Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): We welcome you to the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. Thanks for joining us today. "Why Church?" That's the title of our current series taught by Reverend Paul Cannings. We hope this is a timely message series as we consider the importance of gathering together as the body of Christ. Reverend Cannings unravels principles from scripture to encourage, challenge, and urge us in obedience to scripture. Here he is now with the message "Stewardship and Spiritual Gifts."

Dr. Paul Cannings: We've been on this series starting this week, "Why Church? Why Church?" People now can look at it live. They've got all kinds of options on Facebook and YouTube. And so we could relax at the house. So why come to church? Folks, I remember, I understand in some ways. I wasn't a pastor for all my life. I remember being like what young adults call drag babies, where you get dragged to church. You're going to be there from morning till night. I remember going to church. I remember getting up early in the morning and then we'd eat breakfast and then we'd have devotions and then we'd take off for church. Eight kids packed into a four-door car and we're heading to church.

We were there and people would hang out in the churchyard in Guyana, South America, and then we'd come home and then there's lunch and then we have Inquirer's Class because when I accepted Christ at the age of 12, my mom made sure that Sister Clark would disciple me. I would go and hope she didn't show up sometimes, but Sister Clark was the most faithful person I've ever seen in my ministry life. She just would come walking to church. If it was raining, I'm saying there is no way Sister Clark is coming because I'm the only kid that showed up and I'm sitting on the front steps of the church waiting for her to come. Sure enough, Sister Clark came walking down the street with her huge umbrella and she would sit with this one child, never complain and taught me the scriptures.

I remember going to church and as a teenager you start to be encouraged by your parents to go to Youth for Christ on Friday nights. I remember all of that. I remember sometimes sitting back thinking, "We're going to church again?" But as God has grown and developed my life, I've come to realize the seriousness of it. I've come to take it a whole different way and not just because I'm a pastor. That's not why I'm working through this series with you. We'll continue it for a minute. We were just glad to be in church. But what is the church? If judgment begins in the household of faith, 1 Peter 4:17 says, "What will be the outcome of the world?"

There are some things that God wants us to take a look at. It's good for us before we point at the world and all the evil and the wickedness that is taking place. I want to know why is the salt and the light not salting it down? Why is righteousness as present book of Proverbs says, "Sin is restrained." If sin is running loose and rampant, and if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then you will see change. We could blame the world, but the Bible is saying the antibody system is not working very well and that's why the world continues to get worse.

When we come to this text today, we really need to take the only organism that God has put in place that he is the head of, how we need to make that productive and why it's important that we come to it to make it productive and not just come for selfish reasons. Many times people come and say, "I don't like the music" or "It's kind of far." It's very selfish. The church is about a family of God. It's about people looking out for each other. Well, people would say some people just can't get along with. Folks, that's why he says when we commit to love the way God tells us to love, we could even love enemies. That's how he says it.

We go to work and don't like some of the people and you work for the sake of money. You travel for the sake of money. It could be raining, could be snowing, you're going for the sake of money. Why not God? Because the only thing that we'll have in heaven is family gatherings that are going to take place. People are going to be reunified and have all these things, but we are the church when we gather in heaven. The thing that lasts forever is none of the things we're killing ourselves over. There's no houses floating up to heaven. He doesn't need all of our secular skills in heaven. He's God. He doesn't have anybody sick in heaven. There's no viruses in heaven.

He doesn't need all of this stuff, all of our abilities to provide funds to our families. He doesn't need them. So the organism that is going to be around forever, we can't take that for granted because that's the place as we talked about yesterday that deals with the other part of human beings that the world can't touch effectively like the church can. When people need emotional support, wisdom, when people need to grow spiritually so the fruit of the spirit keeps them long-suffering through all of this and still don't lose their joy and their peace. When people need to be mentally strong as they renew the mind and the word of God holds their mind together because it's the powerful thing that could separate bone and marrow and it never becomes old. It endures forever. 1 Peter 2:22 on says.

What is the important ingredients that make the church work, just like important ingredients that make a cake a cake? Well, we looked at the fact that there's diversity in the church last time and their gifts. There's several things we talk about when it come to the gifts. Gifts are not something we bring to the party. This is something that God decides who's going to have it. In 1 Peter 4:10 he says, "And as each one has received a spiritual gift." Not going to get it, not having to pray it down from heaven, not needing to be laid on hands to get it.

He says at the point of salvation when the Holy Spirit comes, this is where he starts off with the same spirit here is diversity, but it leads to unity. Same spirit. Verse 4 of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. He says now there's a diversity of gifts but the same spirit. This is where the whole godhead is working. You would see it talks about Christ later on then he's going to talk about God later on then he's going to talk about how all of this makes the church profitable. So he's saying everybody must have this because this is the gift that God uses for everything else to work.

You can't have an administration in verse 5 if there's not gifts to make these pieces of the administration come together collectively, working in harmony. Diversity meaning there are people who will be in the counseling ministry. What do they need? Spiritual gift of wisdom. There are people who want to serve and help the needy. Spiritual gift of service. There are deacons in the church. Spiritual gift of service and of wisdom. Elders, the Bible says "I'm going to anoint them with wisdom." When you start looking at elders, deacons and people helping the needy, you've got people who come to the church and they need prayer and a gift of intercession.

So when you look at these 19 gifts in the Bible that God has provided to us, it makes up an administration. That's why there's no need to compare ourselves, as 2 Corinthians chapter 10 says beginning in verse 12, he says do not measure yourselves by yourselves or compare yourselves among yourselves. That's sinful because this is a gift as we talked about. It's a gift that the Holy Spirit brings, he brings it into our lives at the point of salvation. It's not something we can earn or acquire. We have to understand that we are an important part of the gift because it builds up an administration that makes the body in verse 5 come together collectively to make one body.

Just like a human body has many different parts to it, but all those parts work cohesively together in order for the body to go forward and achieve what it's seeking to do based on the decisions that are mentally made and that's why Christ is the head of the church. We don't get to say what the church is. We don't get to tell God what the church is going to be about because he determines how this body operates. He says to the pastor in 2 Timothy 3:17, "I have made you adequate for every good work through the word of God. Every good work." When we come to this, he is saying there's no need to compare. It's something that we don't earn.

He is saying it's something that is useful to the collective productive results for the church body. He is saying that it is something that when we receive it, it's for the better good of the church. It's not for us. So it's a gift to us and it's a gift to others. Now you say to me, "How do I even know what the gift is?" I'm going to simplify it rather than make it so theological we still don't have an answer. Here's a simple way that God has taught me over all these years of ministry that works. You always know you have a spiritual gift when, number one, you don't run out of energy doing it. You end up laboring to get it done.

In other words, you can't stop yourself because the spirit of God is energizing us to get it done. That's why he calls it work. Work in the Bible literally means a collective effort to make things work. It's a team effort. The Bible is literally saying to us it's work where we're putting a lot of energy collectively putting a lot of energy to get it done. When that is taking place, the Bible says, and you see productive spiritual results in people's lives, that's the gift. When I'm serving and I just get sick of doing what I'm doing, the Bible said there's no energy from the Holy Spirit, so that's not my gift.

If people are not benefiting from the work that is being done to where they're growing spiritually, developing spiritually and God is opening up doors in their lives to where they're now needing that particular work from you to be more productive, the Bible is saying it's not a gift. I got in trouble with that years ago when I had said to a teacher, "You are smart. You have a master's degree. You've achieved honors as a teacher of the year, all these different things in the school district, but God apparently did not give you teaching as a gift because wherever you go to teach, classes get smaller. People just don't understand what you're saying."

They're not feeding off of it to where they long to grow in it. You make them want to open up the scriptures for themselves like Paul to the Berean Christians and they want to search the scriptures out more. That's not happening. There's no spiritual benefit when you're done. You have to come and learn what that spiritual gift is because when that spiritual gift is evident, there's no question you're serving under the power and the direction of the Holy Spirit. That's why he says it's the spirit, the same spirit. What does that mean? Another thing about a spiritual gift is it leads to unity. It doesn't lead to division.

When a person is actually functioning in their spiritual gift, the spirit of God makes the body unified because he's the one administering the gifts. In Ephesians 4 beginning in verse 1 through verse 7, you would see him working that out for us. Look at verse 3, "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, even as we are called to one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, who is through all and in all." For every one of us is given grace—that's the gift—according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Wherefore he said, "When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men." When a person is serving and it is causing the church to function in a more unified and productive way, it's a spiritual gift. When it is leading to division and anarchy in the church, that is not a gift from God. We keep working our way through 1 Corinthians chapter 12 as we do this series on why church. Understand, in these last days, the only organism that will make a difference is the church, folks. It's not political parties, not who is in office, it's not who can sing and all these different things that make us hop and jump. No, it's the effectiveness of the church based on what God calls it to be for his glory and his honor, based on his agenda, not ours. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings. It's so crucial that we not compare with others: other churches, other programs, other people, but rather use God's gift to the best of our ability to build others up and most importantly to glorify God.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the hardest things in ministry is not actually doing ministry when God has blessed you to be this equipped, but it's to get the resources to get it done. Folks, that's the hardest. We've stepped out in faith because we believe that. But we pray that God will touch your heart to partnership with us. You could do that simply by going to our website. It's a secure website and pressing the donate button. On that button, you will be able to become a partner with us and we will seek to bless you for being a blessing to us. I pray that God will move on your heart to be our partner. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Please visit us online for any of our ministry resources at powerwalkministries.org. If you'd like to place an order by phone, our number is 281-260-7402. Again, that's 281-260-7402. And now remember, like any team working to win a score, the body of Christ is to exemplify the same kind of unity and goal in fulfilling God's purposes.