Steven Furtick - Let The Dirt Do Its Work (09/28/2018)
In Mark 4:26-29, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a man who scatters seed that grows mysteriously on its own—first stalk, then head, then full grain—showing that we sow in faith without knowing how growth happens, trusting God's timing and sovereignty to bring the harvest when it's ripe.
The Mystery of Kingdom Growth
Mark 4:26. He also said, This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up. The seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself, the soil produces grain. First the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
God knows the order in which things need to happen in our lives. And trusting him is, in one sense, just allowing him to do not only what he wants to do, but when he wants to do it. Touch somebody and say, There's an order to this.
That's what we preached about last week from Mark 3. And we said that when you get things out of order, they stop working. So that's why spending your money before you tithe is a bad idea, because it's out of order. Too early? Too soon. That's why sex before marriage is a dangerous proposition. Too much? Too soon. Now he doesn't value you. Instead, he objectifies you. And there's an order to things. There's an order to things.
Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise. My time with God goes a lot better if I start with, Thank you for what you've already done. I have some things I need. I've got some unresolved issues that I want to bring before you. But first of all, God, I just want to thank you, because somebody's lying on a ventilator this morning, and I'm not. And I have breath in my body. And you said, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. And I've got breath to praise you with. So, God, right now, in spite of how I feel or what I'm going through, I just want to give you about 16 seconds of praise.
And then comes the result. As soon, verse 29, as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it. And some of us put the sickle to stuff too soon before it has the chance to take root. And we spend money to impress people. And because we don't know when to use what God has given us, we end up ruining the very provision. Anyway, I'm just reading the Scriptures. It has nothing to do with my sermon. But I'll be honest with you. When I walked around the corner, Ballantyne was singing like they love Jesus. And I just got excited, and the Holy Spirit just kicked me into gear.
So, as soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it because the harvest has come. But the real focus of this message is going to be verse 27b and 28a. It says, The seed sprouts and grows night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up. The seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. And that's the key phrase. He does not know how. And then it says, All by itself the soil produces grain.
Letting God Handle the How
And so, to me, that made me think about grace. And that made me think about God's sovereignty. And that made me wonder, If I'm staying up stressing about stuff, that if I would get out of my own way and let God deal with it the way that he knows how to deal with things, I would be so much better off. So, what I came to tell you today, this is my sermon title, is, Let the dirt do its work. You may be seated.
Let's work on this scripture for a moment. I did preach from this passage two years ago. And at that time, I was taken by the temporal implications of this text and the timing of God. I believe the title I gave that little message was called, The Seed is on Schedule. And I was using it to illustrate how things in our life in some ways show up, like the wise teacher said, that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. That's what I was trying to say two years ago.
And in the last two years, either this text has gotten better... I'm being sarcastic. The text didn't change, but God has opened my eyes to see it in a little different way. And since we've been going through Mark's gospel very slowly at a leisurely stroll to talk about savage Jesus, and all I keep hearing from people as I see you out and about is Don't Stop Preaching Savage Jesus, this series. Just keep it going until the rapture. And I don't know about that, but I thought we should at least take one parable.
And Mark gives us so much about the context of Jesus' ministry, but we also want to take a moment now and pause and look at some of the content of his ministry. And we see that his teaching is creating opposition at the same time that it is making an impact. By the way, that's always the case. Everything that makes impact creates opposition. You know that, right? If the devil... Touch somebody and say, If the devil isn't messing with you, he doesn't consider you a threat.
Impact Always Brings Opposition
So we've seen now five different examples of controversy in the ministry of Jesus, which makes me want to go back and have a conversation again. One pastor, I said, What's your goal in ministry? He said, My goal is that on the Wikipedia page... And he doesn't have a Wikipedia page, but he said, If I have a Wikipedia page... This is already weird. A hypothetical Wikipedia page is your goal for ministry. He said, I hope there's no controversy section. He said that was his main goal in ministry.
By that standard, Jesus Christ was the ultimate ministry failure. Why are y'all looking shocked? What do you think the cross was? You think it was jewelry? You think the cross was a celebratory moment? The Roman Empire used that tool to torture people who represented a threat. Everywhere Jesus went, people were threatened. The Pharisees, the teachers of the law, they were threatened by Jesus. He was upsetting their entire system. Were you here last week? Their entire system was being overturned by the things he was speaking and the things he was doing.
Not only that, but the demons were threatened by Jesus. Every time he got in the presence of an impure spirit, he started shrieking and convulsing and begging and falling down at his feet. It's a funny thing because the demons knew better who Jesus was than the teachers of the law did. Isn't that crazy? The demons saw Jesus and they fell down at his feet. The teachers of the law saw Jesus and they crossed their arms to judge him.
Sometimes we should be more like the demons than we should be like the religious people. At least the demons knew this guy's in charge. At least the demons knew he has all power. At least the demons knew he's not ordinary, he's not average, he's not common. And this is the Son of God. I wonder, do we really worship him today? I wonder, do we really regard him as the supreme authority in our lives, or is he just an accessory?
This is what we've been studying, and it all fits within the context of all of the controversy and all of the compassion of Jesus. They were both growing together. Both grow together. The wheat and the tares… That's one parable Jesus used. It's not our parable today, but he was talking about the wheat grows, and right beside it all the weeds grow that want to choke out the wheat. What we tend to want to do that is reflected in that parable in Matthew 13 is to separate the weeds from the wheat. But Jesus said both grow together. They have to.
It's an eschatological principle he's using to talk about the harvest at the end of the age, but it also has practical implications in our lives. Both grow together. As God is drawing you into a deeper relationship and a more consistent communion with him, there will also be a more consistent sense of conflict to accompany the communion, because both grow together. Don't be confused about it, and don't try to separate what you think is the good stuff from what you think is the bad stuff, because God uses both in our life. The tares he uses for our humility so that we will trust him, and the wheat he uses for our sustenance so that he can sustain us and bless us, and both grow together.
The Parable in Context of Jesus' Ministry
Now, with that context established, we have a parable. Jesus taught in parables. Mark shares here several of them. Remember, he's not compiling these in the order that they happen. He's giving us a curated account of the ministry of Jesus, and he's building for us what he believes to be an accurate picture of the purpose of the ministry of Jesus.
Now Jesus is teaching us about the nature of the kingdom of God and our faith. Maybe you've heard the parable of the different types of soil that he starts with in Mark chapter 4. He's getting into this idea that there is always seed going forth. God is always speaking to you. Stop asking God to speak to you and start listening. It's the weirdest thing. We pray, God, speak to me, speak to me, speak to me, speak to me, speak to me. If you'd shut up, you'd hear that I already am.
So the seed is always going forth. But while my Bible calls it the parable of the sower, it's really the parable of the soils. It's really about our hearts. The soil is our soul, our mind, our will, and our emotions. In this passage, he shares with us how there are some seeds that fall on the path, and the birds come and snatch them up. How many of you have some seed snatching apps on your phone? You know that one with the bird? What's it called? Twitter?
Jesus said the birds of the air will snatch the seed and grab your attention so that you don't act on what you heard, but you forget what you heard. Because a lot of us have a stash of seed that we've never put in the ground. We've gotten to be professional seed collectors who know how to highlight our Bibles and fill notebooks with information, but without application, without soil, the seed only represents unused potential. To me, that's a sad thing. Wouldn't it be sad for God to show you in heaven how much seed you sat on while you were here on earth?
Do not merely listen to the word. Instead, do what it says. You are not blessed by the word you hear, but the word that you do. A lot of times we think we need to know more. I found out that I already know enough. Let me give you a few examples. I know not to talk bad about people. If I would just do that, I think I'd be working 70 hours a week. Just that. That alone. I know that I'm supposed to consider others as more important than myself. I know that, and you know that. Touch somebody and say, you know this.
From Knowing to Doing the Word
If you know how to say man after it, you could say man after it, but if you don't know how, don't try. It'd be embarrassing. You know this. In fact, look back at them one more time. I need your help because everybody looks a little bit resistant to this point. We always want to know more, you know. I want to grow spiritually. Look back at them and say, if you would do what you knew, you would grow.
Spiritual growth has always been a tricky concept to me because I thought spiritual growth required more knowledge. I don't have many regrets in life, but I do have a few. One thing I regret. I wish I would have written a parenting book before I had my kids. It's just something I think about often how awesome my parenting book would have been if I had written it before parenting. Because the time I knew the most about parenting…. You know what? I wish the same thing… Here's another regret. I wish I would have written a book about being a pastor before I started this church. It would have been so profound. It would have had diagrams and informational concepts. It would have been 773 pages of how to be a pastor, and then you showed up and screwed up all my theories about how to be a pastor. People messed up my ideas about how to be a pastor. What's up with that?
Now it would just be a pamphlet. It would just be illustrated. The whole book would be prayer… You know the emoji with the prayer hands? That would be the whole book, how to be a parent, how to be a pastor. But I knew so much! You notice those are the people who give the most advice, those with the least experience. What I would do… I tell you what I would do if it were me, and I know… I mean, I'm not judging, I'm just saying.
Three things. It's right here in the text. I know you think I'm confused or lost. It says that the farmer… This is crazy. The farmer who puts the seed in the ground… Not the seed on the shelf, but the seed in the soil… Let's look at the verse on the screen again. He experiences the maturation of that seed, though he does not know how.
What kind of farmer is this? If you don't know how the seed grows, you could at least Google it. There you would find that the seed needs light, or the correct temperatures, and water. Then it needs to be planted in the right place. I can tell you exactly how the seed grows. That's exactly how it grows. I can explain that to you.
If the Scripture says this parable, which is always used to get us beneath the surface to the deeper meaning… If the parable is included in Jesus' illustration of what the kingdom of God is like… He said, this is what the kingdom is like. Now we're expecting something spectacular, because the kingdom of God is a new concept. Jesus is the first one to use this term. Since they are not familiar with this particular concept, Jesus is giving them an earthly illustration.
Yet he does not talk about the kingdom of God being like Wakanda. He does not talk about the kingdom of God being like a spaceship. He does not talk about the kingdom of God being like a rocket. Instead, he says… This must have been anticlimactic for those who gathered to hear his message on this day. The kingdom is like a seed.
The Kingdom Feels Insignificant and Invisible
On this alone, we understand that often what God does in our life will feel insignificant, and then it will go into the soil where it will be invisible. A lot of times when God is working in our lives in the greatest ways, we won't even know how he's working, we will be ignorant. That's three eyes. It makes an outline. Write it down. Three things about the kingdom of God. It often seems insignificant, it often appears invisible, and often you feel ignorant.
So the greatest proof that you are growing in your relationship with God is sometimes the fact that you don't feel like you are growing in your relationship with God. I'm sorry for everyone who always needs a goosebump to feel like God is with you, but sometimes the greatest growth in your life is not going to be on the surface of your emotions, your feelings, or your senses. Sometimes the deeper work that God will do is much greater than the highest work that God will do. For what is the building without the foundation?
Jesus said the kingdom is like this. It's something so small, seemingly so insignificant, and it goes through stages that are so invisible, and a lot of the times you will feel so ignorant, like the farmer who puts the seed in the ground and doesn't know when he'll see it again. Sure, he can water it. Sure, he can plow the ground. Surely we have a part to play in our relationship with God, but there is this other element of faith that I want to talk about today that I don't hear about enough, and I'm hungry to hear about it because I see a lot of Christians listening to cute sermons, and we're telling you to do things that sound really big, to forgive people, and to be free of addiction, but I hear the response from the people when the pulpit is echoing forth these lofty ideals, and the people are sitting in the pew saying, How?
You're telling me what, but you're not telling me how. I don't know how. I don't know how to read my Bible. I don't know how to pray for over 13 seconds without thinking about my need for cereal at the grocery store. I don't. Somebody try it. Say, I don't know how. That's the most spiritual thing you've said all week.
Who did God pick to be the disciples of Jesus? Religious professionals with academic know-how. He picked the people. Who did God pick to carry his son? What's the first thing Mary said when the angel said, The one born of you is the Holy One of God? How. What? How. Exactly. How. What's the first thing the disciples said when Jesus said, Feed these big crowds even though you didn't pack a lunch? What's the first thing they said? How.
That is the starting place of spiritual growth. To admit I… Sorry, I'm screaming, but sometimes it screams inside of me when God calls me to do something, but I don't know how. I don't. I don't know how. I don't know how to raise these kids. I don't know how. I did before I had them, but now they're here, and I don't know how. I read the book, the baby book. It told me that if you swaddle the child, but I found out my firstborn child was unswaddleable. I don't know how.
I hear you preaching these great sermons. Keep your eyes on Jesus, and don't look at the wind, and don't look at the waves, but how do I look at something that's invisible? I hear what you're saying, and I want what you've got, but I don't know how. How many don't know how? Just see how I'm preaching to and who I can leave alone. I don't know how. I don't know how to forgive somebody, but then make sure I keep an appropriate distance so they don't continue to violate me. I don't know how. I don't know how.
Embracing the "I Don't Know How" Posture
Here's a farmer who doesn't know how to make a seed grow. Jesus says, It's like that. Growth is like that. There's a part you will play, and you will know what to do. You sow. You water. You plow. But you don't have to know how. This is the dirty little secret of the kingdom they don't want me to tell you. They want you to think that God chooses and uses and blesses people who are experts and who are the epitome of perfection, but I want to tell you who God's looking for. Fishermen like Peter, prostitutes like Rahab, people who don't know how. That's what God is looking for.
Humble people, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, not those who are so full of their own wisdom that they cannot receive the wisdom of God. If you came here today with a I-don't-know-how heart, God can fill what you will empty before him. I don't have to know how. I don't have to know how it works. If I did, I'd still be at the house, because I drove my Maxima here, and I have no idea how that button told my tires to spin. I have a little bit of a concept, but not much.
I found out something about my car that I found out about God. I found out I don't have to understand it. See, it got me from here to there and from there to here, and here I am preaching, but honestly, I don't know how. I have an iPad. I put my notes on my iPad. I turn on my iPad. The notes appear on my iPad. I preach to you. I understand what button to push. I push it. I know what letters to type. I type them. But as to how the words appeared on the iPad, I don't know how. It didn't stop me from preaching. It didn't stop it from working.
There may be somebody here today who is in a situation where you don't know how. God, I'm not smart enough. God, I wasn't trained for this. God, I've never been this way before. God, this is new to me. God, I feel like a rookie. God, I've never... God said from heaven, you don't have to know how when you know who. Come on, five seconds, four seconds, three seconds, two seconds. Now let's praise him like we know who he is. He's the Lord of the harvest. The seed is mine, but the harvest is his.
I don't have to know. I just have to sow. Don't let what you don't know keep you from sowing. The farmer didn't know how it was going to happen, but he knew what to do. I have to keep sowing. I have to keep praying. I have to keep believing. I have to stay in this house. I have to be present. I have to show up. All I have to do is sow. Find twelve disciples and tell them, you don't have to know how. You don't have to know how. You don't have to know how. I will make you fishers of men. All I need is your boat. All I need is your will. All I need is your I don't want to. All I need is your surrender. All I need is your obedience.
But you stopped sowing, because you didn't know how. You don't have to know how. Let's get it in our spirit and say, I don't have to know how. I could be like Abraham, who set out from Ur without knowing where he was going. He didn't have to know how. Because he knows. Are you getting the lesson? It's not just one text. It's the principle of this parable that is illustrated.
Your Part and God's Part in Growth
The kingdom of God is like a man who sowed. He did sow. Notice there is a part you play, but once you do what you know, there is a point you reach. You can't make it rain, and you can't control the rate of growth of the seed. There are so many people who will hear this message online and in our campuses who are waiting to know before you sow. And it's out of order.
As much as I want to preach theologically right now, I just want to minister to you personally. Let the dirt do its work. Because the greatest growth happened not when the farmer was doing his part, but when the dirt was doing its part. There's a cooperation that happens in each of our lives that's between the things we can control. I can plow, I can water, and I can sow. I can speak words of encouragement. I can speak words of life. I can invest my resources into the kingdom of God. I can do all of that. But the part that produces the fruit is not attributed to the farmer in the passage.
I think we fall into an extreme where we either think it's all about what we know or it's all about what God does. Because in the passage the farmer scatters, but the soil produces. And the dirty little secret, if I can use that phrase, of the kingdom of God that Jesus is comparing to a seed is that your destiny will be revealed in the dirt. What do I mean? The disappointment, the insecurity, the rejection, and the trouble. Check it out. It spells dirt. The disappointment, the insecurity, the rejection, and the trouble.
Now, this will be an excellent lesson on its own, because it illustrates principles that will apply to any area of our life. And right here we could tell you to make lemonade out of lemons. And right here we could tell you it doesn't matter how many times you fall down. You know, get knocked down nine, get up ten. We could say anything we want right here, and the principle would be powerful. But this is not a principle. This is a parable. And a parable is a picture that appears simple on the surface, but carries a deeper meaning.
When I read the passage two years ago, I thought that the farmer was Jesus, and the seed was the Word of God. The problem with this interpretation of the parable, upon further reflection and study, is that Jesus can't be the farmer, because the farmer doesn't know how. Jesus is the wisdom of God. So to compare Jesus to the farmer who scatters the seed is to miss the parable that is beneath the principle.
The principle is this. Don't let what you don't know stop you from sowing. But the parable, the picture that Jesus is painting, is of something that hasn't happened yet. Everyone around him in his inner circle, which he has just selected in Mark chapter 3, everyone around him is trying their best to keep him from going to the cross. For him to go to the cross means the death of the movement that he came to initiate in their eyes.
Jesus as the Seed Planted in the Dirt
And so when he stood before the judges, both the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman government prelates, he was silent as a sheep before the shearers. Everything in those disciples wanted to see Jesus come down from the cross to avoid being buried in the grave. But Jesus stood before Pilate and he allowed those accusations to be heaped on him, although he was innocent, because he knew that the dirt had a purpose to fulfill.
And so as he stood before those who accused him, condemned him, and sentenced him to die, he could have stopped it and he could have called for legions of angels to come and rescue him from the rejection. But this is what he came for. So he said with his silence something that is illustrated in the parable. He said, Let the dirt do its work. Because if they accuse me, then my Father in heaven doesn't have to accuse you. So I'm going to take your accusations and your shame. I, the innocent, am going to absorb your punishment so that you, the guilty, can go free.
So when they heaped their accusations on him, he took it. When he died on the cross and they took him down and buried him in the grave, he did not resist the burial. Instead, he stayed dead three days to let the dirt do its work. Now, we thought we were attending a funeral, but really what it was was an agricultural lesson. Jesus was not buried on Friday. He was planted.
Now, because he was planted on Friday, there is the expectation of harvest. He is the firstborn among many brethren. So when he lay in the grave, it wasn't over. It was just beginning. And I came to declare today to everybody who's been going through a season of failure or depression or uncertainty or rejection or disappointment, let the dirt do its work. Don't fight it, don't run from it, and don't pluck up the seed because you don't like the season. Let the dirt do its work.
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what the kingdom of God is like. There's nothing man can do to you that God cannot use for his good. I believe that. I believe that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. But I don't always know how, but I don't have to know how because I know who.
The emphasis on Romans 8, 28 isn't on things. All things work together for the good. The emphasis is not on good because it might not feel good, and I might not know how it's good while I'm in it. The emphasis of Romans 8, 28 is that I'm called, that I love God, and I'm called according to his purpose. His purpose is the promise that lets me know that it seems insignificant, that to me it's invisible, and I don't know how, but I know.
Everybody who wants to praise God for it, I'm going to give you 30 seconds to do what you need to do. Maybe your neighbor doesn't want this word. Maybe they want to let a bird snatch it or a thorn choke it, but there are some people here who have been in the ground for a little while, and I prophesy resurrection to every person who's been in a depression. You've been in a funk. You've been in a failure. The devil said it was it, but Sunday came!
Where you at, Matthews? Where you at, Ballantyne? Where you at, UC? You know what's crazy? I'm calling out all these campuses, and somehow they see me on their screens, and I don't know how, but I don't have to know how. Somehow I'm preaching this word, and it's getting in your heart, and God's going to use it, and it won't return void, but it will accomplish what God sent it to do. But his ways are higher than my ways and his thoughts than my thoughts. I don't have to know. I just have to sow. I just have to go. I don't have to know.
Resurrection Power in the Dirt Stage
I don't know how I'm going to make it, but I don't have to know how. I don't know who God's going to use to get me through this, but I don't have to know how. It might be manna that falls from the sky. It might be a widow at Zarephath that God uses to feed me. It might be a little boy's lunch that I didn't even count in the official total because I thought he was insignificant, but the seed always looks small. God might use a little boy, a little thing, the littlest thing. I don't have to know how.
Some of you are stuck, because you need to know too much. You need to be perceived as someone who knows, so you remain in darkness. You want to be perceived as someone who understands things that the soil represents uncertainty. I think it's good every once in a while for us to hear a sermon where the farmer admits, I don't even know how. Come on, because if you had to call somebody who just lost their child in a car wreck like I have to do often, and you were telling them that God is going to get you through this, you wouldn't be so quick to tell them how.
I don't know how, but I pray right now in the name of Jesus that the God of all comfort, that's who, would surround you with his angels, that's who. I don't know how, but I know whom I have believed. I pray, I sow, I scatter. Some seed gets snatched, some seed gets scorched, some seed gets strangled. That would make a good sermon, wouldn't it? They all start with the letter S. And the temptation is, when the seed is scattered, but it does not produce, you never want to sow again.
So then you prayed and the cancer still ate their body. Now what's to make you ever want to pray again? So you stopped sowing. You stopped expecting. You had a funeral and stopped expecting a harvest. The business failed. That one child is on drugs. And you got very confused about the difference between God's job and your job. Obedience is the job of the farmer. Jesus is not the farmer in this parable. He's the seed. He's the seed. He is the seed of God.
And he was planted in the soil of the earth for three days. And his resurrection gives us an expectation that we don't have to understand the events of our life to walk in a posture. I think it's better sometimes that we don't know. I think it's better sometimes that we stay in a state of uncertainty so that we don't get confused and think that we're the seed, that we're the source.
I pray that this message has been practical today and you'll be able to take something from it for your life. But really, I think it's supposed to be prophetic. That doesn't mean a crystal ball or a 900 number. To me, that means that you receive this seed personally. It's all about the soil. If this seed gets snatched or scorched by the trials of life or choked out by the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this life, or the desire for other things, it will be as if it was never sown. And it will be just another seed, just another pep talk, just another Bible lesson.
And if you receive this seed, though, I'm trying to tell you that God has set you free of the expectation to understand obedience is your job. The outcome is God's. Let him do his job. Let the dirt do its work. Let the sufferings of this present time produce in you a glory that is not worthy to be compared. In comparison, it's so much bigger than that dirt.
Some of you are in a dirt stage right now of your dream. The first thing that happened to Joseph when God gave him a dream, do you remember? They held a parade in his honor. He printed up his business cards and started handing them out. He got four million followers on Instagram. They threw him in a pit. Every promise needs a pit. Every dream needs dirt. Your faith needs fertilizer. All by itself, the ground produces grain. Water it. Plow it. Plow it. Get your heart right. Let the dirt… The rejection, the insecurity, the confusion… God is not the author of confusion. God did not reject you, but he would use Genesis 50, 20 what you meant for evil. God intended it for good and the saving of many lives. Let the dirt do its work.
I'm praying for people right now in this moment, everyone standing, who needed this Word today. because you've got something in the ground in your life. If it's you and you're not ashamed to respond to the Word of God and you don't need to appear to have it all together, if you are in a situation in your life where you don't know how, you don't know how it's going to come together, you don't know how to do what you've been positioned to do, your responsibility exceeds your experience, if that's you today at every location, lift your hands to your Father.
Lord, whoever is lifting their hands right now, they're saying to you, without words, I don't know how. I believe this is a posture you can honor, Father. You said if we would humble ourselves in your sight, you would lift us up. But when we're proud and we're haughty, you have to oppose us. God, we want to line up on the right side today and understand that there's a part of this process of our growth and our faith and our families and our psychology and our life experiences and our goals, our visions, our ideas that we just don't know how.
Some of us are standing at the crossroads of multimillion-dollar business deals, and we don't know how. Some of us are trying to buy a next meal, and we don't know how. Some of us are trying to figure out how to get married, and we don't know how. Some of us are trying to figure out how to stay married, and we don't know how. Pray the prayer. Say, I don't know how, God, but I know who. I believe that you are with me, and I declare that by your Spirit I will rise like a seed planted in the earth. I will rise. I believe in resurrection. I don't know how, but I know who.
Now let me tell you something about resurrection with your hands still lifted. Resurrection is not an event. Resurrection is a person. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. So if you have a situation in your life that needs to be resurrected, you don't have to know how. I don't have to understand it. I know who is with me. I have the seed of the Word of God. I have the seed of faith. If I have faith the size of a mustard seed, I can say to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and it shall be done. Give God a great praise today.