Walk by Faith, Not by Sight
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I want you to think about one of the greatest milestones of your life. It is one of the greatest milestones of your life, and you don’t even remember when it happened. One of the greatest accomplishments you’ve ever achieved is the day that you learned to walk.
I don’t remember when I learned to walk, but I remember when my two children learned. First they started sitting up by themselves, then they started scooting around the floor. It wasn’t long after that they began crawling and pulling themselves up on everything they could. But then one day, those little wobbly legs got brave, and they let go of the couch and they started walking right over to where we were cheering them on.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Church, just like a little baby is cheered on when they are learning to walk, I am cheering you on as you learn to walk. There is no greater joy that could come to the life of a pastor than when the people he shepherds learn to walk according to God’s truth.
When the Bible talks about walking, it is using it as an illustration of your life and your conduct. It uses the word “walk” to define a relationship.
Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
How we walk and who we walk with shows us who we agree with. The Bible says in the very first Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.” That is, we don’t want to “walk in sin.”
Instead, the Bible tells us to “walk in the Spirit.” and to “Walk in good works” and to “walk worthy of our calling.” and all of this means that we are “walk in truth”.
Here in Genesis 15, we find the man named Abraham. He has just had a great military victory, he had an even greater spiritual victory. But now, as we get into chapter 15, he is afraid, and he is defeated, and he has lost his way.
Do you know what has happened to Abraham?
When he won the victory, he was walking by faith. Now, he is walking by sight.
I. When You Walk By Sight
I. When You Walk By Sight
Walking by sight means to relate to our circumstances based on what we can see and not based on what God says is true.
There are seasons of life that seem so clear, but then something happens to us when the storms come, and the rains fall, and that is that our vision gets limited. And when we cannot see where we are going, we start to live in desperation. All of a sudden, when we cannot see, and we start to see what happens when we live our life based on what we can see instead of trusting in what God says is true.
A. You Walk in Distress
A. You Walk in Distress
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
We don’t hear from Abraham at the opening of this chapter, but we do know that he is afraid. He is in a place of deep distress that is caused by his inability to see.
When someone is distressed, it means that they are in a place of deep physical, mental, or emotional suffering, pain, or worry. What is Abraham worried about? He says it in v. 2, but he is worried that everything that he has lived for is going to waste, because he hasn’t had a son. We have to remember that Abraham left everything he had and his entire family to come to a strange land. Now, because life isn’t going the way that he thinks it ought to go, he is in a place of deep distress.
Can I tell you Abraham’s problem?
His problem is that he is basing his entire life on one moment in time when he cannot see his future. What are some of the things that cause us distress in our life? (1) Job loss of financial crisis. (2) Death of a loved one. (3) Facing a terminal illness. (4) Marriage struggles or wayward children. All of these things and more can cause distress in our lives. These types of things make it to where we cannot see tomorrow, and all of a sudden we start living for today.
I want to tell you something else Abraham is experiencing.
He has just come from a great spiritual victory, and a great military victory, but he is concerned that those men he defeated in war are going to come back and gain a victory over him. That’s why God tells him in v.1 that He is Abraham’s shield. He is telling Abraham that He is going to protect him.
There are battles that we face in this life that we have won with the Lord’s help, and we live in a constant fear that they are going to come back again. (1) personal failure. The Lord has helped you to overcome but you’re afraid you’re going to fail again. (2) Maybe you’ve mended a relationship through forgiveness and healing and now you’re worried that person is going to violate your forgiveness and bring up those old wounds.
This is what it’s like to walk by sight. This is what it’s like to place all of your trust and your hope in another person or a circumstance. What you need to do instead is trust the Lord. Don’t trust that person won’t hurt you again, don’t trust that you won’t ever fail again. Trust in God, that He guard you through every trial.
Here is a final thing that Abraham is distressed about
He is distressed about the future of things that are perishing. Perishing means things that are going to be destroyed. In v. 1 God says, “I am your exceedingly great reward.”
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
In v. 2 he says to God, “the heir of my house is not my son like you promised, it is my servant, Eliezar.” Abraham wasn’t looking to God anymore for his reward. He began to look around at all of his earthly possessions and he could only see what he was going to lose.
Following the Lord is not about what we can get and what we can have. There is nothing wrong with getting and there is nothing wrong with having, but when what we get and what we have becomes the source of our joy, we are going to end up in deep distress. The reason for that is because the earth is perishing, and everything with it.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
“Hating your life” doesn’t mean to hate yourself. What it means is exactly what I have been explaining to you, to live with God as your reward and not the material things of life.
When you live with God and godliness as your reward, then your life won’t be reduced what you can see, but your life will be elevated to what you know is true.
B. You Walk in Desperation
B. You Walk in Desperation
Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
When we get desperate, we get stupid. I don’t say that lightly, and I want to show you just how stupid Abraham was when he got desperate.
Genesis 16:1-4
In direct violation of God’s commands, Abraham has a son whose name is Ishmael. The Bible says that Ishmael was going to be a “wild man” and a “man of war.” He would father the nations we know as the Arab nations today, the same people that have been at war with Israel for all of its existence.
Not to be political, but I want to relate the decisions you’ve made in desperation to the battles that you face everyday. What I want you to do is to quit walking by sight, and to get to a place where you are walking by faith.
When do we become desperate?
We become desperate when we cannot see a way out. There are so many of you, and there are so many people living as though they are stuck. But I want to remind you today that you are not stuck, you are not a victim, and you don’t have to make decisions based in desperation.
What are the ways we feel stuck?
(1) It could be financial, (2) It could be in your career, (3) It could be in an unhealthy marriage or family relationship, (4) It could be with depression, anxiety, or health, but God says that He is a shield, and that He is an exceedingly great reward.
The Bible is full of instructions on how to escape desperation and to live in victory, but there is not another man who was is more desperate times than King David. Some of you are disagreeing right now and you’re thinking it is likely Job. Job had a year long trial, but King David lived a life of trial. Not only did he live a life of trial, but David did something very stupid. (1) He cheated on his wife (adultery), (2) He lied to his God, his friends, his kingdom, (3) he murdered his friend in cold blood. Because of all these sins, and because in desperation he tried to cover up his life, the hand of God was against him, and war was made all around him…but at the end of his life he wrote this song about His God.
Then David spoke to the Lord the words of this song, on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
And he said: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.
“When the waves of death surrounded me, The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry entered His ears.
Friend, the point is that walking by what we can see leaves us feeling distressed and desperate, but getting back into God’s Word and living life His way frees us from a life of uncertainty.
II. When You Walk by Faith
II. When You Walk by Faith
Walking by faith is not just hoping everything works out. Walking by faith means trusting in what God has said by His Word. Faith means trust. So, we don’t trust in our faith. We don’t trust in our sight, we don’t trust in our strength, we trust in God. So, we must walk by faith, but we must walk by faith in God’s Word.
What happens when we walk by faith
A. You Walk in Safety
A. You Walk in Safety
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
You need to get it into your heart and in your mind that doing things God’s way is the best way. There is not a single thing in His word that is meant to make your life harder, it is all there to free you from the burdens of life.
Living life for the Lord Jesus frees us from the burdens of life because it enlightens our vision from what we can see to what we cannot see. That may be confusing, but listen.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Stephen the Martyr
There is a man named Stephen in the Bible. He was a martyr. This means that he died because he was preaching the name of the Lord Jesus.
How was this man able to preach for the Lord despite the threat of death?
The book of Acts 7:56 tells us that he was able to see the the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Stephen had such a deep trust in the Word of God, that even in the face of death, he knew that he had safety. How? Because Stephen knew that even in the pain of death, as those other men picked up large stones to throw at him until he died, that he was going to be safe in the arms of His Father.
Church, walking by faith in the Word of the Lord will bring you to a place of safety that cannot be explained by any man. Philippians 4:7 says that when we experience trial, and when we experience heart ache, and when we cannot see where we are going that we need to pray. Because when we pray, the Bible says “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
But how should we pray?
We ought to learn to pray His word. We ought to learn to pray exactly what we read here in v. 1 of Genesis 15. In times of waiting and in times of need, we need to get ahold of God’s word, and we need to pray, and we should say, “Father, I am afraid. But I know that you are my shield, and I know that you are my exceedingly great reward.”
When we learn to grab onto the Word of the Lord, we have learned to walk in safety.
B. You Walk in Confidence
B. You Walk in Confidence
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”
Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
Do you ever take a moment just to stop, and breathe, and to look around at everything that God has made? Abraham was in distress and he was desperate, and he couldn’t see beyond his own problems. So the Lord took him outside and said, “Son, look up…” God said, “Do you see the stars in the heavens? If I can create all of those stars, don’t you think I can keep my promise to you?”
Church, there is a God in heaven Who died upon a cross so that you could be saved. If that doesn’t give you confidence in the great love of God, then I don’t know what will.
C. You Walk in Hope
C. You Walk in Hope
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Walking by faith and not by sight is this, that we believe in the Lord, and we trust Him in the good times and in the bad.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Are you walking by faith today?
