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!

Did you enjoy Pastor Marcus’ message last week? What a challenging word. If you were out last week, you can find the sermon on our facebook or youtube page. Or, you could listen to our Spotify/Apple Podcast Channel. It’d be worth the listen! The Idea posed is…Where do we put our worth-ship? Is it planted in God? Is it planted in Jesus? Do we find ourselves thirsty for the things of God, but try to satisfy a spiritual thirst with carnal/physical/worldly things?

From relationship jumping to, worldly knowledge… from friendships to video games/binge watching your shows… drowning yourself in work to being absent due to always pursuing your out of home hobbies…
In and of themselves, none of these are bad, but if they are first… they are misplaced.

Pastor Marcus challenged us to start from a place of surrender laying down our desires and will for our lives for God’s will.

I couldn’t agree with Pastor Marcus more! And I know that many of you may have surrendered your life for the 100th or 500th or 1000th time!

So we surrender… NOW WHAT? What am I actually supposed to do with life? How am I actually supposed to live it out?

I’d like to submit to you that most of us are control freaks!

We have come to the place where we like things a certain way. We don’t like to be interrupted. Don’t touch my stuff. You’re in my bubble. Who moved my _____________?? You name it…

Some people can just go with the flow, but let me tell you that it is an extreme minority that are actually that way.

So we take a weekend like last weekend or maybe even a day like today where we hear something convicting and we go… man, we need to change this, or our family needs to do “X”. I want my kids to start going to youth/mdwk. I want my family to start praying every morning! And in that, as parent/friends/pastors, we can get so caught up in trying to produce change, and we end up forcing people into things that God isn’t asking of them directly at that moment!

I want to challenge your approach to making a list of things you feel you want to see changed! How about instead…

We personally live changed and let change produce change!

Don’t be surprised by people. Don’t be surprised, get caught off guard and get wrong focused…by the condition of the people and the earth….

Darkness isn’t the issue, shining is the issue….SHINE!

Let’s be love with skin on it and live pure!
Purity brings conviction!
Encounter overcomes apathy!
Discipleship dispels discontentment!

What if we just get filled with Jesus, and people just get wrecked?

And this is an area that it would be good for a personal mental shift.

If we can be found in Him, operate in purity, pursuing encounter, being discipled… the insecurity goes away. We aren’t timidly trying to figure out what God is trying to do through the situation?

Can I tell you right now, that God isn’t trying to pull strings in your life by playing charades with your circumstances??

Don’t throw away the love of God based on your current circumstance!

The devil is crafty. If he can get you to question love, he can subvert your ability to have true faith. Then the word is a principle you are hurling out there hoping to get results.

I don’t say this in frustration against you. I say this in frustration of the fact that the devil - a cut of branch that is withering and dying coming to nothing. And he’d love nothing more than to make people who are made in God’s image to look like him. That’s the only way he feels like he can win.

-Keep you discourage, hopeless, angry, self focused, self conscious, trapped in your past, making excuses.
-And every time you believe something that doesn’t produce life, he feels like he’s winning. But you are not for sale, you’ve been paid for with a price!

THE faith…. not “faith”.

It’s a mentality, it’s a perspective. It’s a motive we should all have. It’s more than a believing for a better tomorrow, or for the promotion, or for safe travels.

No, it’s THE FAITH. It’s a perspective and mentality of a surrendered Christian that came out of darkness and into light and understands why God is in them. We are supposed to strive together for the unity of the faith.

Paul is legitimately saying here…. SHINE LIKE CHRIST! Have the same attitude as Christ! vv5

Love well! Stay Pure! Pursue Encounter! Grow in him by shining for Him!

Pastor Josh, you keep telling us to love… why?

Because it’s a big deal!

1 Cor 13 tells us that you can speak in all languages, both of men and angels, but without love, it’s nothing. You can have the gift of prophecy and understand ALL of God’s secret plans and possessed ALL knowledge… you could even have the faith to legitimately move mountains, but if you don’t have love you would be nothing! You could give everything you have to the poor and even sacrifice your body… you could boast about it, but if you didn’t have love, you would have gained nothing!

We tend to set people up on a pedestal because of their knowledge, gifting and abilities, but the true test of that person is their ability to love. Jesus laid down not only his life, but also his diety (Phil. 2:7) taking on the position of a slave. Why? We can read the gospels… he did it to show the love, mercy and grace of the Father empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It’s the love that took Jesus the finish line. The gifting will puff us up and make us proud, but love will get us there!

SHINE

THE Faith — That’s my identity… that’s what I’m living for… and that’s what I’m going after.

So when satan is trying to devour me here, what’s my rescue? Do I fight the devil? No… I fight the good fight of faith. This is who I am, this is why I’m here, this is what I live for.

How do I resist him? Standing steadfast in faith? NO… THE FAITH.

In the understanding, precept, and the mentality of who I am now that he came and who I am now that he is in me and I am in him.

Humble yourself before God and in due time He will lift you up.

SHINE as a son of the King…SHINE as a daughter of the King!

Shine as a co-heir with the one who was raised from the dead in pure holiness and there was nothing Hell could do to stop it!

ALL AUTHORITY WAS GIVEN TO HIM! HE HAS OVERCOME DEATH, HELL AND THE GRAVE. IT COULD NOT HOLD HIM!

In the midst of utter darkness, light shined!

Shine your light! Let the fullness of Christ be made manifest in you!

-You don’t have to be well versed in everything but grow in being better versed.
-You aren’t demanded to be perfect in all things, but grow in his perfection!
-You aren’t as holy as God is, but grow in His holiness!

Why?
This is how the church overcomes the world! The Church is God’s Plan A! You are the church, ergo You are plan A! There is no plan B!

Quit looking for it to make sense to others in the moment! John 1:5 tells us
John 1:5 NKJV
5 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

If someone is living in darkness, it’s not going to make sense! But being love with skin on it will get their attention.

Live changed and watch lives change!

Why?
Matthew 5:16 NKJV
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
That the father will be glorified!