Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast with Pastor Paul Cannings, the founder and president of Power Walk Ministries. Throughout this week, he's been teaching Volume 2 in the series Why Church.

The book of Matthew, Chapter 16, verse 19 says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Breaking that down for us and how we can apply this kind of authority to the situations in our lives, here's Pastor Cannings with today's message, Authority of the Church.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Life can sap the energy out of us and can make us feel powerless. It's so overwhelming, it can come to the point where we lose our hope in God. The Bible says that can happen. In Matthew chapter 24, He says in these days, our love for God can grow cold.

That's why it's important as we finish up this series today that we make the church a viable organism. Understand that even when we are scattered, and the nation of Israel was, God was still committed to a community of believers that will gather together for the purpose of carrying out His productive agenda for the glory of God and for all those unsaved people.

For all those people that are broken, for all those people that are really seeking to find good answers to the issues that they're facing, the Bible is saying He puts all of that through the spiritual gifts. The gift of encouragement, the gift of wisdom, the gift of giving, the gift of service. All these gifts, the Bible says He places them in the church. So people could even learn how the word of God relates to the future in their lives, the gift of prophecy.

The Bible says the only place that He places that and He seeks to make a viable organism despite all that is happening is in the church. So when our families even fall apart, He is saying that the church is a secondary family. The Bible says the church must help those in need. It's that kind of place.

When we don't take that seriously, as we've been looking at here in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18 and verse 19, Satan can use many gates. Satan can so corrupt the church, the only organism that Christ is committed to, that he can use from this to destroy the world. 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 17 says that if judgment does not begin in the household of God, what will be the outcome of the world? It has to start there.

We have gone through several things this week to explain why church. We summarize now by saying that when everything is healthy, if the church itself is not healthy, then the church from the inside leads to its own destruction. When the antibody system in our bodies breaks down, that's what AIDS does. It takes away the immune system in the body. So any bacteria, any particular thing that is coming against that person, they can't resist it. So they end up sick from anything that can come to them and die.

When the immune system comes down, when people are taking chemo, that leads to people being susceptible to all kinds of diseases and they have to be careful and protect themselves. The Bible is saying that when the immune system, the white blood cells come down in our body, the same thing happens within the church.

That's why we go on to verse 19 today. Matthew chapter 16: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Watch this carefully. He said, "I give you the keys of the gates of hell." Now he's saying, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. I will empower you." In other words, however you use the word of God based on it being interpreted correctly. Don't forget, Satan loves to come in the church and corrupt the Bible.

In 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 4, he says he can corrupt preachers to preach false doctrine. When he does that, he will make their conscience seared. By doing that, he can get them to preach whatever he wants them to preach because now they're being led by demons. It's right there in that passage.

The Bible says false doctrine will be huge. You see that in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. It will permeate the church. When you let false doctrine permeate the church, you just took the keys out of the church. The authority and the power which God will give to the church from heaven is now forsaken, so Satan has an ability to come in and corrupt the church.

That's why it's important even when you look at Acts chapter 20, verses 28 and 29. He says, "Savage wolves will come in among you." They sound right. They give you 98% or 96% right information, but 4% is off. Like you see in the case of Satan. Satan, while tempting Jesus, took two words out of his quote of Deuteronomy. Just two words. It sounded just right, but he took two words out of it, and that's why Christ rejected him because He knew he was corrupting the word of God.

What happens as a result of that? Christ is no longer there, so anything can happen within the church because He says the church had polluted the word of God. So we could not touch the keys when we come to the church. The church is the pillar and support of truth, 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. So if you take the truth out of the church, the whole world falls apart. People can lie and there's no buffer system to ever say that's a lie, that's not true, because we have taken the truth out of society.

What does that mean? The Spirit is the truth. So the minute we corrupt the word of God, we take the Spirit of God out of the church. The Bible says we can quench Him. All we have to do, based on Revelation and based on other passages of scripture, is corrupt the keys. You know, you gotta have the right key.

No matter how many keys you may have on a stack. See, that happened to me because I'm walking around with a stack of keys. The staff was careful to make sure when they changed the particular lock that they put that key on my stack of keys. They rested it on the desk and I put it on that stack of key. Now I'm walking to this door and I am going down these keys because I can't figure out what key it goes to that door. It used to be a key that I remember, but I forgot that they put it on my desk. I forgot they told me this is the key that goes to that door and I am going through my keys to figure out what is going to work in this door.

Finally, I saw one of our maintenance guys walking by and I said, "Hey, help me open this door." He immediately know what key went to the door. You see, even though the lock is on the door, there's a particular key to that lock. And that's why the Bible is saying that he gives us keys. We gotta know which word goes to what lock. We have to know what word goes to what particular situation.

That's why he's saying, "I've given you everything you need for life and godliness." We don't just need to know the word of God. We need to know when we're facing life—Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 12—what key goes to what issue. And we need to know how that is illuminated to the wisdom necessary to apply that particular information to that key.

That's what we are talking about in this particular passage. He says, "I," not anybody. A preacher can't do this for you. Your mama can't do this for you. Your grandmamma can't do this for you. Earthly wisdom doesn't work. The Bible says in James chapter 3, verses 13 through 15, earthly wisdom is demonic. That's why he says do not lean to your own understanding. So he says the only way for these keys to come is through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. And when that key come, it's because he gave it to us.

Now, here's the thing that is huge in this passage that can't be missed. He says, "Whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Wait a minute now. What is he mean by binding and loosing? Well, he's not talking about gates anymore. He's talking about a person who is handcuffed. He says, "Whatever you shall bind on earth."

What is he talking about by whatever? Well, he actually tells us what he's talking about in chapter 18, verse 15. He says, "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee a heathen man and a publican."

"Verily, I say to you, whatever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And again, I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, it shall be done for them by my Father which is in heaven." What is he talking about? He's talking about sin.

In other words, if the church is corrupt within itself, then the antibody system is gone. Then Satan could just run havoc in the church like you would see in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. The young man is sinning in an immoral way, and the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he says, "Hey, listen. Make sure that you bring him back into the church." You bind, you loose, so Satan don't get the best of him.

The Bible is saying if we don't do that, a little leaven unleavened the whole lump. And the church from the inside becomes corrupt even though the Bible is saying you got the keys to the gates of Hades. Heaven responds in authority and power because you show that you're using the right key for the right door for the right lock. But if you allow the antibody system to be corrupted in the church and sin is running rampant in the church, instead of having the power, it's no longer there.

We need to respond using the keys so that Satan don't corrupt the church from the inside out. So when the church body stays healthy, we could take the keys and we can have the kingdom power of God to resist the attacks of Satan. So we live in the power of God, not defeated by our own flesh because we choose to be politically correct, we choose that to really want to upset anybody and we end up corrupting and destroying the church that God says that He will build through Jesus Christ.

Why church? It is the only place where we can be held accountable to live a godly life. And by doing so when it is done in love, we keep the church healthy and we end up with the keys to the kingdom of heaven. That's the kind of power we need to be revived, rebuilt, strengthened for the glory of God. This is why we cannot take lightly the church. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. The church is indeed the pillar of truth. That's why false doctrine can be so destructive to it. Friends, this has been a very important series. And if you know someone who is struggling with going to church, this would be a topical and very relevant series to give to them as a gift. You'll find all of our ministry resources by logging on to powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. Or you can call us at 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Power Walk Ministries seek to support itself by the books and the materials that God has blessed us to be able to minister to your life and to strengthen and to equip you spiritually to be productive. And that's the way we develop support for this ministry. We feel that if we touch your life, then that will lead to us touching other lives.

So go to our website at www.powerwalkministries.org and participate in our ministry because when you do so, it goes to serving other people, not just on radio but around the world in conferences, in terms of equipping pastors and their wives, etc. So join us, partnership with us and be blessed at the same time by going to our website and becoming a part of our ministry.

Guest (Male): 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. And now, keep in mind as we leave you, the church is the voice of truth in this world. And that means our voice collectively as well as individually is the immediate sphere of our influence.