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Pastor Kenneth Lock II | Evolve Church
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Connected by scripture or shared themes.
Pastor Kenneth Lock II | Evolve Church
Continue exploring
Connected by scripture or shared themes.
Father, we thank you, God. You are everything, Lord Jesus. All that I have needed, your hands have provided. We worship you today because you are a God who is everything that we need and more.
You are the I am that I am. You are the balm in Gilead. You are our rose of Sharon. You're the bright and morning star. You are God with us eternally—Emmanuel, Elohim, Adonai. We bless you today, Yahweh.
Growing up, we sung songs because they sounded good. But now, I sing because you're worthy. I sing because you blessed me. I sing because you freed me. I sing because you deserve it, God.
As we lead into this word, my prayer is that you would get all the glory and that you would open up our minds and our spirits to receive. Holy Spirit, take over this time. Take over this message. Speak what needs to be spoken. Thank you, Jehovah Jireh, that you provide everything that we need when we need it.
I do have a lot to share with you today. I need you to be a smart class. I need you to be aware because this lesson speaks to a journey that quite frankly every single last one of us are going to have to walk through at some point in our lives.
Today's title is really a question: Why didn't you wait? This question was birthed from an event that happened in King Saul's life. King Saul got impatient and pushed ahead of the time he was supposed to move, and it caused him to lose something that was very valuable.
So many of us will go through seasons in our life where we have to wait on God. If you haven't been there, just keep waiting. You will get there at some point. You go through seasons where God doesn't move in your expected timeline. And it's critical because what you do in those seasons matter. What you do when you're waiting on God, how you wait is important. How you stay connected to him is important. How you don't lose faith is important.
The Bible shows us this over and over. There are so many stories where people got great promises from God, but it came after a long waiting period. Let me give you just a few:
Imagine being the Son of God, being divine, being one with God. For 30 years you have to hide your deity. For 30 years you have to deal with people that you made disrespecting you.
If you notice that nobody that God used got it quickly. Nobody that God used happened quickly. It always took time.
Waiting is not punishment. It's protection and preparation.
If God has you waiting right now, God isn't trying to punish you and keep away from you. He isn't playing keep away with the blessing. If God is telling you to wait, it's because he's preparing something in you and he's protecting you from a fight you don't even see yet.
Waiting keeps you inside God's timing. It keeps you inside God's favor. And ultimately, it keeps you inside of God's will.
If we were to truly be honest, some of the worst decisions in our lives weren't made out of rebellion. They were made out of impatience. The issue is not that you don't love God. You love God. You have a problem with waiting on his timing.
We see in the story of Saul that Saul didn't disobey God because he hated God. He disobeyed God because waiting felt harder than disobedience. Waiting felt so hard for him that he was like, "I'll just take my destiny into my own hands."
This is where many of us live. When the pressure of the moment feels louder than the promise of God, we start to change. The pressure of what we're feeling right now seems like it's speaking louder than the promises that we have in our heart around God's word.
Saul waited there seven days for Samuel and Samuel had instructed him earlier but Samuel still didn't come. Saul realized that the troops were rapidly slipping away.
Now this is what Samuel told him. He said, "Just wait seven days. I'll be there to offer the sacrifice." Why? Because only the priests could offer the sacrifice to God. Only the priests had to purify themselves. The prophets had to purify themselves, be pure before God, and offer the sacrifice so that the kings could win their war.
So Samuel told Saul, "Wait seven days, and I'll be there." But still, Samuel didn't show up. Saul waited seven days and Samuel didn't come and he felt like the army was slipping away. He felt like the enemy was gathering. The clock was ticking. He felt like he was starting to lose influence, like the people that were serving him weren't trusting the timing of what was happening.
This is where so many believers break. We break when God is slower than your stress. You think that God should hurry up because you stressed out. And God says, "No, you're stressed out because you don't trust me enough. If you trusted me, you wouldn't be stressed right now. If you trusted that I had your back, you wouldn't be stressed. But you're stressed because you're waiting for somebody that you're unsure of if you believe they're going to show up."
Believers begin to break when obedience makes you look foolish. Like in the story of Noah, God tells him to build the ark and he's waiting 120 years and the rain still hasn't come. Some of us start to break from the obedience of God when God tells us to do something and it don't make sense to the people around you. You so afraid of what people think about you and what they got to say about you that you allow the opinions of people to break your obedience and submission to God.
We start to break when waiting makes you feel like you're losing. When you're in your waiting season and you feel like you're losing because you're waiting on your marriage and everybody around you getting married, everybody around you having babies, everybody around you, it seemed like everything is going well and you're like, "God, I feel like I'm watching everybody else step in the promise while I'm still waiting."
But let me give you a real word. Everybody around you ain't stepping in the promise. Some people settling because they didn't want to wait either.
Waiting is also spiritual warfare. And we talk about spiritual warfare—it's prayer and the word and speaking and rebuking—but also waiting is spiritual warfare because when you're waiting, we get a chance to see who you really are.
When you're waiting, we get a chance to see if you really trust God the way that you say you do. When you're waiting, we get a chance to see, can you give God joy even when you don't see the breakthrough yet?
Here's what Saul saw. Saul saw troops leaving. He saw the enemy approaching. He saw the prophet Samuel delayed. He saw his influence decreasing. And so, now he's afraid. He's allowing the external pressure to push him into a bad decision because all he sees is the bad things around him.
But this is what Saul forgot. He forgot that God is never late. He's an ontime God. If God didn't show up, it's because you didn't need it yet. If God is showing up, he's going to show up at the right time at the right moment with the right gift in hand.
Saul forgot that God's timing is perfect, but he also forgot that delays are tests. When something gets delayed, now my faith is tried. Do I give up on what I was waiting on or do I stand flatfooted and trust that if God said it, he's going to perform it? He's going to show up for me.
He forgot that obedience was his real weapon. The real way you win in every single battle in your life—whether it be patience, whether it be peace, whether it's your joy, whether it's something coming from the outside—obedience is always how you win.
You have to remember to trust God. It's just like many of us, we go to our plan B when things aren't working. Like if you need God to pay a bill and maybe you don't see the money in the account right away, we start panicking. We start asking, can I borrow money? We go to the worst check in the cash and they charge 350% interest on the dollar. I borrow 300, I owe 1250.
Or maybe you've been waiting on that relationship that God told you to wait on, but your loneliness starts shouting. The loneliness starts screaming, and all of a sudden, you feel pushed to accept what's available because you wanted to wait for what God had.
See, this is what pressure tries to do. Pressure always tries to become your prophet. Pressure tries to push you into decisions that God didn't make for you.
Saul found himself in this exact same place. In verse 9, it says:
So he demanded, bring me the burnt offering. Samuel ain't going to show up. I do it myself. Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.
We have a big problem here because Saul steps into a role God never gave him. He was a king, not a priest. It was the priest's job to make the sacrifice, but the king thought he could do it. This is wrong when people think because they can lead, they can pastor. We all the same. We ain't all the same. Because the pastor, you got to have a sensitivity for God's heart and the hearts of the people you come for.
He allowed his impatience to push him into a place God never gave him. And impatience always pushes you into something you weren't called to do. Always pushes you into roles that God didn't lay out for you.
When Saul said, "Bring me the offering," what he was actually saying is, "If God won't fix it, I will." If God won't do it, I will. He was saying, "Ain't nobody helping me. I prayed, God. I did it your way. It didn't work out the way I thought it was going to work out, so I just do it my own way then."
And this was the root of his self-reliance. He's making himself his own God in the story. And anytime you have to become God to fix your situation, you are already in disobedience. Anytime you got to start manipulating the situation to make it work out, then maybe it's not God's situation for you to be in. Anytime you got to start pulling strings to make things work to the end, then maybe God didn't tell you to be in that place.
And in verse 10, just as Saul was finishing the burnt offering, Samuel arrived and Saul went out to meet him and to welcome him.
This right here, this is really a heartbreaking part if you realize it because Saul was literally seconds away. Literally seconds away from the breakthrough he just couldn't wait for. Samuel was there. He's just now finishing the sacrifice. In the moment he's done, Samuel was standing at the door, which means that when he stopped waiting, God was already on the way. When he stepped into disobedience, God was on the way with the blessing. But he missed what God had by choosing what was in front of him.
I'm saying this to you that sometimes when you accept what's in front of you, you don't even realize God is already sending angels. He's already sending blessings, already sending favor. You don't want to miss what God has because you accept what the enemy offered.
Just think about how many of us are like Saul. How many blessings did we miss because we moved too soon? Because we settled too early, because we spoke too quickly. We forced something that we should have just trusted in God's hands.
So many times we miss because we start trying to take our future into our hands. And I see it happen over and over. How many marriages fall apart all because we couldn't wait for the healing? And how many callings were delayed because we jumped ahead of God? And how many blessings did we miss all because we moved too soon? Because we wanted to do something in our own way and our own timing.
But hear me, God's timing is perfect. It's perfect. It's our fears that convince us to move prematurely. It's our insecurity that convinces us that maybe we should try something else.
But I need you to write this down. Almost obedience is still disobedience.
Yeah, pastor. I tried. I was doing so good, but then at the end I just gave in. So then you lost. That's like me going to playing the basketball game. Yeah. Did y'all lose? Yeah, we lost. I mean, we was in the whole game, but in the end, we won. So you lost. I don't care about what was happening in the first couple quarters. You lost.
Almost obedience is disobedience. Almost waiting is still impatience. I waited as long as I could. No, you waited as long as you wanted to. And then you gave up. Almost faith is still unbelief.
But Samuel said, "What have you done, Saul?" Saul replied:
I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn't arrive when you said you would. And the Philistines are at Mcmash ready for battle. So I said the Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal and I haven't even asked for the Lord's help. So I felt compelled. I felt led by the spirit to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.
Look what Saul does. He gives us three excuses. He says I saw my men scattering. You didn't come when you said. And the Philistines were ready to march against us. Notice his language. He says I saw. He says you didn't. He says they were and I felt compelled.
Why? Because excuses shift the blame horizontally. When people do wrong, what they try to do is use excuses to help them to look at somebody else and to point somebody else for what they did wrong. But obedience bows vertically. Obedience says it don't matter what they doing around me. I'm submitted to God. I'll go if I got to go by myself because if God is before me, he's more than the world against me. I don't need people to have my back as long as heaven has my back. I got angels all around me in camp beside me.
Saul blames people and the people were pressured. He blames the pressure that's happening in the heat of the battle. He blames the timing that this was happening late. He even blames Samuel. "You didn't do what you said you were going to do." He blames the circumstances. He blamed everyone except the one person that made the choice to sin—himself.
He blamed everybody. The people around him, people in his family, the condition, the environment, even his prophet, his pastor. He blamed everybody else. But he never took time to take ownership for himself. And this is what sin does. Sin tries to make you the victim even when you're the one holding the knife.
It happens all the time. As a pastor, as a counselor, people would do wrong all the time. They damage people, hurt people, and then make themselves the victim in the story. How you the victim when everybody around you bleeding, but you fine?
And it gets even worse because they get mad at you for trying to hold them accountable. That Samuel, Saul is mad at Samuel, that Samuel is holding him accountable. And he begins to blame Samuel. "Well, had you been here? So really, it's your fault, Samuel, that I did this." And this is what sin does. Sin looks for everybody else to be blamed so you can walk away innocent. But you're not innocent. You actually become the worst one in the story because you're the one that is never able to face yourself.
The disobedience always comes with great explanation. People sin, they always got a great reason on why they sin. But God doesn't bless your explanations. He only blesses obedience.
I would love to tell you that the reasoning you have for the wrong that you did will suffice in God's eyes, but God doesn't care about your explanations. Because God always makes sure he gives you a way out. Which means that if you did something, God's like, "Hey, you ain't going to blame me for the choice you made. It's something inside of you that pushed you into that decision."
And in verse 13, we see something that shows up in Saul's life. We see that there's a cost when you don't wait on God and you do stuff your own way.
Samuel says, "How foolish. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God has given you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom must end. For the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people because you have not kept the Lord's commands."
Samuel has to do what any real prophet has to do, any real man of God has to do, and that is I can't always speak what makes you feel good. I can't always say stuff that's going to massage you. Any real man of God who will move in the spirit of a prophet has to say things that's going to make you say ouch. I may not like you but even if you don't like me when you stand before God you going to say God he told me the truth though.
Samuel confronts him. He says that you were going to be forever but now your kingdom must end. If you look at Saul it didn't just cost him a moment. It cost him his legacy. You don't know what you damage in the future when you step out of God's will.
It could be fun. You could be laughing. Yeah, it's cute now, but you don't know how much of your future you just wrote off by stepping into something God didn't tell you to do. Saul didn't just lose his battle. He lost his future. He lost something that God had for him.
And God tells him something that's powerful. God says, "I got to go find somebody else. And in fact, I have found somebody else who's after my heart." Hard conversation, Saul.
He says, "Saul, you serving me, but you're not after my heart. You after what's convenient."
And you notice how amens always go down in church when we say this. Because the reality is so many of us serve God the exact same way. God, I didn't want your heart. I started serving you because I thought serving you would make life easier for me. And the moment life stops being easy for me, then why am I even serving you?
Because somebody taught you a false gospel thinking that serving God means life gets comfortable. No, my friend. No. Life does not get comfortable. This is why he gives you a Comforter because he knows you going to come with some battles. You going to come with some fights. But you got to know I'm with you in the fire. You got to know I'm with you in the lion's den. You got to know that when you go in the valley of the shadow of death, you can fear no evil because God is with me. God is still walking with me. God is still keeping me even in it.
God says, "I got to go find someone who's after my heart." Notice, he didn't say, "I got to find somebody who's more talented." He didn't say, "Man, I got to find somebody who's smarter than you." He never said, "I got to find somebody who's stronger than you."
No. He said, "I got to find somebody who's more obedient." Why? Because with all of your gifting, God will skip over you to pick the person who would just listen.
You don't got to be the smartest person in the room. God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Which means I don't got to know everything about everything. I just got to be submitted to know that if I'm obedient to God that God will make everything else work out in my favor. God needs my obedience, not my hyper intelligence, not my independence, not me thinking I got it all together. God needs me to say yes to him and no to me.
God is challenging us like David to be one who's submitted to walk in obedience and not to try to make excuses on why we aren't saying yes to him.
It starts with this fear of God. Proverbs 9:10 says:
For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Why would he say that? Why would he say, "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." He says this because when you fear God, you slow down. You ain't just going everywhere with everybody. When you fear the Lord, you stop and think before you make decisions. You say, "Is this actually glorifying Jesus?" You begin to seek him.
When you have a fear of the Lord, you don't just jump into roles without praying. You don't just jump into relationships without praying. You don't just accept responsibilities without praying. You don't just make decisions without seeking God. When you have fear of the Lord, you're like, "God, I can't be moving if you haven't sent me. I have a holy fear."
And the holy fear keeps me from ruining what God is trying to build in my life.
See, we see this: the real test of leadership is not how you fight. The real test of leadership is how you wait. How do you wait? Everybody can fight. I'm stronger, God. Yeah, you're strong. But your biggest issue is when God makes you wait, you get fidgety. You start doing too much. You start moving out of turn.
God is not obligated to give you credit for assignments he didn't tell you to complete.
Saul is trying to use a shortcut. He thought he can jump in, make the sacrifice, and that God will be cool because he made a sacrifice. But he said, "No, I want a David, a man who will use obedience as strength."
God rejected Saul because Saul moved without him. But he chose David because David said, "I'll never move, God, until you tell me to go. I want to be submitted to you, Lord God."
You can't handle the truth, right? You're not ready. I've been praying, pastor, for an entire year and I'm still just not married. You are not ready. You're not ready, my brother. You're not ready until you can love somebody more than you love yourself. You're not ready because you will break her whenever you choose you. You're not ready, my sister. You don't know what submission is.
Jesus said in John 16:12:
There is so much more I want to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
This is what Jesus said to the disciples. He's like, "It's not that I'm not sharing stuff with y'all because I don't want to share it." God isn't playing keep away with your purpose. God isn't playing keep away with your marriage. He's not playing keep away with your partner. He's not playing keep away with your dream. God is not in heaven dangling like, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, you can't get it."
That's not the issue. He wants to give you all things that pertain to life and godliness. But the problem is God is looking at your inconsistency and saying, "Ah, to whom much is given, much is required." You can't even stay consistent at this level. I can't give you the next level until you can show me that you can handle this.
God delays what would destroy you. He holds back what would crush you. Some of us when we're praying for it today, it would become the idol that kills us. I see it happen over and over and over and over. People pray for the business and then let their business pull them away from ministry. People pray for the money but allow the money to become their God and their ego. People pray for the relationship and then get in a relationship and put down God.
It will become the idol that crushes you if you're not ready.
Your impatience reveals what you believe about God. Waiting exposes what you truly believe about God's timing. The reason you're impatient is because you think that God's late, but no, you're a microwave generation thinking that God should speed up based on your pace. And that's not the way it works.
It reveals what you believe about God's sovereignty. The reason we use the word sovereignty is because God is over all and above all. And sometimes you look at what the enemy is trying to do in front of you as if the enemy is actually strong enough to defeat God. But it doesn't matter what the enemy throws. You serve a God who is the God above all. He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There's nothing that the enemy can do to stop the hand of God that's on your life.
And sometimes your impatience shows that you don't trust God's faithfulness. That you don't realize that God is faithful. That you don't believe when he says, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked." That whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap. You don't believe when he says, "Be not weary in well-doing. For in due season you will reap if you faint not." You don't trust that God got you. And that's maybe your problem—because you keep trying to pick up stuff yourself. You don't trust the hands that are holding you. The hands that are keeping you.
Psalms 27:13 says:
I remain confident of this, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Not just when I get to heaven, while I'm here, too. Because people need to see that when you serve God, God will put his hand on you and bless you in a way, open up doors that no man can close. The world needs to see what happens when God puts his glory on your life.
The next verse says:
Wait on the Lord. Be strong. Take heart and wait on the Lord. Don't move prematurely because you can't see his hand. Trust that he's got you.
Saul needed approval more than he needed obedience. And so he started doing stuff for the approval of the people that were around him. He saw people leaving and he started panicking. He didn't know. People were leaving, armies moving. He just starts to panic and he does his own thing.
Why? Because he needs the applause of man. And if you need approval, applause or acceptance to feel stable, you will always move ahead of what God has for you.
This is why you can't be moved by the likes and moved by the applause and moved by the approval of people. If you're waiting on the approval of people, you will miss a lot of stuff. I'm promising you. Because there will always be somebody to tell you that what God told you ain't true. Always.
People are not obligated to believe what you heard God for. You're obligated to have faith for what you heard God for.
That's how it was when we started Evolve Church. When we started this church, I was 28 years old. I was a young whipple snapper, right? I was young. And when we started the church, so many people told me, "You're too young to start a church. It's not going to work. Young people don't want to be saved. You going after a lost generation. These young folks don't want God. You ain't going to be able to build a church with young people. Because young people ain't consistent. Young people don't give. Young people don't want it."
But here we are seven years later. Look at what the Lord has done. Thank God that I didn't listen to the people. Imagine the thousands of people that wouldn't have a place called home if I waited on the acceptance of those that didn't believe in me.
And I'm not making it about me. I'm really preaching about you. That if God put something on your heart, you can't wait for your family to agree. Wait for your friends to agree. Wait for the world to agree. I don't need my siblings approval for what my Father told me to do. My Father told me to do this and I'm following him.
This is why we have to learn the value of being content with just God alone. Philippians 4:11 says:
I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances are. I know what it is to be in need. And I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Whether I'm wellfed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength.
See, he's revealing something. He said, "See, I've learned how to be content. And since I learn how to be content, you can't manipulate me into making the wrong decision." See, content is freedom. See, once I learn how to be content, you can't tempt me with something.
Oh, what if you did this? What if you offered that? No. Because if I move ahead of God's timing, I'm now trying to force God to bless what he never told me to do.
I see this all the time as a pastor and when I'm counseling people, I see it over and over that people jump into relationships. They know God didn't approve and then they spend the next 5, 10, 15 years trying to ask God to hold together what he never put together. That's because you move outside of God's timing.
When you learn to be content, nobody can sway you. There's no offer that the enemy has that's better than the peace of God's presence. You learn to be content there. And everybody uses the scripture, "I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength." But he wasn't talking about winning a basketball game. He wasn't talking about going into your career. He wasn't talking about getting blessings. He was talking about learning to be content with where you are.
Delayed obedience is still disobedience.
When we miss God and God's timing is important to God. And saying wait—for some of you ain't about you waiting on God. Is that God still waiting on you? God gave you an assignment, a vision, a dream, a purpose a long time ago. And you still keep finding reasons of why you're delaying what God told you to do while thinking that you're serving God.
And God is saying, "No, delayed obedience is disobedience."
Sometimes you have to make sure, challenge, peel through your life to see, God, am I actually submitted in what you're telling me to do?
Now, if God says, "Wait," then here's a very simple word. Wait. Ain't even powerful. It's just prophetic. It's just wait. Don't move. Don't try to fix it. Don't try to force it. Don't add your sauce to God's meal. Just do what he's telling you to do. Don't try to rescue yourself or start flipping roles or adding people into the story. Don't create a backup plan. Just be obedient to what he told you to do.
Because obedience is always the highest expression of worship. Not your sacrifice, not your service, is your obedience.
And this is why Isaiah 40:31 says:
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Why am I saying this? Because I'm encouraging somebody who's in a waiting season today. Maybe you've been at the brink of almost wanting to give up. Maybe you were so close to just trying to do your own thing. You were getting ready to force something and forfeit the blessing.
But I just want to encourage you to not be weary in well-doing. For in due season you will reap if you faint not. What God says is, I know you're tired. I know you get weary. I know that's normal—that you've been doing the right thing for a while and you're like, "God, I just don't feel like it's turning around. What am I supposed to do?"
But the Bible says that when I wait on God, he starts to renew my strength. Not only does he renew my strength, but he mounts me up on wings as eagles, which means that I'm going to get to the place where I'm going to move and not have to flap.
When I trust God to move me, when I trust God to be the director in my life, I don't got to strain to get to where I need to get to. But like an eagle, I just stretch out on God and let the wind of the spirit guide me to wherever God needs to guide me to. I'm going to run and not get weary. I'm going to walk and not faint if I simply trust the Lord.
Let me pray for you. Father, this is my prayer today, God, that you would get all the glory, that you would get the honor and the praise. I pray right now, God, for somebody in the room who's in a waiting season. Somebody online who's in a waiting season, trying to trust you, trying to wait on your timing, waiting for your hand, waiting for your movement, and the enemy is trying to convince them to break prematurely. The enemy is trying to convince them that he has a better offer than what you've presented.
Maybe they feel like they've waited too long while everybody else got what they wanted. Lord, I pray right now that you would remind them to not be weary in well-doing. For in due season, I declare that due season is coming. I declare like just in the story of Saul that breakthrough was on the way. Had Saul just waited a few more seconds. I declare over your sons and daughters to hold on just a little while longer. Wait just a little bit more.
Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. It may be difficult today, but God is a God of his word that if he said it, he's going to do it. If he spoke it, he's going to bring it to pass.
So do it again, God. Move again, reveal again, refresh again, restore again. In Jesus name we pray. God's people say it. Amen.
I want to do two things really quickly. Number one, if you never got a chance to say yes to God. You never got a chance to say yes to Jesus. And after hearing this word today, you're like, you know, I want to give my life to you, Lord. I've tried to do this thing on my own. I've tried to move ahead of you and God, I want to rededicate not just my heart, but my entire life to you.
If that's you, I want you to come forward at this time. Any person that wants to say yes to God, you can move forward at this time. Don't worry, don't be fearful. You see somebody nervous, just grab their hand. Just say, "Hey, I'm going to walk with you. I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to stay with you."
I see you, sister. I see you. Come on. I see. I know God's been tugging on some of you and you're like, "God, you've been waiting on me. I'm the one, God, you've been tugging on. I'm the one you've been pulling on. I'm the one you've been trying to snatch out of whatever life has been trying to grab."
I'm the one, God. If you know that the Lord has been pulling on your heart, this is your moment to surrender to him. This is your moment to say yes to the Lord. This is your moment to completely give up your way and to say, "God, I'm submitting my life to you."
Because it's hard doing this without God. It's hard living in joy without God. It's hard living in peace without God. God is the source of it all.
Father, we thank you, God. You are everything, Lord Jesus. All that I have needed, your hands have provided. We worship you today because you are a God who is everything that we need and more.
You are the I am that I am. You are the balm in Gilead. You are our rose of Sharon. You're the bright and morning star. You are God with us eternally—Emmanuel, Elohim, Adonai. We bless you today, Yahweh.
Growing up, we sung songs because they sounded good. But now, I sing because you're worthy. I sing because you blessed me. I sing because you freed me. I sing because you deserve it, God.
As we lead into this word, my prayer is that you would get all the glory and that you would open up our minds and our spirits to receive. Holy Spirit, take over this time. Take over this message. Speak what needs to be spoken. Thank you, Jehovah Jireh, that you provide everything that we need when we need it.
I do have a lot to share with you today. I need you to be a smart class. I need you to be aware because this lesson speaks to a journey that quite frankly every single last one of us are going to have to walk through at some point in our lives.
Today's title is really a question: Why didn't you wait? This question was birthed from an event that happened in King Saul's life. King Saul got impatient and pushed ahead of the time he was supposed to move, and it caused him to lose something that was very valuable.
So many of us will go through seasons in our life where we have to wait on God. If you haven't been there, just keep waiting. You will get there at some point. You go through seasons where God doesn't move in your expected timeline. And it's critical because what you do in those seasons matter. What you do when you're waiting on God, how you wait is important. How you stay connected to him is important. How you don't lose faith is important.
The Bible shows us this over and over. There are so many stories where people got great promises from God, but it came after a long waiting period. Let me give you just a few:
Imagine being the Son of God, being divine, being one with God. For 30 years you have to hide your deity. For 30 years you have to deal with people that you made disrespecting you.
If you notice that nobody that God used got it quickly. Nobody that God used happened quickly. It always took time.
Waiting is not punishment. It's protection and preparation.
If God has you waiting right now, God isn't trying to punish you and keep away from you. He isn't playing keep away with the blessing. If God is telling you to wait, it's because he's preparing something in you and he's protecting you from a fight you don't even see yet.
Waiting keeps you inside God's timing. It keeps you inside God's favor. And ultimately, it keeps you inside of God's will.
If we were to truly be honest, some of the worst decisions in our lives weren't made out of rebellion. They were made out of impatience. The issue is not that you don't love God. You love God. You have a problem with waiting on his timing.
We see in the story of Saul that Saul didn't disobey God because he hated God. He disobeyed God because waiting felt harder than disobedience. Waiting felt so hard for him that he was like, "I'll just take my destiny into my own hands."
This is where many of us live. When the pressure of the moment feels louder than the promise of God, we start to change. The pressure of what we're feeling right now seems like it's speaking louder than the promises that we have in our heart around God's word.
Saul waited there seven days for Samuel and Samuel had instructed him earlier but Samuel still didn't come. Saul realized that the troops were rapidly slipping away.
Now this is what Samuel told him. He said, "Just wait seven days. I'll be there to offer the sacrifice." Why? Because only the priests could offer the sacrifice to God. Only the priests had to purify themselves. The prophets had to purify themselves, be pure before God, and offer the sacrifice so that the kings could win their war.
So Samuel told Saul, "Wait seven days, and I'll be there." But still, Samuel didn't show up. Saul waited seven days and Samuel didn't come and he felt like the army was slipping away. He felt like the enemy was gathering. The clock was ticking. He felt like he was starting to lose influence, like the people that were serving him weren't trusting the timing of what was happening.
This is where so many believers break. We break when God is slower than your stress. You think that God should hurry up because you stressed out. And God says, "No, you're stressed out because you don't trust me enough. If you trusted me, you wouldn't be stressed right now. If you trusted that I had your back, you wouldn't be stressed. But you're stressed because you're waiting for somebody that you're unsure of if you believe they're going to show up."
Believers begin to break when obedience makes you look foolish. Like in the story of Noah, God tells him to build the ark and he's waiting 120 years and the rain still hasn't come. Some of us start to break from the obedience of God when God tells us to do something and it don't make sense to the people around you. You so afraid of what people think about you and what they got to say about you that you allow the opinions of people to break your obedience and submission to God.
We start to break when waiting makes you feel like you're losing. When you're in your waiting season and you feel like you're losing because you're waiting on your marriage and everybody around you getting married, everybody around you having babies, everybody around you, it seemed like everything is going well and you're like, "God, I feel like I'm watching everybody else step in the promise while I'm still waiting."
But let me give you a real word. Everybody around you ain't stepping in the promise. Some people settling because they didn't want to wait either.
Waiting is also spiritual warfare. And we talk about spiritual warfare—it's prayer and the word and speaking and rebuking—but also waiting is spiritual warfare because when you're waiting, we get a chance to see who you really are.
When you're waiting, we get a chance to see if you really trust God the way that you say you do. When you're waiting, we get a chance to see, can you give God joy even when you don't see the breakthrough yet?
Here's what Saul saw. Saul saw troops leaving. He saw the enemy approaching. He saw the prophet Samuel delayed. He saw his influence decreasing. And so, now he's afraid. He's allowing the external pressure to push him into a bad decision because all he sees is the bad things around him.
But this is what Saul forgot. He forgot that God is never late. He's an ontime God. If God didn't show up, it's because you didn't need it yet. If God is showing up, he's going to show up at the right time at the right moment with the right gift in hand.
Saul forgot that God's timing is perfect, but he also forgot that delays are tests. When something gets delayed, now my faith is tried. Do I give up on what I was waiting on or do I stand flatfooted and trust that if God said it, he's going to perform it? He's going to show up for me.
He forgot that obedience was his real weapon. The real way you win in every single battle in your life—whether it be patience, whether it be peace, whether it's your joy, whether it's something coming from the outside—obedience is always how you win.
You have to remember to trust God. It's just like many of us, we go to our plan B when things aren't working. Like if you need God to pay a bill and maybe you don't see the money in the account right away, we start panicking. We start asking, can I borrow money? We go to the worst check in the cash and they charge 350% interest on the dollar. I borrow 300, I owe 1250.
Or maybe you've been waiting on that relationship that God told you to wait on, but your loneliness starts shouting. The loneliness starts screaming, and all of a sudden, you feel pushed to accept what's available because you wanted to wait for what God had.
See, this is what pressure tries to do. Pressure always tries to become your prophet. Pressure tries to push you into decisions that God didn't make for you.
Saul found himself in this exact same place. In verse 9, it says:
So he demanded, bring me the burnt offering. Samuel ain't going to show up. I do it myself. Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.
We have a big problem here because Saul steps into a role God never gave him. He was a king, not a priest. It was the priest's job to make the sacrifice, but the king thought he could do it. This is wrong when people think because they can lead, they can pastor. We all the same. We ain't all the same. Because the pastor, you got to have a sensitivity for God's heart and the hearts of the people you come for.
He allowed his impatience to push him into a place God never gave him. And impatience always pushes you into something you weren't called to do. Always pushes you into roles that God didn't lay out for you.
When Saul said, "Bring me the offering," what he was actually saying is, "If God won't fix it, I will." If God won't do it, I will. He was saying, "Ain't nobody helping me. I prayed, God. I did it your way. It didn't work out the way I thought it was going to work out, so I just do it my own way then."
And this was the root of his self-reliance. He's making himself his own God in the story. And anytime you have to become God to fix your situation, you are already in disobedience. Anytime you got to start manipulating the situation to make it work out, then maybe it's not God's situation for you to be in. Anytime you got to start pulling strings to make things work to the end, then maybe God didn't tell you to be in that place.
And in verse 10, just as Saul was finishing the burnt offering, Samuel arrived and Saul went out to meet him and to welcome him.
This right here, this is really a heartbreaking part if you realize it because Saul was literally seconds away. Literally seconds away from the breakthrough he just couldn't wait for. Samuel was there. He's just now finishing the sacrifice. In the moment he's done, Samuel was standing at the door, which means that when he stopped waiting, God was already on the way. When he stepped into disobedience, God was on the way with the blessing. But he missed what God had by choosing what was in front of him.
I'm saying this to you that sometimes when you accept what's in front of you, you don't even realize God is already sending angels. He's already sending blessings, already sending favor. You don't want to miss what God has because you accept what the enemy offered.
Just think about how many of us are like Saul. How many blessings did we miss because we moved too soon? Because we settled too early, because we spoke too quickly. We forced something that we should have just trusted in God's hands.
So many times we miss because we start trying to take our future into our hands. And I see it happen over and over. How many marriages fall apart all because we couldn't wait for the healing? And how many callings were delayed because we jumped ahead of God? And how many blessings did we miss all because we moved too soon? Because we wanted to do something in our own way and our own timing.
But hear me, God's timing is perfect. It's perfect. It's our fears that convince us to move prematurely. It's our insecurity that convinces us that maybe we should try something else.
But I need you to write this down. Almost obedience is still disobedience.
Yeah, pastor. I tried. I was doing so good, but then at the end I just gave in. So then you lost. That's like me going to playing the basketball game. Yeah. Did y'all lose? Yeah, we lost. I mean, we was in the whole game, but in the end, we won. So you lost. I don't care about what was happening in the first couple quarters. You lost.
Almost obedience is disobedience. Almost waiting is still impatience. I waited as long as I could. No, you waited as long as you wanted to. And then you gave up. Almost faith is still unbelief.
But Samuel said, "What have you done, Saul?" Saul replied:
I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn't arrive when you said you would. And the Philistines are at Mcmash ready for battle. So I said the Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal and I haven't even asked for the Lord's help. So I felt compelled. I felt led by the spirit to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.
Look what Saul does. He gives us three excuses. He says I saw my men scattering. You didn't come when you said. And the Philistines were ready to march against us. Notice his language. He says I saw. He says you didn't. He says they were and I felt compelled.
Why? Because excuses shift the blame horizontally. When people do wrong, what they try to do is use excuses to help them to look at somebody else and to point somebody else for what they did wrong. But obedience bows vertically. Obedience says it don't matter what they doing around me. I'm submitted to God. I'll go if I got to go by myself because if God is before me, he's more than the world against me. I don't need people to have my back as long as heaven has my back. I got angels all around me in camp beside me.
Saul blames people and the people were pressured. He blames the pressure that's happening in the heat of the battle. He blames the timing that this was happening late. He even blames Samuel. "You didn't do what you said you were going to do." He blames the circumstances. He blamed everyone except the one person that made the choice to sin—himself.
He blamed everybody. The people around him, people in his family, the condition, the environment, even his prophet, his pastor. He blamed everybody else. But he never took time to take ownership for himself. And this is what sin does. Sin tries to make you the victim even when you're the one holding the knife.
It happens all the time. As a pastor, as a counselor, people would do wrong all the time. They damage people, hurt people, and then make themselves the victim in the story. How you the victim when everybody around you bleeding, but you fine?
And it gets even worse because they get mad at you for trying to hold them accountable. That Samuel, Saul is mad at Samuel, that Samuel is holding him accountable. And he begins to blame Samuel. "Well, had you been here? So really, it's your fault, Samuel, that I did this." And this is what sin does. Sin looks for everybody else to be blamed so you can walk away innocent. But you're not innocent. You actually become the worst one in the story because you're the one that is never able to face yourself.
The disobedience always comes with great explanation. People sin, they always got a great reason on why they sin. But God doesn't bless your explanations. He only blesses obedience.
I would love to tell you that the reasoning you have for the wrong that you did will suffice in God's eyes, but God doesn't care about your explanations. Because God always makes sure he gives you a way out. Which means that if you did something, God's like, "Hey, you ain't going to blame me for the choice you made. It's something inside of you that pushed you into that decision."
And in verse 13, we see something that shows up in Saul's life. We see that there's a cost when you don't wait on God and you do stuff your own way.
Samuel says, "How foolish. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God has given you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom must end. For the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people because you have not kept the Lord's commands."
Samuel has to do what any real prophet has to do, any real man of God has to do, and that is I can't always speak what makes you feel good. I can't always say stuff that's going to massage you. Any real man of God who will move in the spirit of a prophet has to say things that's going to make you say ouch. I may not like you but even if you don't like me when you stand before God you going to say God he told me the truth though.
Samuel confronts him. He says that you were going to be forever but now your kingdom must end. If you look at Saul it didn't just cost him a moment. It cost him his legacy. You don't know what you damage in the future when you step out of God's will.
It could be fun. You could be laughing. Yeah, it's cute now, but you don't know how much of your future you just wrote off by stepping into something God didn't tell you to do. Saul didn't just lose his battle. He lost his future. He lost something that God had for him.
And God tells him something that's powerful. God says, "I got to go find somebody else. And in fact, I have found somebody else who's after my heart." Hard conversation, Saul.
He says, "Saul, you serving me, but you're not after my heart. You after what's convenient."
And you notice how amens always go down in church when we say this. Because the reality is so many of us serve God the exact same way. God, I didn't want your heart. I started serving you because I thought serving you would make life easier for me. And the moment life stops being easy for me, then why am I even serving you?
Because somebody taught you a false gospel thinking that serving God means life gets comfortable. No, my friend. No. Life does not get comfortable. This is why he gives you a Comforter because he knows you going to come with some battles. You going to come with some fights. But you got to know I'm with you in the fire. You got to know I'm with you in the lion's den. You got to know that when you go in the valley of the shadow of death, you can fear no evil because God is with me. God is still walking with me. God is still keeping me even in it.
God says, "I got to go find someone who's after my heart." Notice, he didn't say, "I got to find somebody who's more talented." He didn't say, "Man, I got to find somebody who's smarter than you." He never said, "I got to find somebody who's stronger than you."
No. He said, "I got to find somebody who's more obedient." Why? Because with all of your gifting, God will skip over you to pick the person who would just listen.
You don't got to be the smartest person in the room. God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Which means I don't got to know everything about everything. I just got to be submitted to know that if I'm obedient to God that God will make everything else work out in my favor. God needs my obedience, not my hyper intelligence, not my independence, not me thinking I got it all together. God needs me to say yes to him and no to me.
God is challenging us like David to be one who's submitted to walk in obedience and not to try to make excuses on why we aren't saying yes to him.
It starts with this fear of God. Proverbs 9:10 says:
For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Why would he say that? Why would he say, "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." He says this because when you fear God, you slow down. You ain't just going everywhere with everybody. When you fear the Lord, you stop and think before you make decisions. You say, "Is this actually glorifying Jesus?" You begin to seek him.
When you have a fear of the Lord, you don't just jump into roles without praying. You don't just jump into relationships without praying. You don't just accept responsibilities without praying. You don't just make decisions without seeking God. When you have fear of the Lord, you're like, "God, I can't be moving if you haven't sent me. I have a holy fear."
And the holy fear keeps me from ruining what God is trying to build in my life.
See, we see this: the real test of leadership is not how you fight. The real test of leadership is how you wait. How do you wait? Everybody can fight. I'm stronger, God. Yeah, you're strong. But your biggest issue is when God makes you wait, you get fidgety. You start doing too much. You start moving out of turn.
God is not obligated to give you credit for assignments he didn't tell you to complete.
Saul is trying to use a shortcut. He thought he can jump in, make the sacrifice, and that God will be cool because he made a sacrifice. But he said, "No, I want a David, a man who will use obedience as strength."
God rejected Saul because Saul moved without him. But he chose David because David said, "I'll never move, God, until you tell me to go. I want to be submitted to you, Lord God."
You can't handle the truth, right? You're not ready. I've been praying, pastor, for an entire year and I'm still just not married. You are not ready. You're not ready, my brother. You're not ready until you can love somebody more than you love yourself. You're not ready because you will break her whenever you choose you. You're not ready, my sister. You don't know what submission is.
Jesus said in John 16:12:
There is so much more I want to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
This is what Jesus said to the disciples. He's like, "It's not that I'm not sharing stuff with y'all because I don't want to share it." God isn't playing keep away with your purpose. God isn't playing keep away with your marriage. He's not playing keep away with your partner. He's not playing keep away with your dream. God is not in heaven dangling like, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, you can't get it."
That's not the issue. He wants to give you all things that pertain to life and godliness. But the problem is God is looking at your inconsistency and saying, "Ah, to whom much is given, much is required." You can't even stay consistent at this level. I can't give you the next level until you can show me that you can handle this.
God delays what would destroy you. He holds back what would crush you. Some of us when we're praying for it today, it would become the idol that kills us. I see it happen over and over and over and over. People pray for the business and then let their business pull them away from ministry. People pray for the money but allow the money to become their God and their ego. People pray for the relationship and then get in a relationship and put down God.
It will become the idol that crushes you if you're not ready.
Your impatience reveals what you believe about God. Waiting exposes what you truly believe about God's timing. The reason you're impatient is because you think that God's late, but no, you're a microwave generation thinking that God should speed up based on your pace. And that's not the way it works.
It reveals what you believe about God's sovereignty. The reason we use the word sovereignty is because God is over all and above all. And sometimes you look at what the enemy is trying to do in front of you as if the enemy is actually strong enough to defeat God. But it doesn't matter what the enemy throws. You serve a God who is the God above all. He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There's nothing that the enemy can do to stop the hand of God that's on your life.
And sometimes your impatience shows that you don't trust God's faithfulness. That you don't realize that God is faithful. That you don't believe when he says, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked." That whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap. You don't believe when he says, "Be not weary in well-doing. For in due season you will reap if you faint not." You don't trust that God got you. And that's maybe your problem—because you keep trying to pick up stuff yourself. You don't trust the hands that are holding you. The hands that are keeping you.
Psalms 27:13 says:
I remain confident of this, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Not just when I get to heaven, while I'm here, too. Because people need to see that when you serve God, God will put his hand on you and bless you in a way, open up doors that no man can close. The world needs to see what happens when God puts his glory on your life.
The next verse says:
Wait on the Lord. Be strong. Take heart and wait on the Lord. Don't move prematurely because you can't see his hand. Trust that he's got you.
Saul needed approval more than he needed obedience. And so he started doing stuff for the approval of the people that were around him. He saw people leaving and he started panicking. He didn't know. People were leaving, armies moving. He just starts to panic and he does his own thing.
Why? Because he needs the applause of man. And if you need approval, applause or acceptance to feel stable, you will always move ahead of what God has for you.
This is why you can't be moved by the likes and moved by the applause and moved by the approval of people. If you're waiting on the approval of people, you will miss a lot of stuff. I'm promising you. Because there will always be somebody to tell you that what God told you ain't true. Always.
People are not obligated to believe what you heard God for. You're obligated to have faith for what you heard God for.
That's how it was when we started Evolve Church. When we started this church, I was 28 years old. I was a young whipple snapper, right? I was young. And when we started the church, so many people told me, "You're too young to start a church. It's not going to work. Young people don't want to be saved. You going after a lost generation. These young folks don't want God. You ain't going to be able to build a church with young people. Because young people ain't consistent. Young people don't give. Young people don't want it."
But here we are seven years later. Look at what the Lord has done. Thank God that I didn't listen to the people. Imagine the thousands of people that wouldn't have a place called home if I waited on the acceptance of those that didn't believe in me.
And I'm not making it about me. I'm really preaching about you. That if God put something on your heart, you can't wait for your family to agree. Wait for your friends to agree. Wait for the world to agree. I don't need my siblings approval for what my Father told me to do. My Father told me to do this and I'm following him.
This is why we have to learn the value of being content with just God alone. Philippians 4:11 says:
I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances are. I know what it is to be in need. And I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Whether I'm wellfed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength.
See, he's revealing something. He said, "See, I've learned how to be content. And since I learn how to be content, you can't manipulate me into making the wrong decision." See, content is freedom. See, once I learn how to be content, you can't tempt me with something.
Oh, what if you did this? What if you offered that? No. Because if I move ahead of God's timing, I'm now trying to force God to bless what he never told me to do.
I see this all the time as a pastor and when I'm counseling people, I see it over and over that people jump into relationships. They know God didn't approve and then they spend the next 5, 10, 15 years trying to ask God to hold together what he never put together. That's because you move outside of God's timing.
When you learn to be content, nobody can sway you. There's no offer that the enemy has that's better than the peace of God's presence. You learn to be content there. And everybody uses the scripture, "I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength." But he wasn't talking about winning a basketball game. He wasn't talking about going into your career. He wasn't talking about getting blessings. He was talking about learning to be content with where you are.
Delayed obedience is still disobedience.
When we miss God and God's timing is important to God. And saying wait—for some of you ain't about you waiting on God. Is that God still waiting on you? God gave you an assignment, a vision, a dream, a purpose a long time ago. And you still keep finding reasons of why you're delaying what God told you to do while thinking that you're serving God.
And God is saying, "No, delayed obedience is disobedience."
Sometimes you have to make sure, challenge, peel through your life to see, God, am I actually submitted in what you're telling me to do?
Now, if God says, "Wait," then here's a very simple word. Wait. Ain't even powerful. It's just prophetic. It's just wait. Don't move. Don't try to fix it. Don't try to force it. Don't add your sauce to God's meal. Just do what he's telling you to do. Don't try to rescue yourself or start flipping roles or adding people into the story. Don't create a backup plan. Just be obedient to what he told you to do.
Because obedience is always the highest expression of worship. Not your sacrifice, not your service, is your obedience.
And this is why Isaiah 40:31 says:
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Why am I saying this? Because I'm encouraging somebody who's in a waiting season today. Maybe you've been at the brink of almost wanting to give up. Maybe you were so close to just trying to do your own thing. You were getting ready to force something and forfeit the blessing.
But I just want to encourage you to not be weary in well-doing. For in due season you will reap if you faint not. What God says is, I know you're tired. I know you get weary. I know that's normal—that you've been doing the right thing for a while and you're like, "God, I just don't feel like it's turning around. What am I supposed to do?"
But the Bible says that when I wait on God, he starts to renew my strength. Not only does he renew my strength, but he mounts me up on wings as eagles, which means that I'm going to get to the place where I'm going to move and not have to flap.
When I trust God to move me, when I trust God to be the director in my life, I don't got to strain to get to where I need to get to. But like an eagle, I just stretch out on God and let the wind of the spirit guide me to wherever God needs to guide me to. I'm going to run and not get weary. I'm going to walk and not faint if I simply trust the Lord.
Let me pray for you. Father, this is my prayer today, God, that you would get all the glory, that you would get the honor and the praise. I pray right now, God, for somebody in the room who's in a waiting season. Somebody online who's in a waiting season, trying to trust you, trying to wait on your timing, waiting for your hand, waiting for your movement, and the enemy is trying to convince them to break prematurely. The enemy is trying to convince them that he has a better offer than what you've presented.
Maybe they feel like they've waited too long while everybody else got what they wanted. Lord, I pray right now that you would remind them to not be weary in well-doing. For in due season, I declare that due season is coming. I declare like just in the story of Saul that breakthrough was on the way. Had Saul just waited a few more seconds. I declare over your sons and daughters to hold on just a little while longer. Wait just a little bit more.
Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. It may be difficult today, but God is a God of his word that if he said it, he's going to do it. If he spoke it, he's going to bring it to pass.
So do it again, God. Move again, reveal again, refresh again, restore again. In Jesus name we pray. God's people say it. Amen.
I want to do two things really quickly. Number one, if you never got a chance to say yes to God. You never got a chance to say yes to Jesus. And after hearing this word today, you're like, you know, I want to give my life to you, Lord. I've tried to do this thing on my own. I've tried to move ahead of you and God, I want to rededicate not just my heart, but my entire life to you.
If that's you, I want you to come forward at this time. Any person that wants to say yes to God, you can move forward at this time. Don't worry, don't be fearful. You see somebody nervous, just grab their hand. Just say, "Hey, I'm going to walk with you. I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to stay with you."
I see you, sister. I see you. Come on. I see. I know God's been tugging on some of you and you're like, "God, you've been waiting on me. I'm the one, God, you've been tugging on. I'm the one you've been pulling on. I'm the one you've been trying to snatch out of whatever life has been trying to grab."
I'm the one, God. If you know that the Lord has been pulling on your heart, this is your moment to surrender to him. This is your moment to say yes to the Lord. This is your moment to completely give up your way and to say, "God, I'm submitting my life to you."
Because it's hard doing this without God. It's hard living in joy without God. It's hard living in peace without God. God is the source of it all.
