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Transcript

Well, good afternoon, everyone. It’s wonderful to be with you here on the Sabbath day everyone, and we will just jump right into the message.

And I would like to begin just by asking or going through a phrase, a phrase that you probably heard before. Might not have thought about it recently, but I’m going to mention that, everyone, you do not know what you had until you lose it. Think about that for a moment. Most people go through life with certain things that we have but when we lose it, it’s only then that we realize what the significance of that item that we had was. The value that it had to us, the importance that it had in our lives.

It’s only when you lose that item, maybe it can be let’s say it is a wristwatch, a wristwatch that you had. Now, maybe all of us we have a wristwatch that can tell time but maybe this was your favorite one that your grandfather gave you so when you lose it you begin to think about the memories that you had with your grandfather. Now, I can tell a little bit on me. When I was about thirteen, fourteen years old, I can remember well that I had a bit of bragging rights to the fact that I never had stitches.

I never fell down and required to go to the hospital to receive stitches but one day I was going to school riding my bike with my bookcase in the middle of the frame of the bicycle and I lost my balance. The bookcase went in between the wheels and there I met the tarmac so to speak and I required stitches. Now, that was the first time.

The next day, I rode with the bandages on a friend’s bicycle and the same thing happened. I scraped my left big toe on the tarmac and there I required stitches. The bragging rights that I had I lost it and I only could think about it and tell you the story today as I recall it, but I lost my bragging rights. So it can be anything that you lost but then what about a car or maybe a job that you had or a friendship, a relationship, or even a person. Something that’s more serious, a relationship or a person that you had a relationship with a person, but you lost it, and you only begin to think about it a little bit more deeper on the significance and the value as you lost that relationship.

Now, I could give you a funny example or maybe a wristwatch is something small that you lose. Relationship is something more important, but recently maybe even a more important example that I can give you everyone is recently we had the opportunity to visit the nine/eleven Memorial. Now in a couple of days here in the US, we will remember that day, nine/eleven, and we had an opportunity to go through the memorial.

That is something where a nation was struck through hatred, that people attacked this nation, but this whole nation lost, lives were lost, freedoms were lost, and at one point hope as well. It’s not just individuals that can lose something but also a nation as a whole that had to go through something, a very deep process, and even twenty-three later when you go through that memorial, you realize the impact that it had, the lives that were lost, the freedoms of this country.

If you want to travel today by plane, just the way how things change after nine/eleven make you think about the side effects or the snowball effect after such an incident. You can recall that lives twenty-three years later are different, relationships are different. Brethren, Christ had the lesson in mind for us about something we have as Christians, but we can lose it as well.

Let’s go to Luke chapter eighteen. Let’s think about what Christ said in Luke chapter eighteen. If you turn there, there’s something that you and I have as well that all of us as baptized members in God’s Church and those that God is working with having God’s Spirit with you working with you, you have a certain amount- -of that and needed as well that will change after baptism, but Brethren, let’s go to Luke chapter eighteen and think about what Christ is going to say here. We are going to read through a couple of verses and all our minds with a verse a little bit later on. It says here in verse one, “Christ, and he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

There’s already an instruction for us, but he’s going into a parable, “Saying, here was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither he regarded man, and there was a widow in that city, and she came onto him saying, “Avenge me of my adversary.” Something that was serious, a matter that was serious that she brought to the judge and asked him for his help, “…and he would not for a while.”

She came to him over and over and he would not respond. He would not avenge her of her adversary as she requested from him because she’s a widow. She asked for help. “He said to himself afterward, ‘Though, I fear not God or regard man, yet because the widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” Maybe this widow, she’s not going to stop coming to me. She’s going to wear me out. I’m just going to give her what she wants.

“The Lord said, hear what the unjust judge says, and shall not God avenge.” He begins to take the focus away from this parable and begin to speak to Christians just like I started with the introduction, “Brethren, and we begin to focus this a little bit more on ourselves.” He said, “Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry a day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless...”

Here is the focus on this part of this passage. “Nevertheless...” It’s almost as Christ is coming now from the site everyone. “When the son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?” He’s speaking about parable, he’s speaking about not getting weary, and then suddenly he’s going and taking us forward into the future when Christ himself is coming back. He’s asking this very question, that if he comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Now, that makes us to stop for a moment, to think for a moment, and ponder. You and I have been given faith, brethren, and certainly, we are the people of faith. When Christ is coming back, he’s going to find faith within us. We are the people that going to be faithful. We are those that are building faith. We are growing in faith, but here Christ specifically goes to a question and ask, “When he comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Now, interestingly, there’s more to the verse. If you look at the word they find, it actually means to perceive or to see. Christ is going almost... He knows he’s going to find faith within us, brethren, and we know that we have faith and we can lose faith. That’s something that he wants us to be focused on, that this is something that you can lose, but certainly, we know, brethren, there will be those that will be faithful, but this Christ is taking us a little bit, an extra step, so to speak, when he says he’s not just looking to find faith, he wants to see faith.

There’s a different level to seeing faith, so to speak, but we cannot see faith with the eyes, so how does Christ want to see faith in us, brethren? That’s a question that begins to go through our mind. When you think about that passage, how do you see something that is unseen, invisible, like faith? How do you describe it? Christ want to see it in us. He will certainly find it.

He wants to see it in you and me, but how do you see something that’s invisible. Brethren, for us as Christians to avoid losing faith, part of our training, our daily training as Christians, is to learn to see the unseen, to see the invincible, to recognize the spiritual realities, principles, and truths that are not visible with the physical eyes. So, learning for us, everyone learning to see the invisible is a lesson in faith, and that is what we will be focusing on today. Learning to see the invisible as Christians. Christ want to see faith. And we will go through just three simple steps, everyone, to accomplish our goal. We will go through three simple steps to learn to see the invisible.

Now, just going on a side note, everyone, learning to see the invisible should not confuse us with the lure of the spiritual world. Everyone there’s... when you open newspapers and websites, people talk about fortune telling or astrology. Those things are the spiritual world. Those are things that we should stay away from. This is not what we are talking about when we are thinking about learning to see the invisible, and that’s a lesson in faith.

So just stay away from those things, brethren, and again, this message has nothing to do with the spiritual world. But let’s go and look at that first simple step, and that is let’s go to learn to see the invisible. Let’s go to Hebrews eleven. That’s a lesson in faith. We’re going to learn more about faith that Christ wants to find in us and see in us. Let’s go to Hebrews eleven. How do you describe something that is invisible? If you are losing your watch, you’re losing your car.

Let’s say your car got stolen, you are able to say, my car was red. You go to the police, and you say, my car is red. It’s that brand, it is that year model. You can give a description of something that’s physical, but how do you describe something that is spiritual? How do you describe something like faith? If Christ wants to see it in us, and we want to see it in ourselves, we need to be able to define it. We need to describe it, and God gives us a helpful description, something that we can learn from. And here we find a definition of faith in Hebrews eleven. So let’s think about that.

Another example before we read this may be a favorite apple that you have. I think my favorite, I... my go-to fruit is usually an apple. I try to eat an apple each day. Maybe you like a Red Delicious or a Granny Smith. If you describe that apple, you can describe the taste. You can describe the smell. The feeling in your mouth that that apple gives, that’s something that you can give a definition to. You can define it.

But again, let’s look at a definition of faith. Faith that is unseen. Verse one, “Now, faith is the substance of things hopeful, the evidence of things not seen.” There, everyone, I want to focus just our attention to the word substance. When you think about substance, you maybe think about something like alcohol. That’s a substance. People misuse a substance like alcohol or any illegal drugs.

You see that that’s a problem now in society where people, sadly young people, again, when we walk the streets of New York, you could see, you could smell people smoking marijuana. Maybe in that state, I’m not sure that it’s not illegal anymore, but in other states, that’s an illegal substance. You could smell it, you could immediately know, you couldn’t see or know in the crowd who is doing that, but you could smell it. So that’s something physical that you can attach to that substance. It’s real. That substance is real. Alcohol is real. Any legal drug, LSD, or any other illegal substance, that’s a substance.

What are other examples of substances? Let’s see, like something like gold. You are married, you have a ring on. We talked about the wristwatch that’s maybe made out of gold or have the color of gold, at least, that’s a pure element that is of a yellow metallic color. That’s a substance. The wood that this lectern is made out of, that’s the substance that trees are made of. Trees are made out of wood. That’s a substance. God’s telling us here that faith, brethren, is a substance. Just as any other substance, faith is a substance that has to do... it pertains to, and it’s involved with the things that are unseen as we read here in the end of the verse, the evidence. It’s not just something that’s difficult to describe.

God wants us to know what faith is, because He wants to see it in us. He wants us to learn to see the invisible. To do that, you must be able to describe what you are looking at. We are looking at the substance of faith. It’s just as real as the wood on this lectern, or anything else that’s physical, any substance. We can make the case brethren that it might be even more real than the things that I just described. Let’s read John verse two and read verse three.

It says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed. Everything that we can see were framed by the word of God.” So that things which are seen, the visible things that I described, any substance or maybe the friend or the member next to you in the congregation. A family member, the chair that you are sitting on. The things that were made, were made. It says are things which do not appear, the invisible things. The things that are visible were made out of things that are invisible, and faith pertains, it involves the invisible things. The things that we cannot see.

Brethren we could describe faith. One way to describe it in these two verses its simply, faith is made of unseen stuff, but it’s just as real as any other substance. This verse is telling us it is a substance, it’s real, and it must be real in our lives as well. To make it real we first have to look and make it very simple for us brethren to define it. Another way to define faith as we continue on here, brethren, is, if you look again at the word substance there and you look at the meaning, in my margin it says it’s the stay or the ground or the foundation.

When you think about anything that’s foundational, a foundation of your house, it’s usually the unseen part that you don’t see. You see the walls, you see the windows. You see the curtains. You see the furniture in the house, but the foundation of anything of a building is usually the part that’s invisible. When you say something is a foundation, it relates to the basis or the groundwork, which something is built on. That is the foundation. God is telling us, brethren, faith is a foundation that our relationship with God is built on.

Faith affects everything in our lives. It’s a basis, it’s the groundwork of our relationship with God. Let’s go and look at a couple of verses just pertaining to that, and you are already in Hebrews eleven. You can just look at verse six. It says, “But without faith it is impossible to please God. For He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He’s the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” God wants to see faith. He wants us to have it, and with it we can please him. Without it, we risk of not pleasing him, so it’s important.

Anything that you can think about that verse doesn’t equate, or it doesn’t tell us all the things that you and I should do to please God. It just says faith is required to please God. Let’s continue to think along the lines of it is a foundation. We already said it’s an unseen bolt or made of unseen stuff. Let’s look at Hebrews six and picking up in verse one. It’s foundational for our relationship. Anything that we do brethren to please God requires faith. You are in Hebrews six, and I’ll pick up here in verse one. It says, “Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection.”

So we started at a certain point, we could say that is our foundation, we will see that now and go on to perfection. We laid the foundation, now you begin to bolt the walls but what is God saying about the foundation? “Go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works.” That is something that you and I have done and continue to do. But here it says, “and our faith towards God.”

Faith, brethren, is that unseen substance that is foundational to our relationship. Anything that you and I as a Christian do that it is involved in, it’s foundational. Everything in a Christian’s life is based on faith but how do you see that, brethren? We’ve defined faith in a way for this message today as an unseen substance that’s foundational. It’s part of a foundation. That’s what God wants you and me to understand.

After we have defined something, if we are thinking about those three steps that we want to follow, the first one is defining something. If you define an apple, define a car, anything that you define, that you see with your eyes, we started to put a little bit of substance or understanding to seeing faith. So, when you see something, you want to see it in your life. Christ wants to see it in our lives when He comes.

What is the second step? Very simple, everyone. That is simply to go and look for what you want to see. Again, how do you go and look for faith now? We’ve defined it. We’ve given it a little bit of boundaries, definition, that you can see with your eyes, knowing that it’s unseen. So how do you go and make it visible? Let’s go to Second Timothy. Second Timothy chapter two and verse twenty-two.

We must go and look for faith, brethren. Where do we go and look for it? Second Timothy two, and you are now in verse twenty-two. Here it says, “Flee also youthful lusts; but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” There it says to follow. Follow means to pursue. God wants us to pursue righteousness, but one of the things He says there is to pursue, go and look for faith. So, we ask that question, where do you go and look for it?

We want to begin... We gave a definition, but we want to begin to make it actionable, the things that we do. And just a fact, what we are going to look and spend a little bit of time in this message brethren to what we are looking for, realize that that’s an action. It’s not a passive thing that you’re doing when you’re looking for. I remember as a young boy, I collected mobile cars or model cars. Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, I had a whole collection of them.

I can see pictures. My mom showed me pictures of, I would have three, four cars in hand. I would go and sleep with the cars. So much, I like these little model cars, but if I lost one, I would have gone and looked for it, because it was important to me. It’s an action that I took as a young boy, where is that such and such little car? Brethren, you can think about something that you lost, that’s important to you, that you begin to look for. Where do we look for faith?

Let’s go to Second Peter. Look at the first. We’re going to look at two specific sub-points we could say in looking for. Where do you go and look for it? In Second Peter one, and we will pick up in verse four. Just keep these things as simple as possible, brethren, to learn to see the invisible. Where do you go and look for it? In verse four, it says... We can pick up in verse three, just giving us some context. “According as His divine power, God has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue.”

God has also given us faith. All things. One of those things He gives us is faith, but look here, brethren, in verse four it says, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.” Exceeding great and precious promises. God gave us something to go into His word to look for faith because we can trust Him. We can trust in His promises. He gave us those exceeding and many promises in His word because He wants us to go and look for it. If we want to build our relationship, if we want to trust Him in everything that we do, that foundation that we talked about, that is one of the places that we can look.

One of the things that we can have in our mind is to go and look for God’s promises and they are everywhere. Brethren, our goal is not with this message to go into particular promises of God but to just think about, to know one of the places to simply go and do it. Actively look for is to look at God’s promises. I talked about nine/eleven, what happened during nine/eleven.

Think about the promise that God made to Abraham. Many, many years ago, He came to Abraham and He said, “If you obey me, I will make you a great nation.” One great nation. And He also said, “Out of you will come many nations.” He was speaking about Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim that would become ultimately the empire of the British people, the British empire. Manasseh, that would become this great nation.

That’s a promise that God could fulfill. And over the centuries, people envious and jealous of God’s promises started to hate this country, we could say. That’s one of the reasons why they would’ve attacked the freedoms of this nation. A promise that God made. If He didn’t fulfill that promise, nobody would’ve been able to do what they’ve done on nine/eleven. Just an example of something, long time ago where God fulfilled a promise to one man. Brethren, and those promises are types for us that you and I can go and look to God’s promises and hold onto them, trusting Him, waiting on Him, expecting that He will fulfill those promises.

My brethren, when we look at God’s promises and you find them in God’s word, what do you and I think about? Let’s go back to Hebrews eleven verse thirteen. As you turn there everyone, you see it in God’s word. You can read a promise, and you say, “I am claiming this promise. God will do this and this for me.” Are you concerned, brethren, if that promise will be fulfilled in due time? Let’s see what those that went before us, what was their concern? Were they worried about if God would fulfill it in their lives?

Hebrews eleven verse thirteen, it says, “All of these, these all died in faith.” God could see faith in their lives, “Not having received the promises but having seen them afar off.” They could continually see God’s promises even if He did not fulfill them. Faith is not concerned about if God fulfilled His promises or not. We continue to see them. We continue to hope that He will fulfill His promises and those that went before us, brethren, even if they could only see the far off in the future, they held onto God’s promises because they knew that He would fulfill them even if it wasn’t in their life.

They were not concerned about seeing God’s promise fulfilled in their lives. Many of those promises I can assure you were fulfilled but we know that many were not fulfilled but they continued on looking to see the invisible. Even if the promises were not visible in their lives, they continued to hold on to learn. They had to learn that lesson of seeing the invisible, just as you and I have to.

So that’s a lesson brethren in faith that we all have to learn. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the Christians from the Old Testament, that cloud of witnesses, or those that went before us in any age of the New Testament, or even you and me brethren in God’s church today, we continue to hold on if God’s promises are fulfilled or not, we continue to see them. We keep them in our eyes.

What is another way when we go and look for faith to find it, where do we go? And this is where I want to spend a little bit more time this afternoon. Areas in your life, brethren. God made it simple. You can go to his word and look at promises, but there are areas in your life that affect your life daily, where you and I can look and make it practical. Again, that’s an active process that you and I look for to see faith in our lives.

Where is faith connected? What in your life is connected to faith? If it’s involved in most everything we do as Christians, if it’s the foundation of our relationship with God, how do you see it? We looked at these promises, but how do you see it? An example that I want to use is a physical example that can make that connection for us, and that is electricity. We know electricity exists, but where do you go and look for it? It’s a physical thing that you cannot see with your eyes.

You don’t go and look for it in the wires that... Let’s say an oven, you don’t go and look for the electricity in the microwave oven that you have. You know it’s running through the wire there, but where do you go and look for it? You go and look for the connections where electricity the wire makes with an appliance. Once you switch on the light, you know you look at the light, and you see the light start to burn, you know the electricity is there. You look at the connection.

I can recall as a family when our family were our children a little bit younger, we went often to a picnic. And one time, I can recall that I just started to make the barbecue and add the meat on the barbecue, and I heard a very strange noise. And when I looked up at a couple of yards away from where we had our barbecue, there was an electric pole with a connection, an electrical box, and it made at least a two-and-a-half to three-foot electrical arc.

There was a short circuit in the power grid of that town that we lived in, and you could see the electricity. It made a short circuit where two wires connected. Something went wrong, but you could visibly see the electricity. So where do you go and look in the areas in your life? You go and I go and look for faith brethren, where it’s connected, where it’s needed, where it’s affected.

Let’s look at one of those areas that faith is connected in our lives. Let’s go to Psalm fifty-one. Brethren, when Christ talked about, as you turn to Psalm fifty-one. It’s not so much that we want to talk about that we are losing faith. We know that we can also build faith. Sometimes we are lacking faith. This message is not about building or looking necessarily at the lacking of faith. We know that there’s going to be times in our lives where we lack faith. In some of these areas, you will look into your life, and you might recognize, “Wait a minute, I might lack faith.”

In other areas, you might see and see, “Wow, I’m growing in this area. I can see faith in this area. Maybe a while back, this area was not as strong, maybe as I thought it has been.” So, we can either lack or we can be strong in these areas. Let both of them encourage you, brethren, to see, but we want to go and look and help you to see once you want to see faith, where do you look for it?

Psalm fifty-one and verse two. Let’s read verse two. This is the psalm of David when he committed adultery- -and he wrote this psalm of repentance coming to God and asking him for forgiveness. He says, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledged my transgressions.” He could see something was wrong in his life. He went to that area that connected to his life, and he could see there’s something missing in this particular area that David was lacking. “And my sin is ever before me, against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be justified when you speak and be clear when you judge.”

So God needed to be clear. David had to see what God was talking about. God had to show him through a prophet where his mistakes were but he went to specific area in his life. Here in verse five, it says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin that my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.” In the inside man where it’s invisible that you cannot typically see. We struggle, brethren, to see ourselves. It’s through God’s help. It’s through faith connected with this area that we will call today overcoming sin and guilt.

That’s one area where you can go, brethren, and look to see an area that’s affected by faith in the inward parts. God is looking in the inward parts and that’s typically invisible. God through faith make it possible for you and me to see our inward parts, that inward man that we continue to strive, to overcome on a daily basis. This is not just on a weekly basis or once a month. Faith should be on our mind and in this area regularly, and this, particularly this area where David was lacking, it made him aware of that, and it was imminent in his life to make a change. Let’s go to Romans five. This area in our life of overcoming brethren, overcoming sin and guilt.

That’s something that you and I are aware of regularly and we need to put our eyes on this particular area in our life to see how we are doing. As I mentioned again not necessarily specifically looking for lacking or improvement, but be able to see this area. If you go to that area in your life, you will be able to connect with seeing faith in your life, either lacking or an area where you are growing and overcoming. Romans five verse one. It says, “Therefore being justified by faith.” You and I are being cleansed as David asked for being cleansed, being forgiven, being justified by God.

Brethren, that’s a privilege to know that the inward parts of man those in the world are not able to have that right now. You and I have been given an opportunity to be justified by God through faith. Where we are cleansed and forgiven when we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith. That justification gave us access to go to God on a daily basis, but this is a specific area where we can look into overcoming sin and guilt.

Let’s go to first John five verse four. I’m just showing you areas, brethren. We go through a couple of areas where you can go into and know that when you look at this area, you will find faith either lacking or in abundance, and both of them should inspire you to do more. First John five verse four. It says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world.” Christ overcame this world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world. Even our faith, the victory over this world brethren is achieved through our faith.

It’s not through human strength or human wisdom, but it’s through trusting and believing God that he will help us to overcome. That’s that inward things, those are the invisible things, that is the lesson that we begin to learn about faith that we should see the invisible. Most people cannot see themselves for who they are, that they need to overcome, even to overcome guilt as well. But God has made it possible for us to do that through looking in this area in our lives. But then when you stand firm, when things around you seem to fall apart, then you know it is the unseen substance of faith working inside of you.

If you look at this area of overcoming, you might feel, I’m not growing in this particular area, I need to continue to overcome. You might feel like your foundation might be shaken, but if you stand firm, trusting God, knowing that He will help you to overcome whatever it is, then you know that foundation, that foundational substance is working in you. Remember the list of things that you and I went through during the spring Holy Days that God showed us, the things that you and I need to overcome. Pull that list out again and think about it. Where am I? How am I doing right now as we go into the fall Holy Days to learn to fear God and to rejoice?

Those are things that you and I can go and see the invisible. Learn that lesson in faith. What is another area in your life that we can show when you meet this area or see this area that faith is involved, that invisible substance? Let’s go to James. James chapter five, and we will pick up in verse thirteen. James chapter five, everyone, and in verse thirteen it says, “Is any among you afflicted?” That’s a question that I can ask you, brethren. Are you going through affliction?

I’m sure that many of us are pre-feast trials that might affect you, hoping, trusting God’s promises that things will work out, just general affliction in your life. “Let him pray. Is any merry?” You look in your life and you say things are going well. James said, “Is anyone merry? Let him sing Psalms.” But here in verse fourteen, it says, “Is any sick among you?” And we might say, we are young and old. We go through certain times in your life where you have maybe a minor illness or some of us have more serious illnesses, things that we need to trust God with.

And here he asks, “Anyone sick among you? And we would say, certainly. “Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith, the prayer of faith,” faith, brethren, is needed when we come before God for healing. There’s a process that you can follow, contacting your minister, asking for personal anointing, or sending me an anointed cloth.

But it says here, “...and the prayer of faith, your faith and also the minister that’s praying for you, his faith as well shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if we have committed sin, they shall be forgiven.” That’s a lesson, brethren, in faith. To have the faith that when we get sick, we all get sick and sometimes need anointing, not everything necessarily that we go through needs an anointing. And when you talk to your minister, that’s not the point here, brethren, but there are certain times when we need healing.

Brethren, doctors can do a lot. Doctors can help and assist you with finding out the diagnosis. It depends on where you live, the resources that you have where you can have access to maybe to finding out if it’s something serious to go and dig a little bit deeper within your means to find out the diagnosis, but that doctor cannot heal you. It is impossible for him to heal you. He can splint a broken bone, or he can maybe help in surgery when something physical need to be cut out in your body, can heal itself that they can help with.

But Let’s go to Psalm one hundred and three. Often, we wonder, why am I going through this health trial? Sometimes it might be just a lesson in faith, not necessarily each time, but it might be for us to go to that area and see it with our eyes. You can feel the symptoms, you feel that affliction, you feel the pain, you feel the sleeplessness or all the side effects that you have from that illness. Let’s go to Psalm one hundred and three. But that, brethren, can be a lesson in learning to see the invisible.

Verse three, it says, “Who forgives all your inequities and heals all your diseases?” God is your healer, brethren. Doctors help with many things, but putting your trust in God, sickness can result from physical sins because we are breaking physical laws. We are living in a life where the water and the soil, and the air things are not clean necessary as it’s been in the past. Those things affect your body. We can have a wrong diet or not get enough proper food that we need. Physical things affecting our health.

Not enough exercise, not enough sleep, that can make you and me sick. But, brethren, remember that God is your healer. He’s the only one that can forgive sins when laws are broken. No man can do that. You begin to look to Him, and you will find faith when you are looking in that area in your life. One that pertains to this area, everyone, let’s go to Matthew twenty-one. Another area to look through Matthew twenty-one. And you’ll see these are things that you’ve never seen before, brethren.

These are not things that you are not focused on at all. But we want to regularly remind ourselves when faith is on your mind. And when I prepared this message, faith was on my mind for a considerable time, thinking about what are the things that I can give you to help you to see faith in your life because that was an important question, and that question that Christ had shouldn’t be lost on us. That should encourage us to know we are not just going to be the people that he will find faith, but he will see it.

Matthew twenty-one verse twenty-two, it says, “And all things whatsoever you ask shall ask in prayer, believing, and you shall receive it.” Think back on God’s promises, everyone. Faith is not concerned about if and when God fulfill that promise. If you go and pray before God, you have given it to Him. You have given that situation, that challenge that you have, the thing that you are praying about big and small. God is not concerned only about big things in your life. He’s concerned about small things as well.

But you go, brethren, and ask about something in your prayer closet that’s invisible. Nobody hears about it. Nobody knows about it. Only you and God, and when He answers that, the invisible became visible to you because He answered you. Maybe not in the way that you expected, not in the time that you wanted Him to answer your prayer. But He promises that every prayer that you bring to Him, He will answer. That should encourage us.

That’s something that you should hold unto. That’s something, an area where you will look and when he answers, brethren, again, not when or how we expect, you know that that’s faith in action, faith where you went just and looked for it, seeing it in that area. What about Hebrews? Let’s go to Hebrews. That was a shorter one going through some. We want to see that we get through as many of these areas in our lives as possible, everyone.

Hebrews eleven, we spent quite a bit of time already in Hebrews. Hebrews eleven, verse six. It says, we read it before but without faith. “It is impossible to please Him for he that comes to God must believe,” again there’s faith involved, “...that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” God does not just give us promises, brethren, He wants to reward us. Now an area in your life that you can look for is blessings. He wants you and me to prosper in all areas of our lives and here it is in blessings and providing for your every need. God is concerned with your needs each and every day, your needs.

Remember to make a difference between what our needs are and our wants, but sometimes, God, brethren, gives our wants as well. That’s an extra blessing that He pours out. What about your finances, your physical needs every day? Those are the things that begin often to create worry in our lives. Let’s go to an example. I want to take us to an example in the Old Testament going to Genesis chapter twenty-two. Your physical needs, is God really interested in that?

You can go in those areas, brethren, in your finances, in your job, in your workspace. That’s an area where you can look and see faith. Genesis chapter twenty-two, and it says here in verse one, read a bit of an account about Abraham, “And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham.” Now it says tempt there, but God tested Abraham. He allows temptations in our lives, and He tests us. He tested Abraham to see in that area in his life, is their faith, is the invisible visible, can I see it?

“And He said unto him, Abraham, and He said, behold, here I am, and He said, take now your son,” your only son. Now, just before that in the account where God made the promise to Abraham, He said, “I’m going to make you a nation and many nations...” And He gave him the promise of a son. Now the promise came to fruition, and He test Abraham a little bit more and He says, “Take that son that I promised to you and go and sacrifice him.

Take Isaac, your son, your only son whom you love, and get onto the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon the mountain, which I will tell of you.” So God would give him direction. Abraham responded and he said, “Abraham rose up early in the morning and he saddled his ass, and he took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and place the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went onto the place, which God has told him.” Just going through the regular motions of getting ready for an offering.

“Then on the third day, he lifted up his eyes,” physical eyes, “...and he saw the place far off. Abraham said unto the young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder. We will go on and worship and come unto you again.” He just walked. Think about, brethren, at that point, walking for a couple of days, what went through Abraham’s mind. God’s word doesn’t tell us about what went on in his inward parts. It shows us his actions. He just went on. What went through Isaac’s mind at that point?

We will see Isaac had a question. Think about Sarah that stayed behind. What went through her mind? I can imagine a mom that she gave birth to a child of promise and now dad is taking him and he’s whispering to her, let’s say that’s what happened that Isaac shouldn’t hear Sarah find out Isaac is going to be a sacrifice. She was probably in her mind bouncing off the walls just thinking about what? This is my livelihood. Children were important back then. This is a child of promise, and I need to give him up?

What went through her mind? Let’s continue. “And Abraham took the wood and the burnt offering and laid it,” in verse six, “...upon his son Isaac, and he took the fire in his hand and the knife, and they went both together. And Isaac spoke unto Abraham, his father, and said, ‘My father,” just a normal relationship with his dad, “...and he said, ‘Yes, my son.’ ‘Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.’ So that they went both of them together.” Isaac had a wonderful attitude, but Abram said, “Don’t worry, God will provide.”

Do you and I have, brethren, when our finances or things in our lives, our physical needs are affected? Do we have the same attitude that Abraham had when he had to offer Isaac? Just God will provide. We read on again in verse fourteen, it says, “Abraham called the name of the place. He was ready to sacrifice Isaac. God said, ‘Stop, I can see that you fear me, that you obey me,’ and Abraham called this place Jehovah Jireh. It means God shall be seen there in the end.” Shall be seen it means God shall see to it. Meaning, don’t worry, God will look to my needs, and he will provide.

God’s provision, brethren, in the big and small things, that’s an area where you can look in your life and see the invisible becoming visible, knowing if you trust Him, He will provide. What about deliverance in a trial? Very much similar here. Another thing that Abraham had to store was Abraham... Let’s go a little bit back to chapter fifteen, deliverance in a trial. He was certainly delivered out of that trial, but let’s look at trials maybe that you and I go through, brethren, and look at this one, what God allowed in Abraham’s life.

It says in verse twelve of chapter fifteen, it said, “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and, lo, a horror and great darkness fell upon him.” It says that fear and darkness, misery, came over Abraham. God allowed that, just as He allowed the test for Abraham to go and sacrifice Isaac, here God just allowed fear and terror to come over him. Is there fear and terror in your life, brethren, when you are going through whatever trial it is?

Sometimes we have fear and misery, that affliction where Paul asked earlier on when we read, “Are you afflicted, brethren?” We are going through inward affliction. Sometimes, some of us don’t even see that in the other members’ life. You are inside, inwardly, going through a trial. Just as Abraham, you and I will go through that as well. Let’s go to Psalm thirty-two. What we can do looking, brethren, for faith in that area is in Psalm thirty-two, and verse eight. This is something that you can hold on to everyone. Psalm thirty-two.

Excuse me, let’s first read Psalm thirty-four. My eye fell on the wrong place there. It’s Psalm thirty-four verse seventeen. It says, “The righteous cry, and the Lord hears,” that’s a promise. “...and he delivereth them out of all their troubles.” All their afflictions. That deliverance that God will give you, brethren, in whatever trial we are not explicitly speaking about. You know the trials that you are facing, but it says, if you cry to Him, He will hear and He will deliver. That’s the area in your life. Let’s go to Psalm ninety-one. Psalm ninety-one and verse fifteen.

Another example, “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him.” I will answer him. God gives you that promise. We looked at promises. This is an example. “I will be with him in trouble.” If you have to go through it, if it takes one day, faith is not concerned, again, Brethren, about the time involved that you have to go through. You hold unto. You see the invisible, knowing that deliverance will come in a week, or in a month, or maybe in a year. “I will deliver him and honor him,” God says. He will deliver you. He will deliver me. That’s an area where we can look, but do we trust? Do we see the invisible even if it’s not here, that like God’s promises? You’re not delivered yet, but do you see it coming?

Brethren, that’s an area where you then can look and find faith in trials, in deliverances. What about guidance in a difficult situation? You need guidance in decisions here. We are making in this life, brethren, so many decisions on a daily basis, and one decision that we make can be a wrong decision and take us in the wrong direction. We need guidance, not on a monthly basis, we need it on a daily basis. Let’s go now to Psalm thirty-two. I mentioned Psalm thirty-two. Now, my eyes are here on the right place. Psalm thirty-two, verse eight, it says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go.”

God wants you to go a certain way. We don’t see that always, it’s invisible, that way that you need to take today, that decision, that guidance that you need today, brethren, is and will be given by God, but you don’t see it with your eyes. You don’t just walk necessarily with, “Oh, I know exactly what I need to do,” but God says, “I will teach you in the way that you will go, and I will guide you with my eye.” God can see, brethren, if you cannot see. He can see where you need to go.

He can see the direction that you need to take. And He says, “Trust me, I will guide you.” That, brethren, is a lesson in beginning to learn to see the invisible. What about protection, another one? We’re just going through some areas in your life. Let’s go to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter six. And you know the well-known Armor of God. It says in verse sixteen, taking up the armor, going through the list there in Ephesians six, verse sixteen. “And above all,” God wants our attention today on the invisible, on faith that lesson of faith that we can learn, brethren.

It says, “Above all, taking the shield of faith.” Faith is a shield of the invisible. There it says, “Wherewith you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked.” Those darts, do you and I see them? Is it a physical dart, that we walk down the street, and somebody says, “Duck, there’s an arrow that’s shooting toward you?” No, those are invisible darts. But, brethren, faith, that shield that you wield is that a passive shield? No, it’s an active shield.

You know when that dart comes because, through experience, you went through it over and over again as a Christian and began to learn that lesson, to see the unseen but also to know that faith is your shield. You can lift up that shield, and each time, that dart will be quenched. That’s a lesson that we need to learn. Part of that lesson is, what is actually your shield? It says it’s faith. But let’s see a little bit further, brethren. Psalm eleven and verse two. Psalm eleven and verse two.

It says, “For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready the arrow upon the string, that they may privately shoot at the upright in heart.” So those darts come to our heart, to our mind, to try to take us out, brethren. But chapter thirty-three of Psalms, verse twenty, says, “Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.” That’s when you that wield that shield, brethren, that is God that actually is your shield, the invisible. He’s the one that’s protecting your mind, the invisible. When you are shot with temptation, do that, take that. You are tempted to think about anything that can be a lust that you have, or a temptation to break God’s Sabbath, or anything that comes along the path.

Examples that you can use, brethren, where Satan wants you and me to break God’s law. You can yield or wield that ship. There are other examples, brethren, that I jotted down as many of those. You can think about righteousness, obedience to God. That’s an area where you think about self-righteousness versus God’s righteousness, salvation. Faith is involved in that area or seeing God’s kingdom. God’s faith is involved in that. But let’s go and look at another area, the third point seeing the unseen. Once you define faith, you go and look for it in God’s promises. You look for it in the areas in your life.

A couple of those that we went through, and now you need to see. The third step is to see the unseen. Brethren let’s go to James. Seeing the unseen. Now you’ve seen it already when you look in those areas, but let’s look at what Christ said. You’ll remember I said, there’s a second step needed when Christ said, He will find it, but there’s a little bit of difference and nuance when He says, “Will He see it?” He wants to see it. Let’s go to James chapter two.

The Book of Faith, many times described James as the book of faith. If you want to learn about faith, go and read this whole book, brethren. You can make a study out of it. But here it says in verse seventeen, “Even so faith if it has not works, it is dead being alone.” Verse eighteen, “Yes, a man may say, you have faith,” we define faith. We can see it, and I have works. “...show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Let’s jump to verse twenty. “But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works, is dead?”

Brethren, for faith to be really faith, it must come alive through our actions. To see the invisible, it is through action, through taking action, that faith becomes faith. Believe in action. We need to take action. All these areas in your life, you might see I’m doing well, or you might see that you’re lacking. There might be other areas that we see faith. Brethren, faith is involved in everything. But the unseen, the belief that we have in the unseen become visible when we take action.

Think about that physical examples that we use. A bread knife, brethren, is not a bread knife until you use it. I have scars on my hand. A couple of years ago, I used a very sharp new bread knife. I hold the bread in my hand, and I cut right through the bread, but let’s say, into my hand, and it started to bleed. But let’s say it’s a blunt bread knife, that’s useless. A car is not a car if it’s just standing in your garage. You can say, “Wow, I have that car,” but it’s only working for you when it’s taking you really to work or from point A to point B.

That wristwatch that we talked about that’s not really useful to you unless it’s running. It has a battery in and it’s running. It’s telling you the time, it’s working for you. Brethren, faith must be in action. When we believe God, there must be action involved. Let’s go and look at two places where we can look for that action, seeing that action, an example that we already talked about, those cloud of witnesses that we went through in Hebrews eleven, talking about that. Let’s go to First Thessalonians. You can see the action on other people, or you can see the action in yourself.

Let’s go to the first one, looking at the action of other people. There you will see when they believe, you see their action, brethren. They see their faith through their action. It comes alive. Here is an example that will be helpful to you as the brethren and for us as the ministry. Verse two. First Thessalonians three and verse two, it says, Paul says, “I sent Timotheus, our brother, and a minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith.”

This message is to comfort you concerning your faith. “That no man should be moved by these afflictions for yourself know that we are appointed thereunto.” We are appointed to be afflicted, brethren, to go through. We already see today that it helps us to see faith in our life. “For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it come to pass, and you know. For this course, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith.”

Paul sent another man to know the brethren’s faith. To see it in action. To make the invisible visible. He wanted to see is that faith that I know they have faith, but he wanted to see it. “That by some means, the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. But now, when Timotheus came from you unto us, he brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you.”

Verse seven. “Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith. For now, we live if you stand fast in the Lord.” Verse ten. “Night and day praying exceedingly, that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?” Paul continues to speak about the faith, brethren, that he wanted to see in the brethren, but that account strengthened Paul’s faith. Think about when the ministry, when we give a message or we give council, brethren, and you go and you apply that, you take action in your life, and you apply that, others see that.

Not just the ministry, someone else will see that person is acting on this or this instruction, or applying faith in their lives and they can see that it bolts, it strengthens others in the congregation. If you grow, if you put that faith in action, others can benefit from that as well. That is what Christ want to see in our lives. What about your own life? Just a couple of principles, brethren. One of them that I wanted to touch on is a principle that will help you to take action in your life. Let’s go to Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians chapter five, and here in verse seven.

Short verse, it says, “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” That’s a principle, brethren, that you and I need to apply in our lives each and every day. It doesn’t matter what you are going through, that we walk by faith and not by sight. You and I are going through this Christian life, everyone, not walking by the physical. Most people make decisions on emotions, the things that they see, the things that they perceive, but as Christians, we are not faced.

We already saw and looking at God’s promises. We are not faced by those things. We walk each and every day. That means it’s a daily thing that you and I do, trusting God in the smallest things in our lives. We can content and fight for faith on a daily basis. We walk by it. We don’t care about if it’s invisible or God’s promises not fulfilled yet. Brethren, here is another one that I wanted to shed light on. We know that in Galatians five, it speaks about the fruit of God’s spirit. Sometimes through these actions, the actions that we take, making faith alive in your lives, the fruit of faith grow. You have more faith.

But let’s go to Ephesians. That’s one way the faith that we have towards God believing that He is a rewarder, that He will take us through the things in our lives that we already discussed. But let’s go to Ephesians as we begin to wrap up this message. Let’s go to Ephesians chapter two and just read one verse there.

Ephesians two and verse eight. It says, “For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves.” It’s a gift of God. Faith is both a fruit, brethren, and it is a gift. Sometimes God gives us faith when we need to do something for you. Often it is those actions that we do, and we produce the fruit of faith. Sometimes here we see it’s also a gift. You can, in certain circumstances, brethren, just know that I have faith. I didn’t have it in this area before. God gives you faith sometimes to do something for Him. Brethren, that is to build your relationship.

The fruit part is you are looking towards Him, working in you ultimately to be able to do those actions. Sometimes He reverts that and say, “No, I’m giving you faith so that you can do something.” That’s back and forth. That is something that you will see in your life, brethren, through the action that you are taking, that you are strengthening your relationship through building the fruit of faith and receiving the gift of faith and growing by both of them, knowing and seeing the invisible.

Brethren let’s go back where we started in Luke chapter eighteen. Luke chapter eighteen. It says here in verse one. Let’s begin here as we wrap up for today, Luke chapter eighteen. We see the context. We come full circle where we started and it says in verse one, “And He spoke a parable unto them,” excuse me, “...that men ought always to pray and not to faint.” Faint there means that is why God wants to see brethren faith in our lives. He wants us to continually coming before Him and not faint.

Many of these things that we go through, fear, human reasoning, doubt in the areas that we looked on today, walking by sight and not by faith, those things can chip away. Those things can make us faint. Those things can make us afraid to stop praying, stop looking for the invisible. It means to turn out to be a coward or utterly spiritless or to become exhausted. Christ knew, brethren, in the era and the last age that you and I live in, that that would be a challenge. That faith can be lost.

But, brethren, applying the three simple steps that we’ve gone through today by simply learning the lesson of beginning to see the invisible, making that visible in your lives, applying the first step just by giving a definition to faith, knowing that it is invisible stuff, but it’s real, it’s foundational to our relationship to God. The next one was to go and look in our lives, look to God’s promises, look in those areas that we went through that you will see faith where it’s lacking or where it is not lacking, where you have abundance.

And then the third one, brethren, to make faith real, to see it for Christ, to see it in our lives, we must put it into action. Faith is only active when it is put into action. Brethren, if we do these things, then Christ will come back and He will say, “Yes, I found faith in my people, but also I can see it in abundance.”