Faith Pleases God

Faith Pleases God

Turn with me to Hebrews 11 and we’re going to begin with verse 6. “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.”

The first thing we see in this verse is that faith pleases God. It also tells us that when we come to God with faith, He becomes a rewarder of our faith. So faith, ladies and gentlemen, is the currency we need to receive the things of our inheritance.

It’s probably been a little over five years now. I had a dear friend. I grew up with her. We were best friends. One day she suddenly fell into a coma. Her husband, her sister and her children could not understand why this happened. So, like Christians are known to do, they asked everyone to pray for her.

You know how we are. We feel like the more people we have praying for us the greater the chance God is going to hear it and answer it. Can I get an Amen? We don’t play church here. We call it like it is.

So, all of us are “prayer warriors” were praying for her and for a while it looked like she was getting better. She was still in a coma but they had taken her off of the breathing machine and she was breathing on her own. But all of a sudden, she took a turn for the worst. We kept praying for healing and complete restoration. She died.

One of the things that people said because she died, and I want you to listen to this, “God has his reasons.” Ladies and gentlemen, she was 53 years old and God had his reasons? Seriously? I also heard that “We have to trust that it was God’s will and that He knows what He’s doing.”

What I didn’t hear: all of us who prayed for her, all of us prayer warriors, I didn’t hear that we had failed in our job. Do you know why we never say that? Once we pray, once we lift things up to God, we take a step back and say “It’s now in God’s hands.” We’ve done what we’re supposed to do. Now, it’s in God’s hands.

The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God and that we must believe that he is and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. I don’t Jesus experienced the kind of disappointments all of us “faith warriors” experienced. Do you think healing someone who was in a coma would have been an issue for Jesus?

Now I want to make a statement early. How many of you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Why did you do it? You did it by faith. So, all of us, ladies and gentlemen, are living and operating in some level of faith. So, we’re pleasing God at the level of faith that we’re walking in. But what we see in Hebrews 11:6 is that there is more.

We should never be satisfied with the level of faith that we’re walking in. Never. Even if we reach the point of being spot on just like Jesus, we should not be satisfied. If we did everything Jesus did, we should not be satisfied. Why? Because when you get satisfied about something, you back off, And the next thing that happens? Pride begins to creep in. We begin to think we’ve arrived. Isn’t there something in scripture about someone being lifted up with pride and challenging his Creator?

Now we’re going to look at this verse in Hebrews a little closer.

The word “without” means “there is a space.” If there is a space between you and what you’re having faith for, it’s called unbelief or not enough space. If we want God to reward our faith, then we to “close the space” of unbelief. We have to “reduce the space” of unbelief. Are you following me?

The Bible says God is a rewarder of faith. So I have to close the space, reduce the space – reduce the unbelief in my life – so God can do what he wants to do. In the case of my dear friend, answer our prayers that she would live.

Now the word “impossible.” “For without faith it is impossible….” When it comes to receiving from God, nothing is a possibility without faith. It doesn’t matter how much fasting you come to God with. It doesn’t matter how much of the Word you come to God with. It doesn’t matter how much worship you come to God with. All of them play a role in building your faith. There is no substitute for faith when it comes to pleasing God.