This week, Pastor Luke continued on with our “Get up and walk” series with a message out of John 6.

Within this chapter, Jesus feeds the 5,000 and then makes four clarifying statements. Each of these statements begin with the words “truly, truly” which emphasizes their importance.

What the people saw was the compassion of Jesus, but what they really needed was His clarity.

1. Jesus clarifies their motives

Jesus confronts the people who followed Him after the miracle; calling them out for seeking Him only for what He could provide for them. Jesus is not a cosmic vending machine; He does not exist only to answer our prayers and meet our needs. Jesus has a much bigger vision for our lives than simple materialistic blessing.

If we are not following Jesus to simply know and love Him fully, with no other strings attached, then we are going to miss the mark.

2. Jesus clarifies His identity

The heart of the crowd was cold, and Jesus makes a startling revelation to them: He is the bread of life.

We have to be careful not to place the glory that belongs to God on any person or people. We need to be more excited about meeting with Jesus every day, then by the person (no matter how famous they are) who is delivering the message. We have to be very careful of Christian celebrity culture.

Jesus is the only one who can satisfy and provide for us. What can only be found in the Creator can be not found in creation.

3. The invitation is clear

Jesus invites the entire world to come to Him, and prior to doing that we are dead.

Practically speaking, too many Christians live like they are atheists. We need to pray continually that we would find in Him what it is that we need and long for.

There is a difference between accepting the compassion of Jesus, and living under His Lordship.
Lordship is to recognize Jesus not only as friend, hero, and redeemer, but also as God. We need to give Him full access to rule and reign in our lives, and take our orders from Him.

Join us as we discuss the new sermon series, Get Up and Walk, with Pastor Matthew. We dig into the issue of sin. How much focus should the Church put on sin? What's the difference between legalism and grace?

This week, Pastor Matthew began a new sermon series called “get up and walk” out of John 5-11.

Jesus didn’t replace the Jewish laws and customs, He fulfilled them. In doing so He offers us a new way of living in which we can get up and walk out of our sin, our unforgiveness, our hopelessness, and our former lives.

The Gospels all show us what happens when the true King comes to earth. He didn’t come as they were expecting, as an overthrower. He came instead as a servant leader, who healed the sick, befriended the broken, and revealed a new way.

Too many of us today are trying to get Kingdom of God results, but in our strength.

In order to “get up and walk” in our own lives, we need to lay down the excuses and go after Jesus. The word “get up” used here is regularly used to describe the resurrection, and we have access today to this same resurrection power through the Holy Spirit.

Sin can cause resurrection power to be delayed in our lives, and thus we need to repent and confess our sins to one another. If we don’t, our sin can keep us in bondage for decades.

The world needs the followers of Jesus to stand, walk away from false idols, and share the Kingdom of God with the world.

Join us as we dive deeper into Pastor Jermaine's sermon on prayer and what it means to ignite the boiler room at Waypoint Omaha and in our homes.

This week was World Mandate Sunday, and the last of our “2022: The Light has come” series out of Isaiah 60. Pastor Matthew preached with a focus on verses 1-11.

If we want to change our nation, we have to pray. It is time for us as the church to arise, and shine and share the Gospel. If we want to live without regrets, we need to give it all to Jesus.

There is going to be darkness, and until Jesus comes back it will only continue to get darker. But, the light is so much brighter and never once has darkness defeated light.

The glory of God will be seen upon us if we say yes to Him.

Application for Waypoint Church:
·We have to give ourselves as a church to doing good works both locally and globally.
·We need to cultivate a Kingdom culture that includes people from all people and places of the earth.
·We need to make disciples.
·We need to love God, love one another, and love the lost.
·We need to cultivate joy.
·We need to be a people of radical generosity.
·We will continue on our journey to wholeness. We need to be a healthy people.
·We are going to finish this building.
·We are going to add a campus in Omaha.
·We are going to have 24/7 prayer and worship.

This week, Pastor Jermaine continued with our “2022: The light has come” series with a sermon about the responsibility of being called to be a light. He shared five points:

1. Intimacy

We are called to remain in Jesus, to abide in Him. It’s an intimate knowing, which comes from proximity to Him. We reflect the light of the Lord, which is why we must remain close to Him. Pursuit of God through His Son Jesus Christ is the call of our lives. We are saved to be in Christ, to draw into Him, to live alongside Him, and to seek Him.

2. Illumination

The purpose of light is to illuminate, and one of the challenges of being this light is that it exposes all things. The light that exposes the darkness around must first expose the darkness within.

The way to God’s heart is to give Him complete access to our own. Knowing God and being known by God are two sides of the same coin.

3. Invitation

We have an invitation to not only be recipients of light, but to be light bearers.

God has got treasure for us hidden in plain sight in only we would seek Him wholeheartedly.

We often miss the reward in the busyness of life. God is inviting us to be light, to arise and shine, and to respond to His invitation for partnership within the world.

4. Illustration

In Christ, we become a prototype for the world to follow. We were not made to blend in, or to be a part of the crowd. Our call is to take up our cross and follow Him. We were made to be amongst and shine upon the darkness.

The light finds the darkness, and we need to look for opportunities to be light in our everyday lives.

5. Intervention

We are the threat to the powers of darkness. We are the light. God is calling: who will go? To our workplaces? To the nations? To our sports teams? Neighborhoods?

We are children of God, and we are all meant to shine.

This week, Pastor Matthew continued with our series “2022: The light has come,” out of Isaiah 60.

When we step into the light, we become the agent of the world that allows the people around us to see Jesus more clearly. However, as we step into the light, it’s super important that we reflect the right light. If we reflect the right light, the world will see Jesus clearer and clearer as we become more and more like Him.

Pastor Matthew shared seven principles about the light:

Servanthood: If we want to be like Jesus, we have to become servants to all. Jesus was a servant among us, and thus we should be a servant amongst others.
Dependence: Jesus was completely dependent on the Father, and thus we must also be dependent people. We must learn full dependence on God.
Approval: In Christ, we are approved of in the Lord and that cannot be taken away from us. Only the Father can give us the approval that we need.
Meekness: the opposite of self-promotion. Humble, confident, seekers of justice and people who practice mercy. We need to examine our lives as we build our platforms.
Empathy: To live with empathy is to be sympathetic with the weak, and mercifully understanding of those who get it wrong and mess up.
Optimism: Pessimism and living in the light are at opposite ends of the attitude spectrum, and therefore hope and optimism are essential qualities for the servant of God. We are the light of the world, so if we do not have hope – who does?
Anointing: Without the touch of the supernatural, these qualities above are as dry as dust. The Holy Spirit comes and rests upon those who have stepped into the light. We need the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit.

God offers this same anointing and filling that He offered Jesus, which means the question is: will we step into it? Will we receive it?

This week, Pastor Matthew launched our “2022: The Light Has Come” series out of Isaiah 60.

In our culture, we are so used to being individuals that we forget our individual decisions affect the community of believers, and the world around us. Our sin and disobedience doesn’t just hurt and cause death to us, but to those around us – wide ranging implications.

In the same way, our obedience and righteousness have consequences as well. Great consequences, not just for us, but for those around us and those who come after us. God is inviting us into an obedience that leads to life for us, our community, and the whole world.

Isaiah 60 is the word of the Lord for World Mandate Midwest, and for Waypoint Church for 2022 and beyond.

The theme of this message and series is: “Arise, shine, for your light has come.”

This passage is a poem with a chiastic structure, the pinnacle of which is this: nations will rise or fall depending on their submission and service the Kingdom of God (verse 12).

Zion is summoned to enter the light that is hers. If we have given our lives to Jesus, we are representatives of Zion (the city of God, heaven). We are not waiting for the light, the light has come and it is ours to enter into. We can have a real relationship with the real God because He has already come. We are now the light of the world.
The light brings new life within.
This light is not just for us, it’s for the world, and we must move into the darkness with the light. We must let the light do the deep work within us. We need to stop busying ourselves with things that do not matter in the end. We must rid ourselves of everything that hinders.
It’s a total work! The light is for everyone and everything. Nobody has to be left out.
There is an appropriate response to the light. What we do with the light matters.

It is time to rise, and shine. It is go time. And our obedience/ disobedience effects more than just us, it effects our entire community and by extension the world. The first step in that is recognizing that we are the light of the world, and that the light has come.

This week, Pastor Luke shared a sermon on Matthew 6:24-25 with the title: “the danger of caring too much about the wrong things and too little about the right things.”

In this passage, Jesus repeats the powerful and potent words of “do not worry.”

Anxiety, worry, and fear are great dangers in our day and age – they cause depression, suicide, and a range of serious mental and physical health issues. It can also affect our spiritual health,
revealing our vulnerabilities and our lack of and need for control. Our worries display our lack of faith.

This passage emphasize that God knows, cares, sees and provides for His people. Our faith is in a God good, and that fact should anchor us in times of stress.

We need to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness – in time, preference, and priority. For, when God is not the forefront of our lives, we seek other things (clothes, food, possessions, our future, etc). This sucks us into the rat race and monotony of life, just like the pagans.

A large part of the problem with the Western Church today is that people’s priorities are not Jesus, and His Kingdom. Jesus attitude, ethos, morals and values looked totally different to all those around Him, even though His exterior looked the same as every other Jewish rabbi of the time. We are to be the same, seeking Jesus with all of our hearts. We will mess up and make mistakes, but we will be on the right track.

What does this look like practically?

We need to set our yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals around Jesus.
We need to set our minds and habits around creating healthy, Godly families.
We need to set our priorities, start with prayer, and go from there.
We need to ask why we feel anxiety, worry, or fear – identifying the lies standing underneath them.
We need to decide where we are going to place our worry – and place it on Jesus (as opposed to into addictions, distractions, or sin).
We need to persevere, understanding that no matter what happens - God is with us. We need to go into our battlefields wearing the armor that we have at our disposal.

We need Jesus not just for saving faith, but sustaining faith, for disciples of Jesus are to live very different lives than those around us.

This week, Pastor Alex spoke out of Exodus on the topic of: follow, commune, and persevere.

Throughout the book of Exodus we see God continually with His people. The Israelites were being led by the presence of God, and received His continual blessing and favor. God endlessly provided for them, and with their radical deliverance came a radical provision. Even when the Israelites were not choosing Him, God was choosing them. He was always faithful.

Pastor Alex made three primary points:

1. We must choose to follow Him

If we follow Jesus we get to commune with Him and be in His presence every day. We get to eat and drink with Him, walk with Him, and spend every moment of our lives with Him. Following God is not just one decision, it is a series of daily decisions.

2. We choose to commune with Him

Following Jesus is an every-aspect-of-our-life thing. Therefore, we need to establish discipline and rhythms that allow us to spend time with God.

3. We choose to persevere

Perseverance is a choice, and we need to recognize that God is a God of covenant and promises – He is faithful when we are faithless. He will carry us through.

Practical ways to enact these steps:

As we choose to follow Him, start each day acknowledging Him and being grateful.
As we commune with Him, get into the regular habit of praying the Lords prayer, pray at or before lunch, and do communion regularly. Set alarms on your phone, and acknowledge God throughout the day.
Choose Him daily.

What is God leading us into in 2022? Life with God is not one decision, it’s a series of many decisions.