Waiting for and Wanting the Holy Spirit to Come | Acts 1

Hey, welcome to church. I'm so glad you made it today. I do want to say a special "hello" to everyone sitting in overflow in the Chapel today. I'm so glad you made it. You're right here with us. I know there are many people here who are just trying to start 2026 off on the right foot, so if that's you, I'm so glad you made it.

Here at Watermark, our hope is that you would come here, that you would meet with God, and that you would know he loves you, he wants you, and you can take either a first or a next step with him. I do want to encourage you to check out and to spend time with the Watermark News that was handed to you on your way in. It will show you everything going on at our church so you can know what first or next step you might take.

I also want to direct your attention to the Join the Journey insert. This is our Bible reading plan. It just kicked off on January 1. I want to invite everyone here today to jump in with us. If you're a Watermark member, I'm especially asking you. Please make this a part of your time with God. We're journeying through the book of Acts. The reading plan during the week is actually tied to the teaching on Sunday. So, I'm going to teach the passage on Sunday that you're going to be studying the rest of the week.

The whole goal of Join the Journey this year isn't as much to just understand the book of Acts. You're going to understand Acts, but the goal is for you to walk with God more deeply and intimately than you ever have in your life. We've changed Join the Journey this year. Every single day, there's going to be a different exercise that's going to help you grow in intimacy with God.

It's going to feel a lot like The Karate Kid. There are going to be some days where you're like, "Man, I'm just painting the fence. I don't even know why you have me doing this." Other days, you're going to be sanding the floor. You're going to be waxing on and waxing off. At some point during the year, after committing to all of these exercises, you're going to start putting it together, and you're going to be like, "Oh my gosh! I didn't know. Something has changed in me. This is what it looks like to be near to God."

But here's what it's going to require from you. It's going to require you to commit fully to the exercises every day. Here's what that means: make a decision that nothing is beneath you. I don't care if you've been walking with God for 40 years. You can grow. Even this week, one of the first exercises was to write a letter to God, and I was like, "I don't want to do that." Then I did it, and I was like, "I'm so glad I did this." I'm so glad. God worked in me. It drew something out of me.

What's so good about Join the Journey this year is… If Year of the Word last year… If you were like, "Man, I was good until the second week in January, and then I fell off…" The good news about this is you can always jump in. It's just one passage that you're reading six days over and over and over. The goal is every single day you're going to look at it from a different vantage point. It'll take you somewhere between 7 and 15 minutes every day.

You high school students, you should totally be doing this. If you have middle school students, they can totally be doing this. We have Join the Journey Junior. The rest of your kids can do it. This is one of those years where, if you're a family, your whole family can be synced up. If you have roommates, you and your roommates can be synced up. So jump in. Nothing is beneath you. I promise you we, as a church, will gain serious traction and intimacy with God. Okay?

So, the book of Acts. I have been waiting four years to preach through the book of Acts. It's starting today. I want to invite you to pray right now, and I want to invite you to do something new. I want to invite you to assume a posture where you're ready to receive from God. I want to invite you to put your hands out. You don't have to, but to just put your hands out as if you're going to take someone else's hands or receive a gift from them. It's just a way of you saying, "God, I'm ready to receive from you today."

I want to invite you right now to pray for yourself and say, "God, would you speak to me this morning"? Just pray that really quickly. Then, would you pray for the people around you, for your family, your friends, other followers of Jesus in the room, and those in this room who don't know Jesus? Just ask God to speak to them. Then, would you pray for me that God would speak through me to you?

Holy Spirit, I'm asking you to come and to move and work in our minds and in our hearts in such a way that Christ would be glorified. I pray that not one person in this room or in the Chapel, the Town Center, in the kids' space… I pray that not one person would leave here today without having met with you and heard from you, God. This time is yours. We're just coming expectant that you're going to move in our lives. I pray that you would. In Jesus' name, amen.

I want to start by telling you I am not a big weather guy. I'm just not. I'm not one of those people who wakes up and checks the forecast every day. Some of you guys are religious about it. I'm just not. I just don't care that much. I usually find out about the weather in real time. For example, last week, there was a day that was super warm, and then it wasn't. It was that day where it was really windy, and then the temperature just dropped.

Whatever day that was, I found out the temperature was dropping when I walked out to my car. I was like, "Okay, that's happening. Today, this is happening." I just don't care that much. But others of you are big-time weather people. Some of you pay extra money to get the premium version of the app because you want to be dialed in to the weather.

Some of you pay special attention to the weather portion of the news because you want to know what the weather is doing in other parts of the nation. That is shocking to me. Like, when we went to New York in December, I was like, "We're going to New York," and people were like, "Oh, it's cold there right now." I'm like, "Are you going to New York? Is that how you know?"

"Nope. I just know it is cold in New York right now."

"Okay. That's great."

Look. I don't know what's happening with the weather in Dallas. I definitely don't know what's happening with the weather in other parts of our nation. I don't really care that much about the physical weather, but I do care a lot about the spiritual weather. If you were to look in the Bible, in the Old Testament, in Hebrew the word for wind is the same word for the Spirit.

Here's what you need to know about the spiritual weather in our nation and in the world. The Spirit of the living God, the wind of God, has been blowing more recently in ways that the Spirit was not moving in the past 5 to 10 years. The Spirit of God is at work doing things that the Spirit wasn't doing just 5 to 10 years ago. So, I just want to play spiritual weatherman for a moment to make sure you understand.

The Barna Group reported that younger adults are now attending church more often than older generations. That's so interesting, because I've heard older generations express concern about the spirituality of younger generations. But it's not the older generations that should be worried about the younger generations. According to Barna, it's the younger generations that should be worried about the older generations and what's happening with your faith and you coming to church, because the Spirit is moving.

I don't know if you know this, but the Associated Press reported that 2024 marked a 20-year high for Bible sales in the United States. In 2025, sales were on track to surpass what happened in 2024. The Unite movement on college campuses all over our nation… Thousands upon thousands of college students have been gathering under the name of Jesus, getting baptized in the name of Jesus. It has been incredible.

Just this past week, I gathered with 45,000 18- to 25-year-olds at Globe Life Park for the Passion Conference, where 45,000 young adults were gathering for the name and fame of Jesus Christ. I tell you all that just to say that the wind of the Spirit is blowing in different parts of our country and our world in ways that the Spirit wasn't just 5 or 10 years ago. Honestly, my hope and prayer is that the wind of the Spirit would blow in a fresh way here at Watermark over 2026.

I'm not a big sermon title guy, but today I want you to know the title to my sermon this morning. Here's the title to my sermon: Waiting for and Wanting the Holy Spirit to Come. You might have heard me pray earlier today for the Holy Spirit to come. I'm going to be praying throughout 2026… You're going to hear me pray for the Holy Spirit to come. We're going to sing some songs, and in those songs we're going to be asking the Holy Spirit to come.

That might be unsettling for some people here, because you know your Bibles, and you know that the Holy Spirit has already come. That's Acts, chapter 2. That's the day of Pentecost. And if you know your Bibles well, then you know that anyone who knows Jesus Christ is permanently indwelt with the Holy Spirit.

So, why would my sermon be called Waiting for and Wanting the Holy Spirit to Come? I want to be absolutely clear about why I would pray that. I want to be clear about it because I want you to start praying for the Holy Spirit to come here at Watermark. What I'm not talking about is the unbiblical concept of a second filling of the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about that at all. Here's what I am meaning when I pray for the Holy Spirit to come.

When we pray for the Holy Spirit to come, we're not praying because the Holy Spirit is absent and we're praying for him to be present. That's not what's happening. We're not praying because the Holy Spirit is absent and we want him to be present. We're praying for the Holy Spirit to come because the Holy Spirit is already present, but we want him to become overwhelmingly, supernaturally, and unmistakably evident in our church.

That's what I mean when I pray for the Holy Spirit to come. It's not that he's absent and we want him to be present; it's that he already is present, but we want him to become overwhelmingly, supernaturally, and unmistakably evident in our church. Here's what different theologians have said. A.W. Tozer, one of my favorite authors, puts it something like this: "The Holy Spirit is not absent from the church; he is ignored. Revival is simply the Spirit of God getting his rightful place again."

Martyn Lloyd-Jones essentially said, "Revival is not the church doing something new; it is the Holy Spirit doing something extraordinary." J.I. Packer basically said, "The Spirit is always at work, but there are moments when his activity becomes so vivid that no one can deny it." That's what I'm praying for when I pray for the Holy Spirit to come. I want to invite you into that prayer. Let me just tell you, friends. We need a fresh work of the Spirit here at Watermark. We do. We need a fresh work of the Spirit.

Just last week, Kat and I had dinner with some of our very, very dear friends. They live out of state, but they were in town, so we got together for dinner with them. They had been in town back in November, and they came and visited Watermark. One of our friends shared with us at dinner just last week something that had been on her heart from her experience attending Watermark back in November.

They sat right there in the balcony in the middle. She said that as they sat right there toward the front of the balcony in the middle, she was looking around in the crowd. She was so excited to be here. She was so excited for worship. This was her description of her experience here at Watermark.

She said she was so encouraged by the intentionality of the leaders on our stage seeking to lead the people of God into the presence of God, but as she looked around the room at the people gathered together, here's the contrast she noted. The people leading on stage were seeking to be intentional about leading people into the presence of God, yet as she looked around the room, she was surprised by how unaffected people were by that. Isn't that interesting? That was her observation: that we were a church unaffected by the presence of God.

So, what she said was she had a sadness in her heart for a spirit of religion in Dallas where people are just too comfortable. She said, "The difference between Dallas and where we live is where we live people are clear about their desperate need for God." How does that hit you? Does that offend you? You might be like, "Was she saying that about me?" You might find that offensive.

Let me just ask you… Does it describe you? Like, at some point, you shifted into a low gear spiritually, where you're just coming here and going through the motions, and if you're honest, nothing is happening. You've played it off like, "You know what? If the church was doing something different or if the sermons were about something else or if they sang these songs…" No, the issue is with you. The issue is that your heart has grown cold. What you need is for the wind of God to blow through the dusty house of your soul.

I'm just telling you, we need the Spirit to come. G. Campbell Morgan said, "Revival cannot be organized, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from heaven when God chooses to blow upon his people once again." So, that's what we're doing today, and honestly, that's what we're doing every week of this entire year. This year and today is about raising our sails in case the wind of the Spirit comes in a fresh way.

So, if you have a Bible, I want to invite you to turn with me to Acts, chapter 1. One of the reasons it's so important for you to jump into the Journey with us is that as we're going through the book of Acts right here on Sundays, we're not going to hit every single verse. Part of the reason for that is I'm assuming you're already studying the entire chapter in depth during the week, which gives me an opportunity to hit on some highlights, but then you're doing the deep work during the week.

Just a little background really quickly on the book of Acts. It was written by Luke. Luke was a well-educated physician, and he was a missionary coworker with the apostle Paul. Luke also wrote the gospel of Luke. You might be like, "Oh, that makes sense now." Yeah. The gospel of Luke was written by Luke. Acts was also written by Luke. They're not supposed to be viewed as two completely different works. They actually go hand in hand. They're two parts of the same work.

Think about it this way. The gospel of Luke detailed Jesus' earthly ministry; the book of Acts chronicles Jesus' heavenly ministry, accomplishing his purposes through his people by the power of the Holy Spirit. Acts is the continuation of Jesus' work. We're looking today at Acts, chapter 1. Acts, chapter 1, is basically this 50-day period between the resurrection of Jesus and the day of Pentecost.

Now, you saw "40 days." It's a 40-day period that Jesus appeared to his apostles. That's correct. The reason I said "50 days" is that there are 40 days between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension into heaven, and then there's a 10-day period where the apostles are just praying, waiting for the Spirit to come. That's where we land in Acts, chapter 1. Acts, chapter 1, is the apostles waiting for and wanting the Holy Spirit to come.

Sure enough, in Acts, chapter 2, the Holy Spirit comes. You get Pentecost. We're not looking for another Pentecost. One is sufficient. The Spirit has come. He isn't absent; he is present, but we are waiting for and wanting the Spirit to come because we want him to be overwhelmingly, supernaturally, and unmistakably evident in our church. So, we're going to be looking at what waiting looked like for the apostles, and we're going to learn from them.

1. As we wait for the Spirit, we repent. Look at verses 1-3 with me. "In the first book, O Theophilus…" That's a reference to the gospel of Luke. "…I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God."

Jesus appeared to the apostles for 40 days. If you look in the Bible, 40 is actually a number of preparation. Moses was a shepherd for 40 years. Jesus was in the wilderness before his ministry began for 40 days. Jesus appears at different times to the apostles for 40 days. He's preparing them. Why is he revealing himself over a 40-day period? Because he needs the apostles to be absolutely convinced that he's actually alive from the dead.

He needs the apostles to be confident and clear that he did, in fact, defeat death and he is, in fact, alive. Why? Because as you read the book of Acts, you know what you're going to see? The thrust of their message is the resurrection. You're going to see them major in the resurrection even more than the cross. They are witnesses of the resurrection. The main message of the apostles is "Jesus is alive."

Now, what does that have to do with repentance, because I said the point is "As we wait for the Spirit, we repent"? Well, I'll explain it this way. I think the question here for us at Watermark isn't as much if we are convinced that Jesus rose from the dead. I think a good majority of people in the room are like, "Yeah. I believe Jesus rose from the dead." If you're uncertain about that, we'll talk about that more as we get into Acts.

But I don't think the main question is if we are convinced Jesus rose from the dead. I think the real question is…Does it actually matter to us that he did rise from the dead? Does it actually inform the way we live? Because the stories of our lives… The message our lives should declare is "Jesus Christ truly is alive." Our lives should testify to the fact that Jesus Christ did, in fact, conquer sin and is alive from the dead.

The fact that Jesus lives means anyone who knows Jesus Christ should be marked by his life and victory. An unbelieving world should be able to look into our lives and see victory in our lives. They should see the life of Jesus manifested in our lives. Think about it this way. I just want you to think about this. Imagine… Just go with me. This is totally hypothetical. Just imagine having an uncut video feed of the last seven days of your life.

Do you know what the goal would be? The goal would be to be able to take that uncut video feed of the last seven days of your life and for you to be able to send it to an unbelieving friend and tell them, "This should be all the evidence you need to know that Jesus really is alive. Not because I'm perfect but because I don't walk like I used to. I don't talk like I used to. Jesus rose from the dead. He has raised me to a new life, and my life is a life where Jesus Christ reigns. If you'll just watch the last seven days of my life, hopefully you're going to see that that is unapologetically true, that Jesus Christ is in charge."

Now look. When I say that, if you're in touch with reality, then something in you should be like, "Oh! Yeah, I wouldn't want them to see Tuesday. Like, just the whole day." There would be different moments that would pop into your mind. For me, it was this past week. My wife and I were in conflict, and I took too long to reconcile. She had to come to me. That's a problem. It's my job to go to her. That would be one of those where I'd be like, "Oh man! Let me just explain that to you."

Just think over the past seven days. What moments from your past seven days would you be like, "Oh! Yeah, I'd hate for you to see that"? Whatever those moments are, I don't bring those up for you to feel shame. I bring those up to say that's where repentance needs to come into play in your life. Like, that's it. Whatever those moments are, repent. Allow those, whatever those things are that you would hate for an unbeliever to see, whatever those things are that would bring confusion to unbelievers' lives, that Jesus Christ is alive, yet you look dead in those ways…

Whatever those are, repent. Don't just come to God and say you're sorry; come to God and say, "I want to be done with that. I want change in my life. Holy Spirit, would you invade that part of my life? I want to be done with that." Because here's the thing. If you study revivals in history, a key aspect was always repentance. It's people identifying the places in their life where they still look dead and then just saying, "But, Jesus, you're alive, so I want your life and victory to be evident in my life."

2. As we wait for the Spirit, we reprioritize. Look at verse 3. "He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God." Jesus felt like it was very important when he was with his apostles to spend time talking about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God was actually on the minds of his apostles. That's what we see in verse 6.

What's their question to Jesus? It says, "So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'" Now, what did they mean when they asked Jesus, "Is now the time that you're restoring the kingdom to Israel?" What it shows is they're not in complete understanding of what the kingdom of God actually is, because they're still waiting for a political kingdom. They're still waiting for Jesus, in that moment, to overthrow Rome and establish a worldwide kingdom of Israel on earth.

Look at how Jesus responds to their question in verse 7. "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority." Watch this. Verse 8 is actually the table of contents for the whole book of Acts. He says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

You can read that as Jesus' response to their question, and it could appear as if Jesus completely dodges their question. Like, "Yeah, I'm not really equipped to answer that right now, because the Father is kind of keeping the times and the seasons under wraps. He hasn't even let me know about that. So let me just kind of divert their attention." No. Jesus actually answers their question, but here's how. I love how John Stott explains it. Listen to his explanation. He says it better than I can, so I'm just going to read what he said.

He said, "It is important to remember that his promise that they would receive power was part of his reply to their question about the kingdom. For the exercise of power is inherent in the concept of a kingdom. But power in God's kingdom is different from power in human kingdoms. The reference to the Holy Spirit defines its nature. The kingdom of God is his rule set up in the lives of his people by the Holy Spirit. It is spread by witnesses, not by soldiers, through a gospel of peace, not a declaration of war, and by the work of the Spirit, not by force of arms, political intrigue, or revolutionary violence."

They say, "Is now the time that you're restoring the kingdom?" and Jesus' response is basically, "Yeah, this is it. The kingdom is now, but the kingdom right now is my rule and reign in the hearts of people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language." How will the kingdom be spread? By his Spirit through working in his people.

So, what does that mean? It means we are to be kingdom-minded people. We are to be kingdom-focused people. We are to be kingdom-building people. We are to be kingdom-spreading people. So, my question to you… Remember what the point is. I said, "As we wait for the Spirit, we reprioritize." Where in your list of priorities does the kingdom fall, the rule and reign of God in the hearts of everyone? If we're not a group of people who are all living with the same priority, the same focus, and the same mission, we're going to be ineffective.

So, my question to you is…Are we here at Watermark a group of Navy SEALs or are we a group of kindergarten soccer players? Which one are we? If you ever have a chance to listen to a Navy SEAL talk, you should listen. You can watch different shows where you see them in action, but if you listen to a Navy SEAL talk, man, they're precise. Every team member is operating with the same objective. If you listen to them, what you hear is because of their relentless pursuit of the same mission, they operate in sync. They work in tandem. They only support one another. They work together, and they are very effective.

But you think about a kindergarten soccer team… Every kid on that field has a different agenda. They came to the field with different agendas. Some kids are there to pick flowers. Some kids are there to just talk to their friends. It doesn't matter if the ball goes right by them. It's like, "That's irrelevant. Let's talk." Other people are there simply to earn the treat that was promised to them by their parents if they would just try. Like, "Just try. Try and touch the ball, and I'll give you \$5." Then you usually have one kid who wants to win, one kid who wants to score. It's very ineffective.

Which one are we here at Watermark? Like, we can laugh about it, but I'm just asking… Which one are we? Are we all living with the same priority and mission or are we just a bunch of kindergartners where it's like, "Yeah, it's cute. Yeah, I go to Watermark. I'm not technically a member because they require too much, but I go. It's my church. I show up every Sunday, and I know the people there, and I worship." No. Look, people. We are equipped with the Holy Spirit. Let's storm the gates of hell together. That's what we can do. Let's advance Jesus' kingdom. Let's all agree today that our top priority is to be ruled by Jesus and to advance the rule of Jesus.

So, let's just start here. Is Jesus Christ ruling in your life? Because how would you care about his rule in other people's lives if he isn't ruling in your life? Then my next question is…Is what you are building ultimately for the sake of what he's building? He's building his kingdom. Is what you're building in your life ultimately for the sake of what he's building? The kids you're cultivating, the career you're building, the portfolio you're pursuing, the retirement you're exploring… Is it all ultimately to see the rule and reign of Christ spread? If it isn't, you're just picking flowers.

You know what's crazy? Some of the most type-A, driven, alpha males in the room are just picking flowers right now, because you're off course. Your priorities are all out of whack. Right now, you're building your kingdom, and the way you rationalize it is "Right now I'm going to build my kingdom so that one day I'll be freed up with time and resources to build his kingdom." No, no, no. You're living with a major assumption that that "someday" is still going to be an option for you. All you have is today. You're either building his kingdom or no kingdom. Our priority is him.

Look. If you don't want to build his kingdom, that's between you and God, but here at Watermark, that's what we're about. My goal this year is to make it really uncomfortable for you to sit here and soak in but never go out and live it out. My goal is for you to be so uncomfortable that you would either repent or just say, "I need to go some other place where they will just let me exist and ask nothing of me so I can just do my own thing." We're responsible for you. I'm going to stand before God one day and answer for how I called you to live solely for the glory of Jesus Christ. We're not picking flowers here.

3. As we wait for the Spirit, we enjoy the Spirit. Look at verse 4. "And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, 'you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'"

This tells us something about the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God put on flesh, was like, "Hey, wait for it. Go to Jerusalem. Don't leave. This is not a time to go on vacation. I know a bunch of you are fishermen. I'm looking at you four fishermen. Don't go fishing. Don't go back to Galilee and say 'Hi' to your mom and dad. No. You go to Jerusalem. You just want to wait for it. You don't want to miss it when it comes. Wait for it." That's how good it is.

He's like, "It's a promise from the Father. Do you know who the heavenly Father is? He's the giver of every good and perfect gift. Any gift he gives is perfect. You'd better wait for it. It's going to be so good." That's how amazing the Holy Spirit is. There's a reason Jesus said, "It's better that I leave, because if I leave, I'm going to send the Helper. It's going to be so good." That's how good the Holy Spirit is.

He goes on in verse 8 and says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Don't even think about accomplishing God's mission without his power, without his Spirit. He's just saying, "Wait for it."

So, the Spirit comes in Acts, chapter 2, and do you know what we see throughout the rest of the book? You see the apostles enjoying and experiencing all of the extravagant riches available in a relationship with God, the Holy Spirit. You know what you need to understand? It's the same Holy Spirit today. The same Spirit available to the apostles in Acts is available to us. So just evaluate. Is your life marked by the power that can only come from the Holy Spirit?

Would you say, "Yeah. My life is marked by power. It's not my power, but my life is marked by the Holy Spirit. My life is marked by a power that's a result of being filled by the Holy Spirit, led and directed by the Holy Spirit, spoken to by the Holy Spirit, gifted by the Holy Spirit, victorious over sin because of the Spirit, supernaturally joyful because of the Holy Spirit, satisfied by the presence of God because of the Holy Spirit, emboldened to share my faith because of the Holy Spirit, interceded for by the Spirit with groanings too deep for words in prayer, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit"? Is your life marked by power?

I think churches fall into one of two ditches. I think churches either abuse the Spirit or quench the Spirit. I think that's the tendency. The tendency is for churches to either abuse the Spirit or to quench the Spirit. Here's what we need to be clear on: both ditches are equally sinful. I'm just telling you, in an effort to stay so far away from abusing the Spirit, I think many of us in this church quench the Spirit. I'm just speaking from my own experience. I personally have quenched the work of the Spirit in my life.

Here's my story. I grew up during a time when I would say there was a major overcorrection. It was an overcorrection to the charismatic movement. Because of that overcorrection, I grew up believing there were only two options. Those two options were to be crazy or biblical. "Which one do you want to be? Do you want to be crazy or do you want to be biblical?" "Well, I'll take biblical for \$100, Bob." You don't want to be crazy; you want to be biblical. But what God has shown me is those aren't actually the only two options. I was actually wrong.

What I've come to realize is that at one end of the spectrum is an unbiblical abuse of the Holy Spirit. Then, at the other end of the spectrum is an unbiblical quenching of the Holy Spirit. I would say that for 40 years of my life, there was an unbiblical quenching of the Spirit that I didn't even know was happening in my life. The last four and a half years have been very different for me, where I'm beginning to see and enjoy the person of the Holy Spirit more than I ever have in my life.

Here's the prayer I've been praying that I want to invite you to pray as well. I want everything, everything biblical in relationship to the Holy Spirit. Everything. Nothing more. I don't want anything more, but I certainly don't want anything less. Too many people in this church are Father/Son/Holy Bible Christians, and it needs to stop, because you're quenching and grieving the person of the Holy Spirit. So, let me encourage you to start praying. Maybe your prayer should be, "Holy Spirit, would you show me any ways that I am grieving or quenching you that I don't even know about?"

4. As we wait for the Spirit, we pray. Look at verse 12. It says, "Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James."

Watch verse 14. This verse has been meaningful to me. It says, "All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers." I want to make sure you understand what's happening. I told you that Jesus appeared to the apostles for 40 days to convince them "I really am alive." Then he ascended into heaven, and it was 10 more days before the Spirit actually came.

Do you know what they did for 10 days? They prayed. You're like, "Well, yeah, but, I mean, you can only pray so long. What else did they do?" They prayed. "Yeah, but why did they gather? Were they talking church business?" No. Technically, the church didn't exist yet. Prayer was the agenda item. It's like, "Why are you here today?" "I'm here to pray." That is a good enough reason for the people of God to get together: to simply seek the face of God in prayer.

I'm just going to be honest with you. As your pastor, sometimes I feel like prayer is not a good enough reason to some of you to actually get together to pray. You're like, "Well, I know we're going to pray. That's how we open and close. But, like, we need a real, legitimate reason to get together." Well, let's learn from the apostles. They prayed. They prayed for 10 days.

Did you see the wording? It said, "All these with one accord…" They were all in agreement that "The best thing we can be doing right now is praying." If you go and look at any revival in history, you will always find stories of a few faithful, no-name people who prayed, some for days, some for weeks, some for decades, just asking God to move.

I'll never forget. I think it was 2007. I was speaking at this high school conference in Florida. I was the camp speaker. There was a band there that was leading worship. I had never met them before. I walked into the conference room where the event was happening. There was no official meeting going on of the production and worship team. That meeting hadn't started yet. But what I found was the members of the band who were leading worship all on their knees, praying with a fervency, urgency, and intensity, begging God to move.

I kind of showed up, and internally I was like… I'm the camp speaker, 2007. I'm like, "What's happening here?" So, I go and kind of join in. Then part of me is like, "This is taking a while. When are we going to be done with this and move on to the rest of the stuff?" because I didn't get it. Prayer was just not a value for me. Something in me was like, "Oh, these are the few extreme people. They must have that unique gift that God just gives to select people where they actually enjoy prayer. I'm not one of those people."

I just didn't get it. I didn't see the value in it, the importance of it. I wonder if that's you. Like, when we talk about prayer, when we say we're having a night of prayer and worship, you're like, "I'm not going to that. I pray. I prayed before my meal today. I pray. I'm not going to that." I wonder if that's you because you just don't see the value in it.

In the summer of 2021, I read a book called Forgotten Power. It's just an 82-page book. God used it to reshape my heart and mind around prayer. Now I'm beginning to see and believe and understand what S.D. Gordon meant when he said, "The great people of the earth today are the people who pray."

You might think you're one of the great people because of how strategic you are. You're a blessing to so many people because of how successful you are, how efficient you are, how great you can organize an agenda or mobilize people, galvanize people, but the great people of the earth today are the people who pray.

He basically says, "I don't mean those who talk about prayer, nor those who say they believe in prayer, nor those who explain prayer, but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. And that something else is important. It's very important and pressing but still less important and pressing than prayer.

There are people who put prayer first and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong these lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer." Those are the great people.

This church is desperately in need of people committed to prayer. Not just individual prayer but corporate prayer. Let me just say this. If you're one of those people who's committed to prayer, would you start gathering people to pray? Just say, "Come over to my house. Let's go walk the neighborhood. Let's just get together. We're just getting together to pray." Would you join us here on Sunday mornings at 7:45 a.m. just to walk this room, begging God to move?

I love what the disciples said to Jesus right before he taught them the Lord's Prayer. Do you know what they said to him? They said, "Lord, teach us how to pray." Maybe that's your prayer for 2026. "Lord, teach me to pray. Teach me how to pray."

At the end of this month, we're doing seven days of prayer and fasting together as a church. We're going to be doing more nights of prayer and worship as a church. I'm just telling you, I long for the day that this room is overflowing at those prayer gatherings just because there's a people, like the apostles, who believe that prayer is a worthy enough agenda item; in fact, there's nothing more important for us to do than to pray.

One of the things I'm committed to doing as your pastor this year is doing a better job of inviting you to respond in real time to what God is doing in your heart now. Not just letting you leave and crossing my fingers that you'll actually take time to respond but to respond now, to respond today. So, here's what I want to ask you to do. This is just going to be different. I want to invite you to assume a posture that seems right to you to respond to God right now.

You can't worry about what other people think or see. For some of you, that might be to stand and lift your hands. We're not even singing. You're just standing and lifting your hands as a way of saying, "God, I want you." It might be to get on your knees. It might be to just sit with your hands open. But I want to invite you to respond to God right now.

So, I want to invite you to close your eyes. You can assume the posture that feels right to you. Right now, maybe you need to repent. Maybe there are areas of your life where you still look dead, and when I was talking about that, the Holy Spirit was lighting up those places in your life. Just repent and experience his grace and forgiveness. Tell him, "I want change in my life."

For some of you, maybe you just need to reprioritize. You're realizing you're just picking flowers. You're running your own play. Maybe the way you need to respond to God right now is to just say, "It's all about your kingdom. It's all about your rule and reign." Maybe you just need to tell God, "God, I want you to rule in every area of my life, and then I want you to use me to extend your rule to the end of the earth." Just reprioritize right now. Whatever kingdom you've been building that isn't the Lord's, just confess it.

Maybe you hear about my journey with the Holy Spirit, and something in you is like, "Is that me? Am I quenching the Spirit and I don't even know it?" Or maybe, if you're honest, you've had a fear of anything that hints of too much Spirit. Maybe you just need to acknowledge that to the Lord and say, "God, I want everything biblical in regard to your Spirit. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less." Maybe you just pray, "Lord, teach me how to pray. I don't value prayer. Teach me to pray. Teach me to enjoy you in prayer."

Maybe you're here today, and you came in here, and you did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I need you to know God loves you. He wants a real, enjoyable, eternal relationship with you. He wants to forgive you of all of your sin right now. He wants to make you new right now. So, would you surrender your life to him? Would you invite him in? Just say, "Jesus, would you come into my life? Would you be my Savior? I want you to be my Lord and my Savior today. I want life with you. I don't want to do another day on my own. I want you, Jesus."

Then, on behalf of Watermark Community Church, would you ask the Holy Spirit to come and to be overwhelmingly, supernaturally, and unmistakably evident in our church?