Standing In Faith

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.