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  • I just want to read this Scripture. Last week I was preaching about the mustard seed and

  • how it looks little, but little is much when God is in it, and how if you can see the tree

  • in the seed, it's a matter of time before the birds of the air are going to be nesting

  • in the branches of the blessing that sometimes you can't even perceive when it's in the beginning

  • stage.

  • I got stuck on that in my own personal life, and the phrase that really was recurring in

  • my heart was, "Yet when planted, it grows." I want to back up a little bit from the branches,

  • where we ended last week in Mark 4… I want to go back to verse 26 of this same chapter

  • of Scripture. Have you been enjoying the Functional Faith series? I had some people who have heard

  • me preach for 10 years now tell me, "This is my favorite one you've ever done." That

  • felt good to know I've still got it.

  • What we want to do today is stay on this theme of faith as analogous to a seed and use this

  • agricultural metaphor that Jesus seems so keen on in Mark 4:26 to illustrate some lessons

  • for our own life and illuminate our understanding of the kingdom.

  • "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 grainfirst the stalk, then the head, then

  • the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because

  • the harvest has come.'"

  • Wow. I want to talk to you today with an encouraging word. I want to tell you that the seed is

  • on schedule. The seed is on schedule. We want to dig into this. Let's pray one more time.

  • God, I ask that you would give me what these people need. You know good and well that I

  • don't have what they need, but I know good and well you do, so make a transfer through

  • my mouth. In Jesus' name, amen.

  • Ground work. Jesus is helping his disciples to have a perspective of patience as they

  • await the kingdom of God to be fully manifested. He knows they want a militaristic rule and

  • reign of the kingdom of God, and yet contrary to their expectations or desires, he's letting

  • them know the kingdom of heaven is going to be revealed in stages. So he gets into probably

  • the most accurate presentation of what it feels like in our own lives as we're waiting

  • on what was planted by faith to produce a harvest. He talks about different stages of

  • faith.

  • I think if you can realize that one thing about the nature of faith, that everything

  • God will reveal in your life is going to be revealed and accomplished in stages, you'll

  • be much better off than expecting some sudden shift in your life that fixes everything.

  • I've preached all over the world now enough to know that you can get a reaction in any

  • room if you announce a shift. "There's a shift. God is shifting something in your life."

  • If you say it's a sudden shift, well, the whole room will go off with that announcement.

  • Jesus said it's a little bit more like what a seed does in the soil. He wants you to know

  • that, and he wants you to know that some things just take time. Warren Buffett said that.

  • He was talking about people who want to get rich quick or build a business quick. He said,

  • "No matter how much talent or effort one possesses, some things just take time."

  • Is anybody pregnant? Congratulations. Pregnant as well? Congratulations. Holly, you'd better

  • not even look like you're about to raise your hand right now. I will come down there. Anybody

  • else? I saw two here at Blakeney. Yeah, that's great. I'm sure at UptownThat's a very

  • young youthful campus. I'm sure they're all doing their part for church growth, repopulating,

  • replenishing the earth.

  • So you're pregnant. That's great. I think it's interesting. Warren Buffett said that

  • if you want to produce a baby, you can't produce a baby in a month by getting nine different

  • women pregnant. I'm going to let that sink in. He was trying to say that some things

  • just take time.

  • Touch your neighbor and say, "I know you want it yesterday." I know you want Jesus to be

  • your Burger King. I know you want it your way right away. I know you thought this was

  • a drive-through, but some things just take time. How many know that destiny is not a

  • drive-through, where you place your order and pick it up three minutes later without

  • pickles? (I don't like pickles.) Some things just take time.

  • We have to get into this flow with Jesus if we're to expect him to work in our lives.

  • So he talks about stages. I would say that in this sermon I see three different stages

  • we should look at, and one is the scattering stage. He said the kingdom of God is like

  • a man who scatters seed on the ground. Then he mentions the sprouting stage, where the

  • seed sprouts and grows. In the scattering stage, you have to plow the ground or the

  • seed is not going to go down.

  • In the sprouting stage, you have to harvest the grain or it's going to go bad in your

  • field. I am not a farmer, nor am I the son of a farmer, nor have I ever planted a garden,

  • nor do I even like to eat vegetables, but I want to follow the analogy as closely as

  • I can today. Bring out my tools. This sermon is a farm-to-table sermon, okay? Hello! This

  • sermon is organic.

  • We want to use these illustrations. Do you see the way he put those tools in front of

  • me? This is a scythe. Have you seen this before? This is a spade. Have you seen this before?

  • Okay. The way he put these tools down, I think, with this one first and this one second, illustrates

  • the way many of us want faith to produce in our lives.

  • Jesus is giving us a parable to illustrate an invisible kingdom, utilizing visible terms

  • so we can relate and understand. The spade always comes before the sickle. Can you help

  • me preach this? I sure would appreciate it if you didn't look so confused. Maybe the

  • reason you look confused is because we live in a world that wants to harvest before we

  • plow.

  • We live in a world that wants to buy it before we can afford it. We live in a world that

  • wants to sleep with it before we put a ring on it. But Jesus said if you want to be in

  • this kingdom, first the spade and then the sickle. Why in the world would you go out

  • to a field with a sickle when you didn't plow up the ground with a spade?

  • Why in the world would you expect a fruitful marriage when you haven't sown seeds of love?

  • Why in the world would you expect a date from a woman at Elevation Church if you're not

  • even on the greeter team looking for one? Oh, that got a response. I just turned this

  • into a single's conference.

  • He said there is the scattering of the seed, and I love that part. Don't you? The scattering

  • of the seed. Don't you love when God just scatters the seed of his Word over your life?

  • Don't you love coming to church, where you can just get some good seed and some thoughts

  • of inspiration and someJust throw it out there, man.

  • Even on social media I try to scatter seed. That's my job. That's what I do. I am a farmer,

  • a spiritual sharecropper. So what I'm trying to do is just hit you with some inspiration

  • in the middle of your day when you're feeling sorry for yourself and give you a little kick

  • sometimes to get you to the next place you have to be to at 3:00 on Tuesday, because

  • sometimes I can't make it off of Sunday's seed. I need some fresh seed scattered on

  • my life. So he scattered the seed. This is the third

  • of three different seed parables Jesus uses that Mark has collected in Mark, chapter 4.

  • It's a compilation that he's using. He talks about the seed in different ways. He has given

  • an illustration of a reality we can all relate to. So he talks about that stage of scattering,

  • where possibility is eminent.

  • That stage of scattering, where you get really excited about something God can do in your

  • life. That scattering stage. The interesting thing about this farmer is he doesn't seem

  • very educated about the process, because Jesus said the man goes out and scatters seed, and

  • whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he doesn't know how. He

  • doesn't even know how it's happening.

  • A reporter asked me a couple of months ago, "Did you ever envision that all of this would

  • happen? This ministry, this church. Did you ever envision all of this?" I said, "Well,

  • kind of. That's kind of why I started it. I hoped anyway. I didn't know for sure, but

  • I hoped." Her next question was, "How did it happen? To what do you attribute it?" It's

  • in those moments where I can tell you something and I can make something up and I can point

  • you to some factors, but really, if you want me to be honest with you, I don't even know.

  • Have you ever had God do something in your life where, if you're honest, you don't even

  • know? Touch somebody next to you and say, "You don't even know." You can act like you

  • were intelligent enough to get that job, but the fact is you know you weren't qualified.

  • You can act like you were smooth enough to get that woman, but the fact of the matter

  • is you don't even know why she said yes. You don't even know why she was attracted to you.

  • Put your hand up. You know I'm preaching to you. You don't even know.

  • Touch somebody and say, "I don't even know." Just some kind of way, God did it. I have

  • to be honest about it. There are some things in my life I don't even know how I made it

  • through. I thought I'd be down on the canvas too. I don't even know how I got up and faced

  • another day. I don't even know how I made it through the death of my mother.

  • I don't even know, but somehow, someway, when it was all said and done, he brought me through,

  • and I'm still standing. I don't even know. I don't even know why he has blessed me like

  • he has blessed me. I don't even know why my kids turned out good. I did enough stuff to

  • screw them up. The truth is they should have been a mess. I don't even know how they turned

  • out on the honor roll. I don't even know how I got to college. I don't even know why I'm

  • in this place.

  • I don't even know how I live in this house. I don't even know how I drive this car. I

  • don't even know how my dad, who never made it past the eighth grade, opened up his own

  • business and taught me some principles, where now I can stand today and be a pastor. Sometimes

  • you look at the size of the seed and judge it against the size of the harvest, and if

  • you're honest about it, the only reasonable response is to throw up your hands and say,

  • "I don't even know!" For everybody who's living in a ridiculous blessing that you don't even

  • understand, give him some praise!

  • Holly asked me last night, "Where did that sermon come from?" You know what I said? "I

  • don't even know." I don't even know. He didn't even know. He's like a little child who opens

  • up the refrigerator. The refrigerator is full of food. "How'd the food get there?" "I don't

  • know." Like a child who flips on an electricity switch, and here come the lights on. "How

  • do the lights come on every time I flip the switch?" A child doesn't even know.

  • There's a sense in which faith is childlike. Faith like a child. Just to trust God and

  • to know that you don't have to know. Can I prove it to you? If I can prove it to you,

  • say, "Prove it to me, Pastor Steven." Come on, say, "Prove it to me right now, Pastor

  • Steven. I dare you to prove it to me right now, Pastor Steven."

  • All right, watch this. I want to welcome today all of our locations who are joining me across

  • many different cities in 13 locations and on the Internet around the world. Let me tell

  • you something. I don't even know how what I just said is showing up on a screen in Rock

  • Hill. I cannot explain it to you.

  • I can't explain to you about the Internet lines that carry it to somebody's iPhone who's

  • watching it in Topeka, Kansas. Why Topeka? It's the most random thing I could think of

  • to say. I don't even know how this sermon is getting from Charlotte to Kansas. I don't

  • have to know. All I have to do is sow this Word, because somebody is working on a switcher

  • somewhere who knows

  • I wish you would shout about the fact that you don't even have to understand it to walk

  • in it. You don't even have to know how the car works to drive in it. You don't have to

  • have a degree in electricity to have light in your house. You don't have to understand

  • all the ways God is working in your life for him to be working beneath the surface.

  • Somehow the message is getting out. Somehow Verizon or AT&T or Time Warner or somebody

  • is carrying this message on the wings of the Internet angels, and it's going out somehow,