Good morning church. How are we doing? Morning. It’s good to be with you. Merry Christmas. Happy new year. It’s good to be with you all. I hope you all had a great season and we are prepping for the year 2026. Are you crazy? That’s crazy. Unbelievable. Yeah, but I hope this morning what I’ve been tasked to do is to pick up this theme that Pastor John and our staff have been prayerfully sorting through and thinking about, because this is what we believe God is leading us into this, this manner of life, this way of living as we head into 2026. So this idea we are going to flesh out and unpack today is the task I’ve been given, is to set up 2026. But here’s what I’ll say is probably an obvious statement. And if it’s not, I hope you hear me today that God’s will for your life is better than your own will for your life. God’s plan for 2026 is better than your plan for 2026. And so what we’re going to unpack today is this simple truth walk by faith. We’ve probably heard that as a Christian, or even as non-Christians, you’ve probably heard of this reality. Walk by faith. What does that mean? Well, we’re to unpack that today, because one thing that could interrupt God’s plan for your life and what he wants to do in your life in 2026 is if you walk by sight. So what we’re going to do, we’re going to unpack this idea, what it means to walk by faith. So being the father of two kids, where’s my fathers out in the room? You are going to know this. Being the father of two, there’s a special, unique skill that you got to learn. And that is learning how to walk in a dark room quietly. Y’all know what I mean, right? And when you’re getting a baby down for bed or a nap, there’s some skills you have to know. Y’all catch what I’m saying? So you have to feed the baby. You have to rock the baby. Sometimes you got to pass pace back and forth to and fro to make sure that the baby calms down and settles down, and then you have to get the baby down into the crib softly without disturbing. And then you have to walk out of the room in such a way, quietly, without disturbing the baby. It’s a hard task if you never had to do it just wait. You can come over to my house and try any time. Okay? But I was horrible at this when I first became a dad. And even with Ezra, our second, I’ve had trouble with him. And part of the reason is, you know, with Ezra, we’re in a newer home when we had him. And so navigating furniture and, you know, those squeaks in the floor or the cracking in the floorboards, you know, that make these horrible sounds on? If you have a house like that, we do. But it’s sometimes hard to get out of the room without disturbing the baby. And so it’s it’s kind of funny. But this unique skill, I think, is important because sometimes we have to be able to walk without seeing. And so what we’re going to unpack today is this idea–now would you follow me? You will have confidence and a joyful contentment when you walk by faith. Two things we’re going to see in our passage this morning in Second Corinthians chapter five, we’re to unpack verses six through ten. And what we’re going to discover is these two ideas how we can walk by faith in the result of those of that is to have a confidence and also a joyful contentment. Now, what that means for your life is going to vary because of what God is calling you to, specifically in the year 2026. Certainly we’re all called to follow Jesus, but when we talk about walking by faith, that’s going to look different for everybody. So here’s what I want for you and for me this morning is I want you to think, what is God calling me to do in 2026? How is God going to call me to walk by faith in 2026? I hope by the time that you are on your way home today, you have a start. You have a starting place. Because what I want for you, what our staff Pastor John wants for Valley View, is that in the year of 2026, we’re going to walk by faith according to God’s will. And God’s plan and not according to our own. Amen. So we’re unpack that this morning in Second Corinthians chapter five, verse six. So if you will look with me in second Corinthians chapter five, verse six, this is a New Testament book. If you see first Corinthians, turn the next book over. Paul is writing to a church in the city of Corinth. Now this. This is the second letter he’s wrote to and probably maybe even the third. And he’s writing to them, encouraging them amidst a difficult season. And this is what he says in verse six. So we that is the church believers, that we are always of good courage. This idea of good courage can mean confident. To be of good courage is to have a confidence in something. Well, what is that something? Well, the verse right before this, in verse five, Paul says that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. The Holy Spirit is given to you and me as a guarantee of our inheritance of our salvation. And catch this of our future resurrection, that God promises us. So he says we can be of good courage. We can have confidence. We can have a surety. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was given to us. He’s the guarantee of what is to come. No matter what we’re dealing with right now, here’s what we do. Know that one day we will be raised from the dead. So you and I, if you’re a believer, if you’ve trusted in Christ, you can have confidence this morning that the future is taken care of. And God has the pen of the story of your life in his hand. We can have confidence. We can be of good courage. But notice too, what Paul says. He says always. He doesn’t just say, we can be of good courage, but we can always be of good courage. Here’s some helpful, helpful thought today. Whatever you’re dealing with in your life right now, that one day all of that is going to be done away with and you will get to be with God in Christ forever, without pain, without suffering if you’ve trusted in Jesus. Talk about confidence. I can face anything knowing that my future is taken care of. So he says, always we can have this. But he kind of unpacks this a little bit because he explains kind of the situation we’re in, the tension that we’re living in because he says, we know that while we’re at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. Meaning, while we’re here on Earth, this is our temporary home. We’re not with God. Now. The Bible does tells us that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit dwells in us if we’ve trusted in Christ. So in a way, God’s always with us. But there’s also something different here. We’re not fully or completely in God’s presence yet, but there is something missing that we can’t say about heaven. So there’s this tension. We’re on this earth now, and we’re not fully and completely in the presence of God. So this is what he says in verse seven that we need to walk by faith, not by the opposite of that is sight. For we walk by faith, not by sight. He kind of puts these two things in contrast to one another. When we walk by faith, we’re going to unpack exactly what that means is we’re not going based off of what we can see or observe, or what our logic or our reasoning can tell us. You’re not living based off of your own power, your own strength, your own planning, your own scheming, your own purpose. Walking by faith is saying, I’m trusting God, not myself. And so for this, you need to think am I walking by faith or am I walking by sight? Now this idea of walk if you know other parts of Scripture, if you’ve read the Bible, this idea of walk doesn’t mean I’m literally walking. Instead, what Paul’s saying here is living. It’s another way to say how I am living. It’s a manner of life. So when we talk about walking by faith, Paul’s talking about something in how we’re called to live the manner of life where we’re living. So I want to give us a working definition here. Okay? This isn’t perfect. I don’t say this is, but this is pulling from this scripture and other scriptures. Paul says elsewhere to walk by the spirit. You’ve probably heard that as well. But this is this is kind of a working definition that I’m, that I’m pulling from this verse. Are you ready? Walking by faith is living your life, trusting in God. And here’s the catch. Even when you cannot see the outcome, even when what I see and what I notice around me, even though that is unclear, I’m still going to trust God in this situation. Now, this is also important. Walking by faith is not something that you did. It’s not something that I did it that one time. Now I’m good for the rest of my life. Walking by faith is an ongoing daily walk with Christ. To walk by faith is to keep going. So this shouldn’t just be something we point to that we did in the past, but it’s something that we should be on going and doing into the future, present and future. So for you, are you walking by faith today? Are you walking by faith with your finances, even though you don’t know if you’re going to be be able to pay your bills next month? Are you walking by faith with your finances, even though you’re not quite sure what the outcome is going to be at the end of the month? Are you walking by faith with your health? I don’t know what this problem is. I don’t know why I’m experiencing this health issue, but are you going to walk by faith trusting that God’s purpose and plan is still in play here? Are you going to walk by faith when it means I got to share the gospel with my coworker or my family member, or the person that I interact with on a on a daily basis? Am I going to walk by faith in that, even though I’m not sure how they’re going to react, how they’re going to respond? And if God’s going to speak through me in that moment. College student students are, are you going to walk by faith in your career where you want to go in your life, even though what you want is not what God wants for your life? Because it’s true. We can come up with a plan that we think is right, but then God says, no, I want you to go this way. Walking by faith says, all right, God, I’m not going to go this way. I’m going to go your way. Even though this looks easier, even though this looks better, even though this is the easier path. Does that make sense? I’m going to walk by faith despite what I see. And so Paul unpacks this a little bit in the verses prior. So if you look in chapter four and verse 18, just a couple verses before this, Paul says, as we look not to the things that are unseen, but to the things that are, let me when we read that again, we look not at the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. They’re going away, but the things that are unseen are eternal. So consider this for yourself is your life being directed by things that you see or things that you don’t see? It’s kind of counterintuitive. Is it not? He says this in verse one of chapter five that the chapter that we’re in in this morning, he says, for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home, that’s our body, this tent is destroyed. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. So even if this body, even if this world was destroyed, you know what? We still have a house, a kingdom in heaven that will never be destroyed. So it has to be asked the question. Are you walking by faith? Are you walking by the things? And your life is directed and playing by the things that you see? Because here’s the danger to this. When you see with your what do you see with your eyes can distract you from what God can do through your faith. I’ll say that again. What you see with your eyes can distract you from what God can do through your faith. Meaning, if your decisions, your life choices are all decided based off of what you think, what you believe is best according to your plan, and even in the short term, immediate. If your life is all based off of what you see, how you observe, and you’re making decisions based off of your your reasoning and logic that can distract you from what God really wants in your life. Excuse me. Now, I would never say, don’t use your brain. That’s not what I’m saying. But I’m saying is walking by faith is trusting in God even amidst the things that don’t make sense. Y’all know the famous musician Stevie Wonder. Hopefully Stevie Wonder is still alive. I think he’s in his 70s, but Stevie Wonder is an incredible musician, incredible musician. He plays multiple instruments, is influenced music on a grand scale. But he has an interesting quote because, excuse me, he was born blind. At six weeks old. He was diagnosed as completely blind. And he’s lived with this in his entire life. And he could have easily said, you know, I can’t do anything with my life. But despite being blind, he became an incredible musician. And look at this quote for a minute. I think it’s helpful for us today. This is what Stevie Wonder said. Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision. I love that just because he can’t see doesn’t mean he can’t have a vision for his life and where he’s headed. See, there’s physical sight, but there’s vision too. And what Paul would say is we don’t live and operate by what we physically see. We primarily would walk by our faith, and sometimes it might even be better if we were blind because we wouldn’t be distracted by the trials. By the things that are intimidating, the things that are scary. And yet we still walk by faith. So we get to this point that I think is helpful. The direction of your life should be determined more by your faith than by your sight. Faith should direct your life more than what you can come up with. From the big moments, from the big choices to the small, that our life should be directed by what? By our faith and not by our reasoning. Does that make sense? So here’s our point tonight or this morning, we need to walk by faith, not by sight. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. It’s good enough. Walk by faith, not by sight. Because I think too for your 2026 God may have a huge, incredible plan for your life in this year coming year, but it may require some suffering. It may require some trials, some difficulties. But with all that said, wouldn’t it be better to suffer in God’s plan than to just be delighting in your own plan and to settle for what you can come up with. But this year, God has a plan for your life, for your ultimate good. And I would encourage you, what does that look like? And how can you walk by faith this year to what God wants and not what you want? I love this in first Corinthians 13:12. This is the first letter that Paul wrote, but it’s a helpful verse. You may have heard it before, but Paul is at the end of the letter and he’s saying a few things. He says, for now we see in a mirror dimly, in other words, looking into a mirror, and I can’t fully see what God is doing. I can’t fully know God. But later, then, face to face. Now, one day we will have sight and we will see what exactly God was doing all this time, he says, now I know in part. But then I shall know fully, even as I’ve been fully known. He’s giving us this picture right now. We have to walk by faith, but soon we will get to see God face to face in all that he has done. So if I can put it this way, the present duty of every Christian is faith. Right now you and I are called to walk by faith. But if I could encourage you with something one day, our future reward is what we will get to see. We’ll get to see God. We’ll get to see all the fruition of his plan and what he was doing all this time. But now it’s the hard part. It’s the in-between. It’s the tension that we have to walk by faith and not by sight. Let’s go on here. The next verse in our in our passage, it says in verse eight, yes, we are of good courage. He brings this idea up again. It’s the second time, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So again, he draws this, this difference. And with this we should have great courage and confidence again, that we should have a courageous spirit about us, that even though we may face difficulty and trials and tribulations and pain and suffering, that we can say, I have confidence that God will come through. So right now the tension is this that I would rather be away from the earth and to go be home with God. Do you kind of pick up what Paul is saying? I, I would rather die to go home and be with God. That’s a hard thing to to say and even think about. Like, I would rather die now so I can go be home with God. But here’s what I think Paul’s kind of drawing on. Excuse me that when you walk by faith, knowing your future eternity, you become content with death itself. That even the reality of death doesn’t faze you. Now, this is not Paul saying I want to die. I want to suffer. What this means is, if death is how I get to God. I’m okay with this. I’m okay in this life. If I can walk by faith not knowing what’s next. And if death is going to happen to me, I’m content knowing that where I’m going is with God. What an incredible faith that requires. I don’t know if I would have the faith in the moment that I know that death was approaching me, that I can just say I’m content, but Paul is in this place where he can. This is the beautiful part that when we walk by faith, not even death can break that confidence in us. And if death can’t break our confidence, neither can financial struggles, relational struggles, difficult choices that you’re going to have to make. Because if God is taking care of death, what else is everything else? He goes on here in verse nine. So whether we are at home or away, meaning whether we die or whether we go home or whether we stay on earth, here is Paul’s aim for his life. We make it our aim to what this is important church to please him. We make it our aim to please him, meaning whatever happens to me, it can be death itself. And yet my aim is still to please God. Would you say today that the main goal of your life is to please God? And no matter what happens to me in life or in death, in trial, or in the good times, my my purpose and my aim is to please God. That should be our aim, because the aim for every Christian should be to please God with their whole lives. That should be our aim. That should be our focus, that should be the direction of our life. I want to please God no matter what happens to me. So you know what it means to walk by faith. It means that I’m going to strive to please God no matter what has happened to me, how my health is doing, how my finances are doing, how my relationships are doing. I’m going to strive to please God in whatever way that I can. Yesterday, I visited one of our members in the hospital. They’ve been there for about a week, and they’ve been struggling because they have a health issue that they don’t know what is the problem. And some of you may have been in that that scenario, in that situation, and not knowing what’s wrong with you is a terrible thought, especially when it’s debilitating because it’s church member. They can’t even get out of bed hardly another part of this is that they’re completely healthy. All the tests are saying they’re fine. Several months ago, they were running marathons and now they’re debilitated. They can’t move. And so despite what the tests say, despite all these things, they can’t figure out the problem. And so you can imagine the stress and the concern and the frustration and the anxiety that comes along with that. But even in meeting with them yesterday and just sitting down and talking with them. Their attitude, this person’s attitude is this I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to walk by faith. I don’t know why. I don’t know what. Here’s even tougher when I don’t know when. But I’m going to walk by faith. Why? Because I know that God is going to work it out. And when you walk by faith, you know what you do. You please God that even when it’s difficult, I’m going to please God with how I respond, how I speak, how I act, how I make my choices. I’m going to please God because I’m going to walk by faith. Because here’s the truth. Hebrews 11:6 brings this to light, and without faith, it’s impossible to please him. Do you hear me? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. If I don’t have faith in God, I can’t please him. Now you’re probably thinking, how does that work out? Well, let’s look at it for this in this way. Say, I asked one of my kids from my my daughter or my daughter comes up to me and she she asked, daddy, I want to play a game with you. And I say, great, sweetheart, but do me something first. Can you go to your room, clean it up, get it straightened up. So when we go to play our game, there’s not a bunch of mess around right? So you can imagine what a young kid might do. What you would, might do is an anger stomp. March back to the room and start picking up the room with anger and bitterness in her heart. Now, let me tell you, as a father, is that pleasing to me that she would respond and obey. Obey me that way. No. Because here’s what can happen we can sinfully obey God. Catch what I’m saying. We can sinfully obey God when we obey out of obligation. I’m obeying God because I have to. God, I hate this, I don’t, I don’t like this. I’m doing it and I’m angry and I’m bitter and I’ve got resentment. Romans 14:23 says, anything not done in faith is sin. So yes, we can externally obey God and do it with an angry, bitter, resentful attitude. And that’s not walking by faith. Walking by faith, says God. I don’t know why you want me to do this. I don’t know why you’re calling me to do this, but with joy, I’m still going to go do it. I don’t understand, I don’t know why I can’t understand why you have me in this situation, but I’m still going to walk by faith, even though I can’t fully understand it. And listen, I’ve done this. I have tried to do things on obeying God. But. But reality is, I was sinning in my heart because I really didn’t want to do what God called me to do. I want to do what I want to do, but I’m just going to do it because I have to. But what if in 2026, we walk by faith not because we have to, but because we want to? Talk about pleasing your father. And if I can say it this way, pleasing God. It’s not about earning heaven, it’s about bringing delight to him. You pleasing God. It’s not about I’ve got to appease God. I got to do all of these things that God likes me. No pleasing God is about. I want to bring delight and joy to God with my life. I want to live my life in such a sacrificial way that it brings joy and delight to God. So I got to ask. Is that how you’re walking today? Let’s wrap it up here in our last verse, second Corinthians five, verse ten says, for we must appear all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Why do we all need to appear before the judgment seat of Christ? He says, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. It’s kind of a scary reality. Now, one day we will stand before our Lord and Savior Jesus, and we will give an account for our life. And we will receive as what he says, what is due to him. Well, I put that in English layman’s terms. What he deserves. So if I can say it this way, your actions today have eternal consequences. How you act today has eternal consequences, and that could be for good or for evil. And here’s a beautiful thing about this that if you’re a believer, if you’re a Christian, if you’re walking by faith that you will be rewarded in heaven and how you live now impacts that reward. That your life counts. It matters. So listen, we should aim to please God. And here’s why. Because one day we will receive a reward. I want to be careful here. This does not mean that we can work and do good enough to earn heaven. This does not mean that I can earn my salvation. This does not mean I have to work for God to accept me in heaven. This is not what that means. The Bible refutes this all over the place. In fact, Ephesians two eight for by grace you have been saved. Through faith you’re saved by your faith, not by your works. He says in verse nine, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. But here’s what he says in verse ten for we believers, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So you know what that means. You’re saved by grace, but now you are working from that grace. You’re living a life that’s pleasing to him and making the world a better place so that God gets the glory no matter what you’re going through. And in that, I’m not walking by sight. I’m walking by faith. No matter what comes my way. So here’s your second point this morning. Find joyful contentment in pleasing God. I pray for you this year, in 2026, that you would have a joyful contentment that no matter the circumstance in your life, you can have joy. Why? Because God is taking care of your future. And in doing that, you know what you do. You please your father, that you are walking by faith, even though it doesn’t make sense, even though it doesn’t come naturally. You’re walking by faith, even though what you see says not to, that you still trust God. So a challenge for us this morning is this how do you plan to walk by faith this next year? So my wife and I, we got together. We prayerfully considered what we were going to do as a family and how we were going to walk by faith this year. And so we thought about it even, this week we started writing stuff down because once you write it down, it becomes serious, doesn’t it? So we thought about it. What is the Flowers family going to do for 2026? I give you a little sneak peek just because it might be helpful for you all. But if you as an individual or you as a family, here’s what we are going to strive to do in 2026. We want to walk by faith by giving God more of our attention. This year, we want to give God more of our attention and more of our time. And so we’re going to walk by faith, trusting God with our time, with our attention, even though everything else tells us to give it somewhere else. For you, it might be. I want to walk by faith with my finances this year whether you have a lot or a little, I’m going to trust God. But I’m going to give knowing that God is going to take care of our bills at the end of the month, I’m going to give challenging God that God I’m going to give. And I pray that you still pay for my bills the end of the month. I’m going to walk by faith with that family member that I know is not a believer. I know they’re not a believer, but you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to walk by faith, and I’m going to engage them with the gospel in a loving, joyful, truthful way. And I’m going to trust that when I do, you’re going to speak whatever this looks like for you. This is why walking by faith in 2026, you need to make it your own. For some of you, that might be, you know what? I’m going to prayerfully consider who I’m going to invite to Easter this year. And you know what God can do with that faith? He can grow a church. You know what God can do with that faith? He can lead others to know Christ. You know what God can do with that faith? He can get you through the worst of circumstances. No matter what you’re dealing with. So this year, what is that going to look like for your family? So here’s what I would like for you to do. Take this as you’re going home, begin processing. What am I what is my family going to do in 2026 to walk by faith with God? Let’s pray. Well, thank you for your word. I thank you for the written truth and the testimony that Paul gives here. We know God that life is difficult in all the various ways, and all the various things that we go through. Life is difficult. It’s full of trials and pain and suffering and anxiety and worry and doubt. But God, if we can remind ourselves this morning, what’s your what’s your word tells us that if we walk by faith, you will give us a confidence and a joyful contentment to face every situation. But I pray, father, specifically for for our church family here and for those who are, who are, who are coming, maybe for the first time this Sunday that we would pause and consider, how am I? How is my family going to walk by faith this next year? God, I pray that you would empower them, that you would give them wisdom, that you would shape their their thoughts and their desires around your Word so that what happens in 2026 is your will and not theirs. And I pray God that it would be pleasing to you, that it would glorify you, and that it would satisfy us. God, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.