matt Man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the times I preached about you, and when I was preaching about you, I didn't really understand you.
You know, there are a lot of principles in this text, church, a lot of different points we could make, but just in studying it through the lens of where my life is at right now, I look at it a little differently than I did when I was a young preacher. Back when I was a young preacher. Back when I was just getting started as a pastor. See, because when I just started pastoring a church, I had a whole lot of philosophies, but I hadn't yet dealt with people enough to see if my philosophies were powerful enough to work on real people. Because it's one thing to be an expert about scenarios. It's another thing to walk into an actual live grenade situation.
Because all I ever preached about this man is how he made excuses, right? He had a situation, and he made excuses. He made excuses. He excused his situation. When Jesus asked him, Do you want to get well? The man said, I have no one to help me. I preached about this man almost as if he had a hurt knee. But this isn't a man who is dealing with an elbow injury or a torn rotator cuff. He doesn't have a physical therapist. He doesn't even have any morphine. I think I didn't understand that people's situations, when they go on long enough, they really do start to become your only reality. I didn't understand this until I had families in the church whose children committed suicide. And so I would preach to the parents, Stop making excuses. And I would preach to people, Let go of your past. But it's kind of hard to let go of a past that I believe I was responsible for. It's kind of hard to let go of a past that still has ramifications in my present. So you're putting it in the past, but it's still what I'm dealing with.
And I want to say, I'm sorry, Brother Matman, that I didn't take time to fully understand your situation. That when you were saying, I can't move, see, because I gave this guy a hard time. Because in my estimation, in my professional estimation, he made several bad decisions. The first one that he made was who he was hanging around. And I used to preach this, and I still think this is valid. And so I don't totally retract it, but I want to explore it a little more. I used to preach that when you sit around sick people and when you hang around sick people, they may make you feel better about your situation, but they can't do anything to help you get better and change your situation. So I used to shout at that man like, Hey, get off the porch, get around some people who are healthy. But, you know, I think that kind of misses the point. The point of the matter is he wasn't in control of where he was laid. He couldn't really help where he hung out. He was forced to be there. He had a situation, and he took his situation, and he surrounded himself with people. In other words, he had a squad. Everybody say, Squad. Look at your neighbor and say, Squad. Squad.
He had a squad. I think a lot of times we build our squad to support our situation rather than surrounding ourselves with a squad who can speak to our situation and help us rise above it. And I still believe this. I still believe that if you struggle with something, don't just get around other people who struggle. Get around people who are strong who can help you where you struggle and maybe get you up and going again. So he had a situation, a helpless situation. He had a squad, a dysfunctional squad. It said that all around those porches there were blind people, sick people, lame people, afflicted people, hurting people. Kind of like our church. Kind of like this left section in the back of the room. Oh, you don't show it. Look, your eyesight works, but your spiritual vision doesn't. You can move your body. You walked in here. But you can't move your will in the direction of the things that God has told you to do. So we surround ourselves. And this is what we do. This is what we do in church. This is what we do in church. We get a system that accommodates our situation.
Grace Over the Failed System
Can I preach? Can I do it? Can I do it like a one… Okay. Well, there's a system, the man said. He said, every so often the water starts to bubble. When the water bubbles, whoever gets in gets healed of their brokenness. And I can't beat the system. See, Jesus… He actually doesn't even know it's Jesus yet, which is kind of a humorous part of the text, because sometimes God is working in your life before you even know it's him. Sometimes God is orchestrating. This is the genius of Jesus, that he can be involved in your life and you don't even know he's doing it. He can take somebody out of your life and you don't even know he's the one who let them go. You thought they broke your heart. No. He was just arranging your situation so you could get well. He was working before you knew it was him on the job. Some of us give the devil God's credit for the assignment that he's completing. We say it's the devil attacking. No. It's not the devil attacking you. It's sometimes God arranging things so that he can get through to you.
And there's a system at the pool where the first one in gets healed. See, the bad thing about it is if there's a blind guy and then a guy who can't walk, the blind guy might stumble a little bit getting to the pool, but he's faster than the guy who can't walk. So the guy who's lying on the mat can see it, but he can't get to it. That's got to be the worst feeling in the world. When you can see the future that God has created you for, but you can't get to it. When you can see the possibility of what your marriage could be, but you can't get to it. When you can see in your kids what they could become if they would follow some advice and get around the right squad, but you can't get to it because you can see it, but you can't do it. That has got to be the worst feeling in the world.
So, I beat this man to death. When I preached this guy, I would preach him into the ground, and I would preach to him about how when Jesus asks you the question, verse 6, do you want to get well, there's only one acceptable answer. Please. Yeah. Totes. Nobody says that anymore. How?! But yet the man responds to opportunity with reality. I used to call it an excuse, but turns out it wasn't an excuse at all. He just states the facts. Sir, I have no one to help me. The system has failed me. I need help. And so, I used to tell this man, hey, bro, if you really wanted to get healed, you'd roll yourself into the pool, and you'd get there when the water started bubbling. And that's cool, because we do need to take initiative. I still believe that. I still believe that sometimes you need to make your way toward what God has called you to any way you can. I still believe that. If you've got to crawl, you should crawl. I still believe if you've got to roll, you should roll. I still believe if you've got an inch, you should inch. I still believe in initiative, because I think learned helplessness is one of the most devastating dynamics that affects us all. When we convince ourselves we can't.
Yet, I realized this when I was thinking about the five covered colonnades. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. I just missed it. I'll do better. That five, every time you see it in the Bible, is the number of grace. Like different numbers in the Bible are used symbolically to represent different things. You don't have to understand charts of numerology to understand what I'm about to tell you. Jesus was pierced in five places in the Bible. Jesus was pierced in five places in his body, his hands, his feet, his side. Five is the number of grace. Wait, what's my text? John chapter 5. Five covered porches. I thought this was a story about this man's guilt. Now I understand it's a story about God's grace.
See, I thought when the man made his excuses, it would keep God from doing what he wanted to do. I thought when the man made excuses, Jesus would say, Okay, well, I'll find somebody else. There's plenty of people, and I'm sure somebody wants it better than you do. But did you notice that when the man made his admission of his situation, the next thing Jesus did was change it? He said, I have no one to help me. That's just the way it is. This isn't working. I got everybody else fooled in my life, but I can't move. This isn't working. This isn't working. Will you fix it? And Jesus then gives a command that brings about change to the circumstance once the man makes an admission of how hopelessly changeless his situation seems. And Jesus says, look at verse 8, Get up! I think he yelled it. You think he yelled it? I think he wanted a crowd to watch. Get up! Or maybe not. Maybe it's like, Get up. I don't know. We don't know. You imagine it your way, I'll imagine it mine. I'm like, Get up! That's how I preach. Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. And verse 9, At once the man was cured. At once the man was cured.
You know what I used to think? I used to think that the man was cured because he got up. But now I realize, after seeing the grace of God in my own life and the lives of others, he wasn't cured because he got up. He got up because he was cured. And that's what grace is. Not that we love God, but that he loved us. Oh God, I don't change so God will love me. I change because God does love me whether I change or not. Grace will get you up. Grace will pick you up. Grace will lift you out. Grace will make you strong. Grace will make you stand. Grace will walk past everything that you list as an excuse and empower change in your life. Somebody say, Get up by grace. Get up by grace. Grace will get you up. Grace will get you up when your works can't. Grace will get you up when your efforts fail. Grace will get you up when your words fall short. Grace will get you up when depression holds you down. Grace will get you up when depression holds you down. Some of y'all are looking at me, but if you really understood grace, you jump up on your feet and thank God that he got you up, that he woke you up this morning. Grace will get you up. Grace will get you up. For it is by grace you have been saved. Through faith. This is not from yourselves. Watch. Not of works. I think I found something in Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9. By grace you have been saved. Through faith. Five covered colonnades. John chapter 5. Number of grace. It is by grace you have been saved. Not of works. Not of works. God helps those who help themselves. Looks like here he helps somebody who couldn't help himself. That's our system, though. That's a religion system. Help yourself. God will help you.
Jesus shows up and says, you know what? This system isn't really working. This is not working. The people who need the help the most can't get to it. And that's the way it was. Oh, you can sit down now. I think they think if they stay standing, I'll close. I won't. I won't. The first one in wins. That's the law. That's the system of religion. That the first one in wins. And Jesus showed up and saw, you know, this isn't working. I don't know why that every time I preach this text, I would preach it and I would stop on verse 9, part A. I don't know why. Because it seemed like the end, you know? At once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and walked. That's pretty awesome! So, I would end the sermon there. But there's this thing that it says right after that. And it got my attention this week, because I'm looking for the genius of Jesus. And I'm understanding that everything he does has intention. And even the way he does it and when he does it is intentional.
Confronting the Religious System on the Sabbath
So, the next thing I always skip, because it said the day on which this took place was a Sabbath. And to me that just felt like a boring, needless detail, much like your wife will slip into a conversation sometimes when she's not getting to the bottom line quick enough. Holly's at University City today, so I can say these things. So, I skipped it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's on the Sabbath. But the man walked. That's the point, right? I think what I understood of the text was the principles, but somehow I missed the point. The Sabbath in Jewish culture was the system that really governed and relegated so much about the people's relationship with God. When God created the world, he worked for six days. On the seventh day, he rested. Not because he was tired. Because he was done. When he rested, he gave a pattern to the people that, in the same way that I've rested from my work, on six days you should do all your work. On the seventh day, you rest. Really, he gave it to them as a gift. But by the time Jesus came on the scene and observed their system, they had turned what God gave as a gift into a grind. That's what religion will always do if God is not present in a living way. It will turn what God gave as a gift into a grind. It will start trying to get you to work for things that have been freely given.
So, the people created all of these subtexts and all of these protective layers to protect the Sabbath. And they made rules. They made a lot of rules where, you know, you can do a certain amount of work but not this much. And one of the ways they did that was they calculated how much weight you could actually lift on the Sabbath. So, like you could lift a utensil, but if it gets above a certain weight, you can't lift it. So, you might have to check your app before you lift something. Okay, can I do this? But you couldn't use your app because you can't use electronics because that's work on the Sabbath. It's a crazy system. Religion creates crazy systems that get so far away from what God ever gave the gift for in the first place. All kinds of crazy systems. And I thought about listing to you some of that, but I realized I could just read it to you in the text. Because it says, the day on which this took place was a Sabbath. Look at verse 10. You're not going to believe this. And so, the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, Awesome, man! You're walking! Holy crap! You're walking! You were paralyzed! You're moving around! No. It's the Sabbath. The law forbids you to carry your mat. That's what you noticed. The dude who has never walked before just paraded right in front of you, and all you can see is his mat. This is mat-ness, people. March mat-ness. Come on, somebody. Everybody say, Madness! Madness! Complete madness.
I give you a car. Let's experiment. I give you a car. I give you a Lamborghini if you like that kind of car. Insert dream car. And all you want to say is, does it have XM satellite radio or Sirius? This man is walking. It's amazing how religious people will totally miss how far you've come and only see what you're doing wrong. People will totally miss that you were on your way to prison, and now you struggle a little bit over here, but if it hadn't been for the grace of God, walk up on your porch. All they can see is what you're carrying. They can't see what you've already come through. Come on, tell somebody, say, you'd be nicer to me if you knew. You'd be nicer to me if you knew how bad I could be. You'd be nicer to me if you saw the gene pool I came from. You'd be nicer to me if you knew it's a miracle I'm in church. I know I might not be as good as you yet, but at least I'm walking. I didn't have a tad. I'm trying to be a tad. Would you have a little Patience while I figure this out? All you can see is my mat. Tell somebody, stop staring at my mat. I'm looking at my mat. My mat. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
The man replied, verse 11, he did it. This guy is a walking excuse. Not my fault I'm on the mat. It's not my fault I got up. The man who made me well don't know who he is yet, just know what he did. Can't explain him yet, but I experienced him. He told me, pick up your mat and walk. You know, he did. He did. That got me. It's interesting that Jesus took the time to tell this man, pick up your mat. This is the stuff you get to think about when your job is to preach the Bible. You get to think about, why did Jesus care what the man did with the mat after he wasn't going to need it anymore? Would you like to hear my thoughts on this? Well, I thought about how the mat weighed more than what he was allowed to pick up on the Sabbath. I thought about how the mat also represented where the man had come from. I thought maybe God wanted this man to hold his mat so people could identify with the struggle that Jesus had set him free from. And I thought about how, in our lives sometimes, when we come through something, we want to totally leave it behind and be done with it. And yet, this man with his mat was kind of like a neon arrow pointing to heaven so people could see what God has done for me. I wasn't doing anything right. I didn't have anything going for me. I don't want to get too far away from remembering who I was without the mercy of God that people can't look at me and see I'm nothing but a trophy of his grace.
So, I figured that the mat was kind of like a testimony. I figured that the mat was kind of like this thing that Jesus said, you know what? You could leave this here for the next person that needs it, because I'm sure there are people in line at the pool of Bethesda who need a mat, but I don't want you to leave it behind. I want you to put it to work. I read about how the apostle Paul one time had this thing in his life. He doesn't specify what it was, and I love that he doesn't because mats come in all different shapes and sizes. Conditions come in all different shapes and sizes. Situations come in all different shapes and sizes. Some financial, some relational, some internal, some external. But Paul said, I had a Thorn in my flesh. He said it was so terrible that I pleaded with God. Not just I asked him, I begged him. And I asked him, take it away. But God had another plan for my Thorn. God had another plan and another purpose for my mat. God said, instead of taking your Thorn away, I want to put it to work. Instead of taking your frustration away, I want to put it to work. So I'm not going to remove the frustration. I'm not going to remove the challenge. I'm not going to remove the tendency. I'm not going to remove the struggle. I'm not going to remove the personality disorder. I'm not going to remove your mother-in-law. I won't kill her. No, I won't kill her, Paul. Instead, I want to use what you want to leave behind. I want to put it to work.
Putting the Mat—and Every Hardship—to Work
And I realized that when Jesus told this man, pick up your mat, he wasn't just trying to teach him responsibility. And he wasn't just trying to give him a testimony so he wouldn't ever forget where he came from, but he was trying to challenge the system that had failed the man in the first place. See, the Bible says… I have to tell you this. I'll let you go after I show you this. The Bible says that when they found out it was Jesus who told the man to pick up his mat, they wanted to kill him. And Jesus said, Good. I came to die. Let's get to work. In other words, when persecution came toward Jesus, he didn't ask God to take it away. When struggle started in the ministry of Jesus, he put it to work. He said for this purpose was I born. So I'm going to take the thing that they're going to try to kill me for and I'm going to use it to work the purpose for which I came. I want to tell you, he'll do that in your life, too, if you'll let him. He'll take the thing that's trying to kill you, trying to destroy you, trying to black you out, and he'll put it to work. Yes, he will. Yes, he will. He'll put it to work. Come on, let's praise him that he's putting our hardships to work. He said our life and momentary affliction is working for us, a far-exceeding weight of glory.
So maybe, I've been asking God to do the wrong work all along. I've been asking him to remove stuff that he really wants to reveal himself through. Because you have a mat. You might have rolled it up and put it in the closet to save it for hot yoga on Thursday, but you've got a mat. Sometimes our problem is we're not willing to carry the thing that God could use the most to drive us to rely on his grace. You know, if you really believe in the power of God, and if you really believe what Romans 8:28 says, and I don't know if you have a favorite Bible verse, I'm going to suggest this one. If you need something to hold on to at this season in your life because you're lying by a pool and the system has failed you, I've got one idea for you, one thought for you, that you might try this. You tried the pool, the pool failed you. You tried the system, the system failed you. You tried complaining, complaining didn't make it better, did it? You tried bitterness, it didn't make it better, did it? You tried excuses, excuses didn't change a thing, did it? And yet Jesus changes this man's situation, but in changing his situation, he confronts his whole system.
We think God only wants to change situations in our lives. What if he wants to fix the system? And what if he wants to use the situation to fix the system? He said, Keep your mat so I can change the system, because the system has failed. The law was powerless to do it, but my grace can do it. Keep your mat, keep your mat, keep your mat. Oh yeah, the verse I was talking about is Romans 8, 28. It says, And we know that in all things, on all mats, in all seasons, in all adversities, go ahead and list it, bankruptcy, go ahead and list it, divorce, go ahead and list it, it hurt, go ahead and list it, abuse, in all things God works. He said, I'm going to take the good things in your life. I'm going to take the bad things in your life. And I'm going to work those things together for your good. Come on, lift up your hands like you've got a mat today, like you've got a Thorn today. And instead of asking God, take it away, ask the Lord, say, Put it to work, God, put it to work, work in my life, work in my family, work on my job, work in my community.