Watermark Bible Church, Portsmouth, Virginia

Have you ever been in a situation where you are asking the wrong question so you’re not getting the answers you had hoped? Or worse still, you are giving the wrongs answers and therefore not getting the results you had hoped. We know the importance of asking the right questions and giving the right answers, but what are the right questions and answers. This week, as we study the next section in Mark’s gospel, Jesus will give wisdom so that we can ask and answer correctly the most important questions of life.

What defines your life? What in your life would you give up everything to protect? A young man had to wrestle with that as he dialogued with Jesus. He gave up everything to protect his wealth and in the end he was sad. When we find our identity in anything or anyone other than Jesus that’s what ultimately happens.

GOAT, greatest of all time, has become a popular acronym in our culture. We use it to talk about athletes and actors. As it turns out Jesus had something to say about true greatness. His definition redefines what the world would say with practical wisdom for all of us.

This Sunday we are jumping back into our Empowered series on the book of Mark! We often live our lives rushing from one event to the next, feeling captive to the demands of our schedules. We’ve been conditioned to believe this is just what a “normal” family does. But you weren’t made for this constant spin cycle! Starting this Sunday in Mark 9 we will see that we were made for more that the hamster wheel of life. Jesus empowers his church to live sacrificially as we serve others. So, join us as we discover what the Empowered life is all about.

Happy New Year Central! May your new year be filled with blessings and may you grow even closer to God! With a new year comes new plans and goals. What would it look like if we were to allow God to make the plans and for us to be willing to be used by Him in 2023? Join us this Sunday for the 10:30 service to make sure our new year plans are not about us using God the way we see fit, but instead allowing God to use us the way He sees fit.

Merry Christmas! This weekend is one of our most special weekends of the year. This will be a unique service where we light our final advent candle and have some fun as we worship Christ, our king!

Charles Dickens', A Christmas Carol, is the most popular Christmas play of the season. There is something so captivating about the story. Scrooge begins by declaring Christmas is a humbug, a fraud. Instinctively people have a visceral reaction to such a thought. Everything from the lights, the decorations, the music, and the food tell us there is something special about this season. However, what truly makes Christmas special is the true light from heaven – Jesus Christ.

In many ways Christmas is the most beautiful time of the year. It’s that time when houses are lit up, Christmas trees are put up, and decorations abound alerting us that this is a special season. But, with all the glitz and glamour, all the lights and decorations, there is just one true light. If we miss Him we miss more than we realize. However, if we receive the true light we gain more than we ever imagined.

The world is full of darkness. We look around and we see the darkness of broken relationships, the darkness of broken-down bodies, the darkness of broken hopes and dreams. At the dawn of creation, as the darkness hovered, the first words spoken by God were, let there be light. It was as if God the Son pulled back the curtains of time and space and revealed the splendor of who He is before he ever spoke the physical world into existence. He filled the universe with the light of His presence. This Christmas season we are joining with John as He first introduced Jesus and inviting you Into the Light. The Christmas message provides a light of hope for a broken humanity. And the thing about light is – light always defeats the darkness! So, come into the light with us this Christmas season!

We have made it to the half-way point in Mark’s gospel. There are 16 chapters and we are studying the end of Mark 8 this Sunday. The half-way point also marks a major shift in the book. The focus will turn from rightly recognizing the person of Jesus to rightly recognizing the mission of Jesus and the mission he empowers his disciples for. This is an important section and timely reminder of what’s required for genuine discipleship.