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Scriptures Referenced
James 2:14-26 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him?
15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food,
16 and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do?
17 Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.
18 But someone will say that you have faith and I have actions. Show me this faith of yours without the actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions!
19 You believe that “God is one”? Good for you! The demons believe it too — the thought makes them shudder with fear!
20 But, foolish fellow, do you want to be shown that such “faith” apart from actions is barren?
21 Wasn’t Avraham avinu declared righteous because of actions when he offered up his son Yitz’chak on the altar?
22 You see that his faith worked with his actions; by the actions the faith was made complete;
23 and the passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled which says, “Avraham had faith in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness.”
He was even called God’s friend.
24 You see that a person is declared righteous because of actions and not because of faith alone.
25 Likewise, wasn’t Rachav the prostitute also declared righteous because of actions when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another route?
26 Indeed, just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too faith without actions is dead.
AI-generated transcript below — please excuse any errors
00:01 Praise Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Brothers and sisters, the power of Christ Daily 21st of July 2015 titled Faith, True faith and dead Faith. The Bible talks about true faith and dead faith in the book of James 2, 1426. Now simply James, the Apostle
James, you know, he’s saying, telling us, look, if you say you believe.
00:31 He’s telling us, if you say you believe that God is one almighty God and all that, then he says the demons also believe too. They too, when the thought makes them tremble and shake with fear and shudder. He’s saying this Apostle James saying, look,
even the demons believe God is one and God is almighty God.
00:56 So what is the use of simplicity? I believe, I believe, I believe. That’s what James is saying. But James says, look here, in fact, in the complete Jewish translation, he says, you foolish fellow.
01:08 In 20 he says, you foolish fellow. Can you imagine calling us foolish fellows if we do not understand this now, we are not foolish. God has given us sound mind.
01:16 God has given us a sound mind. He did not give us a spirit of fear, but sound mind, boldness, power. He has given all that.
01:28 Now therefore we will understand what James is saying today. One is, he says, look, Abraham said he has faith and his faith was shown and proven when he sacrificed, when Isaac, he went to sacrifice Isaac on a mountaintop. He was prepared to
slaughter him.
01:47 Because God said, go and sacrifice Isaac. Because Abraham knew that he keeps looking at the stars. And he says, look, God already said that the nation, he will give him a nation, as many as countless number of people through Isaac.
02:05 So Abraham thinking, look, no problem, he asked me to sacrifice, I’ll sacrifice Isaac. But he will raise, somehow or other he’ll raise Isaac up some or other he’ll give Isaac right back. Because he promised God promised, promised that I’ll make you
a nation of countless.
02:27 So therefore Abraham had faith and his faith was proven by the fact that he was prepared to sacrifice Isaac because his faith was true and full. Now, the same way we can easily test our faith. Because James says there are true faith and dead faith.
02:47 He says, if you say your faith and then you do not do the right things that God has told us to do, then he calls it dead faith. Dead faith. Faith is not alive.
03:00 So there may be some faith, but faith is on something else. Faith on Christ was. Will produce good works.
03:07 Will produce good works. Of course we are not saved by good works. Good works cannot save us because sin is already entered us.
03:17 And only the blood of Jesus Christ, the precious blood of Jesus Christ can wash it away. Because he Took our sins on the cross. Now this has far reaching implications for us this morning and all our lives because there are people who say, I love
God, I love God, I love God.
03:33 But they are doing wrong things. If you love God, you will then begin to examine yourself to see how my conduct is. The Bible says, examine yourself, brothers and sisters, examine yourselves.
03:50 And therefore I said, remember, the science tells us if you have one issue going on in your head all the time, some bad issue all the time you are thinking these things or looking at bad things or whatever, it will grow some kind of a tree that
looks like a thorn bush. I call it thorn bush because it’s so damaging. It looks like in the brain, actual physical brain.
04:10 It becomes physically there. And if you have good things and all, it grows a good tree, actual physical tree like cells there with dendrites, with branches and all beautiful. It looks.
04:21 Now they have found in science now that almost 90%, I think it’s, they say 87%, I think almost 90% of all illnesses, all diseases that are known to man has got a spiritual root, has got a spiritual reason. The remaining 10% or 13% or whatever it may
be because we went and drank bad water or had bad food or something. But almost 90% or some, you know, some viruses and all these other things that have been released, almost 90% of all illnesses are due to spiritual roots, spiritual problems.
05:08 And then they found another thing. Hundred over diseases, hundred over diseases are caused from fear, anxiety and stress. These three things, fear, anxiety and stress.
05:25 Fear, anxiety and stress. Can you imagine? Hundred diseases are caused by these things. About 90% of all our diseases are due to these spiritual issues.
05:38 Now let’s look at this. That means having life faith. True faith is critical for our well being.
05:47 Having true faith and life faith is critical. It’s extremely important for our well being. So what is stress? Stress is simply defined as any mental emotional burden, trouble, burden, pressure.
06:04 Any emotional mental pressure on us is called stress. And this can come from many, many ways. It can come from our work, it can come from our family, it can come from other areas.
06:12 It can come from a false belief, false belief and false desires. How does temptation come? God says very simple. It comes because we are drawn by our own heart desire.
06:28 Our own heart desire will always look for something that is not really going to be helpful, but just to satisfy the flesh. So now this kind of stresses we have to get rid of. And we can, we can now God told God, when Jesus praying for the disciples
and in fact praying for us also, what he Said yesterday, remember we talked about glory of God is in us and he prayed for that.
06:56 When you go the whole chapter there, it’s a wonderful chapter he talks about. He prays to Father God to say they are in the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of this world, but they be in us and we be in them.
07:16 So we believers, I’m talking about believers, believe in the heart. We believe in the heart. We command it in the name of Jesus Christ.
07:25 Believe in the heart that Jesus died on the cross and rose again and he is my Saviour, he is my Lord, he is my God. This kind of belief in the heart will be able to overcome fear, anxiety and stress. We can’t be running away from wherever the issue
is.
07:44 But of course if you are unable to handle stress somewhere, including maybe your job, you better ask God because he loves you. Jesus Christ loves you and Jesus Christ can do anything for you. If there is stress in the place, somebody giving stress
in the job place, you can.
08:04 Of course the only way to overcome somebody giving all kinds of things is to make our heart love them. Make our heart love them. Remember that is the fundamental pillar love.
08:17 We are love. God is love. He made us his own.
08:20 We are his children. We are love. So when people are giving problems in the workplace, brothers and sisters, I have been there.
08:27 So when given problems that time I didn’t know Christ so I acted very badly. Now only way to replace our heart in our heart, the only way to replace this thing that people telling us and putting us to shame or whatever is with love. We love them
because our Father said love them.
08:50 Now as you begin to love them, the stress won’t be there in your soul. You command your heart and mind to love them. You picture Jesus Christ on the cross, how he suffered for you picture him in the grave of the wicked.
09:04 How faith is held and came. And he says, come unto me and I shall give you rest. The words he promises us.
09:11 And we begin to picture this and of course on the point of problem, try and move away to some place quiet, maybe even the toilet or ladies or gents and begin to breathe the breath of God. Breath of God. You begin to breathe and you begin to meditate
on the words and promises Jesus has given you.
09:31 I will never leave you or forsake you. Ah, the stress will leave. The stress will leave.
09:38 But let us say this issue is becoming more and more. Then you have to ask yourself, maybe Jesus doesn’t want me to be here. Maybe Jesus doesn’t want me to Be here in this job saying, lord, if this is your will, give me another job, Lord.
09:57 Another job God will arrange. You begin to ask. You begin to picture a job that has peace.
09:59 You begin to picture. Remember in your mind you begin to believe. In your heart you start to believe.
10:11 And you begin to meditate and imagine. And remember these wicked people were trying to build a portal, the Tower of Babel, for the demons to come. They are wicked.
10:21 Imagine also they can have it done. What more earth. You begin to imagine the good job, the new Job or fantastic job.
10:27 No, none of this. But first you must try this Overcoming distress. Overcoming distress.
10:36 Why? Because you are an overcomer. We are an overcomer. We persevere.
10:41 We persevere because we are the power of Jesus Christ. We are not alone. You are not alone.
10:46 You are not forsaken. Even in the stress, Jesus is still with you. The faith of Jesus Christ is in you.
10:54 The glory of Father God is in you. Oh brothers and sisters. And you will have true faith.
11:01 True faith is wanting to know what God will do, what God wants you to do in these circumstances and begin to move. Now, at the same time we forget that women who are homemakers. We forget many times women are homemakers.
11:18 We think about the stress only in the office and all. There will be stress in the home. There will be stress in the home because it may be unbelieving husband, children are doing mayhem difficulties, neighbors must be giving trouble.
11:34 We don’t know the same rule applies. First love. Love them first.
11:40 You must bring your heart to the point of loving them. Because you cannot bring your heart to the point of loving them. You’re not going to overcome this fear, anxiety, stress can only overcome with love.
11:55 Running away from this situation for a while will not work because it is still love that will settle you. And you are love. So now you may be stressed out.
12:05 Oh, the rain has come. The clothes have gone wet. Now you are stressing out.
12:10 Remember this stress hundred diseases, fear, anxiety and stress caused us. And then this stress on and on creates real cells in the brain that look like thorn bushes, red and inflamed. Why do we want to have all this? So we overcome immediately in
the midst of this problem.
12:30 Yes, you may have to run out and take the clothes in because the clothes get wet. You have to do the whole rig morrow again. Yes, it’s tough.
12:36 So you run out and do that. After that, take a moment, stop, stop, stop, stop. And worship.
12:43 Worship Jesus Christ. In fact, you sing a song. In fact, you sing a song.
12:48 Brothers and sisters, when I came to the Lord. I don’t know. I don’t know.
12:52 I only knew worldly songs. I changed the worldly songs into words for my Christ. I took the worldly songs that all the time I knew they were playing in my head.
13:01 I put them. I love you, Jesus. I love you.
13:05 Make me love you, Lord Jesus. Oh, you love me, Jesus Christ. You begin to in the name of Jesus Christ, you begin to make songs and love him from your heart.
13:15 Heartfelt songs, brothers and sisters. Heartfelt songs. You then sit quietly few seconds, few minutes.
13:23 Blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus. You will see a fantastic change. You will see, you will feel the presence of God in you.
13:34 Why the glory of God is in you. Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit is in you. Jesus Christ is interceding for you.
13:45 The Holy Spirit is interceding for you. The interceding that your faith will hold, that you will continue being changed from glory to glory. Because why they love you, Father.
13:57 God loves you. Jesus Christ loves you. The Holy Spirit loves you.
14:01 And they have all power. So, brothers and sisters, today, this morning is a wonderful day. So we in Jesus name will overcome.
14:11 Amen.