Walking Faith

Thank you, Ashandra. Really appreciate that. And Mitch Moss was on the piano as well. I couldn't help but think, as you were singing that, you think of the Jews being captive in Babylon, forced to sing Jerusalem songs of Zion. I was thinking, here we are. We're captive in this spiritual Babylon around us, and we're striving to sing God's songs in our lives as well. So, really brought some of those things to mind.

So, thank you, Ashandra. Really appreciate that. You may have heard the story of the man who was employed at the gravel pit, and every couple of months he'd leave work to go home, and he'd walk through the gate. And there was a guard there, and as he walked through the gate, he was pushing an old wheelbarrow full of sand.

And the guard worked there a long time. He was kind of an older fella. He was pretty astute, and after a while he realized, this guy's stealing something. He's got to be up to something. So, he looked over that sand and couldn't see anything, so he let the guy go. Well, a couple weeks later, here comes this guy with a wheelbarrow full of sand again. And he said, oh, he's got to be taking something. So, he gets a rake, and he rakes through that sand.

Couldn't find a thing. So, he had to let him pass. Sure enough, not too long after that, here he comes again, but this time the guard figures, I'm going to catch him. I am going to catch him. So, he gets a sieve, and he runs all of that sand through there. Nothing. Nothing. So, he had to let him go. So, this just went on and on and on and on. Finally, it came to the time the old guard was going to retire. And so, he thought, well, I know this guy's been smuggling something out of this place.

I've got to find out. I can't leave this job unless he tells me what he's been stealing all this time. So, here comes the guy, and he finally comes front, and he says, listen, I'm retiring. I'm not going to turn you in or anything like that, but you've got to tell me what is it that you've been stealing.

I've got to know. The worker just looked at him and said, I've been stealing wheelbarrows. Now, that's an old story I know, but it is an interesting one. Sometimes I tell these stories not necessarily to make you laugh, but just to refresh your memory a little bit. But, as I think of that story, I often wonder, am I missing the wheelbarrow?

Now, are you missing the wheelbarrow in your life? What are you looking at? What is it that captures your attention most of the time in your life? Are you really seeing what's most important? What's your view? There's an interesting way that the apostle Paul puts it. And, if you like theme scriptures, I suppose it could be the theme scripture of the day. I'm not going to turn there now, but I will in a moment. That scripture is over in 2 Corinthians 5.7. And the short version of that says, we walk by faith, not by sight.

So, what are you seeing? Are we missing what's most important? Now, as we begin, you might think, well, why is it important to walk by faith? Why should I walk by faith? Is faith really all that necessary? Well, there's a passage over in 1 Peter 1, verse 6. Let's notice what Peter said about walking by faith, making faith a vital part of our perspective. Are we really seeing it the way that God wants us to see and vision life? Let's notice it. 1 Peter 1, verse 6, Peter writes this, "...in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while if need be you've been grieved by various trials." Life happens, doesn't it?

He says this happens, verse 7, "...that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So our faith has a direct connection with the revealing of Jesus Christ.

In other words, when Christ returns to set up His kingdom, faith is required. Faith is not an option. It's not just a thing that would be nice to have. Peter's saying this is a requirement. Verse 8, he says, "...though you've not seen Him, you love Him, even though you don't see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with inexpressible, glorious joy. For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls, of your very being, of all you are. We can receive the kingdom. We can become children of God.

We can become members of the family of God. But it only happens, it says, by faith. The goal of our faith is the kingdom of God. It's salvation. And so when we put all of these things together, we have to walk by faith, don't we? It's a requirement to walk by faith.

Galatians 3, 26 says it a little bit differently, but it sure makes the same point. Let's notice it over in Galatians 3.

And let's notice how Paul puts it in verse 26. How do we become children of God? How do we become a part of the God family? How do we receive salvation? What's the process by which that happens? Well, we know we need Christ's sacrifice. But see, that's tied into this concept of faith. Let's notice what he says here in verse 26. He says, you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. So without faith, we won't be in the kingdom.

We've got to have faith. In fact, there is no choice if we're going to be a part of it. Well, maybe we should just say, even in general, let's set the kingdom aside for just a minute. Do we have any choice in this life than to walk by faith? Now, you might say, well, there's a lot of people out there that don't walk by faith. Let's think about that for a second. Think about it. All right. Let's say you go to the doctor. You ever notice on the wall they have all these nice little certificates and diplomas and all of those kinds of things? So we never call up the school to see if the guy really did graduate. We ever call him up and say, yeah, how'd he do? What kind of student was he? We want to know that he got maybe mostly C's. Do we? No, we don't want to do it. You believe then, those little pieces of paper on the wall, you believe then his diagnosis, he might even write out a prescription that you have no concept of what in the world he just wrote because you can't read it. It's so sloppy. But you take that prescription by faith, you go to the drugstore, you give it to the pharmacist who is probably your best friend, right? No, probably a person you've never met before in your life, and then somehow you hope that he puts the right little colored pills into that bottle, and you go home and you take those pills and you think you're going to get better. That's faith, isn't it? But that's not the kind of faith we're talking about. Sometimes I think in this life we walk by faith, but it's a misguided kind of faith, isn't it? I mean, just getting in your car to get here this morning is kind of an act of faith in some ways, right? I'm going to stay on my side of the road, you're going to stay on your side of the road, right? That, in a way, is an act of faith. Now, if we can have faith in these physical things, how much more should we have faith in what God has to say to us, in what God's promises are all about? How much more can we have faith in our great God? I think God really wants us to understand that we need to walk by the faith that we should have in Him. Over in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, let's get the context of our theme passage for the day.

2 Corinthians, right at the very beginning of that chapter, in chapter 5, here we have the Apostle Paul writing to God's church in Corinth. Of course, he's writing to us by extension as well. And here, in 2 Corinthians, not 1 Corinthians, but 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, right at the very beginning of that chapter, Paul starts out by saying, we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed. Of course, this probably brought quite an illustration to mind as the people of Corinth read this because we know Paul worked with canvas. He was a tent maker. So Paul is bringing that illustration to mind. We know this earthly house, this tent, this tabernacle. He says, when we know it is destroyed, because this isn't a permanent thing, it's just a tent, just a tabernacle. It's not going to last. He says, when that thing is washed up and done and finished, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. So he starts to get a little bit of an insight into this faith we're to have. Faith that we realize, hey, this life isn't what it's all about. This body that is wearing out is not what it's all about. And so he says, we should groan earnestly for what? For this habitation from heaven. Well, I wonder if we do. Do we sigh and cry for the kingdom of God to come? I was really reminded of this the other day. We were down at Fountain Square. We were doing interviews for the Beyond Today program. And I was asking people about the return of Christ. And one lady in particular I asked her, do you believe that Jesus Christ will return in your lifetime? And you know what she said? She said, oh no, I sure hope not.

Oh no, there's so many things I want to do and I want to have kids and have them grow up. So she was one of those you could kind of tease with a little bit. So I said, oh okay, so the return of Christ would be a bad thing then. She said, oh no, no, no. But it really struck me with that answer. And I wonder sometimes, do we feel that way? She said, well, yeah, it would be good for Christ to return, but boy, I sure hope it's sometime a lot farther down the line because there's a lot of things that I would rather do. So I wonder if we're walking by faith. So Paul puts it that way. Are we groaning earnestly to be clothed with this permanent fixture, this permanent house, not just this temporary tabernacle tent thing, but do we really long for the kingdom of God? He says, verse 4, if indeed we've been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent, in this temporary dwelling, we're burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life, real life, now that He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has also given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. Or in other words, God's plan cannot be complete. We're unfinished business until Christ returns and ultimately we're converted into Spirit at the return of Christ. And so because of this understanding, because He's prepared, it says this very thing, and because we have God's Spirit and because it's a guarantee, there's some expectations on us. That's where verse 7 comes into play. We walk by faith, not by sight. He says we're confident, verse 8, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and be present in the Lord.

Maybe that's something some of us have to work on a little bit. Do we have confidence in this life? Do we want this life just to go on and on and on? Or do we really look forward to the Kingdom of God? Are we, like Paul says, pleased to be absent from the body, looking forward to the return of Christ? And so verse 9, he says, therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. In the meantime, until Christ returns, until our death, we have to be walking by faith. It's a requirement.

It's not an option. It's not a multiple-choice test. There's one. Either we're walking by faith or we're walking by sight. And so, which is it? I think that's where the challenge comes in. Because how do we normally walk? How do we normally live our lives? If we had to describe what our life normally is, especially if you think of it before you knew what the truth was, what do we normally walk by?

Or we're probably all pretty familiar with the example of Samuel, when Samuel had to go to pick out the next king. Remember what God told him? Check out how big he is. He might not be 9'9'' or 11' tall. No, God didn't tell Samuel, pick out the biggest guy, because they had just gotten done doing that a while before.

The biggest guy that stood head and shoulders above everybody else. Saul didn't work out so good. So God reminded Samuel, don't look at his appearance. Don't look at his stature in 1 Samuel 16. Don't look at his stature. Don't look at his appearance, because that's not cutting it with me, God said. I'm refusing him, because God doesn't look at things the way that we do.

Because normally, we walk by sight. Now you might say, oh no, I don't walk by sight. No, in a way, don't we take this world as a reality? That this is like real? This is real. Because you look up here at me, and you think that I could see you perfectly.

But see, if I didn't put my context in this morning, I wouldn't be able to tell who's sitting out there. Because that's the reality of it. I can't see. So people who are in contact, now you might look at it and say, wow, they must have 20-20 vision. Not necessarily. No, not necessarily. You might say, wow, that guy's got a full head of hair and he's 98 years old. And you realize, uh oh, we've got a toupee on.

That's not the reality of it. Or you might say, wow, look at that beautiful white shining smile. Then later on you say, no, actually I've got my dentures and I've got them in. But we think that's reality. We see that and we think that's the reality of it. So it might be hearing aids or it might be, you know, even, what, an artificial leg. Who knows? You know, those things appear to be real. They seem right. They look right. They feel right. And yet, it's just the appearance of things. You know, I was startled by that a while back when I saw some pictures that somebody put together of the Hollywood stars.

And of course, they're all perfect, right? You see these beautiful pictures of the beautiful people out there in Hollywood. Well, somebody had went around and captured them on camera when they didn't have their hair done and they didn't have their makeup on. And you see those pictures and it's like you can't even recognize who these people are. It's like they're suddenly playing Jane.

And suddenly, Arnold Schwarzenegger turned into Casper Milk Toast. It's like, what happened? It's like, well, he got old. He got old. You know, he's not the Adonis anymore that he used to be. And yet, we're still taken in by those images. We're taken in by, you know, that airbrushed look that is on all the covers of the magazines. And somehow, we think that that's reality. And yet, God tells us we don't have to walk by sight. Even though we normally walk by sight, we're not supposed to walk by sight.

Look over to John 14. It sounds like our microphone is crackling just a little bit. John 14 verse 9. It's an interesting section of Scripture here because here Christ has been with the disciples. He's walked with them and talked with them, and He's taught them, and they've eaten together, and they've spent three and a half years together. They should know each other.

But it's interesting here in John 14 verse 9, Jesus says to Philip, He says, Have I been with you so long, and yet you haven't known me? Because Philip had asked him a question about God the Father. So Christ answers Philip. He says, He who's seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, Show us the Father?

Well, because Philip was walking by sight. He wasn't seeing the spiritual side of things. If you skip down a little bit farther, look down to verse 19. Christ said, A little while longer and the world will see me no more. But you will see me because I live, you will also live. So here He's not talking about physical eyesight. Now we're talking about seeing things with that spiritual vision that we're supposed to have.

And that's not normal. It's not normal to see things that aren't there. Unless you're doing some paranormal weirdo television program, because they try to see things that aren't there. Well, here we're talking about a spiritual thing that we're supposed to have our spiritual eyes in place, that we can see the reality of what's to come. You see, even though Christ taught these things, the disciples really, they still didn't get it, did they? Best example of that? How about our buddy Thomas? What about Thomas? Now if you're still here in John, flip over to chapter 20. Probably pretty familiar with the story here in chapter 20.

Thomas hadn't seen Christ, didn't see Him resurrected. He wasn't with the others. They were all telling Him, hey, He is resurrected, it's real, it's true, it's absolute, you can count on it. But Thomas couldn't quite believe it, could He? And so, look at verse 24 of John 20. He wasn't with them. The other disciples said, we've seen Him.

But look at the boldness of Thomas there in verse 25. He says, unless I see His hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hands into His side, I will not believe. He's not going to take anybody's word for it. No, because? Walking by sight. Walking by sight. And of course, we say that all the time, don't we? Don't we say it? Seeings believe in. Seeings believe in. But the problem was, He wasn't seeing spiritually.

So what happens? Verse 26, they're together. Christ comes into the room miraculously, right through the wall, it seems, stands in their midst. He says, peace to you. Here we just get a little bit of insight. Can you imagine what their reaction must have actually been? We're sitting in this room talking, probably enjoying each other's company, and boom, right through the room, here comes Jesus Christ. Why would He have to say peace to you?

Probably because they're like, whoa! What in the world is going on? This is crazy! Did you see that? How did that happen? What's going on? They were probably just kind of going nuts there a little bit. So they say, hey, calm down, relax. Take it easy. Take it easy. It's me. It's me. So He calms them down. It says to Thomas, verse 27. All right, reach your finger in here. Look at my hands. Do not be unbelieving but believing. So now, seeing is believing for Thomas. So He says, my Lord, my God. And Christ says something amazing to him in verse 29.

Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And that's us. That's others who never saw Christ walk and talk in their physical presence. Blessed are we who have not seen. Because we're to see things from a spiritual perspective. Faith has to have spiritual eyes to see. So I think that's a good question we should ask ourselves. How's our spiritual vision? If we had to rate our spiritual vision on that big spiritual eye chart, would we just be able to see those biggest, most giant letters? Or can we see the small print? Can we get right down to that last line that the optometrist always wants us to be able to read?

See, where are we? Where are we? Well, that's part of the challenge, because it's normal in everyday human life. From a human's perspective, from just a physical perspective, it's normal not to see spiritual things. And that's a challenge for us, because I think Satan wants to turn us away from what's spiritual so that we just see things in a physical way. He doesn't want us to have spiritual vision. I mean, there's a remarkable passage over in Isaiah 59.

Isaiah 59, and in this particular passage, we see the prophet Isaiah—I think he had this in mind as he penned these words and was inspired to write these things, because he starts out chapter 59 by talking about God's hand isn't shortened. God is always there. He's always ready to save.

He always is ready to listen. He talks about this lack of spiritual eyesight that causes separation between us and God. And then down in verse 9, he says, justice is far from us. He says, nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for light, but there's darkness. We look for brightness, but we walk in blackness. You see, that's the normal, everyday human perspective—that we're trying to figure life out on this human level, and we just don't get it. We just don't see a way out.

So are we walking in blackness, or are we walking by faith? He says in verse 10, we grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as at twilight. We're as dead men in desolate places. So without God's Spirit, without submitting to God's Spirit in our life, we're like blind men. We're like the blind. It's like we don't have any eyes. But it's interesting. He says we grope as if we had no eyes.

Or in other words, you do have eyes. You better be using them. Because it's not that we don't have eyes, but we're groping around as if we don't. But you do. You do have eyes. He says since God's called us and opened our minds to His truth, we do have the ability to see spiritually, to walk by faith and not walk by physical sight.

We can do it. We begin to trust in Him. And that's a big challenge. This passage reminds me of an experience we had one time. We were in Missouri. And in the southern part of Missouri, they have a lot of caves and caverns. There's one that's along the interstate there that's called the Meramec Caverns in southern Missouri. And so one day we decided to go and check out those caverns. And this was many years ago. At that time, what they would do is they would walk you down into the caves.

And it was kind of cool. They had kind of like a sidewalk set up. Some of the dangerous little bends and drop-offs, they'd have a little railing. And they had all these lights all along the way. And the cavern was just absolutely brilliant. You could see all these stalactites and stalagmites. And it was just gorgeous. And the way the waters had dripped down over the centuries, it was absolutely beautiful. Because they got us in. We probably walked for about a half an hour or so getting down into that cave.

And they got colder and colder as you got in there. And then the guide was talking, describing the different areas of the cave. And then she said, Oh, I want to show you something. I want to show you what it was like for the original people who discovered this cave. And right then, she flipped the switch on the lights. And boom, it was black. I mean, it was black, black, black.

It was so—I mean, you couldn't see anything. You couldn't see anything. I mean, when they say you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, you couldn't see anything. Nothing. Not a thing. It was black. And so she kept describing things that she was talking to try to keep us calm. But you could see, or you could kind of hear the kids were kind of getting nervous.

And one little kid said something, I sure hope those lights come back on because it was a little scary. You know, the lights were totally out. And so eventually we're thinking, all right, is she going to turn the lights on or not? Well, instead of turning the lights on, she took out a match and she just lit a match. And it was startling to see how much just after being in just pitch blackness, that just a little lit match suddenly seemed to light up the room and feel a lot warmer all of a sudden.

Because now you could begin to see. You could see people around you. And as soon as your eyes adjusted to that, it was amazing. Because I was imagining, oh, it was a light still to come on. I'm never getting out of here. I'm going to go right over the cliff and down into the water down there. And so it was startling to see just how much light, just from that one single match could get you out of there, would lead you to safety.

You could see plenty. You know, there was hope of getting out of there once that match was lit. And then after a while, of course, she turned on the lights and was like, oh, good, now we can get out of here. So it was like, don't turn them out again. We don't like that. And as I think about that example, you know, in a lot of ways, I suppose you could say life is kind of like this big cave we're in. And this world that we live in, it is a very dark place. A very dark place. There are many things that are hiding in the corners of those caverns that are out there that can trip us up, that can get us in trouble.

And if we don't stay on that lighted path, if we don't walk in the light, we're going to be in trouble. And it's also interesting that in a way, we're supposed to be like that match as well. We're supposed to be lighting the way. We're supposed to be walking by faith, lighting the way, not just walking and taking a chance to do it by sight. And so we don't have to have darkness and blackness around us.

You know, God makes it very clear. We do have eyes so we can see. I mean, the world should notice it, too. I mean, there was no doubt when she lit that match, everybody could see. Suddenly you were kind of looking around at nothingness and she lights that match and, too, you are just drawn to it. Because now it's obvious. We can see. And so people should be able to see our lives in this cave of life and wonder to themselves, I'm in the same cave as they are. Why is their life so different than mine? Why are they different? Why can they conquer that habit? But I have such a difficult time with that.

How is it that they can be a positive person in this difficult challenge of a life that we live in? And I have such a hard time with that. How can they be patient? How can they have even a care and a concern for others? Well, it seems like I'm just so shallow. How is it that they can forgive and forget? But I hold a grudge and I'm not going to let go of those hard feelings that I have. You see, shouldn't the world notice that lit match that's supposed to be our life?

That's supposed to be an exhibit of our faith? That that's the kind of life that we're walking by? There's an amazing chapter that talks about the kind of faith that we're supposed to have. It's all the way back in Hebrews 11. In fact, oftentimes, Hebrews 11 is called the faith chapter of the Bible because it goes through all the great people of faith over time. One of those that are mentioned here is Moses.

Moses is mentioned down in verse 24. Moses is said to notice not only that cave of life that we live in, but the lit cave of the match of Jesus Christ as he looked forward to that reward it says. That can be a challenge. You read through this chapter and you read about all these great people of faith and you think, could I be someone like them?

Could I be like an Abel? Could I be an Enoch? Could I be a Moses? Could I be someone like that? Could I be a Sarah? Would that be possible that I could live a life full of faith like them? Well, we've got to walk by that faith. We've got to put that faith into action is where Hebrews 11 goes with it. And that can be a real challenge. I was reminded of the little boy that wanted to go swimming. He was walking down the beach. He wanted to go swimming, but he had a little bit of a problem.

And so he walked up to this lady that was on the beach, just sitting on her towel. And he said, are you a Christian? And the lady said, well, yes, I am. And the little boy said, well, do you read your Bible every day? And the lady said, well, actually, I do read my Bible every day. He said, oh, okay. He said, do you pray a lot?

And the lady said, well, yes, I do. I do pray a lot. And the little boy said, good. Would you hold my dollar while I go swimming? There's some faith. The little boy was exhibiting his faith, but he had to step out in faith. And in fact, Hebrews 11 describes that kind of faith that we're supposed to have. Look at the very beginning of the chapter. Hebrews 11, chapter 1, it says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. He says, for it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. So the things which are seen, it says, were not made of things which are visible. So there we have an interesting insight into this kind of faith we're to have. A little bit farther down in verse 6, it says, but without faith it's impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Now, after you read this particular passage, does it give you an idea of how to define faith? So it can be a little bit of a challenge. How do I put a definition on faith? Someone said, how would you describe what faith is all about? What is it that comes to your mind?

If you had to describe, this is faith. Somebody once told me, faith is believing the dentist when he tells you it's not going to hurt. That's faith. What's interesting, you look at the beginning of chapter 11, it talks about the substance of things hopeful. Because sometimes we think faith is this kind of ethereal thing that it's hard to put your finger on exactly what... Wait a second. It says right here, it's a substance. You look up that word, that's talking about a foundation, that we are building a building that's a spiritual building, and it is on the foundation of faith. That's something that's to be rock solid. In fact, the following word that describes it there, that it's what? What does it... The evidence of things not... So we have a foundation, a rock solid basis for a building, and then we pile evidence on top of it. That's something that's real. That's not something that's ethereal or made up. It's real. That word can mean proof. So when you get down to it, faith is foundational, and we can prove things by it.

So you begin to put those things together. You can't confuse faith with just hoping, or wishing, or maybes, or mites, or could-bees. You see, you read those words there. That's not the kind of walking faith we're supposed to have. You read about these individuals throughout chapter 11, and you find conviction. You find confidence. You find certainty in their belief, not only in God, but also in what God has promised. You find dedication. You find zeal. You find enthusiasm for living God's way. You see, that's what faith is all about. Faith is complete, and it's a total trust in God and all that He has said. So faith is a foundation. It is a proof. So that when God says it, I can believe it and count on it, rely on Him totally, because He's totally committed to us. So our faith is a total confidence and commitment to God and His way.

You see, faith is a very real thing, and that exhibit of faith has to be one of confidence and surety in our life. So that we're reflecting the very nature of what God is all about, because God Himself is faithful. He is love, and that love of God will never sell us short. So that's a remarkable thing. That's the kind of faith we have to strive to have, to have that conviction and confidence and certainty that God will never fail us. And we could have that kind of faith exhibited in our life. So how do we have it? Where do we look for that kind of faith? Because that's the kind of expectation God has for us.

Well, just beyond the faith chapter, if we turn to chapter 12 in Hebrews.

Chapter 12 in Hebrews begins by citing all these amazing examples that went before us, these amazing lives that were lived by faith and trust in God and His way, confidence in what His promises are. And in chapter 12, it begins by saying, therefore we also, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, because there's so many that went before us that lived by faith, that walked by faith, that should give us even more confidence, even more assurance. He says that we should lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let's run with endurance the race that's set before us. So we can live life. We can face life. We can face its challenges. We can enjoy life. And we can do all of those things when we do it by faith. And He says, well, we better be looking at the right thing. If we're going to walk by faith, not by physical sight, we better have our spiritual eyes on. That spiritual perspective. That spiritual vision.

And in order to have that, verse 2 tells us where to look. He says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He said, Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

You see, don't let the circumstances of life overcome you. Look to Christ. Look to His example. He lived this life. He lived it sin free. He began our faith. He finishes our faith. And so as we live our lives by His standard, He's going to help us so we won't lose heart. So we won't give in. We won't throw up the towel. We'll realize that life's full of challenges.

This life is not permanent. And yet, that spiritual perspective, those spiritual eyes can be renewed every single day. 2 Corinthians tells us about that.

And so we're to have the proper perspective, the proper focus, have the right vision.

Sometimes that can be a little bit of a challenge in life.

I had a friend when I was a kid who got a telescope for a gift one time. And he loved that telescope.

And he loved it. I mean, he was able to take that thing apart. He was one of those kind of kids that loved to take everything apart. Now, he was pretty cool because he could put it all back together. He knew all the little names for all those little things, you know, like the eye piece and whatever they call that little extension. And then there was the long thing that I don't know what they're called. But he could tell you all those different names and the pieces that go on and all the extra little things. And of course, then he had the stand that you put it on. And he loved all. And he could take it apart, put it back together, tell you everything about it. And he knew what kind of lenses they were because they were extra special big lenses. You know, he knew everything about that thing. And it was amazing to have him go through that whole thing. And I remember one time kind of giving him a hard time. He says, like, well, do you ever actually look at the stars through that thing? It's like, you know, he had too much fun just kind of taking it all apart and looking at all the pieces and knew all the facts and figures about the whole thing. And, you know, sometimes I think our vision gets a little off like that. That we can, yeah, we got our Bible here. We know God's way. We might even be able to recite some of the scriptures, you know, by rote. We might know those things. We could tell you the 12 tribes and we know where their modern identities are. And we can label all of these kinds of wonderful things. Not that that's a bad thing, but is that why God gave us His Word? You see, a changed life is really what it's about. You know, walking by faith is what it's all about. Changing from that human perspective to a spiritual perspective, putting those words into practice in our lives is really what it's all about. When I was a kid that wasn't too far from a house, there was this big billboard. And one day they changed the billboard. And one of these fanatics, at least at the time I first saw it, I thought it was this religious fanatic put this billboard up. And it didn't say much. There was this big picture of a Bible. And then next to the Bible were these big words. And it said, God said it. I believe it. And back down in the corner, that settles it. And I remember the first time I saw that, that's nuts. The weirdo put that thing up.

Then later on in life, I started to reflect on some of that. I realized, you know, hey, they got it right. They got it right. Now, maybe they should have added one more thing. Not only did God say it, not only should we believe it, and that settles the whole thing, but are we going to live by it? Are we going to live by those words? Because that's really taking it to the next level. That's taking it to where it needs to be. And that's where it changes it from just a simple understanding to a conviction to actually live by God's words.

And so we have to have walking faith. Right? We walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5, 7 says that. We're supposed to put that faith into action. Put it into action. Galatians 5 and verse 7, take a quick look over there. Paul puts it pretty strongly here in Galatians.

Now sometimes people might take this out of context, but it is remarkable just the statement itself that Paul makes in Galatians chapter 5. And we see in verse 4, well actually verse 5 it is. It says, through the Spirit we eagerly await for the hope of righteousness by faith.

He zeros in on the importance of faith itself. I think it's the New International version. It says, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

And that gets to a walking faith. In other words, our faith has to be expressed in our actions. It can't be just a belief. It has to be a conviction that leads us to live a godly life.

And I wonder, how well are we doing that? We asked a little bit earlier, how's our spiritual vision? How's our eyesight? How well can we see that spiritual eye chart? Do we apply that same standard of faith to ourselves as we expect from other things in our life?

All right, what do I mean by that? Well, how often do you expect your car to start when you go to get in it? All the time, right? So if your car only started, let's say, two out of three times that you got in it, would you say, I have a faithful car? Is that a reliable vehicle? All right, let's say you get the newspaper. That paper boy only shows up on Tuesdays and Thursdays when you're supposed to get the paper every single day. Would you say your paper boy is a faithful deliverer?

No, probably not. What would happen if you only showed up at work twice a week? You're supposed to work 40 hours a week. Would your boss say, you are a loyal employee? Way to go! That's just great. Or how about if your refrigerator decided to take a couple days off?

We've had that happen, right? Food doesn't seem to last very well then, does it? You can say, well, it works most of the time. Would we say that? And of course, we all know how loving and forgiving and caring the banks are, so that if you miss a few house payments, they'll say, don't worry about it. That's fine. 10 out of 12 payments is good enough. You can make up for it some time. We can see that, right? We can see those things aren't reliable. They're not trustworthy. They're not loyal. They're not faithful. Now, if we fail to worship God, we fail to study our Bibles. If we fail to pray, do we hold ourselves to the same standard that we hold all of those other things to?

See, that's the challenge. We expect faithfulness and reliability from things and people around us.

And God, He has a right to expect the same things from us. He does.

So in Hebrews 10, verse 22, just as Paul leads into that wonderful chapter about faith, he gives us some insight on the kind of walking faith that God really wants us to have.

Hebrews 10 and verse 22, he says, Let's draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Boy, there he connects those words of confidence and reliability and loyalty and assurity that we can fully trust Him.

Full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed pure with water. We've been baptized. We have the truth of God. Now, verse 23, let's hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

So there we see we can look to God. He is faithful. We, too, can be faithful then. And so he says, He who promised is faithful. Verse 24, let's consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. That's what we're about. There is a doing in the faith that we must have. The New Living puts verse 22 a little bit differently. It says, let's go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting Him. And let's hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, because God can be trusted to keep His promise.

And you see, when we waver, when we fall short, we can always look to God, because there we have that rock. We have that foundation. We have that proof and that surety that God will always do what He has promised. So this week it might be good to look up some of God's promises and realize they are absolute. They are unchangeable. And I could take them for a surety.

We could step back. And as we look at the Word of God, we could examine ourselves and we could say, you know, where in my life am I still walking by sight? How do I deal with people at work?

Am I walking in faith or walking some other way? When it's time to have fun? Am I doing it God's way?

Or am I just walking a physical walk? If I'm confronted with a serious health problem, do I walk by faith or by sight? Or maybe like the ABC students just coming in. A brand new situation. It can be kind of scary. Are we walking by faith or sight? Or sometimes it's just challenged to get out of bed in the morning. Can we get up out of bed in faith?

Or maybe it's just something that's just irritated us and we are mad. Can I still walk by faith? Hanging on to the promises of God. See, even realizing how truly blessed we really are.

You see, because that is a challenge in life. It's a challenge in the church to trust.

To trust. To trust. And trust is an aspect of faith. To trust God at His word.

That He's going to work these things out. In fact, a powerful passage. Just write it down. 1 John 2.6 talks about Jesus Christ and His example. It says, He who abides in Him, in Christ, ought to Himself walk just as He walked. So when we need an example of how to walk this walk of faith, we look to the example of Christ and walk just as He walked. You see, because Christ knew God would never leave Him or forsake Him. Christ knew God would never try Him more than He was able.

Christ believed His promises. He knew His promises. And Christ lived His life doing something about those promises. Based His life on those promises. So we can follow His example, knowing God's not going to leave us or forsake us. Knowing that He's not going to try us more than we're able. Knowing that we can believe the things God says and they will be true. And, boys, as we walk that walk, it's going to become obvious. It's going to become obvious. In fact, Isaiah 35 talks about walking that path. You know, as we walk that path, maybe at first it's not really beaten down very much. But as we walk and we follow the example of Jesus Christ, that path becomes clearer. And Isaiah puts it in an interesting way. He's talking about the millennium, but I think it applies in our life as well. Isaiah 35, verse 8. Because as we strive to walk by faith and not by just the appearance of things, yeah, it might just be a path going various ways that we have to step over a lot of weeds as we go.

But, you know, as we continue to walk that way, Isaiah 35, verse 8 describes it, that path is going to be more sure as we go along, more confident as we go along. And as we continue to live our life that way, and as we're growing in faith, we're growing in grace, we're growing in knowledge, we're growing in the character of Jesus Christ, it's not just going to be a path in the wilderness. Here it says it's going to be a highway. It says a highway shall be there, a road, and it shall be called, not I-275, or not Highway 50, or not any of those things it says it's going to be a highway of holiness. You see, that's a walk. That's a highway of faith, a road of faith will be walking by faith. It says the unclean shall not pass over it, it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, even though we started out as a fool, we're not going to stray. You see, that's the way of holiness. NIV says it will be for those who walk on that way. And we know the way. We're living the way of God, and that's our goal. And so God wants us to have faith and walk by that faith. So let's have the confidence that God wants to give us. Let's have the certainty that God is God. There is none other like Him, so that we can be dedicated. We can have the zeal and the enthusiasm to put that way into practice. And we can have the full confidence and the complete understanding and total trust to live life in a total committed way to God. And as we do that, we will be sure to be walking by faith, not just by sight.