Why Must We Wait?

Now you get it. Most of you were very nervous

a minute ago. And I'm sitting there and people are like,

where's he And everybody's looking over there, and somebody said,

real loud, there he goes. This morning, why must we wait?

Waiting is one of the hardest things for us to

do as people.

We struggle with it. We don't like it. It's uncomfortable,

we don't know what to do.

And if I had waited probably any longer, somebody would

have probably just got up here and started preaching.

Because we don't like to wait.

But this morning, I want to take us through a

journey and that we might understand why we must wait.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you right now. I thank

you for this opportunity. I thank you for this moment.

I thank you for these people who are in this

room and those who are online tuning in.

I pray, Lord God, that we might find.

Ourselves in the mist of the Word today, that your

anointing would be so strong in this room and online,

that yolkes are destroyed, that hearts are encouraged, and that

we're able to see why we must wait. Holy Spirit,

come do what only you can do. Thank you for

it now in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen, this morning, as we go into this passage, I

want to bring us back to a people who had

to wait. And I also want to encourage you with

just four thoughts, just four thoughts about why we must wait.

But I want to start this morning. In the scripture

text found in Exodus, the fourteenth chapter, anytime you hear Exodus,

we think of the children of Israel who are exiting Egypt,

who are leaving out, headed out, who are going away

from a place where they were in bondage, and they're

being led by Moses. And the scriptures told us in

verse thirteen, and it says just this, Moses answer, the people,

do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see

the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today. The

Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The

Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. Then,

the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out

to me?

Tell the Israelites to move on.

Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the

sea to divide the water, so that the Israelites can

go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden

the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they will go

in after them, and I will bring I will gain

glory through Pharaoh and his army, through his chariots and

his horsemen.

The Egyptians.

Will you know, excuse me, the Egyptians will know that

I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh,

his chariots, and his horsemen. Then the Angel of God,

who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew

and went behind them.

The pillar of Cloud also moved.

From in front and stood behind them, coming between the

armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night, the cloud

brought darkness to one side and light to the other side,

so neither went near the other all night long. Then

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all

that night the Lord drove back the sea with a

strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The

waters were divided, and the Israelites went.

Through the sea on.

Dry ground, with a wall of water on their right

and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all of Pharaoh's.

Horsemen and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.

During the last watch of the knight, the Lord looked

down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the

Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.

He jammed the wheels.

Of their chariot so that they had difficulty driving. And

the Egyptian said, let's get away from the Israelites. The

Lord is fighting for them against Egypt. Wow, the Lord

is fighting for them against Egypt. For the purposes of today,

I want to focus in on that thirteenth verse. Moses

answer to people, do not be afraid, stand firm, and

you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.

The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.

Growing up in my grandmother's house, my grandmother was such

an intricate part of my life and my childhood, my rearing.

Growing up, there was always a music in the house.

My grandmother would sing these songs. Sometimes it was a hymn,

and sometimes she was making up songs.

You know.

I don't know if you have grandparents like that, but

just start humming songs. And it was always so sweet

to hear her do those things, and even now I

do it.

In our family.

It could be some situation happening in the house and

next thing I know, I'm singing a song about what's

happening in the house right.

And one other thing my grandmother would do.

She would always after we would have dinner, I would

always want dessert.

I'm like, can I have dessert now?

And she would say this term, wait until your food settles,

wait until your food settles. And I didn't understand why

we must wait for dessert. Dessert is like what I

was hoping for the whole time. Yes, I ate the food.

I ate the stuff you wanted me to eat. I

ate the broccoli, You ate the peas, I ate the carrots.

I did all the stuff I don't like to eat, right,

But why can't we just have dessert now? My grandmother

understood something about me and dessert.

If I ate dessert right.

After dinner, because my eyes sometime was bigger than my

stomach another term my grandmother would say, because they were

bigger than my stomach, I would eat dessert and then

I would probably get sick. Or I would eat dessert

and I would still be hungry later. She knew this

about me, so she would delay dessert.

She would hold.

Back dessert into the proper moment or time that it

would be appropriate for me to have it. So often

in the world we live in, we are always rushing

to the next thing, fast food, drive through quick. We

want to answer, we can go ahead and just chat

GBT it right. Whatever we want is right at our fingertips.

But that's not the way that the Lord works. Quite

often the Lord is calling us and seeking for us

to wait. He wants us to hold back just a

little bit because he is doing something in our lives.

Slow down. So I want to ask the question why

must we wait? First reason we must wait? Waiting exposes

our fear and reveals our faith. Waiting exposes our fear

and reveals our faith. The reality is, when we are

waiting for something, the reason why we want it to

happen now because we're afraid of something else. We're afraid

that if we don't get the job, we may not

be able to pay the bill. We're afraid that if

we don't get into school, people are gonna look at

us a certain way. We're afraid that if I've been

dating this person so long and they don't propose, and

I wasted my time. So we're waiting for something. Everyone

in this room, if we really be honest with ourselves,

you're waiting for something. There's something that you're waiting on.

You're waiting for God to do something. You're waiting for

something to happen. You're waiting to receive something. You believe

that God is moving, but you got to wait. The

Israelites panicked at the Red Sea. They got panicked.

They seen the.

Miracles of God. Remember these are the same ones who

saw all the plagues. They saw all the things happened

in Egypt, so they knew that God was with them.

But when they got to a place where they were

hemmed in, they were afraid. They panicked. Anyone in here

panicking today? Is there anyone in here that's scared today?

Anyone who's a little nervous about the outcome. You don't

know what's gonna happen. When you go back to the doctor.

You're waiting for the test results, and you are a

little panic right now, Well, I want to let you

know God's got you. They panicked at the Red Sea.

They had water in front of them, and they had

an army against them behind them. They panicked, but Moses

tells them to stand still. In other words, he says, wait,

God's going to deliver. Waiting shows where are tru really

lies because sometimes our trust is not fully in the Lord,

and so we maneuver things. I don't know about you,

but do you ever try to maneuver and make your

own miracle? Because you know somebody, you gotta contact, you

gotta hook up, you know somebody. And so we start maneuvering,

calling around, trying to make things happen. And all God

wants you to do is just wait, where's your trust?

Be?

Still? Don't panic? And posture yourself. I said right there.

Posture is something so important most of us. We're in

a position, or the world around us wants us to

take a position. But the Lord that's calling for us

not to have a position, but to have a posture. Oh,

my posture changes everything.

So no matter what.

I'm facing, if I posture my self right, I can

face it because the problem is not bigger.

Than my God.

So I have to posture myself in prayer. I have

to posture myself in faith. I have to posture myself

and trust and believe that what I say about God

is true. We've got to posture ourselves. Fear will arise,

fear will come. I want to let you know you

will be afraid again. There will be something that happens

that causes you to be afraid. But when you are afraid,

if you will anchor yourself in the Lord, trust that

he will bring you through. Why must we wait? Waiting

protects us from what we cannot see. Waiting protects us

from what we cannot see. There's some things down the

road that the Lord is putting in order, and if

you move too fast you might miss it. The Lord

is holding you back. He's hemming you in because there's

some things he wants to do. But if you move

too fast, you might cause more trouble than help. The

Lord has you waiting. Often God's delays are divine protection.

He's protecting you from what you don't know. I remember

some time ago I was driving down I seventy, had

a student with me. We had drove up to New

York and it's been a couple of days there, and

on the way back, we were on I seventy West

coming back to Indiana and we're just in the car.

He was on his game boy doing his thing, and

I was on a phone call with another leader in

the ministry, and we were talking and we had been

delayed in our leaving. We had been delayed in our leaving.

We had supposed to have left so much earlier. But

I like to leave at the crack of dawn to

get on the road right and get where I'm trying

to get. How many people do that all the time, right,

you're trying to get there right. And we were delayed

in our leaving, and then there was traffic in New York,

all these things. But we're driving down the road and

I'm deep in a conversation. I don't know if you

ever do that, but when you're driving sometimes you start talking.

You kind of missed the whole drive because you were

so engrossed in the conversation. And so I'm driving and

talking and probably laughing and having a good time, and

he's playing his game boy, and then all of a sudden,

his game boy just died. This was back in the

time with batteries, y'all. The game boy died, and my

call dropped. Normally, if my call drops, she just call

him right back. But for some reason I didn't call

right back. I said, maybe go call me back. But

in that moment, we both were fully alert, and while

we're looking down the highway in my peripheral.

I see fire.

Like something looks like a fireball that is all of

a sudden headed towards us on seventy West.

Before I knew it, I started to slow down.

And as I slowed down, the cars behind me slowed down,

and we all slowed down, and this fireball started coming

toward us, and literally several feet away from where we.

Were, it stopped.

A car was driving on seventy West and had view

veered over and hit.

A semi, and the semi sent it back the other way.

The Lord was protecting us from something we could not see.

I thought we were late, but the.

Lord was protecting us from something we could not see.

God waited until the path was prepared. Rushing forward may

lead to disaster. I want you to understand something that

the children of Israel when they left Egypt. As they

were leaving, the Bible tells us that they plundered the Egyptians.

They plundered them. That means that they walk out. They

were so they listen. They wanted to get rid of

these people so bad. They're like, listen, get out of here.

Take anything you want. You want the cow taken, you

want gold, you want siver, Just take it. We can't

take any more of these plagues. Your God is doing weird,

crazy things here. Please leave, We don't want you here anymore.

And so they had plundered the Egyptians. They're walking out

with all this stuff they've never had before. And as

they're going, if they had gotten to the sea and

just went in, guess what, everything that they walked away

with would have been at the bottom of the sea.

But God caused them to wait. What feels like a delay.

Maybe God shielding you. I know you've been waiting a

long time. You've been waiting for that healing, that deliverance,

that son or daughter to come home. You've been waiting

for to finish your education or get that job. You've

been waiting for that house that allows you to be

able to do the things that you want to do

in your community. You've been waiting for all of these things.

But I want to let you know just because it's

delayed does not mean it's denied. God may be shielding you.

I want to encourage somebody. You're not being punished.

Someone is.

They think I'm just not good enough. I haven't gotten

it all. Right, Well, guess what none of us have.

God is not punishing you. He is patiently waiting for

the right time and the right moment to deliver what

he said he would. God sees what you don't. Why

must we wait? Waiting develops what rushing will ruin. Waiting

develops what rushing would ruin. Now, obviously, you guys know

I like to eat, And if you didn't know, let

me let you know. I don't mind a great meal.

I love to eat.

And often my wife will cook these amazing meals. And

one of the things that she really can do, my

wife loves to bake. Oh man, he baked stuff. And

I shouldn't eat it. I shouldn't eat it. I know

she's watching right now. I should not eat it, Okay,

but I do. And there was this one holiday that

we were trying to get dinner together and we were

doing all these things, and my wife always makes these

homemade rolls, and these rolls are so good, I mean,

like butter. I know, you go to Texas Rowhouse, keep

on going there if you like that kind of thing.

But my wife's rolls gives.

Real competition a Texas Rowhouse, okay without the honey butter,

without the honey butter. And so she makes these rolls,

and so we look so forward to those holidays because

she's gonna make these homemade rolls.

It's a whole process.

She gets the dough ready, then you have to take

the dough, you form the rolls, and then you have

to let them sit and rise. It's a process, and

we have to wait.

One year.

The process wasn't working the way that we wanted it to.

Dinner was set for a certain time. The heat has

to be a certain temperature in the oven, or you

go has to have a certain amount of temperature in

order for it to rise. And so what we did

we ended up putting the rolls in the oven, saying, Lord,

work a miracle, and what came out was more like

a biscuit instead of a roll. I think we call

it risk its or something. That year, we still ate them.

It was still good, but they weren't the roles we

were used to. Rushing will ruin what God intends, allow

it to develop. God is developing you. God is making

you ready for the thing he wants to do in

your life.

God is making you ready.

He's allowing you to see some things, experience some things,

so that when it comes you will be ready. Some

of us in this room just need to be honest

with ourselves. We are not quite ready yet.

But the Lord is developing.

You.

Don't rush it.

Don't rush to start that business if you haven't prepared yourself,

don't rush into that relationship, if you haven't healed from

the damage and the trauma from before. Don't rush into

these places that God has not ordained for.

You to be until He has made you ready.

He is drying the land so that you can walk across.

James gives us hope and James one verse four, he says,

let perseverance finish its work so that you may be

mature complete lacking nothing. The Lord is causing you to

lack nothing, and the delay is causing you to lack nothing.

The waiting is causing you to lack nothing, so that

you will be ready and be mature in the faith.

I want to let you know, and I don't know

why this is coming to me. Some of us retreat

God like he's a celestial Santa Claus, and we walk

around like, gimme.

Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.

Gimme and I want to let you know that God

is not looking for a gimme. He wants a give.

That's when I surrender myself and I say God, I am.

Postured to wait.

Whatever you're doing, whenever you're doing it, wherever you're doing it,

however you're doing it, I.

Am gonna wait on you. And when you say go,

I will go.

I will be positioned, I will be in the place

I need to be, impostured and ready that when I

hear the call, I can move. God is preparing you,

waiting its preparation and not punishment. He's waiting for you

to be mature, complete, lacking nothing. Friends, don't rush what

God is refining. Don't rush what God is refining. There's

some things that are just better with time. Any married

couples in here, I know you in here, Amen, and

you young couples, God bless you because those who've been

married for like about twenty twenty five years, we look

at you and we remember because you're still trying to

figure it out. You're still wondering why he leaves tooth

fast in the sink. You're trying to figure out all

these things, like you're trying to figure this person out

and guess what. It gets better with time. Why Because

you have learned to weather storm, You've learned to wait

on each other, You've learned to watch each other.

You learn the dynamics of.

Your household, you learn how a person flows and moves.

I want to let you know some things are better.

We're time.

I was hoping some married couples will say amen on

that one.

Maybe I'm wrong. Time makes it better.

Often when I'm flying, I will get to the part

where we're supposed to land, and I get to the

airport and you see the airport, you see the lights,

you see all the stuff, and you're like, wow, that

looks so so great. We're about to land and you're ready.

You're all excited. And then the captain comes on. He says,

we're gonna circle one more time around. They're not ready

for us yet. And then you circle, and you circle,

and sometimes you circle again. The reality is is that

they're not just circling just to be circling. They're circling

in order for you to have a safe landing. I

want to let you know that there's some things that

you're circling through.

There's some things.

That you keep on going around because the landing is

not safe yet, the positioning is not safe yet, and

the Lord wants you to land safely into those places. Last,

but definitely not least.

Why must we wait?

Waiting ensures God gets all the glory.

I'm gonna say that again.

Waiting ensures that God gets all the glory. I want

you to think about it in your mind for a minute,

that the things that we're waiting on, we already have

been afraid of it. We've been worried about it, concerned

about it. The Lord has been calming us, and we've

already tried to maneuver our way into the miracle and

the blessing. We've done all the stuff that we can do,

and we're still waiting. And the reason why is because

that God wants you to wait until he can get

glory out of the situation. You remember the story, Remember

God says, listen, just tell them to move on. When

he said move on, it wasn't about them physically moving.

It was moving on in their spirit, in their mind,

their positioning, their posture, their posture had to change. And

so while the Lord is drying the land, he's drying

the ground, making it ready.

He's like don't move yet.

You can't move yet because the ground is still muddy.

Hear that.

The ground is still muddy. It's not ready, and I'm

going to make it ready for you. But i want

you to know that I'm going to get the glory

out of this situation. Don't you remember the story of Lazarus.

Lazarus was in the grave. The word says that he

stinketh by now. I love that that King James is

so good stinking, you know. I want to say that

to some kids. Sometimes you stink itth middle school boys

sometimes stinketh. But he stinks by now. He's been dead

for three days. He's been dead a long time. At

this point, there's a point of no return. But Jesus says, hey,

let's go and see about Lazarus.

Now, well, hold on, wait a minute. Why are we going?

Are we going to the funeral? No, We're not going

to no funerals today. I want to let you know

that some of you think your situation is dead. You

think your situation is over, you think it's finished, and you're.

About to have the funeral service.

But I want to let you know that there's a

god who says the funeral is.

Not happening, not on my watch. God waited for the

perfect moment.

Even in that passage in John eleven forty.

You will see the glory of God. That's what he

tells them.

You will see the glory of God. It's about God

getting the glory. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks.

If God doesn't get the glory, it doesn't matter. The

glory out of your life, the glory in your marriage,

the glory in your family, the.

Glory in your community, the glory in the church.

Delays make the miracle undeniably divine. And if we're totally honest,

some of our stories isn't ready for God to get

the glory. He's still preparing it, he's still making it ready. Well,

how do you know that God is going to get

the glory? This is when you know that God gets

the glory out of your story. Is when what God

did is bigger.

Than who it happened to.

Oh, come on here, It's when what God did is

bigger than who it happened to. Sometimes we make the

story so much about us that we forget it was

God who did it. He's the one who did it. Yes,

I know you've been waiting a long time. But wait

until God gets the glory out of that thing. I

know it's been difficult, it's been a struggle. It's been

a battle. You've been fighting day and night. But wait

until God gets the glory out of this thing.

I know you've been praying for your kids, and praying for.

Your spouse, and praying for your parents.

And praying for all of these people.

Thinks to change circumstances, to turn around, for healing, for deliverance,

for breakthrough. But wait until God gets the glory. When

He does get the glory, it won't matter that it

was your family, it was your kids. It will because

God is God and he did it. Whooh, listen. I

don't know what you are waiting for today. I don't

know what God has, what red sea you're waiting at.

I don't know what the circumstances of your situation is today.

But what I do know is that God is working it.

He didn't forget about you. He didn't forget about your story.

He didn't forget about what happened. He didn't forget about

your healing. He's working on it. The Bible tells us

this in Isaiah forty. It says this in verse thirty one.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings as egos. They shall

run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not

faith those that wait upon the Lord.

Are you waiting on the Lord? Are you waiting on

the Lord? Are you waiting on somebody else?

Those Israelites, they might have been waiting on Moses. If

they were waiting on Moses, they're waiting on the wrong one.

Moses can't part the sea, but God can. Moses can't

heal the people, but God can. Maybe you're waiting on

your spouse. They can't do it. God's gotta do it.

Maybe you're waiting on your employer. God's gotta do it.

Position your self, Posture yourself in a place where it

sayd God. No matter what I see, no matter what

I don't understand, I believe in You. I trust in you.

I am waiting on you. I am going.

To who waits as a worship team comes.

I told you that my mom walked away from the

Lord when she was in her teens, and at the

age of nineteen she had me, and at the age

of twelve she sent me to church and between twelve

and thirteen, and I kept hearing the preaching and teachings

of the Lord at the church. And while I was

hearing those teachings, the Holy Spirit touched my heart, drew me,

and from the age of thirteen, I started praying for

my mom to be saved. And that went on for

a long time. I prayed almost almost twenty years. Almost

twenty years. My mom gave her heart to the Lord,

but she still had so many habits, so many things

she was recovering from. I wished she knew about to

celebrate recovery, but the Lord was working on her heart.

And I kept on praying and waiting, praying and waiting.

And I'll never forget.

Once my mom came to the Lord one day after

she had this major encounter. I remember her calling saying,

I want to be baptized, and I got to baptize

my mom.

Usually it works the other way, but I got.

To baptize my mom, someone I had been praying for

for so long.

And then I remember a little bit later, she.

Said, I want more, God, I want more, And I said, Mom,

what you're talking about is the Holy Spirit. You want

the Holy Spirit that's you releasing control and allowing the

Holy Spirit to take full control of your life.

And she did eventually. I didn't really know my mom.

I didn't know who this woman was because the Holy

Spirit had taken control of her life. But I kept

praying and waiting. My grandmother, I told you. She would

walk around the house singing these little songs. It was

one of these songs she would sing all the time.

And we're a little like this. She said, I don't

mind way, I doomed mine way.

Hey, I don't mine way, horn, you, Lord, I don't

mine way. Hi, don't mine way, Haye, Hi, don't mine way?

Hating horn?

You Lord?

That she was switching?

How keep one away? How keepone away?

Hay? How keeone away? Horn?

You? Lord?

How keeone away?

How keeone away? How? Keep on waiting on you, Lord?

I don't know.

Who in this room today is waiting for something you

have not seen yet. But if you're waiting today, would

you just stand on.

Your feet in this room.

If you're waiting, if you're waiting on something, waiting on

a son, waiting on a daughter, Oh my God, thank

you Lord. You're waiting. You're waiting for restoration, You're waiting

for deliverance. You're waiting for the Lord to help you

with that grade, that class, those.

Teachers, those friends.

You're waiting. You're trusting God, you're believing him for something.

I want to encourage you this morning.

I know he's working. I know he's working. I know

he's a world working on it.

Now.

I know he's world working. I know he's a king.

I know he's a word working.

Honed. Now I wanna pray for you this morning. Can

everybody stand just a joint with those who are waiting?

Oh?

Yeah, cause we're all waiting at different points. Oh. I

can think about so many times I was waiting and

he always came through.

I need you to know he will come through.

That wayward son, that wayward daughter, that thing you can't

get over.

He's working on it. He's working on you.

He's drying the land. Just keep waiting and watch, posture yourself.

And faith and know the heath will bring you. Can

we pray God? I thank you.

I thank you that delays do not deny your power.

I thank you Lord God that you are protecting.

Us from the things that we cannot see don't understand it.

But today we say, Lord, we will wait on you.

You're refining it, you're making it better, You're getting it

ready for us.

Lord God, give us the patience to wait.

Lord God, Lord, may we be able to let the

dust settle so that we can see the miracle.

Lord God, Some of the miracles are.

Right in front of us, and we are imagining and

seeing them happening, not even knowing that.

That's part of the miracle.

I pray in the name of Jesus, Lord God, that

we will celebrate the small things, the small victories, Oh God,

the small yes, says, Oh God, the little pieces of

the story of God.

Just the water starting to move as a miracle.

Give us the ability to wait, knowing that if we wait,

we will walk on dry ground.

We will see your salvation and deliverance.

For God, when it's all said and done, don't do it.

For us, Do it for your glory.

Do it so that others may know that there is

a God that we serve, and he works miracles, that

he heals bodies, that he gives breakthroughs. He delivers us

out of all our sithnesses and all of our diseases.

That he can handle our hurts, our habits, our hang ups,

and all of our trauma, that you are a God.

Who is real, and you are.

Faithful to do what you say. We thank you now

in Jesus' name.

Let everybody