Waterbrooke Church

Deep and Wide: Making Disciples to the Ends of the Earth | Acts 15:36-16:5

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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"By Grace Alone" | Acts 15:1-35

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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"God's Unrelenting Faithfulness | Acts 13:13-52

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.

"Victory Over Darkness" | Acts 13:4-12

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.

"God’s Church for God’s Mission" | Acts 13:1-4

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.
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Keep Yourselves in the Love of God | Jude 17-25

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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Abiding in Christ's Love | John 15:1-17

This Sunday, we studied the call of Jesus in John 15:1-17 to abide in him. TheLord says these words in John 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so I have lovedyou. 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.

Summer Series | Guest Speaker Diego De La Vega on Ephesians 2:1-10

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.

"Loving Jesus Jesus' Way" | John 21:15-23 by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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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The More Excellent Way | 1 Corinthians 13

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. 

"God's Love for Waterbrooke Church" | Ephesians 3:14-21

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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"Let Brotherly Love Continue" | Hebrews 13:1-8

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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"God's Love Through His Creation" | Romans 8:18-25

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.
 

“Owe Nothing But to Love.” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley | Series Summer of LOVE

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 theenjoyment 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!

"Let Your Love Be Genuine", Romans 12:9-13 by Pastor Kevin Dibbley | Summer of Love

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!

Love Like Your Father, Matthew 5:43-48 by Pastor Kevin Dibbley | Summer of Love

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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"The Love Of God In His Wrath" by Bruce Washington | Series Summer of Love

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.
 
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"How The Trinity Fuels Our Love" by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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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"Love is Heart Work" 1 Peter 1:22-25 by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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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“Summer of Love: How God’s Love Compels Us to Love Others.” Sermon Series | Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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 ourHoly 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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