Merry Christmas. On this fourth and final Sunday of Advent, we turn our attention to God’s unending love—a love that did not remain distant, abstract, or untouchable, but took on flesh and bone and came near.

Advent invites us to slow down and remember the story of Jesus’ coming: Hope. Peace. Joy. Love.

Not as ideas, but as a Person.

This message explores the deepest truth of Christmas: Immanuel — God with us.
A God who was once experienced as “above” and unapproachable draws near in Jesus, enters family life, touches the fearful, restores the broken, and ultimately comes to dwell within us by His Spirit.

We reflect on:

• Why humanity’s deepest longing is not for answers, success, or control—but for God Himself

• How Jesus reveals the Father fully and completely

• What the incarnation tells us about love, family, and belonging

• How the Christmas story moves from God above us → God with us → God within us

• Why the birth of Jesus is not just a celebration, but an invitation

We also look closely at the nativity story through the lens of Scripture and first-century culture, discovering that Jesus was born not in isolation, but into family—pointing to God’s heart to place the lonely into families and reconcile us into His own.

This message reminds us that Christmas is not about behavior modification or religious striving. It is about receiving love—a love wide and long and high and deep, a love that heals, restores, and sends us back into the world as carriers of that same love.

As we close Advent and step into Christmas, the invitation remains: Open your heart. Say yes. Receive the God who came for you—and now lives in you.

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Advent Week 3

This week we stepped into the Advent theme of Peace, but not the thin version of peace we often imagine. In Isaiah 9, Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, and the angels in Luke 2 proclaim “peace on earth.” Yet when we look at our world, our culture, or even our own homes, it often feels like the opposite.In this message, we explore the deeper biblical meaning of shalom—a word that goes far beyond the absence of conflict. Shalom means wholeness, harmony, restoration, and everything broken being made whole again. It is personal, relational, social, and cosmic. And it’s the kind of peace Jesus came to bring.

We talk about:

• Why “peace” can feel impossible in a fractured world
• The difference between calm circumstances and true shalom
• How Jesus’ kingdom is increasing even in places of grief and struggle
• What it means that of His peace there will be no end
• How we live as ambassadors of peace in a world desperate to experience it

The first week of Advent leads us straight into the tension we all feel: we’re people living between promise and fulfillment. Scripture shows generation after generation waiting in the dark for God to move and when the Light finally breaks in through Jesus, we see the shaping power of hope.

In this message we explore:

• Why Advent begins with waiting
• How the 400 “silent years” form the backdrop of Jesus’ arrival
• The messy human experience of hoping for what hasn’t yet come
• The stories of Zachariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna
• How hope shapes us, not after the waiting, but in it
• Why Jesus’ coming reframes our deepest questions and disappointments
• How we open our tables, time, and generosity to embody Hope this season

If your story right now carries longing, silence, unmet hopes, or deep questions, we invite you to watch this teaching. Advent gives language to the in-between places we often don’t know how to name.

“We live in unshakable hope of the coming dawn.”

This week at Living Waters, we closed our Foundations series by exploring a Kingdom perspective on the end times — one rooted in Jesus’ words, historical context, and the unstoppable hope of His Kingdom.

So many of us grew up with fear-based teaching about the end: tribulation, escape plans, rapture anxiety, the Antichrist, and a world destined to fall apart. But what if Jesus meant exactly what He said in Matthew 24? What if the “great tribulation” He described was fulfilled in A.D. 70, just as He promised it would happen within that generation? And what if that changes everything about how we see our future?

In this message, Ryan walks through:

🌿 A fresh look at Matthew 24 through the eyes of the disciples

🌿 Historical events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem

🌿 Why Jesus’ warnings mattered for the first century—and what they mean for us today

🌿 How fear-based futurism has shaped modern Christianity

🌿 Why a Kingdom worldview leads to hope, mission, and courage

🌿 How the Gospel frees us to believe that things can get better, not worse

If the Kingdom really is increasing…

If Jesus really is reigning…

If His government has no end…

Then our future is filled with purpose.

This week in our Foundations series, we explored what it means to be Kingdom People—a Spirit-filled community called and empowered to represent God to the world.

From Babel to Pentecost, Scripture tells the story of a God who restores what was divided. At Pentecost, His Spirit was poured out on all people—sons and daughters, men and women—empowering each one to carry His presence and proclaim His Kingdom.

At Living Waters, we believe that men and women are equally created in God’s image, equally redeemed by Jesus, and equally empowered by the Spirit. Together, we reflect the fullness of His heart and mission.

This week, we explored what it means to live as people filled with God’s Spirit — a people of Kingdom authority, power, and presence.

The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us, empowering us to know Him deeply, to make Him known boldly, and to walk in victory over anything that stands against His Kingdom.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time experience but an ongoing reality. He is with us to guide and comfort, within us to transform and bear fruit, and upon us to empower us to bring the Kingdom near.

Let this message stir a deeper hunger for His presence — that we would not live by our own strength, but by the Spirit who fills us without limit.

In this week’s message from our Foundations series, we explored the unseen battle between truth and lies, a spiritual reality that shapes how we see God, ourselves, and the world.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) The enemy’s strategy is deception. Subtle lies that distort reality and keep us bound by fear, shame, or confusion. But through the cross, Jesus disarmed the powers of darkness and gave us authority to stand firm in His victory.

When we bring every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), we break agreement with lies and align our minds with truth. Freedom begins when we stop believing what the enemy says about us and start standing on what God says is true.

You don’t fight for victory, you fight from it.
The battle belongs to Jesus, and He’s already won.