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Walk

2 Corinthians 5: 7 “(For lwe walk by faith, mnot by sight:)” [1]

I.  Because

     A. Faith

     B. Force

II. Being

     A. Forever

     B. Forget

III.     By

     A. Fact

     B. Fortitude


Introduction:  Many of us here at Merry Oaks have been through some events in the past few years when we have not been comfortable.  The surroundings are not what we are accustomed to and we feel afraid.  Without knowing for sure that we are OK it is getting harder to find security.  The older we get the more we feel that we should be allowed to not still be finding new tests to go through yet they happen more frequently now than when we were younger.

Things are not as easy as they once were.  We could balance more things and more people when we were younger even though our days were fuller.  Now we find ourselves not able to even make daily plans without something changing that is beyond our control.

As we hear today’s central text it reminds of a day many years ago down at Carolina Eye in Pinehurst.  Clyde Watson had cataract surgery and I drove him down.  As I dropped him off to park the car and come back to be with Clyde, another patient was being dropped off at the curb.  His wife stopped the car and he got out.  He was nearly blind and tripped on the curb and fell to the pavement.  I jumped out of the car and went to him.  After he said he was OK I reached around him to help him up.  With that he called to his wife, “Hey mamma, a man done got ahold of me.”  Though he could not see, though he did not know me, he had to trust me to get him into the building and he did.

If we live long enough we will all have to get to the place where we will have to trust that one that God puts there to help us along.  That person will probably never know that it was God doing through them that which they do.  We will probably not like to be handled but we will finally either learn to trust that God provides or we will have a miserable time as we get older.

The scripture today is from Paul’s text explaining to the church in Corinth about a place that might go away.  He called it a tabernacle which is another word for tent.  We all know that a tent is a very temporary shelter that can be easily taken down and moved somewhere else.

We still hear all the big mouths talking about the idea of state government in agreement with a foreign government to tear down these buildings where we meet at Merry Oaks Baptist Church.  For me, I continue to listen for the still small voice that Elijah heard.  God told Elijah what God expected of him.  I am listening.  I’ve not heard God tell us to tear down this tabernacle.  When God finally speaks we will pour it all out to God but we will never pour it out to any man.

Scripture:  Today’s focal text is 2 Corinthians 5:7.  Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Prayer:  Let us pray.  Amen.  Please Be seated.

Message:  Preacher Jack Phillips preached the theme of this sermon many times.  Several said so during his memorial service Thursday afternoon.  To paraphrase Jack would say, “Stay the course.”  The text for this message was decided before Jack’s funeral.  Amazing God!

Listen to the text leading up to our focal verse.  1 Corinthians 5:1-8, “For we know that if aour earthly house of bthis tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house cnot made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this dwe groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that ebeing clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in bthis tabernacle ddo groan, being burdened: not ffor that gwe would be unclothed, gbut hclothed upon, that mortality might be hswallowed up of life. 5 Now ihe that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath kgiven unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7 (For lwe walk by faith, mnot by sight:) 8 nWe are confident, I say, and owilling rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.[2]

The first question answered in our short focal verse is why to keep walking.  For what reason do we keep going if all we see is bleakness and worry.  The KJV uses the word “for.”  Same word as John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world.”  It means because.  Because God loved the world so much…  Here Paul tells the Corinthians that we continue to walk or keep on going because.  It is because we have faith that we keep going and we don’t quit.  As Preacher Jack might have said, this is why we keep the course.  It is because we have faith.

I can’t answer for you but if I feel forced to do a thing, usually I head off in the other direction.  I don’t change my direction because somebody forced me or attempted to make me do something.  If I don’t trust you it doesn’t make much difference what you say because I won’t do it until I have faith in the outcome.  We walk by faith and not by force.

Did ya’ll have your TVs on Thursday?  All day long it was something about Star Wars.  May the forth!  They twisted it into that old line from the movie Star Wars where somebody said, “May the force be with you.”  Thursday was the National Day of Prayer.  Most everything on TV was not about that.  Why do we keep walking and going in a nation that seems to have lost her way?

To walk by…  It doesn’t mean to pass by without having an impact as if we do not exist.  Here it means that we continue to be.  We continue to do that which we do without being afraid to stop and turn away.  We are being the same that God wants us to be.

When we leave this temporary place we will continue to be forever and God will never forget.  This temporary tent or tabernacle is easily torn down and moved.  Yes we are talking about this particular building that we are sitting in.  It has been sitting here for many many years.  There have been many many tabernacles sitting inside these walls though.  These bodies that we possess are tabernacle or tents for God’s Holy Spirit.  These bodies are not our forever bodies.  One day we will have a permanent place for God to indwell us.  Until then we walk by faith and we do not forget His promise of hope.

There in the outline is the word “BY” again.  What got the old fellow up that day at the Eye Center?  You remember the fellow that tripped on the curb that I helped up?  He didn’t have much sight at all.  He didn’t know me either yet that man got up and walked where I led him.  Was he walking by sight or by faith?

We think we are pretty much in charge of where we go.  When something happens so that we are not responsible for where we are going anymore, that is a jolt.  It’s hard!  I know how to do that and I am not going to give up.  I’ve done it all my life.  Is that wrong?  Is it wrong to have fortitude?  What is fortitude anyway?  To have that inner strength that keeps you from being overcome by whatever the world throws at you; that is fortitude.  It is not a bad thing.  It is normally a good thing to keep you going.  But depend on faith in God and not fortitude of self.

Jack Phillips reached that place that we all will someday.  Fortitude will not be enough then.  Now what do you do?  How do you get by then?  There is no fact that you can rely on that you can depend on.  We will all get there.  Jesus got there.  Luke 23:46: “And when Jesus had cried rwith a loud voice, he said, sFather, tinto thy hands I ucommend my spirit: and having said thus, xhe gave up the ghost.” [3]

Jesus walked by faith.  Jack Phillips walked by faith.  My prayer will always be that I will walk by faith.

Prayer:  Let us pray…

Invitation:  Keep the faith and never let it go.  No matter what the world is doing we must stay the course until we reach the destination.  We all do have a destiny and it is to be with Jesus eternally.  Never forget that.  Never forsake that.  Always trust Him.

Remember the context.  We who stay the course as Christians will appear before Him one day.  2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear qbefore the judgment seat of Christ; rthat every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” [4]

Don’t you want to hear Him say on that day, “Well done?”

Consider as we sing…

l See ch. 4:18. So John 20:29.
m 1 Cor. 13:12.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Co 5:7). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
a So ch. 4:7. See Job 4:19.
b ver. 4. Wisd. 9:15. So 2 Pet. 1:13, 14.
c So Mark 14:58.
d ver. 4. Rom. 8:23.
e Rev. 3:18. & 16:15.
b ver. 4. Wisd. 9:15. So 2 Pet. 1:13, 14.
d ver. 4. Rom. 8:23.
f Rom. 5:12.
g Comp. 2 Esdr. 2:45.
g Comp. 2 Esdr. 2:45.
h So 1 Cor. 15:53, 54.
h So 1 Cor. 15:53, 54.
i See Isai. 29:23.
k See ch. 1:22.
l See ch. 4:18. So John 20:29.
m 1 Cor. 13:12.
n See ch. 1:9.
o So Phil. 1:23.
[2] Ibid., 2 Co 5:1–8). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
r Matt. 27:50. Mark 15:37.
s ver. 34.
t Cited from Ps. 31:5. Comp. Acts 7:59. 1 Pet. 2:23. & 4:19.
u Comp. John 10:18.
x Mark 15:37 (Gk.). So Matt. 27:50. John 19:30.
[3] Ibid., Lk 23:46). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
q Rom. 14:10.
r See Ps. 62:12.
[4] Ibid., 2 Co 5:10). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.