Are You Walking By Faith Or Are You Walking By Sight
2 Cor. 5:1-21
I hope that everyone had a great afternoon. Some of us got a nap, some got to visit with family and friends. And some simply got to sit and watch T.V. and relax. How many of us made plans about what we are going to do tomorrow, next week or this money. We make plans assuming that we are going to be able to carry them out. But we have no control over our lives. We like to think that we do but if we are completely honest we don’t any control what so ever. Those plans we make are contingent on whether or not we are alive to carry them out. But are we walking in faith or are we just assuming that we will be here to carry out those plans.
There is a difference between walking by faith and walking blindly through life. I don’t stumble around in the darkness because I now have the Holy Spirit in my life to light and guide my way. Those that are lost are stumbling in the darkness. There are Christians who are not walking by faith. They are struggling through life in the darkness because they are not walking by faith. They don’t depend on God for their clothes, food, or housing. They are depending on their feeble abilities to succeed. They are not enjoying their salvation. They don’t develop a close and personal relationship with Jesus. They have no history of seeing what Jesus is doing and has done in their lives. Can you tonight look back through your life and see where God has blessed you, how He answered your prayers and how He has shielded you from evil. Has their been times you can’t understand how you lived through some event in your life. That was God being faithful to you.
An old Scotsman operated a little rowboat for transporting passengers. One day one of the passengers noticed that the good old man had carved on one oar the word "Faith," and on the other oar "Works." Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this. The old man being a well-balanced Christian and glad of the opportunity for testimony, said, "I will show you." So saying, he dropped one oar and plied the other called Works, and they just went around in circles. Then he dropped that oar and plied with the one called Faith, and the little boat went around in circles again---this time the other way around, but still in a circle. After this demonstration the old man picked up Faith and Works, and plying both oars together, sped swiftly over the water, explaining to his inquiring passenger, "You see that is the way it is in the Christian life. Dead works without faith are useless, and ’faith without works is dead’ also, getting you nowhere. But faith and works pulling together make for safety, progress, and blessing.
How do we walk by Faith?
I. We are to be confident in our ministry because of our faith in Jesus Christ.
a. We are to be confident not matter what happens to us here on earth because we realize that God is in charge.
i. V.2-4 If our body dies we will be home in heaven.
ii. We must desire to put on Jesus every day.
iii. We are confident even though we can’t see Jesus with our physical eyes. We know that He exist even though we can’t see Him because we can feel Him and see what He has done in our life and the lives of those around us.
iv. We don’t worry about our Physical life here because if we are absent from the body we are with the Lord.
v. We are winners either way.
II. We are called to a reconciling ministry
a. We labor out of love for Jesus because one day we will stand before Jesus to be judged for the things we did for Him.
b. We are tell people about Jesus because of the terror of Hell.
i. Jesus desires that no one goes there
ii. We are not to be restrained we are to be bold and confident in Jesus. We are to tell people about Him.
iii. Christ controls us. He died for all of us and we should no longer live for ourselves but for Jesus.
iv. He died for us and He arose for us.
Faith Involves Resting Securely on God’s Revelation –Entering the Ark. Noah’s faith in become a verb is completed with his entrance into the Ark with his family. It inspires me to learn that Noah was so confident about God’s promise and power that he went into the Ark with his family. It is one thing for Noah to obey God by building the Ark according to God’s strict stipulations, but is quite another for him to walk into the Ark, entrusting his life and that of his loved ones to God’s protection and provision. It is one thing to lend intellectual agreement to the design and capability of the airplane, but it quite another for you to walk into the plane and fly in it. When you do that, your faith in the plane is complete. Similarly, do our faith in God leads us to entrust not only yourselves but also our loved ones into the promise and power of God to save us and to supply our needs.
III. Jesus makes us a new Creature.
a. He says that the old things pass away and new things come.
i. Where once shyness now boldness
ii. Where once prideful now humbleness
iii. Where once hate now love
iv. Where once revenge now mercy
v. Where once boastfulness now mercy
b. That is a new creature one Jesus can use.
c. Just as God used Jesus to reconcile us to Him. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We are to tell everyone else about Jesus.
IV. We are His Ambassadors to this sinful world.
a. We are His lights that shine in the darkness. The light of truth always makes the dark flee.
b. We are the mirror through which Jesus Christ is reflected. Our lives is a witness to Him good or bad.
c. We are to tell people about what Jesus did. How He died on the cross, How He arose again. We are to tell about what Jesus has done for us.
Conclusion
