“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"

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.