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!

This morning, we are jumping back into our Heart for the House Series. We are taking the month of March to revisit our Church’s Mission and Core Values.

Last week, I shared with you about the mission of the church to encounter, live for, and advance the kingdom. I believe that God has called this house to be a kingdom-minded equipping center for all generations to grow, activate, and deploy God-given gifts for Kingdom advancement.

We are each called to the place of personal encounter before the Lord through worship, the word, and prayer. The result of encounter in the presence of the Lord should yield a transformed life and ultimately inspire kingdom purpose with corresponding action.

Intimacy with God is the bedrock of our pursuit. Our chief aim is to know Him and be known by Him. But in our pursuit to know Him, there will inevitably be an outflow from our personal relationship that will affect the lives of people around us.

The Church of Jesus Christ was never intended to merely be a place where we come, sit, and listen. Week after week, month after month, year after year, until we depart from this life.

Church attendance is a natural byproduct of relationship with Christ because it is the place God uses to equip and mature the believer, but church attendance alone is not the end goal. The primary objective is to advance the kingdom of God.

I believe that every believer must live with an expanded vision. We understand that the Gospel has individual impact in our lives, but we must simultaneously understand that the Gospel must go to the entire world.

The only way that will happen is when people step out in faith to trust God.

Today, we will look at our second core value: Faith - We will invade the impossible.

We believe that without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11:6, but with it we can move mountains Matt. 17:20. Faith has the potential to connect us to the fulfillment of what seems impossible. (The Story of Reinhard Bonnke)

One of my heroes of the faith is a man named Reinhard Bonnke. His story is one of humble beginnings, growing up in war-torn Europe, he received Christ at the age of nine, and around the same time the Lord spoke to him that one day he would preach the gospel in Africa.

As a young boy, he felt forgotten. He was the second youngest in a large family and experienced ridicule after he shared with his family what God had spoken to him.

At a prayer meeting at the age of 11, a grandmother in the church experienced a vision confirming the call of God on his life. Shortly after the confirmation at another church meeting, he was filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

In his autobiography, he shared that being filled with the Spirit is what transformed him from human limitations to a place where all things were possible.

At 11, he took his guitar, went to a street corner and began to sing. When a small crowd gathered, he put down the guitar, reached for his bible, and preached the simple invitation to receive Jesus, and to his surprise, one man knelt and prayed the sinner’s prayer.

What began at street corner at the age of 11 would later become a worldwide ministry spanning over 50 years, that at the time of his death in 2019 had recorded more than 79 million decisions for Christ. That ministry continues today and in total has recorded 97,076,859.

One story from His life that has impacted me deeply in reference to the power of faith was a time when he was at a pier. There was a vessel moored there that was larger than any he had seen. It weighed thousands of tons. A portion of the ship was close enough to the pier that he could reach out and place his hands on it.

Like any boy he decided to push against the ship to see if he could move it. To his surprise, when he pushed with both hands, the ship moved a few inches. The moment led to a deep revelation in his life.
On land he knew the ship was impossible to move, but in the water, it had been placed in the realm of possible. The Lord spoke to him that when God asked him to do the impossible, he should obey and not question how to see it done because His ways are limitless.

The rest of his story is one of a simple yes to the direction of God. If God said it, he was willing to do it. Many times, it seemed impossible, unrealistic, and even foolish, but ultimately His simple yes produced major results for the kingdom of God.

This story has taught me personally that faith is the environment where the impossible becomes possible. It is the water in the story that makes it possible for the ship to move.

When we step out in faith at the command of God all things are possible. Jesus said in Mark 9:23 “Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

God is supernatural, and he can do all things!

A life of faith is one that is intended to be more than mere theological beliefs we are in agreement with. Faith is more than a belief system, it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

Why is that? Because God will do what He says He will do!
Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

When God purposes something who can change it?
Isaiah 14:27 “For the Lord of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?””

Isaiah 55:11 “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Faith anchors our hearts in what God has said, and it leads us into the realm of the impossible. Jesus said in Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

This is why the place of encounter is so important. We must hear the word of the Lord. When God speaks to us concerning His word we become connected by its power to the end result. The key is learning to line up our desires with His desires.

2 Chronicles 20:6 “and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?”

It is in his hand that there is power and might. No one can withstand Him.

The bible tells us in Psalm 33:11 “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations.”

So, if we will learn to submit to His ways, we can have confidence to accomplish the impossible because there is nothing and no one who can withstand the power of God.

The key is that we must train ourselves according to Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

We must train ourselves according to 2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

We must train ourselves according to 2 Timothy 1:6 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

We must train ourselves according to Hebrews 12:2 “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The impossible is possible if we will get our eyes on Jesus, walk by faith, and be obedient to carry out His commands.

The impossible is possible because faith is the substance that can take God given dreams and visions and bring them to fruition. I am not saying the impossible is easy, nor am I saying it won’t come at a price.

I simply believe with everything within me that it is worth the pursuit and price. When I look around this room, I can’t help but think of what is possible.

As a Church, we have decided to pursue faith and the impossible. My prayer is that you will choose the way of faith and step into the unknown.