WayLife Community FOUNDATIONS: Recent Episodes
WayLife Community
Dive DEEP into the word of God to enrich your life as a born-again, disciple of Jesus Christ. Michael Deckman, pastor/overseer of WayLife Community brings the depth of God's word in a way that will reveal the truth and life of the scriptures that will help you in your walk as a fruitful follower of Jesus.
They waved palms in the air and laid their garments on the ground for Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. But did they know who this Messiah was and what He was coming to do?
It is for freedom, Christ has set you free! So many Christians recognize that Jesus died and took the penalty for their sin. But He also died and resurrected to remove the sin. We sometimes are unwilling to let Him take it and stay stuck in our patterns, thoughts, hurts, and memories. We need to let it go!
The tabernacle of the Old Testament was a visual representation of the Gospel and Jesus finished work on the Cross. In this episode, we take a walk through the tabernacle to understand its parts and how they all point to Jesus.
In the Old Testament, God's presence among the people was confined to a physical tabernacle. In the New Testament and today, He dwells within us. We are the temple of His Holy Spirit. But in both instances, we need to build the dwelling place.
Why are so many Christians living a defeated life? Learn how to remain in the safety and victory of God's protection - the protection of the blood of Jesus!
A look Joseph's story to see how God calls us, matures and prepares us through the challenges of life, and then launches us into our destiny.
Paul continues his instruction to the Corinthian church as to how they should view and utilize the gifts of the Spirit in their gatherings. Much of the same issues exist in the church today. He gives practical guidelines as to how to be a blessing to our brothers and sisters when sharing our gifts with the body of Christ.
The Corinthian church was passionate about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But there was a big problem - they lacked love for one another. Paul shows how love should be the main motivation when operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
There is nothing much more beautiful than when a church comes together and the Holy Spirit ministers TO everyone THROUGH everyone. Paul shows how each believer makes up the whole body of Christ - each with their own spiritual gifts that contribute to building up the rest of the body.
The Lord's Supper (communion) as it is observed today is much different than it was in the beginning. It's more than a cracker and a cup, but a celebration of the body of Christ by functioning AS the body of Christ - something we should not take lightly as we walk in faith with our brothers and sisters in the faith.
1 Corinthians 11: 3 says, "Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman." These are very hard words to hear and understand in today's culture. But when we fully understand God's view of authority, love, and sacrifice, not only does it make sense, but we see His perfect order builds full and pleasurable relationships with God and one another.
"Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." You can be perfectly right in what you do or say with the freedom we have in Christ, but be completely sinful when your "truth" is not clothed in love for others.
The Corinthian church, like the western church today, had a real problem with how to have and keep Godly relationships. Their highly sexualized culture clashed with the new level of righteousness found in Christ that left the topic of relationships complicated. Paul provides some practical guidance how to navigate this topic while fulfilling their call in the body of Christ.
By what standard do we base our view of morality and righteousness? The Corinthians believed if something was legal, it was moral. But Paul shows us that the church lives at a higher standard of righteousness.
Church discipline is not a comfortable topic. It requires a significant amount of humility, grace, and wisdom. Most of all, it must be done with the sincere motivation to see a brother or sister restored into fellowship within the body of Christ.
"You have many teachers, but not many fathers." Like many pastors and church leaders, Paul suffered for the sake of the Corinthian church out of his sincere love and desire for them to be united in Jesus. But they didn't understand and continued to be divided and at odds with one another.
The Corinthians were confusing worldly wisdom with Spiritual wisdom. Thinking they were wise and immature, Paul shows them they are actually immature and carnal. Many Christians today fall into the same trap.
The church in Corinth was prosperous, intelligent, gifted, but unfortunately, also very carnal. This young church had trouble keeping the influence of their culture out of their new life with Jesus. This study takes a look at the similarities between the early Corinthian church and today's western church.
When we are fully baptized in the Spirit, in addition to dwelling in us, the Spirit comes upon us to make us productive in our ministry of building the church, giving us gifts, and proving the Gospel is true.
When we receive the Spirit, God begins an inward work of transformation. Here we take a look at how the Spirit ministers to our whole person - spirit, soul, and body.
What is the baptism in the Spirit and when does that happen? This subject has had a lot of controversy in the Church. But maybe it's less complicated than we make it out to be.
In this final episode, we examine the purpose of our faith - fruitfulness and multiplication. As we abide in Jesus, the true vine, our faith brings us to a place of fruitfulness and multiplication.
The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. The better request would be for him to increase their faith-fulness. Our level of faith is determined by how we understand our role in the Master's house and what He has called us to do.
The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. It was a reasonable request. But Jesus' answer was much different than they were expecting. Here, we examine His response.
Altars are a place of sacrifice. Jesus, the perfect and final sacrifice, fulfilled the requirements of the law. But we now bring a different sacrifice - ourselves.
We live in a culture obsessed with self-reliance. We celebrate the "self-made man." But this exactly the opposite message of the gospel. Only when we are weak, can we be strong in Jesus.
On this episode, we dive into what water baptism is and its significance in our salvation, repentance, and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
What is your part in God's greater plan? Nehemia saw a need and acted. His was a relatively small, but crucial part in God's large plan for Israel to be brought back into their promised land. In God's big plan what is your part? What's your wall?
Offenses will certainly come. They will certainly happen at some point in any meaningful relationship. But how do we handle offenses? How do we handle ourselves? Most people don't handle offense properly. But Jesus gives us clear instruction about how to handle offenses and restore relationship with one another.
What amazes Jesus? Your understanding of who Jesus is determines your level of faith or your level of unbelief. Both have the power to capture Jesus' attention.
There was one man who changed the entire world. Who was he? And now, what are we to do with him? Recorded Resurrection Sunday, 2023.
The Lord is with us. Do we know how significant a truth that is? Sometimes it doesn't feel that way, nor do we feel like we are a valiant warrior. But Jesus says we are. And we fight in His strength, not our own.
The church is more than a gathering of Christians. And your personal relationship with Jesus has great dependance on the corporate (church) relationship with Jesus. We take a look a deep look at Ephesians 4:1-16.
Holiness is our calling. It's a command. But how do we walk in holiness? 1 Peter 1 gives us a practical steps to walk an everyday holy lifestyle.
You have your armor. You've fighting, but the war rages on and discouragement starts to set in. What do you do?
You need to be an armorbearer. And you need an armorbearer. This message was recorded at WayLife's monthly collective. Forgive the lower quality audio quality.
The armor of God is not something we simply take up and put down. God's weapons require strength, training, and understanding of God's mission.
Your battle is not your battle. It is the Lord's. But God requires us to come alongside Him in the fight rather than we expecting Him to come alongside us. Our obedience is the key to victory.
There is a purification coming to the church in 2023. God wants to teach us how to wage war not with Earthly weapons, but spiritual weapons that the world doesn't know or understand. As things heat up, God is calling his church to new levels of victory.
The gifts or the Giver? One person's gift or the gifts of the whole body? We dive into why we need to corporately have the "mind of Christ" when operating in the gifts of the Spirit and see the power of everyone exercising their gifts in cooperation with everyone else.
Communion (The Lord's Supper) is more than a personal experience. It's a corporate one. In fact, it's more about our brothers and sisters in Christ than it is about us individually. We are many parts, but one body - the body of Christ. And communion is the expression and celebration of being His body.
Is there more than having a personal relationship with Jesus? Yes, we are to have a corporate relationship with Jesus. When we are unified and work together as the body of Christ, the church is healthier and accomplishes more for the Kingdom of God.
The words "In Jesus name" are not magic words we use to make our prayers works. We, His anointed and consecrated children, have been given authority to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. We are those under authority and channels of Jesus power!
The words "In Jesus name" are not magic words we use to make our prayers works. We, His anointed and consecrated children, have been given authority to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. We are those under authority and channels of Jesus power!
God gives His anointed a new identity. This comes from being born again. The old is gone, the new has come. This new identity is not common. It's special.
Anointing... It's a term we use a lot, but what does it mean? And what does it mean to be anointed? Take a deep dive into the old and new testament to understand what it is and why all born-again disciples of Jesus are anointed.