Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to this broadcast of Power Walk with Pastor Paul Cannings. Pastor Cannings is the founder of this broadcast and senior pastor of Living Word Fellowship Church in Houston. Today, we bring you a special Easter series titled, "What Kind of Love is This?" taking us to Mary and the disciples' first reactions to an empty tomb in John chapter 20. Pastor Cannings brings us this message titled, "Perfect Love."

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the things that is obvious right now is that many people who had been faithful to church may have been in love with the church. They may have loved their sanctuary, how beautiful the building is, how convenient it is from their home. They may have loved the preacher and how he spoke the word and how encouraging it was to them. They may have loved just being in church and the environment they feel, like a sense of the presence of God when they walked in. They may have loved all of those vibes that came when they were in church.

But did they really love church or Christ? See, there's a difference between a person who loves something and a person who is engaged in it because of the conveniences or the various things that it does for them. Let me give you another example. I have two sons. When they were in college, one was given a football scholarship. When he went to school as a football player, his brother decided he’d keep playing football but even though he liked it and enjoyed playing it, he’d rather play in a different division. It’s not as intense.

One day, I came home and my son was running out the door. It was 11:00 at night. I'm going, "Where are you going at 11:00 at night in short pants and tennis shoes? What are you doing?" He goes, "Oh, I'm going to run the bleachers at the high school." Going to run the bleachers at 11:00 at night? He said, "Yes, I had a workout and I got distracted because I had a bunch of things to do, and so this is the best time I could go run the bleachers." I went inside the house and my other son was on the couch chilling, watching TV. See, both played football, but one was in love with it.

Understand, when there's a love, there's an energy, there's a passion, there's a drive. Distractions only bring out deeper motivation, deeper commitment. Distractions only cause a person to be more firm in their commitment to what they're doing. It motivates them, strengthens them, and exposes to everybody the gravity of what they feel towards that particular thing. This is what the issue is in John chapter 20 when we talk about Mary Magdalene. No matter what took place, this woman would not walk away from the person she loves.

We could learn a lot about that because this person is the first person to see the resurrected Jesus Christ. She is the person that was released from seven demons. Luke chapter 8 would say that there was a group of women that supported Jesus Christ and walked with Jesus Christ and helped Jesus Christ, and Mary Magdalene was one of them. You could see why you would say, "Okay, yes, she would do these things because she had these kind of credentials."

No, Mary doesn't come from that kind of background. She had demons. People would ostracize her. She was never allowed to go to the temple because they recognized that she was possessed, so she couldn't go to the temple to get her sins forgiven. Mary is not in a place where anyone would look up to her and see why she would actually follow the Messiah and he would allow something like that. It didn't matter to Mary. It didn't matter to Mary how people were descriptive about her. It was irrelevant to her.

What was relevant to her is that Jesus Christ found her when nobody else cared about her and he rescued her from seven demons. He restored her back to herself. All that mattered now is what she can now do for him. That is the passion of that love. That's what we find that illustrates why the resurrection for some people would mean more than other people who just go to church, people who just read their Bible. They want God to be this person who wakes them up in the morning and every day is a wonderful day because they've read a verse to keep the devil away.

There are people who expect God to do all these things for them because they've given their life to Jesus Christ. As a result of that, since they've given their life to Jesus Christ, they expect Christ to do all these things for them as they prepare and look forward to going to heaven. Anything goes wrong, it's like, "I'm a good person. Why did that happen?" There's not a passion to learn him, grow in him, like you would see when we look at verse 1 here in John chapter 10. He says this, "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early."

Watch this carefully. Why is that huge that we would see her come early? When everybody had left except John, they ran from Jesus Christ. These were disciples who were discipled by the Messiah. I mean, they went to the seminary of all seminaries that you could ever go to, had the best teacher of all teachers they could ever have. They have experienced Jesus Christ in a Mount of Transfiguration. They've experienced him walking on water. They've experienced him saying, "Peace be still," on a boat. They've experienced him watching Lazarus get up from the grave after four days.

They've seen Jesus Christ do one miracle after the next. They went off by themselves, came back, and Jesus Christ demonstrated to them that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God because God revealed that to Peter in Matthew chapter 16. They have seen these miraculous things take place. They've been around his teaching day and night, but when Jesus Christ is getting ready to die, they left. They were gone. Now, at the cross, there are these four women there and one of them is Mary Magdalene. She was not going anywhere.

She is lost as to how this person who powerfully moved and removed seven demons from her could be on that cross and she stayed at the cross. There was an earthquake. She's still there. It got dark at the wrong time of the day. She's still there. It is not a time where there's light shining down on the cross and Jesus Christ is having a conversation with God and there's this wonderful scenario of angels moving around. No, none of those things. Jesus Christ is bleeding on a cross.

The soldiers are gambling below the cross. They are mocking him. People who walked by mocked him. He saved everybody else; himself he couldn't save. His reputation was well-known. It's not like they didn't know about him. Jesus Christ has had a spear in his side. She's watching all of these horrific things and she's not going anywhere. She's watching all these manifestations taking place around her as Jesus Christ is talking on the cross. She's seeing these things and she still is not going anywhere.

That's a description of love. Many of us say we love Christ, but where are we today? Where are we in our love for God? Are we at the cross? Are we committed to serve still? Where have we parked our spiritual gifts? We don't find that with Mary. Not only does she stay at the cross, but three days later, Mary is coming back to the grave site to check on Jesus Christ. I don't like reading into scriptures. I don't like speculating over different things. It's not healthy. That's what false doctrine can come from.

When I look at this, Mary coming on the first day is representative of something she's heard because she stayed at the cross, so you would think she'd stay at the tomb. But she didn't. What she did was she came on the first day of the week. It's as if she was expecting something. She doesn't have this whole knowledge of all that Christ taught, but she must have heard something that makes her stay away and then come on the first day of the week to come on this day with a level of expectation.

It's the first thing we see. Love keeps you at the cross, keeps you on your knees, keeps you when life is difficult seeking the Lord, seeking his wisdom, seeking what God wants to do, serving him. See, love drives you there. That's what you see first about Mary. Love drives you there. There's no place to go. He becomes, "I no longer live; it is Christ that lives in me." You couldn't get Paul from moving away. You could beat him five times, 39 lashes, and he's still going to the Gentiles. He could be shipwrecked three times and he's still going to the Gentiles.

He could be put in prison and he's in house arrest and he's still writing four books in the Bible. You couldn't stop him because for him to live is Christ, to die is gain. There's no place to go but to Christ. Whatever situations are, what does God want me to do in it because that's the only place we know. When it comes to worshipping God, nobody has to wake us up. Nobody has to make it happen. Nobody has to drive us to anything. We are there. Mary is there and she comes now. Think about how threatening that is for a woman.

She's coming when it is dark in a place that robbers sometimes exist. There's no, "Well, God, I'm scared you'll kill me right now. God, I'm scared you'll stop blessing me right now. Oh, God, I'm scared that you would not do what I've asked you to do. So God, I've got to do right." No, the person wants to do right because they're experiencing the movement of God in their lives. They're experiencing the Word of God being clear in their lives. They understand the Word of God and become more excited about it because the Spirit of God came to guide them through the truth, illuminate the Word of God, remind them of the Word of God.

From just knowing the scriptures to experiencing the scriptures intimately in their lives as they apply it, they so come to a desire for God because they are now drunk with the Spirit. They have no reason to fear God because they are so deeply committed to obey God. All they need to know is what to do. So that's why John would say later on in chapter 5 of 1 John, "Perfect love cast out fear." Mary has no fear. All that mattered to her is where my master is because without him, I don't even know what to do the next day. I must find him so I learn what to do.

We'll pick this up all week as we prepare for Easter celebration, as we prepare for Resurrection Sunday as we prepare for that and celebrate that. What heart do you bring to Christ? What life are you willing to surrender to Christ because that will keep you focused? Stay focused. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen, Pastor Cannings. Where are we in our love for God this Easter? Like Mary, may we worship and love him deeply and may this be reflected in our actions. Log on to powerwalkministries.org where you can call us at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402.

Erin Campbell: I'm Erin Campbell from Grace Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Some of the things I learned from the conference was how to implement an effective youth ministry. This conference has exceeded my expectations. I've met some amazing people and I've heard some great presentations.

Guest (Male): As it relates to Power Walk Ministry, Dr. Cannings for over 33 years began with him personally ministering to me in my home and then in our church, teaching me the basics of leadership and many other subjects. We took that information and began to make it applicable in our lives and the life of our church. Then soon after that, I began traveling him around the world with Power Walk Ministry, helping other pastors globally to implement the principles that Power Walk Ministry stands for.

So it's been beneficial to me and our ministry and as I've traveled again around the world with Dr. Cannings, we've seen the benefits in places like Rwanda, in places like St. Martin, the Bahamas Island. So again, Power Walk Ministry has been a great blessing to me and I pray it continues to be a blessing to many other ministries around the world.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I am so excited about the conference coming up April 23rd to the 25th. I really am ecstatic about it. Pastors have come together on a committee to help with the process moving forward. Excited about our first conference last year, but this conference this year is going to be greater. There's like about 40 classes here. Let me give you a taste: the Pastor and Deacon's functioning under the leadership of Christ, a biblical approach to resolving conflict in the church, traits of successful biblical leaders, cultivating a healthy and productive team environment, overcoming the stagnation in the church, discipling leaders, dealing with how do we grow people and do evangelism at the same time.

Despite all the difficulties churches are facing, we can find a powerful, effective way forward. A lot of teachers are coming to teach. They're well-trained, well-educated, practicing these principles within their church. Come be a part of April 23rd through the 25th and go to powerwalkministries.org. powerwalkministries.org so that we could move forward together for God's glory. Look forward to seeing you. You will not be in any way disappointed at this conference.

Guest (Male): Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas, 77092. And keep in mind that your gifts are tax-deductible. As we close, remember Mary Magdalene's love for Jesus demonstrated an energy, a commitment, and a determination to find him. Let's also celebrate this Easter with a renewed commitment to pursue and love God with all our hearts.