Faith Is The Unseeing Eye

Title: Faith Is The Unseeing Eye

Text: Hebrews 11:1, 6, 11-12

How do we get God’s approval on our life? How do we please the Lord? It is not by being religious; it is not by going to church, it is not by being more good than bad. The Bible says that there is one way to get God’s approval on your life. Hebrews 11:6: “it is impossible to please God without faith.” The only way to get God’s approval is through faith.

What is faith? Another translation of the Bible explains Hebrews 11:1 this way, “faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” About three years ago, I believe the Lord gave me a definition for faith that I have quoted every time I preach on this subject. Faith is the confident assurance that God is in control of the future and that he will keep his promises to me because He has a purpose for me. Faith is building your life on the fact that God is in control and that God will fulfill His promises to me even when I don’t see those promises coming to pass. Faith is believing the promises of God even when there is nothing to show for it.

There is a man named Abraham that stands out as a man of tremendous faith. He is our example when we want to know anything about this subject. Genesis 15:6 says that the Lord declared Abraham righteous because of his faith. This morning I want to talk about the subject of faith. There are enough things to talk about, when it comes to faith, to last us years of preaching. But this morning I want to talk about faith being the unseeing eye. Faith is believing in the promises of God even when I can’t see those promises come to pass.

I want you to turn to your neighbor and tell them one thing that you think is

impossible for you to do. It could be running a marathon, or flying like a bird, just tell them one thing that you think is impossible for you.

If you had stopped Abraham and Sarah thousands of years ago and asked them that one question, you would have received one answer. “It is impossible for us to have children.” It wasn’t for lack of trying. They had tried and tried to have children, in fact, they had given up so much hope that Sarah, Abraham’s wife, gave him her servant so that Abraham could have a child with her at the age of 86. I think that Abraham and Sarah would have said, “There is no way on Earth that we will ever have a child.”

This wouldn’t have been any big deal, but the main problem with not having a son is that God had made Abraham a special promise – a covenant – with Abraham that involved Abraham having a son. This is a serious promise that assured that Abraham would become the father of many nations. His descendants would be countless and they would have a Promised Land. He was given all these promises and this honor and blessing would come through his son. These are all wonderful promises, but the only problem is there is no son. I am sure that Abraham was thinking all this time, “God I appreciate all the promises, but I don’t have a son.” Abraham could not SEE a way that all this could ever come true.

We have to realize that Abraham and Sarah both struggled with this dilemma. They felt that God had put them on hold. Actually their feeling went beyond that, they felt that God had hung up on them. They thought that he had forgotten about them.

There are some people here that are feeling the same way that Abraham and Sarah felt. It seems like God has given up on you. When you need Him, it seems as though He is nowhere to be found. No one understands what you are going through, no one understands your feelings, but God knows all about it. Through everything that we face, we must remember that God is in control of the future and He will keep His promises to me because He has a specific purpose for me. God has it all under control. Abraham and Sarah got to the point that when God told them they would have a child, Sarah laughed. I would have too when you think about it. They were at the age to be buying Depends, not pampers. It was ludicrous to ever believe that Abraham and Sarah would have a baby, but faith is believing even when I can’t see it.