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.

Join us Sundays at 9 & 11am - waterbrooke.church

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.