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.
