Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to this broadcast of Power Walk. We're excited to have you join us today as Reverend Paul Cannings continues with the series Relationships, Marriage, and Family. We all want peace. Every day we see how the pursuit of peace consumes us all, from a large scale in our communities to within our homes and relationships. Yet, God offers this to every one of us through His Holy Spirit. Addressing this today, here's Pastor Cannings with the message Headship in the Home. Let's listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: So if a person is not driven by the Holy Spirit to arrive at peace, then they've got the wrong peace. Peace has all kinds of connotations today. Peace could be a gun these days. When I finish shooting you, you're quiet, so guess what? I've got peace. But the Bible is saying that when a man lives within God's structure, he infuses peace.

In Ephesians chapter two, this is what he says in verse 14: "He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall." There is a lot of history in that verse. To summarize the verse, what he's saying is, you Jews and Gentiles didn't get along. So he says, "I broke down all of the enmity, the strife, the arguing. I went on the cross and died on Calvary's cross. When I did, there's no difference between Jew, Gentile, bond, and free, so y'all can now be at peace." Well, who is the peace? The Holy Spirit, Chapter three. I am the one who can take people with differences, different backgrounds, different philosophies, and if they come to me and they function by me, I can create peace in the house. But outside of me, you ain't got no peace.

So he continues and says, "Might reconcile them both," husband and wife can be reconnected, "them both into one body to God through Christ, having put to death the enmity." Put to death who is Christ in the home? The man. What does that mean? He dies. "And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near." How in the world did He do that?

In verse 20, he says, "Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone." In other words, I decide how the house is shaped. I can decide what lordship looks like, what headship looks like, and I can decide what church-ship looks like in the wife submitting. I'm the one that designed it. So if you come to marriage and you decide to design it the way you want because you're sick of the man or you're sick of the woman and all her attitudes and all her family crazy, when you do that, you kill the peace in the house because the Holy Spirit is blocked because you don't let me shape the house. You don't let me structure the house. You just let me be somebody you want to come and put icing on a bad cake and dress it up for you with a nice car and a house, nice clothes, and nice ornaments on the table and beautiful decorations.

Now, back to the sermon. He says that this is what creates structure in the house. This is what brings structure that leads to peace. But there's another reason for headship in the home. Look at Chapter four. Headship in the home breeds spiritual growth. Headship in the home breeds spiritual growth. You see, Christ is the head of the church. He is the workmanship that leads us into being able to become like God, Chapter two.

In Chapter three, he's saying, watch out, the mysteries of God are interesting. But when you learn through the mysteries of God, you start to see that Christ would protect. Headship also means covering. That's why the man is the provider. He's this, he's that, because it's covering. So when you come, he says Christ then blocks Satan from hitting the church when we choose to do church His way. In Chapter three, he says, let me tell you, the whole Godhead is working on this. And in Chapter four, he says, in order for you to get to the fullness of God, you've got to come to church.

Look at Chapter three. He talks about the Godhead in Chapter three. He says, "That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through the Spirit." That's why the breathing is important. Families can't find strength, they can't find power to make it through nothing, because He's not breathing into the house. "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." When the emotions are going high, Christ now dominates and keeps the home from going in different directions. "That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with the saints the breadth and the length and the height and the depth." Why? To know the love of Christ. Here comes love now in the house, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to the fullness of God.

How do you get filled up to the fullness of God? Chapter four. That's why I like being a pastor-teacher and not just whooping and hollering and getting you happy on a Sunday. Here is why. In Chapter four, verse 12, he says you're going to come broken to the church. It's the church's job: counseling ministry, prayer ministry, encouragement, all these gifts He's put in here. He says, "I get you broken." Broken doesn't just mean broken bones. It means you're going across the ocean and if the ship is not equipped to deal with storms and deal with a lack of wind and all these other things, the ship is not going to make it. So you've got to equip the ship to get from one side of the ocean to the other. He's saying, in order for you to get from young in marriage to a seasoned couple, to being great examples to everybody else and blessing kids, I've got to equip you. That's why there's a marriage ministry. That's why we've got a marriage month. We are trying to equip because people come broken. That's the job of the church. It's a hospital, a spiritual hospital. And if you're strong, you're supposed to help the weak. It's your job, First Thessalonians 5.

In the church, because you can't get to the fullness of God outside of it, equipping the church for the building up of the body. This is how you get built up. Who's the body? In Chapter five, the man is supposed to build his wife up because she is the body. That's why she's the church. Who's doing the building? Christ. How is the building taking place? Church. That's why he is the spiritual leader that brings the family to church. The church helps him to build. The structure has to be like Christ or he's not a head. He's head of nothing.

Look at Chapter four, verse 13: "Until we all attain to the unity of the faith." Now there is unity in the house, not arguing and fighting and not coming to any place that's unified. "Knowledge of the Son of God, the nature and the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." So where can the person grow up to the fullness of Christ? In the church. That's the only place. That's why He's the head of one thing: the church. So if the man is going to be a head, he has to lead his family to church. In leading his family to church, he has to expose his family to all that is taking place in the church: the discipleship program, the young men's ministry, the youth ministry, the children's ministry, the counseling. He exposes his family to all those things so the church helps to build up his home.

So when they go home, they're now the fullness of Christ. When they're the fullness of Christ, they've got the strength of God, the wisdom of God, all these different things flowing into the house because God could now breathe into the home. So the kids are going, "Daddy, what does God say about this?" Because he's the primary teacher for the kids in the house, Chapter six. He drops the wife. After he told the kids to submit to father and mother, he doesn't continue to talk about the mother in verse three and four. He drops it purposefully because the man breathes spiritual growth into the house.

I made a point when our kids were young. I was the first up on Sunday. I adjusted my schedule to make it home for Tuesday Bible study, for Wednesday Bible study. I was home. I was helping in the kitchen. "What you need, baby?" I wasn't doing that because I felt like it. I was tired. I was a professor. You're mentally exhausted. Why? Headship is their spiritual growth. And if I'm not first in line, God is saying, "I ain't breathing." Now if the wife is submitting to God because the husband ain't doing it, the Bible says in First Corinthians chapter seven, "I will sanctify the house because she chose to do it." I'll sanctify it. If the wife says, "Hey, bump this, we've got to go to church, we've got to have Bible study," like my mother did with eight kids on a bed. Oh, you're not going to get up because you have to go to work early? And I teach these kids the scriptures? 6:00 every morning, my mother taught me. She was the best teacher I ever had in my life, ever. She didn't forsake her responsibility because her husband chose not to do it.

Out of that comes Lois Evans, Priscilla Shirer, Pierre Cannings, Paul Cannings, Jonathan Evans. Breathe because of the legacy that was established at 6:00 every morning. And she made my dad do devotions before we went to church. Now that didn't make no sense to this kid. We're going to church. Why are we doing the Bible now? I got that look and I said, "Yes, ma'am."

The next thing about headship, this is why I said I had to learn this, fellas. And one rule I had, I have it worse than you. I'm not saying it because I'm a pastor. The Bible says in Hosea chapter 4, verse 6, that if I don't accept knowledge that God gives me, especially as a pastor and an elder, He will curse my house. I have it worse. Just read it. It's right there in the Bible. You're not to believe me. It's written, Hosea 4:6, read it.

In Malachi chapter 4, verse 6, he says if a man does not function in this structure, "I will curse the earth." I'll curse it. He ends the Old Testament with that. So this headship also means protection. Let's take a look at it. We run to leadership quick, but what He's after is headship because headship carries out His agenda. It carries out His agenda. Headship, I'd like to go to Chapter four now, creates unity in the house. Unity is not uniformity. Unity is that we are all committed to one agenda functioning under the same spirit. Look at Chapter four. That's why a pastor sets the vision. It doesn't mean he does all the work. I'm supposed to teach you the work to do. The pastor has the vision and you have the spiritual gifts to get it done. But if there's no vision, same thing in the home. If there's no headship where the man is setting the agenda of God in the home, how is the woman going to help what? What is she helping? She's the helper. So the man sets the agenda in the home.

Guest (Male): Amen. Thank you, Pastor Cannings. Friends, God can help us through the reconciliation process in any relationship, as He has paid the ultimate price for our reconciliation to Himself through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. And if you'd like to know more about this relationship with Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross, then give us a call at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402, or log on to powerwalkministries.org. And while you're there, look for Pastor Cannings' book, Why Can't Mondays Be More Like Sundays? It will help you grow further in your faith to put your dependence on God more each day. And to help us in our media expenses, would you make a one-time or monthly generous contribution to Power Walk Ministries? To do so, please log on to powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. Or call us at 281-260-7402. If you wish to write us, our mailing address is Power Walk Ministries, P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas, 77092. We thank you for your support. And now remember, it's not only for the home, but for our individual lives. God offers peace when we honor and obey Him in all that we do.