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Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2009: Expect It

Marc Swearingen

Love With a Risk

Running From Duty

The Pearl of Great Price

A Universal Cross

The Voice of Conscience

God’s First Promise

Iron Mixed With Clay

Christ Our Righteousness

By Faith or By Sight?

Questions and Answers with Marc Swearingen

A Knowledge of Evil

Our First Love

It's good to be here this morning and rejoicing on God's rest day.

And I hope today that as we share some time together, you will be blessed as a result of what we talk about.

And by the way, that could lead me to a brief introduction.

I pastor in the Carolina Conference in the Hickory Church District there, the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Hickory.

I'm married to Sarah, my wife of 8 years.

We have a five-year-old daughter named Abigail, who is quite a handful.

She's very intelligent and she keeps us on our toes.

We also have a three-year-old son named Jonathan who is all boy, and we have an 18-month-old daughter Samantha who is the youngest and is a real blessing to us.

I want to say that I've really been blessed this past week being here, sharing with you all day after day, night after night.

And I believe that the Lord has revisited me and I have recommitted my life in many ways as a result of us sharing together.

And I hope that today As I talk about a subject called by faith or by sight, I hope that you will be blessed to commit and recommit your life as a result of what you hear today.

Father in heaven, We pray this morning that you would bless us with power from on high.

Lord, in this moment of time, as every heart and mind is quieted and hushed, we pray that you would accept our heartfelt surrender So that your spirit will bless us in a powerful way.

I want to look at a few verses this morning by faith or by sight.

Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7 happens to say just that.

Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7, The Apostle Paul says there in the 7th verse of 2 Corinthians 5, For we walk by faith and Not by what?

Now, when you look at the vein of 2 Corinthians 5, there are several different things that the apostle brings in to this passage that we could address.

But it's interesting to note there in verse 7, he talks about walking by faith and not by sight.

Do we, as God's professed people by the grace of God, walk by faith or do we walk by sight?

Now as you look at your life today and you examine your heart, ask yourself right now, do I really walk by faith or is my faith, quote unquote, dependent upon what I see?

Now it's true that God does give us visible evidences at times that we're in the right direction as far as our faith, but what we need to realize, brothers and sisters, is that true faith in its purest essence is not dependent upon what we see.

It's dependent upon trusting in a power that cannot be seen.

That's why Hebrews 11, 27 finds the Apostle Paul talking about Moses saying, Moses endured the things of Egypt, seeing him who is invisible.

And so I ask you the question, do you walk by faith or do you walk by sight?

We must understand that true faith is not dependent upon what we see.

You've heard the phrase seeing is believing.

I would suggest that we should invert that sentence to say believing.

Now this is after the resurrection of Christ.

Jesus has appeared to different believers, and different believers are spreading the word that He has risen, and some didn't believe.

And in verse 24 of John 20, it says, But Thomas, 1 of the 12, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.

But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

And after 8 days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.

Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.' And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." Now notice what Jesus says there in verse 29.

He says, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.

But blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe." You see, Jesus was trying to articulate here that there is a blessing upon those who believe and have faith without necessarily seeing.

As the Scripture reading said in Hebrews 11 verse 6, you know, without faith, it's impossible to please God.

We must believe that God is, even though we can't literally see God necessarily, we still have evidences of God and things that will spur the seed of faith in us that we can believe in the unseen God.

And if we believe and pursue God by faith, God will reward us with spiritual blessings.

Romans chapter 8, 24 and 25 is another good passage that brings out this point.

The Apostle Paul says a very powerful message here in verse 24.

He says, For we are saved by hope, But hope that is seen is not hope.

For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it?

You see, Paul is saying, look, we're saved by hope, but hope that you can see doesn't really breed faith.

But we must hope and trust and have faith in something that we cannot see, because then if we do, we with patience wait for it.

And so, friends, we need to learn to walk by faith and not by sight.

Years ago, after my wife and I were married, I was still on a contract basis in evangelism, meaning I wasn't a full-salary evangelist.

I was down in the Florida conference, I was only paid on a by-meeting basis, and even so, that's about $375 a week.

And I did 4 series a year for 5 weeks, so you do the math.

I mean, I wasn't exactly rolling in money.

And so basically, I depended upon getting more evangelistic meetings to sustain my wife and I.

Well, in this particular year, About 5 different series of meetings fell through.

We had 1 probably in January, February, then we had 1 in spring.

We were scheduled to have 1 meeting in the summer and then 2 in the fall.

Well my summer meeting fell through And as March turned into April and the checkbook balance got lower and lower and lower and I knew that my next meeting wasn't until August or September, I said to the Lord 1 morning, Lord, we're not going to make it.

I mean, I've gotta go 5 months with $200 in my checkbook.

And the Lord kept impressing me, walk by faith and not by sight.

So that morning that I was talking to the Lord about this, I went out on a prayer walk and I just happened to walk out to the mailbox and the whole trip to the mailbox I was wrestling over this and God kept impressing my mind, faith, trust in what you cannot see.

True faith is trusting when there is no human way out.

And so I went to the mailbox and I said, okay, Lord, I'll trust you.

Did you know in that stack of letters, there was a letter from a man down in South Florida who I had done a, you know, He had come to a meeting that I had done a year or 2 before then.

Well, he got a settlement and God impressed him to send a love offering.

And as I opened this envelope, there was a $2, 000 check there.

Now that doesn't sound like, I mean that might sound like a lot of money.

I mean I'm from the old school, I'm from southern Maine, okay, and so $2, 000 is a lot of money for me.

But over 5 months, you know you do the math, what's that, $400 a month to live on?

It was still kind of tight, but you know what?

Back to Menu

Series

Restoration 2009: Expect It

By Faith or By Sight?

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

A Journey of Faith

53m

Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

1h

Prepare to Meet thy God

4- The Plan of Salvation

1h 47m

A Tale of Two Journeys

36m

The Final Call

3- Wretched, Miserable, Victorious

1h

The Close of Probation

The Close of Probation- Part 3

34m

The Stress Factor

52m

Help our Unbelief

54m

Plenary

The Crisis and the Challenge

1h 11m

Hid in My Heart

Hid in My Heart- Part 1

45m

Plenary

Truth Only

51m

IMPACT Scandinavia 2012: Plenary Sessions

Immune to the Gospel

1h 10m

Sound Doctrine