Dear Watermark Family,
We are already three months into the year, and we have a lot to thank God for. Over the last 12 weeks, we have committed ourselves to being a praying and Spirit-led church, hosted our first 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, and celebrated our crucified and risen Savior at our Good Friday and Easter services. Let’s look back and remind ourselves of the Lord’s faithfulness during the first half of the year:
A Praying Church
At the beginning of January, the elders and I shared ten markers to help clarify and recommit to what we have always been about as a church. This led us into a three-week sermon series on what it means to be A Praying Church. We learned about seven different prayer practices. We learned that maximum satisfaction does not just come from pairing the “creamy J” with the chicken enchiladas—but that pairing prayer with fasting gives us maximum spiritual satisfaction and how fasting is so much more about satisfaction than sacrifice.
We then took these principles and put them into action through 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. As a church, we did this together through daily prayer prompts, two Nights of Prayer and Worship, and eight prayer gatherings in the chapel. We celebrated as a church family the way God moved over the 21 days, which would not have been possible without the workings of the Holy Spirit.
A Spirit-Led Church
At the beginning of February, we introduced A Spirit-Led Church sermon series that led us up to Easter weekend. We learned that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, equal in nature, power, and glory with the Father and Son, and is to be worshipped and glorified with them. Jesus died and rose from the grave so that the Holy Spirit could live in us and through us. We cannot be saved apart from the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s seal of His permanent presence in us, a guarantee of our inheritance to come, and is essential to our fellowship with God. The Spirit aims to cultivate a love for Jesus and life like Jesus’s that displays His goodness to a dark and lost world. He distinguishes us from the rest of the world, which is why Watermark Community Church should stand out as different from society.
Therefore, we had an internal check-in to help us discern if there is a spiritual “power outage” in our own lives and at Watermark. One of the ways we know we are being led by the Spirit is through whether we are using the spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has given us. We are called to deploy our spiritual gifts to serve, strengthen, and build up the church body in Christ. We will learn more about this in our next sermon series, A Missional Church.
A Missional Church
This weekend, we are kicking off a new sermon series that will equip us to better understand God’s heart for serving His people. We will be journeying through the book of Jonah to dive deeper into what it means to be “a missional church.” As you grow as a praying and spirit-led person, ask yourself: Where is the Spirit moving you to act?
Do not wait until we kick off this series; you can take a faithful step today. We each prayed for one nonbeliever leading up to Easter, but just because Easter is over does not mean we stop praying. Continue to pray for those you know who are far from the Lord and ask Him to put others on your heart. Continue to discover your spiritual gifts and ask God to show you how He wants you to serve in this season. Find a ministry at Watermark that empowers you to use your gifts. Ask God for gospel opportunities to share the Good News within our city. Dallas has over 1.3 million people who all need to hear the gospel, and there are over 1.4 billion people worldwide who have never heard the name of Jesus. Pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you, empower you, and use you for God’s kingdom and His glory.
I hope you’ll join us on Sunday.
Sincerely,
Timothy (TA) Ateek