Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Faith is being sure of what we hope for and it is being certain of what we do not see. Because everything you hope for is in the future. And everything in the future, guess what, unless you're clairvoyant, you don't see. It is a confidence in something not seen. That virtue of being able to trust.

Dave Drewey: And welcome to Focal Point with author and pastor Mike Fabarez. I'm Dave Drewey. Do you want to live an inspired Christian life? Do you want your walk with God to take you to new and exciting places? Well, today Pastor Mike will show us the key component of a vibrant relationship with Christ. It's the start of a series in the Book of Hebrews called Ambitious Faith, a study we're excited to begin. So let's do that now as we hear about cultivating the core ingredient of the Christian life.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: We're actually, as some of you know, we always try to divide up the sections of Hebrews into some logical series. And this week, as we get into the 11th chapter, which is a nice segmented chunk of the Book of Hebrews, we're entering into what is naturally a topical series, a series that will help us tie together all of these verses in Hebrews 11 into a nice cohesive whole.

It is a chapter which is for many people the richest and one of the most favorite chapters in all of the Book of Hebrews. For some, it's their most favorite chapter in all of the Bible, Hebrews chapter 11. And rightfully so. It is filled with rich and challenging information as we review some of the heroes of the Old Testament.

It's not only the favorite chapter for a lot of people, but it really is one of the most important and urgent chapters for us to ingest. It is desperately needed in today's church. More so in the 21st-century American church than any other chapter that I can think of that we've covered so far in our series in Hebrews.

To set that tone for you, I want you to turn, before we even get to Hebrews 11, to Revelation chapter 3. If you know the Bible, you know that the second and third chapter of Revelation records the seven postcards, I like to call them, of Christ to the seven churches of Asia Minor. Those churches really are reflecting several kinds of churches that exist today. They were historical churches obviously, and he was writing them for historical circumstances in those churches.

But all of us, at one time or another in the churches that we've been to or maybe our own church, experience different things that correspond to the things that Jesus was concerned about. If you drop down to verse number 14 in Revelation chapter 3, you'll see that the postcard that I'd like us to look at from Christ is to the church of Laodicea. Even that word, if you're a Sunday school graduate, should bring a little bit of grief to your heart because you know that Jesus wasn't all too happy with the church at Laodicea.

As a matter of fact, it is really one of the most stinging indictments of the churches that are listed here in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. In verse 15, he says, "I know you guys, I know your deeds. I know that you are neither cold nor hot." He starts to paint this picture of extremes. He says you're not hot and you're not cold. "I wish you were one or the other," which is a surprising statement.

You would think God would say, "If hot is good and cold is bad, I'd like you to be hot." And yet Jesus says, "Just get on one side or the other. Go one direction or the other. I just want you here or there," which is interesting for him to say because the center for him is so repulsive as we'll find out. He says in verse 16, "Because you are lukewarm," that's the stinging descriptive indictment for the church of Laodicea. They're just status quo. He says, "I'm about to spit you out of my mouth."

If you've heard me preach on this before or you know what this really says, you know that "spit" is really not the word. That's a nice euphemistic translation. The word is really vomit. It's a gross kind of thing. "It makes me nauseous," Jesus is saying. Because you're not here and you're not here, you're just here. You're not on fire and you're not going, and you're not turning away from me. You're in church, but your hearts aren't there.

You're not thriving and you're not moving ahead, but you still come to church. You're sitting there waving your ticket to heaven. "I believe in God and I come to church," but you're not on fire. He says, "Because you're lukewarm, it just makes me nauseous. I just want to spit you guys out." Verse 17: "Because you say in your heart, 'I'm rich, we've acquired wealth, I don't need a thing.'" This church is sitting back content, spiritually fat and lazy. They sit back and they say, "We got it."

I don't think that's just a descriptive of their economic status, although historically we see that Laodicea was a rich church, a lot like the American church today compared to the church in Turkey or China or places in Africa. We are a comfortable church. We have freedom to practice our Christian religion in America. We have the freedom to buy Christian books and Bibles. We've got what we need and we're economically prosperous for the most part compared with the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, that kind of leaves you guys going, "Well, I'm okay." Certainly because I'm a Christian, I'm spiritually okay. I got my ticket to heaven. He says the problem is, "As I look down from heaven, I realize, and you need to realize, you don't realize what I realize. And that is that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." So Jesus says, "I counsel you to buy from me gold, real gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich."

He wants you to be spiritually rich. "And I want you to get some white clothes from me to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness. Your Christian life is not complete. And I want some salve in your eye, and I want to rub it in your eyes so that you can really see because you can't see." These people weren't biologically blind, but they were just spiritually not there. Then he says, "Those whom I love, I rebuke and I discipline. So be earnest and repent."

That's an amazing statement as Jesus writes a letter to a church who sits around feeling spiritually fat and content. They're waving their ticket to heaven, saying, "I believe in God and I go to church," and he goes, "You need to repent." Look at that. What does that imply? That being status quo is sin. That not being on fire for God is sin. Today, unfortunately, people think, "Well, if I'm in the middle, I'm okay." No, you're really not.

Radical Christianity, ambitious faith as we're going to see in Hebrews 11, that's normative. It is normative Christianity. Unfortunately, what we consider to be normative Christianity, especially in the 21st-century church in America, is to Christ repulsive. He doesn't like it. It makes him nauseous. This is not what he'd rather. He'd rather we be out the door and playing golf than to be here and be like, "Pat me on the head and tell me what I already believe. We all trust in Christ."

If that's where you're at, Jesus says, "I'm not happy with that. As a matter of fact, it's sin in my eyes and you need to repent." Most amazing statement in the seven postcards. Verse 20: "Here I am," Christ said. "I stand at the door and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'd come in and I'd eat with that person, and he with me. It would be great." Again, the picture is a church that is meeting together feeling spiritually well-off, and Jesus is outside knocking on the door.

"I'd love to come into that church, but I'm not here. I'm not there. I'm not in with you guys. And I'm not in with you guys because you guys are comfortable and satisfied with the status quo." Jesus says he's not even going to come to worship with those folks. This is a scary passage, isn't it? You want to go to a church where Christ says, "I'm not coming. I'll wait for you in the parking lot." I don't want to be a part of a church like that.

He says you need to listen up. Verse 22: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Can you recognize, at least have it in your mind, that maybe we are in danger of being a status quo church? Or worse yet, that you are in danger of being a status quo Christian. The Bible says that makes God sick. Let's not live there. We need to move on. We need to move up. If we're going to be average Christians and an average church, in God's mind, he can't have that.

As a matter of fact, radical Christianity, ambitious faith, that's normative stuff. It is a progress of sanctification, as Paul said, from one level of glory to the next. It is an increasing conformity to the image of Christ. It's an increasing investment in eternity. It's moving onward and upward. If we're saying, "I got saved, isn't it great? Let's go sing a few more songs about it and maybe I'll get a few nuggets and maybe the preacher can entertain me for the week," if that's our Christian life, I don't want it. Christ doesn't want it for us.

I don't want us to be a status quo church and God doesn't want you to be a status quo Christian. I heard from a visitor who said, "I brought some friends to church." I said, "Great, how did they like it?" They said, "Well, they liked the music." It's never good when it starts with that. Of course, I'm waiting. They said, "Yeah, they didn't like the preaching. They didn't like the sermon." I said, "Okay, well, why?" Are you ready for this?

The preacher made us turn in our Bibles. Here was the response: "He expects us to know where those books are in the Bible." Now, if you're thinking this is some person we pulled off of some pagan ranch, you'd say, "Well, okay, I understand that. The guy's talking Christian code." This was not that. This was a regular, active attender in another church who wants their church experience to be like their old church, which is, "No one's going to make me open up my Bible. No one's going to expect that I know where the Book of Ephesians is."

Come on, what do you want from me? Here was the final word: "I'm never going to go back there again." That was the response. Always uplifting reports to hear after Easter. It's fantastic. Here's the issue. If you come into a church and you're feeling like the preacher or the service or the programs are pulling you out from where you're at to a next level—which for them was to get them to learn the books of the Bible—if you're feeling the draw in the church to move you to another level of understanding of the only book God ever wrote, this book that you claim you're basing your life on, you have two choices.

You can either say, "No, man, give me a church that will spoon-feed me." Or, here's the other option. Maybe I should grow. Maybe I should go home and learn the books of the Bible. Maybe I should try to move forward a little bit. That's all I'm telling you, is that God would want you to embrace that. Not just to get you where you're at, but to get you beyond where you're at and move you forward. God forbid that we are a status quo church. God forbid that you are a status quo Christian.

Status quo is not okay with God. I hope and I pray to God it's not okay with you and it's not okay with me. God wants us to have a different kind of faith, an ambitious faith, to make a difference in this world for Christ, to do more than wave our ticket around every Sunday and hope the pastor affirms us for stuff we already know. Trusting Christ for salvation is just the start. God wants us to move forward. That's what Hebrews 11 is all about.

Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11, trying to move our faith from wherever it's at to the next level. Hebrews chapter 11, first three words: "Now faith is." We're going to find that Hebrews chapter 11 is all about people exercising faith. They possess it and they exercise some kind of faith that God is commending as great. He is saying thumbs up. Laodicea, thumbs down. Why? Because you're status quo. Hebrews 11, thumbs up. He commends these people because they are exercising a kind of faith.

Now, when you see "faith is," we think we're about to get a definition. Really what we're seeing is a descriptive of faith. We've already tried to deal with what biblical faith is back in chapter 6. Just by way of review, go back a few chapters to chapter 6. This is important to know. Verse number 1: "Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ." So what is this? Advanced? No, this is elementary teachings about Christ.

And go on to maturity. Now, he's going to define some of the elementary teachings: "Not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death and of faith in God." Repentance and faith. Those are just basics. That's the real punchline of the gospel. When we raise our hands, the concept is we're repenting of our sins. We're putting our trust in Christ. We repent and put faith in Christ.

If you've been around Compass, you know there's two vernacular synonyms we like to use for repentance and faith: turning and trusting. Repentance is turning and faith is trusting. You can see that described in verse number 1: "Repentance from acts that lead to death." We're turning from sin. That's repentance. Now, the next one is "faith in God." There's the word that we've defined as trust. The reason we use the word trust instead of belief is because belief in our culture is a word that sometimes has a very thin and simplistic definition.

To believe something in modern English is often just to assent to some facts. It is a mental activity. That's not what we mean when we use the word pistis or pisteuō. It is better to translate it faith or even trust. Trust has a sense that usually will call for a preposition after it: "faith in." When you use the word faith and you put a preposition like that after it, now it changes the feeling from mental assent to a transfer of trust.

There's usually three Greek prepositions that follow the word: in, into, or upon. We trust in something, or we put our faith into something, or we believe on something. Those words help us to know it's more than a mental assent. James said it: the demons believe but then shudder. They don't have a faith in God. What we're looking for, if we're going to define the concept of faith, is a transfer of trust.

How many of you out there have a pilot's license? Who's a pilot? Got one right there. Okay, all you guys. I could look at you and I could say, "Pilot's license?" Now, I can say either I believe you or I don't believe you. Do I believe that you have a pilot's license? That's totally different than saying something like, "I am going to put my trust in you as it relates to your confession."

Which would mean that I would come to the airport and I'd say, "I now trust in you to be the pilot for the day. I'm going to put my trust in you." That means that I'm going to sit myself and my family in this cockpit and I'm going to let you taxi us down and lift off over the Pacific Ocean. That is a different kind of belief. "I believe you," that's not biblical faith. "I trust in you," that's biblical faith. It starts with that.

So really, Hebrews 11 is going to even move to another level. But biblical faith at an elementary teaching level is knowing we're not talking about just nodding at facts. It's that I'm willing to put my trust in you. When we get to Hebrews chapter 11, I want you to look at the parallelism that's given to us in the first verse. Logical poetry. Here's how it's described. Description number 1: "It is being sure of what we hope for" and description number 2: "It is being certain of what we do not see."

That parallels "hope for." Let me tell you why. Because everything you hope for is in the future. Everything in the future, unless you're clairvoyant, you don't see. Look at it again. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see." If we're going to define what we're going to be looking at in Hebrews 11, it is a confidence in something not seen. And that virtue of being able to trust.

Dave Drewey: You're listening to Mike Fabarez on Focal Point and a message titled Cultivating the Core Ingredient of the Christian Life. You can revisit today's lesson anytime by heading to focalpointradio.org or pulling up the Focal Point app to take the full library with you wherever you are. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is a who's who of men and women who took God at his word and didn't flinch. This month, Pastor Mike wants to put a book in your hands that holds that same standard up for us today: the journals of Jim Elliot, edited by Elizabeth Elliot.

Jim wrote with the kind of honesty you don't always find in polished devotional books: raw, searching, and completely fixed on God. If you've been in a season of wanting more out of your walk with God, reading alongside Jim Elliot has a way of reorienting you. Request the journals of Jim Elliot when you support Focal Point with a gift today. Call 888-320-5885 or donate online at focalpointradio.org. Well, now here's Pastor Mike with a quick announcement.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Thanks, Dave. I'd like to invite you to join me September 19th through the 26th, 2026, on a Christian cruise through New England and Canada. We'll sail Holland America's Zaandam, known for its elegance and exceptional hospitality, to historic cities like Boston, Halifax, and Quebec City. We'll gather for devotional times in God's word, followed by thought-provoking Bible teaching throughout our journey. Grammy-winning musicians Keith and Carly Hancock will lead us in worship.

You'll enjoy the stunning autumn landscapes as we explore charming coastal villages, all while building friendships with like-minded believers. It's a unique opportunity to deepen your faith and see some of the most beautiful scenery on the eastern seaboard. Space is limited, so don't wait to sign up. Secure your cabin today at focalpointradio.org. That's focalpointradio.org.

Dave Drewey: Well, I'm Dave Drewey. Join us tomorrow when Pastor Mike continues our message titled Cultivating the Core Ingredient of the Christian Life. That's coming up Wednesday on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. It's an honor to be with you every day, helping you explore the depths of scripture. But I want to be clear: no amount of Bible knowledge is ever going to save you. Be sure where you stand with God. Get in touch with us. We'd love to pray with you and for you. Visit us today at focalpointradio.org. We look forward to hearing from you. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.