Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: There’s never a time when we can say, “I need the church less. I need fellowship less. I need a small group less now because I don't need it.” You need it. You need it not based on your spiritual growth; you need it based on the decay of society. I think it’s getting worse. The Bible says you need to get together with other Christians and spur them on to love and good deeds more than ever before.

Dave Drewy: There are times when our journey with God feels like an uphill race. We’re tired, we’re weak, and we’re ready to wander off for easier paths. In those moments, we desperately need people who are willing to run alongside us saying, “Keep going and don't stop.”

Today on Focal Point, Mike Fabarez stresses the importance of allowing other believers to push, prod, and persuade us towards a closer relationship with God. We’re in Hebrews chapter 10, and Pastor Mike calls the message "Motivated by Real Christian Friends."

Pastor Mike Fabarez: You and I, as it relates to our relationship with God—the ultimate reason that we were created—we need to get motivated. The thing that’s going to motivate us is some people around us that have the same passion and concern to know and serve God, to love Him and to serve Him more perfectly. Those are going to be the kinds of people that start to challenge our Christian life.

It’s just like us as parents. We look at our kids growing up. One of the concerns we really have in their lives is that they choose good friends. We’re so concerned that they get to hang with the right people. It’s not just a teenage concern; it needs to be an adult concern because our heavenly Father is looking at us. He’s saying the people you choose to hang out with, the people you pull into your life, the people that you let into your sphere of influence are people that are either going to help your walk with God or they’re going to hinder it.

That great passage in Proverbs chapter 13, verse 20 says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.” Though it’s not as dramatic as us grown-up adults, we can choose friends that really are for us foolish choices that will be a detriment to our spiritual walk. It comes in a very benign package. It comes with people that just like to put their arms around us and tell us everything’s fine.

When it comes to our relationship with God, they say, “God is a God of grace and a God of love, so you don't have to work too hard at this. You’re okay; I'm okay.” The bar is always nice and low for them, and they get around you and they want the bar to be low for you. Caution. Be careful. You and I need to find and seek out challenging Christian relationships.

I know the habit is, as it is in verse 25, that those are the kinds of people we sometimes say, “I don't know. It’s a lot of work to be a friend of that person. They’re always talking about growing and God and evangelism.” We want to push them away. Don't. You need those people. You need those folks in your life. You need to have people that are concerned for you like the Apostle Paul is concerned for you.

Here are a couple of great texts. First Corinthians chapter 15, verse 58. I love that verse. It’s the pinnacle of the writing of the first letter of First Corinthians, and Paul says this. It’s a great prayer for these people. I wonder how many friends pray this kind of prayer and say these kinds of things to you? Paul says, “Brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.”

Listen to that. A lot of our friends say, “You need to always work to give yourself a break. You need to slow down. You just need to give yourself a little time off.” Paul says, “You need to stand firm. Don't let anything move you. Be totally resolved. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.” Do you have friends that say that kind of stuff to you? Do you have people in your life that are always pushing you in the right direction?

How about this statement as Paul writes to the Romans in Romans chapter 12, verse 11? He says, “Never be lacking in zeal. Always be zealous.” He says, “Keep your spiritual fervor. Serve the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.” You can hear him; he’s just cheering these people on. Or how about Philippians chapter 1, verse 9? He says, “Guys, I'm praying for you that your love would abound more and more in knowledge and in depth of insight.”

That’s the kind of people that we need to say, “Yeah, I need to seek out that kind of relationship.” When those people are in my life, they’re constantly trying to direct me, push me, and even pester me a little bit to be a little bit more what God created me to be. You’ll never look back at those relationships and say, “I never should have invested in that relationship,” because you’ll see how their lives have helped to sharpen you.

As iron sharpens iron, scripture says, so one man sharpens another. We need those people in our lives to sharpen us, to help us grow in our walk with God. We all need to seek out a challenging church. You need that. You’ve got to have one. Your church should feel a little irritating sometimes. Push me, pester me to love God more and do more good deeds. That’s the point of church.

That’s what the apostles' teaching was all about. They weren't up there giving suggestions to people; they were up there proclaiming with authority the teaching of Jesus Christ and the call for all of us to draw near to God. You need a church that challenges you. You need some kind of small group that challenges you. Thirdly, Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 2.

It is the pattern of scripture that we also see throughout the Bible two people pairing up and connecting on a level that’s more than just friendship. It’s a challenging friendship. You need a friendship in your life that doesn't just shop together or go golfing together or go fishing together or hang out together. You need a relationship that when you hang out, you’ve got something there between you that helps to provoke and incite a conversation about your spiritual growth.

Second Timothy 2, verse 2 says that we ought to be following this great pattern, just like the Apostle Paul. Paul says to Timothy, “The things that I've entrusted to you in the presence of many witnesses, these things entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” To see that chain of taking these transferable concepts of spiritual growth and to hand them off to someone else.

You know friends that are so committed to whatever their hobby is, or maybe it’s weight loss. They’re carrying chips around and they’ve got meal plans and they’ve got a person that meets them at the gym and they’re really serious about it. You may look at them and think, “That sounds like a lot. You want me to not only come to church, you want me to be in a group, you want me to meet with someone individually.”

If we want to be spiritually healthy, if we want to connect with the living God—which really is the whole purpose and point of our life—when we get there and get a taste of that, we start to recognize this is what I was made for. Then you’ll realize this isn't just some kind of superfluous structure around my life and scaffolding that I don't need. You’ll recognize this is exactly what I need. It’s the kind of thing that moves me into a place where I realize the whole purpose for my being here on Earth.

I highly recommend that you find challenging Christian relationships on all three levels. You’ve got a challenging church, a challenging small group, and a challenging friendship—a one-on-one connection with somebody who’s helping you and keeping you accountable for memorizing scripture, sharing your faith, fighting temptation, and all the issues that show up in our partner’s manual. Even if you don't use that, at least have some kind of one-on-one relationship where you’re talking about your spiritual life and helping one another grow.

Our text, Hebrews chapter 10, if you’d look at it, I think is very valuable for us just to look at and ask ourselves the question, “Do I have that in place in my life?” It’s important. But that’s really not what the language of this text is saying to us. It’s not saying make sure you have people that do this to you. Look at the grammar of verse 24. Look at the way these verbs are positioned.

It’s not saying make sure that you have people that do that to you. The text is telling us specifically and directly, “Let us all, each of us, consider how we may spur one another on to love and good deeds.” The issue isn't just "Am I being motivated?" We need to start motivating. The real issue for us is God has called us, no matter if we’re two weeks old in the faith, two months old, or 25 years old in the faith.

We should be motivating others. We ought to be taking their faith from wherever it’s at and doing whatever we can—humbly, creatively, carefully—and helping them love God more and helping them serve God more perfectly. I want to make sure you’ve got the relationships in your life, but the real question here in this text is, "Am I doing this in someone else’s life?" Do I come to church with a purpose?

Do I recognize it’s not just about me? Do I realize that the small group that I'm a part of—that I attend or the table that I'm a part of at women’s or men’s Bible study—is not just about what can I get out of it? The point is, particularly in this passage, are you taking that stuff and investing that in someone else’s life? Are you taking what God has invested in you and spurring people on by your life to love and good deeds?

That’s going to take a few things. The first thing it’s going to take in verse 24 is that we start to think. Look at that word "consider." That’s not just the word to think about. There’s a Greek word for "think," but there’s a preposition stuck in front of it that makes a little intensified compound word. It’s the Greek preposition kata. Kata means "down." The verb here is "to think down on."

I love the way that brings the imagery of getting your mind focused down on this. It’s like, sit down and think about it. Give some energy and attention to get your mind to really focus its sight down on this. The text is saying you consider it. Think about it. He doesn't tell us what to do; he says you need to think about what to do that might spur someone on to love God more and to good deeds.

If you think about it simplistically, particularly in the first century, they’re listening to a guy who’s reading this letter from some preacher that’s talking about how to love God more and draw near to God. They think, “Well, if I'm supposed to do that to someone else, the simplistic thinker thinks, 'Well, I guess I've got to go around and preach to my friends and tell everybody I run into, 'Well, you ought to draw near to God and you should love God more.''"

He’s saying no, you think about it. Let’s get creative. Get creative and start thinking about how I might, in creative ways beyond just saying something like, “Hey, you need to be closer to God. You need a deeper relationship with God,” what are the things that might help that? What are some of the ancillary issues that might be brought into your friend’s life that might really assist in that?

What today on the patio, as you hold that donut and drink that cup of coffee and you sit there and talk to people on the patio, what might be said there? What might be done there that might help someone draw near to God? It’s not just preaching to them. It may be pulling them aside after a conversation about what’s going on in their life and saying, “Hey, can we just step over here and pray about this for a minute right now? I'd like to pray for you.”

Do you think that might help someone? Encourage someone, which is, by the way, the other word in verse 25. Circle that word. It’s the word "encourage" translated into English. We’ve seen it many times in the book of Hebrews and elsewhere. It’s the word parakaleō. Para, alongside of; kaleō, to call in alongside of. When you’ve heard me exegete that word, I often use the illustration of the crutches.

When my knee is all blown out, I need something that’s strong to hold me up, to prop me up. That’s what this word means. You know that’s not just preaching at someone. To hold someone up in the midst of their weakness or in their trial, a lot of times it’s just being there with them. Think about the people that go to the hospital in a health crisis and they’re afraid and they’re anxious.

Sometimes they just need somebody to be there with them. Sometimes you just need somebody to talk with them on the phone. We don't need a sermon, maybe; we just need you to come alongside and help keep their focus on God, help them to trust God and do good deeds while they’re going through that trial. There are so many creative ways.

If you need some help in that, all you’ve got to do—if you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time—is think back in your Christian life and think, "How have people done that for me?" Beyond just sermons and preaching, what have people done for me that have assisted me, prompted me, even pestered me a little bit in a positive way that’s moved me toward a more godly life?

How has God used people with creative things, creative avenues to prompt me to grow? Just turn that around. Start doing that in other people’s lives. Paul says in Second Corinthians 1, the things that he experiences that people do to him that help him should be part of his education in knowing how he should respond to others.

If you’ve been blessed by some Paul in your life that’s come along your Timothy and said, “Hey, let me help you,” and they’ve been effective in that, take notes. How did they do it? What did they say? What kinds of notes did they send? When did they show up? Study those kinds of people in your life and turn around and say, “I just need to do the same thing. I need to start creatively getting involved in people’s lives.”

It could be a note, an email, a text message. It could be spending time with them, just sitting and praying with them. Spend time thinking creatively, the Bible says, about how we might stimulate others, spur them on to love and good deeds. Secondly, look at verse number 25. It says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.”

The problem is this is never going to happen if we keep each other at arm’s distance. This will never happen if we do not connect together. This word here is to be drawn together, to be together, to connect with one another. We can't do it if we don't have that time, which is a priority issue for you and for me. We need to never stop getting together. We’ve got to get together.

Not just on Sundays, which 70 percent of the people that go to church, that’s all they do—they just come to the temple courts and mill around and hear a sermon. We need to get together on another level more often. We’ve got to do it. We can't stop. The problem is you’ve got to know that Satan’s number one strategy for discouraging people or leading people to spiritual wipeout is getting them isolated from the crowd.

You realize that, right? First Peter chapter 5, verses 8 and 9 equates our spiritual enemy to a lion. Think back to the National Geographic Channel. You’ve seen those lions chase those funny animals, the wildebeests or whatever they are. You recognize that what they’re going after, even in the strategy of the lions, is to somehow get one isolated away from the herd, to cut him off, to keep him away from the rest of them.

That’s the isolating strategy that gets them in a vulnerable place and they’re ready for wipeout. If you read throughout the scripture, that’s exactly what you see. Whether it’s a spiritual defector like Judas, who hangs out with Christ and gets isolated from the crowd, or whether it’s a godly prophet like Elijah, who ends up getting isolated and by himself under a broom tree saying, “Woe is me,” and leading him into this depression.

It’s always about separating them, getting them apart. Ecclesiastes says it’s bad if we fall and there’s no one there to connect with us and give us a hand up. Then it says this: "A cord of three strands is not easily broken." You need relationships, and it’s Satan’s strategy to keep you apart. Just remember this: God’s will for you is to congregate. Satan’s strategy in your life is to isolate.

God wants you to congregate; Satan wants you to isolate. God wants you to get together, and Satan wants you to have some kind of other priority that’s going to keep you from that. Whatever you think about this message, if you try to put one thing into place, if you say, “I need to take the next step here,” I guarantee you there will be a rival priority.

There will be a reason. There will be some nagging problem with that, and it will try to prevent you from taking that next step. Just recognize that this is a spiritual battle. This is something that you need to recognize and be on the defense and realize that God is trying to pull you together face-to-face with other people, and Satan’s trying to keep you apart. It’s a battle of priorities. It always is in the Christian life.

Make this resolve. The passage is telling us: do not give up meeting together. Let us not fall into that pattern. Some people get into that pattern. They put people at arm’s length. They don't get involved in other people’s lives. It’s a bad thing. Which, by the way, I might state for those that are tempted to be deluded like a lot of people who fancy themselves real spiritual giants.

I've heard them say it, and they say it; they don't even understand the scriptures when they say it. But they say, “I've grown to a place in my Christian life where I really don't need church as much anymore.” I've heard some people who have said, “I don't need it at all anymore.” That’s the most foolish, self-deluded thing I've ever heard because if you’re really that godly and that spiritual, the church needs you more than ever.

You need to be a motivator. You need to be interconnected with people’s lives. There is never a place in the Christian life where you don't need to be connected with other Christians. Never. As a matter of fact, the text goes on to say at the bottom of verse number 25 that all of this needs to happen in our lives all the more as you see the Day approaching. Is Day capitalized? Not Tax Day. That’s the Day of Christ’s coming.

The only hints we have about the Day of Christ’s coming is that people like the Apostle Paul said to Timothy things will go from bad to worse. Jesus said, “In the last days, it’ll be like it was in the days of Noah.” All we know is that as life goes on on this planet, things will continually get more apostasized, it’ll get more immoral, it’ll get more sinful.

Technology will give people the ability to sin at the snap of their fingers. It will get worse and it will get worse. The more that we see our culture getting worse—and I think it’s getting worse, particularly in our culture more than it’s ever been in American society ever—the Bible says you need to get together with other Christians and spur them on to love and good deeds more than ever before.

So there’s never a time when we can say, “I need the church less. I need fellowship less. I need a small group less now because I don't need it.” You need it. You need it not based on your spiritual growth; you need it based on the decay of society. We need to connect more often. Not less and less; more often. You need more of it. You’ve got to get involved more often.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve got the people going, “Wow, that church trying to get into my pocketbook and now this church trying to get in my day-timer, trying to capitalize. Stop. Pressure on me. Pestering me.” Well, number one, that’s my job. Number two, you will never ever regret the investment in people’s lives—strategically choosing to invest in people’s lives for the purpose of spiritual growth. Never.

One of the things about my job is I'm often called in when people are dying or on their deathbed. Obviously, I do funerals and I preach at funerals. I always get that big perspective. That is really an advantage in my position because I'm probably a lot more than you exposed to kind of getting the big picture on what matters in life and what doesn't.

I'll tell you, when I've been in the deathbed and speaking to those people that are in their last days of life, I don't ever have any of them that look at me and say, “You know, Pastor Mike, I really wish I'd have watched more TV. I wish I'd have organized my garage. I wish I'd have been more organized. Wish I'd have spent more time by myself on my hobbies.” Never, never.

There’s never a regret about investing in people. As a matter of fact, I hear just the opposite. “I wish I'd have invested in people more. I wish my relationship with God would have been closer. I wish that my relationship with people would have affected them to move them toward God more.” It’s funny because I hear that from just about every Christian at the end of their lives.

But I find us as Christians all the time losing that perspective and always kind of battling for our priorities going, “I don't know if I have time for that.” You will never ever regret it. If you say no to some ancillary pursuit in your life, some superfluous hobby or whatever, and you say, “That really is not as important as me connecting with other Christians, helping them grow and having them encourage me to grow,” you will never ever regret it.

Let us spend our time, let us make it our passion and our purpose and our resolve to get a little bit more involved in people’s lives for the sake of the Kingdom and for the purpose of spiritual growth. Let’s pray. God, I feel funny preaching this passage. It’s so simple; it’s so straightforward. I mean, we could just read it five times and it would really just preach itself. It’s so clear.

And yet, God, it’s my job to try to do my best to present it here to this group and say, “This is what God is calling us to do.” And yet, I know we’re all going to walk out of this place, we’re all going to get into our cars, and we’re all going to go to our busy lives this week. We’re going to have all these competing interests and things jockeying for our attention.

I know this will be something that if we’re going to do it, it’s going to have to be fought for. We’re going to have to really get in there and scrap for this and make it happen. God, I pray that even now, in the sacred moment of this prayer, that some of us might make some decisions before You and say, “God, that’s true. I'm too isolated. I'm not involved, and I'm not involved as much as I ought to be.

My connections with people, they’re superficial or it’s all about business or sports or weather, and God, I need to get something between us that will help us talk about things that last for eternity.” God, I pray there would be some people that get involved in home fellowship or whatever it is, whatever the means or mechanism, that they would go a few levels deeper with some people in their lives that would help to challenge them and that they would have the guts and the fortitude to challenge others to be a little bit more in love with God this year and a little bit more useful in His service. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dave Drewy: We’re not made to walk this road alone, and today’s study made that crystal clear. You’ve been listening to Focal Point with Mike Fabarez and a message called "Motivated by Real Christian Friends," part of a mini-series called "A Closer Relationship with God." To get back and hear anything you may have missed, visit focalpointradio.org.

We invite you to request this month’s featured resource with your donation to Focal Point. It’s The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, a book that has shaped generations of believers. Tozer believed most Christians settle for far less of God than is actually available to them, and he wrote this to say there’s more and it’s worth going after.

Get your copy of The Pursuit of God when you make a donation today by calling us at 888-320-5885, or you can donate online at focalpointradio.org. Or send your donation by mail by writing to us at Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. Now, Pastor Mike has a special 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 Kristyn Getty 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.

Dave Drewy: There’s a lot of talk right now about end times and what God has in store for the future. Tomorrow, Pastor Mike sits down to tackle some of the most common listener questions about the millennial kingdom in a helpful edition of "Ask Pastor Mike." I'm Dave Drewy. Join us Friday here on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. I pray today’s message will help you live out your faith with truth and love. After all, that’s the kind of biblical faith that changes lives and transforms a crooked culture.

But if you haven’t truly surrendered your life to Christ, then I'd like to invite you to get in touch. We’d love to pray with you and help you discover God’s plan of salvation. Visit focalpointradio.org. Today’s program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.