Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for tuning into today’s broadcast of Power Walk with Pastor Paul Cannings. The main focus of our ministry is to provide a reason for people to know and believe who God is and all He’s done for us. Pastor Cannings also strives to teach and equip the body of Christ by providing clarity on various topics in the Bible.

Our current series is titled Faith that Works. In James chapter 1, verses 18 through 23, Pastor Cannings explains clearly as to what faith is and how we can practice it in our lives. Here he is with today’s message, Faith Without Works.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Many people today say they have faith, and that sometimes creates four or five scenarios right away from that sentence. Some people say they have faith and they claim various things. They claim because I have faith, I believe I'm going to be healed, I don't need medication. They could put their hands on a car because this is the desire that they want, and God's going to bless me because God loves me and they end up with the bills and all kinds of stuff, but they claim that that was done because they had faith.

Then there's some people in the midst of trials and difficulties will say they have faith, but they don't act as if they do in the sense that they're full of anxiety. They're full of a lot of stress. They are full of perplexed situations and they feel many times hopeless.

Then some people treat faith as if it's something mysterious. I have faith and they just seem to be grabbing something out of the skies as if they have faith as not an objective process, it's a process based on their feelings. If they feel high, then they are excited about God. I have faith in God, he'll move mountains and they are ready to jump and run around the church because they feel high.

Because of all these different dynamics that faith has become in the day and time in which we live in the church era that we're in, faith can be in those different directions, which makes it confusing many times for a young person who wants to live by faith. They're lost in that process. They want to believe in God, but they're looking at other people who claim to have faith and their life seems to be full of stress.

Parents who claim to have faith but they're fighting all the time or they are at odds about different things or they seem so overwhelmed while they are at the same time saying we believe in Jesus. There's no change in the perspective on life. There's no change in the aptitude in which they approach life. They just go to church and believe in God.

Then there's those who go to church every Sunday, but there's not any change in their life, but yet they claim to have faith in God. That's why they're attending church. That's why they're serving, that's why they're giving, but there's no change, no character development in them. But all these people claim to have faith.

So let's this week just spend some time going through James. We're going to go from verse 18 because of the time limitations that we have and so that we continue forward with this mindset. Here is a faith that works. In verse 18 he says, "Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works."

It's kind of like this. There was an argument that preachers were having while they were rowing a boat out in the middle of a lake so they could fish. It was just relaxing time, talking, interacting. They needed this downtime, so they decided to do it together and go fishing. They're going up and they're having this theological debate which many preachers get into. They end up in this theological debate about faith and works.

The guy was paddling the boat while these two other guys are arguing about it because one guy is fixing the fishing line and the other guy is doing some other thing with the bait and all that stuff. So he says, "Don't worry about it. You all do your thing and I'm going to row the boat." The guy says, "Listen man, I have faith. I know what God can do." The other guy says, "Listen man, I got a lot of things I'm doing. I'm doing it and I know that God is going to bless me as I do it because my heart is right and I want to do what's right."

So the guy in the middle of the boat that is rowing says, "Hold up guys, I have faith." He takes one paddle, pulls it up, and he puts it in the boat and he's pulling the other paddle around. The boat now is going in a circle. He said, "Guys, what are you doing?" He says, "Well, I have faith. I have faith, I have faith, I have faith, I have faith." And the boat is going in a circle. "So what's your point?" "Can't you see the point?" The other guy says, "No man, listen." He said, "No, before you say anything." He takes up the faith paddle, puts it in the boat, takes out the work paddle, puts it out in the water and he's paddling. He says, "Okay, we get your point."

And that's what James is dealing with in verse 18. In verse 18 he is challenging us on this process. He's saying here that, "Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith." Let me get Greek-y for just a minute. A person that's going to say they have faith here, he's talking about it in this sense. This is what it means to a person that is from a Greek background. They have faith and there's a habit that they have faith. It's consistently something that they do that they claim to have.

A person says they have it, which means they have an intense trust that the word of God is true. They have a deep conviction that the word of God, there's nothing wrong with it and it is perfectly provided to us by God. They are fully surrendered that if they're going to hear from God, that this is the only way that they can hear from God is to read God's word and to trust that when they understand it clearly, that that is the truth.

That person, he's saying, is a person who claims to have faith. They have faith. They're saying they have faith. There's no way they could ever say that they don't because of how deeply convinced they are that whatever God speaks, that's the word of God. I believe what God has said. I know that God is true.

So it what it looks like for them is no different than you had with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had the word of God in front of them. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so they walked with a conviction, studying it all day, that they have the word of God with them.

But when Jesus Christ came on earth and showed them how to take that and put it to work, they nailed him to the cross. It wasn't that they didn't know who Jesus was. In John chapter 5 verse 39, Jesus Christ says, "You know who I am." That's why Nicodemus came at night. Nicodemus came at night to ask Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ lined up on everything that the Bible ever said about the Messiah. Everything that Nicodemus has been studying lined up perfectly to Jesus Christ.

It's kind of like waiting at the airport for somebody that's about to land. And they have this sign out and they would say Paul Cannings. And I see the sign and I walk towards them, and then they say, "Hey, Dr. Cannings." Sometimes they wave at me right before I get to them. So I said, "Okay, they have a description of me." So we get in the car, we settle down and we've done our hellos and stuff. I say to them, "How did they describe me to be?" Because the sign wasn't just up. They knew what I looked like before I got there.

Nicodemus understood the Messiah was promised. But everything about the description of him lined up, so that's why Nicodemus came. The Pharisees understood the same thing. But when Jesus Christ came, they chose not to accept him and nail him to the cross because he didn't buy into the 300 more laws they added to the word of God to make all these man-made traditions that Colossians chapter 2 verse 8 tells us.

Don't go with human philosophy. Don't go with how people take the word of God. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 14 through 16, don't go with what people say about the word of God and then let them twist it in the way they choose to twist it because that doesn't work.

And then James is saying, he says you can't just be a hearer of the word of God. You have to be a doer of the word of God because if all you are is a hearer of the word of God, then there's no way that you've changed anything in our lives. So faith is something that we start with. We start with this faith.

But faith by itself is just a lot of information which 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1 through verse 2 says just leads to people becoming arrogant. This is exactly how you saw the Pharisees and Sadducees. See, the people in the book of James, it's not that they didn't have the word of God. They were given the word of God by James. They heard the information. They heard all the word that God has to say, but then they split up because Paul came to them and when Paul came to them the way he was punishing them, they scattered everywhere.

When they scattered everywhere, they ran into all kinds of trials because the people weren't just welcoming them in. "Oh yes, you're a Jew, you could take the synagogue and teach what you want. Oh no, we would never sell you any food that you don't believe you should eat." No, they were going in to try to find their foods. They were going in to try to deal with a new culture that was very promiscuous.

They were trying to deal with a culture that was corrupt and dealing with financial issues that was corrupt. People needing jobs and people abusing them in the process with the jobs. Even the church doing that to them where they put the rich people in one place and the poor people in another place. But in chapter 5, the rich people were exploiting the poor people and they were coming to church and nothing was being done.

So James was going, you all got the Bible, but when you come to church there's favoritism. When the widows are in your church you're doing nothing when you saw what was done in Acts. When the widows needed help, you're not even doing that. You got orphans in your church, you're not even doing what you were taught. So you got all this information, but it is not producing what the purpose of it's to produce because all you have is faith.

And faith is concretely the word of God. It's not anything mysterious, mystical, or something we can just claim out of the skies because of a feeling. That is not what the Bible teaches about faith.

So whether you go to the book of Hebrews and chapter 11 and go down the hall of hope where people because of their faith in God lived by hope and lived in the hope and the expectation that God is going to do what he said, so they went out and acted out what God said. We could see that it's not a mysterious, mystical process that only special people can have because they are so motivated about what they hear the word of God to be.

It's more than that. That's why James says to us in the rest of this verse, he says, "and I have works." Many people say they have works, but they don't do it by faith. Many people say, "well, I helped this senior person across the street." Wonderful. You're being kind. Maybe you have the gift of helps. But that's not faith. Or we're doing works but it's not attached to the word of God, so the boat keeps spinning.

That's what James is talking about when we keep adding things to the church that is attached to works that has nothing to do with faith, but we are so convinced from wherever we have come from that that's the way to go. As a result of that, we make the church man-made, not God-made because we're not coming from concept to reality. What God is going to reward in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 is faith.

I pray folks as we continue through this text, this could be somewhat offensive to some people, but let's just stay in the text and bring ourselves under the authority of God's word. Check it out for yourself like the Berean Christians, but no matter what you do in your life, stay focused.

Guest (Male): Amen, Dr. Cannings. It's really not some mystical process. It's simple and yet plays such an integral part in our walk with God. To obtain a copy of this message series, please log onto our website at powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org.

Fear is the opposite of faith, and I want to encourage you to also obtain Pastor Cannings' book, Give Fear a Knockout Punch. You can secure your copy when you call 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Power Walk Ministries is excited to have a partnership with Central Baptist Church and Mars Hill Network for a conference we are doing on September the 19th at 8:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon. The conference cost is minimal. It's $25 that includes lunch. We would love for you to be there and be a part of what God is going to do through this partnership with Central Baptist Church and Mars Hill Network and Power Walk Ministries.

It will take place at Central Baptist Church. We would love for you to be there. We need for you to go to the Central Baptist Church website in their Syracuse area, or you could go to Power Walk Ministries website or Mars Hill's website and there will be a link over for you to learn more about the classes that are being offered. We look forward to seeing you. It's going to be an exciting one-day conference where we all learn together for God's glory. Join us September the 19th at Central Baptist Church. See you then.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. As we take the message of the gospel and seek to equip the body of Christ effectively, would you consider partnering with us both in prayer as well as through your financial support?

Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas, 772092. And remember, faith comes by hearing. May we continually feed our minds with God's word and grow in our faith as we walk in obedience.