Steven Furtick Sermon When You’ve Tried Everything: The Devil has some of us telling ourselves some really bad stories. This man has been telling himself a story for 38 years, “No one wants to help me. Everybody is out to get me every time I try; No one wants to help me.
So, here comes Jesus, He doesn’t know Jesus, He has never met Jesus, Jesus is new to the scene, that’s in John, chapter 6. He hasn’t even gotten familiar with this guy yet. He hasn’t even had an opportunity to unpack the whole historicity of his situation.
So, he’s standing in front of Jesus, and he’s rightfully skeptical, because he’s in a broken system where the religious leaders are trying to let the first ones in and keep the rest back, and unless you keep the law this well, you can’t be healed, Of course he’s stuck.
He’s stuck in a broken system, so are some of us, He’s stuck in a bad story, and so are some of us.
We’ve inserted verses that aren’t even there to explain why we are the way we are, We think it’s our job to suffer, Suffering for Christ and for the good of others and sacrifice is one thing, but to suffer the shame he already took away from you is to snatch back what he nailed to the cross.
It is not your job to suffer like that, that’s a broken system. Pastor Steven Furtick tells us, men and women of the Most High God, religion is a broken system.
That’s why Jesus went for one: to show you, “This is a relationship, I want to deal with you one-on-one, I want to speak to you like a person, not like you’re some kind of project, not like you’re some kind of defect.”
“I don’t have anybody to help me, Trust me, I’m trying, I’m really trying. If you knew how hard I was trying, you wouldn’t make fun of me like that and ask me if I want to get well.
I don’t have any help. See, that was true five minutes ago, but the situation has changed. What he said used to be true, It was true for a long time, and then grace shows up at the pool at Bethesda. Are you still stuck in something that used to be true but isn’t true anymore?
Thirty-eight years of fighting off the vultures and 38 years of looking out for yourself. You kind of have to live that way until grace becomes the dominant reality in your life, Then Jesus comes into your life, and everything changes. But sometimes we keep living off of the old story, the bad story. “No one will help me. Jesus is like, “I’m someone. Now the question is, how did Jesus command the man to get up if the man couldn’t walk the first place?
You’ve been going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth for so long, and today God is saying, “Let the water come to you.” This is not about trying; this is about trust.
One interpretation is that his healing wash is reward for obedience. That’s religion. The fact of the matter is if trying harder could have made me better, I’d be better by now.
If it could work it would have worked by now. So, the man said, “I’m trying,” and Jesus said, “Trust me. Get up, take up your mat, and walk.” “I’m trying.” Jesus said, “Trust me.” “I’m trying.” “Trust me. “That’s the real task: to trust. That has always been the real work.