Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male) 1: [00:00:00] You're listening to the Power Walk Ministries broadcast, and thank you for joining us today. We've begun a new series titled "Fatherhood: Your Best Life," taught by Reverend Paul Cannings. It's easy to get caught up with our efforts at being a good father and even being hard on ourselves for falling short on some days.

Encouraging us to get a broad picture and a biblical understanding of fatherhood, Reverend Cannings urges us to consider God's agenda for us in how we live our lives as well as what we pass on to future generations. Let's listen now to today's message, "Blessed by God."

Dr. Paul Cannings (Host): [00:00:43] We all want to live blessed, but are we a blessing that God needs to bless? I'll say it again. We all want to live blessed, but are we a blessing that God needs to bless?

Examples are all over the Bible. There are many people that lived blessed, maybe not on American standards or world standards, but they were a blessing that God blessed. Even in the situation with Paul, he would say, "I've learned to live with much and I've learned to live without, and I've learned how to be content." So God continued to take care of him because he chose to carry out the agenda that God has provided.

So many times we want to be blessed in the city, blessed in the fields, blessed when we come and when we go. But the issue is, are we a blessing that God needs to bless? God has an agenda for us. He set a race that he's already set before us that we must run. He's not asking for us to decide what the agenda is.

The application of his word into different situations, we have a lot of flexibility. Understand that the Bible is never saying that we don't have flexibility, but the concept of how we function, he is saying that road is set before us. We're a man, we must marry a woman. He is saying we're a woman, we must marry a man. If we're single, this is the life he chose for us. If we are parents, he chooses to provide the husband and wife a child, then this is the responsibility he says that brings with it.

If you go on a job, he says you're salt and light on this job and here is your focus that you need to have on this job. Now how we go about doing the job, the level of ability, how we apply ourselves, lots of flexibility. That's why the truth sets us free in the sense that the Holy Spirit now can freely move through us to do whatever he wants to do because we're committed to the truth and he is the Spirit of truth.

So the truth setting us free is attached to the Spirit because he tells us in chapter 14 of John, when he said that in chapter eight, that it's attached to the Spirit. But also, the Spirit gives us this flexibility as he guides us and provides us wisdom. So understand, we all want to be blessed. But God has called us to first be a blessing in order for the blessings of God to become a blessing for generations to come.

And that's in this second part as we look at the blessings of being a father. We looked at the blessings of God calling us to fatherhood. Second thing we see here is in verse one of Psalm 112 as we continue to work this out all week. You know, I like to just take it apart all week because we can spend time doing a good exegetical look at this particular text and don't have to rush through it. We'll work our way through it. This is what he says.

First we looked at, "Praise ye the Lord." That's what we spent time on yesterday and what that means, what is the context of it. That sets our minds up to run this race focused on the Christ that we are supposed to set our minds on. Not the circumstances, not the emotions, the Christ that we set on. So now that we are set on that, he says, "Blessed," meaning the person who now comes and has that mindset.

God says he will make them happy. Oh wow, wait a minute. Did we say the word happy, not joy? Yes, I said the word happy. You would actually say when you look at this in Psalm 128, he literally says that a person who fears the Lord, he will make them happy. That's what he would say. The word happy literally means the person's joy is a carefree life.

It literally depicts a lamb out in a field and in that field, there could be lions, there could be bears, there could be wolves all around. But that lamb sees Mom and Dad sitting there and also sees a shepherd that it trusts and depends on. So as far as the lamb is concerned with the green pastures before it, food in front of it, this is a time to live carefree. Security is not determined whether or not there is a wolf, a lion, or a bear. Security was determined by the people who cared.

And since this lamb is confident that the people care, this lamb is bouncing around carefree, no matter what's going on around the lamb. That is joy. Joy is an attitude and it's an expression of a carefree situation. That's why joy in the Bible is not totally wrapped up in a feeling. Happiness is wrapped up in a feeling, meaning the circumstances of this person who lives a life focused on worship, praising God.

Meaning my life will be about presenting my body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable as a reasonable act of worship. So when I come before God, my life is always before God. I'm always thinking about how I can please God. So whatever I do in word or in deed, I do it all to the glory of God. So this person lives a worshipful life. Does not mean that every second they're singing a song, no. It means every moment of every day, they're going to mess up from time to time because we're human.

The Bible says if a man says he has no sin, he just committed the first one because he lied. That's what it says in 1st John chapter 1, verse 8 through 9. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that this person lives in a God-conscious state where whatever they're doing, however they function, they're God-conscious about how they're operating. And since they're operating as a God-consciousness, this person when they are living each and every day, they live a worshipful life.

Because it's a life of reverence to God. It's a life of respect to God. It's a life that keeps God ahead of them. It's a life to where they choose to live a life that honors God. So as a result of that, all those words describe worship. This person that functions this way, the Bible says, I will make them happy. In other words, I will make their circumstances function in such a way that they can't help but experience happiness.

Joy is different, but happiness is based on circumstance and God says I will make that function. Now here is the second part of what he's saying with the word happiness. He's saying with the word happiness that he will make them prosperous. That's what the word means. The word means to be prosperous. The word means to reverence God. I choose to be a blessing, that's why he says praise the Lord starting out.

Prosperous does not mean the person would have five cars and 10 houses. That's not necessarily prosperous. That is wealth. He's going to talk about later as we talk about living your best life in fatherhood. We've talked about this when we looked at Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4 and how as a result of this, he's saying I will bless you for staying the course of being a great father.

Whether it's a blended family, whether there's a lot of interference from other people, whether there's in-laws that are functioning like outlaws, whether the situation is that the wife moved the kids away to another place because she got married to somebody else. He says the person who stays the course, the person who no matter what the circumstances are, chooses to do what God has called them when he chose to make them a father since every child, Psalm 127, is a gift from God. That person, he says, I will make them happy and I will make them prosperous.

What is prosperous? Because it's different. It includes wealth, but it is not only wealth. Prosperous is a person who sets out on a course across the seas. There's winds, there's waves, there's storms that could come up at any time. They're looking for winds so that their sails can gather the winds and move. So prosperous means that whatever I set out to do, God allows me to experience success. And when I experience success, the success brought resources with it.

It brought blessings to my home. So that's why he says blessed is also a person who is prosperous. Whatever they set out to do with their family. They may save up their money, organize themselves to buy a house, the house will come. I'll make you prosperous. It doesn't mean it's a house that is a million-dollar house. That's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about the person set that course. The person may say, "I'm going to school, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to get up early in the morning, I'm going to do what I got to do because I need to take care of my family and I need to go ahead and advance my family because the better educated I get, the better things may turn out to be." So I'm going to work at this and the person does. He says I'll bless them to finish that school and bless them to have the money to pay the tuition.

I'll bless them to maintain that job. I'll bless them to maintain their health so that in the midst of all the stress, their body don't cave in on them. I'll bless them to sustain their marriage in the midst of that stress, bless them to still be a father. So when the Bible comes to this issue, blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, which we will pick up tomorrow, the Bible is saying this particular person that chooses fatherhood, that chooses no matter the complications that they face, focus on what is best for the child that they're raising and invest in that process.

I'm not just talking about money. Become the child's coach. Visit the child at lunch at school when they can get a break or have an off day. Go pick up the child if it's in a situation where the child now is in another family. You have your weekends. Ask for some weekends, ask for some days where you can have the child because this is your child. This is spending time with the child and hopefully it's not an abrasive mom, which I said last time shouldn't happen.

We shouldn't use our children as wedges unless there's abuse situations, etc. But we shouldn't use our children as leverage to get back at somebody. They're human beings and that destroys them. That's just wrong. It's immoral. It should never be done. The marriage may have failed, unfortunately, that's just horrible, but the child should not become a weapon.

The child needs to have the freedom to grow up as a human being and be balanced and productive and effective in the life that God has provided to them. So having the father involved is huge in God's eyes. So when the father persists in this process in a godly manner, this would lead the person to see God as so resourceful in blessing the person's life that the person have a reverence of God, reverence in their focus for God.

Because they recognize how God is good and I need to make sure I do everything to stay connected with God. And that's why that person is blessed. Like in the case of Job, Satan could come and take all the stuff but God gave him twice what he ever had before. So when we come to this issue, fatherhood, you are living your best life.

It doesn't matter what I've achieved, what God has blessed me to accomplish by his grace and his mercy. That was the best decision. There's nothing greater than to invest in another human being that creates a legacy forever. Stay focused.

Guest (Male) 1: [00:11:25] Thank you, Pastor Cannings. There are so many practical ways that a father can invest in their child's life and how important this is in the eyes of God. Now friends, I'd like to encourage you to get a copy of this message series for yourself or for a family member, especially those that are challenged with the role of fatherhood. To secure your copy, call us at 281-260-7402.

Again, that's 281-260-7402. You can also visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. Again, that's powerwalkministries.org.

Dr. Paul Cannings (Host): [00:12:08] You know, I had someone walk up to me and say, "Hey, you so blessed me when I listen to the station and feed off the word that God has placed through you." Ah, that means so much. I had a person say to me, "Hey, you saved my marriage. I was really going to walk out on my wife. You saved my marriage."

Oh man, that moved me to keep pressing on. I pray, folks, that you would support our ministry and become a part of it and share with us in the resources that we have because that goes to the support of this ministry. Pray for us, please, sincerely mean that. Pray for us. You share the word with other people and that you will become a partner, a regular partner with us. All you have to do is go to our website, powerwalkministries.org, and press the donate button and it will explain in there how you could become a Power Walk partner.

Guest (Male) 1: [00:12:57] As we take the message of the gospel and seek to equip the body of Christ effectively, would you consider partnering with us both in prayer as well as through your financial support? You can do so online at powerwalkministries.org or by giving us a call, 281-260-7402.

And now remember, on those days when you feel like you haven't been a great dad and there've been many challenges coming at you from all sides, remember that God is with you and he will help you and bless you as you seek to carry out his agenda for fatherhood in your home.