I heard that we will be eating tonight, so I brought my own salt and pepper, just to be safe.
I have come tonight to talk a little bit about faith and its importance in our lives, so to start us out; I have a short little story.
“So then Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” – Romans 10:17 KJV
Picture this, you have walked for miles and miles. You are tired and ready for a long nap. You walk up towards a town gate. As you stare at a distance you meet a young man that tells you that the gate is locked. You say ok, well I will test this out for myself. As you continue your walk towards the gate you are met by two ladies walking away from the gate. The ladies stop you and tell you that the gate is locked. You continue onward, because you are tired and ready to take a long rest. You have told yourself that the gate cannot possibly be locked, because people must be able to get in and out freely, but are slowly beginning to wonder. You are met by several others that all tell you that the gate is locked. You finally decide that there is no use going any further and decide to turn around and walk towards the next closest known village, which happens to be several days journey.
“…For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you”– Matthew 17:20 KJV
As you begin your journey to the next closest village, you are met by a man carrying a large chest. As you walk, the man asks you where you are headed. You begin to tell the man of your plight and how that when you made it to the recent village that the gate was locked. The man looks on to your story with eyes of compassion. He tells you that he was in fact the man that built the gates and that although the town had been off limits to all but a few for many years, he has a key that will unlock the door. He says that he has built many gates and many places of shelter. He said that he has a key to all of the places that he has built and would like to help you out, by giving them all to you. As you take hold of the keys and turn to thank the man, he suddenly vanishes before you have the chance to ask which key goes to the main gate of the city.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” – Matthew 7:7 KJV
As you make your way back to the village, you take the time to look over the keys within your hand. You have hundreds of keys on this one key ring. You do not know how that you will ever know which key will work for the gate. As you pass one of the locals, it suddenly dawns on you that these few people that are walking around must know what key it is that will open the gate. You walk up to the closest fellow and ask him if he can tell you which key will get you into the village. The man states that he is not sure about the exact key, but he does know that it is a golden key. You then rule out about half of the keys that you have on you. You continue walking towards the gate when you see a young lady standing by the road. You ask which key it is that will get you into the city. She says that she could not tell you the exact key, but that it is larger than any ordinary key. As you hear these words you rule out several keys until you are down to about twenty or so left. As you make it to the gate you find an elderly man standing next to the gate, you tell him that you have the key to get into the gate, but you are not sure which key it is that will get you in. He says to you that he cannot be certain which key will open the gate, but he knows that it has a top and a bottom portion of the key. You thank the man and slowly take the five keys you have in your hand to the door. As you stand staring at the door, you slowly put the first key into the hole and give it a try. It does not work, so you try the next key, then the next key, and so on, until finally you are left with one key remaining. At that moment you have more faith in this key than any other key, you are sure that this key will unlock the village to you. So you put the key into the slot and turn slowly. As you turn, the lock pops free and you able to open the gate.
Most of our life we are taught to trust what we see and know. We learn to trust our feelings and trust our five senses. We rely on these for every function of our life and without them we would be incomplete. We know that in God’s Word that we must have faith and that faith comes from hearing the Word of God. We know that if we hear something long enough that we will start believing what we hear. When you think of the gate to the village, you understand that because of the testimony of so many people, you believed that the gate was locked. It is the same with God’s Word. We must listen to the Word and listen some more to the Word, until we fully believe what it says. When we believe what it says, then we can put our trust completely in it and in God, for they are one.
“But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” – Hebrews 11:6
As a child of God, we have been given the keys to many victories in our lives. We must know what those keys are and how to use them. As you had faith to use the keys to open the gate, the same is true with God’s Word. You must have the faith of a least a grain of mustard, because without that faith, you will not even attempt to use the keys that God has given you. This is where Christians get defeated so many times. Most of us believe and know that we are saved because most of us have either had it told to us by many pastors or have read so many scriptures telling us that it is true. What we don’t understand is that being saved is only a part of what is available to the body of Christ. We have been given victory over many things as a child of God. We are more than conquerors as the scriptures say, but we cannot live that life unless we have faith to walk in the obedience to the Word of God and take a hold of His promises.
This story illustrates a point that I would like to make tonight. So many times we have challenges and obstacles in our everyday life. Just on an average day we have plenty of things to think on and plenty of things to put our concentration towards. As Matthew 6:34 (NLT) states “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” We have enough troubles to hold us over for today, but how do we handle those troubles?
I have actually brought the salt and pepper shaker to illustrate a point that I would like to make tonight. The scriptures say that we need faith and faith comes by hearing, but what kind of faith do we need? Jesus says in Mark 11:22 to have faith in God. So that means we can have faith in other things as well. Let’s take this salt shaker and this pepper shaker and fill both up. Let’s pretend that this salt is our faith in God, faith in the scriptures, faith in God’s Word. And let’s pretend that this pepper is the belief in worldly matters. I can fill up both of these bottles and we can see what each will look like.
Now as Christians, we are not perfect, and we cannot walk in perfect uprightness, but we balance with God’s help. The scriptures state in Romans 12:3 that God has given us a measure of faith. That means we have something to balance on. So I can balance both of these on our measure of faith that God has given us, which is represented by the salt.
Now Matthew 5:45 tells us that God shines sunlight on the good and the evil and He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. And later in Matthew 7:24-27 it reads…
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
In this portion of scripture we see two things, first we see that the rains will come and the winds will blow on both houses, but the one on the Rock will stand. You see, sometimes that rain comes and the wind blows and it does knock us down. As Proverbs states in chapter 24 verse 16 in the New Living Translation “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.”
So let’s see what happens when we knock over these two shakers. They both fell and they both spilled something out. The same is true for us. What we put in is what will come out, but the problem comes with the fact that the winds blew and took the faith that we were resting on away. Now it is time to stand on what we have on the inside of us. If we have built ourselves up on the Faith of God, we will have something to stand on, but if we have trusted in the world’s system, try as we might, we will never stand.
So we must remember to put in what God has given us, which is His Word. We have a powerful tool to take us from day to day, but we must read and study and hide it inside of us.
Jude 1:17-25 (NLT)
17 But you, my dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said. 18 They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires. 19 These people are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them.
20 But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, 21 and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.
22 And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.
