A Conversation

Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

Can I tell you this morning?

I told, I told Angel, I don't even know what the sermon is about today.

This, this was a, this was a battle.

It was a battle all week.

It was a battle for me.

Just to get here.

And so I'm, I'm, I'm just trusting that the Lord is going to speak.

I don't have a conclusion.

I don't, I don't, it might just fall off off a cliff, you know, towards the end,

but, but I'm just trusting that God is going to speak to somebody today.

That's, that's it.

You know, that's it.

Sometimes we, sometimes we do our most, we do the most that we possibly

can until we can't anymore.

And I feel like, I feel like, man, this week was just, it was a, it was a

stressful week, it was a busy week.

It was a tiring week.

And I just, I felt like I was being pulled in so many directions.

And then, you know, when, when, when life gets like that, sometimes it

feels like it's hard to hear God.

It feels like God is saying so many different things, or maybe

he's saying nothing at all.

And, and, and so this week I was like, man, God, what are you saying?

It was, it was 10 o'clock at night.

I didn't even have a sermon.

And, um, I think it was sister Priscilla.

I don't know if she's here, but she said something yesterday in the

context of, of, of not, not the Lord, but she said it and, and

it really resonated with me.

She said, sometimes the silence speaks the loudest.

And I think that's how it is with the Lord.

Sometimes in his silence and his refusal to speak when we're asking him to speak,

he's actually saying something, something profound and something deep.

And I don't, I don't know what God is saying to you this morning, but I want

to, I want to preach this word the best way that I can, and I want you to turn

with me to the gospel of John, John chapter four.

Praise God.

Amen.

Praise God for this worship team.

Anointed and filled with the spirit.

John chapter four, verses seven through 24.

If you have it saying that we're going to read a lot.

Okay.

So don't fall asleep on me.

Amen.

It says this, and I'm reading from the NLT just for readability.

It says he, he being Jesus had to go through Samaria on the way.

Eventually he came to Samar, uh, to the Samaritan village of Sikar near the

field that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.

Jacob's well was there and Jesus tired from the long walks, sat wearily beside

the nation, uh, I'm sorry, but beside the well about noontime.

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, please give me a

And he was alone at that time because the disciples had gone to the village to buy

some food.

The woman was surprised for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.

And she said to Jesus, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.

Why are you asking me for a drink?

Jesus replied, if you only knew the gift of God that he has for you and who you are

speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water.

Somebody say living water.

Verse 11 says, but sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket.

She said, and this well is very deep.

Where would you get this living water?

And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this

well?

How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?

Jesus replied, anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again, but

those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.

It becomes a fresh bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

Please, sir.

The woman said, give me this water.

Then I'll never be thirsty again and I won't have to come here to get water.

Go and get your husband.

Jesus told her, let me say, Oh, I don't have a husband.

The woman replied.

Jesus said, you're right.

You don't have a husband for you have had five husbands and you aren't even married

to the man you're living with.

Now you certainly spoke the truth, sir, the woman said, you must be a prophet.

So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of

worship while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim where our ancestors

worshiped?

Jesus replied, believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer

matter whether you worship the father on this mountain or in Jerusalem, you Samaritans

know very little about the one you worship while we Jews know all about him for

salvation comes through the Jews.

But the time is coming.

Indeed, it's here now when worshipers, true worshipers will worship the father in

spirit and in truth.

The father is looking for those who will worship him that way for God is spirit and

those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

The woman said, I know the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ, and

when he comes, he will explain everything to us.

Then Jesus told her, I am the Messiah.

Let's pray.

Heavenly father.

Have your way this morning, my God, in this moment, Lord, I pray that you would speak

to your people, father.

I pray that you would be on my lips, take over every thought and every word, my God.

And I just pray that you would bring healing and restoration.

And I pray for salvation in the house of God this morning.

I pray for freedom and I pray father, God, that people would just be open to you, Lord,

and what you want to do and what you want to say.

We love you.

We ask all this in your name.

Amen.

You can take your seat.

Amen.

God is good.

Amen.

All the time.

Amen.

Um, so I don't, I don't think this is going to be a message for everybody.

Hopefully it's for somebody.

Like I said, man, I really had a, I had a hard time this week.

It was 10 o'clock last night and I still didn't know what the Lord wanted to say.

And I, I, I don't like that feeling.

I need, you know, if I had things my way, I would have three days to really prepare

a sermon, um, in a, in a well-crafted and well-studied way, but sometimes God just

has other plans.

And so I just pray that he speaks to someone through this sermon, because

again, I, I feel, I feel unprepared.

You know, I have a, I have a recurring nightmare.

Um, I don't know if y'all ever had, if any of you have like a recurring

nightmare, but I have this dream pretty often where I get up on Sunday morning,

I get behind the pulpit and I've got nothing to say.

I got, I had that dream probably like once a month, it's the worst.

And I woke up early this morning and I said, God, I feel like I'm living that

nightmare and I'm just letting you know, because one, I want to be transparent.

And two, if this does end up speaking to somebody, I want you to know God really

loves you and he's got your back.

Um, you know, John chapter four, man, I love it.

I love this passage of scripture.

It's, it's probably the most profoundly theological passage that we encounter

in all of, all of John's gospel.

And John's gospel is probably the most theologically profound of all the

gospels, and we read these, what, 23 verses, and there's, there's a lot to

impact here and we'll, we'll try to get to some of it, but I want, I want us to

zoom out for a moment and I want us to understand the power of just having a

conversation with Jesus, like Jesus wants to talk to you.

This, this woman represented every reason Jesus should have had not to sit down

next to this woman and start a conversation with her, but instead he

actually initiates the conversation to get to the root of everything that was

wrong with this woman's life.

And, and, and she didn't know it at the time, but her life from this moment would

never be the same simply because of a conversation that she had while sitting

next to Jesus.

And that's the title of my sermon this morning, a conversation.

I think, I think one of the reasons I struggle with the sermon is because the

message that God has for his people today is so simple, yet this text is so

complex.

Like I said, there's a lot to unpack here, man.

I, I like to exegete the word of God.

I like to dissect the word of God.

I like to get into the Greek.

I like to understand the background and the culture and the context and all of

that stuff and, and really dive into the theology of the passage.

But God is, is simply saying today, look, tell my people to talk to me.

That's, that's the message today.

And that was, that was always the message, by the way, like that's what God had put

in my heart.

I just didn't know how to put it down.

What are you saying?

And why God, why do you got to give me John chapter four?

There's so much there.

Like I don't have all the time to really go through all of that.

God is saying, look, just tell my people, I need them to talk to me.

I need them to open up their mouth.

I need them to share with me everything that is on their heart and everything that

is on their mind and all the things that they haven't said out loud.

I need my people to talk to me.

I am inviting them to talk to me, to have a conversation with me because where there

is a conversation with Jesus, there can be healing.

There can be restoration.

There can be salvation.

There can be transformation.

I need my people just to open up their mouth and talk to me.

That's what the Lord is saying.

And this is, this has been one of my favorite dialogues between Jesus and another

person.

I think my absolute favorite is the one between him and Peter, where Peter's

restored.

But I love conversations like this between Jesus and another person, because you know,

we see both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus so closely in these interactions

with people.

You know, here we see Jesus as a man.

And the Bible says that, you know, he's tired from his journey.

He's walking and he's tired.

And so he sits down where the Samaritan woman is.

And, you know, this is a culture where Jews, they don't talk to Samaritans because

they differ so much in theology.

Like, like there's just so much about them that is different that they just kind of

agreed to disagree.

You know what?

We're not going to change their mind.

They're not going to change our mind.

Let's just have no dealings with them.

We're just not going to speak to them.

I think, think about like the most distant from God person you can think of.

Think about the person who thinks, you know, the universe is God and, and, you know,

God is in everything and, and, and the trees are God.

And, and, you know, they want you to, to, to go by all of their different pronouns and

all of these things.

And, and they look at Christians as people who don't understand them.

So you know what?

It's better that we just never talk to them.

And they assume that we hate them.

This is, this is basically the, the, the attitude between the Jews and the Samaritans.

We're never going to agree.

Let's just not speak to them.

And so we see Jesus, we see the man, Jesus crossing every social and cultural barrier,

taking a risk to speak to this woman because he knows she needs salvation.

And he begins to ask her questions about her life and he's getting into some details

and, and he's asking her to give him something to drink and it's all very, all

very human, right?

But then we also see the divinity of Jesus because as God, Jesus is the

Jesus knows what this woman lacks.

And let me tell you, a conversation with Jesus is never just a conversation.

Oh, you didn't hear me this morning.

A conversation with Jesus is never just a conversation.

Jesus doesn't do small talk and thank the Lord because I hate small talk.

Jesus is always going to try to go deeper when you allow him to go deeper.

When you are saying, God, I need to get some things off of my chest and I need to

hear from you.

God will begin to expose the innermost depths of your soul to you that you didn't

even realize were there.

A conversation with Jesus is never just a conversation.

So what started off as a casual request for water turned into something that would echo

into eternity because she wasn't just talking to a man, she was talking to the son of

God, the son of God who knew her story.

He knew her struggles.

He knew that he was going to bump into some really bad theology on her end.

And so through a human moment of compassion, Jesus is able to make a divine

invitation to her that yes, even you, a woman of low status who has been abused and

rejected and unloved and is theologically incoherent, can be counted as a true

worshiper of God if you just drink of this living water.

In fact, he says God is looking for people like you who would worship in spirit and in

truth.

If you notice the passage before this, Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus.

The great, the greatly admired Jewish teacher, everybody loved Nicodemus and Nicodemus

has to come to Jesus by night because he's ashamed to be seen with Jesus if anybody sees

him.

But but if anybody could drink of this living water, surely it's this Pharisee who is who

is renowned in his teaching and Jewish law.

It's surely it's this man who is renowned by God.

But then he speaks to this woman in broad daylight, a woman who he shouldn't even be

talking to and offers her.

Drink this living water.

And so this this leaves this woman to go into the town and she testifies of everything

that Jesus spoke to her that might indicate that he is the Christ.

And and the Bible says that she tells everybody he told me everything about my life.

He he saw me for who I am, he spoke to me in a way that nobody else has spoken to me.

He was very direct and he went, I mean, he got really personal, but but he told me

everything about my life and because of her testimony, she and many of the Samaritans

began to believe in Jesus.

And what I what I love most about all of this story is that for this Samaritan woman,

salvation began with the conversation.

We undermine the power and of just talking to Jesus because it's too simple, we would

rather have those radical encounters where where, you know, in the Bible, we see

salvation sometimes coming from this crazy, actionable faith.

And then there's a miracle and then there's a healing and then there's divine

provision, like people want a big moment when coming to God.

And so the church does the most to create a miracle revival healing night slash

conference. And we try to to get the best worship and to sing the best songs and and

we try to get a powerhouse preacher.

And that's great. But this wasn't that at all.

That's right. This was just another day and it was hot outside and she was thirsty and

he was tired and she probably wasn't having the best day and there was nobody else

around and there was no background music and there was no keyboard and there was no

pads and there was no emotion in the room.

It was just a woman and Jesus and a conversation.

I'm afraid that we don't know how to talk to Jesus.

There was a time and I've told this story before, I told about a time when I was

asking God to bring in new people to the church.

I was asking God to to bring the unchurched to the church, people who had no

knowledge of God. I was saying, Lord, bring bring people who aren't even they don't

even know what type of church to look for.

People who aren't looking for a Pentecostal church, people who aren't looking for an

assemblies of God church.

I just bring people who are looking for a missing piece in their life.

They might not even know what it is, but I know that it is going to be you, Jesus.

That was my prayer for a long time.

I said, Lord, bring in a flood of people who don't know you so that they can encounter

you. It's always been my prayer.

Not to grow from other churches, but to grow from hell.

I don't want to take from the kingdom of God, I want to take from the enemy's kingdom.

I want to grow God's kingdom because we are emptying hell.

And so that was my prayer for years, Lord, bring the unchurched to church so that they

can encounter you and find you.

And man, did he do it?

We brought in people, God brought in people and we began to disciple them and teach

them, and I loved to see a church that was growing and I got to see new faces who were

hungry for the Lord.

They were hungry for the word.

They were curious about things in the word of God.

They were wanting to know about theology.

I loved it.

But there was a few Sundays and I've shared this before where it was a little too quiet

during worship time.

And, you know, being a Pentecostal born and raised church kid, that was a little bit of

a problem for me.

Being a worship leader who worships with some intensity, I wanted some noise in the

room. And I remember being frustrated and saying, God, your people don't know how to

worship you. They're too quiet, they don't sing, they just stand there with their arms

crossed. They just look at me like a deer looking at the headlights like what your

people don't know how to worship you.

And God gave me a spiritual slap right there in that moment.

He said, Ryan, this is what you asked for.

You asked for a church full of unchurched, you expect them to know how to worship, you

ask for people who don't even know what a Pentecostal church is.

You think they know how to be Pentecostal?

He said, you got to teach them, you got to demonstrate it to them.

You got to show them what it is to worship in spirit and in truth.

And today we got a worshiping house, we got a worshiping house, we packed the nights of

worship, we packed the altars, people are hungry for the presence of God.

And I love it.

And I'm thankful to the Lord that he answered my prayer.

I mean, I love it and I get teary eyed just to think about it.

But now I started to have the same feeling that I had back then regarding prayer.

The church.

I'm speaking about the global church, I'm not just talking about PNEUMA, talking about

the church has gotten really good at worship, but has lacked in prayer.

Now, prayer is a form of worship, but it is the least fun form of worship.

Can we be honest?

There's nothing fun about prayer.

I mean, if any form of worship is going to put you to sleep, it's prayer and maybe my

sermons every now and then, but mostly prayer.

I mean, even the disciples were put to sleep by prayer.

I mean, think about how bold they had to be.

Like Jesus literally said, come on, we're going to pray.

And they followed like they couldn't even pretend.

Prayer is the least fun form of worship.

Let's let's let's admit it, because you don't want to say it out loud.

I'll say it out loud for you.

It's not fun to pray.

You know, ministry, ministry is a form of worship and ministry can be fun.

I mean, ministry can be hard.

It could be a lot of things, but it can also be fun.

You can, you can get creative with ministry.

You can start your own ministry.

You start your own church and you design your own website and you can do your own

thing and your own way.

That's that's fun.

Music can be a form of worship and that could be real fun.

If you choose the right songs, you got the right worship band.

You're going to get people in the seats.

You are going to pack out those nights of worship.

You sing, I mean, you sing the right praise song.

You're going to even have the kids at the altar.

But when was the last time you've seen a packed house for a prayer night?

We had one last night and we were right here in this little section right here

with men with about 25 men praise and praise the Lord for those who came out

and prayed and had a good time.

Not trying to make you feel bad.

If you have something to do, that's fine.

But this is this this is normal.

This is normal.

We don't pack out the prayer nights, we don't pack out the Saturday morning

prayers, which we have one this coming Saturday, by the way.

But you know what we used to we used to maybe not my generation, but generations

before us, they used to pack out the prayer nights, revivals would spark all

over the nation because somebody decided to call a prayer meeting.

And over time, those prayer meetings began to grow and God's heart began to be

moved because he saw a praying church who desired him for him.

And so he sent revival over cities and over nations.

Read about revivals.

Every revival came out of prayer.

But somewhere along the way, listen, we adopted more exciting forms of worship

that stimulate us and we made worship into a concert and we made worship into a

calling and we made worship into a ministry.

I've got nothing bad to say about any form of worship.

My point is, is it really worshiping in spirit and in truth when we struggle to

just have a conversation?

Is it spirit and in truth?

Or is it just an exciting form of worship?

Is it just a sense of purpose doing ministry?

Is it, is it, is it really worshiping in spirit and in truth when I struggle to

just talk to my heavenly father who has given me access, Jesus, who broke the

veil when he died on the cross and resurrected again to give me access to the

throne of grace and I can't even speak to him for five minutes.

Prayer might be the most intimate form of worship that many of us don't even know

how to do.

And look, I don't, I really don't think this message is meant to convict you.

It might convict some of you, but I think more than anything, it's meant to teach

you that that's, that's my, my, my hope because people just, some, some of them

don't know how to pray without asking for stuff.

I've been asked multiple times, pastor, how do, how do I pray?

And I appreciate those people who asked me that.

They say, is it, do I, am I just asking for stuff?

Like sometimes I don't know what to say.

Sometimes I feel like everybody else is praying for 10 minutes and I'm done in

two minutes.

And like, is it just saying the same thing over and over and over in different

words?

Sometimes I, some, the person next to me is praying and I'm just there like,

mm hmm.

Yes, Lord.

Mm hmm.

Amen.

I like, how do I pray?

G and Jesus provides a pretty good formula in Matthew chapter six, the Lord's

But is that just something that we recite?

Like people really just don't know how to talk to God.

And the Lord has really been moving my heart on this for a long time because I

just, I look at, I look at the model of marriage.

Like imagine if you didn't know how to talk to your spouse.

Imagine like maybe you talk about things that, that you need to get done, but you

struggle to really have an intimate conversation with your spouse.

So instead you just, you settle for the fun stuff.

Anything to make you make you avoid a conversation and maybe you have a great

time and maybe it's exciting and maybe you bond over the fun and the interesting

and the exciting, but you struggle to talk to your spouse about your struggles.

You struggle to talk about what you're dealing with.

You have a hard time being serious because being serious is boring and

awkward.

A marriage can't have a marriage that can't have conversations is a marriage

that is slowly growing further and further apart.

And I just, I don't want that for the people of God.

We've gotten really good at worshiping through ministry, through songs, through

devotion, but nothing moves the heart of God like prayer does.

Because prayer comes from your heart.

You understand that when you're singing a worship song, you're singing from

somebody else's heart and, and you might be able to relate to it and it might say

all the right things for you, but God wants to have a conversation with you.

I love hearing a singing church.

I love it, man.

When the, when the worship music stops and, and the people just continue to sing,

it's, it's beautiful.

But I also want to hear a praying church, man.

I want to hear a church that is talking to God when there was nothing left to

sing.

And if we ever get to a point where we can't talk to God and we have to let

others do it for us, there's, there's a, there's a problem there.

And I'm saying this so that you can maybe identify if this is an issue in

your life.

We're always asking other people to pray for you.

That's, that's good.

We're going to pray for you.

That's what we're here for.

But you have a voice and you know what?

God wants to talk to you.

But pastor, I'm, I'm filthy pastor.

I just, I sin too much.

I need somebody who's a little bit closer to God.

God, God is came down from his throne in heaven to become like us, to identify

with us, to be baptized when he didn't have to be baptized so that we can have

a relationship with him.

You have access to him.

You can speak to him.

Notice that Jesus didn't go through a pastor to speak to this Samaritan woman.

He didn't go through a prayer team.

He went directly to her and maybe it was a little bit awkward for the woman.

Maybe she was a little thrown off.

Maybe she got a little bit defensive when, when Jesus started to say a couple

things, but, but when you talk to Jesus, something happens.

And I want you, I want you to notice that it's Jesus who initiates this

conversation.

You're still with me, right?

It's Jesus who initiates this conversation.

He says, woman, give me a drink, please.

Woman, please give me a drink.

Listen, does God need anything from us?

No, there's nothing that I can offer God that will ever add any value to him.

God doesn't need my ministry.

He doesn't need my sermon.

He doesn't need my devotion.

He doesn't need my song.

And this is what stops many people from pursuing God more.

We discredit ourselves from giving God what he desires because we tell ourselves

God doesn't need it.

Did you hear me?

We discredit ourselves from giving God what he desires from us because we've

convinced ourselves that he doesn't need it from us.

So God is saying, look, I want a relationship with you, but we're saying

God, you don't want a relationship with me.

You don't need a relationship with me.

God says, I want your worship.

God, you don't, you don't need that.

I want your ministry.

God, you don't need me.

Get the next guy to do it.

But he desires it.

He wants it.

See, when Jesus crossed the, the social barrier of speaking to a Samaritan and

then the cultural barrier of speaking to a woman, and then he crossed the divine

barrier by speaking to a sinful human.

He was communicating to her that he desired something from her.

Now she, she didn't know it yet, but this was an invitation to just begin a

conversation.

This, I don't know how many of you talk to God.

Um, or I don't, there's a lot of you.

There's a lot of people who don't talk to God because you don't think that you

can talk to God.

You, you don't, you don't think that you're qualified to talk to God.

You don't think that you got the words.

You're, you're too ashamed by, by, by what you've done to initiate a conversation.

You're embarrassed to go and ask God for things because you know that you are a

sinful person, but God is asking you today.

He's asking you for a drink.

He's asking you if he could sit down next to you as filthy as your table might

be.

He just wants to talk to you.

Not because he needs anything from you, but because he desires you because he

wants to pursue you because he wants to heal you.

He wants to fix everything in your life that has damaged you.

Stop telling yourself you don't need me because it's true as that is.

It's not about him needing you.

It's about him wanting you.

It's about him desiring a relationship with you.

Man, you're going to, you're going to find that when you allow God to sit at

your table, when you allow God, when you give him what he desires, when you give

him your time, when you give him your heart, when you just offer yourself to

him and you give him what's on your mind and you give him every care, every

struggle, every anxiety, he's always going to exchange it for something

better.

Like, like all God has been asking from you is the conversation.

Just, just talk to me.

Just talk to me.

Even for those of us who are already in relationship with Jesus, I heard God say

early this morning, you worship me, but you don't talk to me.

You sing to me, but I don't have your words.

I know your struggles, but you've never brought them to me.

And, and, and we just assume God, you know, God wants a conversation with you,

man.

He wants you to open up to him.

He wants to speak to you.

He wants, he wants to transform you.

Now, this woman, you know, he, she accepts the invitation to talk to Jesus.

She could have stayed in her lane.

She could have said, I'm a Samaritan woman.

He is a Jewish man.

This doesn't look right.

I'm just going to ignore him.

But, but she doesn't, she gives in and, and, and lets Jesus sit next to her and

exchange words.

Now you're also going to notice that there's really nothing profound about

what the woman says back to Jesus.

She says, sir, um, you don't have anything to draw water with.

Do you know how wells work like this?

I can't give you something to drink.

If you don't even have a bucket, there's nothing special about her words.

Talking to Jesus, giving you all some, something practical here is not about

sounding eloquent.

It's not about having the right words to say you're not being tested.

You're not being like too many people think of prayer like a performance.

This is why nobody wants to pray for food.

No, nobody, nobody's eager to open up the service.

Nobody's eager to dismiss the service.

Anybody want to pray?

Nobody raised their hands.

And then what do you hear after 10 minutes?

I'll pray.

Like it's a burden.

What?

Why?

Why is it a burden?

You're just talking to God.

You're just having a conversation with him.

Doesn't need to sound pretty.

You don't have to sound eloquent.

You know, you know how dumb we are compared to God.

It's okay.

He's the Lord.

He knows all things.

And so many times God is God is speaking to us, but but we're afraid to open up

our mouth because we don't know what to say.

And sometimes we feel like our prayer has got to be long.

Because we see other people who can pray for hours.

Just have a conversation, man.

God wants to sit.

Jesus wants to sit at your table.

And just converse with you.

And my sermon is about to fall off already.

So worship team.

Come on, hurry up.

I want you.

I want you to know as beautiful as all of this is and I would love to just go

through all of it and what it means for Jesus to be the living water and all of

these things.

Jesus is simply trying to sit next to you to speak to you.

That's that's it.

That's that's the message.

Because transformation happens when you just open up your mouth and you begin to

talk to God.

Yesterday.

We were we were here and Pastor Brandon.

He was he was given the devotional and and he he puts the man into groups of

three and he says, all right, we're going to go around.

Every group is going to each man is going to go around and and and say what

what they need prayer for and all the other guys in the group are going to

pray.

And so, you know, I'm a pastor.

That's that's pretty easy for me.

Hey, brother.

What do you what do you need prayer for?

Right?

Okay, let's pray.

We pray with authority.

We pray with some power, you know, that's y'all know how pray.

And then and then it's my turn.

Okay, here here my struggles.

And and the two brothers in the group.

I don't know man.

They look like we're about to pray for Pastor.

And they said they said it he said it out loud.

He said said brother.

I don't I'm not really good with with prayer.

One of the guys said I'm not really good with prayer.

I don't do this very I don't do this very often.

And I was like, okay, that's fine, man.

Just just talk to God.

And I and I sat there and I received their prayer.

And you know what?

It was one of the most beautiful genuine prayers I have ever

heard because it was from the heart.

It was real.

It didn't feel like a performance.

God isn't looking for you to perform.

He's just looking to you to be his son his daughter.

Just talk to me.

Just give it to me.

Stop stop holding on to the things because you don't know

how to process it in words.

God is God is just saying I want to talk to you.

And the more you talk to God.

The more he reveals to you.

Can I say that to you real quick?

The more I mean it that that's all here right here.

The more that this woman spoke to Jesus the more about himself

he revealed to her.

He says.

He says I can offer you this living water.

And the woman says well, okay Jesus tell me where to get it.

I want this.

I want this living water.

And she misses the point right because she says she says if

I have this living water then I can I can stop coming here.

I'll never thirst again.

I can I can stop making this journey back and forth by myself

to try to get this water.

So she says give me this water, but she doesn't get it yet.

So then Jesus says, okay.

Go get your husband.

And the woman's like what?

We ain't talking about my love life.

We're talking about water.

It's just I don't have a husband.

And she's like, I know.

You've had five of them.

You've had a lot of them and the guy that you're with now is

not your husband.

He's going deeper.

The longer you talk to Jesus the more he's going to reveal.

He's going to reveal more and he's going to expose some things

from your life that you didn't even know were there before

things that maybe you wouldn't have never brought to his feet.

But the more he presses the more he propresses in and the more

he makes it intimate the more you reveal how much you've got

to let go of.

You've had five husbands.

So she says, okay.

Well, I don't think this is just a water guy anymore.

I perceive you to be a prophet.

You're a prophet.

You know some things and then they start to have a theological

conversation.

They start to bump heads on some stuff.

She says, she says, well, your people your people don't worship

on the mountain that we worship on.

They got to worship in Jerusalem.

And so right off the bat, like we're just we're bumping heads.

The spot to worship she says is on Mount Gerizim.

Y'all say it's over there in Jerusalem.

We're just going to have to we're just got to agree to disagree

your prophet.

You're gifted but but okay.

Jesus says, hold on.

Hold on.

I'll tell you the truth.

There was coming a day and it's now here.

He says.

Where the people were not worship on either this mountain or

in this city.

The God is looking for people who would worship in spirit and

in truth because my father in heaven.

He is a spirit and he's looking for those who would worship

in spirit and in truth.

And now now she's he's made her think, thank God.

Okay.

Well, one day the Messiah is coming.

He'll clear all of this up.

And then Jesus says, I'm him.

That's why I'm offering you this living water.

That's why I sat down next to you.

That's why I asked about you.

That's why I'm concerned with you.

That's why I crossed all the the social barriers and the

cultural barriers just to just to talk to you so that I could

offer you this living water.

She goes and she testifies and she says that this man who I

had a conversation with told me everything about me.

No one has talked to me like that before.

No one has seen me the way that he's seen me.

This man who wasn't supposed to talk to a woman this Jew who

wasn't supposed to talk to a Samaritan.

This God who wasn't supposed to talk to a sinner.

I sat down because he wanted to have a conversation with me.

God wants to have a conversation with you.

He wants to talk to you.

Stop holding back man.

I don't know who this is for again.

I'm the most unprepared I've ever been for a message.

God just wants to talk to somebody.

You're running and you're hiding from things in your worship.

You're hiding this the sin and the shame in your worship and

you're justifying it because you're saying I'm coming to

church and I'm lifting up my hands and I'm singing the songs

that are on the screen and I'm and I'm worshipping God and

God is saying I need to get to something deeper.

You worship me, but you don't talk to me.

I know your struggles, but you haven't brought your struggles

to me.

Talk to God man.

Talk to God doesn't have to sound pretty doesn't have to be

eloquent.

You don't it doesn't have to be long.

It doesn't have to be loud.

Just talk to your father.

Would you stand if you're going to be if you're going to be

I'm going to go ahead and dismiss you now.

I'm sorry.

Can I I'm going to I'm going to have the prayer team come up

afterwards, but I really want us.

This is just an invitation.

For anybody who just needs to talk to Jesus.

Okay, and for and for further now, let's say 10 minutes.

Okay for 10 minutes for 10 minutes.

You need to know how powerful conversation with Jesus is and

to really know that you got to test it.

You got to test it.

So I'm afraid if we start singing y'all are just going to

start singing.

I want you to I want you to pray.

I want you to pray.

If you need to have a conversation with Jesus, I want

you to come forward and this is what I'm going to ask.

I'm going to ask every man of God every woman of God everybody

who was loving everybody who wants to pray for everybody

else.

Nobody's praying for anybody right now.

I know that's our heart and we see somebody who's struggling

and we go up to them and like, okay, let me let me pray for

you.

Let them pray.

They need to pray.

They need to pray to God.

They need to talk to God.

If you just need to talk to God, this is your moment right

here.

Would you would you come forward if you just need to talk to

God just you and him you and him come on the altars are open.

I don't know what you got to say to him, but you have to have

a conversation with him and say it say it out loud.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on Pneuma Church visit

us on our website at mypneumachurch dot o-r-g if you enjoyed

the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends

on social media and tag us at mypneumachurch.

Thanks again and God bless.