Waterbrooke Church

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.

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

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 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.