Beyond Blessed - No Help

Beyond Blessed

No Help

I. Introduction

It was a day that rattled the entertainment industry and many fans. On October 28, 2023, Matthew Perry, who was best known for his role in Friends as the character Chandler, was found unresponsive in his hot tub and was pronounced dead at 4:17pm at the age of 54. Almost one year to the date, November 1st, 2022, Matthew Perry released a book that chronicled his battle with alcohol and drugs which resulted in 15 stays in rehab, 7 million dollars spent on trying to get sober and several near-death experiences. In his book he writes this statement, "Julia Roberts is my girlfriend. I just bought my dream house - it looks across the whole city! I'm making a million dollars a week - I win right? I'd had it all. But it was all a trick. Nothing was going to fix this. Maybe it was because I was always trying to fill a spiritual hole with a material thing."

Matthew Perry by all accounts, including mine and yours, would be considered blessed. He had everything that we call the American Dream. Fame. Acceptance. Love. Riches. Property. He had the world by the tail and came face to face with the fact that you can have everything you ever dreamed of having, live what others think is a blessed life, be rich beyond imagination and still end up bankrupt. It forces us to come to grips with the question posed by Jesus in Matthew 8:36 . . . What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? So, our determination of blessing can't be solely attached or ascribed to the material. In a series about being blessed we want to focus our attention on finances. Money, money, money and as we have learned money was certainly addressed by Jesus. But we must also realize that although money is valuable and important it isn’t the most valuable and important asset we have in life. In fact, we can be rich financially and not be beyond blessed. Therefore, there must be some other or at least some additional elements or things that must be addressed that determine whether we are living beyond blessed.

To that end I want to take you to a familiar passage in the Old Testament and then an equally familiar piece of the New Testament that may seem odd when talking about the subject of being beyond blessed. The New Testament passage has been used to combat making excuses. It has been used by preachers, including myself, to address desire. All legitimate and needed focuses and certainly subjects to which the text speaks. However, I think I have some insight that I haven't really seen before that may help us in the journey towards living the life more abundant that Jesus promised us. If nothing else it, may present to us the litmus test to determine whether we are simply blessed or have graduated to the higher level of beyond blessed.

II. Text

Genesis 2:18 (TLB)?And the Lord God said, “It isn’t good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs.”

John 5:1-9 (CEV)

Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for another Jewish festival. In the city near the sheep gate was a pool with five porches, and its name in Hebrew was Bethesda. Many sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying close to the pool. Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw the man and realized that he had been crippled for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” The man answered, “Sir, I don't have anyone to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. I try to get in, but someone else always gets there first.” Jesus told him, “Pick up your mat and walk!” Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was a Sabbath.

III. Environment

This account may very well give us the insight needed to discover how to live beyond blessed. I think it is crucial to stop just a moment and think about the environment or backdrop of this account. The man who Jesus encounters in this account isn't by himself. The text states that there were many sick laying in this covered area. The man's response to Jesus' question about his desire to be well gives us valuable and needed insight into the environment in this place. When the water was troubled, which indicated that healing was available, this place turned into a madhouse. It was Black Friday on steroids. It was a UFC, WWE Royal Rumble, 2022 street riot all rolled into one. Everyone was trying to get into the water first. Fists flying. Clothes grabbing. Tripping. Pushing. Shoving. Eye poking. It was a no holds barred. You are the 3rd monkey on the ark and its beginning to rain kind of fight. This was the environment. We know this because the man's response was, "I don't have any help. I try to get in, but others beat me to it every time." When I reread that account, it dawned on me. Someone was being blessed when the waters were troubled. Someone who was sick, lame, blind was being set free and delivered. They were blessed. But the truth is the chaos and competition of that environment also reveals to me what is required to get to the beyond blessed level.