Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to another broadcast of Power Walk Ministries with Pastor Paul Cannings. Pastor Cannings is founder and president of Power Walk Ministries and senior pastor of Living Word Fellowship Church in Houston.

Today we begin a new series titled Fatherhood, Your Best Life. As scripture says, children are truly a gift from God and it’s such a privilege to be a father. And yet we see all around us that many young men lack a role model who could help them through this journey of parenting.

Breaking this down for us over the next two weeks, Pastor Cannings through scripture highlights the principles of parenting. Here he is now with the message, The Attitude that Blesses. Let’s listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the things that allows a person to live their best life and their blessed life is fatherhood. I understand that there are tremendous complications with that. Some fathers are in blended families. As a result of that, they sometimes deal with the complications of a father still trying to be a father outside of that relationship while they’re trying to be a father to their children in another relationship.

Many times that complication makes a father want to just sit on the couch and find ways to keep the peace. That’s a challenge that as a pastor many times I have seen men struggle their way through. I’ve grown to admire the men who struggle their way through. I’ve grown to have high respect for them because they understood up front the call to fatherhood and they have never taken that call lightly.

Working through the complications of it, or giving their heart and soul to children that they did not birth with their wives, there are different struggles, especially when the kids are in their teenage years. If a father takes that on when they’re in teenage years, it’s even more complicated. When they’re young, to take that child on as their own child and raise that child as their own child takes a lot of work, takes a lot of wisdom, and takes a lot of fortitude to stay the course and not want to give up.

That’s why being a father is the best life and the most blessed life. Psalm 112 will teach us because God also knows that when fathers don’t turn their hearts to their sons, Malachi chapter 4, verse 6, God destroys the entire nation. The nation is a mess, as we’ve seen many times when fathers have had babies but not even be around to raise them. They have taken it for granted or have moved on to someone else.

That’s what we have taking place way too many times in our culture, and we can see the lack of leadership in our culture in the young men that have grown up. They’re longing for their dad and longing for their influence, but haven’t found it. Now many of them are angry and frustrated, and sometimes wander around seeking to figure out what they want to do with their lives because that direction and focus—that person that is supposed to help guide the process to productivity—was missing.

That has led to the degradation of our nation. We could go through it in all kinds of ways; we could talk about the immorality and all these different things. The Bible says it begins with the man, whether or not he chooses to take fatherhood seriously. That’s just where God designs it because that’s where he started. He could have made Adam and Eve at the same time, but he didn’t. He made Adam first, and he made him outside the garden.

When it became time for Adam to take on Eve, he brings him into the garden. He makes Eve in the garden. Then he says, "Here is your wife," but after he gave him a job to do, after he taught him what manhood is about, and taught him what being a leader in his home is about. Then he could teach Eve what is taking place so that she now can partner with her husband to develop Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 on.

He put them together. Many people will say "it’s not good for a man to be alone" has to do with companionship. I disagree. It has to do with fulfilling what Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 on talks about, and that is that God made them male and female to be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth with his image. He made them in his image and he wants his image to continue to go on because God is perfect, God is righteous, and God is holy.

There is nobody better than God to continue to multiply himself since there’s nobody around that can even come to the same playing field and deal with the same issues that God can. When he looks at himself—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit—the only place that he can drive people to is to be just like him. That’s why Paul would say, "I no longer live; it is Christ that lives in me."

When God established man and woman, he established them to carry out his plan to fill the earth, to subdue it, and to rule over it. He said that takes a partnership. When he starts out with Adam, he starts out with him cultivating a garden because it’s about ruling the earth. Understand when we come to this issue, it’s huge in God’s eyes. The quality of a man determines the quality of leadership in a church.

The family is the place where everything begins and that’s why when a person chooses to take this seriously, they live their best life and their blessed life. I want us to go to Psalm 112 and work our way through Psalm 112 so that we can grow together, not just have a nice conversation and move on. Let us learn the text. Let us understand the mind behind the text because this is God writing.

When we come to this process, he is saying, "Praise the Lord." Why is he saying that? What does this have to do with the best life and the blessed life of fatherhood? Praise the Lord literally means that we must come to him with delightful attitude and delightful expressions of rejoicing. That’s simply what the word means. I’m coming with an intellectual content, meaning I’m not just praising him by lifting my hands because of the music or the voices of the people singing.

It’s an intellectual evaluation of all that God is. He’s talking about looking at who God is, what God is about, what is his nature, and how does he function. My wife and I pray together. I say, "God, thank you for another day. I pray that your investment into this day with us would be worth your time." Why? Because it’s a day. Do you know what it takes to put into a day?

Obviously, no matter what scientific knowledge we may have—and I don’t have all the scientific knowledge—there’s a lot that goes into this earth spinning. Could you imagine the atoms and all the different things that are in that earth that is spinning? If you ever stopped the earth and all the atoms were still going at rapid space, an earthquake would split the earth into entropy. Could you imagine that taking place?

God is keeping the earth spinning and the ecological system operating so we could eat. In spite of all the things that have taken place, he allows us to have fish to eat. In spite of the pollution in the air, we still have greens to eat. God sustains these animals that sometimes people just go out and kill. He still sustains it so that we have all these different mechanisms to find food.

God sustains seven billion people on the earth. We have a hard time feeding a family of five. Could you imagine feeding a group of seven billion people around the earth every second of every day? He controls the birth of chickens and the birth of cows. You’ve got pollination that is taking place so you can cut the grass and then trees are birthed.

God is sustaining all of this to make sure that we can breathe through the carbon dioxide that fills the earth so we can have the right mixture of oxygen and nitrogen in the air. He is putting trees so they can put together the proper system within the trees so we can have the right gases coming out so that we can breathe. Could you imagine this constant effort sustaining everything?

He is keeping all of the gases in the sun so it continues to burn and fires out so much light that the moon can gain that reflection and provide us light in the night so that the nocturnal animals can now come out and function. Could you imagine this massive system taking place? The rain fell here, but I’ve got to make sure that it doesn’t become a flood. Could you imagine keeping the streams flowing into the rivers?

This constant effort. He says, "Praise the Lord," because it’s not like we deserve it. It’s not like we earned the right to be cared for in this way. It’s not like he just has this passion because we’re so perfect to do everything for us every day. He just does it because of his love for us. That’s why he says, "Praise the Lord." We go do all kinds of things and he watches over us.

For us to go to sleep and then wake up and be able to see another day is a massive event. Praise the Lord. He says we should come with an attitude of exhilaration and delight that says, "God, you are awesome, you are great," and we praise him. This is an attitude that the leader of the home needs to have. Why? There’s so much negative stuff that happens every day.

But every good and perfect gift comes from above. When the leader takes his eyes off of the efforts of the Lord God—who all things are through him, for him, and by him—he’s the one that maintains a covenant we’ve never earned in salvation. That’s why he uses the word Lord because he’s talking about a covenant with Israel. That transfers in our context to Christ who died on Calvary’s cross to take care of us.

He says this person did that just because he so loves us and so cares for us. We never earned anything; it’s a gift of salvation to us. In John 6:44, he drew us to himself. We didn’t draw ourselves; no man seeks God, no, not one. When the husband or the father is leading in the marriage, he says you can’t take your eyes off of all the stuff that’s taking place because of all the negative things that can happen in our home. Whatever is right, whatever is lovely, and whatever is of good report, fix your mind on these things and the God of peace will be with you.

Understand the focus he’s saying is that God, through Jesus Christ, gave us the Holy Spirit. That God is directing the peace process in our lives. It doesn’t matter what we face, he says keep that focus. Many times in the worst times of my life, I sit back. "God, I give you praise that I could even have this conversation, that I could even come to you and to talk to you through Jesus Christ who pleads my case. I thank you that Satan can't do nothing to me that you don't allow, that you keep an eye and watch over me. You put angels around me and you take care of me."

God, even though I don’t like all that is going on, I thank you that you’re still Lord, you still reign, and you’re still in charge. You can do all things that guide me through the valley and the shadow of death, no matter what is before me. When you keep that, it doesn’t mean that when you open your eyes or when you get up from your knees that everything is right, but you know the person who loves you and who cares for you.

He will never turn his back on you. He’s in control no matter how crazy it may look. No matter the family complications or the difficulties you may face, focus your life on praising God. Never take that off of your mind. That’s how in the craziness of marriage and all the situations that they can bring, you will still keep your focus and be the leader God has called you to be and live your best life and your blessed life. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Amen, Pastor Cannings. Fatherhood is truly one of the greatest blessings and responsibilities that God places squarely on us as men. May we take fatherhood seriously.

And now for a copy of this message or any of our ministry resources, please visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. While you’re there on our website, please prayerfully consider supporting us, both by upholding us in prayer and with your financial contributions. Our mission is to encourage and equip believers both here in the US as well as in the Caribbean and other countries.

Become a Power Walk partner today. You can also call us at 281-260-7402. That’s 281-260-7402. Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas 772092.

If you live in the Houston area and you don’t have a church home, you’re welcome to visit Reverend Cannings and his congregation at Living Word Fellowship Church. It’s located at 7350 T.C. Jester Boulevard in Houston. Now remember, you can ask God for wisdom and guidance as you parent the children that he has entrusted to you.