In this sermon, the pastor emphasizes the importance of turning to the Word of God amidst the confusion and changing circumstances of the world. He quotes 2 Corinthians 4:18, which encourages believers to focus on the eternal, unseen things rather than the temporary, visible things. The pastor explains that faith is like a sixth sense that allows us to perceive the truth and reality that God reveals to us. He assures the listeners that by seeking God and understanding His purpose in allowing certain things in their lives, they will find peace, fulfillment, and a true encounter with God.

As we brought the people through the truth last night, we talked about God being, being in everything for a purpose, with a purpose, and that everything that's happening to us happens to us with a purpose in mind. Now, that doesn't mean that the devil's not active and he's not working, it does mean that he's active and working, but even with what the devil is doing, when you discover what God is up to, it can be turned to victory and glory and for, it has a purpose to it. So, it's wonderful to see that measure of the grace of God. Now, this morning I'm headed in the direction that I would consider rather mystical, and of course, I am a mystic, and if you believe in the Holy Spirit and God living in you, you're a mystic. That's right. And I think that we all are, if we are saved by the grace of God. But this morning we're going into a rather mystical area because we're going to leave the area of your senses. In other words, you relate to the world by what you see, smell, taste, feel, and hear, and therefore by this you come to understanding and song. But there's something deeper than that in the world, and we're going to title these few moments, Replacing Appearances by Reality. In other words, we're going to look at several verses of scripture that just lay down the fact that the, that what appears out here is not what's real, but it's what God has to say that's very real. The pastor and I was coming over as we came over from the motel to here. We were listening to a man talk, Paul Harvey in fact, and he was just pointing out the many different areas of activity in the world and how much confusion there is. And the pastor said, you know it's good to be able to go back to the word of God because it never changes. And so in the truth we discover real, true reality. Now Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.18, which is a classic verse of what I'm talking about, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Now Paul really gets heavy right here I think because he, he's saying we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. He says these things which are seen are just temporal. They're just for a moment. They're, they're out there and it's not that they are not real. They are out there and they are real, but actually in the light of God's economy, these are not the real things. They're just here for a while. Then they're gone. But they're something that's more real than what we can see with these eyes. And so while we look at this this morning we, we find that by catching a glimpse of what Paul was talking about, we can replace what we see out here. The appearances of things, we can replace the appearances of things with a real genuine truth. Now I want to give you several other verses of scripture to take home with you and study because there's no way in the world that I could develop all of this. But in John 7 24, the Bible says, judge not according to the appearances or appearance, but judge righteous judgment. In other words, what really appears out here is not necessarily what's really going on. And so do not make your judgments upon what appears out here, but make your judgment a righteous judgment, which he brings us back to the classic verse on this subject. We look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. So he's really calling for us to pull out of this world of appearances and really make a righteous judgment. And that righteous judgment is what God has to say about something, right? It's what God has to say about an issue. And so we're gone to another verse that I'd like to leave with you. And you can go back and look at these verses if you like. Second Corinthians 5 7 says, we walk not by sight, but by faith. And even that verse itself indicates that faith has a, has the ability to see things which are not seen. I like what Andrew Murray said about faith. He said that faith is like a sixth sense and you have it and it gives you the ability to see something that is not seen with the naked eyes. It like, it's like this. You have eyes to see, but if there's no object out there to see, you cannot see. Or if you say, for instance, you have ears to hear, but if there's nothing out there to hear, you can't hear. And he says the sixth, we have faith and faith is like a sixth sense, that we have it and that God lets truth come along. He lets the real truth come along. He lets reality come along and we have the ability to see the truth. We have the ability to see what's genuinely real. Paul says, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Or the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Now we go on just a little further to one other verse. I'm going to give you three more verses and then tie this up. Second Kings 617, and that's a classic. In fact, go back to about the twelfth verse and come all the way through to about the nineteenth verse and you get the whole story of Elijah. And you will have the story of how the young prophet saw the mighty host that had encompassed them about. And the old prophet has said very distinctly, very clearly that greater was the people that was with, the mighty host that was with them than those that were against them. And so the young prophet did not understand this, neither could he see what Elijah was talking about. And so he prayed that his eyes would be open and the scales fell from the young man's eye and then he saw the mighty host of God. And see he, at first he looked at the things as they appeared. And then God enabled him to see things as they really were. And what I'm saying to you is this. We look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. Second Kings 617, or as twelve through about nineteen. Second Corinthians 416 indicates the same truth. And Hebrews 1127. Now these really will anchor your heart, I believe, if you see what I'm talking about. Now, we're so humanistic in our hour and we're so bound down by the way that we have been brought up to live, by what we, by our environment, by what we could see, smell, taste, feel and hear, that we have a difficult time when we face issues in life as individuals turning to God and saying, Lord, I'm not going to judge this case by appearances. I'm going to judge this case on the basis of a righteous judgment. Now what's the truth about this? What is the truth, real truth about it? In other words, how do you see this? You see, how do you see this? And when you see a thing as God sees it, then you have a proper basis for judgment, right? You have a proper basis for judgment. Now, the amazing thing about this is that a lot of lay people never, never get this deeply involved in a Christian walk. And I want you to know that's a disgrace because most lay people figure God does not have much concern about the money or hell and so on and so forth. But I've got news for you. God, the God that keeps the hairs on your head numbered is concerned, as much concerned about your business as you'll ever be, about your family, about any other area of your life. And you know, somehow we've separated this thing up to preachers and laymen. And in a way that's a legitimate separation because preachers have an anointing to preach. But when it comes to living the Christian life, preachers have no edge on anyone else. They may have a little more time to study the Bible than some of you, but they have no edge on you. God wants to make himself real to laymen and move in the life of laymen and teach them the truth that I'm sharing with you right here. In fact, I believe God knows that you have to work ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours a day. And I believe many times men that have to work, ladies that have to work, can get through to the truth of God about given situations. The big sin is right here. The big sin is ignorance, that we do not know and realize, that therefore we do not realize, that God has his truth about every given situation in our lives. God wants to reveal himself to that given situation. And then when you discover, discover the truth about your given situation, you have changed, moved from appearances to reality. And reality is what God has to say about this given situation. And I'm enjoying this because the pastor said that I'd do this, and it's very difficult not to do it, and I have pictures and I will show them. You know, you just give me a chance. But back in 1971, the Lord spoke to my heart while I was dying. And most of you have heard my testimony. And, you know, he just really, I mean, I knew I was dying. I didn't have to look around. It was obvious I was dying. And the Lord spoke to my heart and let me discover the truth about me. And the truth was that I would not die. You see, I refused to live by appearances. I lived by the word. When he said, thou shalt see thy children's children, I knew I would not die. Because at that time, none of the children were married and there was no grandchildren. And the Lord said I would live to see my grandchildren. So, the last two months, I've been enjoying that grandson. He was born back in February and my wife went up to be with him in Alaska when he was born. But I wasn't fortunate enough to get to go up there, so I've been enjoying that boy for the last two months because they're back home now. And, but, what I'm saying to you is I had to live on the basis of the truth. I mean, I just had to live on the basis of what God said. After the Lord showed me the truth that I would not die, for the next six months, I continued to die. And all the doctors said, you know, they said everything nice. They thought the best thing they could do is say, we're going to send you to another doctor. But what they were really saying is that we can't help you. We can't help you. And so, for after six months, after I discovered the true reality of the situation, I still continued to die. So, I had to decide which one I was going to hang on to. What God told me, in His Word, are what appeared, what was on the surface, what I could see, what I could smell, what I could taste, I could feel, I could hear. You see, there is something that surpasses, there is something that surpasses a man's mind, and that's the mind of God. That is the mind of God. And the mind of God can be secured at three points. Now, this may be a little heavy, but I'm going to come back and spend one service on it. But any time man has a need, you can know the mind of God. Any time that man has a word from God, you can know the mind of God. And any time that man's desires are in harmony with God, man can know the mind of God from by his desires. That's right. And so, you can know the mind of God. The mind of God, the wisdom of God, is the reality of God about any given situation. And when you discover that reality, then that reality replaces the appearances. And the appearances that come to your life, as I shared last night, and you'd have to have been here last night to understand this, but it puts it together. The appearances that come into your life are those invitations from God for you to discover yourself and God in a proper manner that you might live the life of a Christian like you're supposed to. And boy, it just turns everything that happens to you into an adventure. And it's a glorious adventure. I mean, it really puts life together. People, a lot of people are very disturbed today because they're confused about life. And they do not understand what's going on. But when you understand why God is allowing things to come into your life, and those things come there to turn you to Him, to discover Him and the truth that's in Him about given situations, then you're going to be taken out of a lot of frustration that you're in. And not only that, but you're going to touch reality. You're going to touch God. And in meeting God, really touching God, coming into His presence, knowing Him, I'll assure you is the answer to your problem. It really is. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for this time together. Bless these dear people today. Lord, meet with them. Show them how to turn to You and know You in Jesus' name. Amen. In Matthew, the 16th chapter, we find the disciples having somewhat of a difficulty. They were discussing among themselves about how they were going to eat. And so the Lord Jesus had just got through taking them through an experience with feeding thousands and thousands of people. And yet here they were just a little ways from that, and they were wondering how they were going to eat. So the Lord Jesus rebuked them in the 8th verse of that 16th chapter and says, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread. And as I look at this, I think about the fact that how we as God's children look at things so many times, and we just rarely find ourselves in the predicament of these disciples. We do not know when to believe God. We really do not know when to believe the Lord. Here they just got through experiencing a great miracle of God feeding thousands of people, and yet they did not bring any bread with them. And yet they were reasoning among themselves because they had not brought any bread. And so the question comes as this, or it comes to me like this. When should we as God's children believe God? When should we believe God? I believe that we as God's children can believe God when we have a need. Now I realize that when we talk about needs, some people think they have needs when they do not have needs. And I realize that, you know, we need to qualify this matter of needs. But let me just break it down a little bit. I believe the Bible teaches us that we can trust God when we have material needs. I believe we can trust God when we have emotional needs. I believe that we can trust God when we have physical needs. Now you might say material and physical is the same, but I'm breaking it down into a different division here. Then I believe that we can trust God when we have moral needs. I believe you'll find that this covers man, the total man. And I believe God encourages us to trust him when we have these needs. In fact, I believe that God has used this matter of allowing needs to come in people's lives, to turn them to trust him more than any other thing. I very seldom ever talk to someone that doesn't have a need. And if they don't have, you just hang around a few hours and they will have. And I believe that God has used this matter of a need to stimulate people, to encourage people, to direct people towards believing him more than any other thing. Now let's just look at some of these verses that relate to needs and how we should trust the Lord. I think we should trust the Lord when we have material needs. In fact, Matthew 6, 24 through 34 just really lays it out so beautifully. And because of our time here, I'll not go and read those verses to you, but I'll tell you, do you good to read them. The Lord says, listen, listen. He said, I do not even think you ought to take thought about food, raiment, and shelter. He says, listen, God takes care of the fields. God takes care of such like that, the birds. And if God's going to do that, he's going to take care of the fields, take care of the birds. He said, I want you to know he's going to take care of you. Amen. He even rebukes us in a way, for even questioning the fact that he's not going to take care of us, or the fact that he's going to take care of us. And I believe that this portion of scripture clearly indicates anytime we have a need, we in the matter of the material things, we should trust the Lord. We should trust the Lord. Now you can get into it a little deeper than this, but just as sure as I do, I'll run out of time here. And that is this. In fact, anytime that man has a need, it's the evidence that God has the supply. Now this is clearly taught in the word of God. Like it's taught in the beginning where we have Adam and Eve in the garden. Like the first Adam, he came and sinned. But before the first Adam sinned, there was a Savior to meet the need of the first Adam that sinned. There was already a Savior. There was a supply before that need. Now, this nature of God that's revealed in letting us see that he has the supply before the need is brought out not only in this illustration about Adam and Eve, the first Adam and the second Adam or the last Adam, but it's also brought out beautifully in Psalms 39. God says even before you were substance, you were written in the book. And everything about you was recorded. It's something to see this kind of God running your life and my life. So what I'm saying to you is this. Before you have a need, there is a supply. And very likely the need you have is God's way of letting you get to the supply. The need you have is God's approach to turn you to him to discover what you need so you can discover him as the supply. So I believe we can trust God when we have a material need. I believe we can trust God when we have an emotional need. In Matthew 15, 21 through 28, we have the story of the woman who came to Jesus. And she had a daughter that had a demonic problem. She said that the devil was in charge of her life. And this woman came to Jesus and began to ask him to help her in her need. And Jesus turned on her. First he just avoided her. And then when she got a little closer to him, then he turned on her and said that he was not set to the likes of her. And even referred to, made an indication that she was not of the blessed people of God, the tribe of Israel and so on. And I mean friends, he just literally rebuked her and made reference to the fact of her being a dog or categorized as people that would be identified as dogs. And my dear friend, she said, yes, but the dogs lick the crumbs. And I'll tell you friends, Jesus couldn't stand that. He turned around, not only did he give her what she wanted, but I'll tell you what, he said, great is thy faith. You've got great faith. Now what I'm saying to you is this, uh, she had a daughter that had emotional need. She had a, he, she had an emotional need and this lady believed God and literally saw that need met. I believe we can believe God, not only when there's emotional need, but I believe we can believe God when there's a physical need. In fact, uh, second Corinthians four 10 tells us that, uh, Paul discovered Jesus Christ as his life for 10 and 11. And Paul discovered Jesus as his life. He said there was death in him, but beloved, the life of Jesus was manifested in the marble flesh. And that was the flesh that you know, Paul was in right there. Second Corinthians 12, uh, tells us about Paul being brought to weakness through the, uh, thorn in the flesh. And as he was brought to weakness, the spirit of God would literally energize the life of Paul. And Paul could experience the strength of God. And I believe this morning that we can trust God when we have a physical need. I believe we can, I believe we can trust God to be our life. Now, frankly, uh, I, I do not believe we can always trust God to heal us, but I do believe we can always trust God to be our life. I believe not only can we trust God to be our life, but I believe that we need to trust God when there is a moral need. In other words, when we are not like Jesus, like we're supposed to be, when we are not in the words of some sanctified as we should be, and that would simply mean, that means when we are not acting like Jesus, I believe we need to trust Jesus. I believe we need to trust Jesus, beloved, when our works are not right. The Bible tells us very plainly that the expression of our life is according to our faith. The work of our life is according to our faith. In fact, James, James 2, 14 and 17 tells us that if you say you have faith and do not have works, he says your faith is not real. So I believe if our works in our life is not right, I believe then we need to believe God. Because I believe by believing God, our works will satisfy God and meet the needs of man. Uh, not only that, but, uh, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11, 33, that by faith people wrought righteousness.