Living by Faith
April 6, 2026
Ms. Chisgarh. Turn your mind, as if you would, to Hebrews chapter number six tonight. Hebrews chapter number six for just a bit tonight, Hebrews chapter number six. By the way, hasn’t it been a blessing to have Brother Bill Gillespie down with us all day long? Praise the Lord for Brother Bill. He’s down typically to be with us at church. Pretty amazing from Nashville. And we’re always honored to have him with us. That’s great.
And Brother Russ, that was interesting, the services in Vietnam. I remember our—used to be our World War II—Mr. Jackson, and he talked about some services in World War II. One he always mentioned: he was in the Philippines, on some hill, and he said they were just far enough away from the enemy that they could have a service on a Sunday morning. He said it was the sweetest service he’s ever been in.
He’s talking about in war and whatnot, in combat. He said there are very sincere services. When you think, “Man, I might be gone; I might be dying here soon.” There are some serious services. And that’s a good thought. And they would sing, “To God Be the Glory.” And that is neat.
Hebrews chapter number six. We’re going to start in verse number 10. Would you please stand as I read God’s word together? Hebrews 6 and verse number 10: “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.”
“And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end; that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing, I will bless thee. And multiplying, I will multiply thee.”
“And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”
Would you pray with me that God would speak to us just a bit tonight about living by faith—living by faith? Would you pray with me? Lord, you know I battle from time to time living by faith. Lord, I think we all do. Lord, you encourage us in this area; grow us. Lord, maybe just remind us of your word and your promises and help us to be Christians that live by faith more because of tonight, Father. And Lord, we thank you for what you do. It’s in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
I was reading a book Preacher Finn wrote, and he asked me to read it before he gets published and whatnot. And I read this statement. It’s a great, great statement. It said—well, I don’t have the quote right in front of me—but it said, “Either you live by faith or you live scheming and self-reliance.” Well, I underlined it. I said, “That’s so true.”
Life offers us plenty of times when either we live by faith or we live scheming, manipulating, trying to control, living on self-reliance, or we live by faith. I thought, “Wow, that’s a great, great statement.”
Jacob, Jacob is the classic. Really, in my opinion, Jacob’s problem was Jacob; he just lacked faith big time. You know, it all started with his older brother, and his older brother had the birthright. And, you know, sometimes—how many of you are not the oldest sibling? How many of you are not the oldest sibling? Now, you could say, “Well, that’s not fair, this birthright deal.” Now, all the oldest siblings, you think it’s fair? Come on now, you know it’s in the Bible right now.
And we just started conflict, you know, between a couple people here today. But here’s the thing: the younger sibling has to say, “You know what? God’s got a reason for this. God’s overseeing this. He’s just. I’m just going to leave it in the hands of God.” Or Jacob, he was a supplanter, a deceiver, a manipulator.
And Esau comes in, a little hungry, you know, and he said he was about to die. So Jacob said, “Ching-ching,” I have a scheming way. He wouldn’t live by faith. A little bit later on, basically the same thing: the blessing of Dad, Isaac, favored Esau. Instead of Jacob saying, “You know what? God sees; God knows all that,” Jacob said, “You know what? I’m going to do a little scheming.” His mom helped him, by the way. His mom helped form a bad pattern in him. Boy, she had a big part in that. And same thing, Isaac and Esau, a favoritism there. But instead of just trusting God, he’s always scheming and manipulating him.
And, boy, it’s a sad thing because he reaped from that for years and years. You know, you’re going to reap what you sow. And then for about 20 years, he’s over there working for Laban, and Laban’s always changing his wages and deceiving. And he worked for the guy, and then later on, he was reaping in his son’s life—his favorite son, who, of course, is following mom and dad, unfortunately, and having a favorite son, a coat of many colors and all that. And for 13 long years, he thought that son had been killed. And he was reaping.
Not only that, he had two of his boys, when his daughter died and had been mistreated, they manipulated and killed a whole village. Everybody was just after him. He just reaped. But his problem, I believe, his basic problem, is he lacked faith. And so instead of living by faith, trusting God, he had just a system inside of him. He just schemed through life and manipulated through life. Instead of trusting God, he was trying to control the situation—my, what manipulation and scheming him.
And God finally—finally, at one point—God said, “Hey, no more. No more of this manipulation.” Your brother Esau’s coming. You remember the story? He’s got 400 men with him, rugged men ready for battle. And Jacob, he tried to scheme. He put gifts out there, and put his flocks out there, and put his children out there, put his wives out there. And God said, “All that’s not going to do, big boy. This time we’ll have to deal with each other here.”
And the Lord came and showed up, and he wrestled with the angel of the Lord that night. And it’s amazing to be the Lord—Lord, let him wrestle with him all night long. But at the end of the night, the Lord just touched the hollow of his hip. The sinew, that’s one of the strongest parts of a human body, they say. Just touched him, and for the rest of his life, he walked with a limp. God’s saying, “Jacob, I don’t want any more of you living on all your scheming and all the rest of that. I want you living by faith.”
It’s so important. You know the Bible talks about the just shall live by faith four different times. One time, “the just shall live by his faith.” God wants us to be men and women of faith. But you’re going to have a choice: either you live by faith or you live by self-reliance and scheming and manipulating. It’s just amazing how that works.
Abraham here in Hebrews, he’s using Abraham as a good example—not a perfect example, but a good example. Remember, God said, “Now, Abraham, I’m going to make you a great, great nation. And boy, you’re blessed. And I’m just going to give you so many seed as the stars.” And Abraham, at one point—it’s interesting, we always talk about Hagar, and we will get to that—but at one point, Abraham just went himself without his wife and said, “Hey, God, we’re not having any children. How about you use my senior servant, Eliezer over there, and we can have this mighty nation through his seed?” God said, “No, no, no, no, no. I told you it’s going to come through Sarah. Quit trying your scheming and all the rest of that; live by faith.”
And then a little bit later on, while his wife Sarah said, “Hey, you know, we’re not having any children. We’re getting old here. And we got this servant lady over there from Egypt, Hagar. How about you marry her and go in to her?” And Abraham said, “All right, we’ll not live by faith; we’ll live by scheming and self-reliance.” And that happened, and then they had Ishmael. By the way, the wars we’re having today go back to someone that wasn’t living by faith. They were living by their self-reliance and what they could do and trying to scheme to make it happen. And, friend, Satan always loves for us to scheme and try to make things happen instead of living by faith. Boy, it’s just so important, living by faith.
Of course, eventually, that’s what we talk about there in verse number 15. I love this verse: Hebrews 6:15. You’re there? Speaking of Abraham, “And so after he had patiently endured, 25 plus years, he obtained the promise.”
But you’re either—you see every test. Look over in James, if you would please, James chapter 1. And we’ll read it, and then we’ll give you the principle, the truth from it. But James chapter number one, and we’ll start in verse number two right there, James 1 and verse number two. And we won’t be long tonight.
James 1 and verse number two. He says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.” Watch this. This is what I’m trying to get at: “Knowing this, that the trying of your what? Faith worketh patience.” Here’s one, just simply trying to get out of this here for the time being: every one of your tests boils down to a test of your faith. Every trial. Every trial. Knowing this, that the trial of—are you going to live by faith? Are you going to live by self-reliance and scheming? Yeah. Knowing this, that the trial of your…
Now, here are some hard things about living by faith. We’ll just move along here real quickly. Look back over there in Hebrews 6. Look back over there, if you would please. That’s our text verse. We’ll go back to it. Well, I don’t know if we’ll go back to it again or not. But Hebrews 6, look at verse number 12, and I’m going to show you a word that me and you—at least me—I don’t like in here, part of God’s formula. Hebrews 6. Look in verse number 12 right there: “That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and what?” Oh, my goodness. You had to bring that word in there, didn’t you? Faith and patience inherit the promise.
Living by faith—listen to it—living by faith requires patience. I don’t like that part. What’s the issue in your life? Financial issues, physical issues, relationship issues? What’s a big thing where it’s going to come down: Are you going to live by faith in that thing? Maybe you’ve been praying for someone to get saved or a wayward child or grandchild for years and years. It’s going to come down to: Are you going to live by faith? Are you going to live by scheming and self-reliance?
And here’s the problem. Here’s the thing I don’t like about it: It’s going to require faith and patience if you’re going to obtain the promises. So after Abraham patiently endured—notice that—patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
Look, look, the great Christians in the Bible that obtained the promises, they did it by faith and patience. You know, David was anointed king, just that little shepherd boy. We’re not quite sure how old he was, but he was anointed to be king. But it was years and years. A little bit later on, he killed Goliath and then got into the military, Israel’s military. And in the meantime, he played the harp for Saul. And then he ran from Saul—some say five years; we don’t know how long—but it was maybe 13 plus years before he became the king of just Judah. Then seven more years before he became king. I’m saying it took faith and patience.
Boy, during that time, I don’t think he passed 100%. I think at some time during that, he started his scheming when he went down and lived over there in the Philistine country. But it’s going to be: you’re living by faith, or you live in by scheming and self-reliance, but it’s going to require patience. Job waited for a year, year and a half. Samuel started as a boy, served the Lord, but it was years before he became the great prophet.
In our day and time, we want everything, boom, you know, let’s have it right now. I mean, I am—you know, there’s—I got to be careful what names I use. I like to order from a certain company. I don’t like to order from this company because it’s more liberal, but I order from this more liberal company sometimes because they got the mail system in. You order it, it’s going to come in real quick. You know what I’m talking about it? Don’t look at me like that. You do the same thing now. We just want it right now. By the way, if it wasn’t for ordering online, how much money would we save nowadays? Just too easy to click that button. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, boy. But in our day and time, we want everything right now. But in God’s economy, God didn’t work that way.
And it’s just—can I just encourage you tonight to decide, “You know what? I’m going to be patient and wait in faith. I’m not going to say, ‘God, if I don’t get it right now, I’m not going to do it.’ I’m not going to resort to self-reliance and scheming. I’m going to, for the long haul, I’m going to do my best to live by faith.” The just shall live by faith.
Faith requires a decision. There are some people that are more gifted at faith. Some people—you know, one of the spiritual gifts is faith. I think Les Rolf was just a man—I think it was his spiritual gift for sure, one of them was faith. Man, he’d just go out and say, “We’re going to claim that land over there, and we’re going to put a children’s home up on there.” And years later, they had a children’s home up on my way right there.
Wow, I wish I had that kind of faith. Doesn’t it make you sick every once in a while when you meet people that are just gifted with faith, you know? And even those people that are gifted with faith, whoever ultimately requires a decision: “I’m going to decide to live by faith.” Someone gets saved, they’re making a decision to put their faith—they’re going to eternally live by faith, putting their faith in Jesus. Faith requires a decision.
Our faith likes something or someone to rest in. I’m going to use these hats as our faith. This is my favorite hat right here. I’m not a hat guy; I know I wear hats very often at all, every once in a while. But if I wear a hat more often, especially at a ballgame or something, I like this hat here. It just says, “God Jesus has got a question mark on.” I like to wear it. I get looks, you know, every once in a while. You don’t have any—for the most part, lost people, you know, say, “What does that mean?” But I’ll get a Christian every once in a while, I say, “Hey, man, I like your hat.” Now, if I’m not wearing this hat, which I don’t wear a hat very often… Come on now. Come on now. Come on now, two of them right there. We’re having revival going on right here. No, it’s not Vanderbilt. Come on. Or Ohio State over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you know, hats are our faith; it represents our faith, hats. You know, you want somewhere to hang your hat. And we like our emotions and our fault patterns; we want somewhere to hang our faith. We don’t like to be in limbo. We want something to put our faith in. It’s hard. By the way, though, I will remind you, Curtis used to say, “You never learn faith in comfortable surroundings.”
Now, God, on the other hand, He likes for you to hang your hat on Him. What does it say over there in Hebrews 11:6? “Without faith, it is impossible.” It doesn’t say it’s hard. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Impossible. God likes us to hang our hat—sorry, Brother Patrick—on Him. He wants our hats of faith. I’m talking about maybe financial; He doesn’t want you relying on this or that. He wants you hanging your financial hat by faith on Him. Physical problems: Would you have me to get past this, or whatever may be? Relationship prayer? Then God didn’t want you hanging on all your self-reliance and scheming. God wants you to put your faith hat on Him. That’s what He likes.
Now, God helps us. Faith can be tough to live by, and I’m just being honest with you, because of our emotions and our fault pattern, we want something. We just—we just—we just got to have something. And God says, “You’ve got Me.” But as humans, we’re like, “No, I want more.” And God says, “No, you’re not putting your faith in Me then.”
But God, in His graciousness, He does give us something to hang our hats on. Now, this is going to represent the Lord here. I better not break this. My wife, let me take it out of our house. And, you know, this represents the Lord. But here’s the good thing: just hanging it here will be hard. But you know these little hooks? If I can get it on one of them… You know these little hooks? It helps you to hang your hat on this.
Now, you know what God gives us? Promises all through the Bible. I mean, you say financial, okay, there are so many verses that will help you. Matthew 6:33, Malachi 3:7 through 10. I mean, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory,” over there in Philippians. So there are just all through the Bible. Proverbs 3:9 and 10. I mean, just—or maybe physical. You know, there are a lot of verses. I think about that verse over there, you know, where He’s talking about, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” Well, that’s a great promise for a wiser generation to claim. But I’m just saying, if you’re going to live by faith, man, we need every little bit of help we can to live by faith because it can be tough. And God gives you these promises. And if you’re truly going to live by faith and not by self-reliance and scheming, you’re going to need something to hang on to. And it’s called the Word of God. God gives you those. There are so many of them. It’s amazing for everything.
And I’m not trying to say I do all this, but, you know, I have my hands in a lot of different things. That’s why I got fingers cut off, you know. Got my hands in the wrong things. And I’ve been claiming, “Consider what to say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things.” And that’s been a promise, and it’s helped me. All right, I got to do this and handle this. I’m not a—you know, I had to go get some things notarized. And it is our wastewater system for the new property. I don’t never done all that stuff in my life. I’m a preacher, man, you know. And so, but, but, but Lord, that’s—I’m just saying those promises. God will give you promises to hang your hat on different things. See?
And instead of relying on our ability and our scheming like Jacob, no, let’s be more like Abraham. “So after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promises.”
I studied a little bit this afternoon. I looked over the corner of my office at the house there, and Brother Richard gave me this stick years ago. And he said, “Now, you take all those walks in the morning time; you need something to protect you.” And here’s the thing about it: it’s got Bible verses all over it. I mean, just all the way down through it. He’s got Bible verses. I need to read all of them, find out what all they are. And as you walk through life, God has to give you promises that you hang your hat of faith on. And it’s going to take some time. You’re going to have to make the decision to live by faith instead of yourself and all that.
But I looked at it and I thought, what’s the first one there? Second Corinthians 5:7 is the very top one right there: “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” That’s what God wants. That’s going to take some patience. Keep praying for that loved one to get saved. Keep praying for that neighbor to get saved. Keep praying for God to work. Live in my faith. It’s going to take some patience. But after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
Original File: 2026-04-06 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Easter Sunday PM 04⧸05⧸2026