Waterbrooke Church: Recent Episodes
Lisa Washington
This Sunday, we looked at a well-known Psalm, the 127th. Our sermon is called “The Redemptive Family.” We live in a world that has seen families decimated by sin and brokenness. That’s not new. We have experienced it! Family heartache begins in the book of Genesis and carries right on into the New Testament. Sin has shattered families and left a staggering and disorienting effect on many men, women and young people. Yet, there is hope.
The good news that the Scriptures reveal to us is that God has come not merely to offer us a better way to live. God has purposed to adopt us as his own children. In his wisdom and grace, God has created a new family called the church. The mission of God advances as we proclaim the hope of the gospel as a community of brothers and sisters in Christ. The mission advances as the Father and Son welcome the broken, the wounded, the abandoned, and the lost into a new community - a redemptive family – which is built upon the mercy and grace of a Father who loves the orphan and the widow and an elder Brother who redeems and rescues the prodigal. The church is God’s redemptive family.
We hope that you will join us this Sunday as we gather not just as a group of people but as God's family. Pray that God might transform your vision of the church and its mission so that more and more people will not only hear but experience the joy of belonging to the family of God.
Join us next Sunday at 9 or 11am.
There is something strikingly unique and powerful about a person who has the ability to stay calm and steady in a world that is constantly shifting, unpredictable, and anxiety laden. This week in our study of the wisdom Psalms, we looked at just such a person in Psalm 112. Our sermon is entitled, The Steady Hearted Person.
One of the battles that Christians face is trying not to allow the inner person to reflect the chaos and uncertainty of the world around us. Too often, perpetual turmoil in our circumstances is reflected by perpetual turmoil in our hearts. Romans 12:2 exhorts us to live differently: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” External chaos (testing) is to be seen as a divinely appointed means for internal transformation. It is a time of learning and then living out the wisdom of the Word of God.
Do you long for more stability in your life? Is it your testimony that the increasing chaos of the world around you has resulted, by God’s grace, in increased calm and steadiness of character within you? Join us this week as we learn about the impact of growing into a spiritually steady person in a world that definitely is not! Looking forward to worshipping with you next Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m. Invite a friend!
This Sunday, during our outdoor service, studied Psalm 73. In this psalm, the psalm writer, Asaph, sings about a great struggle that almost ruined him. He started comparing himself to those who didn’t seek after God or live for God but still seemed happy and prosperous. He fell into the deadly sin of comparison.
Psalm 73 reminds us that the greatest treasure in our lives is not possessing the gifts but being the treasured possession of the Giver. It’s not having all the so-called blessings of this life but rather, it is knowing that you belong to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. One of the greatest needs of every child of God is to learn the secret of godly contentment. The apostle Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:6 - “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Do you struggle with the sin of comparison? At some point, don’t we all? Is it killing your joy and making you miserable? Do you know how to possess what the puritan writer Jeremiah Burroughs called “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment”?
Come this Sunday as we study another wisdom Psalm. Come, worship, stay and be encouraged (and bring a friend)!
This Sunday, as America celebrates its 250th anniversary as a nation, studied Psalm 37. Our sermon is called, Keep Calm and Cultivate On. Psalm 37 addresses a lingering ancient problem for the people of God: What do you do when the world seems to be getting darker and evil seems to prevail unchecked? There is a most likely apocryphal quote attributed to the theologian and reformer Martin Luther when someone supposedly asked him what he would do if he knew this was going to be the last day of the world. The story goes that Luther answered, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” I think that is a good picture of what David is teaching in Psalm 37. When evil seems to be prevailing, don’t panic. Don’t rage. Cultivate godly character and kingdom priorities. Or, keep calm and cultivate on!
I hope this text will give you direction, encouragement, and hope. God’s people have a glorious privilege and a holy calling in a world that has lost its moorings and its way. Let’s celebrate King Jesus together and encourage each other towards love and good deeds as the people of God.
Reminder for next Sunday, July 12th we will have one service at 10am. If you can join us in person, we will be gathering outside by the lake. Bring a chair or a blanket. Lunch provided after.
This Sunday, continued in our study of the Summer of Wisdom by studying Psalm 3. Psalm 3 is written at the time of one of the most heart-wrenching moments of King David’s life: his son Absalom seeks to usurp his father’s throne. David’s son despises him. David’s son believes David is not fit to be king. Absalom works methodically and even gains the support of some of David’s closest allies to reject David as King and replace him. It’s interesting that in 2 Samuel, the story of David and Bathsheba takes up only two chapters of the book (ch.11 and 12). The story of Absalom takes up six chapters (ch. 13-18).
Here’s the thing: David really has blown it. David didn’t just blow it when he fell into sin with Bathsheba and had Uriah the Hittite murdered. David blew it as a father and a king to Absalom in the years that followed. His failings as a parent are very apparent in 2 Samuel. However, what those around him fail to see is that God’s grace is greater than all David’s sin. David’s son and his former allies assume that because of David’s sin and weaknesses that God cannot be with David. But the story of the gospel is the story of a heavenly Father who is faithful to His people even when his people fail to be faithful to Him.
Our sermon this Sunday is called Grace that is Greater than All Our Sin. One of the most helpful principles that we as believers need to have when we are acutely aware of our shortcomings is that God is faithful and just to forgive those who have fallen and failed if they take refuge in Him. We hope that you will find encouragement and comfort this Sunday as we gather to worship our great and glorious God and Savior.
Hope you will join us soon and that you will invite a friend.
Relationships can be hard. We have broken relationships all around us because we are all so human. Yet God shares with us His vision for a church living in unity as a family in Psalm 133. There, David shares how sweet this experience can be.
We will spend our time exploring the rich guidance scripture provides for addressing fractures in these relationships, so that we can experience Psalm 133 goodness more and more in our relationships.
This Sunday, we will continue our series in the Psalms entitled Summer of Wisdom. Our Psalm this week will be Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is a very important psalm because in it we see the promise of God the Father to God the Son to give Him dominion over all the nations.
Where this psalm challenges us is that it is a call to surrender our lives to King Jesus. One of the basic instincts that each of us possesses is the sin of self-sovereignty… we want to be kings of our own lives. At its core, sin is a determination to usurp the authority of God over our lives and to live according to our desires. As Satan said in Genesis to Adam and Eve… “You can become like God.” Psalm 2 not only challenges the notion of our self-sovereignty but it reveals to us the urgency of surrendering our lives to King Jesus. The message is entitled “God’s Kingdom Over Mine” and it is one that we all need to hear.
Remember this Sunday, there is only one service together at 10 a.m. It is followed by lunch together. A chicken dinner will be provided for everyone. We hope that you will join us this week and may the Lord use our time together to bring glory and honor to His name and good to our souls.
"Summer of Wisdom: The Blessing of Wisdom" | Psalm 1
This Sunday, we are going to begin a summer sermon series in the Psalms called “Summer of Wisdom.” The “wisdom psalms” are psalms designed to do exactly what you would expect… to impart to us divine wisdom. Psalm 111 reads “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it will have understanding. His praise endures forever!” Biblical wisdom is possessing a true knowledge of God and living a life that is consistently aligned with bringing glory to God and good/blessing to humanity. Wisdom possesses true knowledge and practices it.
This Sunday, we will begin with Psalm 1. It is suggested by Bible scholars that Psalm 1 and 2 are the introductory summary statements for understanding all of the Psalms. Psalm 1 shows both the present practical implications of pursuing God’s wisdom and the eternal implications of choosing the right or wrong path. Pursuing wisdom has serious implications for our lives.
Here’s a simple question for you: How intentional is your pursuit of possessing the wisdom of God? Think for just a moment: What are the influences that are predominantly shaping your understanding of life and how to live it? What is shaping your values? Where do you get your wisdom?
Psalm 1 will teach us that it is the joy and the duty of every sincere Christian to make the pursuit of God’s wisdom the priority of his or her life. God’s blessing is for those who take this calling seriously.
We are looking forward to growing together in God’s Word and God’s wisdom this summer. Invite a friend as we join to worship our Lord at 9 and 11 a.m. God is good! Stay up to date with all our events this summer.
We have worship by the lake some Sundays at 10am followed by a church luncheon. Check out our Summer Opportunities page - https://www.waterbrooke.church/pages/summer-opportunities-at-waterbrooke
"The God Who Hears, Sees, & Knows" | Exodus 2:23-25
This week, Bruce Washington will be sharing a message titled “The God Who Hears, Sees, and Knows” from Exodus 2:23–25. In this passage, the Israelites are suffering under bondage in Egypt and cry out to God—and He hears their groaning, sees their suffering, and knows their need.
You can preview the text below:
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
Discover Waterbrooke Church in Victoria MN - www.waterbrooke.church
"Carpe Diem" | Acts 28:17-31
In our final study in the book of Acts (Acts 18:17-31), Luke records the apostle Paul’s ministry while under house arrest in Rome. Acts ends, not with Paul free and traveling, but under house arrest in Rome. And yet, nothing about him feels restricted. Listen to how Luke describes it: Paul is “proclaiming the kingdom of God…with all boldness and without hindrance.”
Without hindrance. He’s in chains. He’s confined. His future is uncertain. And still—bold, fruitful, and free.
That’s what makes this moment so striking. The greatest limitation in Paul’s life becomes a platform for some of his greatest ministry. No excuses. No retreat into self-pity. Just a man so gripped by Christ that even confinement becomes opportunity.
We tend to think, “I could do more if my situation were different.” Paul shows us the opposite: gospel confidence doesn’t wait for better circumstances—it seizes the moment right in front of us.
That’s why our final message in Acts is called Carpe Diem—seize the day. The question isn’t whether opportunities to minister to others in the name of Christ exist. It’s whether we’ll see them… and step into them. So how do we become people like Paul—free from fear, bold in faith, and ready to turn every moment, even the hard ones, into gospel opportunity?
There’s an old Irish blessing that many of you have likely heard:
“May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
As we come to the end of the book of Acts (chapter 28), the winds have shifted favorably on the apostle Paul and his team. Now, they make their way speedily towards Rome where Paul will have opportunity to defend himself and to share the hope of Jesus Christ. What you and I are meant to see here is that for the Christian, no matter what we face in our journey of life in service to Christ, the wind is always at our back. Why? Because there never is a time when God doesn’t hold us in the palm of his hand. He is the Captain of our lives and if that’s the case, we can be assured of our eventual outcome. If God is for us, who can be against us?
As Luke brings this book of Acts to its conclusion, he drives home the glorious truth that God is the one who is steering the ship of Paul’s life and mission. Ultimately, the blowing winds and the people in power must do God’s bidding. This is meant to give us not just comfort but courage for our calling. It is meant to invigorate our faith for carrying the mantle of God’s mission in this world no matter what we are facing. Our sermon this Sunday from Acts 28:11-15 is called, Favorable Winds.
Have you ever seen the TV show Alone? Ten people are dropped into the wilderness with only a few supplies, and the moment the helicopter lifts away, reality sets in: “Okay… here we go.” All the preparation leads to that one moment—the start of the journey.
In a similar way, as we come to the final chapter of the book of Acts, we don’t find a neat and tidy ending. Instead, we’re given something much more powerful—an invitation. The story isn’t finished. In many ways, it’s just beginning.
Acts reminds us that God’s mission didn’t stop in the early church. It continues today, moving outward into new places, new people, and new opportunities. It’s a story still being written—and we’re part of it.
Like the closing lines of a great story, we’re meant to look around and say, “Here we are… here we go.” God is already at work in the world—bringing hope into brokenness, light into darkness, and life where it’s needed most. And He invites us to join Him.
This Sunday, we studied at Acts 28 and were encouraged by the truth that the mission of God is moving forward with power and purpose. Our sermon is called “And So It Begins.” The mantle of the mission of God is being passed on from the apostles to the church. Thank God the good news is this: It’s not dependent on us—it’s driven by Him. And that’s exactly why we can step forward with confidence and hope.
We’d love for you to join us each Sunday as we gather, worship, and lean into what God is doing—both in the world and in our own lives. Be prayerful that God might work a new, fresh work in each of our lives and engage our hearts together in joyful devotion to Jesus.
Looking forward to worshipping with you this Sunday. Invite a friend!
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday considered a truth vividly portrayed in the apostle Paul’s life: Storms are powerful places of service for Christ.
I think so many times when we think about the storms of life that we face, we often think from the perspective of perseverance and sanctification. How do we grow? How do we persevere when the going gets tough? One of the most powerful testimonies of the reality of Paul’s faith and confidence in the Lord is the contrast of his unwillingness to save his life at the expense of others when he is in the middle of danger and hardship. In Acts 27, God strategically places Paul as the servant to those who imprison him, who want to abandon him, and who even want to kill him. He speaks words of hope and promise when all others are filled with despair.
It’s one thing to see our trials and hardships as places of perseverance. It’s another thing to have the mind of Christ and to see them as powerful moments to demonstrate the love, the grace, and the mercy of God.
Would you pray this week that God would help us all to see that when our lives are in danger and in trouble, it may just be the place that God wants us to demonstrate the sacrificial love and power of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Wouldn’t it be a marvelous gift that we could say, instead of “How long, O Lord?”, we could say “Here I am, send me!”
Looking forward to encouraging each other through worship this Sunday. Come in prayerful anticipation that God will meet with us in power and in mercy as a church family! Invite a friend!
www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we explored a “Hope for the Hardest of Hearts.” In Acts 26, the apostle Paul stands before powerful rulers—King Agrippa and Governor Festus. The pressure is real. Accusations are flying. The goal of his opponents is clear: silence Paul and stop the spread of the gospel.
But something remarkable happens.
Instead of shrinking back, Paul leans in. What was meant to be an interrogation becomes a testimony. What was meant to suppress the gospel becomes a platform to proclaim it. With courage and clarity, Paul speaks about the risen Christ—and the hope of resurrection, even for those sitting in judgment over him.
And that raises an important question for us:
Do we really believe that no heart is beyond the reach of God’s grace?
It’s easy to quietly write people off—to assume some are too hardened, too resistant, too far gone. Yet the very gospel we proclaim declares that Jesus has conquered sin and death. If that’s true, then even the hardest heart is not beyond His power to save.
This coming Sunday, come with expectation. Come ready to be encouraged. And maybe bring someone with you who needs to hear that there is hope—even for them.
We’re looking forward to worshiping together on the Lord’s Day.
This Sunday, we dove into Acts 25 and a message called Trusting the King.
After two long years in custody, Paul’s situation suddenly heats up again under a new governor. The threats against him haven’t gone away—but neither has God’s control. What looks like delay and danger is actually unfolding according to God’s perfect timing.
We all face seasons that feel confusing, frustrating, or out of control. In those moments, it’s easy to question what God is doing. But our peace doesn’t come from having all the answers—it comes from knowing the One who does.
This passage invites us to trust God, even when life doesn’t make sense—to bring Him our doubts, rest in His character, and remember that He is always at work.
If you’re in a hard or uncertain season, this message is for you. Come be encouraged as we learn together what it means to truly trust the King.
Looking forward to worshiping with you this Sunday.
This Easter, we celebrated the most important event in human history—the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus truly is who He claimed to be—the Son of God and Savior—and if He truly conquered sin and death through His cross and resurrection, then everything changes.
In Acts 24, the apostle Paul stands on trial for proclaiming this very truth. What’s striking is that his accusers believe in the idea of resurrection—but reject its reality. Luke shows us there’s a world of difference between the two.
Paul once believed it as an idea. Now he proclaims it as history: Jesus really rose—and because He lives, so will we.
Easter invites each of us to consider: do we believe in the idea of resurrection, or the reality of it? And how would our lives change if we truly believed Jesus is alive—especially in a world marked by injustice, suffering, and death?
Join us this Sunday as we explore how the reality of the resurrection transforms everyday life. Our Easter message is Resurrection Reality.
We’d love for you to come—and bring a friend—as we celebrate together with joy as God’s redeemed people each Sunday 9 and 11 a.m.
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This Sunday for Palm Sunday, Dr. Brian Thomas lead us through John 12:12–36a in his sermon titled, “The Hour Has Come.”
You can preview the text here:
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt!”
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
We look forward to worshiping with you!
"Peace Under Pressure" | Acts 23:12-35
Hostility toward the gospel is nothing new. In fact, in Acts 23 we find the apostle Paul at the center of a deadly plot—more than forty men have sworn an oath to kill him. Humanly speaking, it looks like Paul’s mission may be coming to an abrupt end.
But Luke wants us to see something deeper. What appears to be a threat to Paul is actually part of God’s plan to move the gospel forward. Just a few verses earlier, the Lord had told Paul that he would testify about Him in Rome. And no conspiracy, no hostility, and no opposition will stop what God has determined to accomplish.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been asking: How do Christians respond when the gospel is met with hostility? We’ve seen that we can share our testimony—how Christ transformed our lives. We’ve seen that we can build credibility through humility, forgiveness, and clarity about the heart of the gospel: that Jesus Christ died and rose again for sinners like us.
This Sunday, we’re going to see something even deeper: where our peace under pressure comes from. When circumstances are hostile, confusing, or even frightening, we can still have peace because God is not absent. He is actively at work, and He is firmly in control. He holds us fast.
The Bible reminds us again and again that we only see a small part of what God is doing. Behind the scenes, His purposes are unfolding perfectly. That’s why, after losing nearly everything, Job could say with confidence:
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
The question for us this morning is simple: Do we believe that? And if we do, how does that truth give us peace—even in the hardest situations?
Looking forward to worshiping with you this Sunday as a church family. Our sermon is called, Peace Under Pressure. Will you join me in praying that God would come and do in our lives something powerful that fills us all with hope, courage, and peace? See you Sunday. Invite a friend
This Sunday, we looked at Acts 22:30-23:11, where the apostle Paul faces intense hostility—yet God uses that very pressure to grow Paul’s character and advance the gospel mission. Scripture reminds us that our trials are not accidents; they are “necessary” moments where God strengthens our faith and shapes our witness.
Just as Paul’s opposition became a surprising doorway for gospel opportunity, our own hardships can become platforms for clarity, credibility, and courage. When we respond to suffering with trust instead of panic, and faith instead of fear, people around us see the power of Christ at work in real time.
Our message this Sunday is called Resistance and Refinement. Let's explore how God uses the struggles we’d never choose to accomplish the purposes we could never imagine—and how our response to hardship can shine the hope of Jesus to a watching world.
Join us each Sunday at 9 or 11AM as we seek our Lord Jesus with you all. Hope you will join us and invite a friend.
Watch the full sermon on our YouTube Channel - Or check out our website at www.waterbrooke.church.
This Sunday we looked at “The Power of Our Testimony.” Every one of us carries a story of how Jesus met us, changed us, and is still changing us—and those stories matter more than we often realize.
In Acts 21:27–22:29, Paul stands before a crowd that is anything but friendly. They’re angry, suspicious, convinced he’s corrupting true worship. But instead of defending himself or matching their hostility, Paul does something beautifully simple: he tells his story. He remembers what it was like to be just like them—zealous, convinced he was serving God, blind to Jesus. And from that place of understanding, he shares how Christ broke in, opened his eyes, and turned his life around.
Paul’s testimony becomes a bridge. And that’s what our stories can be too. Not all of us have a “Damascus Road” moment, but every follower of Jesus has a story of grace—whether it’s rescue from rebellion or awakening from empty religion. Each story is a living witness to the power of Christ to transform a life.
This Sunday, we’ll watch how Paul uses his testimony to point a hostile crowd to Jesus, and we’ll pray that God would give us courage to do the same—to share our stories so others can hear His story of saving grace.
Join us this Sunday at 9 or 11 AM. I hope you’ll consider inviting a friend or family member who needs to hear the hope we have in Christ.
Find out more at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we stepped into Acts 21:17–26, a passage that beautifully shows Paul navigating the tension between gospel clarity and cultural difference. It raises an important question for every believer: How do we hold fast to the uniqueness of the gospel while celebrating the beauty of the diverse peoples Christ redeems?
Scripture gives us a breathtaking picture of this. In Revelation 21, John sees the nations bringing their glory into the New Jerusalem—their redeemed beauty, their distinct cultures, all gathered around the Lamb. And in Revelation 5, heaven erupts in praise because Jesus has ransomed people from every tribe, language, and nation and made them one kingdom.
That’s our future: a redeemed, diverse family joyfully united in worship. And that vision shapes how we live now. Christ didn’t come to create a single, uniform culture—He came to redeem people in all their God‑given distinctiveness.
This is exactly the challenge and the joy we see in Acts: holding out the gospel with clarity while honoring the cultures of those Christ is calling to Himself. In a world full of confusion and division, we need this vision more than ever.
I’m looking forward fixing our eyes on Jesus together each Sunday at 9 &11AM. Hope you can come and will invite others to worship our Savior and King together.
"The Wise Warnings of the Holy Spirit" | Acts 21:1-16
In our study of the book of Acts this week, the apostle Paul is getting closer and closer to Jerusalem. His days as a free minister of the gospel will soon come to an end. Before long, Paul will be calling himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
In Acts 21:1-16, we are told repeatedly that the Holy Spirit is warning the people that if Paul goes to Jerusalem, he will be imprisoned for the gospel. Paul’s friends plead with him not to go. Yet, Paul is resolved to go to Jerusalem even though he knows that he will be arrested. What is the point of the warnings of the Holy Spirit if they aren’t to protect Paul from being arrested?
As we study God’s Word this week, we will see that warnings are not always meant to keep us from suffering. Rather, warnings prepare to suffer in ways that honor God and advance the gospel. This is helpful to us when we read warning passages in the Bible. What do we do with the warnings of the Holy Spirit? Thank God the Holy Spirit warns us of the dangers of following Jesus faithfully so that we will keep following faithfully. He does so to equip us to follow with hope and encouragement.
As we study The Wise Warnings of the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray that the end result would be that each of us would have a stronger and clearer resolve to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Looking forward to worshipping King Jesus with you all. Invite your friends.
This Sunday, we dove into one of the apostle Paul’s most heartfelt moments in Acts 20:17-38. Paul gathers his dear friends from Ephesus for one last, powerful lesson at a turning point in his journey—from traveling evangelist to ambassador in chains. Paul is being sent by God into the heart of Jerusalem and ultimately, the Roman Empire. The only way that’s possible is as a prisoner for the gospel. For his friends, this is a troubling time, but for Paul, it’s a divine calling. He encourages them by showing that he doesn’t view his life as something to preserve and to protect. He is to be poured out on the altar for Jesus.
Our sermon is titled, The Freedom of an Expendable Life. Ask yourself: Am I more focused on preserving my life, or pouring it out for God? Are we investing more emotional energy in securing our future, or in becoming living sacrifices? Much of our anxiety comes from trying to save ourselves when our true eternal safety is already secure in Christ. Jesus didn’t hold on to His life—He gave it freely for us, so we can joyfully follow His example for the sake of others.
Let’s pray that we might learn the joy and freedom of having an expendable life. Looking forward to worshiping each Sunday. Come and be encouraged and bring a friend!
Need Prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church
Tim Keller once said a true friend is someone who “lets you in” and doesn’t “let you down.”
As we continue our journey through Acts, we see just how much the apostle Paul depended on friends who were willing to stand with him when following Jesus became dangerous. In Acts 20:1–16, a real assassination plot forces Paul to change his plans—but what stands out is not fear, it’s faithfulness.
Friends step up. They stay close. They share the risk. Our sermon this week, “Friends That Stick,” reminds us that we all need relationships that hold fast when life gets messy—and in Christ, we are called to be those kinds of friends for one another.
Acts shows us a diverse people united in one mission, bearing the load together for the sake of the gospel. J
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Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth.4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
This sermon is entitled “When God Benches You,” drawn from Acts 19:21–41. It’s a dramatic scene. The gospel is having such a powerful impact in Ephesus that the city erupts in chaos. A riot breaks out. Two of Paul’s companions are seized and dragged into the theater, their lives suddenly in danger. Paul is ready to rush in and help—but those closest to him stop him. It’s too dangerous. Stepping in could make everything worse.
For Paul, this meant taking a backseat—and that couldn’t have been easy. Paul was not someone who sat well on the sidelines, especially when he felt responsible for what was happening. And yet, this moment reveals something crucial: this was never Paul’s ministry to manage or rescue. It was the Lord’s.
Friends, there are seasons when God does the same with us. Like a wise coach, He sits us on the bench at the very moment we want to be in the game. He removes the situation from our hands and gently—but firmly—reminds us that we are not the Savior. He is.
Are you there right now? Do you feel sidelined in a ministry, a relationship, or a situation that matters deeply to you? Is it especially hard to let go when the people involved mean so much? This passage reminds us that real peace doesn’t come from trying to save the day—it comes from trusting the One who already has.
Whether you feel benched by God or not, be reminded afresh that God knows exactly what He’s doing—and that He can be trusted, even when we don’t understand. Pray that God would prepare your heart to receive fresh strength and wisdom from His Word.
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This Sunday, our sermon is titled Confident Christianity. One of the most compelling qualities of the apostle Paul is his unshakable confidence that God’s purposes will never fail—that God’s plan for His people and His mission to the nations cannot be thwarted. Writing to the deeply troubled church in Corinth, Paul boldly declares that Jesus “will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That promise is given to a church riddled with moral and relational dysfunction—yet Paul is utterly confident in God’s faithfulness.
From a Roman prison, with the real possibility of death looming, Paul writes to the Philippians, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” He continues, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me,” and concludes with the triumphant assurance, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” This is prison-born optimism. Death-defying hope. Gospel-driven confidence.
Do you have this kind of confidence—for yourself, for the church, and for our calling in the world? In Acts 19:1–20, we will see where true Christian confidence is forged. Let’s pray that God’s Word would prevail among us, filling our hearts with hope and grounding our minds in gospel truth. If your faith needs strengthening or your passion for God needs rekindling, this passage reminds us that if God is for us, nothing and no one can stand against us.
See you Sunday—and bring a friend who could use encouragement in their faith.
This Sunday, our sermon is titled Confident Christianity. One of the most compelling qualities of the apostle Paul is his unshakable confidence that God’s purposes will never fail—that God’s plan for His people and His mission to the nations cannot be thwarted. Writing to the deeply troubled church in Corinth, Paul boldly declares that Jesus “will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That promise is given to a church riddled with moral and relational dysfunction—yet Paul is utterly confident in God’s faithfulness.
From a Roman prison, with the real possibility of death looming, Paul writes to the Philippians, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” He continues, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me,” and concludes with the triumphant assurance, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” This is prison-born optimism. Death-defying hope. Gospel-driven confidence.
Do you have this kind of confidence—for yourself, for the church, and for our calling in the world? In Acts 19:1–20, we will see where true Christian confidence is forged. Let’s pray that God’s Word would prevail among us, filling our hearts with hope and grounding our minds in gospel truth. If your faith needs strengthening or your passion for God needs rekindling, this passage reminds us that if God is for us, nothing and no one can stand against us.
See you Sunday—and bring a friend who could use encouragement in their faith.
This Sunday morning, we will conclude our Christmas-season study of Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth. In Luke 2:22–38, we meet two faithful elderly saints, Simeon and Anna. Simeon is described in verse 25: “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” Anna, an eighty-four-year-old widow, is described in verses 37–38: “She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel.”
Both Simeon and Anna lived with deep longing and confident hope that God would deliver Israel just as He promised throughout Scripture. They eagerly awaited the Messiah and refused to lose hope. This is the kind of faith we long for—a hopeful expectation untouched by the world’s evil, cynicism, anger, or anxiety. It is joyful, alert, and ready when Christ appears.
This Sunday, let us pray that the Holy Spirit would use this part of the Christmas story to shape us into Simeons and Annas—people joyfully expectant of the Messiah’s second coming, just as they awaited His first. Our sermon is titled “Expecting Jesus.” May that be true of all of us. See you Sunday—and invite a friend.
“And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God saying, ‘Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.’” (Luke 2:13-14).
In Luke’s Gospel, praise erupts in heaven and on earth—angels rejoicing above,
shepherds celebrating below. Christ the Savior was born! Hope slipped quietly into the world as God Himself came to rescue and redeem. This Christmas Eve, our
Waterbrooke Church family will join the chorus of believers through the ages, rejoicing with great joy that our Savior has come. He is worthy of all our praise, and we cannot stay silent!
Join us this week as Dr. Brian Thomas guides us through Luke 2:1–20 in his sermon, “Good News of Great Joy for Those in Darkness.”
In Luke’s Gospel, the Good News of Christmas is set in the real world, which is often quite dark. The angels’ announcement of Christ’s birth comes to humble shepherds and brings them joy and peace to the glory of God.
Last Sunday, we saw that one of Luke’s clear themes surrounding the birth of Jesus the Christ is “great joy.” Another one of Luke’s repeated descriptions of people’s reactions to the coming Jesus is wonder and amazement. Isaiah prophesied that the Christ’s name would be called “Wonderful”. When all the people hear that Zechariah and Elizabeth were going to be calling the name of their son John, Luke writes “And they all wondered…” In Luke 2 when the shepherds return in Luke 2 from seeing Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger, they were telling everyone about what they had seen and heard. Luke 2:18 and 19 says, “And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told him. But Mary treasured these things her heart, pondering them in her heart.”
This Sunday, as we study Zechariah’s praise in Luke 1:67-80, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will cause us to be filled with wonder at this great gift of God’s Son who has come in great mercy to us. As the old Christmas hymn goes:
“I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die
for poor ordinary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.”
Aren’t you amazed? I hope this Christmas, you will be filled with wonder, love, and praise as you wander out under the sky. See you Sunday. Bring a friend.
Over the next couple of Sundays, as we lead up to Christmas, we are going to focus on the praise that happens surrounding the announcement and the arrival of the Messiah. This week, we will look at Mary’s praise. Next week, we will look at Zechariah’s. Then, on the 22nd, Dr. Brian Thomas will focus on the praise of the angels and shepherds in Luke 2.
One of the most beautiful experiences that we can have in life is watching a young person who has been truly captivated by Jesus and the hope of the gospel. Mary, the mother of our Savior, is a young person who has been thrust into the living story of the saving plan of God for humanity. Mary will carry the Christ. What is beautiful is that Mary not only believes the message of the angel, but she explodes with delight in her God and Savior. Her trust in God far exceeds all the potential complications that this role might place on an engaged yet unmarried girl in her Jewish culture. She believes that her God is good; that her God is gracious; that her God is faithful. The message is called Mary’s Magnificent God. If you want to read in advance, the passage is Luke 1:39-56.
Let’s come together and see that what thrills Mary should thrill us. What shapes Mary’s obedient faith is what should shape our joy, our faith, and our hope as well. Looking forward to worshiping with you all.
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One of the most powerful statements that someone can ever say to us is “I am with you.” It is infinitely more powerful when that person is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In this passage that we are studying today (Acts 18:1-17), the Lord Jesus appears to Saul at Corinth in a dream and tells him: “‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you...’”. This is exactly what Christ said to the disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel when Jesus gives the great commission. He ends by saying “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
On Thanksgiving weekend, we give thanks for the comfort and courage that comes from the promise of Christ’s presence in our lives. November 30 is the first day of Advent. Over the next several Sundays leading up to Christmas, we will celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here’s the great news. He came the first time in order to show us by His life and death and resurrection, that He would never ever leave us alone. He is with us!
The Christmas season can be a time of loneliness, sorrow, and struggle. Yet, the core message to each of us is this: His name is Immanuel, God with Us! Come this Sunday, as we merge our study of Acts with the message of hope in Christmas: Christ is with us forever! He will never let us go! May we find strength in this together and may His presence be with us even as we worship Him as a church family.
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This Sunday, we studied the apostle Paul’s encounter with the major philosophers of his day in Athens. He encounters a myriad of Greek religious and philosophical ideas. How does he effectively engage them with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our study will be taken from Acts 17:16-33 and it is entitled “Now is the Appointed Time.” I don’t know if you have ever thought about the question, “If you could live at any point in history and any place in history, where would you choose?” We often can have a rather romantic notion of some time in history when we thought the world was a more beautiful, or a more exciting, or more noble time in which to live. We think that our times are the hardest for Christians and the mission of Christ.
The doctrine of God’s providence teaches us that God has chosen and appointed the very times and the places for each and all of our lives. That’s what Paul proclaims in Athens. We are living in exactly the right time and the right place for God to do His good work in us and through us for His glory. As we consider how to live as Christians in a world full of suffering and injustice, it is helpful for us to know that God is at work and we don’t have to play God to orchestrate the best scenarios for kingdom life and gospel advancement. God is at work and His purposes cannot fail!
My wife’s favorite verse in the Bible is Job 42:2 where the suffering Job declares “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Can you say that? How does our life and mission change when we believe that God has providentially orchestrated everything for our good and the salvation of others? How does that shape our faith and the sharing of our faith in a world that seems so far from Christ?
Come on Sundays at 9 & 11 and let’s be encouraged together through the Word and the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope you can come and hope you will invite a friend.
This Sunday, we studied Acts 17:1-15. In this section, Luke makes a clear distinction between the Jews in Thessalonica who heard Paul reasoning from the Scriptures and the Jews from Berea. He writes, “Now these Jews (the Bereans) were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were true.”
Our message this week is called “Receiving the Word with Eagerness.” Do you receive God’s Word with eagerness? There is probably no greater indication of a person’s deep love for Christ than their delight in the Word of God. People who fall in love with Jesus recognize that the subject of all Scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ. To know Christ and to grow in Christ requires continually feeding on the riches of God’s Word. Like a lover who pours over every word that their loved one writes to them in a note or a letter, the true believer pours over the Word of God to learn more of the beauty, the wisdom, and the splendor of Jesus Christ. The late Dr. John MacArthur once wrote, “Genuine spirituality, genuine godliness, is always marked by a love for and a delight in God's truth.” The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 which is completely about the psalmist delight in God’s Word.
Come each Sunday as we look at how to fuel our love for Christ through a zeal for His Word. If you are struggling to be in the Word of God consistently or if you haven’t understood your need for a deepening passion for a knowledge of the Bible, pray for God to open up your heart and put a fire in you to know God better! Let’s pray that for all of us. Pray for one another.
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This sermon was taken from our passage of Scripture that we are studying this week in Acts 16:16-40. In Acts 16:30, a Philippian jailer cries out to Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” It’s a desperate cry that comes from someone who suddenly has an acute awareness that he cannot save himself. He thinks that his life is over. Yet, it is about to just begin.
As we study this passage of Scripture this week, you will notice that every person in this passage is trying to save themselves except two – Paul and Silas. This in a sense is like one of those “Where is Waldo?” pictures. It’s busy and chaotic. There is a lot going on. In a “Where is Waldo” picture, if you have seen one, you will know that in the picture there are hundreds of people doing all kinds of things, but somewhere in the middle, is Waldo. Waldo originally was called “Wally” and the idea was that a “Wally” was a dim-witted person. Somewhere in the middle of a world of ordinary people doing ordinary things, there is a Waldo doing something strange. In this scene, Paul and Silas are the Waldos… praying and singing after being beaten and thrown into prison. What? This text begs the question, “Who is the real Waldo (the fool) in this passage?” To quote the late Jim Elliott, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” The greatest question any person can ever ask is this one: “What must I do to be saved?”
Let’s come together and worship each Sunday and be both encouraged and challenged to ensure that we can answer that question with absolute certainty.
Proverbs 16:9 says this: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
One of the great encouragements for us as believers is to know that God is providentially orchestrating all the events of our lives for His glory and for our good. Ultimately, that’s good to know, although it is not always easy to embrace. Faithfulness to God and his mission requires that we as Christians hold our plans loosely and be prepared for unexpected and often sudden changes in the direction of our lives and our ministries. This may happen on a grand scale when some large-scale political or economic change happens that redirects a Christian’s location or vocation. It may include a job transfer or a significant health change. It can also happen on a small scale in just daily disruptions to what we had planned for our day or our week.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps—reading the Bible.”
Bonhoeffer’s warning is good for us. The posture of every believer is a humble submission to all the possible changes and interruptions that God sends our way for our good and for the good of His mission in the world. It’s His mission. God directs His people and orchestrates their lives for His good and perfect plans in this world.
How are you doing with this? Do you possess the kind of teachable flexibility that allows you both to be joyful and available when God leads us in unexpected ways? Our sermon this Sunday will be taken from Acts 16:6-15 and it is called “The God who Opens Doors and Hearts.” This is a super helpful and encouraging passage of Scripture.
In Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew writes, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
The command of Jesus to make disciples contains the heavenly call to go deep and to go wide. The mission of the church is wide. It can’t be much wider. Jesus says “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” That’s as wide as it gets. The mission is deep “Go and make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” That’s deep. There is a difference between teaching them a few things and teaching them “all that I have commanded you.” There is a difference between teaching them to comprehend all that I have commanded you and teaching them “to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Jesus doesn’t give us the choice between going wide with the gospel and going deep with disciples. It is one of the challenges that the church continually must reckon with as we seek to advance the mission of God. It is also why we need all hands-on deck. Making disciples is the collective responsibility of all Christians because only together can we go both deep and wide in the mission of God.
This Sunday’s message is called Deep and Wide: Making Disciples to the Ends of the Earth. Our text will be taken from Acts 15:36-16:5. This is a great text to study as we are have more baptisms this week again following the second service. Looking forward to being together to celebrate our gracious and good, good God.
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This Sunday, studied one of the most important moments in the entire book of Acts. It is the very first church council that was ever held to establish clarity around the gospel. Regularly in the New Testament, controversies arose about whether or not Gentile Christians had to become adherents to the Old Testament regulations of circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and the commands of the Law of Moses. Understandably, Jewish believers, with a rich history of God relating to them through the Law of Moses, could not conceive of life without the Law. Today, many believers still practice Sabbath-keeping or following the Jewish calendar events of Yom Kippur or the Passover. They believe that there is something significant or special to those traditions. The problem, of course, is that there is an enormous difference between saying that you MAY choose to celebrate, remember, or practice Old Testament practices and saying that you MUST do this. The Law of Moses has never justified anyone but Jesus. Salvation has never been by works of the law but only by grace through faith. This is such a great non-negotiable that the mission of the church in Acts could not continue until it was clarified and resolved, and officially decided by the apostles in Jerusalem. They did decide clearly. Thank God for that.
As we come to the end of October, this is the time of year when we remember Martin Luther, nailing his 95 theses to the door at Wittenberg Church on October 31st, 1517. Luther had to risk his life to remind people that all the added traditions of Catholicism could save no one, nor could it add one iota to our eternal salvation. No peace came from human religious performance. Luther knew that well. He had long tormented himself in his attempts to use religious means to feel good enough for God’s approval. He testified, “While I was a monk, I no sooner felt assailed by any temptation than I cried out—‘I am lost!’ Immediately, I had recourse to a thousand methods to stifle the cries of my conscience. I went every day to confession, but that was of no use to me.” No. Nothing can satisfy God’s justice and remove our guilt and shame but the gospel. Praise God – salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Come this Sunday as we see once again the glory and goodness of God in the gospel of His grace. Our message is called “By Grace Alone”. It's really good and important news to know and to share.
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This Sunday, studied Acts 13:13-52.
The apostle Paul is invited to give a message of encouragement at the synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia. What makes this sermon especially noteworthy is that Paul is speaking immediately after something very disappointing happens to his missionary team.
Sometimes God calls on us to encourage others when we aren’t feeling so encouraged ourselves. In His kindness, God positions us to share with others the very truths our own souls desperately need. He is so wise and He is so kind.
If you need a word of encouragement (and who doesn’t), this message is a great reminder that God is faithful even when we are not. Our hope rests not in our perfection or performance but in God’s unfailing and unrelenting faithfulness.
This Sunday, our sermon was entitled Victory Over Darkness. It is a common experience for missionaries moving into unreached people groups to discover rather quickly that one of the great challenges to the advance of the gospel is spiritual warfare. My wife, MariAnne, works for a mission agency that provides resources for the under-resourced churches around the world. One of the churches that her ministry serves meets under a tree in a remote village in Malawi. That community was under the strong influence of a village shaman or witchdoctor for many years. Now, it is under the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What we all need to realize is that when the sharing Christ, we are always facing a spiritual battle. This isn’t just for remote and unreached peoples. As the apostle Paul reminds the church at Ephesus, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” We are not merely dealing with intellectual questions or relational injuries with the church or emotional struggles. We are in a battle for the freedom of souls from the dominion of Satan.
Praise God as we will see this Sunday in Acts 13:4-12, the enemy is no match for King Jesus. Come as we study God’s Word together and worship the One who has defeated our Enemy. See you this Sunday, Lord willing.
This Sunday, we returned to our study of the book of Acts, Luke’s second volume in the New Testament. As we return to the book of Acts, I want to remind you of a key truth this morning. Luke is recording for us the activity of the Triune God in advancing His mission through his church. This is not merely the story of a remarkable human religious movement. Luke does not want us to read the book of Acts as a biography of a human missionary movement. This is the sovereign hand of the Triune God fulfilling His promises in all of the Scriptures to bring the nations to Himself through His Son.
Acts is a record of the unstoppable mission of God to reach the nations with the gospel. This is why New Testament scholar, Alan Thompson entitles his commentary on Acts, “The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus: Luke’s Account of God’s Unfolding Plan." He writes, “Luke is drawing attention to the continued outworking of God’s saving purposes specifically in the inaugurated kingdom of God through the reign of the Lord Jesus . . . The focus of the book of Acts is actually on God.” (The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus, 29).
Friends, the news often rattles believers. The culture wars have throughout history shaken Christians. It feels at times that evil will win. But as Luke will show, the promises and prophecies of God never fail. It is in the darkness of the world that Christ shines His light, and as He said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Let’s pray together that God would fill our hearts with clarity of purpose and confident hope. The message is called "God’s Church for God’s Mission" and we will look at Acts 13:1-4.
Let's worship together!
As most of you know, we have been studying the doctrine of the Love of God over the summer months. Last Sunday, we studied Jesus’ exhortation to “abide” His love.
This week we are going to study Jude’s exhortation in Jude 17-25, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” You might think it sounds strange, but the reality is that it is a real battle to keep ourselves living in, learning about, and growing in the love of God. In the classic hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, author Robert Robinson describes what so many of us feel in our hearts: “Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” Jude would tweak that and say, “Prone to leave the God who loves me.”
Come this Sunday morning, as we consider how to collectively keep ourselves in the love of God. We need to fight the battle together.
We have Teen Challenge with us, and it is going to be a great time of seeing the power of Christ in the lives of His people. Super looking forward to it. There is a lunch after the second service.
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This Sunday, we studied the call of Jesus in John 15:1-17 to abide in him. The
Lord says these words in John 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved
you. Abide in my love.”
One of the great challenges that we continually face as Christians is not drifting carelessly from a deep, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.
MariAnne and I were just in Florida with three of our grandchildren. One day, we were at the beach and we were all in the water when suddenly there were flashing lights and sirens. A rescue jeep went flying past on the sand. A rescue boat with flashing lights when flying past us in the water. They were headed to a location about a quarter mile down from us. Someone was in distress. One of the common things that happens down there, or relatively common, is that people get caught in riptides. They are playing in the water, having fun, and then suddenly they realize that they have been and are being pulled out into the deep.
Drifting into spiritual danger is a constant for every Christian. Growing in grace takes conscientious intentionality. Christ’s call to abide in Him is crucial for every believer.
As we head into all the busyness of the Fall season, I think this will be an incredibly helpful passage as we begin to wrap up our summer series on the biblical doctrine of God’s love.
Pray that God might meet all of us powerfully this week.
See you Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m.
Diego De La Vega shared the message from Ephesians 2:10. You can preview the text of the message below:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This Sunday, we studied the final scene in the gospel of John where Jesus talks very personally with Simon Peter. Simon’s journey in discipleship has been a roller coaster, to say the least, because His expectations around what following and loving Jesus needs major adjustments. I would suggest that this is true for any disciple of Jesus. We love Jesus, but we don’t know how to love Jesus. Our faith is genuine, but it is immature.
This Sunday’s message from John 21:15-23 is called, Loving Jesus Jesus’ Way. Jesus' final words to Simon Peter are not simply corrective; they are enormously gracious and re-directive. Peter had just recently denied His relationship with Jesus three times before the crucifixion. Yet, here is Christ fully committed and completely compassionate – calling Simon to love Jesus, Jesus’ way. If your faith is genuine and your love for Christ is sincere, this passage will help adjust your expectations to the expectations of Jesus.
Join us Sundays at 9 & 11A, as we learn to love the One who laid down His life for us so that we might lay down our lives for Him. Hope you will come and invite a friend!
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This Sunday morning, we continued our study of the doctrine of God’s love. Our text will be one of the most well-known passages on love in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13.
The message is entitled, The More Excellent Way. 1 Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul to a congregation that desperately needed to mature in love. Though they were genuine Christians, the community was riddled with divisiveness, spiritual pride, moral compromise, and selfishness.
The two letters to the Corinthians show us how to shepherd people towards true gospel- rooted community. Last weekend, as we celebrated the grand opening of our new ministry hub, I made the point that one of the core aims of our church family is to learn how to really be the family of God.
We want to be a community where people can genuinely experience the grace and love of God within the fellowship of God’s people. 1 Corinthians 13 is very helpful in shaping how we understand fostering the love of Christ within our lives as Christ’s people together.
It provides us a framework for how we think about ministering together in love. I think you will find it helpful and I pray that God will use it to continue to build us up together as a church in love. Looking forward to worshipping with you.
This Sunday, we will be celebrating the Grand Opening of our new ministry hub. Our sermon text will be Ephesians 3:14-21. The message is entitled: God’s Love for Waterbrooke Church.
One of the questions that someone might ask us is, “Why build this ministry hub?” The answer is rooted in one of the great truths of the New Testament. God’s purpose in the sending of His Son into the world was for His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.
For the apostle Paul, one of the earth-shaking discoveries that he had to make as a former self-righteous religious zealot was that God was making a people for Himself out of all the broken families and divided nations of this shattered world. As I write this, I am in Northern Ireland, where people still live in separated communities between Protestants and Catholics, and still have walls up between Irish Republicans and British Loyalists.
The church exists to glorify God by going on the adventure of discovering in community how broad and long and high and deep is the love of God in Christ. Waterbrooke exists to explore gospel-empowered community in the power of Christ and to the praise of His glory. This building project creates new spaces for that community to be fostered and explored in prayer, conversation, discipleship, and compassion. God loves His church and we have the privilege of both discovering and sharing that love in Christ.
Come this Sunday as we celebrate God’s love and faithfulness and as we commit ourselves to grow as a gospel- centered community together.
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Our sermon title for this Sunday was “Let Brotherly Love Continue”. We will be studying Hebrews 13:1-8. We will see that brotherly love is something that requires vigilant tending. One of the great challenges facing Christians is not just sustaining but expanding one’s love for your brothers and your love as a brother or sister in Christ in a world that is increasingly critical, intolerant, and shrinking in its love for others.
The late Francis Schaeffer once wrote: “Through the centuries, men have displayed many different symbols to show that they are Christians. They have worn marks in the lapels of their coats, hung chains about their necks, even had special haircuts. . . . But there is a much better sign. . . . It is a universal mark that is to last through all ages of the church until Jesus comes back.” Schaeffer was speaking of brotherly love. He also wrote, “Evangelism is a calling, but not the first calling. Building congregations is a calling, but not the first calling. A Christian’s first call is to . . . return to the first commandment to love God, to love the brotherhood, and then to love one’s neighbor as himself.”
This Sunday, we are going to look at how to fan the flame of brotherly love in our lives and in our church. We are looking forward to worshipping outside this Sunday at 10 a.m. If it happens to rain, we will still do just one service inside. Looking forward to worshiping the One who is supremely worthy of our love, our faith, and our praise.
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Our sermon passage for this week was Romans 8:18-25 with the message called: “God’s Love Through His Creation”. As we have been studying the biblical doctrine of God’s love, one of the texts that always pops up as a favorite is Romans 8. Paul talks about how Christians are able to live in a world that is hostile and heart-breaking and yet not lose hope. What sustains Christians is God’s unfailing love. Paul concludes Romans 8 by declaring with absolute confidence that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Sometimes, it is excruciatingly difficult to live in this broken and groaning world. In our passage this week, Paul will describe both creation and Christians as groaning for glory. It seems that every week we hear in the news of horrific stories of people suffering through natural disasters. Last week’s flashfloods in Texas hill county are a case in point. This Sunday, we will see that God’s love is greater than all our groaning. This world is destined for better and more glorious days and creation both fuels our longing for glory and shares in the guarantee of our eternal hope.
Come as we see how God’s love is revealed to us through creation and ultimately, new creation.
Happy Independence Day weekend, church family! The fourth of July weekend is all about celebrating freedom. As citizens, we celebrate our freedom from tyranny and oppression. One of the most famous lines that I am sure many of you know is this one: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” This has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but it was originally stated by John Philpott Curran in 1790.
Think about that: The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. As Christians, we have been granted incredible freedom in Christ. We have been granted freedom from guilt and from condemnation. We have been delivered from the power of sin, Satan, and death. Yet, here is the reminder that we all need. Freedom requires vigilance. The apostle Paul gives this exhortation in Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” The way that we fight for the
enjoyment of the freedom that we have receive in Christ is by dedicating ourselves to serve one another in love.
So, our message this Sunday was taken from Romans 13:8-13. It is called “Owe Nothing But to Love.” Looking forward to worshiping with you and celebrating together the deep freedom of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Enjoy Jesus deeply, family. Slow down and savor His grace.
Come Sunday, invite a friend. God is so good!
Over the past several weeks, we have been studying the Biblical teaching on love in our summer series entitled “Summer of Love.” What our hope in doing this series has been is to reorient our hearts and our minds around a truly biblical view of love that without a doubt is in direct contradiction to the messages about love that we see in the world around us. This Sunday, our sermon is called Let Your Love Be Genuine. It is taken from Romans 12:9-13.
A friend of mine was giving a lecture this week at a church in Southern California and he quoted from a Wiccan (witchcraft) saying. The saying is this: “ ‘An ye harm none, do what ye will’ (or, ‘If you do no harm, do as you please’).” That sounds like love. Love is essentially doing no harm. Otherwise, its open season on whatever you want to do. That definitely is not the love of Christ for His people and it cannot be how we as Christians understand true and genuine love. Yet many Christians embrace essentially that view of love. Romans 12 begins with the exhortation “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds…”
Let’s gather this Sunday and ask for the Lord to give us a biblical view of what genuine love looks like. Let’s pray that we would live out before the world a very different and glorious kind of love. Looking forward to worshipping with you!
While I was away this week speaking at a men’s event up in Canada, I got the news of the horrible shooting of two politicians and their spouses here in the Twin Cities. I looked up the news and a couple of things immediately struck me. First, before I had read anything, I thought to myself: ‘I’ve met that guy.” I don’t know when or where or if I really did but that was my first reaction. Then when I read the article, I read the awful wicked reality that this man professed to be an evangelical Christian, had pastored, and had been on missions. It sickened my stomach. I have since heard of people who know his family. Pray for them and pray for the families brutalized by his violence.
Well, it just happens to be, in God’s good providence, that my message which was planned over a month ago for this Sunday is from Matthew 5:43-48. My sermon title is called “Love Like Your Father.” Friends, we need to be reminded regularly that when we think we can play God with our lives or other people’s lives, we are least likely to actually be like God. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” Thank God that we have a Father who has not treated us according to our sins and failings! Don’t you agree?
Looking forward to studying this crucial passage of Scripture together and rejoicing with you in the good and gracious ways of our heavenly Father.
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When we read of God pouring out judgment on the nations in the Old Testament, we can sometimes miss the full picture of what is happening. Some preachers even suggest we should "unhitch" the Old Testament from the New Testament. This Sunday, we will be covering the book of Nahum 1:1-15. Around 100 years after God sent Jonah to Nineveh, He sent Nahum back to Nineveh and prophesied again of their destruction, which finally took place. We will be diving into why God's wrath is real and is crucial to understanding His great love through Jesus. Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we are going to continue our series called Summer of Love. One of the great encouragements in the call to love one another as God has loved us is that the source of our love is the eternal and immutable Triune God. Agape love is extremely challenging. Loving others as Christ has loved us is not something that we can merely “will” into existence. Loving those who have wronged us or neglected us can seem impossible. It is impossible if it’s left to us.
Here’s the good news: Agape love is actually the overflow of our relationship to God. It is Christ in us who loves through us. The impulse in our hearts to love one another is something that flows out of an eternal impulse with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The early church father, Augustine famously said these words: “Wherever there is Love, there is a Trinity.
A Lover (God the Father), a Beloved (God the Son) and a Fountain of Love (the Holy Spirit).” We are going to dive into the depths of Triune love this Sunday and discover how and why God’s love compels us to love others just as He loved us! Our message is called How The Trinity Fuels Our Love.
Our Scripture will be John 17:20-26. Looking forward to worshipping with you.
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The second message in our series, Summer of Love is based on the Scripture passage 1 Peter 1:22-25 and it is called “Love is Heart Work”.
So often, we are reactionary rather than proactive in our most important relationships. We ponder in our minds how we can continue to love people that we find hard to love or how we should respond in the multiplicity of perplexing relational scenarios we find ourselves. We regularly think “What should we do?” instead of “What should we be?”
It is interesting that the Scriptures do not give us a great deal of specific “how-to’s” in learning to love or to forgive, to build or to restore relationships. Proverbs 4:23 reads, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” This week, we will see in our study of God’s Word is that the key to learning to love in a godly, Christ-exalting way is to seek God’s work on the inner self rather than the behavioral self. The hard work is the heart-work and that’s where God loves to go to work by His grace.
Let’s prepare to enter this summer by inviting God to do whatever in us is necessary that we might love others the way that Christ first loved us. We need to learn to live from the inside out. Looking forward to worshipping with you.
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This summer, we will begin our summer sermon series called “Summer of Love: How God’s Love Compels Us to Love Others.” Waterbrooke’s mission statement reads:
“Waterbrooke seeks to be a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic community that is captivated by Christ, compelled to love others, and called to make disciples to the glory of God.”
How do we as Waterbrooke Church grow in God’s love and grace such that it is our
Holy Spirit-given impulse to reach out to love others not because of anything in them, but because of Christ in us? Jesus clearly said in John 13:34-35 that the driving force of love in the lives of Christians should be the mark that clearly distinguishes us from the world around us.
He declared, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this will all people know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Join us in praying that the Spirit of God would grow us in our knowledge of Jesus’ love for us so that we might be genuinely compelled to love others and so glorify our good and gracious King!
Looking forward to growing together with you this summer!
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This week, we'll begin a four-part journey through the Old Testament book of Jonah. I know you may be thinking, "what can we possibly learn about this book that we haven't already learned from VeggieTales" but, believe me, the depths of God's grace are deeper than the waters from which Jonah cried out to God for mercy; and this, as we'll see this Sunday, is a message that the world desperately needs to hear...it's a message that Jonah needed to hear...it's a message that we need to hear.
In Christ,
Andy Keppel, Elder
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This Sunday, May 11th, was Mother’s Day. Interestingly, the background to our study in Acts 12 is that a prayer meeting is being held at the home of a mother - John Mark’s mother. It reminds us that so often in life, somewhere in the background a mom has been praying, and women have been faithfully praying not only for their families but for the family of God.
Acts 12 is a time of great persecution against the Christians in Jerusalem. One of the apostles, James, is executed by Herod Agrippa. Peter, the apostle, is arrested and faces the same threat. The Christians in Jerusalem are obviously rattled by these events. Yet, it’s clear that God is not rattled at all. The God to whom we pray in times of deep crisis is clearly on the throne. His purposes are being advanced. He will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Prayer is driven by an awareness that there is no event in our lives that is outside of the Father’s providence and will not ultimately work for the glory of God and the good of His people. It’s not the disciples who are at risk here but God’s enemies. Prayer is meant to be a sanctuary for the people of God. It is a haven of rest in the storms of life where we are reminded that God has us and will not let us go.
This Sunday’s message is called, Our Unshakable God. Let’s come and sing, celebrate, and recalibrate our hearts around the truth that in our darkest moments and uncertain times, God is unshakable.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday, studied Acts 11. This is a crucial chapter in the progress of King Jesus’ mission to advance His kingdom to the ends of the earth. The mission of the gospel takes a decisively new direction for mission: the Gentile world. The center for missionary activity shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch. Adjustments to expectations need to happen everywhere.
If there is anything that is true about the mission of God and the Christian life, it is this: Expect the Unexpected. Most of us don’t like an unpredictable life. We resist adaptation and change, but when God is on the move, we need to be ready. As the old gospel goes: “When the Spirit says move, you gotta move.”
The reality of the Christian life is that God often works in ways that we never expected, and we would rather not go. He moves us out of our comfort and into his transformative mission, where He changes the world while He transforms us. Amy Carmichael, the famous missionary to India, once prayed this prayer: “Do anything, Lord, that will fit me to serve Thee and help my beloveds.” Her heart's desire was to go to China with China Inland Mission. Little did she know that she would end up spending most of her life in India ministering to young Hindu children who were rescued from a life of servitude in Hindu Temples. Her life was a series of twists and turns that eventually led to her being housebound and bedridden for the last two decades of her life, simply writing and praying. And what an incredible influence her prayers and writings had on generations of missionaries.
Friends, the great comfort in our lives is not that life goes the way that we had expected. The great comfort is that God has gone before us and will go before us and lead the way.This Sunday, our sermon is called “The Lord Who Goes Before You.” I hope and pray that this will comfort those of you who are in tough places in life and will invigorate all of us as a church community, knowing that our God is a missionary God and He is already ahead of us for the sake of His kingdom cause. We can trust and follow Him.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor Join us this coming Sunday - Outdoor Service at 10am - 1 Service only. Bring a chair and/or a blanket to sit on lakeside!
One of the great missionaries in church history was Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Mission (1832-1905). Taylor was famous for his impact on global missions. One of the things that stood out about Hudson Taylor was his commitment to what is called “Indigeneity.” He wanted the gospel to go to the Chinese people and make them Christians in the truest sense. He didn’t want cultural adaptation but true gospel transformation. He said wanted: “Christian Chinese—true Christians, but Chinese in every sense of the word.” If you ever saw pictures of Hudson Taylor, you will know that he went out of his way not to bend others to his culture but to bend himself to the culture of the Chinese in order that they might come to know Christ. If there was going to be cultural adaptation, it would be on his part. This reminds me of the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means, I might win some.”
This Sunday’s sermon is taken from Acts 10:1-48 and is called “Becoming All Things.” Looking forward to seeing you next Sunday and worshipping Christ together with you! Invite a friend!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Here at Waterbrooke, we have been studying the New Testament book of Acts. This Sunday, we are in Acts 9:32-43 as we celebrate Easter Sunday and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The entire book of Acts is both a demonstration and a defense of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Dr. Brandon Crowe from Westminster Theological Seminary writes: “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the key emphases of Acts, and this helps us appreciate the theological unity of the entire book.” I would say that the resurrection is THE key emphasis of the book of Acts. The resurrected Christ has transformed His timid disciples into bold apostles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their changed lives and their bold ministries are proof of the resurrection. The pouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is proof that Jesus is both risen and reigning. The conversion of multitudes of people is proof of the power of the risen Christ, beginning to change humanity. Saul of Tarsus’ radical conversion is clearly declared to have happened because of his encounter with the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. For Luke, every advancement of the kingdom of God into the nations is proof of the resurrected Christ. Acts displays what Jesus continued to do as the risen and reigning Savior and King to advance His kingdom and to bring the nations to Himself. The resurrection has changed everything!
C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Miracles, “To preach Christianity meant (to the Apostles) primarily to preach the Resurrection. … The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reported in the Acts. The Resurrection and its consequences were the ‘gospel’ or good news which the Christians brought.” (Miracles, ch. 16)
This Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection and reminded ourselves what it is that we are declaring when we announce and rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Friends, Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Our message is called: What the Resurrection Changes! Let’s rejoice this Sunday with great rejoicing and sing and declare with confidence that His resurrection changes everything for good! Looking forward to celebrating Easter with you! Invite your family and friends to celebrate with us!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
I have said repeatedly that one of the joys that I get from being pastor of Waterbrooke Church is how many people are on mission together in our congregation. Whether it is locally or globally,
Waterbrooke has continually had people who go into prisons, or motorcycle venues or restaurants and bars or to the nations to share Christ. We have people reaching Asia and people serving in women’s centers and women’s prisons.
The One of the new exciting ministries that we have begun is the Refugee Ministry Team that is currently begun to serve an Afghani family. Many of you are truly seeking to be a light in your workplaces, neighborhoods and homes. In our passage this week, Acts 9:26-31, Luke shows that missions happens because of the local church and the local church grows through missionary engagement.
Missionary Mack Stiles who along with his wife have served in church ministry in Dubai and in Iraq was once asked by an individual here in America, “What can we do for you, Mack?” Mack replied, “The best thing that you can do for me,” I said, “is to make sure you keep your church healthy. I can’t do the work there if churches are unhealthy here.”
This Sunday, our sermon was called Church and Missions: Advancing Together. God really is up to something fantastic and I pray the Holy Spirit will encourage us at Waterbrooke with His vision for the church and for the nations.
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Have you ever been really wrong? I mean really, really wrong? Have you ever been outspoken or opinionated about a subject and then made a huge discovery that radically shifted your position?
Imagine in our ongoing study of the book of Acts, just what it must have been like for Saul of Tarsus. In an instant, on the road to Damascus, Saul discovered that he was completely wrong about Jesus. Imagine how that felt. He had not only been outspoken against the Church and its message about Christ, but he was violent in his opposition to Jesus. He had approved of the stoning of Stephen to death. He had arrested and beaten and imprisoned numerous men and women. He had threatened many and was bent on stomping out this movement called, The Way. Then, he met Jesus. And he realized that he was wrong.
All discipleship begins with an acknowledgment: I was wrong. Really wrong. For some, we have to acknowledge that our lives were filled with sin and willful rebellion. For others, like Saul, our lives were filled with hypocritical religion and self-righteous superiority. We were wrong about ourselves. We were really blind to the depth of our need for Christ. Conversion (coming to faith in Jesus) begins the process of a radical reorienting our lives around the truth of who Jesus Christ really is and why we need Him so much. We need deep and perpetual recalibration.
That’s our sermon title for this week: Radical Re-formation: How the Truth of Christ Changes Us and Keeps Changing Us for the Rest of Our Lives. I think this is deeply encouraging as we discover that we are all in the School of Christ if we are believers and because of His forgiveness and grace, we can continue to learn what it means to live our lives by faith in Him. Looking forward to worshipping with you this Sunday. Invite a friend. Christ is worthy of our praise!
When we come across “what can man do to me” in our Bible reading, it sounds a little flippant doesn’t it? Men and women do an awful lot of terrible things to other men and women. There is plenty to fear in this fallen world. But this phrase came from David while people were actively chasing him with the intent to kill him. How can he say such a thing? Stop running for a second and you will see what man can do to you!
One of the wonderful things about the Psalms is how honest they are about the struggles of life. In Psalm 56 we’ll see the hero David, of “David and Goliath” fame, admitting he’s afraid of very real and present danger. But we’ll also see how David doesn’t rely on his ingenuity, strength, or past successes to alleviate his fear, instead he runs to the God who has rescued him time and time again.
Join us Sunday to learn from David how to deal with the fears in your own life, even if you aren’t being actively chased by people trying to kill you.
In Christ,
Kevin Campbell, Elder
Our sermon this Sunday was called “Two Blind Men”. In Acts 9:1-18, we will see the radical conversion of a Christ-hating Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus. The conversion is so stunning that Ananias, a relatively anonymous Christ-loving disciple at Damascus, has trouble getting his head around it. Yet, Christ chose Ananias to be the very instrument he wanted to bring Saul to Christ and to commission Saul for the mission of the gospel.
Here is something that we perpetually need to get our heads and hearts around: Unlikely people are used by Christ to save unlikely people and to set them on mission for the gospel. Christ purposely chooses the nobodies of this world to advance the kingdom of His Son. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 reveals how this shaped Paul’s understanding of how God does his mission: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human might boast in the presence of God.” Do you actually believe this? Do you believe that Christ uses weak and broken people and nobodies to advance his eternal kingdom? Does it excite you? Does it make you expect the unexpected to happen?
Come this Sunday as we watch God work His weird and wonderful way of salvation to the surprise of two completely unsuspecting men. May it cause us to rejoice at God’s ways and to begin to expect God to do the unexpected in and through our lives. See you Sunday. Bring a friend. God is so good!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
In the book of Acts, Luke is reinforcing for us what he repeatedly emphasized in the gospel of Luke: Our God has come to rescue and to restore the outcast and the sinner. It is one of the most beautiful truths of the Christian faith that God loved us while we were yet sinners. God seeks to restore those who have rebelled against him and those who have been really far from Him. God saves the least likely.
Over the next few Sundays, we are going to see in the book of Acts how God saves individuals who are outsiders and/or really deep sinners (ie.,Saul of Tarsus). Up until now, the stories of conversion to the Christian faith have been groups of people turning to Christ from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria. Now, God goes after individuals who would be seen as far outside the circle of His people or far from any hope of coming to faith in Jesus Christ. It is meant to be a gamechanger for the church. God loves to save the outsider, the outcast, the sinner. It’s a gamechanger for those who feel that their sin and brokenness make the thought of full acceptance hard for them to imagine. Yet, that’s the gospel. God seeks and saves the lost and the least likely. He loves to do that. As Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:10 “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.”
Come this Sunday, as we study Acts 8:26-40. Our message is called, “The God of the Outcast.” Come if you feel alone and isolated and forsaken. It will encourage you. Come if you feel safe and at home with God. It will change the way that you see the world and I pray that it will put strong hope in your hearts for the mission of God in the world where you live and serve everyday. We will be taking communion together as a family. Come and be encouraged and invite a friend.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday, we studied Acts 8:1-25. After the stoning of Stephen, absolute mayhem breaks out. Acts 8:3 reads, “But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” Isn’t that awful and yet wonderful at the same time? What is happening is traumatic to those believers yanked out of their homes and thrown into prison. But… what is clear is that God is up to something. He has plans for that persecutor of the church, Saul of Tarsus. Saul is in God’s sights.
There is a simple principle that you and I need to grasp as disciples of Jesus: The mission of the church always happens in the midst of the mayhem and madness of the world. But more importantly, the mayhem and madness of the world must always serve the mission of the church and its Master, King Jesus.
What difference would it make in our lives if we, as Christians, saw all the uncontrollable and often incredibly difficult situations in our lives and ministries as ultimately having to serve the purpose of the cause of the kingdom of Christ? How would your life look if you lived with a curious and sometimes befuddled confidence that God must be up to something? What if, under our confusion at God’s ways, there was a confidence that God works all things together for the good of those that love him and are called according to His purpose?
This Sunday’s message is called “Mighty to Save”. Acts 8 is meant to be perspective-shifting and hope-giving to each of us as Christians. God is not caught off guard. God is not struggling to solve our problems. God is not reacting to the unknown. God is sovereignly advancing His mission His way for His glory. Come Sunday, and be encouraged. Bring a friend too! Let’s worship Jesus!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
One of the things that we regularly see in the customer service industry is articles on how to improve customer response times. For example, in one study, it was revealed that 70% of the people who evaluated customer service said that the quicker a business responded and resolved customer issues dictated whether they were viewed as having good quality customer service. Your response times indicated how valuable your customers were to you.
This Sunday, our message was from Acts 7:17-43, we are not going to talk about improving customer response times. We are going to look at improving our Christ response times. In Luke 19, there is this great story of Zaccheus, a tax collector, climbing up in a tree to see Jesus as he passed by in the crowds. Luke writes, “And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully” (Luke 19:5-6). That picture is a picture of someone who is eager to receive Christ and to follow Him. To hurry to be with Jesus and to joyfully receive Him.
Are you eager to follow Christ? Are you going out of your way to get above the crowd and the noise to see him and to hear him? How is your Christ response time? Come this Sunday as our sermon is called Improving our Responsiveness to Jesus. I think you will find it encouraging and helpful.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday’s sermon was called “The Teachable Disciple”. We will be studying Acts 7:9-16. As Stephen preaches his sermon to the hostile crowd of religious leaders and Greek-speaking Jews, he begins with these words, “Brothers and fathers, hear me.” My good friend Bill likes to say “Listen to me now. Hear me later.” Hearing means more than listening. It is leaning in with a teachable and humble heart. It is a willingness to learn and to be taught the word of God, the will of God, the ways of God. Discipleship by its very definition is living a life of perpetual listening and learning. Discipleship is actually a life of learning how to listen to the truth of Christ, to hear, and to follow.
One of the great criticisms of the people of Israel down through its history is that they were ever “hearing but not understanding.” How about you? Have you stopped hearing God speak to your life? What is the posture of your everyday following of Christ? Have you arrived and have nothing left to learn or is everyday a day the adventure of growing to know and to love Jesus more and more? Come this Sunday and pray that God would give all of us a teachable spirit. May that teachable spirit be not just for Sunday but for the rest of our lives as God’s people.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
There is a huge difference between religion and discipleship. Religion often looks for symbols, traditions, rules, buildings, and physical locations to get one’s sense of identity and religious security. Discipleship is living out one’s already existent identity and security in Christ in the adventure of faith and obedience.
In the book of Acts, the disciples are perpetually under pressure and on the move. They often look like they are the ones being threatened but they are actually living in the freedom and the security of Christ. As we will see this weekend, one of the greatest examples in the New Testament of the journey of faith is a very old, Old Testament character, Abraham. The life of Abraham helps Stephen in his journey as a disciple in Christ. Abraham shows us that the life of faith looks for its rest and joy and confidence not in the law, not in the temple, but in the God who called him. Our hope is in the Lord in the same way.
Come this Sunday and may the Lord encourage us together on the adventure of discipleship – following Christ in His mission on the way to the promised land. Our passage will be taken from Acts 7:1-8. Pray for God’s presence and power to be with us all.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday, we will continued our study of the Book of Acts in Acts 6:8-15. Our sermon is called “Full of Grace and Power.” The gospel of the kingdom of God is now about to advance into the Gentile (non-Jewish) world. Monumental advances in the mission of the kingdom of Christ are about to happen. What we will see here is that the mission of God rarely advances in the book of Acts without significant resistance. Or better said, God often uses resistance to direct the advancement of His Kingdom and reveal His glory not only to those who are witnesses to the events happening but those who are His witnesses.
Stephen, one of the first deacons of the early church, is going to experience God like never before. This is not the story of how Stephen changed the trajectory of the church. This is how God changed the trajectory of Stephen’s life and how in so doing, God advanced his mission in the world. God’s people experience His power, His wisdom, and His glory simply by faithfully serving on mission. Do you want more than a head knowledge of the Lord? Do you want to experience God in a way that is real and powerful and life-changing? Let’s study this text together and pray for God to show us and others the glory of Jesus.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday’s message was from Acts 6:1-7, is called God’s Providence in Our Problems. One of the foundational convictions of the apostles in the early church is that Jesus is both Lord and Savior of the church. That means, Jesus is not just the subject of the mission. He is the Director of the mission. He isn’t just the Savior of His people. He is the Sovereign over all things. He is large and in charge.
In last Sunday’s passage, Acts 5:30-31, Peter speaks to the religious leaders in Jerusalem and he says “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” The book of Acts is not the book of Accidents. It is the story of the mission of Christ. King Jesus is building his church and even the problems aren’t problems for him. They are predestined for the salvation of souls and the expansion of His kingdom. This is super helpful to us as his people. Life is full of disappointments and failures and events that we would never choose. The church is so often palpably struggling. Yet, God chooses to work in a way that is so different than any of us would work. He does this so that we might see that salvation completely belongs to the Lord. It helps us to recognize that He is gloriously God and we are definitely not. Thank God for that!
The apostle Paul in Romans 11 puts it this way: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Come this Sunday and be reminded that Christ is a solid hope and his kingdom is a sure thing in a world of perplexities and problems. This is such a comfort. It is such a hope.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday, we continued our study of the book of Acts. As it is the beginning of a New Year, there are several things from this passage that I think will be super helpful as we consider how to approach discipleship in 2025. It is clear that the mission of the early church happened in a less than friendly environment. The apostles were repeatedly threatened and often imprisoned and yet, they are not only able to persevere, they thrive! It’s clear that the twists and turns and the disappointments and failures of ministry as broken people in a broken world are not hindrances to the gospel or to their growth. God’s mission is to advance his kingdom further out into the world and further into the disciples’ hearts.
Are you wanting to grow as a Christian? Is 2025 a year where you want to grow in your knowledge and love of Jesus? Acts 5 teaches us that discipleship is the deep and ongoing work of God in the lives his people that happens through the medium of His mission in the world. When God works through us, He also works in us. When God shows the world the glory of Jesus through His people, He also shows the glory of Jesus to His people. Our sermon is called “All for the Name of Jesus” and let’s pray that God will prepare us to pursue a deeper relationship with Christ this year as individuals and as a church family.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
We enter the new year with the last of the messages from our study in Colossians. In this section, Paul closes out his letter to the church in Colossae and sends regards from the believers in prison with him in Rome. While we might be tempted to skip over a list of names like this, each one represents a unique story of salvation and faithfulness which helps us understand our own realities and relationships in light of the Gospel.
The good news of Jesus and His love for us fuels a passion for relationships in a world of shallow or apathetic friendships and gives meaning to our labors; it's not just a meaningless grind, everything and everyone is a mission field (including us!)
A lot of times, especially as we head into a new year, we tend to not look back over the previous one. That’s usually because we don’t like to think about the struggles we’ve experienced or are still experiencing.
Join us this Sunday as we look at Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, where he encourages the believers in Thessalonica to live with an attitude of thankfulness even in the midst of our struggles.
This sermon is called “A Christ-Centered Christmas.” It’s meant to be a very practical message on how to negotiate your way through the next few weeks as a disciple of Jesus.
The Christmas season offers many of us the opportunity to be together with people, family, and friends, with whom we often don’t usually have the time just to have an extended hang out. It really is a privilege to be with people we love. Yet, for many, this can be challenging for numerous reasons. Painful histories. Current conflicts. Differing beliefs. There are some who would suggest that it is best to avoid such potentially hazardous situations. However, Christmas is a time to take up your cross and follow Jesus. It is time to grow and to show that our lives are not our own but belong to Him.
My prayer for you is that each of us would find a way to really make Christmas about Christ - not just in the songs we sing and the words that we say but in the sacrifices and the selflessness that Christ showed when He came to earth and became one of us.
Let’s pray that this Christmas would be powerfully Christi-centered.
Join us on Christmas Eve as we celebrate Jesus' birth at 5:30PM
Christmas can be one of those profoundly lonely seasons for people. Grief, abandonment, job changes, personal moral failure, political and global turmoil can leave a person feeling deeply alone and acutely isolated even in the hustle and bustle of the season. In John’s gospel, we encounter several people who feel long forgotten. For example, in John 5, the apostle John describes a man who was paralyzed. He was lying beside a pool that was supposed to provide healing waters. John writes, “One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?” Jesus saw him lying there. This is no accidental encounter. He knew that he had been there a long time. The man replied, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool…”. Do you hear that? I have no one. This man was deeply alone until Jesus showed up. Be sure of this, Jesus didn’t just show up. He came for this man … just like, He came for us.
Friends, the story of Christmas, the story of the incarnation, is the remarkable truth that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God saw us. God came to us. God came for us!
As we celebrate Advent, we are going to rejoice in the glorious truth that “The Word Became Flesh.” I can assure you today that we are no longer alone, unseen, or forgotten. The message of the Incarnation declares to you that God sees you. God knows you. God, in Christ, has come for you. The theme for Advent this week is joy.
Let’s gather together in the Word becoming flesh for you and for me!
Blessings from Pastor Kevin!
Join us on Christmas Eve as we celebrate Jesus. 5:30PM
“In the beginning was the Word…”
Jesus is the One that gives everything its meaning, its purpose, its life. He is the Source,
Center, the Goal, the Gift.
Jesus isn’t merely the “Reason for the season.”
Jesus is the Reason for everything.
“God knows how much we need the creation-to-destiny themes of the biblical narrative in
order to make sense of our lives, so he lovingly gives those dominant themes right up front…
Since God created us to be meaning-makers, he immediately presents us with the wonderful
and awful realities that we need to understand in order to make proper sense of who we are
and what life is really all about.”
Paul David Tripp
This Sunday, our message is taken from Acts 5:1-16. The title of the sermon is “A Necessary Dose of Holy Fear.” We often lose sight of the holiness of God. In our busy lives, we can simply begin to take God for granted and forget that the God we serve is the God who is real. He is “holy, holy, holy”. He is not a good luck charm or an add-on to our list of priorities. He is not the genie in the bottle of our earthly ambitions. He is the One who calls all the nations to bow their knee and surrender their lives to His chosen King, our King, Jesus. He is Yahweh, the Lord God. In Acts 5, we will see a married couple, Ananias and Sapphira, live like God isn’t really holy or truly present. They offer the apostles a very generous gift but they lie about the amount. They pretend that they are giving God everything when they are only giving God a portion. They forget that God isn’t an idol. He is real. So, they learn the hard way that God is not mocked.
Friends, we do this. It is easy for us to drift towards God as a conceptual idea rather than a very real present and a truly Holy God. We need the reminder that God is real. God won’t be dismissed. God won’t be treated like all the gods of the nations. He is the true and holy God. So, here for the sake of His glory and for the good of the church, and for the advance of His mission, God reminds them that He is who He is. This Sunday, we are going to look at this text and ask God to remind us to live before Him in holy fear. We will see that holy fear is not only right but it is good. We all need a good dose of holy fear for our joy and for His glory. Looking forward to Sunday. We are taking the Lord’s Supper so prepare your hearts and invite a friend. Pray for one another.
Join us for Christmas Eve Service at Waterbrooke Church - 5:30PM - Details
This Sunday’s sermon was called “Unintimidated”. In Acts 4:32-37, we see the fruit of the collective praying of the early church disciples. The number of the disciples had been growing rapidly. There were now at least 5000 of them (Acts 4:4). With that growth, there came an increased opposition from the temple leaders. The chief priests, the Sadducees, and the temple guard arrested Peter and John and threatened them. Their goal was to stomp out this fast-spreading fire quickly. They hoped to do what they had done earlier. Fill the disciples with fear and watch them scatter. Instead, the opposite happened.
The church immediately went to prayer (Acts 4:23-31). As a response to prayer, the Holy Spirit filled them and the place where they were gathered was shaken. Interestingly, the Holy Spirit didn’t change the religious leaders' threats. The Holy Spirit changed the church. What the Lord intended was to create a community that had fear-resistant characteristics. The community was now characterized by something that the fear of man could not threaten.
We studied how the Holy Spirit uses the gospel to produce in us the opposite of what fear intends to produce and that creates a community that cannot be intimidated. Pray for God to build these characteristics into our lives at Waterbrooke Church and to build a movement of grace that reaches far beyond the walls of our church building.
Thank you for listening today, friends. If you want to connect with me or our church, go to waterbrooke.church and click contact Us.
Download the Sermon notes HERE
Watch this Message HERE
This Sunday, we examined the subject of praying for courage as we seek to share the hope of Jesus with others.
In Acts 4, Peter and John are remarkably bold in speaking about Christ to the religious leaders who are threatening them. These are the very same religious leaders who had recently arranged and successfully carried out the crucifixion of Jesus.
The boldness of the disciples was not natural.
It was supernatural. The timid Galilean disciples had recently fled in fear. Now, they faced the threats of the religious leaders with amazing courage (Acts 4:13). So much so, that even their enemies were blown away. What we see after this, however, is that Peter and John immediately went back to the others and they joined together in prayer. No bravado. No “We showed them!” No post-touchdown taunting in the end zone. Courage required the help of the community, and specifically, the help of a community on its knees. Courage in evangelism is a gift from God.
Let’s learn how "Praying Together for Courage" (our sermon title) is one of the core privileges God has given us as His people with one another. Let's worship our King Jesus. Remember, He reigns!
Pastor Kevin Dibbley
To find out more about Waterbrooke Church, please go to www.waterbrooke.church.
This Sunday’s sermon is entitled "Uncommon Courage." If there is any chapter that indicates a radical shift in the lives of Jesus’ disciples, it's Acts 4. Luke writes in Acts 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” The religious leaders were astonished at the change in Peter and John! They had gone from fearful cowards to openly courageous evangelists.
This Sunday, we will looked at how the Holy Spirit transforms God’s people so that we can’t help but share the greatest part of our lives – Jesus, crucified, risen, and reigning! Let’s pray for Holy Spirit birthed boldness for each of us as we seek to be God’s witnesses to a world in need of Jesus!
Pastor Kevin Dibbley
We would love to invite you to join us on Sundays at 9 & 11. Go to Waterbrooke.church and click "Plan a Visit"
This Sunday's sermon was taken from Acts 3. Luke recounts the story of the first healing miracle in the Book of Acts. Peter and John encounter a lame man who is begging for alms at a place in the temple called “The Beautiful Gate.” Here’s the great news: Jesus is the Beautiful Gate opening to a glorious new creation. That lame man represents all of us spiritually. More than just us, the lame man represents a lame world. Sin has broken us. It has deeply shattered the world. But with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, everything is about to change. Sin has been defeated. Christ has been exalted. He is now making all things beautiful through the gospel. The gospel is not just the announcement of sin being forgiven. It is the glorious news of God’s cosmic restoration project. For our world where sin and war and trauma and brokenness dominate the horizons of our lives, the gospel is really gloriously good news.
Come as we listen to the apostle Peter preach his second sermon in the book of Acts and as he announces how great the good news is and how we can be a part of it as His people. Our sermon is called Repentance and Restoration. Join us on Sundays at 9 and 11. Pray and bring a friend.
Plan a visit by going to waterbrooke.church
When Christ takes hold of our hearts, the Holy Spirit doesn’t produce a reluctantly obedient group of people who are dutifully carrying out a list of religious behaviors. The Holy Spirit creates a new community with a shared passion for Christ and the kingdom of God. Life in the Spirit flows out into life in community with God’s people. It is supernaturally “natural” for Christ followers to want to do life together.
This explains why genuine Christians often struggle. The busyness and noise of life often work in counter purposes to what our new covenant hearts desire and what the Spirit is calling us to – a deeper relationship with God through deeper relationships with one another.
Come as we witness in Acts 2 how the Holy Spirit produces a deep devotion to growing and going together as God’s new temple community. We are His temple indwelled by His Spirit and His Spirit builds His church by bringing us to share life in Christ together.
If you are in Christ and the Spirit of Christ resides in you this is what you were made for – Life Together. Pray for a real work of grace in all of us as we meet and worship our Lord and King together.
This Sunday we studied one of the most exciting passages and important passages in the New Testament. Acts 2 records the crucial event of Pentecost. God Himself shows up big time and the trajectory of human history is now and forever changed. God is here. God is on the move. God will extend his reign to the ends of the earth. Pentecost is the biggest game-changer for the church and its mission after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. God’s blatant determination to usher in an age of global advancement of His kingdom has now been placed directly upon His own shoulders. Aslan is on the move!
Come and be encouraged this Sunday as we consider the historical and missional implications of Pentecost. Our sermon is called – "Pentecost: When God Came to Stay". Pray that God would grip our hearts with His unfailing commitment to claim the nations and to claim our lives for His glory. We are celebrating the Lord’s Supper this week. Pray for hearts that are receptive to His Holy Spirit as we worship the King together.
This Sunday’s message is called “Waiting on God Together.” Jesus gave his disciples clear directions when He ascended to the throne of heaven. His charge to them was that they were to go to Jerusalem and wait for God to send the promised Holy Spirit. So, 120 disciples gathered together in an upper room and waited together.
We often are placed by God in seasons of waiting. Some of those seasons are longer than others. For those of us who aren’t good at waiting patiently (which is most of us), it can feel like we have been put in “time-out” by our heavenly Father. We cry out with the Psalmist, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1). What the Book of Acts teaches is that waiting on the Lord is meant to be a regular discipline of the Christian life and the local church. In Acts, a pattern begins to form where we find God’s people gathering together and waiting for God to work in them and through them by the power of the Holy Spirit especially when they are facing hostility and opposition to their mission. Whether you find yourself in a season of waiting on God because of health, work, or relational challenges or whether you are finding it hard to slow down and wait on the Lord, this Sunday’s passage in Acts 1:12-26 will be helpful for all of us. We need to learn to wait on God and we need to learn to do it together as God’s people.
Join us on Sundays at 9 & 11 as we worship together! We would love to see you there.
This Sunday, we BEGAN a new series in the book of Acts. The book of Acts is a careful recording of the advancement of the kingdom of God into the Gentile world despite hostility and hardship. We constantly need to be encouraged and reminded that the mission of God happens through the unlikeliest of people (ie., Saul of Tarsus) in some of the most hostile environments. This happens precisely because our God reigns. Where are some of the hardest places that we least expect the gospel to advance? Who are you least hopeful would respond to the message of Christ? Waterbrooke Church’s mission statement is this: Waterbrooke seeks to be a gospel-centered multi-ethnic family that is captivated by Jesus, compelled to love others, and called to make disciples to the glory of God. What brings more glory to God than the salvation of the least likely people and peoples?
Would you pray for yourself and our church community that we would grow in our confidence in God and His gospel? Take a little time and think about hard and seemingly impossible people or people groups and begin to ask the question, “Is anything too hard for our God?” Acts is a book intended to fuel the mission of the gospel to the ends of the earth. It’s designed to show us that nothing is too difficult for our God and King. The series is called “No Other Name.” The message this week is entitled “The Ascended King”. Luke begins his gospel with Jesus ascended and seated upon the throne. That’s the truth that drives global and local missions. Let’s start praying for a fresh movement of God for the salvation of our neighbors and the nations.
Follow along online at waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we spent some time considering a glorious psalm of praise - Psalm 146. That psalm begins: “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, o my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live and sing praises to my God while I have my being.” One commentator writes “The believer’s life should be continuous praise.” “Should be” are the operative words. We often find ourselves in a wide array of challenging circumstances. Sometimes, beyond challenging! I was talking to a fellow Christian this week who said that “despair has been afflicting me today.” Has despair been afflicting you lately?
There are times when the words of Psalm 146 seem next to impossible. We cannot see a way through the challenges and the brokenness that surround us. Psalm 146 teaches us that there is only One thing that can change our view of every experience. It’s a clear view of the Lord (Yahweh). Hallelujah means “Praise Yah” (short for Yahweh). Our Lord is not a God who is indifferent to our sufferings. He is not distant from our struggles. In fact, He is the One who has climbed right down into the pit with us. Our Lord has entered into our sufferings in order that He might carry us through them and out into endless glory. Our message this week reminds us where our help and our hope come from as Christians. Come this Sunday whether you are struggling or rejoicing. Our sermon is called “Our King Forever” and, praise the Lord, He is!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday, we studied Psalm 103. We are meant to hear in this Psalm Jesus’ voice calling to us to rejoice in Yahweh, the Lord! Why? Because He loves us unconditionally in Christ.
We live in a world where love is hard to find and it is especially hard to keep. People are fickle. Friends are often fickle. What makes it especially challenging is that we are sinners and so, there are often good reasons for why people struggle with us. Psalm 103 is glorious for the simple reason – God is glorious. He is unlike anyone else. Psalm 103:10 reads, “He does not deal with us according to our sin, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” That should stun us. He pursued us when others wouldn’t. He rescued us from our guilt and shame when we deserved judgment and condemnation. God’s love (hesed) is as “high as the heavens are above the earth” (Psalm 103:11).
This Sunday’s message is called “The Unfailing Love of the King.” We are going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together and this is a great passage to prepare our hearts to take communion as God’s people. Come and join us this Sunday and let’s bless the Lord with all our being.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
waterbrooke.church
This Sunday Andy Keppel will be leading us through Psalm 31. Here's the first part of the text to help you prepare:
In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me!
2 Incline your ear to me;
rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me!
3 For you are my rock and my fortress;
and for your name's sake, you lead me and guide me;
4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me O LORD, faithful God.
If you would like to find out more about our church, go to www.waterbrooke.church
Need Prayer? We would love to pray for you. Connect with us here.
Waterbrooke Family,
This Sunday's sermon was taken from Psalm 132 and is a glorious picture of Jesus’ love for us, His bride, the church. The message is called “The King at Rest.” It’s a picture of the King and his Bride finally living together in unity and love and peace for all eternity.
This past week was our nephew and niece’s 13th wedding anniversary. They shared a picture of the wedding ceremony which was outdoors in Michigan. In the middle of the wedding, a huge rain shower broke out. The pictures are classic because they show not frowns but smiles on the drenched couple. It didn’t matter to them because they were in love. They were getting married that day and they turned rainclouds into a big joyous wedding party. Where they focused made all the difference, not just on their wedding day but on the next 13 years to come. I think that is helpful to us.
We often focus on the problems with the church. We can begin to take on the perpetual cynicism of the culture rather than the perpetual love and grace of Christ towards his bride. This Sunday, I am going to ask you to commit yourself to pray for our church, Waterbrooke Church. However, I am going to ask you to pray like the pilgrims in Psalm 132 who journeyed towards Jerusalem. Pray for the church with the perspective of Jesus for His bride. It will radically transform who you see, pray, and love the church. Listen and be encouraged.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Waterbrooke Family,
This Sunday, we discussed persevering as a believer in a broken and a hostile world. Jesus says these words in Matthew’s gospel: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). He says this is in the context of teaching his disciples that the mission of God will happen in an increasingly hostile world: “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to the nations, and then the end will come.”
How is your faith? Are you feeling like throwing in the towel? Are you weak and weary? This Sunday’s psalm is a great one. It’s Psalm 110 and it is the most quoted Psalm in the entire New Testament. That might say something about how crucial it is to our lives and to Christ’s mission. Our hope in perseverance is not our power to persevere but in Christ’s power to hold us and to keep us to the end. This is truly great hope and encouragement. Our sermon is called “Jesus: The Priest King.”
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Waterbrooke Family,
In Psalm 72, we have a song written by Solomon. It is the last psalm in a collection (Books 1 and 2 of the Psalms) that is considered to be largely psalms written by David. Psalm 72:20 reads, “The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.”
What’s beautiful about this psalm is that we get the heartbeat of the son of David for the kingdom. Solomon prays for God’s blessing on his kingdom but he does so because of a deep heart of compassion for the people and the nations. We are clearly meant to see not simply Solomon’s heart but the heart of the great Son of David, Jesus, in this song. This would be the Old Testament version of “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Come as we see the heartbeat of the King as he prays for us. Come learn how much we are loved and how determined the King is to see His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our sermon is called, The Praying King… and praise God, He is praying for us! See you Sunday!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Waterbrooke Family,
This Sunday, we studied Psalm 45, which is a “love song”. This is one of the greatest and most joyful psalms in the Bible. It was written to celebrate the marriage between the King and his Bride. The words contain effusive praise for the King and what He is like as it invites the bride to embrace the abounding joy of her impending marriage. Often, in fairy tales, the handsome prince finds a fair maiden languishing in poverty and abuse in some far-away corner of his kingdom. He discovers her and seeing her true hidden beauty (that others have either neglected or envied), He rides in and rescues her and makes her his own royal queen.
In the Scriptures, this is no fairy tale. It’s the story of King Jesus and God’s plan of redemption. Christ comes and redeems His bride, the church. The trajectory line of every Christian shifts radically when we discover how safe and how loved we are in the eyes of our King. Jesus never found our hidden beauty and fell in love with us. Jesus knew us when we were in our sins. Yet, we are meant to see, to believe, and to celebrate that though we are and were sinners, we have been sought, bought and made to be His precious bride.
Our destiny has changed radically. If you are feeling unloved and unworthy, you need to come and see this Sunday, how Christ views you according to Psalm 45 and why you should rejoice in the glory of your King. Together, let’s be filled with the joy and love of Christ that overflows from this psalm and beckons us into His gracious, eternal, and forgiving love. Our sermon is called, The King of Love.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday, we studied another great Psalm – Psalm 19.
C.S. Lewis wrote: “I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world” (Reflections, 73). What makes this Psalm so beautiful is that it opens up to us God’s glory not just in creation but in His Word.
Here’s the challenge that we all face: We live in a world of both glory and catastrophe. We behold the majesty of billions of stars in a northern night sky. We feel the warmth of the summer sun as it caresses our faces as it makes its way across the Minnesota sky. It is glorious! Yet, inside and all around, simultaneously, we feel deep brokenness. Injustice and corruption plague the world where we work, create, and play. Sin continually tempts us and draws us away from enjoying God’s glory. Beholding glory creates a deep ache for God’s glory to fill all the earth and all our lives for all eternity. Herman Bavinck writes, “The gravity and the vanity of life seize on us in turn. Now we are prompted to optimism, then to pessimism. Man weeping is constantly giving way to man laughing. The world stands in the sign of humor which has well been described as a laughter and a tear.” This is where God’s word becomes precious to us. It helps and guides and restores and revives us in a world of glory and catastrophe.
Come as we realize why the Law of Yahweh is “The King’s Treasure” and why it must be ours as well. Praying for a real encounter with God together as we worship our King!
Waterbrooke Family,
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Waterbrooke Family,
This Sunday’s message is from Psalm 18 and is called “The Exultant King.” Psalm 18 is written by King David when God has finally established his kingdom and defeated all his enemies. It is recorded near the end of David’s life in 2 Samuel 22.
There is no doubt that David is blown away by the abundant goodness and unfailing love of God towards him throughout his life. There were numerous dark and difficult times. Times of brokenness and betrayal. Yet, it feels so good to rest and to look back at the amazing love of God in his life through it all. The king is so blown away that He wants to sing God’s praises to the ends of the earth!
Exultant love for God drives the Christian to make much of God. Come as we marvel with David at how good God has been to us and have our spiritual hearts set aflame again to sing of His love forever! See you Sunday and bring a friend!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Have you ever felt God is taking a long time to answer your prayer? Does it feel like sometimes your prayers have gone no higher than the ceiling? Join us this Sunday as we walk through Psalm 13 and see how Jesus, Our Compassionate King is truly with us during these times.
In Christ,Bruce Washington
Well, this has been the summer of rain! I actually love how green everything is but it has been recently providing challenges for farmers and folks in our area. There are little lakes in fields where there normally isn’t water and there shouldn’t be. I get updates from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and some of the portages between lakes have been closed due to erosion caused by rain.
Water can quickly wear away at the foundations of buildings and land. It reminds us of how living in a world of sin and a world of pleasures and temptations can wear away at the foundations of our faith in the Lord. They can erode our experience of joy and peace. Thank God that we have a Rock in Jesus that cannot be moved!
This week our message in the Psalms is taken from Psalm 16 where David writes “Preserve me, O God, for in you, I take refuge.” Our sermon is called “The Desperately Happy King.” We are going to see how David sees the Lord as both his greatest good and his only means of experiencing stability and joy in a life that seeks to continually erode His faith. Come this Sunday and be encouraged by the goodness of Jesus.
In Christ,Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday was Father’s Day. For our message this week, we spent a little time together meditating upon Psalm 23. The twenty-third psalm is without a doubt the most well-known and, I would suggest, well-loved of all 150 psalms. And I think rightly so.
This psalm brings the assurance that from beginning to end the Lord, Yahweh, shepherds his people through all the storms of life and brings us safely into our eternal home with Himself forever. It is a psalm of enormous comfort. It is a psalm of rock-solid hope and peace. What we often don’t recognize is that it is also a very personal psalm from the Son about his Father.
One commentator reminds us that the Psalms are the most quoted part of the Old Testament in the New Testament. He writes: “This was not because the Psalms seemed to them to cover the full range of human emotions – a psalm for every mood. Not at all. It was not sentimentalism or anthropocentrism. Rather, it was because the Psalms were about the Messiah, the Christ of God.” Come this Sunday as we consider the twenty-third psalm through the lens of Jesus. It will prove to be an amazing picture for us of the purest and highest Father and Son relationship that led to our adoption into God’s family. Because Psalm 23 is about Jesus, we can be sure that He will shepherd us all the way home! Looking forward to worshiping with you all!
In Christ,Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
New Series this Summer - “Sing to the King.” It is a study of the psalms with a focus on God’s provision of a righteous, redeeming King for His people. That King is Jesus. Thank God that He is the King that we all need but could never find. In a world where leaders are perpetually flawed and fallen, there is One who can be trusted.
This Sunday, in our series called “Sing to the King”, we considered Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is one of the two “gateway” psalms (along with Psalm 1) that are designed to be the lenses through which we read all of the other 150 psalms. Psalm 2 declares that as aggressively evil and unjust as the world around us might be, nothing can withstand God’s zeal to establish the kingdom of His Son.
Do we realize how passionate our God is for the entire cosmos to be under the reign of His good King? The world might be passionate to throw off God’s rule over their lives, but it cannot compare to God’s passion to bring all the nations out from under sinful human tyranny and under the just, good, and faithful rule of King Jesus.
This Sunday’s message is called "Yahweh’s Chosen King". Come and be encouraged and filled with awe and hope at a God who will not rest until every corner of the earth finds its rest under the reign of King Jesus.
Pray for our church family and pray over your hearts that Christ would meet with us and minister His wonderful grace to us.
In Christ,Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor Need prayer? Would you like to find out more about Waterbrooke Church? Go to waterbrooke.church.
This Sunday, our sermon was entitled “Pursuing Godliness.” Often, in the western world, we think of our spiritual lives as a private or personal matter between us and God. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the New Testament, our personal godliness is a crucial part of the church’s mission to proclaim and to protect the truth of the gospel in a world in desperate need of Christ. This Sunday’s message will be taken from 1 Timothy 6:6-19 and it is a postscript to our study on the letter of Ephesians. 1 Timothy was written by the apostle Paul to encourage the pastor of the church at Ephesus to remember how crucial the church is to the mission of God in the world. Paul writes, “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:14-15). How we live as the church upholds or undermines the truth of God.
As we enter the summer season, what is really on your priority list? Summer can be a great season for rest, growth, and spiritual recalibration. However, it is often a time when many Christians are tempted to drift, to let down their guard, or to become distracted. Be careful… not just for your own sake but also for the sake of others. Summer is a time for spiritual intentionality. Paul makes it clear that Christians need to make it their priority to pursue growth in godliness. Let’s gather this Memorial Sunday and consider together how pursuing godliness ought to be at the top of our priority lists as gospel-loving, Christ-exalting Christians. Let’s commit ourselves to a summer of growth in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Looking forward to worshiping with you!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
God’s people continually need encouragement. You do. I do. Our missionaries do. In the mission of God, it is easy for Christians to forget that God has designed the church to build one another up and to encourage each other in the faith. This side of heaven, the Christian life is fraught with perils. We are in a spiritual battle. It is often discouraging and tiring. Yet, we are not alone in this.
We have been studying this letter to the Ephesians because it contains the call of our Waterbrooke Church mission to be “compelled to love one another.” Encouragement is a clear way to love each other. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus from a Roman prison with the goal of encouraging and strengthening the brethren and to encourage them to do the same. Even though he himself was in the precarious position of being in chains for the gospel, he knew enough about how tough it is to live for the kingdom of God even when you don’t have chains. God’s people need to cultivate a consistent environment of mutual encouragement and edification.
This week’s message, from Ephesians 6:21-24, is called “The Ministry of Encouragement.” In Paul’s final words to the church at Ephesus, we can see the kind of encouragement that we all need. Let’s pray for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we might learn to encourage one another in living out our great calling to be God’s people, His bride, in a broken and needy world.
This week, our sermon, from Ephesians 6:18-20, was called Fostering a Passion for Prayer. As the apostle Paul comes to the end of this letter to the church, he calls for an all-out commitment to prayer. Paul knows that human effort and ingenuity cannot advance the kingdom of Christ. Unlike Muslims who respond to an external call to prayer 5 times a day, Paul wants believers to respond to an internal call to prayer continuously.
Prayer is Paul’s passionate conviction. It is Paul’s confidence in his life and ministry. Paul prayed earlier in Ephesians 3:20 declaring that God “is able to do abundantly more than we ask or think according to the power at work in us.” Every day when Paul looked in the mirror (or whenever, Paul could see his reflection), he saw the biggest miracle of his day. A hater, a blasphemer, a persecutor of the church is now one of Christianity’s greatest ambassadors.
If God could save Paul, he could save anyone! Oh, that God would give us all a passion for prayer! Would you pray this week that you would start to pray kingdom-advancing, strong-hold breaking prayers? Would you pray that God would teach you to pray so that prayer would not just be a Christian task but what you look forward to most each day? Would we all pray for each other that we would continuously be in prayer for the people of God and the mission of God? Looking forward to enjoying Jesus with you this Sunday as we gather together for worship. Pray for us!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
As we go into Missions Week, I want to start out by challenging us to pray that we might see the call to missions as the greatest and most beautiful reality and hope that this world could ever imagine. The news constantly bombards us with story after story of heartache, evil, violence, and war. The hopelessness of the world around us can only be countered by the truest and greatest news in the world – The King has returned to reclaim his world.
Yet, here is an interesting thought that we ought to consider on Missions Week: Maybe, it isn’t just the world that needs missions. Maybe, it’s the church that needs missions. Maybe, there are things in our hearts and lives that cannot change until we find ourselves in the position of being Christ’s ambassadors and experience not simply how desperate the world is for Christ but how desperate we are for Him as well. Missions aren't simply the place where God changes the world. Missions are the place where God changes me.
The sermon this week is called “A Heart for Missions.” I am praying not simply that we will have a heart of missions at Waterbrooke. I am praying that we also might have a heart from missions – the heart of Christ for broken sinners like you and like me. Christ loves to minister to His people as He ministers through His people. He meets our deepest needs as we seek to minister to the deepest needs of others. Let’s pray for that. Looking forward to seeking a real work of God in and through us all as we consider and pray over His mission in this world. See you Sunday, Lord willing!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday, on Easter Sunday, we celebrated and talked about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In particular, we looked at Jesus’ encounter with Thomas, at least a week and a half after the crucifixion. Thomas is struggling. When the disciples tell Thomas that they have seen Jesus, Thomas’ response is very strong. He says, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe!”
Thomas’ reaction is not purely intellectual. It is highly emotional. Thomas is often called “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas might more accurately be called, “Devastated Thomas.” There is more going on here than a need for rational evidence. Thomas is a Jew. He believes in God. He is a disciple.
He had high hopes for Jesus. But suddenly, his hopes and his expectations were dashed at the cross. Thomas is wounded, weary, and done. That describes a lot of people that I have known and even know today. Maybe some of you are wounded, weary, and just plain done. In John 20:24-31, the risen Jesus encounters the deeply disappointed Thomas and the encounter is life-changing for Thomas.
Jesus comes to Thomas and Thomas is forever transformed. If you are wounded and weary, we want to invite you to come and meet with Jesus. Let Jesus’ encounter with one of his most discouraged disciples, minister to your heart.
Our prayer is that this Easter Sunday would be truly life-giving to you and to all our church family as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead… the greatest news in all of history!
God created us in his image to resemble him and center our lives around him. But when we rebelled against God, we decentered our lives from him and marred God’s image with our disobedience. As a result, we all are children of wrath and without hope in and of ourselves (Eph 2:1–3). But Jesus came to reverse our spiritual predicament. As the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation (Col 1:15), Jesus is the new and better Adam we desperately need. He came to recreate us after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:23). In Christ, we have a new identity as children of God. But with this new identity, the gospel calls us to live differently, not how we once lived––alienated from God and in the darkness (Eph 4:18). Paul describes our new identity in Christ as a Father-son relationship.
As beloved children, the gospel calls us to walk in love and light as imitators of God our Father (Eph 5:1–2, 8). But how can we walk in love and light as obedient children? And how do we imitate God in a time when the days are evil and in a twisted culture that constantly vies for our undivided attention? According to the apostle Paul, we must walk in wisdom and be filled with the Holy Spirit! If we are to attain mature manhood (Eph 4:13) and no longer be children tossed to and fro by everything that the flesh, the world, and Satan throw at us, we must not be foolish but wise (cf. Eph 4:14). And if we are to bear with one another in love and maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:2, 3), and no longer grieve the Holy Spirit, we must be filled with the Spirit as worshipers who speak and sing the gospel, give thanks, and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph 5:18–21).
The time is urgent because the days are evil. But God is a good Father who gives his children what he requires. He gives wisdom. He promises the Spirit himself. He is recreating a new community of worshipers who are wise beyond their years and overflowing with the power and joy of the Spirit to walk with Jesus.
So, as we gather this Sunday to celebrate Jesus through worship and communion, come in humility and receive wisdom. Come empty and be filled.
We welcome you to join us for Good Friday Service at the Chaska Event Center and for Easter Services at 9 & 11.
This Sunday’s sermon is called “Walk In Love.” In the city of Ephesus, the idea of love had been severely distorted by the worship that was happening at the Temple of Artemis. The temple was considered to be one of the seven great wonders of the world. It was twice the size of the Parthenon in Athens. Emperors and travelers came to behold this incredible architectural masterpiece. As Acts 19 revealed, the worship of Artemis was the major economic engine for the city of Ephesus. Artemis was the goddess of fertility so sexual idolatry and promiscuity was promoted and celebrated. It is no wonder that Paul’s instructions on walking in love in Ephesians 5 is set in direct contrast to the sexual immorality that plagued their culture and continues to plague ours.
We know that sexual promiscuity has become the sign of one’s freedom today and the clearest marker of one’s identity in our culture. Loving yourself and being yourself is often tied to being open about your personal sexuality. In Ephesians 5, we are called to understand that God’s design in the gospel produces a very different approach to “love”. Love is not giving yourself over to sexual sin. Love is giving yourself to Christ for the purpose of the gospel. Our identity is found in Christ. Love radically transforms how Christians live in a sexually perverse society with the hope that people might be set free not only from sexual sin but from life without Christ. Our sermon this week is called “Walk In Love.” Pray that God might use Ephesians 5:1-18 to bring many people into both the love and the light of Jesus.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Join us for our Good Friday Service ay the Chaska Event Center, 6pm March 29th
This Sunday’s message was called “Learning Jesus.” It is taken from Ephesians 4:17-24 where the apostle Paul is encouraging the Christians at Ephesus to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” The Ephesian Christians were once Gentiles walking in “the futility of their minds.”
Futility really describes that downward spiral that the unbelieving world is in towards spiritual and moral catastrophe. The individual believes that he or she is completely fine and in control. They think that they know the way to life, to joy, to peace. In aviation, there is an error called a “graveyard spiral”. It happens when the pilot thinks he is flying with his wings level, but he or she is actually flying in a wide downward circle. Their altimeter and vertical speed indicator tell them that they are getting lower so they simply pull back on their control yoke. They grab the controls. What that does is actually tighten the circle of their descent towards a crash. It’s like water going down the drain.
Sin does that. It leads us in an ever rapidly descent towards death and calamity. Our tendency sometimes is to grab the controls back from the Lord. This isn’t what we expected to happen and so we try to fix things in the flesh. The truth is that there is only one way out. It isn’t grabbing the controls back. It is giving up our control to Christ. It is looking to the One who alone leads us out of death and into life.
One of the spiritual disciplines of the Christian is learning how to fix our eyes on Jesus who can lead us out of sin and death and towards that eternal rest for which our souls long. Do you feel like you are in a downward spiral in your personal life? Are you moving away from Christ? Are you seeing or sensing that you need to grab the control yoke and fix this yourself? Have you been handling difficulties in the flesh?
Lets study this passage and understand what Paul means when he talks about Christians having “learned Jesus.” Even as Christians, especially as Christians, we need to understand the wisdom and the way of “Learning Jesus.” This is absolutely vital so pray that we might learn and live God’s wisdom together. See you Sunday. Oh, by the way, the snow is beautiful.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Dear Waterbrooke Friends,
This week, we studied Ephesians 4:1-16. Our sermon is called How to Pray for Waterbrooke. In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul “urges” the church at Ephesus to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” We will see that in this letter, this exhortation can be summed up in two ways: unity (4:1-16) and purity (4:17-5:20).
In Christ, we have been made a special people. Our calling is to be a distinct community of very different people deeply devoted to Christ, to each other, and to the mission of taking the gospel to the nations. Becoming a disciple is kind of like being put on a sports team or being chosen for a music performance. Joining the team is different from becoming a team. God in Christ has chosen us by His grace to be His people.
As we pray over what that means for Waterbrooke Church, Ephesians 4 gives us clear guidelines on how to pray that we might become the people that Christ died and rose to make us. Will you pray over this passage for yourself and our church family? We have such a privileged opportunity to bring glory to God through our lives together as we look to the Lord as one people.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Join us in the month of February as we pray together. Do you need prayer? Please connect with us at www.waterbrooke.church
As we enter a New Year, 2024, it is helpful for our church family to spend a few weeks refocusing ourselves on our mission and calling as a local church. Ephesians 3 is super helpful to this end because the apostle Paul interrupts his letter to give clarity to the Ephesian Christians regarding his calling and theirs. Over the next two Sundays, we will study Ephesians chapter three and examine two questions: What should we be pursuing in 2024 and how should we be praying?
This Sunday’s message is from Ephesians 3:1-13 where Paul speaks with Kingdom Clarity. That’s the title of our sermon. Paul knows by the power of the Holy Spirit what he has been called to do and how he is to go about pursuing it. As we consider the year ahead for our church family, you are invited to read and to pray through Ephesians 3 asking God to unite us together by the Holy Spirit in His purpose and with His power. God has a purpose for us as His people. May the Lord renew us and encourage us by granting us the kind of kingdom clarity and resolve that the Holy Spirit gave the apostle Paul. Looking forward to worshiping together with you and hearing from the Lord.
Would you like to find out more about Jesus? Need Prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church
What is the mission of the church? According to the Bible, the mission of the church is to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19a) until “the earth [is] filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14). That is the high calling upon each of our lives as followers of Jesus. But if I’m honest, sometimes I lose sight of the mission. In other words, I need fresh vision from God to engage in the mission of God.
As Christians and as a church, it is possible to do what we’re called to do but go through the motions. It is possible to serve the Lord but for all the wrong reasons. It is possible to do ministry and not have our priorities straight. When this happens, rather than seeking first Christ’s kingdom (Matt 6:33), we seek first our kingdom. If we are not building Christ’s church, we will try to build our own Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 11). If Christ is not our foundation (cf. 1 Cor 3:11), then we will build on shaky ground. But the Lord wants far more for us!
As we move into the new year, I am convinced that we need a fresh vision that recalibrates and revives our hearts to fulfill Christ’s mission until he returns. What vision are we talking about? According to Isaiah 6:1–13, we need to have an unforgettable encounter with a holy God through the gospel. When we truly get a glimpse of the majesty of God, we are never the same. The gospel according to Isaiah is this: when you see how holy God is, you will feel how sinful you are. But when you experience God’s grace, you will know how loved you are. And when we encounter this majestic vision, it will propel us to go on mission. That is the vision and mission of our majestic King.
In light of where we are going this Sunday, the services will look a little different. The message will take place toward the beginning of the service rather than toward the end. Kids will be dismissed to Sunday School just before the message during the second service. After the message, we will spend the rest of our time responding in worship together through singing, praying, and celebrating the Lord’s Table. Who knows what the Lord will do? Would you pray? Ask God to pour out his Spirit, grant the gift of repentance, and give us personal and corporate revival, and give us boldness to make disciples of all nations near and far!
In Christ,
Gabe Zepeda
Andy will continue his series on Colossians with a sermon from Colossians 3:22-46, called "Conversations Worth Having".
Do you need prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message was called, “The Glory of Immanuel”. In Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew succinctly describes the staggering event where the God of the universe took on our humanity. The God of glory became a living and breathing human baby. Omnipotence took on human weakness.
Theologians call this stunning event, the Incarnation. C.S. Lewis called it “The Grand Miracle”. He wrote: “The Central Miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation… Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this… The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depends on their relation to the Grand Miracle; all discussion of them in isolation from it is futile.” If God did not become one of us, we could not become one with Him.
The trajectory of human history completely shifted from hopelessness to glorious hope with God’s presence amongst us not as a military power but as a little child. We invite you to pray for a fresh sense of wonder and amazement this week that God planned and embraced this divine incarnation for our forgiveness and salvation. God really is with us.
To learn more about Waterbrooke Church go to www.waterbrooke.church
Hey Church,
This Sunday’s message was called “The Infinite Potential in the Church”. We will be studying Ephesians 1:15-23 where the apostle Paul gives thanks in prayer for the Ephesian church. They might be struggling. They may need to work out issues. However, Paul rejoices knowing that what lies unseen in the church is the power of the risen and reigning Christ.
Ministry in a fallen world is challenging. However, greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Let’s begin to pray that we might see the church with the eyes of our hearts being enlightened. Let’s get genuinely excited and engaged in what God has purposed to do through the local church not because of us but because of and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very encouraging passage. Do you need a perspective change? Let’s come together for worship and pray for the Holy Spirit to help and strengthen us for the mission that God has given to us as a church family.
Pray. Prepare. Invite a friend. See you next Sunday!
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
One of the great comforts to Christians down through the ages has been the promise of heaven. Even the apostle Paul says that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). Having a rock-solid confidence that your future is secure in the hands of God changes everything. Even more so, having a deep assurance that you yourself will persevere to the end is a great comfort when we are shaken not simply by the world’s uncertainty but by our own instability. Life rattles us. We are often surprised not only by how evil the world is but by how weak and vulnerable we are as Christians.
In Ephesians, the apostle Paul calls Christians of varying backgrounds, both Jews and Gentiles, to work together. We need each other. We are to stand together. We are to pray together. We must persevere together. Paul reminds us in this passage that we have a common eternal destiny. We have a common God-given identity.
This Sunday’s message is taken from Ephesians 1:11-14 and it is entitled, “Heirs Together". If you want to be encouraged and if you want to be encouraging, come and worship together this Sunday. Invite a friend. Let’s be the church together. We need it. God commands it.
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
The author of Hebrews tells us that we can go confidently into God’s presence. This would have been shocking to the original readers. No high priest would tell people to walk confidently into the Holy of Holies. Yet this is exactly what God commands his people to do. And he does so because of the work of Christ. Jesus, the Great High Priest, has passed through the heavens and offered to God the once-and-for-all sacrifice: himself. The Priest is also the Lamb. And that sacrifice has given us the necessary righteousness needed to approach God’s throne.
Whatever you are going through, the invitation is to come to God’s throne. Come through the blood of Jesus. Come and receive mercy and grace in your time of need.
In Christ,
Justin Lakemacher, guest speaker
Justin Lakemacher is the Program Director at Redemption House, a gospel-centered residential addiction ministry in the Twin Cities serving men from across the US. He is also a pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in Burnsville where he oversees a biblical counseling addiction ministry and community groups. He is passionate about counseling and the church. He and his wife, Megan, live in Shakopee with their compassionate and adventurous son, Ryland.
This Sunday, we talked about the doctrine of redemption. Our sermon is taken from Ephesians 1:7-10. Redemption is staggering because it is the great truth that God has come to rescue his enemies from captivity at the price of His own Son. At the greatest personal cost to Himself, God has come to set us free from our captivity to sin and to make us His own people. This is the message of the gospel and it is the message of Ephesians: God is making His enemies, not just His friends, but His family through Jesus Christ.
However, there is more to redemption than being forgiven. Redemption is the ground out of which we learn to love and to forgive others. God’s mission for us begins with a willingness and a determination not just to announce this forgiveness but to actually love and forgive our enemies. We are to work out on the ground what God has determined in the heavens and for heaven and earth.
So, here is the challenge as you prepare for Sunday: Are you willing to extend to others what God has extended to you in Christ? Are you open to considering deeply what redemption means not only for your personal forgiveness but your forgiveness of those around you? Will you start praying for yourself and one another as we come to rejoice in the gift of redemption? This Sunday’s message is called: This Sunday, we are going to be talking about the doctrine of redemption. Our sermon is taken from Ephesians 1:7-10. Redemption is staggering because it is the great truth that God has come to rescue his enemies from captivity at the price of His own Son. At the greatest personal cost to Himself, God has come to set us free from our captivity to sin and to make us His own people. This is the message of the gospel and it is the message of Ephesians: God is making His enemies, not just His friends, but His family through Jesus Christ.
However, there is more to redemption than being forgiven. Redemption is the ground on which we learn to love and to forgive others. God’s mission for us begins with a willingness and a determination not just to announce this forgiveness but to actually love and forgive our enemies. We are to work out on the ground what God has determined in the heavens and for heaven and earth.
So, here is the challenge as you prepare for Sunday: Are you willing to extend to others what God has extended to you in Christ? Are you open to considering deeply what redemption means not only for your personal forgiveness but your forgiveness of those around you? Will you start praying for yourself and one another as we come to rejoice in the gift of redemption? This Sunday’s message is called: Redemption – Freedom and Forgiveness.
In Christ,
Pastor Kevin Dibbley
Senior Pastor
www.waterbrooke.church
Thank you for joining us today as Andy Keppel continues his series in Colossians with this sermon titled Jesus Over Everything - Colossians 3:18 - 21
To watch this sermon or reach out for prayer, go to www.waterbrooke.church
One of the great sources of anxiety that we all face is the feeling that our lives seem to be spinning out of control. Whether we feel like our destiny is being determined by unpredictable forces of nature, inherited DNA, unjust political or military powers, technological advances like AI, spiraling health and housing costs, or worse, demonic and evil forces, Paul reminds the church at Ephesus that their lives and destinies are safe in the hands of sovereign love.
This week’s sermon was called “Safe in the Father’s Love.” In Ephesians 1:5-6, the Word of God reminds us that our lives are never spiraling out of control. For the Christian, life is resting in the care of a God who brings us into His family through Christ at the expense of His Son and ensures our future together as one forever family under Christ. We are loved with everlasting love. We share a common destiny. We are forever the family of God. What joins us together is our adoption in Christ. Let’s gather and be reminded that we are safe in the Father’s hands. Invite a friend and let’s rejoice as one family together to the praise of the glory of God’s grace.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
This Sunday’s message was called Every Spiritual Blessing. In Ephesians 1:3-14, the apostle Paul writes one
long run-on sentence about the incredible riches of God’s grace in the gospel. One commentator called
this section of Scripture “a snowball tumbling down a hill, and picking up volume as it descends.” (Sorry
to bring up snow in September!)
Paul praises God for the mind-blowing grace that He has shown us in Jesus Christ. For Paul, it really is undeserved. It is riches to rebels. It is lavish love completely at Christ’s expense. As Paul calls the Ephesian believers to pursue unity in gospel love for each other, he sets before them just how much God in Christ loved us when we did not love Him.
The Father chose to give us the opposite of what we deserved. This week we are just going to look at verses 3-4. There we see God made the first move towards us. God was all in for our salvation before we would have or could have moved towards Him. The reason any of us belong to God is because God chose to save us from our hell-
bent sin and rebellion and granted us every spiritual blessing in Christ. Let’s come together and consider
the undeserved and stunning riches of God’s initiating grace. We are taking communion this week and
celebrating Every Spiritual Blessing in Christ. Lets worship the Triune God, Father, Son, and
Spirit.
Need Prayer? go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday morning, began a new summer series in the Psalms called: Longing for God. This week’s Psalm, Psalm 80, is called Longing for God’s Smile. One of the realities in our Christian experience is that we can go through times when God seems to have turned his face away from us. God feels cold and distant.
We can misinterpret this as God forsaking us or God forgetting about us. However, Psalm 80 is a psalm inspired by God, given to His people, so we would have words to pray and sing when God seems distant and we feel cold.
We need to be reminded that the Lord never stops shepherding His people even if when it feels as if He has left us. Are you in a cold place spiritually?
Have you gone through a time when God has seemed to have hidden His face from You?
This Sunday, we gathered to seek and to celebrate the God who seeks us and let’s find the words to cry out to the Lord when we long to see His smile again. Looking forward to worshipping Christ together as we Long for God together this summer.
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church www.waterbrooke.church
We have all heard the phrase, “Seeing is believing”. This Sunday, we learned the The opposite is true: “Believing is seeing”. In Luke 24:36-53, the resurrected Lord Jesus appears to the disciples, but their reactions are varied. They are terrified. They are troubled. They are conflicted. They don’t have categories for what they are seeing until Jesus opens up God’s Word to them. One of the biggest challenges that we all face in life is making sense out of what God is doing.
Until we can see the big story of the gospel, of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, we will be afraid of God or we will be afraid to hope. The resurrection changed the entire narrative of the disciples’ lives. Luke’s gospel ends with a cliffhanger. The disciples are waiting and excited for the next season of life and ministry.
What is it like for you in your life right now? Does seeing what is going on around you make trusting God more difficult? Are you excited about the next season of life that God has for you? Until we see the Big Story of the Gospel, we will live in fear and uncertainty. It is seeing the unfolding purpose of God in all of Scripture that frees us from fear and hopelessness and makes us say “I can’t wait to see what God is up to next.”
This Sunday’s message was called “Hope Again”. Let’s pray that the Lord will meet us with power and show us why we ought to look forward with hope. Looking forward to worshipping Jesus with you all!
We would love to pray for you - go to www.waterbrooke.church
Coming July 2nd - Summer Series "Longing for God"
This Sunday’s message was called “The Joy of Seeing Jesus". In Luke 24:13-35, a couple of disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus and they are joined by the risen Jesus. They can’t see that it is Jesus, not because of some change in Jesus, but because of something in them. The story did not unfold according to their expectations.
How has your story gone? Have you had a hard time seeing Jesus at work in the storyline of your life? That is common for many of us. We would never write the story of our lives the way that God has. We have a hard time seeing God’s hand because God isn’t fitting into our story. God is writing a great story of redemption and we find our story in that good news story.
Let’s come and ask God if we could see Jesus in our lives and, especially if we are struggling to see Him, that God would help us ask the necessary questions that would free us to have hope and to have joy anew. Whose story are you living for? We are taking the Lord’s Supper this Sunday, so prepare your heart to remember His forgiving grace and be reminded of His love for sinners. Looking forward to worshiping with you.
To watch this on online go to www.waterbrooke.church and click Resources. Need Prayer? Go to our website. We would love to pray for you.
This Sunday’s Message was called “Remembering His Promises”. One of the marks of true saving faith is that it rises as it remembers the promises of God. In this week’s message from Luke 23:50-24:12, Luke records the burial and resurrection of Jesus from the perspective of three groups of people whose faith reflected what ours is often like – sometimes strong and sometimes shaken.
We all have seasons when our faith is challenged by heartaches and disappointments. However, the resurrection of Jesus when truly believed breathes new life and new hope into the most discouraged of disciples.
Listen and receive a fresh gift of spiritual encouragement as we see how the gospel helps us overcome our fears and our tears as disciples of Jesus. Looking forward to the baptisms as well after the second service!
Watch this and previous sermons on our website at www.waterbrooke.church
The Bible tells us as believers of Jesus, we are in a battle. It says our battle is not with flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers and spiritual forces, which includes our own sin nature. Scripture also tells us that the war has already been won.
This week's message is titled, "Jesus, the Freedom Giver". As we walk through Zechariah 3, the prophet lays out a beautiful picture of who we are, who God is and how He has set us free. We have been made righteous and can live in freedom that Jesus provides. Bring your fear, guilt, shame this Sunday and give it to the One who has declared you clean!
This Sunday’s message was called “The King on the Cross” and we will be studying Luke 23:26-49. In this passage, we will see that everyone is a mess except Jesus. The women, the rulers, the criminals hanging beside him are all struggling in their own way. Some are weeping. Some are mocking. Some are uttering their final words. Yet, Jesus is there graciously ministering to them all.
Author Scotty Smith writes, “God’s grace is stronger than our worst sins, and his blood is deeper than our lowest days.” This is one of those passages where the proof really is in the pudding. Jesus says that He has come into the world to save sinners. When sinners are at their worst, Jesus is still shepherding. Jesus is still reaching out in grace. If you have any doubt about whether or not Jesus will love you at your worst, this text, this scene at the cross, answers all doubt. Come this Sunday as we remember our King and how He loved us from the cross. Looking forward to worshiping with you all.
"The Great Exchange" Luke 23:1-25We studied the wonderful, humbling, and healing doctrine of “penal substitutionary atonement.” In Luke 23:1-25, we are going to see Herod and Pilate, hostile enemies, become friends as they examine Jesus. This strange alignment results in Jesus being sent to the cross to die as a criminal and a wicked man named Barabbas being set free. Who would have thought in this moment of grave injustice, God would be working out something that gloriously sets us free from sin and condemnation?
Our message is called “The Great Exchange” and our prayer for all of us this week is that we might rejoice and be captivated by Jesus. Jesus has come to set us free from our guilt, our shame, and condemnation. He took our sin and punishment so we could walk away free. Do you feel deeply forgiven? Do you feel truly free? We are going to be taking the Lord’s Supper together and so we want to invite you to prepare your hearts for worship and to pray that God would set many of us free from the sin, guilt, and shame through the good news of Jesus’ death in our place!
Watch online as well at www.waterbrooke.church
One of the common illustrations that is frequently used to describe the gospel is that of a diamond.
Jewelers will display a diamond on a piece of black velvet in order that the many facets and the clarity
and color of the diamond might stand out to the human eye. In Luke 22:47-71, we see the incomparable
beauty of the diamond who is Jesus Christ against the backdrop of evil and sin. This is now the darkest
period in Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Here he faces betrayal and abandonment by his closest friends. Here he faces the hypocrisy and injustice of the religious system that simply wants him out of the way. Against the backdrop of this ugly moment, Luke wants us to see the beauty of Jesus. In fact, Luke wants us to do a couple of things. He wants us to see ourselves in the scene. We are those who have been unfaithful and disloyal to Christ. We are those who, like the high priest’s servant, have gone along with those who have failed to do what is right and good. We like Peter have been embarrassed by Jesus. We have been guilty of a failure to be just towards others even though we had no excuse.
If we examine the Scriptures honestly, “we all like sheep have gone astray.” Like Saul of Tarsus, we are confronted with the fact that we are guilty of persecuting Jesus. What do you do with all that sense of
guilt and shame and betrayal? What do we do when we see ourselves in the dark places of the Bible?
Luke says “Look to Jesus”. In this text we see everyone around Jesus, it seems, being deeply unfaithful.
But Jesus is faithful under pressure! He is faithful to God and faithful to us. Our hope when we are
growing as Christians, confessing sin, and being honest with ourselves before God, is not in our own
faithfulness.
It is in the faithfulness of Jesus towards us. Jesus who was faithful in Luke 22 will continue
to be faithful to us to the very end. So, come this Sunday, and bring your unfaithfulness and lay it at the
feet of the One who sees you, loves you, and is committed to you to the very end. Let’s be captivated by
the beauty of Jesus again this Sunday.
Looking forward to worshipping with you!
This Sunday's message is called, "He Will Hold Me Fast". In Luke 22:31-46, we encounter Jesus' excruciating struggle in prayer on the Mount of Olives for both himself and for the disciples. This is one of those passages where we see not only the importance of prayer in resisting temptation but the remarkable encouragement that Christ prays for His disciples effectually when the disciples fail at prayer miserably. Prayer is hard. In multiple ways, we often struggle to pray and if we were able to pray in our own strength, we would definitely fail and fall into sin. Praise God that Jesus never fails to pray for us. As the children's song reminds us, "We are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me."
This Sunday, we are going to come together and be encouraged that the reason we can struggle on in prayer is because Christ is interceding for us from a position of strength. Are you struggling to pray? You aren't alone. All believers struggle, but take heart...Christ is pleading on your behalf. Every Christian needs to be reminded that Christ will never fail to uphold us in the very throne room of heaven! He will hold us fast! Looking forward to worshiping with you this Sunday at Waterbrooke.
Check out our resources page on www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we studied Luke 22:24-30. Our sermon is entitled “Humble Leadership.” Often, when things go wrong in our families, our businesses, and our churches, our temptation is to try to quickly right the ship. Many, if not all of us, are fixers. Often, the need to fix things come out of fear or out of pride. Spouses can quickly look at each other and say, “I told you!” Pride easily enters our relationships when problems arise.
For Jesus’ disciples, it appears the wheels are coming off the mission. They have just learned that Judas would betray Jesus. Jesus is speaking about becoming the Passover Lamb who will die. Now, the disciples kick into action arguing about who should be leading this thing. Jesus lovingly and graciously corrects their fleshly responses by teaching and modeling to them how leadership in the kingdom works. Jesus leads by example. We don’t need fearful or prideful autocrats. We need humble leaders. When our lives get messy, humble leadership is kingdom leadership.
Let’s listen to Jesus together again as one family in Christ. Looking forward to worshiping with you all.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
Waterbrooke Family,
Our message from Acts 11:19-30, is entitled "What the World Most Needs". God is at work through the gospel of Jesus Christ to establish the church, even in a world in crisis. That is nothing new. From the beginning of the church in the book of Acts, God has used His Word to produce fruit in the lives of people who respond to the gospel with repentance and faith. As a result, the need is to strengthen churches and their leaders to continue the advance of the gospel in the world. In Acts 11:19-30, Luke tells the story of the founding of the church in Antioch, which then becomes the launching place for missions work in the first century. Today, we are called to join this great mission for the spread of the glory of Jesus Christ among all peoples.
In Christ,
Duane Tweeten, Guest Speaker
Duane Tweeten serves as the President of Training Leaders International. Duane joined TLI in 2012, serving in a variety of roles in the organization. Prior to joining TLI, he served for seventeen years in pastoral ministry in Nebraska. Duane has a B.A. in Biblical and Theological Studies from Bethel University and an M.Div. from Bethel Theological Seminary. Duane and his wife Andrea live in Cambridge, Minnesota, and they are the parents of six children and have two grandchildren.
This Sunday’s message is from Luke 22:7-23. It’s called “A New Covenant for a New Community.” Jesus says to his disciples that he has “earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” What is interesting is that Jesus is very enthusiastic about having the meal with His disciples even though the Passover meal is pointing towards his death as God’s Passover Lamb. It reminds us of Hebrews 12:2 which reads “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.” Jesus simultaneously despises the shame of the cross and joyfully embraces the vision of the cross.
This Sunday, we are going to consider and participate in the Lord’s Supper. Since the earliest times, the church has celebrated the Lord’s Supper as one of the foundational identifying features of a true church of Jesus Christ. Let’s come together and see why this mattered so much to Jesus and why it matters so much to us as God’s people. Prepare your hearts to share together in the Lord’s Supper. Looking joyfully forward to being with you all in His presence.
This past Sunday was Easter Sunday!
Praise God we will be gathering as a Waterbrooke family to celebrate the triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death as He rose victorious from the grave! Our sermon title is "The Power of the Resurrection". We will be studying Philippians 3:7-10 and seeing why the apostle Paul was overjoyed as he wrote this letter even while in prison for Christ.
Paul repeatedly urges the Philippian Christians in this letter to rejoice in the Lord. Why? It is because the resurrection is not just a fact but it is a force for freedom in the life of the Christian. Jesus’ resurrection completely frees us from some of the things that leave us joyless because of guilt and shame, fear and disappointment. The Philippian Christians were faced with opposition from the religious forces and the political forces that surrounded them. Yet Paul, who knew both of those pressures in his past and in the present, was free! He was freed by Christ to live for Christ without fear of man or fear of failure.
What about you? Do you have the joy of the Lord this Easter? Do you feel truly free from the pressures without and from the pressures within? Come this Easter and celebrate the Power of the Resurrection. Your life can be completely different than it's ever been because of the resurrection of Jesus. Looking forward to a great celebration together this Sunday morning!
In Luke 22:1-6, there is a rapid coalescing of corrupt and evil forces that conspire to crucify Jesus. Luke wants us to remember and to rejoice that evil never triumphs over the saving purposes of God. In fact, God has ordained at this Passover festival, He would hand over his Passover Lamb for the sins of the world.
This Sunday’s message was called "Sovereignty Over Subversion". This Sunday is Palm Sunday and you and I are meant to rejoice that no one is merely taking Jesus’ life from Him. He is offering Himself up of his own free will for you and I. The freest person in his passage is Jesus because no one is controlling His destiny except His heavenly Father. Knowing what Jesus has done for us in going to the cross this Easter is meant to make us the freest and happiest people on earth. We are no longer under the dominion of sin and Satan. We have a Savior who has conquered all the forces that conspire against us, internal and external. And, in the words of the apostle Paul, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”.
Let’s come and begin our celebration of Easter by rejoicing in Jesus’ triumph over evil at the cross. Hosanna in the Highest!
This Sunday’s message was called “When Your World Suddenly Crumbles”. Our passage is from Luke 21:20-38. There are a handful of moments that stand out in my life as a pastor when I can picture exactly where I was when everything shifted in my or someone else’s world. This would be true for you, I am sure, as well. A phone call and then, everything stops. You move from a routine world where you are almost mindlessly running through your daily routines to a strange foggy surreal world that is disorienting, confusing, and often, deeply painful. Amazingly, just when Jesus is about to suffer the excruciation and humiliation of the cross, He looks at the people of Jerusalem and says “Your world is about to be rocked more than you ever imagined.” What a Savior! He is fully aware of others and gives life-giving words at the hardest moment of His life. Maybe this is what some of you need to hear right now? What do you do when your world suddenly crumbles? Or else, it could be that your world is in a sweet rhythm, and this doesn’t resonate now. Needless to say, we will all need these words at some moment in our lives. We all need to listen to Jesus. Either way, what we need to hear and to see this Sunday is a Savior who shepherds His sheep through all the painful moments of life even as he is headed to the most painful moment of His life. Christ truly cares for us, family! Let’s hear His life-giving words while worshiping in His presence. To submit a prayer request go to https://waterbrooke.church/prayer/
This week starts Mission Week and our message is called Global Missions: Building the Kingdom of God When All Other Kingdoms are Crumbling. In Luke 21:5-19, Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for a time of kingdom turbulence. Recently, I flew on a flight that had terrible turbulence to the point that the plane was damaged on landing. We weren’t prepared for that and it was a relief to be safely on the ground in Nashville. In this passage, Jesus warns that there are rough times ahead for the nation of Israel and for Jesus’ disciples, but it is in that chaos and crumbling that God is building His kingdom.
This text is a great passage of Scripture for the times in which we live. As we commit ourselves again as a church to global missions, it is encouraging to know that Christ will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The times are turbulent but our mission is clear. Will you pray with our Missions Team that God will expand and strengthen Waterbrooke’s impact for Christ among the nations? Will you ask God how you might be a part of His kingdom work personally?
Looking forward to worshiping Jesus with you this Sunday! Pray with us for a fresh work of the Spirit in our midst.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Find out more about Missions Week at Waterbrooke Church www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message was from Luke 20:27-21:4 is entitled, “The Resurrection Changes Everything.” Jesus continues to be bombarded by the religious establishment who are seeking to change public opinion against him. They recognize that He poses a threat to their place and position in Israel. That is a fact, because Jesus has come to fulfill all that the Old Covenant had promised. Jesus is the better Solomon. He is building a better temple. He is establishing a new Israel and an eternal Jerusalem. He is a better and more lasting priesthood. Those clinging to power find his words and ministry very threatening. He brings big change and it is desperately needed by those who grieve and suffer. He has come to make everything better especially for those languishing in sorrow and brokenness. Jesus has come to rescue the outcast, the poor, the widow, and the orphan.
Are you grieving and struggling behind the scenes of life? Do you feel the pain of death and the sorrows of lives shattered by sin and death? Here’s good news… Jesus has come to bring a better day, a better and more lasting life. He has come to make all things new. He sees you and He has come to free you from a life of languishing in the shadowlands. The resurrection really does change everything.
In Christ,
Kevin Dibbley, Senior Pastor
Do you need prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church and click contact.
Last week, Pastor John looked at the passage where Jesus’ authority was questioned (Luke 20:1-18). The question he helped us wrestle with is this: Do we want Jesus!? There is no question more important. While anyone who wants Christ can have him, we are both: distracted by the world and religion and so away from Jesus. And also, if we are honest, we too often find Jesus to be inconvenient.Christians and Not-yet-Christians, my primary goal is to show you Jesus in his marvelous integrity, the Image of the only God! I want you to delight in Jesus, our righteousness, who defeats hypocrisy! He goes alone into battle, seemingly unarmed against a powerful enemy who outnumbers him. Yet in battle he is the victor! He does not crush them with coercive power, but instead by wisdom and integrity. This is our leader.Or if you are a Not-Yet-Christian, I tell you Jesus is a leader you want to follow! He shows courage and wisdom. He is the warrior-prince you have been looking for. A true leader, image of the very God, worth all you have and infinitely more. He would have us follow him to eternal life, away from hypocrisy: ours and the world’s.
In Christ,Dr. Rick Shenk
Waterbrooke Family,Things are heating up in the gospel of Luke! This weekend we picked up where we left off from last weekend. Our sermon text for Sunday is Luke 20:1-18 and the title of the sermon is "Disruptive Authority: When Jesus Invades Religious Systems."This passage of scripture is both disruptive and incredibly hopeful at the same time. The religious leaders hate Jesus' authority, and Jesus isn't backing down. This begs the question that we must ask ourselves, "Are we willing for Jesus to exercise his absolute authority in our lives, even if that means that everything changes?" Are we willing to let go of control over our lives, to stop playing religious games and begin to build our whole lives upon Jesus? This is the only appropriate response to the good news of the gospel. This message is disruptive in that when we follow Jesus, everything changes. It's hopeful that following Jesus is the most secure and sure foundation we could ever build our lives on. He is faithful and will bring us safely home.In Christ,John Hall, Pastor for Student and Young Adult Ministries
Need Prayer? Connect with us at waterbrooke.church
Jesus set his face to journey toward Jerusalem. He is going to the city in order to seek and save the lost by dying at Calvary. That is the trajectory of Luke’s Gospel. Last week, we saw Jesus coming down the Mount of Olives riding on a donkey. The people celebrate him as the King of Israel. And now, the moment has come. Jesus finally enters Jerusalem. But celebration turns into lamentation. When Jesus sees the city, he bursts into tears. The city is consumed with war and corruption. The temple is profaned by ritualism, discrimination, and idolatry. And Israel’s religious leaders are consumed with power and pride. As a result, Jesus predicts the city’s near-future destruction because they are blind to the things that make for peace and because they reject Jesus as their King of Peace. How did it come to this? Israel was supposed to be a beacon of peace and light before the Lord and among all the nations. But any serious reader of the Bible knows that Israel fails the Lord by turning after idols again and again. And when Jesus enters Jerusalem, Israel is still caught in a cycle of self-dependence, idolatry, and pride. But we are no different. All of us seek to live independently of God—either by rebelling against him or by trusting in our goodness to earn us acceptance with God. All of us have our own version of a self-salvation project. But if we are honest, when we try to run our own life, our biggest fear is losing control. It is exhausting to always wonder if our best is good enough. We are devastated when we fail to keep the standards on our own. A self-salvation project always leads to misery, not joy. Resentment towards God and others, not love. A judgmental spirit, not encouragement. Jealousy, not kindness. Pride, not humility. Chaos, not peace. But Jesus is our King of Peace. And he came to bring peace on earth through his death on the cross. He came to reconcile us to God and to one another. He came to tear the temple curtain in two that stood between us and God. He came to teach us the gospel and his mission to spread his saving peace from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Even now, Jesus weeps over Victoria, pleading with all who have eyes to see that it is time to repent before it’s too late. If you reject him as King, you’ll know destruction and misery. But if you embrace him as King, you’ll know peace and joy. In Christ,Gabe Zepeda, Pastor of Worship and Gospel Formation
www.waterbrooke.church
Last weekend we continued our series in the gospel of Luke and will be walking through Luke 19:28-40. We have reached a turning point in Luke's gospel as Jesus now, at last, approaches Jerusalem. The sermon title for this weekend is "The King who has Come: An Unexpected Way to Victory". Jesus has been set on going to Jerusalem where he will be rejected, mocked, shamed and ultimately crucified. This is the mission of God. This is God's way of gaining victory. This is how Jesus is establishing his kingdom of peace in the middle of a world that is full of hostility and violence.While Jesus was crucified and enthroned as king 2,000 years ago, his mission remains. He is still seeking and saving the lost and His methods haven't changed. The big question for us this weekend is, "What does it mean for us to follow this kind of King in our world today?"Looking forward to worshiping with you!In Christ,John Hall, Pastor of Student and Young Adult Ministries
This Sunday’s sermon, from Luke 19:11-27, was called “The King and His Strange Kingdom.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote “A king who dies on the cross must be the king of a rather strange kingdom.” The kingdom of heaven is indeed a rather strange kingdom. The King reigns from a cross. His subjects rule by sacrificially serving others. The challenge that we face every day as believers is this – will we advance God’s kingdom in this world by taking the role of a servant? The only way that we can actually do this in our lives is to see that the greatest joy of Jesus is to be the King who lovingly and perpetually serves. Even now, Jesus reigns over all by serving His subjects with love and grace and mercy. As we will you pray along with me, that we would welcome the opportunity to advance the kingdom of God on earth as those who humbly serve? What a counter-cultural concept to all the ego and selfishness of this world! It is possible because Jesus only lives to make it possible.
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This week’s sermon was called “The Other Rich Ruler.” In Luke 19:1-10, we see something remarkable: a rich man entering the kingdom of God. Zacchaeus is very rich. In the previous passage, Jesus said these words: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus’ disciples are filled with despair in chapter 18 when the rich young ruler goes away very sad because he can’t give up his wealth. They ask, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replies “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”Zacchaeus is a miracle at every level. So are we, if we are in Christ. As we come to take communion this Sunday, let’s give thanks that in Christ, and in Christ alone, it is possible for sinners to enter the kingdom of God. This ought to cause us to rejoice and to celebrate the miracle of our salvation. It also ought to put fuel on the fire for our mission to bring others to know the forgiveness of God in Jesus. Do you believe that what is impossible with man is possible for God? Do you really and truly believe it?
Need Prayer? Go to our website at www.waterbrooke.church
This week we returned to the subject of prayer in Luke 18:31-43. We have seen the prayer of the tenacious widow at the beginning of his chapter who cried for justice. We have seen the humble prayer of the tax collector who cried out “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”. Now, we see the blind man who is pleading with Jesus for eyes to see. He pleads “Lord, let me recover my sight.” What we are going to see is that spiritual sight is different than physical sight. In this passage, there is a direct contrast between those who could see with their eyes but were blind to the wonder of who Jesus was and why He had come and this blind man who could not see with his eyes but who clearly knew who Jesus was.
Our sermon this week is called "Lord, Let Me Recover My Sight" and there is no doubt that this is what God wants us to be praying. Ask yourself how different your life, your priorities and your joy would be if you could see Jesus clearly as He really is for us in the gospel. Waterbrooke let’s pray this together this week – Open our eyes to see Jesus!
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This Sunday, we looked at the story of the rich ruler in Luke 18:18-30. It is a powerful passage to study because Jesus intends to bring us to terms with our great need for His saving hand and Jesus' incredible love in coming to save us. I have called the sermon "How Good is Our God?"What we often think is that God's goodness is shown to us by how blessed we are with success, wealth, health, power, influence, and recognition. We say to one another, "Isn't God good?" when things go well in our lives. What Jesus teaches is that the markers that we look to in order to feel affirmed by God are often the very things that we ought to fear most.What if the signs of God's favor and love are not the things that make us feel good about ourselves but rather the things that make us feel desperate for Jesus? Let's come and look at the goodness of God as revealed in the story of the rich ruler and pray that God might show us the glory of His goodness in and through Jesus Christ this Sunday.
How good is God? Looking forward to a fresh work of God's Spirit in our midst this week.
This Sunday was New Year's Eve. Often the symbolic picture of the new year is a baby. The past year goes out like an old man. The new year begins like a baby. That is fitting for the text this week in Luke 18:15-17 where Jesus tells his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."Entering the new year, it should be our ambition to make sure we enter the Kingdom of God. This passage is one of the best ways to think about how we go about entering and advancing the kingdom of God. We really hope you can join us for worship as you learn one of the simplest and most powerful ways to think about how to live your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Our sermon is called "Entering the Kingdom Like a Child". Jesus says - this is an absolute must!
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Merry Christmas Waterbrooke friends,
Christmas can feel acutely lonely for many of us. However, the truest truth of every Christian's life is this: God never forsakes His children.
Have a blessed day with your friends and family and know you are never alone in Jesus who loves and cares for you.
Waterbrooke Church
This week our sermon, from Luke 18:9-14, is called Pray Humbly.Jesus recognized that we have a tendency to fall into two ditches in our spiritual lives. On the one hand, we can give into religious despair. We doubt that God actually cares about the needs of His people or He would have answered the way we expected. Jesus calls us to be bold and determined by faith in our praying. He wants us to be indefatigable prayer warriors who believe in the power and promise of God to bring His kingdom to its fulfillment at the day of Jesus Christ. The other ditch that we can slide into is that of religious pride or self-righteousness. We become confident in ourselves, not realizing that it is not our prayers but God's mercy that is the ground of our hope. Most of us have to recognize that we have to battle those two dangers - spiritual discouragement and spiritual pride.In this passage, Jesus gives us a helpful diagnostic tool for discovering spiritual pride and motivating us to humble and faith-filled prayer. Would you pray for Waterbrooke to be filled with humble and hopeful prayer warriors? Let's look forward to being helped by the Holy Spirit as we gather to celebrate the grace of God towards undeserving sinner and saints through our Lord, Jesus Christ.
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This Sunday’s message, from Luke 18:1-8, is entitled “Pray Tenaciously”. One of the common experiences for many of us as Christians is that we lose heart. Life in a fallen world is hard and what really causes us to stumble is the unfairness of life. We suffer injustice. Evil seems to prevail. We become cynical and disillusioned. Jesus knows this and he speaks to us as His disciples and tells us “to pray and to not lose heart.” Pray tenaciously. You would think if anyone would have lost heart in the face of persistent hostility and slander and evil, it would have been Jesus. He was constantly harassed and slandered. However, he didn’t stop praying and pursuing God’s call on His life. Why? It is because Jesus knew the One to whom He prayed. Jesus knew why He himself had come. Jesus knew that He was not on a fool’s errand but God’s will would prosper in His hand. Do you have that same confidence and hope? Have you begun to lose heart in your life as a Christian? Pray that this Sunday, God would reignite your prayer life or ignite your prayer life for the very first time. We ought to pray and not lose heart.
This Sunday’s message, from Luke 17:20-37, is called “Fostering a Kingdom First Focus”. Luke 17 is a great chapter for teaching the local church about how to make disciples to the glory of God. This week, we will hear Jesus teach his disciples how to stay on focus to advance the kingdom of God. There are so many ways that we can lose a sharp focus on why we are here as a church. What we will learn from Jesus is that just as he is focused on pressing on to Jerusalem for our sake, we are to press on and press into the New Jerusalem for Jesus’ sake.December is a great month to love others, to serve Christ, and to prayerfully and joyfully advance the kingdom of God. Let’s ask God to help us become increasingly focused on the Kingdom of God when we feel pulled by so many competing ambitions. Look forward to the joy of worshipping together with you this Sunday.
This Sunday, our message is from Luke 17:1-10 and is entitled, Making Disciples to the Glory of God. Jesus calls us into His kingdom ministry of making disciples and to put it plainly, it ain’t easy. It ain’t pretty… but it is glorious.Here’s the amazing truth of the gospel – Christ comes down into the middle of our sinful, broken world and takes upon Himself our guilt and shame in order that we might be set free! Thenhe sends out into a world of struggle and brokenness to announce there is a “Way” out of sin, shame, and guilt, and you are welcome to come home to God. Redeemed sinners are sent to yet to be redeemed sinners announcing the forgiveness of God. Announcing forgiveness and extending forgiveness go hand in hand. We go hand in hand into battle to rescue one another from the sin, guilt, and shame that has too long held us. Discipleship is a beautiful, messy, merciful ministry and we need one another. Come this Sunday and be encouraged in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus.
Join us for Christmas Eve Service at the Chaska Community Center at 5pm. www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday the sermon is from Luke 16:14-31 and is entitled "Hard Truths for Hard Hearts". This passage of scripture is one of the most sobering, alarming, and graphic in all the Bible.There are only two reasons someone would speak such blunt, clear words of warning. The first is because they want to prove people wrong and show themselves to be a know-it-all. The second reason is a deep and profound love for those who are in danger. Jesus is looking at the Pharisees and going right to the heart of their sin and then warning them of the danger to come. He does this because he is holding out hope for all of us and urgently telling us to flee to Him before it's too late.These are hard truths to look at. But they are so good for us to embrace. Pray that Jesus would begin, even now, to prepare us to worship Him as a church family together on Sunday as we sing, pray, listen to His word and take the Lord's Supper together.
In Christ, John Hall, Pastor of Student and Young Adult Ministries
This week’s message is called “The Elder Brother in Me". As we study Luke 15 and the famous parable about the “prodigal son”, Luke makes it clear that the main focus of Jesus’ teaching is actually the elder brother. Jesus is responding to the grumbling Pharisees and scribes who are offended that Jesus actually welcomes and dines with tax collectors and sinners. The elder brother is offended at the grace and love and approval that the Father shows towards the reckless and disreputable younger brother.
All of us have a little of both brothers in us. Some of us lean towards trying to save our lives by throwing off all restraint and the shackles of religion and family expectations. We want to be free to live without anyone telling us how we ought to live. Others of us are decent, moral, hardworking elder brothers. We are respectable, reliable, and religious. Both brothers have a problem. Their path to self-salvation doesn’t work. The younger brother sees his lusts leave him empty-handed and alone. The elder brother feels that his sacrifice and hard work isn’t appropriately rewarded. So, the pendulum often swings within us. We get frustrated with trying to be good so we give ourselves to sin and self-indulgence. Or we are frustrated with the emptiness of sin and self-indulgence so we try to compensate by serving and working at being a better person. The answer in Jesus’ parable is not religion or irreligion. It is the grace of God in the gospel of the kingdom. Come this Sunday as we look at the elder brother tendency in each of us and flee to our only hope for true joy – Jesus Himself.
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is called “Run Home”. This is part of a two week series in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. This is one of those blow you away with the grace of God passages! The two brothers in the parable are both resisting their Father’s loving appeals. One, the younger brother, is trying to save himself through “freedom” from any restraint. Sinning with reckless abandon is the goal of life for him. However, it also ends up ruining him. The other brother, the elder, is trying to save himself through religion. That is just as deadly and disappointing. It makes him bitter and angry and resistant to the pleas of His Father.
Thankfully, Jesus teaches us there is another way. The arms of the Father are opened wide to self-indulging rebels and to self-righteous religionists. The call is to the broken and the embittered, the ashamed and the self-assured: Come home. Run Home. This week, we are going to look at the younger brother. Though his sin is great and grievous, his Father’s love is far greater and far more glorious than all his sin. Come to worship this week and find yourself running joyfully to the open grace-abounding arms of your heavenly Father. Look forward to seeing you!
This Sunday’s message is called “Run Home”. This is part of a two week series in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. This is one of those blow you away with the grace of God passages! The two brothers in the parable are both resisting their Father’s loving appeals. One, the younger brother, is trying to save himself through “freedom” from any restraint. Sinning with reckless abandon is the goal of life for him. However, it also ends up ruining him. The other brother, the elder, is trying to save himself through religion. That is just as deadly and disappointing. It makes him bitter and angry and resistant to the pleas of His Father.
Thankfully, Jesus teaches us there is another way. The arms of the Father are opened wide to self-indulging rebels and to self-righteous religionists. The call is to the broken and the embittered, the ashamed and the self-assured: Come home. Run Home. This week, we are going to look at the younger brother. Though his sin is great and grievous, his Father’s love is far greater and far more glorious than all his sin. Come to worship this week and find yourself running joyfully to the open grace-abounding arms of your heavenly Father. Look forward to seeing you!
This week’s message is called: When Heaven Celebrates. Luke 15 is one of the all-time favorite passages of Scripture in the Bible primarily due to the parable of the “prodigal son.” We will look at that parable next week. However, this Sunday, we will see that this passage (Luke 15:1-10) draws back the curtain and reveals to us the impact that Jesus’ earthly ministry was having not merely in Israel but, more importantly, in heaven.
What on earth creates the greatest stir in heaven? The drama of redemption, of which we are all a part, unfolds before the eager eyes of the angels in heaven. The elation of the angels is something we should all be amazed at. Heaven is absolutely ecstatic over one sinner that repents. Are we? What does this passage teach us about how Waterbrooke should go about its ministry and mission on earth? What great hope does this offer to those who feel that they are too guilty, too broken, and too ashamed to come to God? Let’s come and rejoice with the angels this Sunday over the glorious hope of the gospel offered to a world full of broken and weary sinners.
Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, our sermon was entitled “Everybody Loves a Parade.” In Luke 14:25-35, the multitudes, being impressed by Jesus, begin to flock to him on His journey towards Jerusalem. As one writer put it “Everybody loves a parade.” However, this is no parade. This is the road that leads to the cross.
To join Jesus as a disciple is to align yourself with the Prince of Peace who lays down his life to save sinners. Jesus stops and calls them and us to carefully consider the cost of following him. That’s what we are going to do together this week. The Lord’s Supper is the perfect occasion to remember Jesus and His sacrifice for us and to recalibrate our expectations of what it looks like to follow Him. Would you prepare your hearts by praying “God, help me to count the cross and follow Christ …for He is worthy!” Our hearts are drawn to easier paths but the way of the cross is the miraculous and powerful instrument that Christ used to rescue us and it is how He intends to save the world.
This Sunday, our message was called “Fostering Gospel Humility”. In Luke 14, Jesus is making it really clear that you can’t be His disciple if you won’t humble yourself and serve God by sacrificially serving others. He tells three banquet parables to address three different groups of people who manifest three different expressions of pride. What He shows us is that pride really is a failure to believe in the goodness and grace of God. One of the most freeing things that you and I can know is that God has got your back forever. God is for you. God is with you. God will never let you go.
In this passage of Scripture, Jesus calls for humble Christian disciples by pointing out the goodness of God. It is, of course, that goodness that enables Jesus to humble Himself and go to the cross. If we are going to truly follow Christ and serve others, we must believe what the cross displays – God is so good. Come as we continue to prayerfully seek the kind of humility that only the gospel can produce.
This Sunday’s message is called “Healing our Spiritual Edema”. Edema is a symptom/complication in our health where we become puffed up by fluid in our limbs, abdomen, and/or face. It can be a mild effect of medication or other health issues. It can be a consequence of something more serious.
In Luke 14, the edema that Jesus must address is cruel spiritual pride. It is that, unfortunately too common, problem in the religiously self-righteous and the cynical. Instead of looking and praying for Jesus to be gracious and merciful, we sit in judgment. We watch and wait to see flaws and point out sins. We stop seeing those in need of grace and mercy with hearts of compassion and kindness. What do you see when you are around others? What is your posture when you are with Christians or attend worship? Do you show up looking for those in need of the restoration of Jesus, praying for the privilege of being an instrument of mercy? Or, do you show up seeing flaws and failures and waiting and expecting to be disappointed?
May the compassion of Jesus come and heal our spiritual edema through the worship and testimony of Teen Challenge and the words and ministry of Jesus this Sunday. Will you pray for the Holy Spirit to work powerfully in Waterbrooke Church?
To find out more or to watch this sermon online, go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday as we gather for worship we are going to take a step away from Luke's gospel and move over to the gospel of Matthew.
The fall season is full of launching ministries and this week we are jumping back into Youth Group and Sunday School for elementary students. For the Youth Group at the beginning of the year we are going to be studying Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), which is Jesus' proclamation as to what life in the kingdom of God is like in a fallen world. We live in a cultural moment that is loudly telling us what we should value, what we should pursue, who we are... and as followers of Jesus, we realize much of it is totally upside and backwards in comparison to what Jesus says.
For the sermon this weekend, we are going to take a big picture look at the Sermon on the Mount and go back to the basics of life in the kingdom. If we are going to pass on the faith to the next generation, we need to continually reestablish and live in light of what God says, rather than what our culture is saying. The Sermon on the Mount is the good news of what God is producing in us and through us by the power of His gospel.
Want more information on Waterbrooke Church go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message was entitled “The Fox and the Hen.” It comes from our passage in Luke 13:31-35 when Jesus angrily calls Herod “that fox” and Jesus sorrowfully compares himself to a hen seeking to gather her chicks under her wings. When Jesus uses these words, He is on fire for the lost! He is expressing in the strongest way how passionate He is about rescuing us, as His people, from our sins.
Often, Jesus is depicted as this passive, peaceful Savior who seems to serenely make his way through life to Calvary. Thank God, Jesus is nothing like that! As he makes his way to Jerusalem on our behalf, he has fire in his soul to deliver you and me and nothing will stop in His way.
The question that we are going to ask this Sunday is how do we kindle a passion for the lost like Jesus? Do we have the fire of the gospel in our hearts like Jesus does? I invite you to start praying now that the Lord might be pleased to fuel your zeal and my zeal to see lost sinners rescued and brought into the kingdom of heaven. If your heart has grown cold in a lost and broken world, may the Holy Spirit place within you a passion to passionately pursue the salvation of others. I am looking forward to being captivated again by Jesus and being compelled to love and pursue others, the way Jesus has loved and pursued me. We will be taking communion so prepare your hearts to remember and to rejoice in the Savior’s redemptive love.
To find out more about Waterbrooke Church go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message was entitled “The Fox and the Hen.” It comes from our passage in Luke 13:31-35 when Jesus angrily calls Herod “that fox” and Jesus sorrowfully compares himself to a hen seeking to gather her chicks under her wings. When Jesus uses these words, He is on fire for the lost! He is expressing in the strongest way how passionate He is about rescuing us, as His people, from our sins.
Often, Jesus is depicted as this passive, peaceful Savior who seems to serenely make his way through life to Calvary. Thank God, Jesus is nothing like that! As he makes his way to Jerusalem on our behalf, he has fire in his soul to deliver you and me and nothing will stop in His way.
The question that we are going to ask this Sunday is how do we kindle a passion for the lost like Jesus? Do we have the fire of the gospel in our hearts like Jesus does? I invite you to start praying now that the Lord might be pleased to fuel your zeal and my zeal to see lost sinners rescued and brought into the kingdom of heaven. If your heart has grown cold in a lost and broken world, may the Holy Spirit place within you a passion to passionately pursue the salvation of others. I am looking forward to being captivated again by Jesus and being compelled to love and pursue others, the way Jesus has loved and pursued me. We will be taking communion so prepare your hearts to remember and to rejoice in the Savior’s redemptive love.
To find out more about Waterbrooke Church go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, The message was from Luke 13:18-30. It is called “The Wide Kingdom with the Narrow Door.” In this passage, Luke tells us that Jesus is still determined to make his way to Jerusalem (Luke 13:22). We should be amazed that despite the hostility and accusations that increasingly mount against Jesus and his ministry, Jesus doesn’t lose focus and He doesn’t lose faith. His resolve to be our Savior and to go to the cross never wanes. Despite the fact that there are few serious disciples around Him, Jesus is absolutely confident in His calling, His cause, and His kingdom.
As we enter into the Fall, how is your level of resolution, confidence, and hope for what God has called you to be and to do? As you seek to return to school, how hopeful and energized are you to live as a faithful disciple and witness for Christ? As you teach Sunday School, or jump into small group ministry, or homeschool your kids, what is it that gives you confidence and resolve?
Don’t you find that at times, you really wonder if you are ready, willing, or able to press on in what you have been called to do? Most of us find that our zeal can wane because the demands never stop, the difficulties may multiply, or the results can be less than what we have hoped.
Thank God that Jesus perseveres. Our goal this Sunday is to ask the question, “What does Jesus know that we don’t?” Our goal in the midst of the demands of kingdom life and ministry is to learn from Jesus, to look to Jesus, and to lean upon Jesus as He blazes the trail of the kingdom of heaven on our behalf. If you are weary, uncertain, hesitant, or even mildly hopeful, Luke has a good word for all of us. Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday!
This Sunday, The message was from Luke 13:18-30. It is called “The Wide Kingdom with the Narrow Door.” In this passage, Luke tells us that Jesus is still determined to make his way to Jerusalem (Luke 13:22). We should be amazed that despite the hostility and accusations that increasingly mount against Jesus and his ministry, Jesus doesn’t lose focus and He doesn’t lose faith. His resolve to be our Savior and to go to the cross never wanes. Despite the fact that there are few serious disciples around Him, Jesus is absolutely confident in His calling, His cause, and His kingdom.
As we enter into the Fall, how is your level of resolution, confidence, and hope for what God has called you to be and to do? As you seek to return to school, how hopeful and energized are you to live as a faithful disciple and witness for Christ? As you teach Sunday School, or jump into small group ministry, or homeschool your kids, what is it that gives you confidence and resolve?
Don’t you find that at times, you really wonder if you are ready, willing, or able to press on in what you have been called to do? Most of us find that our zeal can wane because the demands never stop, the difficulties may multiply, or the results can be less than what we have hoped.
Thank God that Jesus perseveres. Our goal this Sunday is to ask the question, “What does Jesus know that we don’t?” Our goal in the midst of the demands of kingdom life and ministry is to learn from Jesus, to look to Jesus, and to lean upon Jesus as He blazes the trail of the kingdom of heaven on our behalf. If you are weary, uncertain, hesitant, or even mildly hopeful, Luke has a good word for all of us. Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday!
Have you ever found yourself being greatly annoyed that someone does something that doesn't fit your expectations? Of course we all have. That's an experience that we all go through. If we slow down long enough and actually consider what's happening in the moment, oftentimes we realize we respond that way because we are bent towards self-righteousness and building our own kingdoms. We inevitably see people as either helps, or hindrances to our kingdom building projects. This is dangerous.
In our sermon text this weekend, Jesus goes face to face with the self-righteous hypocrisy that is in all of our hearts. And what we see is that Jesus has come to set us free and keep us free from the unrelenting tendency towards legalism and in the process he is determined to build his kingdom.
Read ahead Luke 13:10-21 as we prepare to study God's word together, and be in prayer as we prepare to partake in the Lord's supper as a church family.
Have you ever found yourself being greatly annoyed that someone does something that doesn't fit your expectations? Of course we all have. That's an experience that we all go through. If we slow down long enough and actually consider what's happening in the moment, oftentimes we realize we respond that way because we are bent towards self-righteousness and building our own kingdoms. We inevitably see people as either helps, or hindrances to our kingdom building projects. This is dangerous.
In our sermon text this weekend, Jesus goes face to face with the self-righteous hypocrisy that is in all of our hearts. And what we see is that Jesus has come to set us free and keep us free from the unrelenting tendency towards legalism and in the process he is determined to build his kingdom.
Read ahead Luke 13:10-21 as we prepare to study God's word together, and be in prayer as we prepare to partake in the Lord's supper as a church family.
With September drawing closer, it is astonishing to think that 9/11 happened almost 21 years ago. I was a sophomore in high school when I heard that “airplanes flew” into the Two Towers in New York City while I was in gym class. It is an unforgettable atrocity. Like everyone on that day, I was shocked, scared, and saddened by the thousands of lives lost.
During this time, people––both religious and irreligious––rushed to churches to try to make sense of it all. The questions on people’s minds were, “Why did this happen? How could an all-loving God allow this evil to happen? Why are there disasters at all? Why do bad things happen to good people?”
In Luke 13:1–5, some people confront Jesus with similar questions above. Two disasters are mentioned. In the first one, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, slaughtered a bunch of Galileans while they were sacrificing in the temple in Jerusalem. In the second one, the Tower of Siloam––also in Jerusalem––accidentally fell, crushing eighteen people. What does Jesus have to say when disaster strikes? Jesus responds, “If you don’t repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). The answer is not what you would expect, especially coming from “gentle and lowly” Jesus.
Jesus responds this way––not because he is harsh, but because he is loving. He lovingly and urgently warns us that if we do not turn away from our sin and turn toward God in faith, we will perish and face God’s judgment. In other words, all the disasters that we witness and face in life point beyond themselves to a greater disaster to come. God’s judgment is imminent. We don't know when our last breath will be, so we all need to repent before it’s too late.
But there’s also hope. What is the positive way of saying, “If you don’t repent, you’ll perish?” It is, “If you do repent, you’ll be saved.” That’s why Jesus came. It is because of him that any of us has time to repent today. Because of his death and resurrection, anyone can be forgiven of their sins––if they repent and believe in Jesus. In a sense, we need to ask ourselves, “Are you ready? Have you repented of your sins? Is there an area of your life that you have not surrendered to King Jesus?”
With September drawing closer, it is astonishing to think that 9/11 happened almost 21 years ago. I was a sophomore in high school when I heard that “airplanes flew” into the Two Towers in New York City while I was in gym class. It is an unforgettable atrocity. Like everyone on that day, I was shocked, scared, and saddened by the thousands of lives lost.
During this time, people––both religious and irreligious––rushed to churches to try to make sense of it all. The questions on people’s minds were, “Why did this happen? How could an all-loving God allow this evil to happen? Why are there disasters at all? Why do bad things happen to good people?”
In Luke 13:1–5, some people confront Jesus with similar questions above. Two disasters are mentioned. In the first one, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, slaughtered a bunch of Galileans while they were sacrificing in the temple in Jerusalem. In the second one, the Tower of Siloam––also in Jerusalem––accidentally fell, crushing eighteen people. What does Jesus have to say when disaster strikes? Jesus responds, “If you don’t repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). The answer is not what you would expect, especially coming from “gentle and lowly” Jesus.
Jesus responds this way––not because he is harsh, but because he is loving. He lovingly and urgently warns us that if we do not turn away from our sin and turn toward God in faith, we will perish and face God’s judgment. In other words, all the disasters that we witness and face in life point beyond themselves to a greater disaster to come. God’s judgment is imminent. We don't know when our last breath will be, so we all need to repent before it’s too late.
But there’s also hope. What is the positive way of saying, “If you don’t repent, you’ll perish?” It is, “If you do repent, you’ll be saved.” That’s why Jesus came. It is because of him that any of us has time to repent today. Because of his death and resurrection, anyone can be forgiven of their sins––if they repent and believe in Jesus. In a sense, we need to ask ourselves, “Are you ready? Have you repented of your sins? Is there an area of your life that you have not surrendered to King Jesus?”
Sometimes Jesus says things that we don’t expect. Sometimes the things that Jesus says are hard for us to grasp and make sense of. The sermon text for this weekend is one of those times. There is nothing greater than following Jesus by faith. It’s what we are created for. While at the same time we have all experienced hardships as a direct result of following Jesus. What do we do with this? This weekend we are going to study Luke 12:49-59 and the sermon title is Disruptive Reign - how the Kingdom of God shakes up the status quo. The big question this text brings up is, how should we live in a world that is deeply loved by God, but wants to put God in a manageable box?
Sometimes Jesus says things that we don’t expect. Sometimes the things that Jesus says are hard for us to grasp and make sense of. The sermon text for this weekend is one of those times. There is nothing greater than following Jesus by faith. It’s what we are created for. While at the same time we have all experienced hardships as a direct result of following Jesus. What do we do with this? This weekend we are going to study Luke 12:49-59 and the sermon title is Disruptive Reign - how the Kingdom of God shakes up the status quo. The big question this text brings up is, how should we live in a world that is deeply loved by God, but wants to put God in a manageable box?
This weekend we are picking up where we left off in our study through the Gospel of Luke. Last week Jesus ended by telling us, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," and this week He is going to tell us why that matters so much. Jesus says that there is coming a time, and it could be any moment, that He is going to return and make all things new. The big question is..."Are we ready?"
There are so many things in our day to day lives that distract us from living in light of the second coming of Jesus. We are daily met with crazy circumstances, demanding jobs, unending homework, schedules packed with sports and various activities. Not to mention the suffering we face, the sin we struggle with, and the confusion we encounter in our personal lives.
This week's sermon, from Luke 12:35-48, is called "Living Wisely and Faithfully While We Wait" and we are going to see how Jesus encourages us to be ready for the day when He will return to judge the living and the dead and to make all things new.
This weekend we are picking up where we left off in our study through the Gospel of Luke. Last week Jesus ended by telling us, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," and this week He is going to tell us why that matters so much. Jesus says that there is coming a time, and it could be any moment, that He is going to return and make all things new. The big question is..."Are we ready?"
There are so many things in our day to day lives that distract us from living in light of the second coming of Jesus. We are daily met with crazy circumstances, demanding jobs, unending homework, schedules packed with sports and various activities. Not to mention the suffering we face, the sin we struggle with, and the confusion we encounter in our personal lives.
This week's sermon, from Luke 12:35-48, is called "Living Wisely and Faithfully While We Wait" and we are going to see how Jesus encourages us to be ready for the day when He will return to judge the living and the dead and to make all things new.
This Sunday, we studied Luke 12:1-12. The message is called Tremble and Trust.
As Jesus’ ministry becomes enormously popular, the opposition becomes intensely hostile. Instead of being filled with fear of men, Jesus reminds His disciples that they need to see things from His perspective. Jesus sees the awful consequences of sin, hypocrisy, and religious pride. Jesus points out that we ought to fear falling into hypocrisy rather than facing opposition. It’s not the children of God who are in danger. God is jealously protective over His own. The greatest danger is to turn against Christ and His disciples. When we face opposition and religious hypocrisy – we need to tremble and trust. May this passage drive us to Jesus and embolden us to live as courageous witnesses to the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Our sermon this week is entitled Cultivating a Truly Gospel Culture.
We will be looking at Luke 11:37-54. In this passage, Jesus prophetically speaks several “woes” over the Pharisees and the lawyers. His strong words are a warning against the incipient nature of religious hypocrisy and pride.
We all have the temptation of trying to pretend that we have it together better than we do. The problem, of course, is that we can inoculate ourselves against the hope of the gospel when we try to prove that we are in deep daily need of Jesus. We also injure the weak and the wounded who need the message and the ministry of the grace and mercy of Jesus. We don’t need spiritual super-heroes. We need a humble church with a solid hope in Christ. Come as we listen to Jesus and pray to become the kind of church that becomes a refuge for the broken and guilty.
To find out more about Waterbrooke Church go to www.waterbrooke.church
We are very excited this weekend to celebrate the baptisms of several of young men and women. Whenever anyone responds to Christ in faith and love and obedience we rejoice together as a church family for the grace of what God has done and for the promise of grace that lies ahead. The Christian life is not easy but it is a progressive journey into ever increasing glory.
We are also reminded that their obedience in faith is a call to all of us to respond in faith and obedience to the message of Jesus Christ. It is a word to those who have yet to receive Christ by faith that now is the time to respond. It is fitting this weekend that we are studying Luke 11:27-36.
Our sermon is called: Deadly Indecision – A Word to Gospel Hold-outs.
Jesus clearly warns that developing a posture of delaying and demanding more and more evidence is not acceptable in God’s eyes. Today is a day of salvation and we ought to respond. Would you pray that this weekend many people would give up being spiritual hold-outs to Christ and salvation? Would we pray that the Holy Spirit would remind us that no decision is a decision and that decision has present and eternal consequences? Looking forward to a celebratory time together and praying for a work of grace in all of our lives together.
To find out more about our church go to www.waterbrooke.church
This weekend is Independence Day weekend and it is a fitting weekend for our message in Luke 11 called The End of Tyranny.
Last week, Pastor John asked the question “Have you stopped dreaming Kingdom-size dreams?” It is clear from our passage this week, that the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ has come and the tyranny of Satan is coming to an end. If we asked the question last week, what do you want Christ to do through you?… this week’s question – What does Christ want to do in you?
The end of Satan’s tyranny in the world includes those areas of our lives where we still believe that lie he uttered in the Garden of Eden, that we can be like God. Liberty and freedom in the gospel isn’t the freedom to live as we please. It is freedom from guilt, and shame, from sin and Satan. It is the freedom from the dangerous and debilitating Satanic lie that we are masters of our own lives and destinies.
Here’s the question that we are going to ask this weekend and maybe you can begin to pray about it now: What area of your life have you been unwilling to relinquish to King Jesus? As his Kingdom expands in the world ousted all of Satan’s tyranny, may His kingdom push out any remnant of rebellion and resistance and radical autonomy that remains in my heart and in yours. Let’s pray Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done in me and in you.
In the classic book, 'Knowing God' J.I Packer famously wrote, "What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father."
This Sunday is Father's day! As we continue to move forward in our study through the gospel of Luke, Jesus is going to teach us to pray in light of the wonderful reality that God is our Father.
Jesus continues to welcome us into his mission to claim the nations as his own and this weekend we are going to see that one of the ways we can stay engaged in mission over the long haul is by knowing and loving God as our Father.
Before we ever do anything for God, we are invited to enjoy God.
Join us this weekend to worship our gracious Savior as He teaches to pray to our heavenly Father who loves us.
Do you need prayer? Contact us at www.waterbrooke.church/prayer
Here’s the question for this Sunday’s sermon: What’s really holding you back? In the passage that we are studying this week, Luke 9:51-62, the whole narrative of the gospel shifts to Jesus making His way to Jerusalem and the cross. The next 10 chapters is a journey narrative. Luke says that Jesus “set his face toward Jerusalem.”
As Jesus begins to get more and more volunteers for his ministry, he makes the gospel call more challenging and not less. He reminds those that want to come and follow Him that there is no turning back. Thank God that Jesus’ resolve to rescue sinners is unshakeable.
Yet, we have to admit that the bumps along the way have caused many of us to look back, turn back, or just put our commitment in neutral gear. We are sitting the mission out. We are holding back. And we are miserable or at least numb.
This week, we are going to rejoice in the resolve of Jesus to go to the cross for sinners. We are also going to see that His resolve is the fuel for our resolve. What is holding you back from jumping into the mission of the church and the mission of the gospel? Let’s pray for the grace of Christ to free us to follow him joyfully and without reserve. This week’s message is called No Turning Back.
This week we are going to continue our study in the Gospel of Luke. The last time we were in the gospel we got a glimpse at the glory of Jesus, the True and Greater Moses and Elijah. This glimpse of glory should have deeply humbled the disciples. What we are going to see, however, is that rather than humbling the disciples, they double down on their pride and self-sufficiency.
Jesus is showing the disciples and us what true discipleship looks like. He is showing us what kind of King he really is. He is a king who reigns from the cross.
The sermon title this weekend is "Cruciform Me" and I hope that we all walk away amazed at the grace of Jesus and are encouraged to embrace the way of the cross for ourselves.
As we prepare for Sunday let's be praying along with John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
As we continue the study in Colossians, Paul reminds the church that Christ has ascended to heaven, but He has not left us to the world (we are hidden in Him,) and He has not left us to ourselves (He has left us to each other.) Join us in a celebration of Christ's sufficiency as we remember the grace shown to us individually and learn to stand on the foundation of Gospel hope as we live out our renewal corporately.
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This Sunday, we studied one of the most powerful revelations of Jesus’ triumphant purpose in Luke’s gospel. In Luke 9:28-36, Luke recounts the details surrounding what is famously called “The Transfiguration.” We are calling it “Exodus 2.0.” It is a fascinating moment in the life of Jesus.
It is clear from this passage that the Old Testament story of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt and their encounter with God at Mount Sinai was a powerful dramatization of the coming of a greater Exodus under a greater Moses – Jesus Himself. Luke shows us that all of the language of Israel’s Mount Sinai experience foreshadows what happens here in the life of Jesus. For the disciples who have just been called to take up their cross and follow Jesus, this is a gracious and glorious encounter. They, like us, are spiritually inconsistent.
We can easily lose heart and grow discouraged at the cost of discipleship when we are such struggling half-hearted souls. In the grace of God, the call to a life of discipleship is followed by a much needed vision of the glorified Jesus. Let’s come together and with the disciples get a glimpse of Jesus and his glory so that we can recognize that His story is our story.
Our hope as Christians rests not in our weak, weary, and wandering selves but in the Christ who is a better Moses leading us out of the wilderness of our sin. There is hope. There is help. There will be glory.
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This Sunday’s message is entitled, "The Cross-Shaped Kingdom." It is really one of the most crucial realities for every Christian to understand. Christ advances his kingdom through the cross. Discipleship in the kingdom is a call to carry your cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote that when Jesus bids a man to come and follow him, he bids him come and die.
The kingdom of God is backwards to most people’s expectations. Let’s be honest, life often is totally other than what we had hoped or dreamed. It can be painfully hard. So, this Sunday, we looked at one of the core truths of the Christian faith – the kingdom of God is shaped like a cross. Here’s a couple of questions that we asked this weekend: What did you expect Jesus to do in your life? What were you hoping that Jesus would do through your life? Christ’s ways are definitely not our ways... but His ways are always good.
Let’s thank God for the cross and rejoice that His ways are higher than our ways.
This Sunday’s message is called “The Tenacious Welcome of Heaven.” That word “tenacious” is important. No one, no power, no king, is going to stop Jesus from saving lost and broken sinners. They are His family and He will stop at nothing to bring His people safely home. We have many adopted children in our church. Praise God!
Some of the stories of determination to bring those children out of harm’s way and safely home are actually stunning. The perseverance! The pain! The passion! That is why some of you already understand what I mean by “tenacious welcome.” Jesus marched into an inhospitable world to extend the welcome of the kingdom of God to broken and lost sinners scattered throughout the nations.
One of the things that ought to bolster our faith as we seek to fulfill our mission at Waterbrooke Church is that Jesus is already “all in.” This is Palm Sunday, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, even as the crowds cheered, He knew what He had to do. And He did it! Let’s rejoice and give ourselves joyfully to the cause of Christ.
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This Sunday, we looked at two very different people who have one very similar problem – fear of shame. It is possible that many of us are living less than full Christian lives because we feel the stain of past sin and guilt and we are afraid that we are going to be exposed. We are broken. We know it. We need Jesus. We need him desperately, but we are afraid. We fear the disapproving and knowing glances of people who are all too aware of our past and our problems.
We prefer to hide like Adam and Eve in the shadows. On the other hand, some of us live in fear not of criticism and condemnation but rather transparency. We aren’t known for our sin but our spiritual success. We are respected. We are surrounded by good churchy folk. We move in circles of people who seem to have it together and we are afraid to be honest and admit that things aren’t really going so well right now. Here’s the great news of the gospel: It’s okay to not be okay.
Jesus never leaves us in our shame. He refuses to let us hide anymore. He calls us not to worry about what others say to us. We only need to hear what He declares over us. This Sunday’s message is called “Shepherded Out of Shame,” and it is a great encouragement for spiritually messy people and impressive religious performers! You don’t need to fear anymore.
This Sunday, our message was called "From Fear to Freedom." There is no doubt that fear is a factor in all of our lives. The Bible regularly calls us to “Fear Not.” The Bible tells us that Satan loves to play on our fears. In the remaining section of Luke 8, Jesus performs four miracles. All of these miracles reveal the various fears that can grip people. Yet, the antidote to fear is clearly faith. We conquer fear when we consider Christ. We stop being afraid when we look to Jesus. Here’s a good way to prepare for this message: Ask yourself what do you fear most right now? Are there any fears that have followed you throughout the last week or even throughout your life? Do you want freedom from fear? Let’s pray the words of the old song, “From our sins and fears release us!”
For the last several weeks we have been walking through Jesus' Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6. His mission is counter-intuitive, counter-cultural and nothing like we would naturally expect.
This week we are going to finish the Sermon on the Plain as we study Luke 6:39-49 together. The sermon for this weekend is called, "Why do you call me Lord?" Jesus asks this piercing question to each of us: "Why do you call me Lord, Lord but you don't do what I say?" He is putting his finger on the experience that we all have. A frustrating gap exists between what we know and how we live. There is a disconnect between our professed values and our lived values.
Let us allow Jesus examine our hearts this week as he shows us various ways that we can bridge the gap between what we profess and how we live. And let's pray as we prepare to worship Jesus together through song, word and the Lord's Supper this weekend.
In Christ, John Hall, Pastor of Students and Young Adults
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ast Sunday, we saw that the mission of Jesus Christ is counter-intuitive. The gospel will inevitably evoke hostility. However, hostility does not mean a closed door to ministry. We are called to love our enemies. Loving our enemies is where the gospel is often best displayed because that is what Jesus did in his life and death on the cross.
I stated last week that the battlefield of the gospel is the place where God does some of his most powerful surgery, in his enemies and in our hearts. So, this Sunday, we are going to look at what Jesus tells his disciples about their own hearts when they are loving those who are less than lovable. We all need to hear this because this is what Jesus did for us and what He wants to do in and through us. Let’s pray for all of us to have receptive hearts to the Word and the way of Jesus as he calls us to display “Scandalous Mercy.”
This Sunday, we discussed how Jesus is calling us to go on the front lines of gospel mission which surprisingly is different than many of our evangelical cultural ideas about sharing our faith. We often think that the time when the gospel will make its greatest advances is when Christians have somehow earned cultural capital and acceptance and approval. Of course, Jesus never got that in his lifetime. Neither did his disciples!
Our sermon is called "Scandalous Mercy," and we are going to look at the call of Christ to love our enemies and to forgive extravagantly. Hostility to our faith and our testimony is not a dead end for evangelism, not when Jesus is King. Hostility is the front line of gospel ministry because the battle is for the hardest object in the universe: the human heart. And it is fought with the most powerful weapon in the universe: the love of God in Christ. Come and let’s help each other find the comfort from the uncomfortable truth of Christ! Watch this sermon at www.waterbrooke.church
This week we continued our sermon series in the gospel of Luke. We are going to be working through Luke 6:12-26. In last week's sermon text we saw that the religious leaders were filled with fury and began plotting as to how to get rid of Jesus. In our passage this weekend, we are going to see Jesus begin to establish a new leadership for his kingdom.
In the sermon this weekend we are going to see how Jesus overcomes our fears that keep us back from following him wholeheartedly. When we consider the risk of diving head first into following Jesus in our day and age, it can seem daunting and overwhelming. Fear can grip our hearts. The fear of loss of control, reputation, and security can keep us from enjoying Jesus and the mission that He has called us into. In the end we'll see the only real risk is not trusting Jesus wholeheartedly.
In Christ, John Hall, Pastor of Students and Young Adults
This Sunday, we are going to continue our study of Luke 6:6-11. Last week, we looked at the call to find our rest in Jesus as a spiritual discipline. Religion never brings rest. Only the finished work of Christ does, and we need to learn the discipline of finding our rest daily and continually in the gospel.
This week, we are going to pick up on Jesus’ Sabbath struggles by seeing that the Sabbath not only rescues us from our self-righteousness and self-salvation but also from our cynicism. Sin and religion can lead us to be cynical. Instead of looking for Jesus to show up in sin and brokenness, we start looking for sin everywhere. Finding fault can become a spiritual blood-sport. We expect to see failure around us instead of offering forgiveness. We become hyper-critical rather than supernaturally hopeful. The mission of the church dies when we become cynical because we stop believing in Christ and stop cheering on the underdog.
Has cynicism clouded your vision and criticism/pessimism become your default mode? Let’s come together and plead with God to give us the mind and heart of Christ. Let us start believing in the Christ we say we believe and start expecting and seeking that Christ would save broken sinners just like us! Let’s learn the spiritual discipline of destroying our own insidious religious cynicism with glorious gospel hope! Hope to see you on Sunday!
This Sunday, our sermon is entitled Jesus: Our Rest and Our Restorer. One of the great dangers that Jesus had to address in his day and it exists in our hearts is the temptation to try to prove our own righteousness. There are two ways that we do that. We strive to keep the standards of God’s law and feel better about ourselves by what we have done. Or, secondly, we try to find fault with others adherence to God’s standards so that we can feel better about ourselves. We become hyper-critical hypocrites. Thank God, Jesus came to save us from both religious performance and religious comparison. Spurgeon wrote that we are all born legalists. We inevitably drift back into self- righteousness or criticism and cynicism. What is the drift of your life lately? Have you been exhausting yourself trying to get your act together? Are you feeling exhausted and hopeless? Or are you exhausted with everyone else? Do you find yourself constantly looking at others with a jaundiced eye? Come this Sunday and find rest and restoration in no one else from Jesus – the Lord of the Sabbath.
To find out more about Waterbrooke Church and watch this sermon, go to www.waterbrooke.church
This sermon is called, "New Wine for a New Year." We studied Luke 5:27-39. As Jesus comes to establish His kingdom, the changes seem radical to everyone around him. It’s clear that Jesus isn’t here to carry on the status quo. The new covenant is likened to a caterpillar and a butterfly. There is a direct connection between the two but the new is far, far better and far more beautiful. As we begin 2022, here is the question that we are going to seek to answer – what are you going to do with this New Year of life that God has given to you? Are we open to God doing a new thing in our lives? What is this new life meant to look like in Christ? Would you pray for yourself and for Waterbrooke Church that God would do something far better and far more beautiful in our lives in 2022? We are meant for so much more in Christ.
To Watch this series go to https://www.waterbrooke.church/2895-2/
This week we welcomed Pastor Steve Kim of Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto as our guest speaker. He preached from 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, and his sermon is titled, "The Church of Brotherly and Sisterly Love."
To find out more about Waterbrooke Church, go to www.waterbrooke.church
s we see and sense all around us the hustle and bustle of the Christmas crowds, we gather to worship to remind one another that the God of the universe broke into the chaos and disorder of our world by become fully human in the out of the way town of Bethlehem to an insignificant young man and woman, Joseph and Mary. If there is anything clear here, it is that Christ hasn’t come to simply slide into the culture that we have created. He has come with a counter-culture, a counter-kingdom, that brings what all the religions and kingdoms of this world have never been able to bring. Jesus is the upside-down Savior. He turns our values, our perspectives, our ideas about life and joy and peace upside-down. The righteous are out. The unrighteous are in. The leper is clean. The clean are leprous. Jesus shows us that we don’t need a little fine tuning to fix our lives. We need a great over-turning of our lives. Our sermon is called, "Jesus, the Upside-Down Savior." Come and see how in Luke 5:12-16, Jesus overturns the religious ideas of His day because He is not just another teacher – he is the Christ, the Savior of the world.
To find out more about Waterbrooke Church go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message was on the joyful encounter between two women, Mary and Elizabeth. Both are overjoyed to see each other. Yet, the joy is greater than a family reunion between relatives. It is the joy of the Holy Spirit over the greatest news in the world: the Lord of all has come to earth.
Our message this week is called, "Amazing Savior: Earthly Misery Disrupted by Heavenly Mercy." This is a great message for people who are struggling with a sense of the hopelessness, brokenness, and futility of life in a fallen world. These women feel the weight of the world but they overjoyed by the weight of the Word – the Lord is here!
Let’s pray that the Lord who appeared to them would be near to us this Sunday and bring His mercy to bear upon all our lives. It’s communion Sunday, so prepare your hearts to remember the cross and the mercy of God’s forgiveness through Jesus.
This Sunday, our sermon title was, "Disrupted Anonymity – God’s Astonishing Call of Mary and God’s Astonishing Call of Us." There is no doubt that most of us are well acquainted with the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, the young teenage girl, who God has chosen to bear His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
What we may have failed to realize is that while Mary has a unique place in the purposes of God, she actually represents a movement of God that includes all of us. Luke is tracking the spread of God to the nations. He is describing the Glorious Disruption of the Roman Empire, of the world, by a motley crew of disciples who have a great deal in common with Mary. God chooses to use insignificant, anonymous people who are willing to offer up themselves and the comfort of their anonymity for the sake of bringing His Son and His salvation to the world.
It’s amazing that God called Mary. It’s equally astonishing that God calls us. Would you begin to pray and ask God to give you the heart of Mary because He has already called you and me into His mission?
In Christ, Pastor Kevin Dibbley
The message this week is Luke’s detailing of the encounter between the priest Zechariah and the angel Gabriel. I have entitled this message "Disrupted Disgrace" because we see God ending the deep sorrow and disgrace that Zechariah and Elizabeth have been feeling personally. God is also bringing hope to the deep disgrace that Israel is experiencing spiritually.
Here is what I want to invite you to do. Would you read through Luke 1:5-25? Would you ask God to bring about a deep repentance in our lives as Waterbrooke Church through Jesus Christ? A simple prayer is this: “Help us repent and help us rejoice.” Let’s pray for a renewal and revival to begin with us! Looking forward to experiencing God’s power with you Sunday!
Join us in person or live stream on Sundays at 9am and 11am (Children's church and nursery available at 11am).
This week's message was called "Abraham's Very Bad Plan and Abraham's Very Good God." One of the realities for us as Christians is that we make bad decisions, and then we make things worse by attempting to justify those choices. Do you ever do that?
In Genesis 20, Abraham and Sarah stick with the bad plan that Abraham concocted when they left Ur of the Chaldees to head to the land God was calling them to. That plan was that if someone ever asked if Sarah was Abrahams wife, she would say that she was his sister. Fear leads us to make bad decisions. Guilt leads us to make bad excuses. What we do after we get caught in a sinful choice is almost as critical as the decision we make in the first place.
What Genesis 20 teaches us is that there is no ground of justification for any of our bad choices. There is no way out of our sin and guilt except in the righteousness of God that comes by faith. Martin Luther wrote, "Every week I preach justification by faith to my people because every week they forget it." Oh, isn't that true? Let's investigate why we need God to justify us when all our attempts at self-justification fail.
This Sunday's message will be in Genesis chapter 19. The message is called "Fleeing Sodom to Christ." Sometimes the Bible uses hard passages to do heart work. This is one of those passages.
God loves us enough to drive us from our sin and ourselves straight into the arms of Christ. Let's all pray that the warning of Sodom and Gomorrah would lead to a deep work of the Holy Spirit. Looking forward to worshipping with you on Sunday.
In this Sunday’s message, we are going to begin looking at one of the most sobering passages in the Bible – the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Our message is called: "What to Do When the World Has Gone Mad."
While Genesis 18-19 may be one of the weightiest passages in the Bible, it also is one that carries for us a strong, strong promise of hope. It serves as a great reminder of that God has often intentionally placed his people in places of deep moral darkness throughout biblical history. That is certainly true for Abraham.
Since we live in period in history when the world around us seems to be rushing headlong towards the wrath and judgment of God, we could use a fresh reminder that God has something crucial for all of us as His people to do. Let’s carefully and prayerfully examine what Christian faithfulness looks like in a time of worldly wickedness.
This Sunday’s message was entitled "Feasting With God: How Hospitality Reveals the Grace of God." We are going to study Genesis 18:1-15 in which Abraham has three guests suddenly appear. It is illuminating to watch Abraham suddenly and excitedly scurry about because one of them is the Lord.
Especially during these times of COVID and forced isolation, it is crucial that we all see that sharing our lives together as Christians and showing hospitality is a divinely orchestrated gift of God. It is the means not only of grace to us, but grace through us.
Pray that God would show all of us the amazing beauty of a God who loves to feast with His people and to bless them as they feast with others. Let's Worship Together!
This Sunday’s message was entitled "Starting Over Again for the First Time". Thirteen years have passed since Genesis 16. As we come to Genesis 17, it sounds like another promise of God to bless Abram and Sarai. Abram is now 99 years old. Sarai is almost 90. Yet, there is something very, very new here. Just when Abram might be tempted to think that it’s too little too late for him, God says, “Okay, now we are ready!”
This chapter is great news for anyone who has thought that they were too far gone to be any good to God. It is really good news for those who feel like their spiritual lives have been shriveling up during COVID, messed up by marriage or parenting, and worn out by the long wearying wilderness experiences of life. It’s never too late for a new start, for a new vision, for a new engagement with the mission of the God. God delights to give people new hearts and new starts. Is God calling you to a new and fresh start with his mission and call on your life? Let’s encourage one another on Sunday with this great gospel hope!
Revelation 21:4 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
“My life flows on in endless song, Above earth’s lamentation I hear the real though far off hymn That hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm While to that Rock I’m clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, How can I keep from singing?” -Robert Lowry
Watch or listen to this Sermon series at www.waterbrooke.church
This weekend as we prepare for Christmas we are going to walk through Revelation 21:1-3. This text, no doubt, is one of the mountaintops in the Scriptures. We see the glorious hope that we have before us. The vision that God gives us in this passage is almost unspeakable. It’s important to remember that the book of Revelation was written to real churches in the 1st century that were struggling deeply with the reality of being faithful in a broken and fallen world. With evil both outside the church and in the church it’s easy to let all the gloom of this world captivate our hearts. The question that we must ask ourselves as we continue to walk as the church between Christ’s first coming and His second coming is, “Will we be gripped by the gloom or by the glory?” What or who captivates our hearts will direct our worship and our mission!
As you prepare for worship this Sunday, listen this great quote from C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity: “Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” This Sunday’s message is called Humanity 2.0 – Better than the Garden of Eden. During this time of CoVid, it seems like many of us are groaning over what we see slipping away. We long for a return to “normal life”. That’s not what the Bible exhorts us to do. Our fighter verse is from 1 Corinthians 15:52. In 1 Corinthians, Paul rejoices over the resurrection of Christ and the guarantee of our future bodily resurrection. Paul urges Christians to stop looking back, languishing in fear, grieving what is lost. Why look back when something far far greater and far more glorious is right around the corner? This difficult road is leading somewhere better than we have ever known. Christmas Eve Worship Service - 5:30PM - Live Streamed and In-person - Save your seat today at www.waterbrooke.church
SHOW LESS
This Sunday we are going to look at why the Holy Spirit points us to continually to the incarnation of Christ. With that the facts of Christmas helps us fight the battles we face with our own feelings this time of year. Tune in online or come on Sunday and join us as we consider how to find joy when we long to be with God’s people in the joy of God’s presence. Next Week's Fighter Verse: Sunday December 13 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 In the Twinkling of An Eye: Big Changes are Coming Watch previous sermons and other resources at www.waterbrooke.church
It’s a strange Thanksgiving weekend coming up - unlike any other in most of our memories. That is why this Sunday’s message from Psalm 84 is so timely! In Psalm 84, the psalmist longs to be with God’s people going up to worship at the Temple. The annual Jewish festivals provided great opportunities to be together, to rejoice, to celebrate and to remember God’s faithfulness. One author wrote, “Longing is written all over this psalm.”
The psalmist groans that he cannot go to celebrate in Jerusalem with God’s people. While many of us are unable to be with family or are unable to join for corporate worship this Thanksgiving, we will find that this passage provides enormous hope, wisdom, and comfort. The longing of Psalm 84 really reflects the longing for heaven. We long for the day when we can be in God’s presence and away from the suffering, sickness, and sin of this world. Tune in online or come on Sunday and join us as we consider how to find joy when we long to be with God’s people in the joy of God’s presence.
To Watch this sermon and others go to www.waterbrooke.church
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For the last six Sundays in 2020 and the first Sunday of 2021, we are going to study the final seven passages of Scripture that are part of our church “Fighter Verses” memory program. We thought that in this time of chaos and uncertainty the best thing that we can do is to try to get God’s Word deep into our hearts and lives. We are doing so that we might help each other be filled with peace and hope in these crazy CoVid times. So, would you be willing to join us in this? Would you take up the challenge to memorize some or all of these passages? Would you be willing not only to finish 2020 by kneading God’s Word into your heart and mind and life, but to get a jump on 2021 with the comfort, encouragement and hope of the Scriptures? Here is a list of the verses that you as individuals or families can learn and share together so that we as a church family might see, savor and share the all-surpassing worth of Christ!
Sunday November 22 - Psalm 79:9 From Groaning to Glory: Pleading That Pleases (and Persuades) God Sunday November 29 - Psalm 84:10-11 Better is One Day: Home is Where Your Heart Is Sunday December 6 – 1 John 4:4 Greater Is He That is In You: Stronger Than You Think Sunday December 13 – 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 In the Twinkling of An Eye: Big Changes are Coming Sunday December 20 – Revelation 21:3 Christmas Presence: Company is Coming For a Very Long Time Sunday December 27 – Revelation 21:4 No More Tears: Saying Good-bye to Sorrow Forever Sunday January 3 – Revelation 21:5-6 I am Making All Things New: Something Certain To Look Forward To.
This Sunday’s message is called "Gospel Joy in a World Gone Mad: How Jesus Radically Frees the Christian To Live Joyfully in An Angry and Chaotic World". After the presidential debate this past week, this may be a message that many of us need to hear. The reality is that the gospel creates two radically different responses when the world spins out of control. Paul weeps over those who have turned from Christ as Savior to seeking to save their own lives.
It’s not simply because Jesus is worthy. It’s because there is no other name under heaven by which anyone can be saved. Let’s come and weep and rejoice in the Lord together. Let’s see, savor, and share the all-surpassing worth of Christ.
Watch this Sermon at www.waterbrooke.church/hub
This Sunday’s message is called "One Holy, Happy Obsession". In Philippians 3:12-16, the apostle Paul continues to express his singular vision for his life in Christ. He wants everything that Christ has secured for Him. The joy and passion of the apostle’s life is not the legalism of his former religious life. It’s exploring and discovering the depth and the riches of the grace of Christ in His life.
Don’t we all want that as Christians? What if we could approach our life as believers as a discovery of the depths and delights of God’s grace for us? Well, we can. Come Sunday and let’s consider this together!
Watch this Sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36uIGuAH4JU&t=710s
Check out our church at www.watrebrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled Complete Rubbish: Why Paul Abandoned Religion for Christ (and why you should too!). We are going to be examining one of the most important passages in the book of Philippians and one of most powerful texts in the New Testament. Philippians 3:4-11 describes the apostle Paul’s decisive break with religious performance. One thing was clear for Paul - seeking what Christ could do in and through his life was an infinitely superior pursuit to seeing what Paul could do for Christ and for God in his own strength. Getting off the treadmill of religious performance was the most important decision of Paul’s life and it is the same for each of us. The Christian life is a courageous pursuit of experiencing the person of Christ leading us powerfully through things we would never choose into an eternity that we will never regret.
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This Sunday, our message is called “How Rejoicing in the Lord Keeps Us Safe From Religion and Self-Righteousness”. One of the great dangers in our lives as Christians is that we can be tempted into thinking that following Christ is simply following rules. We can be tempted to think that there are certain religious activities that mark us out as mature. We feel better about where we are spiritually when we can check off the list of “Christian” activities as being accomplished in our lives. We start thinking that we are doing okay with God because we don’t have the same struggles that others do. This can lead to deadly sins like religious pride and it can bring toxicity into a church body when people possess a critical spirit and bring a false division between Christians.
When we struggle more with the faults of other believers than with our own, we can be like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who says “I thank you that I am not like other men…”. We put more emphasis on their sins instead of our own. Being a disciple of Christ is not about checking off lists and comparing ourselves with others. Being a Christian is all about following Christ, trusting Christ, looking to Christ, and seeking Christ. Discipleship is making Christ the desire and delight of your life. Let’s pray for a mighty work of God as we begin to study the third chapter of Philippians this Sunday. Looking forward to worshipping with you all!
Would you like to watch this episode? Go to www.waterbrooke.church to view this episode and more.
In our series on Gospel Friendships, we are going to look at the crucial importance of developing deep friendships with our missionaries.
Waterbrooke has made it one of its priorities to make a difference to the ends of the earth. To do that, we are praying that we might equip and send people to partner and to disciple indigenous Christian leaders around the world. Doing that well takes careful prayerful effort. We want to develop deep relationships rather than wide shallow ones. Andy Johnson writes, “Partnerships shouldn’t be based on projects but on personal relationships. Often we’re tempted to think that we need to have our fingers in many places around the world in order to be faithful to the Great Commission. But keeping up with many contacts in many places often results in shallow and ineffectual relationships".
In most cases, churches would do better to pick a few workers and go deep in their relationship with their work.” In Philippians 2:25-29, we see a powerful example of a deeply loving relationship between the missionary Paul and the church at Philippi through their servant – Epaphroditus.
Would you pray this week that God would foster within us genuine and deep personal relationships with the missionaries we send and support? Would you ask God to give you a deep love for these brothers and sisters in Christ rather than just a distant one? What a difference Waterbrooke can make if we go deep in love and service together!
Beauty Marks "Making Disciples That Reveal the Beauty of Christ" By Pastor Kevin Philippians 2
This Sunday is a very special Sunday at Waterbrooke as we have a number of people who are being baptized. We hope that you can come and rejoice with us at this Christ-exalting celebration. Our study for Sunday is going to be directly related to these baptisms. We are going to pose the question: “What kind of disciples are we making?” Jesus called us to go into all the world and make disciples. In Philippians 2, Paul describes why he is going to send Timothy in his place while he is in prison for His faith. Our message this week is called: Beauty Marks: Making Disciples That Reveal the Beauty of Christ. Looking forward to this exciting Sunday morning. Pray for the powerful presence of Jesus to be with us!
One of the great, glorious passages in the Bible is Philippians 2:1-11. That is what we are going to study this week as we prepare to take communion together. Our gospel ministry flourishes in the world only when God’s people are freed from sin and self to joyfully and sacrificially share with others the rich blessings of life in Christ. The chief enemy of the gospel is not in the world around us but in our own hearts. Andrew Murray wrote, “Pride must die in you, or nothing in heaven can live in you.” Come this Sunday as we seek to do what one writer encourages the church on a mission to do: “To feed on Christ while we fast from self.” Come and let’s feast on Christ together with great joy. Our sermon this weekend is entitled: “The Ego Has Landed.”
Watch this Sermon at www.waterbrooke.church
Our message this Sunday will be focused on the last several verses of Philippians 1. The title is: Living as Worthy Citizens. Gordon Fee writes this: “As Philippi was a colony of Rome in Macedonia, so the church was a ‘colony of heaven’ in Philippi.”
How often do we recognize that the church is strategically placed in the world to communicate and to emulate the gospel? Christians have liberty but they don’t have liberty to put any interest above Christ and any agenda ahead of the gospel.
Let’s come together prayerfully this weekend to consider how it is that we can live our lives in a manner that is worthy of the gospel.
Would you pray for one another that we would truly understand and live as the kingdom of Christ in a world that needs so desperately to encounter and to embrace Jesus?
“Yes, and I Will Rejoice” The Secret to Paul’s Unshakeable Joy Philippians 1:18b-26
This Sunday, we are going to continue in our study of Philippians. The sermon is called "The Secret to Paul’s Unshakeable Joy". Paul writes to his dear friends and tells them confidently that he is not only rejoicing in his imprisonment now but that he will continue to rejoice in the future.
How can Paul know that for certain? How can we, as Christians, be confident that we will rejoice in the future when so many things about the future seem uncertain and unstable? The answer is that some things, the most important things, are certain for every Christian. Come, as we consider, the secret to unshakeable joy. We all need this.
Watch and Listen to previous sermons at www.waterbrooke.church
“Although suffering, Paul is scarcely languishing in prison.” (Gordon Fee)
Praise God for our Sunday worship services! I am enormously thankful for the joy and privilege that so many of us have been granted to worship together outside! The sunshine! The beauty of Lake Wasserman! The joy of great gospel worship! What a gift! Likewise, praise God for the numerous people who are connecting online to worship the Lord with us. God is at work! This Sunday, we are going to see that we can feel this way about God’s work in our lives not just on sunny summer days. You can feel this way when locked up in a prison in Caesarea! In our study of Philippians 1:12-18, we will see how glad- hearted the apostle Paul is because his arrest and imprisonment for the gospel has ended up advancing the gospel in some amazing ways! Gordon Fee writes “Paul is hardly languishing in prison!” Will you pray for your heart and my heart, for your mind and my mind? Will you pray that we would learn to see and to seize the glorious opportunities for the gospel that God places before all of us on a regular basis. Would we learn that there is no reason to languish in our circumstances, when Jesus is Lord. We might be in chains but the gospel is not!
“Forged through the Fire” The Joy of Gospel Friendships Philippians 1:3-11
This Sunday, we will continue our study of the letter to the Philippians and the subject of Gospel Friendships. The apostle Paul absolutely exudes joy and hope during a time of grave danger, imprisonment, and hostility. It is as if Paul’s joy and confidence is actually ratcheted up as the pressure increases upon him and upon the Philippian Christians.
What we need to see is why it is that Paul so deeply delights in his friends at Philippi. What does Paul know that we don’t and why is He so overflowing with joy and hope when he thinks about his Christian friends at Philippi? Looking forward to worshipping over the Word with you all.
This Sunday, we will continue our study of the letter to the Philippians and the subject of Gospel Friendships. The apostle Paul absolutely exudes joy and hope during a time of grave danger, imprisonment, and hostility. It is as if Paul’s joy and confidence is actually ratcheted up as the pressure increases upon him and upon the Philippian Christians.
What we need to see is why it is that Paul so deeply delights in his friends at Philippi. What does Paul know that we don’t and why is He so overflowing with joy and hope when he thinks about his Christian friends at Philippi? Looking forward to worshipping over the Word with you all. Watch previous sermons at www.waterbrooke.church
One of the great gifts of the Christian life is the gift of gospel friendship. We were not made to live this life alone and being faithful to Christ in a world of sin, hardship, and disappointment is challenging, to say the least. The apostle Paul writes to the church at Philippi to express his great joy in their deep friendship and sacrificial partnership in his life and ministry. He writes them, not only to thank them but also to encourage them to not let their dedication to one another to waver.
People have disappointed them. Disagreements inevitably come. However, one of the great joys of being a Christian is having other Christians in your corner helping you to live for and to love Christ supremely. Over the next while, we are going to study Paul’s friendship letter to the Philippians and we are going to learn what real gospel friendships look like. Are you wanting a good gospel friend? Are you willing to be one?
Watch previous sermons or connect with our church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled “The Lens of Omnipotent Love”. When the love of Christ becomes the lens through which we interpret all of life’s events, the world looks very different. Christ’s love is not simply a feeling that He has for us but it is a force that is directed towards our eternal good. How do you view the trials and hardships of life? How often do we find ourselves questioning the love of God in times of heart ache and pain? What happens when we come to believe that there is never a gap between our experience of life and Christ’s expression of love? Read Romans 8:35-39 and ask God to transform our church with the power of the love of Christ.
We would love to pray for you. Go to www.waterbrooke.church/prayer
Hello, fellow Waterbrooke shelter-in-place people! We are looking forward to connecting with one another again via Livestream for our Sunday Worship.
This Sunday, in our study of Romans 8, we are going to begin to look at life in the Spirit. The message is called: "The Incredible Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit". Jesus said that it was better for us that He leave so that He could send His Holy Spirit (John 16:7). We are going to look at why that is on Sunday.
But here is the spoiler: The Holy Spirit totally transforms us so that what would have normally taken us down, ends up taking us up. What would we have turned away from in fear, we face full-on with hope.
This is a timely word for God’s people and I ask you to read over and over Romans 8 and pray over and over for the people and mission of Waterbrooke.
God’s Mission is in Motion" by Pastor Kevin Dibbley Genesis 10
“They say Aslan is on the move- perhaps has already landed". CS Lewis Join us this Sunday as we considered how the sons of Noah fulfilled the call of God to be fruitful and to multiply and fill the earth, we are meant to see a picture of how God would fill the earth with His glory through the church. Let's worship together! If you feel led to give go to www.waterbrooke.church/hub and click giving.
This Sunday's message is from Genesis 9 and is entitled "A New Day and A Clear Vision."
After the flood, God blesses Noah and charges him to "Be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth." That is the marching orders for the church. The wasteland of the world is meant to be transformed with the life-giving, life-transforming power of God.
Our purpose and calling are clear and God's commitment is unswerving. Let's pray that each of us has this kind of clarity giving hope and purpose to our lives in a world that is precious in the eyes of the Lord!
This Sunday, our sermon is entitled "Greater Mercy". Noah had the unenviable task of preparing an ark for 120 years that would save only His family. Despite his prophetic role, no one repented. No one cried out to God. No one but His family was saved. Yet, God sustained and rescued him. As God’s people on God’s mission in a world hell-bent on being hell-bound, Noah’s story is meant to hold out hope for us.
We are to be assured that the same God who carried Noah through it all, will care for us as we fulfill His call to go to all peoples. In fact, we can be assured that not only will God keep and care for us, but God will do a greater work of salvation through His church than he ever did for Noah. There was a great mercy for Noah. There is greater mercy for us.
Note: The recording started a few minutes after Pastor Kevin started. We are in Genesis 7 & 8
This Sunday’s message is from Genesis 6. It is called, "Monumental Hope in a World Gone Mad". All of us have the tendency or temptation to wonder what God is up to or where God is when the evil in the world seems to dominate everything everywhere. If our focus is on the world and not on God and His Word, we can get pretty discouraged.
However, when we see things biblically, the mission of God gains traction and urgency in a world of increasing evil precisely because we know that our God cannot sit idle and do nothing. His nature guarantees that things must be made right. His promise guarantees that things will be made right.
Come and be encouraged by the hope of the gospel as we sing, pray and study God’s Word together.
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we will be looking at Genesis 5. What Moses reveals in this chapter is a glorious truth: Stronger than the pain and sorrow of sin and death is the sovereign, gracious purpose and promise of God.
Our sermon is entitled: An Unbroken Promise for a Deeply Broken World. Would you pray that the Holy Spirit would so glorify God and the hope of that gospel that He would simultaneously comfort us and compel us to live together as His people with hope in a world that needs Him so desperately?
Need Prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled "Sour Grapes and Sovereign Grace: The Hard-hitting Kindness of the Word of God". As we continue our study of Genesis 4, we are reminded that serving God is not easy. In fact, when we are working hard for the Lord, some pretty dangerous things can begin to happen in our hearts.
What happens, when ministry is disappointing. What happens, when it feels like God ignores our sacrifices and honors others instead. What happens in our hearts, when ministry gets hard.
The Bible prepares God’s people for the sacrifices of ministry by kindly but clearly reminding us, that we are servants and not sovereigns. When things go wrong, we ought to cry out to the Lord rather than lash out at one another.
This Sunday, our message was called “Legalism, Lies, and Love.” In our study of Genesis 3, we will see the catastrophe of Adam and Eve’s plunge into sin. Underneath their fall that has wreaked havoc upon all of our lives is a simple and crucial principle: Life is designed for dependence.
Our existence, meaning, joy, and life are inextricably tied to God Himself. The lie of religion and the lie of rebellion both tempt us to think that we determine our own destiny. Our destiny is simple: Trust God and live. Trust self and die.
Come as we see not just the tragedy but the incredible hope and mercy of God in one of the most important chapters in the Bible – Genesis 3.
Freedom from Judgment through Judgment This week we're continuing in our study of Paul's letter to the Colossians. As has been his motif throughout this letter, Paul continues to elevate the church's view of Christ over and above any of their earthly concerns. Only by seeing Jesus in the appropriate light will we be able to make sense of our daily walk, which is why it's vital that we look to Him first.
Join us as we continue to learn to evaluate our lives in light of God's goodness as opposed to evaluating Christ in light of our feelings or circumstances.
This Sunday, we continued to look at Genesis. This time we are going to consider the wisdom of God in His provision and care over our lives. God is on a mission and His plan is to glorify Himself through His people to the ends of the earth!
We have every assurance in the Bible that God will supply all our needs according to His riches in Christ. Embracing the mission of God happens joyfully when we trust the wisdom of God. Come. Read ahead in Genesis 2. Let's join together and rejoice in God and praise His name together.
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
As we begin a New Year, it helps all of us to be simple and clear. So, here is the point of 2020: To follow Christ wherever He calls us to go and to do by faith whatever He has asked of us. The life of faith is an adventure. It will stretch us. It will challenge us. It will humble us. 2020 is a new territory for every person. God simply asks us one question: Will you trust Me wherever I lead you and whatever I ask of you? Just as the Bible begins with God calling Abraham to leave everything to follow Him to the land of the promise, we too, are called to follow Christ (Abraham’s seed) in order that the nations would be blessed.
One simple question is asked of each of us today and each day of 2020: Will you trust Me? Come as we begin a new series this Sunday called "Tremble and Trust: Feeling the Weight of the Word of God and The Worth of the God of the Word". Pray for a fresh vision of God and the adventure of faith.
This Sunday, just before Christmas, our message is called Light Breaks Through. Darkness has a way of seeping into our lives. We live in the shadowlands and slowly we begin to lose heart. We lose perspective. We lose hope. Then, Light!
The Light of the World enters and the cold, fading embers of our faith feel the breath of the Spirit igniting them. The Light breaks over the horizon of our hearts and streams down to where only fears and doubts have had dominion.
Come and worship the Lord Jesus this Sunday and let the light of the gospel fill your heart with new, fresh hope and grace.
This Sunday, we continued our Christmas series, Ready for Christ at Christmas: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Revealing Christ. Last week, we learned that the Holy Spirit prepares us to receive Christ by leading us into repentance. This week, we will see that the Holy Spirit prepares us to follow Christ by leading us into obedience.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin, than courageously and actively doing God’s will.” Sometimes, the thing that intimidates us most about being a Christian is not what God doesn’t want us to do anymore, but what God is calling us to be and to do in the future. Obedience can seem impossible and overwhelming but in the calling of Mary to bear the Son of God, we learn, “nothing is impossible with God.”
www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled: Receptive: How the Holy Spirit Prepares Hearts and Homes to Receive Christ. Over the next several weeks leading up to Christmas, we are going to study the role of the Holy Spirit in the Coming of Jesus Christ. In Luke 1:13-17, Luke describes the coming of the angel Gabriel to Zechariah announcing the birth of John the Baptist. John would be filled with the Spirit and by that Spirit, He would “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.”
As you prepare for Christmas, will you pray that the Spirit would prepare your hearts to receive Christ personally and to transform your homes and families?
Next Steps - https://www.waterbrooke.church/card/next-steps/
This Sunday’s message will be called “Shoring Up Your Shepherds”. Running the race set before us is challenging. Persevering in the faith is difficult. Keeping our mission clear and keeping our resolve strong takes continual encouragement, correction, direction, and help. The Lord has designed the body to be interdependent and He has gifted and called some to shepherd the flock of God.
As the letter comes to an end, the writer urges Christians to do all they can to help their leaders to lead faithfully. Like in the Old Testament story of Aaron and Hur lifting up the arms of Moses in the midst of the battle (Exodus 17:12-14), how can we help our leaders to fulfill their calling on our behalf? Let’s continue to pray for God to make Waterbrooke a united force for the kingdom of Christ.
This Sunday was the International Day of Prayer of the Persecuted Church. It is an annual call to align our hearts and minds in prayer for those who have aligned their lives with the call and cause of Christ. In our study of Hebrews 13:11-16, the Word of God calls us to a clear, public, and unashamed commitment to Jesus Christ no matter what the cost.
Let’s pray for suffering Christians and let’s pray for ourselves that we will stand boldly for Christ who suffered willingly for us so that others might come to know and to love and to trust in our Savior.
Please note the first 5 minutes of the sermon wasn't recorded.
www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday is Reformation Sunday, the one day in the year when Protestant Christians specifically remember those who paid the price to preserve the integrity and the priority of the message of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In our study of Hebrews this week, we are specifically exhorted to remember those who taught God’s Word to us.
This is not merely remembering an old Sunday School teacher or a parent or a pastor. This is a call to remember those who were willing to pay the highest price to preserve and to deliver the gospel faithfully to us. Come this Sunday, as we study “The High and Holy Call of the Gospel.”
This Sunday, our message is called Financial Freedom: How to Be Free From the Love of Money. The challenge that faces most of us is not the seduction of the prosperity gospel, that somehow, we believe that God promises exorbitant riches to those who trust Him by faith. The challenge that faces us is that we lose the priority of the kingdom of Christ by the slow subtle (or not so subtle) seduction of the world.
We find ourselves choosing comfort over the cross and the promises of earthly ease over a life of trusting and following Christ. Come as we study how the gospel frees us from financial fears to follow Christ, joyfully and sacrificially.
Check out Waterbrooke at www.waterbrooke.church
One of the chief harms to many people’s lives and one of the chief hindrances to the advancement of the gospel in our families, communities, and in the world is marital infidelity. Both pastors and people have so frequently experienced the pain, brokenness, failure, and shame of this that there is hardly a church or ministry that isn’t continually in the process of recovering people from the damage.
This Sunday, we will be looking at the call to advance the kingdom of Christ by honoring and protecting the institution of marriage. In the world, marriage is treated as an easily disposable man-made institution. In the kingdom of heaven, marriage is a holy institution designed to emulate and elevate Christ and His love for the church in the gospel. Come and join Waterbrooke as we grow a high and holy view of marriage for the sake of Christ and those that need Christ.
Gospel unity is more than just being a part of the family, it means that we take each other seriously and that we are fervently protective of each other's faith, which is rooted in the truth of the Gospel. In a world that cheapens grace by foisting doubt and duty upon members of Christ's family, the necessity for bearing responsibility for each other's faith becomes paramount. As Paul shows us in his letter to the Colossians, you can't hope to protect the family without protecting the truth!
To find out more about Waterbrooke church - Go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday our message is called: Hospitality and the Expansive Love of Christ. One of the great discoveries in the Christian life is that God expands His work in us by expanding His work through us. One of the clearest evidences of this is in the ministry of hospitality.
God sovereignly sends strangers our way for us to bless because God intends to bless us as we share life in Christ together with them.
As Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive” and we must pray that as we seek opportunities to serve others through hospitality that we will experience what a gift that is to us from the Lord.
This Sunday’s message is called "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?" Just before Hebrews moves into its final chapter, the preacher points us to two mountains. One is Mount Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments. The other is Mount Zion which is the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God where Jesus reigns.
The difference between those two places is staggering. Fear, smoke, thunder fill Sinai. Joy, Singing, Justice fill Mount Zion. What makes the difference? Jesus. Come as we consider the two options that every one of us face – will we stand on our own at Mount Sinai or stand firm in Christ at the gates of Mount Zion?
The sermon this week from Hebrews 12 is entitled: My Brother's Keeper.
The vision of the gospel is of a people who were once deeply broken and wounded by sin entering through Christ into a kingdom of peace and joy and righteousness. The gospel transforms us from being selfishly sinful people to those who would sacrifice to see people made whole again through Christ. This radically shapes our view of the pursuit of holiness. It is far from being cold, legalistic rule-keeping. It is longing for as many people as possible to be saved from the ravages of sin into the gladness and wholeness that is found in Christ alone.
Let's pray that we would be moved by the Spirit of God to be such a community by the power of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled "Growing Deep in Difficult Times: How to Make the Most of our Sufferings". It is easy for all of us to struggle spiritually during the tough trials of the Christian life. Hebrews teaches us that times of hardship are designed both for our growth and for the gospel to advance. Therefore, we need some basic principles and strategies for maximizing hard times in our lives for eternal good.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will help all of us with this as we worship together this week as God’s people.
To find out more about Waterbrooke church go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday morning, we are jumping into the first few verses of Hebrews 12. Our message is entitled: Adjusting Our Focus: Fixing our Eyes on the Author and Finisher of our Faith. One of the reasons that we as Christians struggle so much is that we too easily walk by sight and not by faith. We focus on our problems and we forget about Jesus. We exhaust ourselves trying to change our circumstances when all along Christ is sovereignly working in our circumstances to change our hearts.
Where you focus, completely changes how you respond during hard times. Would you pray for God to do a major change of focus in all our hearts and minds this Sunday?
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
This week’s message is entitled "He is No Fool: How Faith Frees Us From Self to Risk All For Chris't. One of the great blessings of Hebrews 11 is that we have a record of unexceptional people doing exceptional things for Christ. At the heart of their stories is how the gospel set them free from living safe, self- preserving lives.
It freed them in a way that brought God’s approval and brought others hope. Let’s pray as we finish our study of Hebrews 11 that God would empower us to live freely and fully for Christ.
This Sunday’s message is entitled "Seeing is Freeing: How Faith Lets Us See and Sets us Free". In Hebrews 11:23-28, we will see that God led his people out of captivity under Moses by faith. Faith is the ability to see things as they really are, not as sin and the world wants us to.
This is what enables us to live fully for Christ in a hostile world: we see through the lies. We see the way to life. Come and let’s pray for all of us to have eyes to see and lives that are free through Jesus Christ.
This Sunday’s message is called “Parenting and Grand-parenting By Faith”. The great hope of the gospel radically shifts how we raise our children in a world that is often hostile to the gospel.
This Sunday, in our study of Hebrews 11, we will show 4 different approaches to parenting and grand-parenting that are shaped by the hope of the resurrection.
Our prayer is that we would think afresh about how different parenting looks like when the gospel is the greatest singular hope of your life. Pray, invite other parents and grand-parents, and let’s worship together this Sunday.
This Sunday, we are going to look at the Marks of Genuine Faith. Real authentic faith is possible by the grace of God and places God at the pinnacle of our affections and ambitions. Trials test and prove where God really is in our hearts affections! Come and prayerfully consider Hebrews 11 along with us.
Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
Hebrews 11 is the Bible’s great chapter on faith. It is the Bible’s Declaration of Dependence. The declaration of faith in Hebrews 11 reveals that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not come from exerting our independence but by putting ourselves in full dependence upon God alone. Our hope and our joy in difficult times and trials come from living our lives confidently in the certainty of God’s character, provision, and promise in Christ.
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we will be looking at a strong strong warning passage. Our message is called “Urgent: Take Refuge Now”. In Hebrews 10:26-31, the writer reminds us that God is a consuming fire. He has covenanted to remove all Christ’ enemies. The gospel is the great but sobering news that God has offered to rescue us from His own coming wrath.
It’s not an easy summer text but it may be the most important passage of your life. Pray that God would move in power and mercy this Sunday to cause people to take refuge in Christ and the gospel.
This Sunday, our message is entitled: Fully Forgiven. For many Christians, living the Christian life feels overwhelming. We continually have to come to terms with the depth of our fallenness and depravity. We are profoundly broken people living in a profoundly broken world.
What makes the gospel uniquely powerful is this: God’s people can have rock solid confidence that although the challenges of living for Christ will take us into deep waters and expose real areas that need change and growth in our lives, God is unrelentingly for us.
Our faith rests, not on our feelings, but fully on the finished work of Christ. If God is for us, who can be against us? Come and be encouraged in the gospel.
Join us Sundays at 10am
To find out more about Waterbrooke Christian Church - go to www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled “The Three Appearances of Jesus’ Christ.” In Hebrews 9:15-28, the Bible tells us about the glorious truth that we who are called by God to faith in Jesus Christ now live under the unshakeable hope and reality of the “New Covenant”.
Everything for the Christ has changed: past, present, and future because of the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ. For weary, struggling, and discouraged Christians, the New Covenant announces this great message of hope: Christ has you covered. Your past is covered. Your present is covered. Your future is covered.
Come and be encouraged in the gospel this Sunday.
Check out our website for more information and upcoming events. www.waterbrooke.church
A proper functioning conscience is necessary to faithful service to God. The only thing that can restore it fully is the gospel. Anything else will attempt to kill it or to corrupt it. The cleansing provided in the gospel alone can return it to its intended working order.
Come this Sunday as we study Hebrews 9:1-14 and pray for the hearts of everyone who comes for worship. One of the great sources of anxiety and frustration that many of us face is not being able to find full freedom from inward guilt and shame. The great news of the gospel is that Christ has come to grant us “Fully and Forever Clean: What Christ Alone Can Do for Your Conscience.” That is the title of this week’s message.
Christians regularly find themselves in impossible situations. Like the people of Israel, cornered by the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, we often read the situation wrong and respond in fear. They felt that they were in grave danger when it was actually the other way around.
One of the keys to courage and faith is for God’s people to realize that God sends us and leaves us in hard places where our only hope is Christ. We need to remember is how “Perfectly Positioned” that Christ is to do what looks impossible to us. That’s the title of our message this Sunday in Hebrews 8 – “Perfectly Positioned to Do The Impossible.”
Come and have your faith strengthened by God’s Word and through worship with God’s people.
One thing that is increasingly clear to the church in the West is the biblical truth that we who are followers of Jesus Christ are exiles and strangers in this world. Being truly faithful to the call of Christ upon our lives leaves us as clear cultural outsiders. This is nothing new to the church globally or historically.
Most Christians down through the ages have faced persecution or alienation. In America, this is becoming increasingly clear and that isn’t completely bad. For one thing, it reminds us of our calling and purpose. We are called to be salt and light in a dark and decaying world. It also brings home our citizenship.
We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven not the kingdoms of men. It also undoubtedly clarifies our need. Unless the Lord builds the house, our labor is absolutely in vain. Hebrews 7:26-28 is written to Christians under persecution and it declares to us why Jesus is “The Perfect Priest for a Persecuted People.”
Read ahead and pray through this passage of Scripture and ask that we might know, love, trust, and rejoice in Jesus more. See you Sunday. Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled “Salvation Guaranteed”. When we watch the incredible uncertainty that appears to surround the world today, we ought to celebrate the unshakable security that belongs to us as Christians.
The church of Christ is being bombed and intimidated more today than at any time in its history. That stats are staggering. Yet, against all the hostility the church has ever faced, the Bible resonates with the great and unshakable hope that Christ is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him.
It is not what we see happening on earth that determines our destiny. It is who we see in heaven interceding for us that is the ground of our faith and hope! Let’s reflect together on the truth that we have a great and glorious high priest who lives forever on our behalf!
This week we celebrate the resurrection through Paul's declaration of Christ as both the Lord of Creation and the Lord of Redemption. In his letter to the church in Colossae, by turning their focus to Christ's authority and rule, Paul encouraged the church to rest in the knowledge that Christ is risen and reigning on our behalf as He works to redeem all creation through the cross. Join us next Sunday and celebrate resurrection, both Christ's and our own!
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday is Palm Sunday. Our message is called: "The Shock and the Shake-Up: How Christ Brought Radical Hope to God’s People". What God did in Jesus Christ during His earthly was shocking. It was completely unexpected. His behavior and His teaching caught everyone off guard. But nothing was as radical as the last week of Jesus’ life. No one anticipated the cross and the resurrection.
No one could anticipate that Christ was not simply turning people’s expectations on its head. He was permanently altering the terms of our relationship with God. As we celebrate Palm Sunday, let’s rejoice that Christ brings together what no one else could ever do before. Christ changed everything. Forever.
Note: the end of the sermon is cut-off to some technical issues.
"Battling Spiritual Sluggishness" Mini-Series By Pastor Kevin Dibbley Sunday, March 31st This Sunday’s message is called “Slugging It out With Sluggishness”. Some battles aren’t worth fighting. But some are! The writer to the Hebrews is fighting to light a fire under these Christians because this battle is for their joy and salvation. Sluggish Christians are easily disheartened and discouraged.
Christians who are determined to know God are more likely to be Christians who delight in God. Christians who are willing to wrestle with God are more likely to be Christians who rest in God. Pray that God would use this Sunday’s message to light a fire in our hearts to know God better.
"Battling Spiritual Sluggishness" Mini-Series By Pastor Kevin Dibbley Sunday, March 31st This Sunday’s message is called “Slugging It out With Sluggishness”. Some battles aren’t worth fighting. But some are! The writer to the Hebrews is fighting to light a fire under these Christians because this battle is for their joy and salvation. Sluggish Christians are easily disheartened and discouraged.
Christians who are determined to know God are more likely to be Christians who delight in God. Christians who are willing to wrestle with God are more likely to be Christians who rest in God. Pray that God would use this Sunday’s message to light a fire in our hearts to know God better.
"Battling Spiritual Sluggishness" Mini-Series By Pastor Kevin Dibbley Sunday, March 24th It is easy to grow distant from God's people. It is not uncommon for Christians to become discouraged with the church. The reason that the writer to the Hebrews exhorts them to grow deeper in their knowledge of God is because that will inevitably lead them to grow deeper in their devotion to one another as his church. Come this Sunday as we consider the final message in our series: Battling Spiritual Sluggishness. This message is called: Loving God’s Name, Loving God’s People.
"Battling Spiritual Sluggishness" Mini-Series By Pastor Kevin Dibbley Sunday, March 10th Hebrews 5:11-6:12 - PART 2
This Sunday, in our series, Finish Line Faith, we will continue a mini-series entitled Battling Spiritual Sluggishness. Hebrews 5:11-6:12 confronts Christians who have become spiritually sluggish.
There are many perils that face us if we do not continue to grow in the truth of the gospel. We all know the temptation to not continue to grow. Yet, the greatest encouragements belong to those who see more and more of the wisdom, goodness, and grace of God in the glorious truths of the gospel.
Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
"Battling Spiritual Sluggishness (Laziness)" Mini-Series By Pastor Kevin Dibbley Sunday, February 24th Hebrews 5:11-6:12
Charles Spurgeon once stated the battle that faces every Christian: “We must keep going forward. There is no such thing in the Christian life as standing still, and we dare not turn back.” This Sunday, in our series, Finish Line Faith, we will begin a mini-series entitled Battling Spiritual Sluggishness. Hebrews 5:11-6:12 confronts Christians who have become spiritually sluggish.
There are many perils that face us if we do not continue to grow in the truth of the gospel. We all know the temptation to not continue to grow. Yet, the greatest encouragements belong to those who see more and more of the wisdom, goodness, and grace of God in the glorious truths of the gospel.
www.waterbrooke.church
Join us for the Week of Prayer as we spend time with the Lord and pray for our church, people and nation.
www.waterbrooke.church
For every Christian, there is the challenge of considering whether we functionally believe in our lives what we actually confess with our lips. One of the great truths of our confession as believers is that Christ is risen from the dead and He is reigning on high. One area of our lives that this transforms is our prayer lives. There out to be a holy boldness about our prayer lives. In Hebrews 4:14-16, this Sunday we are going to reflect on the encouragement for every Christian to “Come Boldly To the Throne of Grace.”
A couple of things about this Sunday: it’s supposed to jump up into the 40’s after this deep freeze! That’s good news. But more importantly, we are going to look at great great great news. The Father has appointed the Son to plead for us! If you want read Hebrews 5:1-10 in preparation and as you do, just think about why God appointed Jesus to be our high priest. It will do your heart and mind much good to realize that how He pleaded for Himself, Jesus now pleads for you and me. Our sermon is called: God’s man for the job.
"His Promise Still Stands" - Hebrews 4: 1-13 By Pastor Kevin Dibbley
This Sunday, we are going to be taking a look at Hebrews 4:1-13. Our message is called"His Promise Still Stands". Every living follower of Christ stands at the edge of eternity. Before us is the promise of entering God’s great eternal rest. Between us and our eternal goal are perceived “giants” in the land. What the writer to the Hebrews warns us is that the giant that we have to fear is not outside us, but inside us. The battle is a battle of faith versus unbelief. Let’s pray and consider this crucial truth together.
What to Expect this Sunday "Watching Over Your Heart" - Hebrews 3 By Pastor Kevin Dibbley
This Sunday, we are going to look at one of the most basic and yet absolutely critical parts of the Christian life – Watching over your heart. Most of the time, our temptation is to be focused on what is happening around us or to us. The circumstances of our lives consume our attention and can fuel our anxieties. What Hebrews 3 will teach us is that it is what is happening in our hearts is what matters most. The enemy wants us to focus outwardly and test God. The Lord calls us to look inwardly and trust God. Let’s pray over our hearts and listen to God’s word together. Find out more about Waterbrooke at www.waterbrooke.church
Our study of Hebrews 3 reveals to us that faithfulness is a mark of God's people. As we enter 2019, what is your goal? What is your game plan? What is your attitude? Does 2019 fill you with questions or concerns or are you full of hope and confidence? Let's think about this together this Sunday morning.
Find out more about Waterbrooke at www.waterbrooke.church
Based on Colossians 1:9-14
“Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding His spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light.
For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:9-14 NIV)
Find out more about Waterbrooke Church at www.waterbrooke.church
In a paper given at the Oxford Socratic Club, CS Lewis made his famous quote: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” The glory of Christmas is that, as Isaiah 9:2 states “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them a light has shone.” This Sunday at Waterbrooke, we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the entrance of the One true light into the midst of darkness, the hope of the world into our despair, the One who gives light and life to all who trust in Him. We, of all people, ought to sing and to celebrate, to rejoice and to worship. Let’s gather as a redeemed family and sing His the praises of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ and celebrate the life- giving Light of the world.
This Sunday, we are going to consider just one verse, Hebrews 2:17. The message is entitled: Bringing Back His Brothers. This verse reveals just how stunning the coming of the Messiah was. When humanity found itself entangled in a world full of misery, God overflowed with heart full of mercy. When God called for someone to step up to save His people, His Son stepped down into our broken world.
Need Prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church and fill out our prayer form. We would love to pray for you.
Have a Blessed Day.
This Sunday, we will be considering together Hebrews 2:18. The message is entitled: Help When Its Hardest. The message of Christmas, the story of the incarnation of the Son of God, is an invasion of mercy into a world of misery. It is not a cute sentimental story. It directly answers life’s toughest questions. It meets us and ministers to us when life blows harsh and cold. Come as we rejoice in a Savior who came to help us when life is hardest.
Need Prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church to fill out our prayer/praise request form.
Have a blessed day!
This Sunday, we will begin our Christmas reflections as we continue our study of Hebrews 2. Our message, entitled Born to Set Thy People Free, is taken from 2:14-16. Fear and anxiety are commonplace in our culture. What we will see is that this is not new or accidental. It is the strategy of Satan to keep people locked into a fear of death. Christ came to bring this cruelty to an end by doing the only thing that could silence Satan and save us - to die in our place. Come as we think about the freedom that is ours because of the coming of Christ as a human being.
Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday’s message is entitled “Not Ashamed to Call Us His Brethren.”The stunning news of the gospel is the incredible humble and gracious work of Christ on our behalf. He champions our cause and makes certain our salvation even though the path to glory goes straight through the misery of the cross. This week, we will look at the glory that belongs to us all because Jesus was willing to make a way to blaze the trail through suffering. Join us on Sunday at 8:30am or 10:45am. www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, November 11th , we will be looking at this staggering truth about how much God cares about His children. When we struggle, the questions that come to our minds are often: “Where are you, God? Do you care, God? Do you even know what I am going through?” If you want to prepare ahead, read Hebrews 2:5-9 and Psalm 8. The answer is that not only does God think of us, but incredibly He has destined us to share in His glory. Destined for Glory is the title of Sunday’s message and its great news for God’s family.
Join us on Sundays at 8:30am and 10:45
Sunday School for all ages at 10:45am
www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we studied Hebrews 2:1-4. The message is called The Danger of Drifting. The reality for Christians is that living in the world always produces a challenge to our faith. The current of culture always flows steadily away from trusting Christ and remaining faithful to the Lord. Without careful attention to the truth of Christ, we will always be in peril. Thank God for the power and wisdom of His Word and the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ! Join us on Sunday at 8:30am or 10:45am. Find out more about our church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we will dive into chapter one and the incredible reality that God has spoken in the clearest and most seriously loving way that He possibly could – By His Son. That’s the title of the sermon. By His Son is the phrase that gives every Christian great assurance and joy. By His Son is the phrase that gives every believer sobriety and reverence. The most significant fact in your life and my life is that God’s Son has spoken. It is God’s chief concern and it has to beyours and mine.
Need Prayer? Go to www.waterbrooke.church/info
Have a Blessed day!
“In Christ, we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory.” HB Charles, Jr. Living the Christian life is a struggle. There is never a neutral moment. The call of Christ is to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily and to follow Him. Left to ourselves, we easily grow weary and lose heart. This Sunday, we will begin a study of the Book of Hebrews. The author clearly calls Christians to the task of collective ncouragement to run the race to the finish line. Encourage, encourage, encourage! We need it from one another daily. We can find it here in God’s Word. As we begin this study, we will take an overview of this great letter and see that despite the perils that have always faced Christians, we have a solid hope for preserving today and for all eternity.
Find out more about out church at www.waterbrooke.church
This Sunday's Sermon is entitled A Strong Word To the Wise(and to the Fool.) With clarity and urgency, Jesus reminds us that what we do with His Words will have profound and everlasting impact for each of us. Your life is going to be shaken. It will likely happen many times in this life. It will inevitably happen in a final way for every person at the end of time. Your eternity hinges on what you do now with Christ and His Word. Christ's Word is designed to dig down deep and transform the foundation and the future of your life.
Find out more about our church at waterbrooke.church
This Sunday, we will continue in the section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus speaks in very clear and sobering terms about entering the Kingdom of heaven. What we need to realize is that the Christian life must be always be lived decisively. To be a disciple of Jesus does not involve a one-time decision. Rather, it requires us to make a major decision followed by a life of choices to continually hear and to follow Christ. Our sermon this week is entitled Decide and Discern Part 2.
Find out more about what's going on at Waterbrooke at www.waterbrooke.church
"Decide and Discern" Part 1 by Pastor Kevin Dibbley
This Sunday, we come to the concluding section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus speaks in very clear and sobering terms about entering the Kingdom of heaven. What we need to realize is that the Christian life must be always be lived decisively. To be a disciple of Jesus does not involve a one-time decision. Rather, it requires us to make a major decision followed by a life of choices to continually hear and to follow Christ. Our sermon this week is entitled Decide and Discern.
This week’s message is entitled “Removing Logs and Starving Hogs” This is a humbling passage of Scripture that has real relevance to all believers. Why do the sins of others bother us more than our own? Why don’t we see that being bothered by the sins of others is itself a very big sin? Let’s prayerfully consider Jesus’ call to deal with our own big blind spot before we attempt to remove the spiritual speck in someone else’s eye.
This Sunday, our message is called "Worry or Worship". In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus teaches is that anxiety is the result of bad theology. The way to answer a life of worry is with a life of worship. Change how you view your heavenly Father and you will change how you view life’s uncertainties and trials.