Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for tuning in and joining us for this broadcast of Power Walk Ministries. Reverend Paul Cannings is pastor and teacher on this broadcast, and we're so glad that you've joined us for a great sermon series on the Samaritan woman. As Jesus walks this lady through her past and present situation, he graciously offers to quench her thirst, but this time not with water, but with something that will transform her life forever.

Challenging us to embrace and apply what Christ has done for this lady to our own lives, here's Dr. Cannings now with the message, "Transformed."

Dr. Paul Cannings: We've been dealing with the Samaritan woman, and we're going to continue to deal with the Samaritan woman this new week. We've got to keep learning from this lady. She is a wonderful lady. I understand we're quick to go to her moral issues, but she's a wonderful lady. She's made bad decisions and she accepts that she has. In the midst of all of this, this lady shows a heart for Christ, and Christ is going to use her to reach a village because he knows her heart.

He knows the potential she has to reach a village that if he walked in as a Jew, there are all kinds of issues. He walks into that village as a Jew—what's this man doing in here? He wasn't supposed to even be here. So Jesus Christ sees the potential in this woman's heart. He also sees the potential she can have for a village and can change a city. Jesus Christ came here to this meeting, and we could learn a lot about this meeting because what he's offering this Samaritan woman, we have issues with.

Our righteousness is filthy rags to Christ. Even if we feel we don't have her background before we came to Christ, as far as Christ is concerned, sin is sin. When we come to Jesus the Christ, the issue is we're a sinner needing a savior because until a savior delivers us from our sin, we are sinners. We can't get out. We're always going to sin and keep sinning and get to the point where we just love it and have no problems as to why people are talking about it.

That's just who we are. You put a fish in water, it's going to swim. You don't have to teach it. You put a bird that flies, and that's what it's going to do because it's a bird that flies. That's its nature. We're sinners. That's what we do. We sin. Unless somebody delivers us from the power of sin, that's what we're going to keep doing and we'll never experience life and life eternal.

It doesn't matter how we come to Christ; it matters that we're honest when we get there. This woman was honest. She didn't dress it up. She didn't go, "No, I've just been having some problems and these men are just awesomely ridiculous." There was no long list. This woman comes to Christ and she stays in the conversation and she's willing to learn. She doesn't mind asking questions. She doesn't mind debating with him. She doesn't mind any of those things because she always had a heart to learn.

She tells us this as we continue through; you will find she wants to learn. She wants to grow. She understands her background isn't the best. She comes to church. She just doesn't get church when she gets there so it doesn't change her life. But this woman has a great knowledge background. That's why she could talk with Jesus Christ and interact with him.

When he says in John chapter 4, in verse 13, she's saying, "You can't have a better water than Jacob." That's what verse 12 says. She's still in the present. "You can't have a better water than you and the one that doesn't have anything talking about I can give you something to drink." In verse 13, Jesus answered because he's saying, "No, I introduced this thing about living water and we're going to stay there. You're not going to sidetrack me."

He says in verse 14, "Whoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." Please underline the word "never" thirst. Whosoever—doesn't matter if it's a Samaritan or a Jew. Doesn't matter where you're from. It's whosoever. He builds off of chapter three, verse 16: whosoever believes in the Son of Man shall be saved. He's building off by going to a whosoever in the eyes of Jews and Gentiles: a Samaritan woman with five husbands and a living-in boyfriend. Here's the whosoever.

He drinks the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Whoever, whosoever drinks—watch this word carefully—not whosoever just believes in Jesus Christ. That's wonderful. If you know who it is. If you know who it is, then you would have said, "Give me water," because this stuff is temporal. Mine is eternal. You need eternal because of the situation you're in. You don't need as much water as you need eternal life because that's what brings the change in the struggle you're having.

Now you're into the next man, you aren't even thinking of marrying him. You've had enough. So you need this. Let's break this verse out because we all need this. Some of us go to church, but we don't have Christ. Some of us can sing in the choir and preach a sermon, still don't have Christ because there's no manifestation of Christ in us. We are thirsty about everything. We have to be willing to drink. It's fundamental.

Yes, I am willing to come to church, but am I willing to drink? It's different. Let me tell you the problem here. When this woman gets the water out of the well, Jesus has to drink it. That is awesomely crazy. He's talking to a Samaritan. That's why she said, "I am a woman of Samaria." That had a lot in it. "So you shouldn't even be talking to me, but you're here. So you're going to not just let me pull you water, you're going to drink from my cup? You've lost your mind as a Jew."

Jesus Christ is saying, "No, I'm going to give you something to drink." No, no, no, you don't have anything to give me anything to drink. If you know who I am, you would want me to give it to you. So Jesus Christ is saying, "But you have to drink it." Would you drink it? Would you think I'm a Jew, don't drink it? You've got racial issues going on. Would you think that because of your background you shouldn't drink it?

You have to drink this water. In other words, the water here is the Holy Spirit. He says that in chapter seven. He's not talking about water per se, but just using water as the pivot in the conversation since they're at the well to bring up the Holy Spirit. We know that because John is going to tell us that in chapter seven. In chapter seven, verse 37 says, "In the last days, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink."

Water is a huge issue. Just study water in that time and that context and how huge it is to crops and everything else when it doesn't rain for months. He says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." This living water comes out of them, not out of the well. It comes out of them. In verse 39, John now interprets for us. He says, "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified."

He's speaking of the Holy Spirit. You have to drink it now. It doesn't mean that we spend all our worship service praising the Holy Spirit. No, we go to worship to worship God. Worship is about God. Old Testament, worship is about God. Whosoever believes in him shall be saved because they're coming to God. The Holy Spirit is the helper of Christ. Christ is the helper of God so that we worship and glorify God.

Drink in the Bible is several different things. One, I must be saved. I must be in the well to drink. You're not getting a cup out the well; you're in the well. In Titus chapter three, it says the Holy Spirit is poured into us. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter one that is our inheritance. In other words, inheritance is when somebody died, they leave something. Christ died, rose from the dead, left us the Spirit of God, and he comes into our life at the point of salvation and he's poured in.

The Bible says it's essential to demonstrate the nature of God. In Romans chapter eight, we become sons of God. We take on his nature. That's why Paul would say, "I no longer live; it is Christ that lives in me." So the first thing attached to this is at salvation, he's poured in. So we're in the well, but now we have to drink. One of the things that the Spirit of God does in John chapter 14, verse 26, he reminds us of the word of God.

He reminds us, so he makes us want to read it. I need to get a read my word. I need to go hear a message. That's not us. When we were unsaved, we weren't thinking that. That took a spirit quickening in our spirit to go do it. So now we want to read the Bible. I've got to pray and ask God to help me. I need to call somebody. That hunger is what helps the thirst to quench because now we are hungering for the very thing that cleanses the thirst.

We're hungering to be in the water. He brings back the verses. Then in John chapter 16, he says he convicts us of sin. Then the Bible says in John chapter 16, verse 13, he guides us into truth. How does he guide us into truth? The Spirit of God abides. John chapter 15 says when you abide in me, I'll abide in you and you will bear much fruit. Paul works out for us what that fruit is in Galatians chapter five.

So the abiding is when we commit to obey scripture. John is going to bring this home in First John chapter two when he says you must obey the word of God and by obeying the word of God you come to know him and by coming to know him, his love becomes perfected in you. By this you know you abide in him because you walk as he walks. That's it. I'm going to keep pressing forward and running towards the mark.

I'm going to keep running the race that is set before me. The Bible says when we keep running that race, denying ourselves, confessing sin, understanding what the word of God means in the day-to-day experiences, every day we learn how to walk in the truth every day. When we understand that and now we're praying for wisdom and we apply wisdom into the workplace and into the marriage and into the single life and into the pain of depression and heartache of broken relationships and health issues and loss of loved ones.

When we keep working through the scriptures, we find strength from it. The Bible is saying yes, now you're abiding. And the Spirit of God knows you're thirsty. That's why you need God to help you with the mourning and the pain of the lost one, the mourning and the pain of the divorce, and you're constantly seeking God and the gift of encouragement in the local church, the gift of wisdom in the local church. You're seeking these things out and the Bible says the Spirit of God, because you're in the well, just drink up the water.

You're not going down in the well; you're in the well. The Spirit causes you to never need to thirst because you're constantly drinking the water. Folks, that's the powerful part of this verse. You drink it. We have to stay in the process. It's not gaining more and more spirit. It's experiencing what's already there more and more each day. Life should drive you to Christ. Christ, his word, will drive us for the need for the spirit. And the spirit will cause us to so understand the word of God, we experience who God is so that we never thirst. He didn't say we would not desire God, but it would not be a thirst. We'll pick that up tomorrow. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Reverend Cannings. This lady came for just a bucket of water and got so much more. Jesus offers the same for us, and we can come to him for salvation and for the forgiveness of sins, but also for monumental burdens that we carry on our own. For any of our ministry resources, please give us a call at 281-260-7402. Again, that's 281-260-7402. Our web address is powerwalkministries.org.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the hardest things in ministry is not actually doing ministry when God has blessed you to be this equipped, but it's to get the resources to get it done. We've stepped out in faith because we believe that, but we pray that God will touch your heart to partnership with us.

You could do that simply by going to our website. It's a secure website, and pressing the donate button. On that button, you will be able to become a partner with us and we will seek to bless you for being a blessing to us. I pray that God would move on your heart to be our partner. God bless you.

Guest (Male): To contact the ministry and for your financial support, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. If you'd prefer to write us, our mailing address is P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas, 77092. Now remember, just as we heard from Dr. Cannings, as believers, it's not gaining more and more of the Holy Spirit, but experiencing him as he is already in us.