Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): You're just in time for today's broadcast of PowerWalk. Our current series is titled intentional, taught by Reverend Paul Cannings. In the book of Acts, how did Lydia, who just heard the message of Paul, become so passionate and committed to Christ? There are many of us who have lost that first love for him. His word just doesn't move us like it used to. Does that describe you? Well, today Pastor Cannings brings this challenge to us simply by summing up Lydia's life in this message titled Faithful. Let's listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I was amazed one day when I came home and it was late at night and I saw my son running out the door, shorts on, light shirt on. I said, where in the world are you going this time of the night? He says, I'm going to run bleachers. You're going to run bleachers at this time of the night? Yes, dad. Yes, I'm I'm ready, man. I'm going to I got to You know what? I could be a starter this year. He played college football. I mean started this year and I'm going to be ready. I want to be ready.

I want to be so ready it's that all the workout three a days don't affect me no way. I'm ready. So I said, okay, son, no problem. But there's no coach there. There was no athletic director that's overseeing the team that came by to see how everybody's looking at the beginning of the season. None of these things were there. There was no trainer there. Nobody. He was on his own running out the door to be ready for his team to get that starting spot in college football. See, many times you got to push people to serve God.

Many times you have to preach to people to serve God. Many times you have to get people to make things so easy in the church that serving God is not a traumatic experience because there's so many different levels they have to go through. It's just like simply telling people, hey, in order to drive the van, we need to make sure you have insurance and when you come, ask this particular person for the keys, but we would need you to make sure that the gate is locked back so that the vans are safe after everything is done.

And when you're done, if you don't mind picking up a few pieces of paper or whatever so that we get a crew to go in there and clean, but it doesn't hurt to you to just clean up. Oh, really? Just I just want to drive the van. You know, just to see some men out here just saying, pastor, we spending too much money on these air conditioning systems in terms of getting them cleaned and making sure that the calls are clean, all the stuff, man. I used to do that for years. Let me come out here and wash those things, keep them clean, save the church money.

That's a different attitude than a person who says, I got to do all of that? See the difference? That's what you're finding here with Lydia in Acts chapter 16. There's a difference and a difference has to do with the person's heart. It's just to see a church responding out of their bless my soul. I was out of town and see them respond to a hurting woman in our church. That's what we find in verse 15 right here when it says and when when she, Lydia, speaking of Lydia was baptized in her household, she besought us saying, what's the word?

Besought us saying, if he have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrains a lot of things in this text today that we can look at that describes a faithful person. Number one, we find that this faithful person, you don't have to push them. This person, Lydia got saved. She gets them to baptize her, which we just talked about yesterday. And then she obviously got her family saved and brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ so that they want to be baptized. And she brought them to get them baptized.

So she didn't just go home to all the servants and all the different people that were there in the house and and just say, okay, I'm a new woman. This is how we're going to do things. No, no, no. She shared the gospel with them. They came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and they are baptized with her, our entire household. I don't know how large that was, but if her business was as productive as they're saying and it is not easy to get materials in their day like we do today, it had to be a business that involves several people.

And so she went in and got those people, exposed to them the message of God and she's gone to work getting them to experience God so intimately that they are now baptized. And our whole household, a business is operating not just with her as a Christian, but everybody as a Christian. This is Lydia. And that's why you see these words pop up that describes her. And please understand, folks, this person's name is in the scriptures. This woman, Lydia, you go around and you see people that are in the Bible and God takes the time to put them in the scriptures.

She is pivotal. Why she pivotal? Because she's the first European woman to accept Christ. She is helping with the spread of the gospel into Europe. And you can't say she's this Like I said earlier this week, the most powerful teacher or she's a governor. None of these things. She's a business woman that was successful. But when God touched her heart cuz it was a good sorrow that that heart is as we talked about in verse 14, this is the kind of these different verbs describe the character of a faithful person. And if we're not there today surrendered to God, because at the end of the day, folks, if you are lukewarm, he will spit us out.

If we are apathetic in how we worship God, he's not going to be happy with us. The church of Sardis, he says, you are dead. Yes, you are the most popping church. You're the church that everybody wants to go to. But when I look at you, you're basically dead. So please get the stuff that is still alive and wake it up, those who you who are faithful. You go to the church of Laodicea. He says, look at you. You feel you're wealthy. You You got all this going on. But when I look at you, you're naked, wretched, and poor.

That's what I see in you. They thought they had it going on. This church does not exist today. The church of Laodicea that was planted by Paul no longer exists today. Why? Lack of faithfulness. You see, here is what describes faithfulness. He says it right here in verse 15. The first word we see is that she besought us. In other words, this woman is pestering them. She urges us. Not a way to say this. The word here means once and for all, y'all need to come up in my house and stay here. This is going to be your base for building a church here.

And it actually happened. So I want to build a church here. I got my household all saved. But I want to change everybody else here. They're worshiping gods that don't matter. The Jews are worshiping God, but they're not worshiping Jesus Christ. We got a lot of work to do. That's this woman. She's the one that many people believe established the church of Philippi and then make sure the people find Paul and take him money so he could keep preaching while he's in prison. And they're talking about killing him while he's in prison. But she still She wants to invest to make sure he does it.

This woman is the woman doing all of this. She was serious about her commitment in this verse. She wants everybody else to have this. When we looked at 2 Corinthians chapter 8, we find the Macedonians the exact same way. The heart was right and the blessings of God to other people became the passion. He says, I'm urging you to stay here. This is now your base. This is now the place that you don't need to go anywhere else. It is necessary for you to stay here. She's watching Paul making tents. She knows Paul doesn't have a lot of money.

He can't do ministry as fast as he needs to do ministry cuz he has to work and go do ministry. She's saying, forget all of that. I got servants. I got a house here. You could stay right here. Go share the gospel. I got you and I'm saying come in my house now. She's constraining. She's urging. She's speaking saying, you have to do this. She's not suggesting. She's a business owner. She's driving them to it. And then she's looking at them saying, based on everything that I have been doing, then I say to you that I'm very serious.

Could you imagine her saying this? I came when you were speaking, Paul. I heard what you had to say. I immediately gravitated to that. I gave my life to Christ. I went to my house and I shared the gospel at my house. So now everybody is saved. Then I went and got everybody baptized. So don't you see I'm serious to be somebody that is going to be careful to do what needs to be done? She is doing this. Look at verse 40 in chapter 16 and they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia.

And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. Her house became a church. She got it done. This is a leader here. This is faithfulness. You don't have to be pushed and have to be prodded. It's running out the door in the middle of the night saying, I got to get ready to do what I need to get done so that I could be a great player. That's it. The catalyst is being saved. The catalyst is experiencing what salvation is all about and recognizing what that means and responding to it. Judge me.

This is how strong this woman is. She says, if you have found me to be everything that I'm saying I'm going to be and she seriously did that we could see in verse 40, come in my house. You know, you could say, well, you know, you know, this is not good, you know, you you're a woman and you're a single woman and you're bringing this man into the house. So she has other servants there. It's like the woman in Elijah. Put them upstairs. He got to get this thing done. That's the passion, folks, too long to see as a pastor.

And when you see it, it just blesses your soul. It just the other day out of town and calling him because we had a traumatic situation and they hear the young adult women going after this person and serving this person and helping this person. I would stay with her and work with her to make sure she's good and her kids are good. Blesses your soul. Could you imagine the difference this will be in the world if we had people with this kind of heart where just because they come in and recognize that God has saved them, blessed them to get a chance to experience the Holy Spirit in their lives where their bodies is now his temple and they can make decisions based on the spirit of God lives in them.

Could you imagine how exciting it is that now I can live under the protection of God cuz when I walk righteous, angels are around me. Psalm 34 says, they are around me. They encompass me. And not only that, I got us Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. He's praying for me and the Holy Spirit when I get down and out will tear the groans of my heart so Christ can hear what I feel and how much pressure and burden I have in my heart. He would tell Jesus all about it and anytime I sin, Jesus Christ safely forgiven.

Could you imagine that and I now could have a place prepared for me in heaven cuz he loves me so much and if I'm faithful I put on a white gown and if I'm faithful I wear a crown. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. God, what could I do for you? That's what we reading in this text. Judge me to see if I'm faithful, if I'm trustworthy, dependable. If you can have confidence in me and since you will find me that way, watch this carefully. Abide with me. Come live in my house. And she constrained us. She propelled us to do it.

She passionately That's what it means with excitement urging saying, please stay here. You could do more for the kingdom of God. I will fund it. You don't need to do anything. I'll fund it. I'll get it done. But go make a difference in people's lives. That was a difference in my life. Hallelujah. That's passion that has helped people like Paul to write books in the Bible and impact the world so that we could sit here today saved. This women like Lydia that got this message all around the known world because of her commitment to make a difference cuz of what God has done in her life.

Since you've been saved, what difference has your life made? When we know the difference Christ has made in us, stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings, for giving us this brief glimpse into Lydia's life. We hope her fervor will be contagious as we think about our commitment to Christ. Be sure to visit PowerWalk online at powerwalkministries.org. You'll find this message series there as well as many other resources that you'll find helpful.

Guest (Female): Please save the date, December 5th, 2026, as Dr. Paul Cannings will be hosting a fundraiser luncheon. Dr. Tony Evans, founder and president of the Urban Alternative, will be our guest speaker. The luncheon will be at 11:00 a.m. at Crown Plaza in Chantilly, Texas. Please visit us online at powerwalkministries.org for reservation and further details. We hope you'll be with us this December 5th to join our host Pastor Paul Cannings at 11:00 a.m. for the luncheon and for a message from God's word by Dr. Tony Evans. December 5th, get your reservation, powerwalkministries.org. We hope to see you there.

Guest (Male): And thank you, friend, for your prayerful and financial support. To make a contribution today, please call us at 281- 260- 7402. That's 281- 260- 7402 or log on to powerwalkministries.org. And if you live in the Houston area and you don't have a church home, you're welcome to visit Reverend Cannings and his congregation at Living Word Fellowship Church. It's located at 7350 T.C. Jester Boulevard in Houston. And as we leave you, ponder this question. Since you've been saved, what difference has your life made? Let's be intentional in our walk with God and our service to him.