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!

What a year 2024 has been! As I begin today, I want to share a few metrics with you from this year.
• We have recorded 328 salvation decisions for Christ. This includes adults, teens, and children’s commitments.
• We have celebrated 50 baptisms.
• We have distributed nearly 100,000 lbs. of food through our monthly distributions.
• We responded to two natural disasters:
• Housed 300+ evacuees temporarily.
• Received and distributed 14 semi-truck loads of supplies from Convoy of Hope, totaling a little over 532,000 lbs. of relief supplies.
• Bagged thousands of bags of groceries for Ruidoso during the fires. Transported via truck, trailer, box trucks, and personal vehicles to multiple drop locations for relief supplies in Roswell, Ruidoso, and Ruidoso Downs.
• We helped clean/demo 19 homes after the floods and provided additional relief support to 8 families in our church.

Can we give God praise? I am thankful to Pastor a Church that carries a heart of compassion and a willingness to serve those in need! Thank you for partnering your prayers with your labor this year! I have been in awe of your faith in action. I am proud to be a part of what God is doing here in this body of believers!

As we celebrate a few of the things that God has done this year, I want to take a quick moment to also look back at the journey God has had in the past few years as a church.

Over the past three years the instruction of the Lord to me has been to mature the house.

We have focused on the renewal of the mind with the word, walking in forgiveness, knowing the voice of the Lord, building a firm foundation, and answering the call of God in our lives.

We have worked to lay a foundational understanding of theology concerning salvation, justification, sanctification, and the anointing of the Spirit. We have looked at the key kingdom element of the Christian life which is the Love of God. We worked through the parables of Jesus to gain kingdom perspective along with the reality of spiritual warfare.

I have taught that we are equipped for our assignments through kingdom means from the storehouse of God. Throughout the past twelve months we have taken a deep dive into the individual. Learning to tame the tongue, discern wisdom, serve Christ, and how to develop a servant’s heart.

We have challenged you to press on, live by faith, free from sin, and alive to God. As we put on love, we find that in Jesus is life. Everything we need is in Him. We don’t go at our assignments alone because we have the Holy Spirit to aid and help us, and Jesus as our model shows us the way.

As I looked back at the last few years, I can see how God has led us to himself and is now leading us to kingdom action.

As we close out the last Sunday of 2024, I want to share with you what I believe is instruction from the Lord for 2025. As I sought the Lord, He revealed to me five areas of emphasis He wants focus on in 2025 as a church.

The beginning of the instruction to the church is that we are to look upward and not inward. Our society has become so hyper self-focused that it has left little room for anything else. This hyper inward focus looks to rob us from producing kingdom fruit. We must understand that we have been bought with a price.

I shared with you a few months back in a message on the Spirit filled life that there is a kingdom mandate given to all believers by Jesus. It is the great commission. We are called to serve God’s purposes. In order to do it we will have to elevate our perspective.

Kingdom fruit requires kingdom alignment. We cannot seek the things of the earth and expect kingdom results. We must seek those things that are above, where Christ is. We must do more than seek, we must set our mind on things above.

The earthly passions we must put to death, and we must put on the new man.

In 2025, I believe God is calling us to exercise our faith through effectual fervent prayer, sincere worship, hearts that yearn for the lost, bold proclamation of the gospel through personal evangelism, and the releasing of power through the laying on of hands. Each of these areas of emphasis must be supported by the word of God, fasting, and righteous living.

1. Prayer. Luke 18:1 “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,” James 5:13–16 “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

2. Worship. John 4:23 “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” John 15:5 ““I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

3. Soul’s. James 5:19–20 “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” Proverbs 11:30 “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise.” Matthew 4:19 “Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”” Jude 21–23 “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.”

4. Evangelism. Matthew 28:18–20 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”

5. Power. James 5:13–16 “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Mark 16:15–18 “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.””

If we are to mature in the areas of emphasis from the Lord, we must be consistent in three things.
1. Give attention to the study of the word.
2. Give attention to fasting to draw near and crucify the flesh.
3. Pursue righteous living.

Beginning next Sunday January 5th, the Lord instructed me to call the church to a special emphasis of fasting for seven days as we begin the new year. With this fast, there also the specific instruction of abstaining from food for one or more meals per day. I will be fasting two meals each day.

I have prepared for each of you a seven-day devotional reading plan and prayer emphasis to help guide you through the week. It will be emailed later this week to those who have provided emails to us, and it will also be posted on our social media pages.