In “You Don’t Need To Know,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church teaches us to let go of our desire to know what God is doing behind the scenes, and acknowledge that we don’t need to know the details for Him to do the work.
This may not be the prettiest part of my life,
but by faith I believe it’s going to be the
most productive.
The most productive parts of your life will
not be the prettiest.
The greatest miracles in your life will come
in the middle of the biggest mess.
He said, “Actually, what happened…”
He doesn’t go into this long, long, long,
long list of events.
Holly, he doesn’t go into a long list of events.
Some of us are more verbose than others.
When Holly tells me what happened in her day,
it takes her more word counts (because she’s
smarter) to get it done.
She’s like paragraphs and I’m like sentences.
Paul doesn’t even give them a sentence on
his condition in prison.
“Food sucks, y’all.
Pray for me.
It’s loud here.”
He doesn’t give them a single sentence.
I wonder why.
I wonder by this point in his life, does he
have his priorities straight, to know that
what is happening in me is always more important
than what’s happening to me?
I wonder, do I have it straight?
Not really.
Not yet.
I’m still conformed to the pattern of this
world.
I’m still acted upon by external events.
If I feel it, I believe it.
Well, Paul is past that.
Paul is like, “Look.
I could sit here and tell you all about prison.
Blah, blah, blah.
I’ve been here so many times before.
It’s not even worth wasting the papyrus I
would write it on.
I only have so much scroll, and I don’t want
to take up the time telling you how bad my
day was.
I don’t want to spend so much time just thinking
about, talking about, and guessing about all
this stuff I can’t control.
What I want to focus on instead is the fruit.
And what has happened to me…”
Get this.
Beneath the surface, God is growing something
greater than our minds can imagine.
Something is happening in the soil.
Something is taking root in your heart right
now.
In this season of my life, God is giving me
a root system.
In this season of my life, God is teaching
me to focus.
Remember, I’m looking forward to normal.
God is pruning some stuff out of my life right
now to make me ready for what’s next.
Can I get one witness in this room that God
is rooting me, establishing me, so that I
can bear more fruit?
Well, we like the fruit, but the root is kind
of boring, kind of not too sexy, kind of ugly
when you get down to it.
Have you ever put roots in a vase and handed
them to somebody for Valentine’s Day?
I want what’s on the other side.
We all want what’s on the other side.
On the other side of the Red Sea, I’m going
to give you praise, Lord.
God, when we get back to church…
I saw y’all on Instagram.
I’ve been going through your Instagram posts,
everybody who tagged me or Elevation Worship,
singing a song.
I scrolled through them.
Ask Abbey.
Ask Graham.
We spent three hours last night just scrolling
through y’all.
Some of y’all couldn’t sing on key, but we
still enjoyed seeing you sing these songs.
I saw so many people say, “When we get back
to church…oh man!
Watch out.”
Well, why wait?
I thought you were church.
I thought the Holy Spirit lived in you.
Jordan, if you were at Riverwalk, you’d be
standing up shouting me down.
Why do you need a crowd to shout me down?
I thought the Spirit of God lived in you.
Now look.
We love to shout over fruit, but fruit without
root doesn’t last long.
I want something sustainable in my life.
I want not only the blessing of God, but I
want him to build me up so I can bear up under
it.
I want to yield my fruit in season.
There is a time for everything, Solomon said.
There is a season to mourn.
So if you’re mourning right now, that’s the
root.
But you will rejoice in the morning.
That’s the fruit.
I’m not focused on what I’m going through.
I’m focused on what God is doing through it.
Focus on the fruit.
“How was your week?”
Well, it depends.
What part about it do you want to know?
When I almost strangled my kids or when I
hugged them?
I did both.
The part where I was walking around the house
cussing under my breath or the part where
I was singing, “Amen”?
Because from the same mouth, the fruit of
lips that profess his name and the fruit that
will tell you other stuff too.
Listen.
Out of this great season of uncertainty…
Somebody put again in the chat, “I do not
know.”
You are allowed to say that.
I don’t know what makes people think preachers
know stuff we don’t know.
People will ask me the weirdest stuff.
“If a cat dies in the middle of the night
and the owner went to church the day before,
will it get to heaven or does it have to pray…?”
I don’t know about your cat.
“In the book of Revelations, where it talks
about the horse and the heavens and the earth…”
I say, “I didn’t break open the scroll.
The Lamb did that.
I’m not the Lamb.
I’m a dumb sheep like you.”
So, knowing that I don’t know…
What a powerful concept.
Knowing that you don’t know makes you open
to wisdom.
Knowing that you don’t know.
I talked to Craig Groeschel yesterday about
when church is going to open, and this and
that and the other, and all of the states
are different.
I don’t know if our governor is ever going
to let us out of the house again or not, but
certain states in the United States of America
are opening up.
Certain nations are more open than others,
and we’re all on different waves dealing with
coronavirus.
(If you’re watching this in a time capsule
in 2032, things were weird.
This was not like Elevation Church had a bad
growth season.
We weren’t allowed to come.)
I was like, “What do you think, man?
Another month?
Another six months?
Another 12 months?
Will we go to church and come back?”
We went back and forth just talking, just
burning up our data plan talking to each other.
Finally, I said, “Do you know what the smartest
thing we’ve said on this whole call was?
When you said three minutes ago, ‘I don’t
know.’
That’s the smartest thing either of us have
said.”
Here’s what’s really cool about right now:
We are all idiots at the same time.
We are all equally ignorant of what comes
next.
Nobody has a crystal ball.
I know your uncle’s cousin’s friend worked
for the Pentagon.
Shut up.
Hearing from everybody.
“Well, my dad went to college with Dr. Fauci.”
Shut up.
Nobody knows.
Paul didn’t know.
Are my kids ever going to have a real teacher
again?
Nobody knows.
They might send them to school and they might
send them back.
Nobody knows.
When is the economy…?
Nobody knows.
Nobody.
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths
beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
This is Romans 11.
Right before Romans 12 where it says, “Be
transformed by the renewing of your mind,”
he says, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the
wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths
beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?”
Who knows?
Not me.
Not you.
Not Paul.
Paul always had an answer.
One man said he was often wrong but seldom
in doubt.
Do you know anybody like that?
That was Paul.
Paul always knew.
You’re going to see him.
He starts this passage.
He says in verse 12, “I want you to know,
brothers and sisters,” and then by the time
he gets to verse 22, he says, “I do not know.”
So how are we supposed to know if you don’t
even know?
I love this, because the truth is in the tension.
Hermeneutical principle 101: the truth is
in the tension.
The presence of faith does not eliminate uncertainty.
In fact, it operates by uncertainty.
He said, “I want you to know that the gospel
is going forward.”
That’s the important thing.
Verse 13: “As a result, it has become clear
throughout the whole palace guard…”
Wait a minute.
He’s talking about clarity, but he’s still
not defining the outcome.
His clarity is not about the outcome; his
clarity is about God’s presence in the process.
What a word.
I’m focused on what God is doing in me right
now.
I can’t control what politicians do.
I can’t control how long this prison sentence
is.
There is something outside of my control.
This is what I told Elijah in the pound the
other day, Graham.
I’m giving him life lessons, and I think this
has to be number one.
If you strip it all away…
And I don’t even need a Bible verse for this.
This is what I taught him.
The only thing you can really control is your
focus.
What are you going to do…make it sunny?
What are you going to do…make it rainy?
What are you going to do…make people nicer?
Are you going to make people stop being crazy?
What are you going to do?
Are you going to pray away the virus?
Look, man.
I’m praying just as hard as anybody for stuff
I can’t control.
That’s all I can do.
But what I can control is my focus.
I can control my focus.
“Not me, Pastor Furtick.
I can’t control my focus.
I’m ADHD.”
I am not talking about physical focus.
I’m talking about emotional focus.
I’m talking about spiritual focus.
I’m talking about focusing your priorities.
“Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.”
Galatians 5:22-23, cross-reference for your
Bible study.
The fruit of the Spirit is joy, but the root
of the Spirit is priorities, what you are
planted in, what matters to you.
This is Paul’s message.
He’s writing back to the church he founded
in Philippi.
He led that purple cloth dealer Lydia to the
Lord, and the city was never the same.
He got locked up with Silas in prison in Philippi
for preaching the gospel.
Remember that story?
Most people don’t know that he is writing
a letter to the same people who only have
a church in their city because Paul was thrown
in prison.
Did you hear me?
The only reason there is a book of Philippians
is because Paul was thrown in prison.
The only reason he writes in Philippians 4:13,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me…”
Philippians 4:19 says, “My God will supply
all your needs.”
Paul is saying, “I don’t know how this ends,”
yet he’s saying, “My God will supply all my
needs.”
I don’t need to know how it ends to know that
I’m going to see the glory of God in the middle
of it.
Some things I don’t need to know.
That is why I am encouraging you to limit
your intake of the news.
You do not need to know everything up to the
minute.
Amen.
You do not need to know the things you cannot
directly affect.
You do not need to know all of the details
to take your next step.
Just ask Abraham.
You do not have to know the 10-year plan for
your life to give God your best today.
You do not have to know how long until there
is a vaccine for a virus to praise God and
worship God for the life he has given you
in this moment.
Releasing my need to know is the hardest thing,
because I thought information was the key,
yet Paul says there is a confidence that goes
beneath knowledge.
Let me sit back down, because I have more
to say about this.
In fact, I haven’t even started my sermon
yet.
Paul said, “Because of my chains, most of
the brothers and sisters have become confident
in the Lord and dare all the more…”
I’m going to praise him all the more.
Oh, thank you, Devil, for challenging my faith.
It’s going to make me more grateful.
Oh, thank you, Lord, for pruning my branches.
It’s only going to make me more fruitful.
More fruit.
I don’t know who it’s for, but you’re going
to have more fruit.
Even if I have a little less money right now,
I’m going to bear more fruit, because my roots
are going deeper, because I’m humble and open,
and where I am not a closed system, God can
sow the seed of his Word and bring forth something
my mind can never conceive.
Verse 15: “It is true that some preach Christ
out of envy and rivalry, but others out of
goodwill.
The latter do so out of love…”
This is all the stuff Paul can’t control.
He’s like, “Yeah, some people are talking
about me.
Yeah, there are some idiots out here.
Yeah, I’ve got trolls too.
Yeah, I just block them and move on.”
Isn’t it crazy how you focus on the one thing
that’s against you?
Do you do this too?
Okay.
Pray for me.
This is what I do.
I could have a thousand people say something
nice to me and one person say something nasty,
and I will snuggle up to nasty.
What am I doing?
I’m being immature.
That’s immature.
It means I’m not rooted enough yet in love
to know “God is for me.
Who can be against me?”
Paul knew that.
He actually wrote that.
“If God is for me, who could be against me?”
So he knew it.
He wrote it.
He said it.
It came from within him.
He knew it because it came from within.
I almost called this message…
Holly hates when I do this.
She says, “Just give it one title.
Don’t give it the alternate titles.”
Here’s the alternate title for this message:
“Prison Sentence.”
We hang up Philippians 4:13 in a weight room:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me.”
Paul wrote that sentence in a prison.
Prison sentence.
I wanted to know what’s going to come forth
out of your life in this season of frustration.
Prison sentence.
I could do a whole series on prison sentences.
It has a double meaning.
I don’t know how long I’m going to be here,
but I’m going to bear some fruit while I do.
I am like a tree planted by the streams of
water.
I don’t know how long, but I know how high,
how wide, how deep, how unsearchable is the
love of Christ.
I know it is beyond my comprehension.
I do not know, but I know there’s more fruit,
more favor, more faith.