Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

In week 1, I shared with you that Love is the foundational element by which all things work. Something important I shared with you is that God is love he doesn’t just simply have love. Love is not subjective to culture, and it must be developed through the renewal of the mind. To walk in love is to walk in God.

‌Last week Pastor Josh shared with you about identity, and how the word of God has to be bigger than your experience. In order to know and function in our identity we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

‌Today, I want to remind you that construction is a process. Buildings are not built in a day. If they are you may not want to be inside of it when a storm comes. To construct it quickly likely means someone cut corners in the process.

‌I will submit to you today that cutting corners in the spiritual construction process will ultimately prove detrimental.

‌What do I mean by that? If I try to do just enough to get into heaven, but don’t do enough to get headed into me it’s going to prove to be detrimental.

Something I want you to see about the passage is that both people heard the sayings. It’s what we do with what we hear that matters.

‌With this in mind, how do we properly construct a life of faith without cutting corners?

‌The initial step in the spiritual construction process is to understand where you are. Without proper understanding of where you currently are, how will you know where you need to go?

‌Identifying where we are in the process is essential.

There are many today who claim to be in Christ, but how do we know where we are at spiritually?

‌Here are three simple questions to help you examine your life:

‌1) Do you long for personal communion with God?

‌Many times in the book of Psalms we see the writer longing for communion with God.

Do you love justice and truth?

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We must understand today that God hates sin.

‌I want to clarify something here. God does not hate people, but it is clear that He is opposed to the actions of people who are out of alignment with His word. We must become opponents of the right thing. People are not the issue, its the sin nature in people that is the issue. People need to be born again. If we become oppositional to people we will miss an opportunity to walk in love toward them. We need to speak and live the truth, but it must be done through the lens of the love of God.

The person who is in Christ longs to be with Him, they long for His return, and they live to keep His commandments. They love people, and despise the things of the world.

How is our love for God expressed?
1) Through Obedience

The foundation of our faith is built by obedience through love. The more we walk in obedience to the word of God the greater the increase of our love. Remember that 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. Which means the greater increase of love in our life is actually a greater increase of God’s presence in our life.

2) By our love for one another.

If Love for God and people are absent from our lives we need to take note. These are the identifying factors of the believers life. Without them present in our lives we can rest assured that we are not walking with the Lord.

‌You may be thinking but Pastor you don’t know how bad they hurt me! You don’t know the trauma I have been through. Can I remind you today that you and I are supposed to be dead to ourselves when we say yes to Christ. His grace is sufficient for us. His word is strong enough to heal our wounded hearts. If we choose to continue in hurt and offense we have a veil over our eyes.

God has made a way through Jesus Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for you to walk in love.

If you will turn to the Lord He will remove the veil from your heart and help you to see clearly. He will give you the Holy Spirit to help you.

As we evaluate our lives we must be honest. Do we see these things active in our lives? Do we desire to have communion with God? Do we love what he loves? Do we hate what he hates? Do we walk according to His ways?

‌If not there remains a veil over your eyes that is keeping you from walking in the truth. Surrender to the Lord and the Holy Spirit will remove the veil and guide you into obedience to the word of God. You wont have to manufacture love in your life, it will be poured out by the Holy Spirit.

The love of God perfected and demonstrated in our lives is essential to God’s plan to bring transformation and salvation to the world. The beauty of the Gospel is that we do not have to complete the task on our own. The Holy Spirit will help us.