Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Endurance for a time like this. That's our current series here on the Power Walk Ministry's broadcast, taught by Reverend Paul Cannings. Do some days find you at a loss for words, seeing the extent of grief and losses? Through the life of Peter, Reverend Cannings provides comfort and challenges us to remember God's promises so that the trials will only increase our trust in him. Let's listen now as Dr. Cannings shares the message, "Stay in the Race."

Dr. Paul Cannings: Years ago, God taught me a lesson that I will never forget. I was doing great. I had a wonderful job as a juvenile probation officer, but I was in seminary at the same time. In the midst of seminary and working this job, for whatever reason, my boss just really liked me. I would go to him and say, "Boss, I want to be honest with you. I've got to go to school and the best times I could do my classes is in the morning. I know that I'm a PACE officer, which means I was out on the street keeping up with the kids that were released." So it was easy for me for him not to know anything. But I said, "No, I want you to know everything. I'll get my job done, I'll make sure everything is lined up, even if I have to work on a Saturday." He said, "That's fine with me. I understood that when you got hired. You go to class, do what you've got to do, and get the job done."

For whatever reason, he saw my files. I worked hard to make sure there's no question I was doing my job. The judge liked me and liked me being in his court. Things were working well. It was just great. Everything was just going really great. But then I graduated from seminary, and I was so excited. I finished Dallas Seminary. I was excited. I wanted to go to ministry. The boss said, "I knew it was coming. You were in seminary. I knew you want to be in ministry." I had a really good relationship with him. He didn't want me to leave that department, so he would give me raises. All these things were wonderful.

Then ministry. I wanted to be in ministry. I was excited. I got a job at Dallas Bible College. My wife and I, prior to going to Dallas Bible College, bought our first home. We were excited as a couple with two small kids to have our first home. We had our structure set up financially, how we're going to furnish it. Everything was neatly laid out. I accepted the job in ministry. It was a small cut in pay, but it didn't matter. I was fired up to be the assistant to the academic dean. I was going to handle the Dallas campus while we developed the campus in Lindale, Texas. I was 20-something years old and fired up, ready to go. Then the school closed. A 65-year-old school closed. Boom.

There I am, sitting on a couch in a house that we so worked hard to buy as a couple. No job, no benefits, no severance pay, nothing. I'm just sitting there going, "God, this makes no sense. I had a great job, great relationship with a boss, great relationship with a judge, everything was wonderful, great benefits, pay was great, and I trusted you, God, and I gave up everything to be in ministry, and you did what?"

Folks, what do you do when life comes to this halt and God is saying, "This is what I want for you. This is what I have planned for you. This is a journey I choose to put you on"? What is it like when you are running Egypt and God says, "No, bad timing. You're going to be taking care of sheep for 40 years"? What do you do when God adjusts your life, when God puts you down where you once were running a department, or you had a great job and boom, here comes the virus? Here comes the economy twisted. Everything was planning, everything was going forward. No one saw this coming and yet, there you go. What do you do then?

God taught me so much in that time in my life. This is the race of endurance you're going to be in. This is my decision. You're in this race of endurance. I only put people in there that I love. Hebrews chapter 12, verse seven through nine: I discipline those whom I love. From this journey, what God taught me was it has to have a complete process. You can't speed it up. He's in such control of what he's going to do in this journey, you can't speed it up. It's going to be his time. James chapter one, verse two through four says it must have its perfect work. It must take itself through the full journey. Until it's at the full journey, you can't get past it. Paul was 14 years preparing to do ministry. You can't get out of it. He gets into Jerusalem and folks want to kill him. You can't hook up with this right now. It's not going to happen. You're going to be in Tarsus and you're going to keep teaching. 14 years before he could hook up with Barnabas and kick off his Gentile journey that God talked to him about.

It's got to finish its work. It's got to stay through this course. That's why endurance is not just this great trait that we want to talk about. God is saying, "No, I want you to be perfected. I want the best for you. I gave you a spiritual gift. I've given you the ability to do a job. I've set this race for you. You've got to run this race, but I've got to prepare you. I've got to get you ready for this race so you could run it." It's a race that needs discipline. It's a race that needs you to be focused. It's a race that could be a long race. I could have you in this process for 40 years of your life, 50 years of your life, and you've got to be ready to run that long. So I've got to teach you endurance.

Folks, we talked about the first aspect of this yesterday. Today, we have to drop into verse seven and verse eight. To stay in the race, we have to learn to cast our cares. We have to learn to cast our cares. Now who's talking about this? Peter. What was Peter? A fisherman. What did Peter used to do? Cast a net. So what does he say? Cast.

We have to come to the point where we are at a tense here, meaning we come to a point when this stuff piles up. We are full of anxiety, uncertainty. Constant changes are taking place every time you turn the news on. This is changed, that is changed, this is going wrong, that's happening. Signs of the end times. He says this will happen. So the more they speed up, the more the chances that he's coming back, closer than before. Jesus Christ is saying, "Hey, if you don't learn endurance and there's such overwhelming situations that are around us, cast."

Don't sit around saying, "Well, you know, Lord, I've got to figure out how I could do this." No, common sense is not in this race. Do not lean to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct the path. Common sense is a sin. That's not going to work. You cast. We're not designed to carry burdens. We were made in the Garden of Eden. We're not designed that way. We're designed to have a person who just tells us to go to work in the garden and everything works when we go to work. The trees bear fruit. Everything works. You can move around in the garden and do what you need to do and there's no problems. Everything is going great.

We're now in a world where Satan is loose and the Bible says the world is in the power of his hands. It's a whole different issue. So the issue with this man loose, we have to deal with the fact that we have to cast. The reason why we can cast is he uses this word hesed love. It means he is covenanted with us to do what he said he's going to do. On Calvary's cross, he made a covenant because God so loved the world. He's not going to break that covenant. You see an example of that with Abraham. The Jews turning their backs on God is repetitive. All these different situations showing disobedience and all this sort of stuff that took place with the Jews. Why did he stick with them? "I have a covenant with Abraham, so I'm sticking with it." David, the kings that came under David, they didn't all do right. But I had a covenant with David, so Christ is coming. He's saying the same thing. I made a covenant on Calvary's cross. That's why Paul would say nothing will separate me from the love of Christ. Principalities or powers, nothing.

When I'm casting, even if it don't sound like he's hearing me, or it don't sound like he is going to answer my prayer right away, it sounds like God don't really care. I mean, I'm crying out, I'm hollering to him. David would say that, "God, why don't you listen to me?" I can keep praying, I can keep casting. Why? Because I know he has a covenant with me through Jesus Christ, and he's not going to turn his back on that covenant. As a result of that, I know that whether I sense he's responding to me, I sense that he's right there next to me or not, I know he is there because he said he will never leave me nor forsake me. So I will cast.

Folks, this is important because this is what leads to sobriety. In verse eight, sobriety is huge in this text. This is what messed up Peter. Peter is so overwhelmed he's hanging out in a room just scared. He lost his mind. Peter is so overwhelmed he takes a knife out and cuts the guy's ear off. Peter is so tired from the journey, he's begging him to stay and pray with him and he falls asleep. He didn't stay sober. So Peter wants to remind us over and over again that we need to stay sober. He would tell us that in chapter one, in verse 13: Wherefore gird up your loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought upon you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Stay sober.

Meaning, if I've got all of these cares and all of these issues and all of these things bugging me and stressing me out and wearing me out, I'm bringing up all these concerns over and over again, then it's easy, it's very easy for me to not pray like I need to, to use common sense, to go to the store and scratch off trying to make ends meet, or try to work this deal and work that deal. "I scratch your back, you scratch my back." Don't trust in God because this stuff is crazy. It's easy when we are not casting our care to end up taking things into our own hands.

How many times do you see that in scriptures where people took things into their own hands and it led to their destruction? There's one when they said, "Okay, you're not going to lead us into the Promised Land? We'll go ourselves. We'll go fight the enemy, and we'll go into the land ourselves and do what we have to do. We don't need you, Moses. We can get this done." And he beat them back. You're not going to do it.

Sitting on that couch in Duncanville, Texas, in the woods, in our first home that we ever bought, God told me one thing I learned: You must stay in the race. When you stay in the race, you stay in the scriptures. You seek godly advice. I started calling people and saying, "Okay, man, this is what I'm dealing with. What do you think?" I remember deciding one day in my life that this is not coming into my marriage or to my kids' lives. This is something that I will bring to God. My call to ministry is not going to become a burden.

I remember making that journey and I realized right then you have to humble yourself. When you humble yourself and come under the mighty hand of God, I remember standing at the driveway many days saying, "Okay, God, this is all that's going on. It's in your hands. I'm a husband and a father as I walk through these doors. Thank you for giving me some money to make this work. It ain't what I used to make, but God, it is what I have and you could take five loaves and two fishes and do something great. Thank you for the supportive wife I have. Thank you for the kids being at this age so that we can just love and play with them, because they don't know what's going on. They have food, they have clothes." I learned that you must stay in the race and you must remain in the scriptures. You must remain on your knees and you must stay focused on running the race. That is how he keeps you sober, by just casting. Whether you think he heard you or not, he cares. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Amen, Dr. Cannings, a good word at such a time as this. The God of the universe has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Now friend, if trusting in God is something that you haven't done yet, and that's a step you'd like to take, then why not give us a call and we can talk about it? Our phone number is 281-260-7402. Again, that number is 281-260-7402. You can also visit us online at powerwalkministries.org to obtain a copy of this message series or any of our ministry resources. And now, Pastor Cannings would like to share a brief word with you.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I am so excited about the Pastors Conference coming up April 23rd through the 25th. You cannot miss it. There's going to be such a great group of teachers teaching: well-trained, well-prepared, practicing what they're teaching in their local churches. Here are 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 23rd through 25th, 2026, at 7350 T.C. Jester Boulevard right here at Living Word Fellowship Church. I pray you go to powerwalkministries.org. Powerwalkministries.org. Be a part of this. You will not be disappointed. April 23rd through 25th. Look forward to seeing you.

Guest (Male): And now remember, you don't have to figure out how to solve your problems on your own. Let's seek God. Let's read his word, pray, and ask him for wisdom and guidance to continue in the race victoriously. Stay focused.