Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. Reverend Paul Cannings teaches, encourages, and challenges us from God's word for the purpose of equipping the body of Christ. And our current series, Endurance for a Time Like This, is right on the mark.

We all need endurance, when for some of us, things really look grim. How can our faith stand strong, and how can we trust God through all of it? Let's listen now as Reverend Paul Cannings brings us the message, His Purpose.

Dr. Paul Cannings: This is a very difficult time that God has allowed to take place. So when we come to this situation and we are working our way through this whole issue of endurance, it's because God has put us into that process of endurance.

As we discussed, we could come to that part of endurance and say, "Come on God, I can't lose my job. I don't want to have my kids not finish school," or all these things are complicated that have put us on our backs and have driven us to the place where we have to endure.

And as James chapter 1 tells us in verse 2 through verse 4, that brings up the issue of perfection. God working with us to finish us and to bring us out of that being better and stronger and more effective in working through the issues that we face.

What does that have to do with the kingdom of God that He's telling us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord? For that, your gain. God doesn't need medical doctors in heaven. He doesn't need nurses in heaven. He doesn't need bus drivers in heaven. He doesn't need secretaries in heaven.

So what He's dealing with is an eternal view of life. We're dealing with a temporal view of life, and those two things make us make decisions many times that create conflict and frustration with God. God is looking at us as our Father. We are His children, no matter how old we get. And so when He looks at us, His view is eternal.

And those two things many times contradict in how we face Him, and that's why we started off this whole series on faith and learning to walk by faith and learning what faith is and what faith means. Because we got so many people talking about "I got faith to do this, I've got faith to do that." You're going to slow that faith talk down and start coming back to the scriptures that define faith.

So when we come to this aspect of endurance, we're still at the point where God is telling us what is important in His eyes, what is important in His mind. Now, we actually did not address the conflict we started with, and that is, okay, God, if I'm going to make Your plan more important, if I'm going to make what You say to be the biggest issue, then I've still got to work, and You're still telling me to work to eat.

And I want to address that now, and then try to tomorrow to bring this all together on this issue of endurance. Because many times God will put us in the place of endurance, and it's a very active time. It's a very spiritual growth process time.

It's not sitting back and just waiting for it to be all over with. Because then we came out the same way we went in, so guess what we're going to do? Repeat the same thing again. So we have to come out better than we went in, not worse or not the same.

So in First Corinthians chapter 7, he breaks it out for us this way. In chapter 7 of First Corinthians verse 32, this is what he says. "But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth about the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord."

They don't have as many bills. They don't have the time demands that marriage creates and children would require. And so since they don't have these things, this person has a whole lot of time on their hands, and then their time belongs to God. That's what he's saying here implicitly.

No one owns time. We don't own time. Time is given by God. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 lists how He controls time. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 through 18 would say be wise with your time. In other words, it's allotted to us and we need to be wise in how we use it because it's never coming back.

So we need to look at our time. As a matter of fact, I used to frustrate my wife when I would say to our sons, "Son, you're 16. All your bills are paid for. This is a good time in your life, you'll never get it back again. So enjoy it."

But be careful because there is a time of evaluation on what you do can damage you for the rest of your life. Enjoy it, have fun with it because you don't have a car note but you drive a car. You don't have the gas bill until you get a job. And when you get a job you got to put gas back in it.

And that's something that required both of our boys to have. But starting out, we'll do this for you until you get that job because you can now drive to the job and show a level of independence. And when you get that situation taken care of, then you could get it to go do some other things.

So enjoy that. Enjoy going to school and having fun at school, but yet be careful to get good grades so you don't terminate your life after high school. And we told them that. Have fun. He said, "Dad, what's my curfew?" "All right, this is the curfew, these are expectations. Have fun." Wife didn't like that last statement. Have fun. This life is not coming back.

Understand the time that we have is not coming back. So that's why Ecclesiastes would say, "Hey, when you have a job, enjoy it. When you get paid from that job, enjoy what you need to do with that job and the benefits from the job, because your days are few on this earth."

The Bible is telling us those things because we don't own time. So we have to be wise with it. It doesn't mean we don't go play golf or people may go play basketball or whatever. It's just be wise with it because I will be accounted for the time that God has given.

Everybody wants to live to 100. That's a lot of time to account for and what we did with it. God is not going to sustain us every day with air to breathe, food to eat, all these different things. He's the one providing all these groceries and air and watching with all these oil refineries and all this stuff being pumped into the sky, making sure we could breathe and keeping the ecological system working so we can eat.

He's doing all the work. We're just buying from His work. So when we are functioning, He's saying, "I'm supplying all of this to you because I'm trying to keep you within a time to accomplish a purpose."

And that's why He's saying if the person is single, I own your time because your life no longer has the demands that I put verses to that tell you what to do with your life now that you're married. I tell you what to do with your life now that you have children, if I choose to give you children. I tell you what to do with your home and how it operates. That requires time, so since it requires time, I understand we have a conflict.

That's what he's saying in verse 33. There's a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

And this I speak for your own profit. Again, we got a throne in heaven. We talked about this. We're not just going to heaven because we went to church and we served. The Bible says if we serve, First Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10 through 15, if we serve and we did it for our own purposes, the Bible says we have no reward in heaven.

But if we did it for God, that's what rewards us. So we got a white gown people going to be wearing, people going to share the throne if they were overcomers. In Revelation chapter 3 verse 21 and 22, they share the throne of God. So there's reward system in heaven that talks about the quality of a life we lived.

So I'm saying this for your profit. "To live is Christ," Paul would say, "to die is gain." I'm saying this for your profit, not my profit. I'm not just trying to get you to come to church, trying to get you to be this kind of husband, trying to get you to be this kind of wife. There's a profit here.

That's why you must be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because in the end of this, if our focus is not about His kingdom plan, we arrive in heaven which is forever and have no reward forever. So we're shortsighted in how we approach it.

And that's why he's saying it's your profit. It's your profit that we advance the kingdom of God, that we may attend unto the Lord without distraction. That's why he's talking about singleness. He's not trying to put this problem in their life. He's just saying at the end of the day, it's about how we live eternally, not how we live temporally.

And that's the struggle that this time should bring us to understand so we refocus when we go back out. God, how am I doing on this job? Is it all about making that money, or is it about being a witness here, salt and light to people who don't go to church?

Work hard because You tell me I work unto You and You reward me. So when I come to this job, I'm still seeking You first who adds to my needs all that I need. I'm not going to the job because the job is going to take care of me. I'm going to the job because You told me to work.

God says, "I reward your faith now because you're not just going to a job, you're going because of your obedience to Me and you're functioning in obedience to Me. So now I reward you for your faith." Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6.

So you don't have to worry about promotions, don't have to worry about a raise, I got that. The job don't supply your needs, I do. So when we come home, you're not working just to bring home the bread, you're working to be the provider, do all the different things God is saying you do.

So when you come home, you can't work a job and you're so tired when you come home you're not a husband, you're not a father. Then what's the point of the job? You can't be so in love with the job as a woman that being a mother is secondary. The job is secondary, the home is first.

If as a single mom it is tough, because you never get a day off, you never get time away. So that's tough. So you have to manage your time the best way you can. We're doing it with a kingdom plan. Whatever we do in word or in deed, we're doing it all to the glory of God because at the end of the day, that's what matters.

All we did was work, there's no retirement pen in heaven for that. He says, "Well, I was a great doctor," there's no reward for that. "I was the best bus driver the company had," there's no reward for that. So however we go about living our lives, remember man does not live by bread alone, man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Some marriages struggle because they never worked on it, they just work the jobs to come work the family. Now they have to work with each other. This is how we should go back out, ready to repurpose our lives based on His purposes, not based on this American dream or these passions and these drives that don't lead to nothing. Folks, how are you living? And for what purpose do you strive? Stay focused.

Guest (Male): God put us in a place of endurance in order that we might come out better. And may that be true of all of us, Dr. Cannings. Friends, God is in perfect control of everything, no matter how chaotic things seem around us. Let's remain steadfast in serving Him.

As always, we value your prayers for our ministry as we serve not only in our community but nationally and internationally as well. Please give us a call at 281-260-7402. Again, that's 281-260-7402. Visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org.

I am so excited about the pastor's conference coming up April the 23rd through the 25th. You cannot miss it. There's going to be such a great group of teachers teaching well-trained, well-prepared, practice what they're teaching in their local churches.

Here's some examples: Pastor and Deacons functioning under the lordship of Christ; the biblical approach to resolving conflict in the church; traits of successful leaders; effective teaching methods for children; social media, how could you make it very positive for your children; developing a counseling ministry; dealing with mental health issues in the local church; marketing; moving from traditional ministry to bibliocentric ministry; how do you grow the church through evangelism.

You cannot miss this conference. April the 23rd through the 25th, 2026, at 7350 T.C. Jester Boulevard right here at Living Word Fellowship Church. I pray you'll go to powerwalkministries.org, powerwalkministries.org. Be a part of this, you will not be disappointed. April the 23rd through the 25th, look forward to seeing you.

We'd love to hear from you. And if you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org.

Please join us tomorrow for the final message in this series, Endurance for a Time Like This. Until then, remember God wants to bring about His purpose in our lives. May we live in a way that would focus not on the temporal but on the eternal.