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Steve Says

One great scene in the original Star Wars movie (A New Hope), is when Darth Vader gets upset in a meeting a decides to choke his co-worker. All jokes aside, after he releases Admiral Motti, he speaks one of the greatest lines in the movie: “I find your lack of faith disturbing”. While Vader is talking about Motti’s belief in the force instead of the Faith that you and I share as Christians, there is still a very real truth to this phrase. Lacking in faith is very disturbing!

Hebrews 11:6 states, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Without faith, we CANNOT please God. Hebrews chapter 11 is often referred to has the “Faith Hall of Fame”, but is it? Let’s look at some of the people mentioned in this chapter. Noah got drunk, Abraham lied twice about Sarah being his wife because he was afraid of what others might do to him, Moses disobeyed God and wasn’t allowed to enter into the promised land, Gideon laid his fleece before God twice, Barak only went into war because Deborah agreed to go with him, Samson broke every single part of his Nazarite vow, and David was an adulterer and a murderer.

So why, if all these people mentioned showed a lack of faith, are they brought up in this chapter? Because sin (missing the mark) does not mean you are without faith, it means you messed up and had a brief lapse in your faith or your judgement. No one is perfect except God. These people are mentioned in Hebrews 11 BECAUSE they were considered faithful even though they sinned. Praise God we can be counted as children of God even when our sin separates us from Him.