Focal Point

[ 0m0s ] [--Guest (Male)--] Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

[ 0m3s ] [--Pastor Mike Fabarez--] What good are you planning? Are you planning any good, or are you just planning to survive and pay the bills? Are you just trying to make sure you get along, right? Just try and make it. Or are you trying to, as the title of this sermon recommends here, is that you're starting to plan big. And planning big would start with not only you fighting temptation, but saying, here's the good and righteous things I want to do.

[ 0m42s ] You know, sometimes we focus so much on what we're fighting against, we forget what we should be fighting for. Today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez turns our attention from what we avoid to what we actually pursue. Do you have a list of good works you intend to accomplish? Pastor Mike explains why intentional righteousness matters as much as resisting temptation. Don't forget you can always revisit these lessons online at focalpointradio.org.

[ 1m11s ] [--Guest (Male)--] I'm Dave Drew, and now here's Pastor Mike with today's message titled, "Plan Big."

[ 1m17s ] [--Pastor Mike Fabarez--] If at the end of next year, you say, I think I glorified God more this year, I guarantee you, you're going to need these three things that are in verse 11. This is what we need to do. Here's the things that help us get there. The target, I'd like to glorify God. Great. I'd like to publicize Christ's greatness through my life. Okay, great. How do you do it? Three things, numbers two, three, and four on our outline this morning. Let's look at number two, starting in verse 11. Great line.

[ 1m42s ] To this end, we always pray for you. What are you praying, Paul? That our God may make you worthy of His calling. Christ redeemed you, reconciled you, called you His child, sees you as righteous in His son's righteousness, and now He's asking you, please live up to that calling. Bear my name in that world. I've already called you Christians in this sermon. If you are a Christian, you bear the name of Christ, the perfect Son of God, and now you're called a Son of God. And all I'm saying is, let's live up to that. How do we do that? Well, you're going to have to get rid of these former patterns of sin and doing whatever you wanted. Let's put it this way.

[ 2m19s ] Number two on your outline, we need to plan to fight sin harder. You got to fight it harder than you did last year. You got to say, okay, this year, I'm going to get really serious about this. And we'll look at some strategies in a minute, but let's start with the idea. Go to Hebrews chapter 12, once you write that down. We got to plan to fight sin harder. And why? Because I want to live up to my calling. I'm a son of the holy God of the universe. That's my name. I bear His name. Well, I should live up to that name, just like a good parent. So right now, I want you to think of the sin that so easily trips you up in the last year, and let's think about next year and say, I'm going to I'm going to work to have this trip me up a whole lot less. Because I'm going to fight this thing. And I'm going to get to I'm going to go to war against this.

[ 3m1s ] Now, you know the sin that so easily entangles you, and you need to say, I need to go to war with that. And you need to think of all the things that take you there. And let's start going to war against those. A lot of things in the Christian life will not be understood by people because you'll be saying no to things that are not wrong in and of themselves, but you know those things lead you to things that you know are wrong. And so you need to wage war against the sin by trying to deal with some of the off-ramps, right? You've got to sometimes not even get close to that. Some Christians are working so hard to get so close to the sin and try and say, could you help me not touch that sin? There's a long pathway that takes you close to this. We got to start dealing with that in this new year. We got to say, God, I would like to be more glorifying to You in publicizing Your greatness by my life being more holy, which means less sin, and that means I got to work harder at this because I certainly haven't worked as hard as I could.

[ 3m54s ] There are some things you're going to have to say no to in the new year because you know those things are going to lead as A and, you know, B go together. I just know what this is where this is going to go. Of course, the body of Christ is a great help in this. But stay optimistic, would you please? First Corinthians 10:13, you should memorize it. You can see I have it memorized because you need to know that no temptation is unique and that God is faithful and He is going to give you an off-ramp, right? I should say, He's going to give you the barrier so that you can stay on the path. I'm trying to be consistent with my illustration, so that you will not take the off-ramp. And God is faithful to do that. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13, always remember that. And the ruthless response, by the way, is almost comical in Matthew 18. He says, Yeah, the world's going to have a lot of of of means to sin. Your hand or your feet might be the means to sin. He says, And if your foot causes you to sin, remember what he says?

[ 4m44s ] Try not to try not to lean on it too much, is what he says. No, I love the way this is put. Now, envision this if you will, not for very long if you have a weak stomach, but he says, Cut it off and throw it from you. I don't know how far I can throw on one foot. But I'm supposed to take my other foot and throw it from me. Just picture that. That'd be a great title for a book on fighting sin. Cutting off your foot and throwing it.

[ 5m11s ] Nobody? Some publisher's going to like that somewhere. The idea of me taking the means to sin, if it's my feet that are taking me to sin, I got to do something with my feet. Of course, that's hyperbole. I get it. I get it. Gouging out your eye, cutting off your hand, cutting off your foot and throwing it from you. I understand. But the point is this, you're probably not working hard enough at fighting the temptations, and God's going to give you off-ramps. You got to take them, and sometimes the off-ramp is a lot closer to to lane number one in the middle of the highway than you might think.

[ 5m42s ] All right. Middle of verse 11. You need to be made worthy of His calling, and you've got some work to do in that. And it says, May God fulfill every resolve for good. That seems like a very simple thing. But if I said to you, I'm your pastor and I'm going to pray for you that God would help you fulfill every resolve that you made for good. I just think most of us said, well, I don't really plan those things. You need to. This is a great line. You resolve to do good.

[ 6m17s ] What good are you planning? Are you planning any good, or are you just planning to survive and pay the bills? Are you just trying to make sure you get along, right? Just try and make it. Or are you trying to, as the title of this sermon recommends here, is that you're starting to plan big. And planning big would start with not only you fighting temptation, but saying, here's the good and righteous things I want to do. I know the Lord loves righteous deeds. I know that. So what I'm going to do is make sure that I, I'm quoting Psalm 11, uh, verse 7. I am going to plan to do them. What are the plans you have to do righteous things? Number three, very simple, plan to do more good. Did you do some good last year? Well, some of it you just kind of stumbled into. How about we plan it this year? Plan the road trip to good. What am I going to do? How am I going to do good in my family? How am I going to do good at my work? How am I going to do good with my neighbors, and my friends? What goods, what righteous things am I going to accomplish?

[ 7m9s ] I love the word resolve. It's a great text. This is one of the reasons this might be one of my favorite texts. But it's the same word that Daniel uses about staying kosher in the midst of a non-kosher situation. He resolved, right? He was going to continue to do what God asked him to do. Resolved to not eat the king's food. Or even the passage that I quoted at the beginning of a little booklet I wrote on being resolved, in Psalm 132 verses 1 through 5, here we are remembering in this song of ascent, as people were pilgrimaging to Jerusalem. They would sing this, Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured and how he swore to Yahweh and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, that he will not enter his house or go into his bed or give sleep to his eyes or slumber to his eyelids until he finds a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.

[ 7m59s ] Now, God didn't allow him to build the building, but he had vowed and promised, God, this is the good I want to do for Your glory this year. Think about it. In this case, of course, before I go to sleep, I'm going to do this good thing. I'm just wondering how many of you even plan to do good. And I'm saying, this is a good and godly thing to plan. And and if your theology on sanctification is all about you just kind of going with the flow and thinking the Spirit, whatever that means to you. The Spirit's going to somehow move you into doing good. I understand, the Spirit has promised in the new Covenant, promise of the Old Testament, Ezekiel, to move you in Jeremiah 31, to move you to do good. But you have to fully cooperate in this. As a matter of fact, let me make this clear. It's going to be work to plan and execute righteous deeds. It's going to be work. It's always going to be, as he says, make every effort. Second Peter chapter 1. Make every effort to add to your faith. And they list all these virtues. It's going to be work, every effort.

[ 8m54s ] Or as it says in in Philippians chapter 2, verse 12, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Oh, what about verse 13? Before we camp on verse 13, can you at least stay in verse 12 for a minute? Work out your salvation. That word, ergoso, work, it's struggle. How about gymnadzo? Right? Training in godliness. This is going to be work. And it starts with you working with a pad of paper, maybe, and just sitting down, what good do I want to accomplish? Even, let's do it once a month. What righteous things do I want to do this year? And then I can pray for you, and your friends can pray for you. May God fulfill every resolve for good.

[ 9m29s ] It's a great place to start. And by the way, Romans chapter 12, would you turn there real quick with me? We won't spend long on this point, but at least let me say this. Good cannot be defined by just whatever your conditioned conscience thinks is good because your conditioned conscience is conditioned by the world in many ways. And some of us think that Christianity and righteousness is simply being nice to people. I'll bake cookies for my neighbor. That's that's not righteous acts. There may be some righteous reason to do that, but that's not righteous. That righteousness is not just being nice. Helping old ladies cross the street. That's not just that's not the kind of righteousness that we're dealing with when we're talking about publicizing Christ's greatness. It may be involved in it, but it isn't the goal.

[ 10m11s ] And let me say this, you have to define good and righteousness by God's standards. This text is very helpful. I appeal to you, verse 1, Romans 12. Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. God has been very merciful to us and gracious to us. To present your bodies now as a living sacrifice. God, what can I do for You? Holy and acceptable to, very important words, to God. It has to be holy to God, has to be acceptable to God. I'm not living a Christian life that's acceptable to my Facebook friends, right? Or the people that follow me on Instagram. I don't care what their definition of good is. I don't even care what my boss's definition of righteousness is. I have to find God's definition and say, I want to live a life this year that is going to be good and doing good that God thinks is good. And I got to work at that. I cannot be verse 2 conformed to the world. I got to be transformed by the renewal of my mind, that by testing, it's going to take some work. You may discern what the what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and just right, perfect. That idea is my and I wish I could re-translate this. I think it's in the footnote of the ESV at the end of verse 1. That is my reasonable or rational response to God's word. My rational, right, service of worship.

[ 11m22s ] The only reason they say worship there, it's a word that was used in the Septuagint to describe priests working on the Sabbath. But it's work and it's given to God as glory, as holy. But it's the reasonable thing I should do is figure out what God wants me to do and then to do it, to discern, and to test, and to figure this out. So take out your pen, take out your your your word doc and start writing down the things that you purpose to to do that will bring glory to God, to use the shorthand. What all that means is we're trying to publicize and popularize the greatness of God in my world as people watch us do good.

[ 11m56s ] And both those elements, by the way, I brought up Isaiah 6 real quick. It wasn't in my notes, but the idea of him seeing the greatness of God and and really his response is to glorify God by two things. One is, I'm a man of unclean lips. I got to fight sin. And God said, I've forgiven your sin. Then he says, Here am I, send me, what good can I do? They're these are the elements of being taken by the greatness of God. And and we need to to do both. Fight sin and do more good.

[ 12m23s ] All right, one more thing in this. Bottom of verse 11. And may, let's put the subject back in. God may fulfill every resolve for good and God may fulfill every work of faith by His power. Now that phrase takes me to verse 13 of Philippians 2. I said in Philippians 2, verse 12, I'm supposed to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. But this is now called work, and he adds these words of faith by His power. Which really gets me down to the last line of verse 12. If I'm supposed to be glorifying God, and God's going to be glorified in me and I in Him, it is according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, there is verse 13 of Philippians 12, if you're not if you're not already familiar with that, it says, For God is at work within you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

[ 13m15s ] So, I understand this. I'm not just doubling down by saying, I'm going to fight sin harder and I'm going to put more things on my to-do list to do that are good for God. There has to be this connection that this work is work of faith, and it's supplied in its fueling by God's power. This is the grace of God, the available fueling of God. It's me and God walking through this life as I'm working out my salvation, He's working within me, both to will and to work. This is more of the mystical side of it that some people love and they live in the mystical side of it. But you need to know the way that we get to this is to connect the work and the to-dos of fighting sin and doing righteousness with the words that come with it. And by that, I mean in this text, it's faith. But go back to the first chapter of the first book to the Thessalonians, where Paul writes the first letter to the Thessalonians. He starts out this way. That's why the phrase work of faith would be familiar to them because here's how he started this in chapter one of first Thessalonians 1.

[ 14m12s ] Look at verse 3, remembering, he's praying for them, remembering before our God and Father, your, now here it comes, work of faith, your labor of love and your endurance or steadfastness, your hupomone, if you remember sermons on that word, your steadfastness, your endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look at the words, work, labor, and endurance. Those are the three words there. And then he says, but they're all connected with things that lie behind it. You're working because you have faith in Christ. You're your laboring because of love, your love for God, your love for people. And you're enduring because you have hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those connections are critical. Why do you want to fight sin? Well, I'm going to glorify God, but you've got to glorify God with God. You have to be empowered by God. So there has to be that connection. Right? I'm going to labor, but I'm going to labor, right? It's a labor of love. It's it's a work of faith. And it's an endurance because of hope, my hope I have in the Lord. How do I make that work?

[ 15m10s ] I find this problem particularly in Christian academics. There's a lot of academics I know that know a lot about the Bible. They can even make a list of things that they're doing, and it seems like they're doing it for God, but they have no connection with God in the sense that they have no devotional life with God because everything about their study of the Bible is an academic study. And all I'm saying is that there has to be this thing that is clearly in our text, that your work and your labor and your endurance, your fighting temptation, and you're pursuing righteousness, it has to be done in connection with a real relationship with God. So let's put it this way, how do we get there? Oh, here's how we get it, for 365 days next year, here's how you get it. Number four, you need to plan to spend more time with God. Now, I know that's an idiom of our English language, spend more time with God. Well, what do we mean? Now, God's omnipresent. Every day you live, you're in the presence of God. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil. I get all that. But you need to focus your attention on God. And that needs to be happening devotionally as you connect with God.

[ 16m8s ] And therefore, this is an old saw, but you need more time in your closet, so to speak, without distraction, focusing on your relationship with God. And the things that are involved in that are very simple and very well-worn in your mind, you've heard it a hundred times, you could stand up and preach on these things if you've been to church your whole life. It's very simple. But but we've come up, I say we because we collaborated on this, we've come up with with an an acronym here. Right? Here here are five four simple things under the fourth point that I got to be doing every day. I got to be a part of this all the time so that I can make sure that all my work is not divorced from the relationship with God. That this is His power working within me. That I'm seeing behind the act, and behind the fight, and behind the deprivation of fulfilling the passions of my, I'm seeing the relationship here. Four things, and and and here's how we're going to remember it. Best practices for sanctification. You want to be tight with God, you want to glorify God, here are the best practices for sanctification. You ready for this? That's a collaboration because last night my best acronym was uh Big People uh Feel Super and then no one liked that, so.

[ 17m10s ] I got a lot of texts after that of suggestions. But I conflated some of those and I and I like this. Best practices for sanctification. Okay. B, you know what you need. You spend time with God, you better have this involved. What? The Bible, right? Okay. Compass Bible Church. You better have the Bible involved in your time with God. It's the lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Not only to tell you where to go, but to connect with the person. The Scriptures are speaking of a person, and the Scriptures will draw you in to know the person. Not sitting on a rock and feeling your way to God, but having a book that is drawing you. It's living, it's active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It brings you in relationship with the living God. You need to have time in the word. And and you can flesh this out with some simple things. You're spending time reading through the Bible every year? Get on RDBR. Right? Have you been a part of Partners, for instance, and and sat down and and worked through the basics of the Christian life and what the Bible has to say about that? Let's get involved in that. We got a bookstore out here. It's not just for fun, it's there so we can dive deeper in the themes of Scripture. A lot of it are commentaries and Bible study guides. Let's learn to be good with handling accurately the word of truth. And do it so we can know the person that wrote it and we can be in connection with the God, the author of Scripture. I need more Bible.

[ 18m23s ] You know the next one, right? Best practices. P, what's P stand for? You better pray. Right? You got to pray. And I don't mean just saying, I got this great prayer list, and I'm checking off the boxes every morning, and I make sure I pray all these things. That's good, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking more about Psalm 62, verse 8. Trust in the Lord at all times, O people, pour out your hearts before Him, for God is a refuge for us. The point is, I want your prayers to be more sincere, more real. I'd like some more Gethsemane kinds of prayers where we're praying ardently because our heart is fully engaged in pouring out my thoughts and my feelings to God, informed by Scripture. It's going to put up the guard rails. But my discussion with God, my talking to God, my prayer life is going to be real and sincere and fervent and ardent.

[ 19m8s ] Best practices. Bible, prayer. B P. Right? Best practices. Four, F. Here's what you need. This is an old old sermon outline, fellowship. You got to have fellowship. If you don't have connection with Christians, you are not going to be the Christian you should be because Christians, according to Hebrews chapter 10, are supposed to gather together so that they might spur one another on to love and good deeds. Which is more than just sitting next to each other in church. You need, as we say around here, your chairs face to face relationships where people know each other. Well, it's a lot easier when I don't get, you know, people involved in my personal life because it gets hard. I understand that. When iron sharpens iron, sometimes there's going to be some sparks. That's okay. That's how we're spurred on to deeper sanctification. You need fellowship. And some of you, you come only on Sundays. And you need to say, that's I'm done with that. I got to be here more, and all the more as we see the day drawing near, which is the context of us spurring one another on. We need it more now than ever before, and we'll need it more next year than we needed it this year. You need to be involved in personal relationships in the church as we gather with one purpose to know this God and serve this God and love this God and we can be here together, sharpening each other.

[ 20m18s ] Best practices. Four, and and the S. Here it is, for sanctification. S. What we need is service. We've got to serve. And the reason I say that is that not only we have an obligation that we have to be good stewards, first Peter 4, of the gifts that He has given us to serve. We need to discharge that service faithfully. But here's what I've learned about serving in the church. Right? The more I serve in the church, the more I have to depend on the relationship with the person that calls me to do what God has called me to do. Like if I said to you, you know, next next week, you're going to preach the sermon, right? Uh, I think most people say, wow, it's going to change my week. And you're probably going to pray more fervently, in more dependence on the Lord than you've ever prayed, because you got to stand up here and preach the word. Or whatever it is you might be mildly inclined to do and God says, now, here, step this up and serve more people in this. You're going to find yourself depending on, seeking, communing with, connecting with, relationally tight with the God who calls you to do those bold big things for Him. And I'm just telling you, you need more service. Some of you don't have a ministry post. You have no job description in the body of Christ. You need something where you say, this is my role. This is how I serve. This is how I function.

[ 21m27s ] If you've been through partners, you can learn a lot. That's like under the first point, B, best practices for sanctification. B. Yeah, we need more Bible. You can get that going through partners. But when you take someone through our discipleship program, I guarantee your relationship with God will be more impacted by leading someone through our discipleship program than taking it, because that's when we have to serve and we're seeking the Lord in a whole new way when God is enlisting us in service. We got to plan to spend more time with God, and in that, every time we get with God in the mornings, we're thinking about, I want to hear from You in Your word, I want to speak my heart to You in prayer, I need to get to church this week. Today would be nice, whatever day of the week it is. And I need to make sure that I'm going there to serve and discharge the things that God has invested in me.

[ 21m52s ] [--Guest (Male)--] That's Pastor Mike Fabarez on Focal Point with a message titled, "Plan Big." Remember, you can always revisit or share these Bible teachings by going online to focalpointradio.org or downloading the free Focal Point app. Also, today is your final day to request this month's featured resource, The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History. It chronicles the key moments that shaped Christianity from Pentecost to today. You'll trace the spread of the gospel, the formation of key doctrines, and the movements that transformed entire cultures. Request your copy of The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History when you support Focal Point with a generous donation before midnight tonight.

[ 23m0s ] Call us at 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. Pastor Mike, this is the final day of December. Why is this such a critical moment for year-end giving?

[ 23m15s ] [--Pastor Mike Fabarez--] Dave, time is running out and I want to be direct with you. The world is full of false claims, fake voices, and sources you simply can't trust anymore. But God's word remains unchanging, immutable. The one source of truth we can anchor our lives to. That's what Focal Point is all about. Keeping people tethered to that reliable voice when everything else is shifting sand. Now, this ministry doesn't run on corporate sponsorships or foundation grants. It runs on you. Believers who understand what's at stake and are willing to act. Before midnight on December 31st, you have a chance to be part of something that matters eternally. Your gift helps us continue bringing God's truth through radio, online platforms, and more. Whether you can give $15 or $1,500, it counts. So please, don't wait another day. Stand with us before the year closes.

[ 24m4s ] [--Guest (Male)--] Thanks, Mike. Time is running out for your year-end tax-deductible gift. Give right now by visiting focalpointradio.org or call us at 888-320-5885. I'm Dave Drewey. Tomorrow Pastor Mike shifts gears with a critical question about salvation. Can you really know for certain you're going to heaven? Join us as we pick back up in a series titled, Am I Really a Christian? That's coming up Thursday right here on Focal Point.

[ 24m34s ] [--Pastor Mike Fabarez--] Pastor Mike here. You know, we live in a culture where every point of view demands affirmation. It'd be easy to tell people what they want to hear, but we must teach the Bible accurately, unapologetically, and without compromising and without editing it. God's word is truth. If you want to send me a question, I encourage you to get in touch with us at focalpointradio.org.

[ 24m55s ] [--Guest (Male)--] Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.