Believing Is Seeing

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the YouTube recording's caption track, read through the transcript panel — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

The text and the announced subject.

Keys thanks the committee, his friend Anthony Mangun, Elder Tenney, and the house, and turns to a familiar text: Psalm 27, where David said he would have fainted unless he had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He reads the verse entire, twice. His subject reverses the world's proverb: not seeing is believing, but believing is seeing — belief comes first, and the sight follows it. He asks the congregation to receive it by faith perception rather than by natural observation.

Scriptures: Psalm 27:13

Thomas, the certified doubter.

He tells the John 20 story entire: Thomas was absent when Jesus came, heard his brethren's report, and demanded the evidence of his own senses — the print of the nails, his finger in the wounds, his hand in the side — before he would believe. Eight days later the Lord returned and answered him: because you have seen, you have believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Keys works the scene into a "photograph" of Thomas and warns against the pessimistic, doubt-ridden attitude it represents; his theme title for the condition is the certified doubter, and his essay on names runs to the Adamic labels mankind still answers to.

Scriptures: John 20:24-25; John 20:29

The goodness refrain.

He moves to Psalm 107 and works the refrain verse by verse — verse 1, then verses 8, 15, 21, and 31 — "O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men" — leading the house in it as a congregational response. The goodness of God is the object belief fastens on. Around it he sets the Wonderland anecdote (the trip not taken because it was assumed, not believed) and the placement lesson: seeing requires being present and positioned, like a man who must be in the outfield to catch the ball.

Scriptures: Psalm 107:1; Psalm 107:8; Psalm 107:15; Psalm 107:21; Psalm 107:31

Negativism, the hallelujah stealer.

Against the refrain he sets the murmurer and the cynic — the "faith thieves" who steal every hallelujah — and the brevity of life: the words from the book of Job, that man's days are short and full of trouble, and Paul's word that in the last days perilous times shall come. He declares his own determination to keep his hallelujah and returns to his text: David would have fainted, but he believed to see. The murmurer's habitat is named and refused; the tongue's negativism is priced as a thief of praise, not a harmless temperament.

Scriptures: Job 14:1; 2 Timothy 3:1; Psalm 27:13 (reprised)

Elijah: the last chapter and this one.

He reminds the house of 1 Kings 18 entire — Elijah on Carmel, the fire, the rain, the prophets of Baal slain — and then of the collapse that followed: the same prophet under a juniper tree asking to die. He calls brother Cunningham to read, and the reading of 1 Kings 19 runs from the fourth verse through the cave exchange — the angel's cake and cruse, the forty days to Horeb, the wind, the earthquake, the fire, and the still small voice — with Keys interjecting exposition and urging the reader on. Keys then gives the anointing charge in his own words, flagging it himself as paraphrase rather than the text, and has the eighteenth verse read at his direction: seven thousand reserved who have not bowed the knee to Baal. The lesson he draws is that the prophet's low moment did not cancel the reserve God had kept.

Scriptures: 1 Kings 18; 1 Kings 19:4-14, 18

Faith perception and his own testimony.

He stands alongside the psalmist — surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life — and testifies of God's care in his own ministry: the meetings, the people gathered, the hallelujah kept. The "joy coming in the morning" refrain runs through this movement as his own adapted formula (a priced form, not an index entry; the verse's weeping half is never voiced). His daughter's cry of faith — "Daddy, I believe it" — stands as the movement's picture of believing before seeing.

Scriptures: Psalm 23:6

Haves and have-nots; choosing faith companions.

Attitude, he argues, determines altitude: the difference between the haves and the have-nots is not pedigree, looks, or talent, but outlook. He retells Grandpa Mangun's warning — a man is known by the spirit of his company; run with cynics and you will catch their spirit — and counsels the house to choose optimistic companions whose faith lifts rather than drains. His own household stands as his exhibit: a wonderful daughter and son-in-law and grandchildren, whom he names only as a class, in his own telling.

Scriptures: none new in this movement.

The closing challenge and the declaration.

He closes his Bible and issues the challenge: God is looking for a man or a woman who will declare, before the evidence arrives, "it's going to be me." He invites the other pastors present to lift their voices with him, models the declaration himself — ministry, family, the unsaved, the prodigals coming home — and leads the house in it through a final dance turn, his voice carrying the declaration to the sermon's close. (The "windows of heaven" phrase inside his exhortation is a priced fragment, not an index entry.) What follows on the recording — the floor opening to dozens of other voices declaring revival for their cities, and other speakers' testimonies — is outside this record and is seamed out.

Summary scripture index: Psalm 27:13 · John 20:24-25 · John 20:29 · Psalm 107:1 · Psalm 107:8 · Psalm 107:15 · Psalm 107:21 · Psalm 107:31 · Job 14:1 · 2 Timothy 3:1 · 1 Kings 18 · 1 Kings 19:4-14, 18 · Psalm 23:6 (13 entries).

Scriptures: none new in this movement.