Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to this broadcast of Power Walk with Pastor and speaker Reverend Paul Cannings. Reverend Cannings is the founder of this broadcast and also senior pastor of Living Word Fellowship Church in Houston, Texas. We continue this week on the teaching series titled The Samaritan Woman, and we see her focus change. She is focused on worship at one point in the conversation.

Jesus sees her heart and brings this focus clearly on what true worship would consist of. Here is Dr. Cannings now with today's message titled Worship Him. Let's listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Worshipping God many times for many people is a challenge. Challenge to find the time, challenge to really design their lives to truly worship God. It's interesting the same people will go to a basketball game or go to a football game or go to something they love, whether it's fishing, whether it's shopping. Go to something they love and have energy and excitement, and the same people who couldn't lift a hand in church, they're dancing in the stands.

The same people who found it extraordinary for somebody to say "praise the Lord" in the middle of worship would be screaming at their team watching television. The same people who can't get to church because it's snowing or it's cold or it's wet will end up in a football stadium or tailgating in a parking lot giving praise to a team that is playing football or basketball.

Or there's somebody that is a movie star. They're going to sit out for days so that they could see the movie star come down the red carpet. Or they would sit outside of a store for days because they want to get this game or they want to get the newest TV that came out and the best sale. It's interesting how time don't matter then.

But somehow when it comes to Christ, worship for some reason has all the different dynamics that make people can't find time. People can't give, but they'll buy expensive tickets for games, including parking lot, buying food that is overpriced. It's interesting that God has a lot of true worshippers; they just don't have them attached to Him.

This is where the Samaritan woman now is. You say, "How in the world did she get here?" The reason why she gets to this whole aspect of worship is because Christ has moved her from herself to start thinking about her life. He started moving her from her day-to-day person, meaning, "You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan woman. You don't have anything to drink with. How you going to get water out the well?"

And He gets her away from her culture and from all of the racial stuff that goes on in the culture and all of the day-to-day living stuff and starts to get her to focus on who she is and what God can mean to her when it comes to living water. And once that becomes the centerpiece of where her life now she wants it to be focused on, that living water, that spring that comes up.

A strong contrast to the collecting of water that this well is. And when it rains, it can collect a lot of water. But it has no spring under it. So the contrast between a spring that she don't have to worry about when it's hot and a dry that there's still water compared to a place when it's hot and dry in this well, this well can dry up, and in a hot, dry climate, that's disaster.

There is a difference, and this difference could take place in her life. Once she realizes that, all of a sudden the day-to-day struggles and the racial issues and all of these different things became irrelevant. You see folks, it is hard to worship Christ when all Christ is is "bless me in the fields, bless me in the city, bless me when I come and when I go. Just help my well to not run dry."

When all of these day-to-day things become lost in the focus of running the race that is set before me for the glory of God, pressing towards the mark of the higher calling, change takes place in worship. This woman now is focused on worship. She's literally saying, "Okay, I get it. I have five husbands and a live-in boyfriend. My moral life has gone off the deep end. But at the end of the day, sir, if you can come into my life and make a difference, worship makes sense."

Day-to-day going about life is just living. But life is life eternal. That's why Jesus Christ said, "I came," in John chapter 10—same book, same author—"I came to give life and life abundantly." What kind of man is this that would lay down his life for a friend? That's the emphasis. That's what lasts forever.

And once we get this life, as I explained earlier in this series, Paul says, "I've learned to be content in whatever state I'm in. I'm anxious for nothing. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." The sufferings of this present time don't compare to the glory to be revealed. All things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purposes. The whole ball game changes when life becomes life, and this woman sees that.

When that change takes place, it's all about worship. It's all about worship. Jesus Christ in verse 21 of John chapter four, He says, "Jesus said unto her, 'Woman, believe Me.'" I'm commanding you to develop a deep conviction about what I'm going to say to you. You have to have complete confidence in what I'm saying. This is why He's saying to her, and watch it carefully, "Believe Me."

He's going to push this. "Believe Me, woman, believe Me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father." The worship service that you are a part of is going to be irrelevant. It's coming. Because when Jesus Christ, which is not too long from now, is going to die, that whole process that Jews got through saying that you can't do anymore because the temple has been torn down is all going to be relevant.

We're going to create a whole new system here. So until you make this transition with Me, the change that you have a passion for will never happen. What takes place in worship that will bless us is the fact that we experience Christ, and we find a way in worship to grow in Him, to learn Him, and to become like Him. When that becomes the passion and the emphasis, all the other stuff is not as necessary.

Our cultural preference to be on this mountain and be all upset she can't go to Jerusalem is irrelevant. Who is a Jew and who is a Gentile? Irrelevant. What she enjoys on Jacob Mountain in the worship service, irrelevant. Because when Christ is the only relevance, then all that matters is about Him. Am I learning about Him? Am I able to serve Him? Am I able to worship Him in spirit and in truth?

Am I able to do those things? It's pure. So this is what He says. "When ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father." Worship means that it's His worthship. Worthship. That's why giving becomes an issue in worship. From the time they started out coming out of Egypt into the wilderness, He said, "Okay now, bring gifts to build a tabernacle. I'm not dropping it out of heaven for you. Bring gifts."

They got gifts from the Egyptians, bring them. Are you believing that I will take care of you and what I just did for you? What value does it have to you? So it's going to cost time. It's going to cost service. And it's going to cost finances. We can worship—we say we don't worship idols today. No, anything we give time to, money to, service to, that's our worship service.

If a person says, "I don't worship shopping," you give time to it, money to it, value to it, it's worthship. Worship is anything I surrender myself to in those three areas. That's why He says, "He worship, He know not." In other words, what you're doing, you technically don't have any sense about it. I'm so sorry. I know how insulting that may seem. But that's what it means.

He's literally saying that you have no experiential understanding about what you're doing. They've removed as Samaritans the historical books because the Assyrians and all this other stuff happened and they're all a part of that historical books thing that says that they're no longer Jews, they're Samaritans. So they don't want to deal with historical books. They just want to deal with the Pentateuch and maybe the poetic books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon.

Maybe they'll deal with those. But prophets and historical books? No, they don't want to deal with it. Fundamentally, you don't keep the whole Bible in your worship service. You only use a select part of the Bible. You're not experiencing God in worship because you've taken away one of the fundamental things that lead you to know God: His word. So if I don't fundamentally know what the word of God is and am committed to obey it, I never arrive at the truth.

That's why Jesus is the word, but the spirit is the truth. So that's why He's saying here, "You fundamentally don't have an experience of Me in day-to-day living." So when you come to worship, technically you don't have a worship service. You think you do, but you don't. Because worship is determined by Me, not you. You're coming to My worship service.

It's about Me. I determine how you come into My presence. It's all about magnifying and glorifying God, because when we magnify and glorify God and the focus and the emphasis is magnifying and glorifying Him, our lives find its place. It finds its focus. It finds its emphasis. It finds its meaning. So in worshipping God, we experience Him and therefore experience what we need to do relevant to Him.

Worship drives us to a relationship that is meaningful and substantive and productive for day-to-day living. That's why He's saying to her, "Look at your life. You've got five husbands and a live-in boyfriend. What did that worship service do for you?" That's why you don't experience anything. You just come, kick out what part of the Bible you don't want like it's a buffet line, enjoy what you want to enjoy, jump up and down on this mountain of Jacob and have a great old time, and go back to doing what you've been doing.

It is not about experiencing God and having a transformation. It's about doing worship the way you choose to do it because you are a Samaritan. Oh folks, this is the issue that helps us in our walk with God: to experience God so transformation moves us from sinfulness to righteousness because the emphasis in worship is holiness. That's why, as we continue down this whole aspect of worship and how He leads her to it, it's going to be about the transformation it leads to.

The adjustments we have to make when we walk into His presence that leads us to experience God for who He is because it's all about Him. Which brings shape and focus to who we are and to what we need to do to experience God productively every day. Anybody at a football game, they become the team. They wear all of the memorabilia. They put on stuff, they jump around, paint themselves in the team colors.

They get sad or excited when the team wins. What is happening? That same person, you could see them sitting in their house probably just relaxing, don't come to church, probably don't even lift a hand. Probably don't even want to serve, don't even want to give. But that same person at the football game, basketball game, going shopping, enjoying fishing, whatever they do, whether it's investments or whatever, that same person is different because their love for that team or that activity transformed them. That's the issue He's talking about, folks. Does worship transform you because it's about Him? Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings. It's amazing how Jesus gently moves her from sinfulness to righteousness. He not only sees the sin that she is living in, but that worship was important to her. Friend, whatever situation you may be facing because of past failures, just know that Christ knows you and He calls to you. He sees your heart where you may be longing for a change in your life, and He invites you to follow Him in your life.

If you'd like to speak with us about that, our number is 281-260-7402. Please give us a call at 281-260-7402. Or you can visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. And while you're there, be sure to also browse through our resources for you and your family. Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org.

Our mailing address is PO Box 920517, Houston, Texas 772092. As always, we value your prayers for our ministry. And remember, whether you worship privately at home or corporately at church, the emphasis in worship is holiness. May we come in spirit and in truth to worship the Lord.