This Isn't Working | Savage Jesus | Pastor Steven Furtick

[Applause] we're continuing in a series called savage Jesus I planned the conclusion of this series to align with Easter then when I found out that we were learning so much in having our our paradigm of Jesus challenged and really starting to see him in a fresh way I thought we would continue for a little while longer so we're in the bonus bonus round today of this series for Mark's Gospel and I'll pick up at mark chapter 3 verse 1 and now that you've rested for four minutes stand up for the reading of God's Word thank you so much another time Jesus went into the synagogue and a man with the shriveled hand was there some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand stand up in front of everyone then Jesus asked them which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life or to kill but they remained silent and he looked around at them in anger and anger come on be nice Jesus you say nice for what he looked around in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was completely restored then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus now this is gonna be a fun title to tell the person next to you so look at him like you're frustrated with them and disappointed in them if you could do that for me and just look at them and say real slow real deliberate this isn't working and I shake your head and sit down have you had anything in your life lately that doesn't seem to be working I mean maybe it worked at once and I'm not talking about a washing machine or something like that I'm talking about real stuff like a relationship that sounded fresh it really takes courage to admit that a relationship isn't working especially if it if it feels comfortable to you I preached one message called dysfunctional comfort and how that sometimes it's easier to stay in familiar bondage than it is to embrace uncomfortable freedom and so to admit that it's not working requires a certain amount of courage to say it used to work or it may appear to others to be working but this isn't working just coming to that point alone can be difficult from time to time because sometimes we don't really know if it's going to work if we keep doing it if we just need to give it more time and it will work which is typically what we preach you know just keep trying just keep moving but I've been to the gym and the way that some of us work out we can keep working out until the rapture and it will not work not the way we're working our form is off we take more breaks than we do reps yeah this this isn't going to work that's what my 12 year old my man Elijah the one that I raised and paid for he was saying the other day like he's starting to try to lift weights so we put him on a little program didn't he buck and after two days he came to me and said this isn't working he wants he wants pecs real quick and what he didn't understand his process touch somebody say no process no pecs or if you don't want to tell him that that's that's really weird what a cringy touch your neighbor now listen to the Bible Bible says another time Jesus went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there and there were some people there who were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus now I'll stop there because what we have in this passage is a a let me say I want to say this a failed system and a frustrated Savior and really what bridges the gap between the failed system and the frustrated Savior is a man who is there that day the Bible calls him this mark calls him this he says he was a man verse 3 with a shriveled hand in verse 1 they're announcing his presence in the synagogue it says Jesus who is the most important person in human history was in the synagogue and a man and I'm expecting for it to be and a man with a hundred-million-dollar net worth I'm expecting if we're gonna take time to call this guy out by name it would be a man with a Grammy or it would be a man you know what I'm saying with with a contract to play in the NBA but yet when Mark gets ready to call the roll for who is in attendance that day he does not mention a man with the BMW or Mercedes or a Maserati he mentions a man with a situation that could have and should have prohibited him from being there in the first place with this kind of deformity it is likely that he would have been excluded from synagogue worship the good thing is he only had a deformity in one hand and when you have a deformity in one hand that means you can shake hands with your good hands while you hide your bad one yet much to this man's chagrin it must have felt like a nightmare when Jesus called him out in front of anyone stood him up and used him as an object lesson really to say that sounds cruel but Jesus will always use your situation to fix the system that created it this is the premise of mark three one through six and we all have situations in the place today don't make me guess when you look at me smug when I say we all have situations it makes me want to ask God to show me what you did last week so I could start saying your situate every situation in this room if I started throwing your real sister not your Sunday situation that's much different I really didn't come to preach to Sunday and neither did Jesus Jesus speaks to that place that is not working he speaks to that place that is not functioning he speaks to that place that you have learned to conceal and reveals his glory and his strength through your weakness one thing I'm grateful for that I learned from Paul who wrote a lot of the New Testament letters he taught me that it is a theological impossibility for my situation to separate me from God it's a wonderful list that he gives us in Romans 8 if you're ever inclined to read it if you're having one of those days where you find yourself in a situation that you don't feel God since God or maybe even believe he's there go to Romans 8:35 where you will find a list of situations that cannot will not may not do not have the permission or the power to separate you from God so Paul makes a list and in his list he starts with trouble it's almost like he's picking a fight he says who shall separate us from the love of God and then he starts naming situations in personifying the situations he wants us to understand the power of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ it's always greater that's why we say his name is above all other names what that means is if you can name a situation there is a name that is greater and to work that is greater and a savior that is greater and a grace that is greater than your situation Paul says who somebody say who come on get your outlaw and say who shall trouble that's a situation shall hardship that's a situation shall persecution who doesn't like you who talks about you who doesn't think well of you who doesn't speak kindly about you that's a situation shall famine what you don't have shall nakedness or exposure to the elements shall danger or trouble shall swords shall watch this we're gonna raise the stakes death or life that's a situation or angels or demons that's a situation you can't even see or the present what I'm dealing with or the future what I'm worried about that I don't even know yet shall height nor depth and watch this clause or anything else in all creation see their pockets it he wants to close it all in he says if you can name a situation I can point you to a grace that is greater than your situation so then I don't care what you did what they said what you lost what you don't have where you've been or where you're going it is impossible for your situation to separate you from your source now shove somebody and say it's just a situation it's not my identity it's just my situation and this man has a situation but his situation is not him somebody went through a divorce but a divorce is not you somebody is dealing with an addiction but the addiction is not your identity and we know this because mark calls him a man with a shriveled hand not the shrivel handed man he's a man with an issue but the issue is not the man y'all don't want to help me preach at all today I feel so alone situation but the real situation in this text is not the man's hand it's the people's hearts did you notice that it's one thing to have a bad hand especially in Vegas but when you have a bad heart and so what I saw when I was reading this very familiar text that is simple on the surface was a depth of understanding of five things that Jesus came to fix now he's going to fix this man's situation you saw it the man left home with two good hands but before he fixes the situation he is going to challenge the system because that's what God does the reason he does it that way rather than just fixed the situation without addressing the system is because if he fixes the situation without addressing the system that created the situation you will stay stuck in the same system that created that situation and then you you will have seven more baby situations that are worse than the first now many of us live our lives going from situation to situation to situation to situation and we can't even find time to pray because when we go to pray we feel like we have to get through every situation that we're dealing with we got to pray for our mom and she's sick and we got to pray for the missionaries and we never even met them and by the time we get done praying with every situation in our lives we're asleep if you ever identify this is for leaders do any of you own a business or lead a department I want to share something with you real quick this is a free breakout leadership John Maxwell seminar when you run around fixing situations all day you actually disempower the decision-making ability in your organization because it's one thing to know when something isn't working a lot of people are good at that how many know that it doesn't take a genius to see when something isn't working all it takes is a Facebook account and you can spend your whole day telling everybody who doesn't care what's wrong with everything that you don't know how to fix either the thing I brought my own Holy Ghost today cuz they given me no love it's one thing to know when this isn't working I'm pretty good at that it's another thing to know why this isn't working it's one thing to know that this tennis ball isn't going over the net it's another thing to know why it's not going over the net it's one thing to know I want to kill my kids it's another thing to know why our communication is breaking down as they are getting older and the approach needs to change it's one thing to know I feel lonely it's another thing to know why do I feel lonely and maybe it's not everybody else's fault maybe the system that is keeping me lonely is within my heart see we always want to point fingers at situations but you might just find that the that the situation you're pointing at is trying to alert you to a system within yourself that god wants to deal with because God is not a situational God God is the god of systems God is a God who gets to root causes so he went to the synagogue which was their system of worship and he went on the Sabbath which was their day of rest and he found a situation and he stood it up in front of everyone and he used the situation to fix their system and the first thing that he has to fix is their pessimism there are five of these where we get to all five who knows but I'll be here next week she said me too [Music] pessimism is the result of considering your situation before you consider your source it's what makes you look at your life and feel so overwhelmed by all your situations and I'm guilty of it I'm gonna be honest with you I'm guilty of I'm guilty of evaluating my situation without considering my source and when I do I always feel overwhelmed you will notice that there were some there that day who were actually verse 2 looking for a reason to accuse Jesus they were looking for something wrong principle of the universe you don't have to be a Christian to believe this you will always find what you're looking for if you are looking for a reason to be offended you will find it every time if you are looking for a reason to be bitter you will find one any time when you come through you know a church like this I am well aware that in a crowd this size there are many people here today who are looking for something not to like about our church it's okay I understand it I understand it because we have almost almost been trained for it we have been trained not to trust our politicians we have been trained and maybe for good reason in many cases we have been trained sometimes by our disappointments not to expect much out of life we have been trained by by by our by our insecurities not to expect people to like us and so guess what happens when we go around all day believing secretly that nobody likes us when we're telling ourselves before we even go while into our day nobody really cares about me nobody ever checks on me nobody appreciates me nobody talks to me nobody notices me nobody texts me and the many friends me nobody likes me nobody friends me nobody likes me guess what's gonna happen your situation is going to reflect your psychology as a man thinketh in his heart so is he so it's just a matter of time before your situation looks like yourself talk and now you said it enough to yourself you are looking for a reason to prove to yourself a verdict that you arrived at before you even collected evidence so it causes you to look at people and situations and think it can't get any better because there's always been this way but jesus said stretch out your hand I came to speak a better word and fix what you say within yourself [Applause] nobody likes me nobody touched me I mean em with me no money nothing why are you surprised when they fulfill your prophecy well they always and they never this is the second thing that Jesus came to fix is our prejudice yet there's nothing in the passage about the man's skin color there's nothing in the passage about gender equality there's nothing in the passage about his sexual orientation none of that yet I still see prejudice in the synagogue on the Sabbath in mark 3 and this prejudice is not directed at the man they are prejudiced toward Jesus I see you you look like you want to believe me but you confuse them let's take the word apart prejudice the definition is in the word pre judge that's what prejudice is and it doesn't just happen racially or socio-economic ly prejudice is when you put yourself in the judges seat or the jury box these men had the opportunity to witness a miracle but rather than be a witness they wanted to be a judge and every day that you and I wake up we have an opportunity to witness resurrection power all around us we get to witness it in the lives of others and we get to witness it on our own behalf we get to be a witness but you can't be a witness if you insist on being a judge what I'm trying to say is this have you already made up your mind how God can bless and who God can bless and when God can bless have you already made up your mind about how God can do it to the extent that you miss that the very author of life is right in front of you and they are trying to kill the very thing that God sent to save them why because they've already made up their minds we pray for wisdom and God tries to send it through our wives but we are prejudiced we prejudge the people that God sends to help us so rather than accept the wisdom since we don't like the truck that it came in Wilson back the wisdom because well she's always like that well she's the one that God might use to show you your system he might this whole chapter is worth preaching I wish we had all week all right touch your neighbors say fix the system fix the system they were looking I see you sometimes I see people who look like they came to church as a favor or like a last resort or something like we do stop asking me if I come once and then they are looking for something not to like I just sometimes you can you can feel the energy of somebody where it's just like [Music] and they will miss a revelation because one of the worship leaders had a rip in his jeans I just don't know if and God was trying to show you how holy he is and God was you missed it [Applause] looking for a reason looking for reason he was a threat to them so they already made up their mind they already had their verdict and now they just needed to collect the evidence it's called confirmation bias when you wake up believing goddess for me you look for evidence to support that verdict when you wake up believing that all things work together for my good and that nothing can separate me from the love of God here's how good it is when you believe that when you are looking for a reason to rejoice rather than a reason to accuse it causes you to weigh things differently so you say like Paul said in Corinthians he said on one hand were pressed but on the other hand were not crushed on one hand were persecuted but on the other hand were not abandoned on one hand were struck down but on the other hand we're not destroyed in other words what I'm trying to say is that if you would get out of the judges seat and and get up get up get a witness mentality God I want to see the good in people I want to see the best in people I want to believe the best about people I want to see the opportunity in opposition somebody shot I'm looking for it I'm not looking for a reason to be offended I'm looking for a way to forgive how many are glad that God looked beyond your phone and saw your knees he could've accused you he could have condemned you he could have passed you down but he didn't how many are grateful for what he didn't do for what he overlooked but they got it twisted we get it twisted instead of looking for an opportunity to meet a need they were looking for a reason to accuse sometimes God puts you in difficult situations and you get it twisted he puts you there to change it not to complain about it and you're out of order you're out of order I wish I had a gavel [Music] this isn't working the men can't work because his right hand Luke tells us this his right hand it must mean is his dominant hand it must mean it's the hand of blessing in Jewish culture they used the right hand to bless so he needs a blessing to be a blessing sometimes we try to be something that we have not received from God and it never works Jesus stands the man up and he picks a fight I'm sorry to disrupt your your mr. Rogers Jesus relationship at the more you know the one where Jesus long come on guys stop bad we're not finding that Jesus so far in mark maybe he'll come later you know the exasperated mom guys be nice yes I made an appearance so far and we're in mark chapter three and he's he's still he's challenging their their whole system because number one two things I noticed he could have taken the man to the side he didn't he could have easily been like Peter Peter was always ready to do something grab that guy with the bad hand I'm gonna throw him out no no Peter see distracting you know Peter I want to talk to him after my fix is in but it's the Sabbath and we're not supposed to work on the Sabbath and I don't want to offend anybody boom oh just sigh I talked to him later Allah when I wrap it up just make sure he doesn't leave I want to see him because on the Sabbath remembers the day of rest six days God created one day God rested it was the order of creation the Sabbath that's the only one of the Ten Commandments that reflects the order of creation it's like a chance for us to be like God how he rested okay but but notice work work work work work work who I am has sounded like Rihanna on this stage I didn't mean to rest work work work work work work rest work work work work work repressed okay so for everybody who wants to just pray not rest rest rest rest rest rest work that's out of order but after you have work rest like God rested from his labor it's a it's a shadow Lois it's not the substance cuz the the real Sabbath is Jesus himself it's his work that enables us to rest from ours love the gospel so they are so consumed with their Sabbath that they are missing God's Sabbath it's a perversion I know we usually use the word prejudice for racial reasons and we use the word perversion for sexual reasons but this is a perversion a perversion is any time that a gift is used against its intention that's the perversion and jesus heals him not only does he stand him up publicly and call him out publicly but he does it on the Sabbath which is understandable if the guy has a gunshot wound because the Sabbath had okay here's what the teachers of the law did God gave them this gift called the Sabbath he said I want you to rest one day when you rest like that it is a picture of how I rested it is a gift to you and it is a shadow of a rest that is to come for the people of God where you can cease from your works and receive by grace what you could not attain by labor so I want you to rest to get into the rhythm of resting from your works but they did what we tend to do with the gifts that God gives us when we don't understand the intention of the gift we get it twisted we get it twisted so Jesus shows up on the day where they're not supposed to work little rules like this they made they had over 600 of them there was one command and they made 600 rules around it they had like a system for every possible situation that could come up okay so if you need to take a journey you can go 1999 paces but if you take a 2000 step then that's technically work so you had to counter steps okay if somebody has a dislocated foot or a dislocated hand you can't set it back into place on the Sabbath that's from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown observant Jews still celebrate the Sabbath in the same way today some and you can't set the bones back in place on the Sabbath but there's an exception if the person is about to die you can do it well that's awfully nice of the pastor's to make that exception if you see someone about to die and you can save their lives you can do it on Sabbath it sounds crazy to us that they would that they would take a gift that God gave like a day off like a day to rest from their labor and twist it to the point where they forgot what Jesus said in mark 2:27 when his disciples were working one day on the Sabbath they were actually walking and and they did something that was considered work they took some heads of grain and they were hungry so they they rubbed the what-do-you-call-it on the grain the membrane I'm gonna call it it's not called that but I'm gonna call it that they rubbed that hard part off and ate the stuff they could eat and the Pharisee said ah they're working on the Sabbath Jesus said you missed the entire point of the Sabbath which was a gift because you were so caught up in your system that you perverted and twisted the gift watch what he says this is this is very very strategic that the Son of God would say to the people that he came to save the Sabbath is made for man not man for the Sabbath I know it's a little difficult for us to get much meaning out of that because we don't celebrate the Sabbath in the same way so let me try this stuff was made for man not man for stuff the essence of the lesson is this when you take a good gift and turn it into a God it becomes destructive let me try another one sex was made for man not man for sex and what the enemy loves to do is to take a good gift that God gave you and twist it and disfigure it like this man's hand was disfigured that's what had happened to the people's hearts so that they had taken a gift and turned it into a prison they were serving something that was supposed to be serving them when God sees you chasing material possessions he says that stuff is meant to serve you why are you serving what I gave to serve you it's out of order we've got one man who can't work because he has a condition a situation we've got a system of religion that won't work why it's the Sabbath we can't do it on the Sabbath jesus said the Sabbath is for you not you for the Sabbath I gave it as a gift why would you twist the gift and it causes me to wonder how many gifts has God given me in my life but I have twisted God gives you people in your life so you can encourage them and then you become so needy you twist the gift and ruin the friendship now y'all are quiet how many gifts has God given us how many how many people will you sleep with before you realize that sex is a gift it's a wonderful gift but it's a terrible master within a certain context it's a wonderful gift but if you get it twisted it begins to take over your life you're out of order you put the Sabbath before people God puts people before the Sabbath religion always gets it twisted though and we always tell you 10 things you got to do to be a good Christian but God taught me that I don't change so he will love me I changed because he has loved me this is the revelation of the Cross we love him because he first loved us and when you get that out of order you will twist great gifts that God gives you in your life Jesus looked around and said this isn't working so he calls the man as an object lesson are you ready for this he doesn't give a speech he gives a lesson he gives a demonstration faith is a demonstration not an explanation so stand up he could have called him back tomorrow by the way I mean the guy's not dying he lived this long with a bad hand he could live with another one oh by the way when life deals you a bad hand let me tell you what to do don't fold I know some of you are holding a bad hand today and it's a terrible situation you're in and I understand all of that and Christ has compassion for you but whatever you do touch somebody say don't fall because God is about to change the entire system through the most desperate situations this is how hope works he says stand up and stretch out stand up and stretch out because if you keep procrastinating this is the fourth procrastination will always keep you from experiencing the power of God always when you wait until when you when you put it off I did it the other day I'm almost 40 now I got some great coming in I'm not worried about that that makes me feel like I've been a good pastor if I could pass through this church 12 years they're not a little gray on the beard Jerry I'm sleeping but I said the other day there are about three things in my life I really want to change you got it you got at least three things you want to change let me see if you've arrived and I'm just up here by myself trying to improve I was like yeah so by the time I'm 40 is the first thing I thought it's a nice round number by the time I'm 40 gosh so why not now because it would require action not theory you know so do it all the time the way I want the verse to work but the moment that the miracle happens I want it to work like this you looked around at them in anger deeply distressed they're stubborn hearts remember what this man's heart looks like externally or his hand looks like externally their hearts look like inwardly he's using the visible the situation that's what he does trouble hardship persecution sword the things that come against you he uses those situations to show you a system to fix the system and he looked around in frustration at the failed system and he had asked him a question because he's so savage he answered a question that they didn't ask with a question they couldn't answer he's such a savage and deeply distressed that they're stubborn Hart said to the man stretch out your hand the way I want the verse to work is it up on the screens I wanted to say his hand was completely restored and he stretched it out in my mind that's the way it should work when God changes my situation is that he fixed the man's hand it was restored and there because the man's hand was restored he stretched it out what we find instead in the syntax is this in the order it happens there is a revelation of the way God works the man stretched his hand and then it was restored he did what he couldn't do and in doing what he could not do and in loving who you cannot love and then who and for giving who you can't forgive and in trusting and believing what your eyes cannot see he did not stretch out his hand because it was healed his hand was healed because he stretched it out and we keep waiting for feelings but feelings follow faith you don't have to feel it to believe it if you believe it you will see it the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living so God says to everybody with a bad hand because I know you come to church sometimes with your good hand out and I know you go through life sometimes with your good hand out and we have all these profiles and all these images and all these personas and all these one-sentence BIOS on our social media accounts but God doesn't bless your bio he blesses your brokenness and it is only when you lay down here's the fifth one your pride to stand up in the middle of controversy to stand up in the middle of a hopeless desperate naked situation to stand up in the middle of famine to stand up in the middle of lack to stand up in the middle of weakness to stand up in the middle of discouragement to stand up in the middle of failure and stretch out your hand and stretch out your faith and open your heart and believe that he is here and all things are possible [Music] [Applause] you're not gonna get this blessing with your arms crossed waiting to see if God will do it and pretending like you don't need it he's stretched his hair jesus healed him in an unusual way at an unusual time on an unusual day on the day they weren't supposed to do any work the men's hands started working again you know when God's gonna do it when you least expect it you know who God's gonna do it through the ones who least deserve it you know who's not gonna get it the one who's just sit there waiting yeah but if you don't mind raising him right now I would love to see you stretch your hands clap your hands come on Blakeney come on Rock Hill and lift your voice don't brace him because you've got the blessing praise him because he is the blessing [Music] Jesus did what he shouldn't do so the man could do what he couldn't do right there with all the critics watching and all the people who didn't like it didn't matter cuz they were out of order you keep going to people you're out of order but if you do what he told you to do I promise you this look it's simple stretch your hand don't you know he was tempted to show them the good one so then it's on the other hand right hand the hand that you need to be a good husband the hand that you need to be a good father the hand that you need to get the disciplines working in your life because you got some things that aren't working but you didn't know why you keep running from situation and you're so stressed out from situation to situation situation it's a relationship to relationship to relationship to think to thing to thing to job to job to job from hi - hi - hi it's a system so he said he said I'm gonna do this Jesus found a loophole cuz he's a savage he said I can't set the men's hand back in place today cuz it's the Sabbath and I didn't come to break the law but to fulfill it so watch what he does Jesus tells the man stretch everybody say stretch and he doesn't touch him the Pharisees are watching you can do that it's the Sabbath no working on the Sabbath jesus said oh this this isn't working it's a word I didn't stretch my hand he stretched his so that's why now I know why he went to the cross so it wouldn't be from my words now I know why he stretched his arms I know why he did it cuz I couldn't now I know it's my grace through faith not of words so I can't both the only thing I can do is hey thanks for watching two things I want you to do first click our logo to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video second you can click the give Now button to support the ministry and we'll be able to continue reaching people all over the world thanks again for watching

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 780,812

Rating: 4.8700399 out of 5

Keywords: Elevation Church, Savage Jesus, Pastor Steven Furtick, Steven Furtick, Preacher, Pessimism, overwhelmed, frustrated, system, failure, source, situation, prejudice, judge, jury, God, Bible, Blessing, Confirmation bias, reason, complain, self fulfilling prophecy, perversion, intension, twisted, steven furtick 2018, steven furtick 2018 sermons, Steven Furtick latest sermon, Elevation Church latest sermon, Procrastination, Gift, Power, Feelings, Pride, pretend, out of order, savage jesus steven furtick

Id: dSF1io1BX48

Length: 45min 43sec (2743 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 16 2018