Sermon Illustrations

[332]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM - WE WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT

This poem is about a Christian’s walk with the Lord. To walk by sight means our eyes are on the things of the world and have been removed from God. That is failure. To walk by faith means eyes on the Lord, and how do we do that? Well, it all comes back to guidance from the word of God.

{{Psalm 119:10 “With all my heart I have sought You. DO NOT LET ME WANDER from Your commandments.”}}

{{Psalm 119:143-144 “Trouble and anguish have come upon me YET YOUR COMMANDMENTS ARE MY DELIGHT. Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding that I may live.”}}

Also, faith means trust. Imagine two men before you, one known for impeccable honesty and one who has been fickle in his decisions of the past. Both are heart surgeons. You have to put yourself under the care of one of those men in an operation. Whom will you choose? The answer is obvious.

We must trust the Lord Jesus Christ in the decisions of our life. We know He is faithful who has called us, so why don’t we respond correctly? I think the old sin nature is responsible, for it always pulls away from God and causes us to look down and not up. We must look up to heaven and take the Lord’s hand. There is no other way for correct progress.

{{2 Corinthians 5:6 “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord - FOR WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.”}}

{{1 Corinthians 1:9 “GOD IS FAITHFUL, THROUGH WHOM YOU WERE CALLED into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”}}

When you are steering a boat to some destination, let us say 15 miles away as I used to do, and you have a tiny marker as the location for you, then you don’t look away and go off somewhere doing something else, only to find you have gone off course (I am not speaking of auto pilot). Your eyes are fixed on the goal. That is what it is to walk by faith – THE MARKER IS JESUS CHRIST!

{{Hebrews 12:2 “FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS, THE AUTHOR AND PERFECTER OF FAITH, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”}}

I like this poem and I hope you do also. God bless you all.

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WE WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT

By faith I walk and not by sight.

By faith I live and this is right.

For by my faith, my God can show,

His nearness to me, here below.

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It is our faith that anchors fast;

Faith that in Christ, will always last.

All faith that honours God is true;

Direct faith, that’s not in a queue.

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When the lion begins to roar,

Our faith to God must likewise soar.

Lions, tigers and all the rest,

Are caged by faith, at God’s behest.

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Faith sometimes may fall and stumble.

That’s the time we must be humble;

Return to God with added vim,

And place your faith firmly in Him.

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God is pleased with your sincere trust;

For a Christian, it is a must.

Your faith should grow from day to day,

And should overcome all doubt’s sway.

==============

Your faith will gain the victory,

And trample on sin’s trickery.

In this life it journeys with you,

And to the next, it’s brought you through.

==============

Just the first stanza was done in 1970. The remainder was entered on 8 January 2022.

R E Ferguson Metre= 8 throughout AABB

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