Waterbrooke Church

”The Cross-Shaped Kingdom.” - Glorious Disruption

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.

“The Tenacious Welcome of Heaven” - Glorious Disruption

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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“Shepherded Out of Shame - Glorious Disruption

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.

From Fear to Freedom - Glorious Disruption

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!”

Why do you call me Lord? - Glorious Disruption by Pastor John Hall

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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Scandalous Mercy Part 2 - Study of Luke by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

Part 2 - Listen to Part 1 Here
 
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.”

Scandalous Mercy Part 1 - Study of Luke by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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

January 23, 2020 ”Glorious Disruption” Luke 6:12-26 By Pastor John Hal

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

January 18, 2022 ”Jesus: Our Rest and Our Restorer Part 2 - Luke 6:6-11” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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!

January 10, 2022 ”Jesus: Our Rest and Our Restorer” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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 thisSunday 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

January 2, 2022 ”New Wine for a New Year.” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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/

December 26, 2021 ”The Church of Brotherly and Sisterly Love.” by Pastor Steve Kim

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

December 19, 2021 ”Jesus, the Upside-Down Savior” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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

October 10, 2021 ”Amazing Savior: Earthly Misery Disrupted by Heavenly Mercy” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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.

October 3, 2021 ”Disrupted Anonymity – God’s Astonishing Call of Mary and God’s Astonishing Call of Us” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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

September 26, 2021 ”Disrupted Disgrace” by 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).

April 11, 2021 "Abraham's Very Bad Plan and Abraham's Very Good God." by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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.

March 28, 2021 "Fleeing Sodom to Christ" by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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.

March 21, 2021 "What to Do When the World has Gone Mad" by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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.

March 14, 2021 "Feasting With God" by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

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!