Waves Church

Jesus gave the two greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor. And for one lawyer who heard Jesus speaking, that begged a question: "Who is my neighbor?" In this sermon guest speaker Chris Collins helps us to wrestle and reckon with the parable Jesus told to answer the lawyer's question.
About the Parables series: Jesus is the most famous teacher in world history. And his trademark teaching style was through parables - short stories and word pictures. He’d lead into one saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” This was His way of using everyday experiences to unveil eternal realities - fields and sheep and vineyards helped reveal ‘things hidden since the creation of the world.’ So if we want see God’s Kingdom the way Jesus did, we need to listen close when Jesus says, “It’s like this…”
Speaker: Chris Collins
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.

"There was a man who had two sons..." So begins what is arguably the most famous parable Jesus ever told. Charles Dickens called it the finest short story ever written. Jesus tells a story that hits every person in his audience - from the spiritually bankrupt to the spiritually proud. And more than anything else, Jesus reveals to us a Father who will do whatever it takes to get his family back.
About the Parables series: Jesus is the most famous teacher in world history. And his trademark teaching style was through parables - short stories and word pictures. He’d lead into one saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” This was His way of using everyday experiences to unveil eternal realities - fields and sheep and vineyards helped reveal ‘things hidden since the creation of the world.’ So if we want see God’s Kingdom the way Jesus did, we need to listen close when Jesus says, “It’s like this…”
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.

Jesus tells a lot of parables that are pretty easy to understand - but that isn't the case in Luke 16. In this plot twist of a parable, Jesus tells about a bad manager who becomes a good example. This sermon wrestles with one of Jesus' most difficult stories and encourages us to become faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us.
About the Parables series: Jesus is the most famous teacher in world history. And his trademark teaching style was through parables - short stories and word pictures. He’d lead into one saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” This was His way of using everyday experiences to unveil eternal realities - fields and sheep and vineyards helped reveal ‘things hidden since the creation of the world.’ So if we want see God’s Kingdom the way Jesus did, we need to listen close when Jesus says, “It’s like this…”
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.

In a heated exchange between Jesus and some of Jerusalem's religious leaders, Jesus tells a parable to make a simple, devastating point. Obedience isn't about what you say you're going to do - it's about what you actually do. And as Bob Goff once put it, "God was a lot more concerned with the people who faked it than with the people who blew it." This story from Jesus invites us to humble repentance and active obedience. And we may just find that we're brushing up against God's Kingdom in the process.
About the Parables series: Jesus is the most famous teacher in world history. And his trademark teaching style was through parables - short stories and word pictures. He’d lead into one saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” This was His way of using everyday experiences to unveil eternal realities - fields and sheep and vineyards helped reveal ‘things hidden since the creation of the world.’ So if we want see God’s Kingdom the way Jesus did, we need to listen close when Jesus says, “It’s like this…”
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.

Jesus says the Kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field, like the rarest of jewels. To discover one creates incredible joy. These are items that must be sought, and the Kingdom is more valuable than any treasure, worth pursuing with your whole life, worth sacrificing everything to get. Nothing is worth keeping if it keeps us from Jesus. 
About the Parables series: Jesus is the most famous teacher in world history. And his trademark teaching style was through parables - short stories and word pictures. He’d lead into one saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” This was His way of using everyday experiences to unveil eternal realities - fields and sheep and vineyards helped reveal ‘things hidden since the creation of the world.’ So if we want see God’s Kingdom the way Jesus did, we need to listen close when Jesus says, “It’s like this…”
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA. 

When a huge crowd stood before Jesus, he painted a picture of seed falling on four types of soil. Later to his disciples, Jesus reveals that this simple story is an insight into the human heart. And in God's kingdom, any heart has the potential to be transformed by the message of the gospel.
About the Parables series: Jesus is the most famous teacher in world history. And his trademark teaching style was through parables - short stories and word pictures. He’d lead into one saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” This was His way of using everyday experiences to unveil eternal realities - fields and sheep and vineyards helped reveal ‘things hidden since the creation of the world.’ So if we want see God’s Kingdom the way Jesus did, we need to listen close when Jesus says, “It’s like this…”
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA. 

"What are other people saying about me?" That's the first question Jesus asks his disciples. The second question he asks is far more personal: "Who do you say that I am?" On the second anniversary of Waves Church, this message offers us a reminder that our faith can't stand on anyone else's answers. Jesus isn't just interested in what you know others think. Jesus is asking each of us to make a confession of faith. 
And once we encounter Jesus in all of his authority, Jesus gives us a new identity and a new community. He calls that community his church. And thankfully Jesus is the one who is building the church - all over the world and right here in Malibu.
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.

In the famous moment when God calls to Moses from a burning bush, there's something profound revealed. God shares his name with Moses, and in doing so God reveals part of His transcendent nature. In this sermon, we are invited to encounter a God who calls us by name and wants to have a personal encounter with us.
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.

What if God's dreams for us are bigger than the dreams we have for ourselves? What if pursuing God's mission on earth isn't primarily through mass gatherings but through one on one connection? And what if God wants to lift our field of vision past our moment into history so we see further into His redemption plan? 
Those are big questions. In this sermon, we take them head on to find a kingdom point of view that will challenge us and comfort us all at the same time.
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.

God wants us to know him and find life in Jesus. Nothing compares to that - not our heritage, not our hard work, and not our religious performance. In this sermon we dive into the radical stance taken by the earliest Christians - which was to trust in Christ as the only source of life, hope, and resurrection power.
Speaker: Taylor Walling
A sermon from Waves Church on Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, CA.