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!

Didn’t y’all enjoy last week with Ps. Jayme? What a time and what encouraging words he brought! If you happened to not be here this last weekend, I would encourage you GREATLY to make it a priority to go back and watch those on Youtube or Facebook! You can find those latest links on our website waymakerchurch.org. It would be worth your time!

This morning, though, is a new morning. It’s a new week! It’s another Christmas knocking on the door! As we look at 2022 quickly departing and 2023 full steam ahead, this is a great time to pause, reflect, digest and re-direct!

I think of the early explorers. They used the stars to circumnavigate the earth. Here’s the thing with stars. With the exception of the sun… you can only see them at night. This means that if course need be corrected, they had to wait until it was night and hopefully a clear enough night to recalibrate themselves. But even then, if course need be corrected, they would make the adjustments and continue their heading.

I’m not convinced we do that as often as we need to. We could easily blame it on plenty of things and I won’t even entertain the list right now, but I’ll pose this question to you...
-When was the last time to you paused, reflected, digested and re-directed your thoughts on “Why He Came?”
-A safe answer would be last Christmas, but reality is that we can all too easily go through the season without too much thought for the purpose of the season.

Next week, I know we will be getting together to Worship—literally meaning to ascribe worth to—so, to worship, to hear the Christmas story as written in the word, to take communion and to sing some carols. So, today I’m not going to dive into that, but as I was preparing for this weekend, I posed that question to myself.

Why did you come?

-Now, I know the correct answers that have been conveyed over the years.
To save us from our sin…YES! (Jn 3:17)
John 3:17 NLT
17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

To redeem us… YES! He paid the tab for our sin (Mk 10:45)
Mark 10:45 NLT
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
-A ransom… a payment for...

To fulfill the law… YES! (Matt 5:17)
Matthew 5:17 NLT
17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
-This was Sermon on the Mount material. He started his ministry with clarity.
-Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
-These are those who will inherit the kingdom.
-Be different because you are different.
-I’m not saying this to abolish the law, but rather to FULFILL IT!
-This was the beginning of his ministry. This was his first contact of influence and he ruffled a lot of feathers.

To fulfill prophecy… YES!
-Born of a woman (Gen 3) Check (Matthew 1:20)
-Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5) Check (Matthew 2:1)
-Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7) Check (Matthew 1:22-23, Luke 1:26-31)
-Lineage of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David… Check (Matt1, Luke 3, Romans 9, Romans 1,)
-From the tribe of Judah (Gen 49) Check (Hebrews7)
-The list could go another 35 deep…

To show God’s love… YES! (John 3:16)
John 3:16 NLT
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

So we know these things… and they are true. This is WHAT he did! But as I was asking the Lord what he wanted to say to his people, he took me to John 17. You know what is interesting in this prayer that Jesus prays before he is betrayed and arrested (spoiler alert if you haven’t dove into Jesus’ story… he gets betrayed AND ARRESTED!!) (Cops is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement) OK… back at it…

What is interesting is Jesus tells us Why He Came.

1. Jesus came to Give glory to God
2. Jesus came to Give eternal life
3. Jesus came to Reveal the Father (by doing his work)

4. Jesus came to reveal his glory .
5. Jesus came to reveal the power of his name .
6. Jesus came to reveal his church .

7. Jesus came to propel God’s Kingdom through the Gospel
8. Jesus came to bring unity
9. Jesus came because God Loved .

So what did we see here?
-Jesus came to give glory to God, to give eternal life, and to reveal the father.
-He did that by revealing his own glory given by the father, revealing the power of his name and revealing the future of his mission… the church.
-In the mission of the church because of the love of God he came to propel the Kingdom forward and bring unity.

That’s why he came!
“Hey world, meet my dad. Hey dad, here’s the world back.”

Now, we know the enemy doesn’t want that revelation knowledge. Because when we are unified in understanding, it unites us in purpose. And if we are united in purpose, we truly become the Church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against.

Some of you might remember this, but in 1980, the U.S. hockey team defeated the seemingly unbeatable team from the USSR in an olympic semifinal before they went on to win the gold medal. It’s considered one of the greatest moments in sports history. The Miracle on Ice. A team of handpicked, uniquely talented, amateur players came together as an effective, unified team. But it was not their individual talent that made them effective—it was their ability to combine talent as a team and bring them together for one purpose.
A healthy church looks like that 1980 U.S. hockey team. It accomplishes infinitely more with others than it does alone. It plays its part with passion and excellence while recognizing its need for the broader Church to fulfill Christ’s mission. It’s known for what it’s for, not what it’s against. It’s surrounded by other churches passionate about working together and doing more. It’s full of individual members who live out their role and do extraordinary things for God.
Many times the word “unity” evokes images of churches that look, act, and talk exactly the same, but that’s not an accurate picture. We mistake uniformity for unity. True unity is each church fulfilling its unique role with one common purpose, just like the many different parts of your body (or even this particular church body) working together. This unity is incredibly powerful, beautiful, and significant.
Jesus was passionate about the unity of believers. He prayed this very prayer we read today over us that we would live it out because He knew the incredible results that would follow.

I’m gonna say this Loud and Clear… UNITY IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR! If you don’t believe me… Jesus died for it less than 24 hours after saying this prayer… feel free to have that conversation with him.

When was the last time to you paused, reflected, digested and re-directed your thoughts on “Why He Came?”
-Though I could easily write a whole sermon series on the content of this one passage of scripture… I want to challenge you to read this scripture this week and allow the Holy Spirit to talk to you about why Jesus came.

-I would also challenge you to follow up that conversation with two questions:
What have I done with “the purpose you came” so far?
And
What do you want me to do with “the purpose you came” next year?

Now there is one last thing I want to leave you with today...
Some of you may have caught this reading the scripture but there was one thing that was left out and that is in vs. 13. John 17:13

John 17:13 NLT
13 “Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy.

In the revelation of the father… the revelation of the son… the revelation of our purpose and unity… Jesus said that we would be filled with HIS JOY.
-So in this season, if you find yourself lacking in joy… I’d encourage you to seek revelation of who God is and why he came in the form of a baby to live a life that is brutally executed, then raised to life by the father…