Walk By Faith to Recognize Christ

It continues to amaze me how the leadership class, I'm leading teaching for my middle school son's group, that it aligns so much with what we do. A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about how to do a job interview. Can you imagine the looks on middle schoolers' faces when I said, we're gonna learn how to do a job interview? And then, when we sat down to do the interview, they had no idea what to talk about, so I had to prompt them.

And one of the questions the author of the book asked is, why would we or why would a company hire you instead of someone else? What's the difference between you and anybody else we could hire? What do you bring to the table? What is it about you that our company needs? And 12-year-olds were like, yeah, I don't know. And sometimes, as adults, we may be like that, too. Now, what happens in the world today is people see Christians and they say, how are you different from anyone else? Aside from going to church, which is awesome, thank you for being here today, how are you any different from anyone else? How, in a group of people, in a crowd, in a conversation, I'm sorry, oh, no slides back there, okay.

Oh, no slides at all? Oh, okay. Thank you for trying to be secret and I just botched it. I'm sorry.

What makes us stand out? Do you ever think about that? What is really, truly different about me than anyone else in the world? What is really, truly different about Christians? I mean, because the world is watching and then they go, oh, well, you're no different than me. I saw what you were doing when you were driving down the road, whatever that might be. I heard how you responded or I saw how you ignored someone who was in need.

What makes you any different than me? Everyone's just staring at me like, why don't we take just a few seconds and think about it. What makes a Christian stand out? What makes a Christian different than anyone else in the world? And I don't even wanna say the word a Christian or a churchgoer. I wanna say someone who has Christ in their life, on their heart, guiding them, leading them.

What makes a Christian different than anyone else? As we are continuing in our series, Walk by Faith and Not by Sight, Paul has gone over so many different things about how we walk by faith, we don't walk by sight. And that is a huge one that stands out that makes a Christian different than anyone else. It can, but we may think, well, I'm a good person.

I help out other people. Well, so do a lot of people who don't go to church. Or we may say, I have good morals and I do this.

And so do other people who don't go to church. Today, we're just gonna look at two verses. Doesn't mean the sermon's shorter because there's only two verses.

2 Corinthians 5, we're gonna continue. Last week, we did through 15. We're gonna do 16 and 17 today.

Will you stand as you are able? From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.

The word of God, hired by God, for the people of God, thanks be to God, amen. You may be seated. Now, when we're talking about walking by faith, not by sight, there are some things about walking by faith that can make a Christian stand out or be a little different.

All through the Old Testament, you read and the Jews stood out amongst everybody else in the world. When you're God's people, you don't just go along with everything that happens in the world. Paul says in verse 16, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we regard Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

Now, there are a couple different ways to look at regarding Christ in the flesh because he was incarnate, he was God incarnate. Jesus came on the earth and walked and talked with us and you could talk to him just like you could any other friend or family member and he would teach in person, he would heal, he would do amazing things and then he was crucified, died and was resurrected, rose and sits at the right hand of God the Father and now we regard him more in the spirit than in the flesh. But there's also something about regarding Jesus in the flesh that we gotta think about further, that if we think of Jesus as only in the flesh as they did in that first century, then he is crucified.

And when we think of Jesus as only flesh or only human and not God, then we crucify him again over and over in our lives. When we regard him in the spirit, we regard others in a whole different way. I'm gonna tell you, when I was a kid, I used to watch shows like Superman and think, man, how cool would it be? Or even Rocky, I saw Rocky in the movie theater and I thought, man, that was so awesome, I am so pumped, I am gonna take on the whole world now.

And then I would wake up the next day and go, man, I don't feel any different. But then, what if, as a follower of Jesus Christ, you had superpowers? Paul talks about at least two of those superpowers in 2 Corinthians. One is x-ray vision, it's in the Bible, and two is night vision, it's in the Bible.

I'm done. X-ray vision, Columbia Surgery had an article about Wilhelm Roentgen, a professor of physics in Germany who discovered x-rays in 1895. It was accidental, he was testing how rays could pass through glass and he covered it with dark paper and then this incandescent green light shone through on the other side.

And he didn't understand it, he didn't know what those light rays were, so he called them x. And it stuck for almost a century and 30 years. The x-rays became popular because they soon discovered after that that it would go through, that it would go through your body and it could see the bone and the tissue and the things on the inside of there. And then speaking of superpowers, Superman had x-ray vision where he could see through walls and stuff.

And so when I was a kid, I remember, they were called comic books next and now they have a cool name called graphic novels. But at the back of the book, it said, now you can be like Superman and buy your own x-ray vision goggles for only 9.95. And now I look back on that and I think, really? No wonder my mom never let me buy those. They didn't work.

But there's a couple of things that walking by faith does that we can see differently. X-ray vision means we see internally. Our natural senses cause us to judge people in circumstances superficially.

Have you ever noticed a situation where somebody judges someone else superficially by something on the outside, by something that they don't know the context of, where they are judged by something that has nothing to do with really who they are as a person. And even as Christians, if we start judging anyone else superficially by how they look or by how they talk or even by certain things they do, then we are not walking by faith. Walking by faith says we judge differently.

In 2 Corinthians 5, 12, just a few verses earlier, it says, we are not commending ourselves to you a being, but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not what is in the heart. It may not seem as exciting, but that's the X-ray vision that we can have, that we look to the heart, that we trust God to point us to the heart. Now, Paul is probably looking back at 2 Samuel 13, 14, where God said to Samuel, but now your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. God, I hope you knew this and it's not scary, God can see into our hearts. God can see past our masks.

God can see past our facades. God can see past who we try to portray ourselves as and sees deep within our hearts to know what is sincere, to know what is right, to know what we want, and to know if we are seeking him in what we do. Now, David wasn't perfect, but God saw into his hearts.

Now, with Jesus, we have the ability to see in others' hearts or at least see Christ in other people. Jesus told us that we could look at anyone, whether we thought they were on fire for the Holy Spirit or whether we thought they were far from God and we're all created in the image of God and there's something of God in them or just like God looks at us and doesn't just sit there, I mean, if God only had 10 fingers, could he get through all our flaws on those 10 fingers? But that's not what God sits around doing. God sees us and he sees our potential and he sees our hearts and he sees that with Christ in us, we can do amazing things for the kingdom.

I mean, it'd be so much easier like we pray and we look out in the world and we see all the chaos and the hatred and the anger and everything that seems so far from God and we pray, Jesus, just come back and take me away. This is a mess but instead, God wants to work through us in that mess so when we regard others, we see their hearts. John 7, 24 puts it like this, don't judge by appearances but judge with right judgments.

Now, x-ray vision is one thing but we also have to have night vision. Here is an amazing picture of infrared lighting that when you're in the military, especially SEALs, different places that work on the ground, they can see at night with the heat signatures and the different thermal ratings and they can see like this. Now, I'm not saying as followers of Christ, we're gonna hand out infrared goggles but that sounds kind of fun.

That sounds like a good youth night to have infrared goggles and play tag outside. But you see, with Christ, we're allowed to see through the darkness of the world and recognize Christ, recognize where Jesus is working, recognize where God is alive, that God gives us that kind of insight. 2 Corinthians 2, when Earl read the scripture that we read earlier, Paul, a few chapters before, is saying the same thing differently.

Here in chapter five, he's talking about walk by faith, not by sight so the sense is sight but he also talks about it according to smell. He says, for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, one with a fragrance of death to death and another with a fragrance of life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? Basically saying there is a spiritual aroma around someone who loves God.

And people can sense that. If they are far from God, they can sense the things in you that are far from God. They can push God away.

If they are closer to God, they can sense the light in you. But if you love your neighbor, then in some way, shape, or form, you can see the light in them. Where God may be putting someone before you or saying to you, why don't you talk to that person? And we say, well, that person is a horrible person.

And then Jesus is like, well, that's who you need to talk to. I have plans for them. Jesus died for the whole world.

He has plans for all of us. Even in our imperfections, he has plans for us. So we regard one another and look for Christ in other people.

Look for things to build on. Look for ways that we can do this. When we learn to walk by our seventh sense, faith gives us insight into the hearts of people to recognize God.

Last week, you'd think I'd be getting better at this since we've been married for so long, but I am always getting around in the dark, trying to be quiet, trying to maneuver my way from the dresser into the bathroom to get ready, back out. And last week, Holly was sleeping and I got to the dresser after I was all ready and I grabbed my socks and I turned around and I missed the bed in the dark, but there's a chest at the end of the bed. And I hit my knee right on that chest and I did my best not to yell and scream and get upset.

And it hurt a lot. And I was so proud of myself that I was still standing, that I didn't go down in pain. And all of a sudden from the bed, I heard these sweet words.

That's gonna leave a mark. John 5, 19 says, so Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, if the son can do nothing of his own accord, but what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does, the son does likewise. One thing that sets Christians apart is we're not caught up in everything else, but we look for God working.

And God gives us insight. When we ask, we say, God, just show me where you're working. Show me what you're doing.

And we see that. And we see through all the darkness of the world, all the pain, all the hurt and the suffering. And we see where God is working.

We see whose heart God is working on. And when we see through that darkness with the night vision of the Holy Spirit, then we see what God has in store for us. That God shows us things about others so we can help.

Not so we can condemn or put down, but so we can help, so we can bless them. So today, when you go from this place, I had a pastor, a professor in seminary who used to always say it mockingly because it was a school where they tried to deconstruct the Bible for us. But he'd say it mockingly.

And look at the Old Testament. And then he was the New Testament teacher. And the New Testament is always quoting the Old Testament.

And he said that Christians are always putting on their Jesus goggles when they look at the Old Testament so they see it differently. And when I heard that, I thought, well, that's actually pretty cool. You can be making fun of me, but I wanna wear my Jesus goggles on everything.

I wanna see Christ in everything. I wanna see where God is working, even in the suffering of the world. I wanna see where Christ is on somebody else's heart.

I want those goggles. I pray for those goggles. I pray that I can see everybody else as Christ seeds me.

Someone who's imperfect, but he wants to use us. And he wants to help us to become more like him.