Waterbrooke Church

Pastor Kevin Dibbley

Waterbrooke Church seeks to be a gospel-centered multiethnic family that is Captivated by Jesus, Compelled to love others, and Called to make disciples to the glory of God.

  1. Sep 20

    "Living in Awe of the Lord" | Psalm 139

    Do you ever wonder if there is anyone who even knows you exist? Or cares? There is a moment in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel when the prophet Samuel is sent to Bethlehem to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to be God’s king. When Samuel meets with Jesse and his sons, he soon discovers that none of the seven sons that Jesse brings are God’s chosen king. So, he asks Jesse if there are any other sons out there. Jesse reveals that the youngest son, David, wasn’t invited. He was out shepherding the fields. So, Jesse sends for David and David is anointed to be God’s next king over Israel. I wonder how that felt. I wonder what David experienced as a young man living a life where no one, not even his father, gave him much notice to his existence.  What was it like to have no one in his family have any high hopes for how his life will turn out.? In the next chapter of 1 Samuel (ch.17), when David is sent by his father to bring food for his brothers, his eldest brother scornfully chides David for speaking out against Goliath’s taunting of the armies of Israel. He says “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?” In other words, go back to the fields where you belong, punk! David is not seen. David is not valued. David is not needed. In Psalm 139, we see why and how much David delights in the Lord.    God knew him, cared about him, and God had a detailed plan for David’s life. To David, this is mind-blowing. David is in awe of God.  Our sermon this Sunday is called Living in Awe of the Lord. What an amazing thing it is to think and to know that while we may feel invisible to the world around us, we are seen, known, and loved by God. In the gospel, we discover that while God is about the work of redeeming His people and making the world new again, God is also intentionally and attentively pursuing every one of His children. Come this Sunday. It’s a special service. We will listen to the testimonies of  friends from Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge. We will also contemplate the glorious truth that God sees and persistently pursues each one of us who belong to Him. God sees us when we are forgotten by others. May the beautiful truths of Psalm 139 cause us to be filled with overwhelming awe for such a great and gracious God and may that completely transform how we live. It’s a special Sunday. There’s a barbecue after the second service. We hope that you will come!

  2. Sep 6

    Give me Life | Psalm 119:33-40.

    In Plato’s Republic, he tells the Allegory of the Cave. In it, we are to imagine an underground world, where people are chained in a cave for their entire lives. They can only see shadows on the wall cast by a distant fire. In the lesson, Plato has Socrates ask his student Glaucon if the people who have been living all their lives chained in the cave would think the shadows are reality. The student replies ‘Yes.’  But then the wise teacher says: “Now imagine what would happen naturally if the prisoners were released from their shackles and cured of their ignorance. Right after they are released and suddenly forced to stand up, turn their necks around, walk, and look towards the light, these activities will cause them pain; because of the bright glare they would be unable to see those things which they previously had seen only as shadows. Now what do you think they would say if one were to tell them that what they saw before was fooling them, but that now, when they are closer to what really exists and when they face that which more truly exists, they see more clearly, in a straightforward manner? What if that person pointed to the objects as they passed and asked the former prisoners to tell him what they were? Don’t you think they would be baffled and think that the shadows they formerly saw were truer than the objects that are now being pointed out to them?” The allegory goes on to discuss more deeply the path to discovering wisdom and virtue but I think it is a powerful picture of life as a Christian.  The Christian, once they have been given spiritual eyes to see, can no longer pretend that the shadow world of living for sin and pleasure and riches is actually life. Conversion is a radical discovery that what you thought was life was only the shadows. True life is found only when you are living in the reality of Christ and the heavenly world of gospel grace. In our study of the Wisdom Psalms, this week we are going to continue in Psalm 119:33-40. The sermon is entitled “Give Me Life!” Twice in this passage, the psalmist says “Give me life.” It is clear in the Bible that what often purports to be life is actually death and what actually seems like death to many is life.  How many people live their whole lives unaware that they no nothing of real life? How tempting is it for us to live in the old familiar shadows of a dark world that only casts reflections of the real life of God’s Word. Wisdom is a God-given determination to live in the Real World… anything less is death.  Come this Sunday, as we listen to the Psalmist prayer asking to be lead forward into all that is Life. Let’s learn together how to no longer live as we once did in the darkness of a world of sin and death. Let’s seek real Life together in Christ. See you Sunday! Invite a friend.

  3. Aug 9

    Jonah 4 | Andrew Keppel

    This Sunday, Andy Keppel will conclude his series on Jonah. If you'd like to read ahead, here's the text of Jonah 4: 4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” 5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

  4. Aug 2

    "The Redemptive Family" | Psalm 127

    This Sunday, we looked at a well-known Psalm, the 127th. Our sermon is called “The Redemptive Family.” We live in a world that has seen families decimated by sin and brokenness. That’s not new. We have experienced it! Family heartache begins in the book of Genesis and carries right on into the New Testament. Sin has shattered families and left a staggering and disorienting effect on many men, women and young people. Yet, there is hope.  The good news that the Scriptures reveal to us is that God has come not merely to offer us a better way to live. God has purposed to adopt us as his own children. In his wisdom and grace, God has created a new family called the church. The mission of God advances as we proclaim the hope of the gospel as a community of brothers and sisters in Christ. The mission advances as the Father and Son welcome the broken, the wounded, the abandoned, and the lost into a new community -  a redemptive family – which is built upon the mercy and grace of a Father who loves the orphan and the widow and an elder Brother who redeems and rescues the prodigal. The church is God’s redemptive family.  We hope that you will join us this Sunday as we gather not just as a group of people but as God's family. Pray that God might transform your vision of the church and its mission so that more and more people will not only hear but experience the joy of belonging to the family of God.  Join us next Sunday at 9 or 11am.

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Waterbrooke Church seeks to be a gospel-centered multiethnic family that is Captivated by Jesus, Compelled to love others, and Called to make disciples to the glory of God.