What Are You Waiting On?

The title of the message today is, What Are You Waiting On?

And throughout this message, I really want you to think about that.

I want you to think of, What Are You Waiting On?

Each one of us could give a different answer. So I want you just to meditate

upon that question throughout the message.

And we're going to turn in our Bibles first to Exodus chapter 8.

Exodus 8 · chapter mention

And we're going to start in verse 9 and go to 10. And here Moses and Pharaoh

are having an encounter.

There have been several plagues already.

And each and every time, Pharaoh has seen God show up and remove a plague to

give him another chance.

And here in verse 9, it says, You set the time, Moses replied.

Tell me when you want me to pray for you, your officials and your people.

Then you and your homes will be rid of the frogs.

They will remain only in the Nile River.

Do it tomorrow, Pharaoh said. All right, Moses replied, it will be as you have said.

Then you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God.

Here, Moses is telling Pharaoh, who has a plague of frogs. Now,

these are not... where we live in the country, we have these little toads and

they jump everywhere at night especially.

But we're talking about frogs.

I don't like frogs. And these frogs are in people's houses.

They are jumping in their kitchen, in their food.

They're in their bed. They are jumping on people. There's a lot of frogs.

And Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, I will pray to my God to remove all of these frogs.

You tell me when to pray. Now don't answer it out loud, but in your own head, what would you say?

Now, get these frogs out of here. And Pharaoh said, tomorrow.

What was he waiting on?

What in the world? Why would you say tomorrow?

And the thing about this is, is we may not intentionally say out of our mouth, tomorrow, God.

But sometimes with our actions and sometimes with our lack of actions, we say the same thing.

God shows up and He tells you something about your situation and you say, tomorrow.

How many people have an encounter with God for salvation and they say, tomorrow?

But tomorrow doesn't come for them.

What are we waiting on? Why are we limiting God?

I believe the only way to really limit God is our unbelief and our unwillingness

to obey Him when He tells us to move.

We limit Him by our unbelief.

And this year, as we're releasing our faith and we're saying,

we believe that our hopes will be fulfilled.

Well, there's going to come a moment that you have to act. And will you say tomorrow?

So will you sit here next year thinking, well, why weren't my hopes fulfilled? There was a prophecy.

Pastor taught about it all year.

Did you miss your opportunity when God showed up and asked you to obey and move, did you say tomorrow?

So I want you to hold on to that. God is going to give you direction this year.

And with direction comes obedience.

You can give all the directions you want, but unless that person that you're

giving those directions to obeys, it will not benefit them.

As a parent, you can tell your children, these are the directions.

I know this situation. I've been here, done that.

Listen to me. You can give them all of the directions, but if they don't obey

it, they're not going to benefit from it.

If you're standing for healing, and it's good to wait before the Lord,

but then there comes a time where you have to do what the Lord is telling you

to do, and you're standing for healing.

He may give you a direction. It may be different than what He gives me.

He may say, go to the doctor. Have that test done.

Do this natural remedy. Do this, do that.

And we say, tomorrow, I'm waiting on the Lord, but He's waiting on you.

Once He's giving you direction.

He's waiting on you. He's waiting on you to obey. So now we're going to look

at some encounters in the Word of God.

We're going to look in Mark, and these encounters are very different than the

encounter that Moses had with Pharaoh.

In Mark 5, starting in verse 25, and we're going to go all the way through 34,

it says, A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding.

She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had

spent everything she had to pay them.

But she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.

She had heard about Jesus, so she heard about deliverance.

She heard about miracles and healing.

She heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched

his robe. For she thought to herself, if I can just touch the robe,

his robe, I will be healed.

Immediately, the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had

been healed of her terrible condition.

Twelve years, twelve years of constant bleeding and one touch from Jesus.

She felt in her body immediate freedom.

In verse 30 it says, Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him.

So he turned around in the crowd and he asked, Who touched my robe?

And his disciples said to him, Look at this crowd pressing around you.

How can you ask who touched me?

But he kept on looking around to see who had done it.

And then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened

to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.

And he said, And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well.

Go in peace. Your suffering is over.

Here this woman was suffering for 12 years.

And a moment of opportunity came. She heard there's a holy man coming and he can heal.

Well, in that moment, she had to make a decision.

Based upon the law, she could have been put to death for coming out into the

streets because she was considered unclean.

But in that moment, she was not like Pharaoh.

She had waited 12 years, and 12 years is long enough.

In that moment, she said today.

Life or death, I am moving today. She left that room.

She went out through the crowds, which I can't imagine how weak she may have

been of 12 years of constant bleeding, going through the crowd.

And you know it was a large crowd because the disciples said,

Jesus, look at all the people touching you. We don't even know who's touching you.

But he knew because what happened was faith touched him.

How many people around him had issues but her faith?

And he said, your faith has healed you. People were touching him.

Where was the power going?

It connected with faith, and it immediately delivered her. It immediately set her free.

She did not say, I'm going to wait till tomorrow.

Maybe I can see him in the marketplace where there's not a large crowd.

No, she said, I'm going now. to get my deliverance.

Also, let's take a look in Mark 2. Here's another example of faith.

And I love this passage. Mark 2,

Mark 2:2–5

verses 2 through 5, it says, Immediately many gathered together so that there

was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door.

Now here Jesus is preaching in home, and people have heard.

That is why it's so important to preach the word of God, to share the good news. People need to hear.

And these people had heard and there was a crowd and it says that he,

Jesus, preached the word to them.

In verse 3 it says, Then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.

And when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was.

So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Here, these four friends took their friend to Jesus.

But when they approached, they were faced with obstacles.

When you are going through something, you will be faced with obstacles.

Jesus said, in this world, you're going to have trials and tribulations.

You will be faced with obstacles. But how determined are you to get before Jesus?

And thank God that this man had four friends who said, today is the day. We're not waiting.

We're going to get you to Jesus if we have to tear a hole in the roof and lower you down.

I mean, can we imagine that? Could we come on a Sunday and Pastor Devon up here

preaching and we're having a healing revival or some miracle service and we

see God manifesting and all of a sudden there's a hole in the roof.

I mean, I'm sure Steve would come running in like security.

There's a hole in the roof and somebody's coming down through the roof because

they're wanting to get in the anointing of God. These people were serious.

And sometimes I think the body of Christ has, I don't think we've forgotten,

but I think we've gotten lazy on just going before the Lord expecting. We need to be hungry.

We need to be expecting, you know, when people go to other countries,

they see their stories of, I want to say, greater manifestations.

There's more deliverance from demonic spirits, miracles taking place. What is the difference?

We're the same. People are the same. It's the faith. It's the hunger.

They hunger for the word of God. They hunger for the deliverance that you get in Jesus.

And so here this circle of friends said, no, no, no, we're not waiting.

Today we're going to get our friend right before Jesus.

And so I want to ask you today about your circle and who is in your circle today.

Does your circle encourage you and push you closer to Jesus, or do they pull you away?

Do you help guide people closer to Jesus, or do you push people away from Jesus?

That's something that you have to evaluate on your own.

And, you know, it's very important, the circle that you have around you, When you are in a battle.

You know, sometimes it's okay when everything's good and everything's going

right. But what happens when you're in a dark time?

And when you need someone to carry you, who is your circle?

What are they doing when you come before them and watch? When you give a praise

report, how does your circle react?

Are they happy for you?

Or are they jealous and maybe they might say something like,

you really think that's going to happen?

Did God really tell you that? You've got to watch things like that.

And you need to really evaluate who's around you.

When you're in a battle and you need someone to pray for you,

you better be cautious who you ask to pray for you.

So last year, when we were in a battle for one of our children's health,

I was very, very cautious about who I asked to pray.

I needed faith people. I needed people that were not going to give me facts

because I'd already got the facts from the doctor.

We went to the doctor. We got the test. We had the blood work. We had the report.

I had the facts.

Now I needed the truth. And I

know that the truth of God can change those facts. And it did, praise God.

I needed faith people to speak life, life into our situation.

And that can be what you think is minor. That could be what you think is life

and death. For us, it could have been life and death.

And I said, no, I'm not having anybody that is praying over my child saying,

well, if it's God's will, maybe. No, that child's going to live and not die

and going to declare the works of the Lord.

You have to dig your feet in and believe the Word of God.

You have to know what you believe and you better know what your circle believes

because they are going to impact you.

That doesn't matter if you're an adult. That doesn't matter if you're a teen.

And if you're a teen, you better start watching now.

Who is for you and who is against you?

And so you have to dig in, believe in faith, Stand on the Word of God for this

and just know, is your circle getting you closer to God or pulling you away?

So this friends right here, they said, we're getting our brother to the truth today.

He's going through the roof if we have to put him through the roof.

And Jesus, he did not condemn them. He did not correct them with religion.

He looked at him and said, your faith, your faith for this man, your sins are forgiven.

For the woman, your faith has set you free from your suffering.

Let's take a look at Matthew 8, 5 through 10. We're going to look at two passages

that are very similar, very similar, but I just want to go through it and let

you meditate upon what faith can do.

It says in verse 5, it says, Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum,

a centurion came to him pleading with him, saying,

Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.

And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.

And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come

under my roof, but only speak a word.

How much faith is that? This man knew.

He's already heard all the stories. He said, wait a minute, you don't even have

to come. Just speak a word.

Just speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority

having soldiers under me.

And I say to this one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes.

And to my servant, do this, and he does it. And when Jesus heard it,

he marveled and he said to those who followed, Assuredly, I say to you,

I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.

This was a man who said, I believe your word.

I don't have to have you physically in front of me.

I believe if you say a word, it will come to pass. And today, that is how our faith is.

Jesus is not necessarily in the natural standing right here before us,

but he has said a word, and his word is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So that is why when pastor or the Mosers or whoever, And Verciera is up here

and praying for people. And they feel the anointing of God and they feel the

Holy Spirit say, lay hands on that person.

That is a representation of Jesus because that anointing flows through those prayer ministers.

Because at one word, Jesus' word, you can have freedom. You can have deliverance.

That is why it's so important to know God's word.

God's word is His will. Do not wait till Sunday to open your Bible.

People in the military, they don't wait till combat to pick up their weapon

and figure out how to use their weapon. That would be foolish.

You are an ambassador for Christ.

You have the anointing of God living in you. You need to know how to use your

weapon, which is the sword of the Spirit, and that's the Word of God.

Open your Bible throughout the week.

Read, meditate, pray. That is how you train spiritually.

Let's take a look at Luke 7, verses 2 through 10.

Luke 7:2–10

This is similar. This is the same passage, but this is Luke writing the encounter.

In verse 2 it says, And a certain centurion's servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to die.

So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him,

pleading with him to come and heal his servant.

And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying that the one

for whom he should be doing this was deserving, for he loves our nation and

has built us a synagogue.

Then Jesus went with them, And when he was already not far from the house,

the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself,

for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.

Therefore, I did not even think myself worthy to come to you.

But say the word, and my servant will be healed.

For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.

And I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes.

And to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things,

he marveled at him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed him,

I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.

And for those who were sent returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.

One word from God can change your life.

One word. It does not matter what situation you're in.

It does not matter how old you are. one word can change your life.

I have shared a little bit of

my past in other teachings, and some may not have heard those teachings.

But there was a time when I was younger, before I was 18, that I cried out to

God and was like, I need freedom.

I need deliverance from the situation I was in.

And everywhere I looked, there was no way.

But God heard my cry, and he delivered me and made a way.

He made ways where there were no ways.

There was no way in the natural for a 17, 18-year-old with really no job, no finances,

but very little by working to clean a church,

and I tutored a little girl to be able to get

an apartment but he made the way and I did and once I was there that night that

first night I remember it was a studio apartment but it's not a studio apartment

in 2025 okay so not like not like that it was a studio apartment that honestly

was probably as big as this stage.

And it had just a slither of a hallway, not really a hallway,

but flooring for a kitchen.

And the refrigerator was a mini refrigerator.

And it would fill up with ice. And I was like, what's happening?

And they're like, you have to defrost it.

And I was like, how do you defrost this? I don't understand what to do. I didn't have help.

I was on my own. And I survived. I was like, I don't even know what to put in

this little refrigerator. So I'm going to survive off of cereal and Hot Pockets. And I did.

That's what I did for a year. And so also, thank God, he did make it to where

it was furnished, meaning it had a couch.

And I was thankful for that couch because the bed was a pull-out bed from the wall.

But see, I'm very short, and those beds are very heavy.

And so when I would reach up to try to get the handle, I couldn't really get it.

So about two times I tried it and said, forget it, I'm sleeping on the couch

because I would jump and grab it and pull it down, and I thought,

I'm not going to meet Jesus by the way of a bed.

That's not the way I'm going out. And so I finally said, okay,

God, I'm going to sleep on this couch.

And that night, that first night, I was so, so thankful for His deliverance.

And the quietness and the peace that I had never experienced.

But I was scared. And I said, what am I going to do? I am now away from home.

I don't have money to pay for anything. What am I going to do?

And you know what? In that moment, yeah, I was scared. But do you know what

I did the next day when I got up?

I just kept doing what God told me to do. I took it one day at a time.

I kept tithing. I tithed no matter what.

And every single time he provided. There was not one time that I tithed and I missed a bill.

I would not know how in the world the bills were getting paid, but they would get paid.

I would have enough for food. God would provide someone to invite me over to

have dinner. Oh, yes, I'm free because I'm hungry. I can be there. I can be there.

God always provided. And each and every time he opened another door and promoted

me and promoted me and promoted me.

And today, you know, three years ago, he called me to step out and start a business.

And I didn't know at 18 years old when I was in a studio apartment and didn't

know where I was going to get my next meal that I would be running a business

and this business is to help children all over our counties and I,

still did that afraid I still did it afraid and people were like how did you

do that it was God because I had nothing when but a word from him step out and

do this it was a word and I did it afraid and what I did is each and every day

I just kept obeying what do you want me to do today Lord.

What do I do today, Lord? Who do I connect with today?

And he would just tell me over and over and over again. But I had to make a

choice. Do I say, tomorrow?

I don't want to go to this meeting with all of these people that I feel like

are bigger than me, and I'm just this small person, like, oh,

they know more. I don't feel like I fit in that room.

But I decided, you know what? God comes through every time. I'm not going to say tomorrow.

I'm going to put the armor of God on and I'm going to walk in that room and

God's favor is going to be on me.

And it's the same thing for you. When God calls you to do something, what are you waiting on?

If you have went before the Lord and you have initially waited on Him and you

have received direction, now He's waiting on you to act.

He is waiting on you to act upon His Word.

I think about times like Joshua and Jericho.

The stories we tell our children, what would have happened if after marching

around Jericho and God said, okay, now this time I want you to shout and those

walls are going to come down.

What if the story was different? What if Joshua said, we'll shout tomorrow? Okay.

Why would you say that to God? But we do it. We do it. We laugh, but we do it.

What if Jesus is walking on water towards Peter and Jesus says,

Peter, come on out of the boat right now. And he says, no, I'll come out tomorrow.

No. These stories are in the Word of God because these are people just like you and me.

These are not fairy tales. These are not myths.

These are encounters of people just like me and you that had faith,

but they had the faith to obey and to do what God was telling them to do.

What if Pastor Devon, what if when God spoke to him and said,

hey, I want you to leave this six-figure job and go into the ministry with nothing,

and hope that people, you know, want to support you and further the cause?

What if he had said, no, I'm not going to do that, or I'll wait till tomorrow

and miss that opportunity?

What would have happened with the trajectory of all of us here?

What we do matters, and it doesn't just matter for you. It matters for other people.

It matters for your children. It matters for your grandchildren.

It matters for your spouse not to give up on that spouse who you look at it

sometimes and think, I can't take it anymore or they're never going to change.

You may never get them to change, but one word from God can get them to change.

One word from God can tell you exactly what you need to do in that situation.

There can be restoration in relationships.

This is a hard story to share, and I only have shared it one time.

The pastor sometimes talks to me, and he's like, I think you should share these

stories more often because it's going to help somebody.

I'm kind of a private person, but I will share it. So a lot of you know that

my mom, she went to be with the Lord earlier this year.

And so now I do a lot of caregiving for my dad.

And the reason I left home at 17, 18 was because of my dad.

And this is not to cause embarrassment to my family in any way.

It is to share that God can change people.

And so my dad, you know, growing up, he was a severe alcoholic.

Never physically abusive to me, but very verbal, very emotionally abusive.

And it would just keep getting worse and

there was actually one time in my life

where DSS was involved and I

was on my way to foster care and so

I look back now as I was going through that and now

I work with so many children so many

children when they come to me and they are so angry but I can see right through

that anger where some therapists will be like oh they're they just don't listen

they're angry because they're hurting and if you haven't been in that situation

sometimes you don't have the empathy you might have sympathy but at that point

I don't need you to feel sorry for me,

and so there was a time that I remember meeting a social worker at the house

and I was an angry teenager for all of this I was embarrassed and I was just

angry and so thank God for a grandmother Our grandmothers in our life.

And so my grandmother took me in so we did not have to go into the foster care system.

And we lived with my grandmother for a few years, and then we returned.

And when we returned, it was no better. In fact, it was worse.

And so there was one time, and this was the time that I cried out to God like, okay, I'm done.

And in his mercy, he just comes right along and says, you're not done.

This is just the beginning. so there was a time where you know.

There was a situation where my dad was drunk that night, and he held a gun to my head.

And in that moment, I went to the Lord after the situation, and I remember saying

to God, you know, you can go to God in any condition.

For those that aren't saved, and you may come across this teaching,

and you may be strung out on drugs, or you may feel like you can't come to God

because you've done horrible things, you can go to God.

And you don't have to say eloquent prayers. I went before the Lord and I said,

God, you know, you say in your word, because I had a cousin that would take

me to church, you say that you want us to have an abundant life.

You say that you will deliver your people.

And I want to serve you, but I literally feel like I am living in hell on earth.

Now, that may not be an eloquent prayer that we would teach our children to say.

But in that moment, that was my prayer to God. That was a Saturday night.

And I remember I wasn't bargaining with God.

I was pouring my heart out, and I said, Lord, I don't know what my life is going

to look like, but if you will deliver me from this, I will serve you the rest

of my life, no matter what you tell me to do.

And so in that moment, that was a Saturday.

On Tuesday of the next week was when I had that apartment and I had moved out

and it was just a move from God.

And I remember that prayer a lot of times when my flesh does not want to do things.

When Pastor Devon says, hey, I really feel like you should lead Zoom prayer

and my flesh says, I don't really want to do that.

I don't really want to be on a screen where everything is black squares and

I'm praying and all I can see is myself.

And sometimes it's awkward, right? Let's just say it. Sometimes God asks you

to do things that are beneficial, but you feel awkward.

But I remember God's like, I'm going to see. Are you willing to be obedient to what you said?

There's times when Stacy, our sweet pastor's wife, Stacy, says,

Because you know, Devon, I think you should ask Jeannie to do the offering.

I'll be honest, my flesh did not want to do that the first time.

I wanted to sit where I always sat, in the back.

And then pastor said one Sunday, Jenny, I think you should sit right here.

My flesh did not want to sit right there. I wanted to sit in the back, but I was obedient.

And what I'm telling you is there's going to be times where you're not going

to feel like doing what God calls you to do.

But that is your moment of opportunity. I did not in the flesh ever want to

stand up here to teach you.

That is not because I don't love you. It is just because it's just not what naturally I want to do.

But I have found that each and every time it begins to fulfill something in

me because purpose brings fulfillment.

More money is not going to fulfill you. More relationships are not going to fulfill you.

A pill, a drink, a whatever is not going to fulfill you.

It is when you tap into your purpose that brings fulfillment.

And helping people is what God has called me to do. And it brings fulfillment.

And so there's going to be opportunities that come your way.

Do not miss those opportunities.

Whatever it is, it can be today. It may be this week. Do not miss those opportunities.

Today could be the day that that unsaved loved one encounters Christ.

Be prepared to let the Holy Spirit prompt you.

Today could be the day that that healing manifests in your body and you say,

thank you, God, my body is strong. It is pain-free. Be ready to receive.

Today may be the day where your business begins, where your business takes off

because God causes a divine encounter to take place.

Be prepared to receive.

Whatever that looks like, be prepared. You may need to be in the Word of God even more.

You may need to be praying more in the Spirit.

If you feel like, oh, I kind of feel like I'm just dry. I'm just weak.

I don't really feel like I'm getting anything out of the message. Why did I come today?

It might not be the message necessarily. It may be that you need to get before

the Lord and in His presence.

You need to pray more in the Spirit, not harden your heart. because what happens

is when we are going through life, there are times where our heart begins to get hardened.

And you're in charge of that.

You are the one that softens your heart through praying in the Spirit,

reading the Word, praising and worshiping Him.

One last verse I want to share with you today is going to be in Hebrews 3, verses 7 through 8.

Hebrews 3:7–8

It says, that is why the Holy Spirit says, today when you hear his voice,

don't harden your hearts.

As Israel did when they rebelled, when they were tested in the wilderness.

There is going to come a moment where.

A moment of where your hopes are fulfilled. But to get to that moment,

you have to be ready to receive from God.

You cannot tell Him tomorrow.

Be ready. What are we waiting on? Think about that.

There's things that we may feel uncomfortable doing, but there are people that are dependent on us.

You know, thank God the ultimate thankfulness I have is that Jesus didn't say,

nope, I'm not doing that tomorrow or not even tomorrow.

Like, if he had called any one of us without just the grace and the power of

God on us, not one of us would have done what Jesus did.

Not one of us. I mean, we hear of heroes that, you know, in the line of duty,

they've sacrificed their life.

But man, to sacrifice your life for ungodly, ungrateful people,

Jesus knew the human heart, but he got up on that cross anyway.

And when he did it, he was thinking of you.

He was able to think and see each and every one of us. And in that moment,

God knew that one has a purpose.

That one has this calling. This one has that purpose.

I'm not going to let Christ's death be in vain. I'm going to fulfill what He

has called me to do, and I believe that you are too.