We Walk By Faith - Not By Sight

We Walk By Faith – Not By Sight

Scripture: Second Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 11:1; Mark 7:25-30

The title of my message this morning is “We Walk By Faith – Not By Sight.” Last week I talked to you about casting all of your cares on Jesus. At the end of that message I asked each of you to try it this week – whatever you were dealing with, try giving it to Jesus and seeing what happened? Did you do it? Did you cast your cares on Him? Did you have some time of peace when you were not constantly thinking about the situation? I did, but new cares popped up that I had to remind myself of my confession. As I was talking to someone about my situation they reminded me that when we cast our cares on Jesus sometimes our thinking about the situation is our way of processing on our end what we are dealing with. Even though we do turn things over to Jesus, we will have to process how we continue to walk through those situations as we wait for His direction on how to proceed. The key here is waiting on His direction versus formulating our own plans.

To that end, I told you that my struggle was that when I turned my cares over to Jesus that I wanted to “see” immediate actions, which often did not happen. If you recall from my fishing example, I wanted to see the bob start moving as soon as it touched the water. Because I did not see immediate actions, I oftentimes would try and deal with the problem myself. I told you that, in doing so, I was walking by sight and not by faith. So, this morning, I want to remind you of what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. It is a truth that God demands of us that I had to remind myself of this week when new cares arose in my life. I am dealing with something currently where the bob is totally still on the water. It’s not moving at all, it’s totally still. But you know what, that’s what I “can” see, which is not reflective of what God is doing. I must believe that God is working and to do so I must walk by faith and not by sight. So, although in my current situation the bob seems to be still, I know God is working – He is moving, just like the lyrics in the song “Way Maker” which says: “Even when I don’t see it, you’re working. Even when I don’t feel it, you’re working. You never stop, You never stop working!” New Light, my God is working in my current situation!

So what does it mean to walk by sight versus walking by faith? I know both Cynthia and I have talked about this in sermons, and we have had Bible study lessons on this topic so, hopefully this will just be a refresher for you as you truly begin to cast your cares onto Jesus and leave them there. Before I get into the heart of this, I want to retell a story that I have told you before that demonstrate this concept of walking by faith versus sight pretty clearly. It goes like this: “There was a man who tied a tight rope across Niagara Falls. He then walked up to a group of people at the Falls and asked them the following question: “Do you believe I can walk across the falls on this tight rope?” The people thought he was crazy and told him “No, they did not believe he could.” The man then climbed on the rope, walked across and then turned around and walked back. When he returned, he asked the people, “Do you believe that I can walk across pushing this wheelbarrow?” Having seen him walk across alone, they did not believe he could do it with a wheelbarrow. They answered “No!” The man once again climbed upon the tight rope and walked across pushing the wheelbarrow.” I want to pause for a moment here. Initially the people did not believe the man could walk across the Falls on a tightrope. When he did it, now they believed he could do it. Why? Because they had seen him do it! This is walking by sight. Because you see something you believe it. When he asked them about walking across pushing a wheelbarrow, again, no one had faith in him to be able to do it. They did not believe he could. So, once again he walks across pushing the wheelbarrow and then returns to them. Now it gets interesting.

“When he returned he asked the people this question: “Do you believe I can walk across this tight rope, pushing this wheelbarrow with a person in it?” Having seen him do it twice, they all exclaimed excitedly “Yes!” as they believed he really could do it. The man then asked this question: “Which of you would like to volunteer to be in the wheelbarrow?” No one answered.” Here is where the rubber met the road. Everyone believed that the man could push the wheelbarrow across the fall carrying a person because they had first seen him walk across the fall and then do it again pushing a wheelbarrow. In both situations initially they did not believe him and had been proven wrong. Now they were believers – or so they thought they were. When he asked them if they believed he could push a person across in the wheelbarrow, everyone said they believed he could. However, not one single person wanted to be the person in the wheelbarrow. Everyone was walking by sight and, at the moment, they could have walked by faith and jumped into the wheelbarrow. No one wanted to exercise that faith! There are times when Christians “believe” that God can do anything, but fail because we are not always willing to get into the wheelbarrow.