Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez. Now, does God take care of people that oppose you? Yeah, He'll deal with them. He does. Nothing escapes His notice. And I know some of you say, "Oh God, you don't see. You're not watching. It's so unjust. It's wrong. You must not understand what I'm going through." Do you think God understands?

Absolutely. But the timetable's not our timetable. He's incredibly patient. He has incredible tolerance. But trust me, it doesn't escape His notice and He will respond.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Focal Point with author and Pastor Mike Fabarez. As we move forward in life, there will always be powers trying to force us backwards. Sometimes it's tough situations that impede our progress. Other times it may be people who try to hold us back. But have you ever felt like God was the one pushing you into a corner?

Well, today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike turns to the book of Hebrews for guidance on trusting God when your back's against the wall. Turn with us to Hebrews chapter 11.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Next time you're faced with opposition, and it may not be Pharaoh, but it's going to be somebody, some group of people, ganging up against you, intimidating you, threatening you, taking you to court, suing you, whatever it is. Just remember this: you've got to exchange fear with focus. You've got to exchange fear and turn it into focus. Focus on what? Focus on the one that is unseen. Isn't that what verse 27 says in Hebrews 11?

You've got to be able to persevere in the face of this scary opposition. What does it say? Because you're able to see the one who's invisible. Does this sound vaguely biblical? Don't be afraid. Do you know that's not a biblical thing to be fearful? That's not a godly thing to be afraid. And you're going to face things that will naturally cause your knees to knock. Was Moses initially afraid? Yes. Look at Hebrews 11:27.

But he got over it. He wasn't fearing the king's anger. And he had to focus his mind on what? He persevered because he saw Him who is invisible. Makes sense? Tight, there it is. Verse 29: the Egyptians are chasing the Israelites, and the Israelites got their back against the Red Sea. They don't know what they're going to do and God opens up and you saw the movie and you know how it ends.

Who are the protagonists? Moses and the Israelites. The antagonist in verse 27 is Pharaoh, the king. The antagonist in verse 29 is the Egyptian army with spears and chariots. Who's the antagonist in verse number 28? Now, this is odd. In the middle of these two things, we have a discussion of the Passover. Now, the antagonist is named here, is he not? The destroyer of the firstborn. Question, Sunday school grads: who was destroying the firstborn? God.

God? Yeah, God was the destroyer of the firstborn. He was going through Egypt, including the Israelite camp, and He was killing the firstborn. The firstborn is representative of the whole, right? The wages of sin is death, spelled out all throughout the scripture. Everybody before a holy God deserves His wrath. But God is going to spare people, not only in His great short-term, that's called common grace, but specifically and entirely in His specific grace if they respond to that grace on His terms.

Now, His terms in this particular 1445 BC episode is to take a lamb, live with it for seven days, have lamb chops that night, take the blood from that meal, and put it on the posts of your house. And if you do that, you won't be killed. And your firstborn that represents the whole, you're not going to lose anybody. Now, why? Why was this stuck in the middle of all this? Now, think about it.

Some people, and the Israelites were classic at having this mental blunder in their mind, they thought, "Well, God's killing the Egyptians because they're bad and He's not killing us because we're good, right?" And we often think the same thing. We like to think, "Well, God is opposing my opponents because they're bad, but He's not opposing me because I'm good." And that's not true. How many have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

You're a sinner, and because God is holy, because He's holy, He's got to respond to that sin and He needs to punish that. The grace of God provides a way out. In the old covenant, it was symbolized by the Passover. And the Passover was an animal that was a substitute, the substitutionary lamb that was symbolically by the doorpost blood. It was shown that I am protected by a substitute. Now, that's all symbolic of the New Testament truth.

When John saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." Now, I want the benefit of that so that God does not oppose me. How do I do it? Have lamb chops and spread blood on the doorpost? No, you don't have to do that. That was symbolic of the reality. The reality is Christ. What do I have to do? I have to put my trust in Christ.

I have to repent of my sins and trust in Christ's provision. If I do that, it doesn't mean that now all of a sudden all my sin never happened. No, it happened, but it's all been nailed to the cross. It's been paid for by faith. See? Now, why is that in the middle of this discussion? Well, it's certainly chronological. It's certainly in the text of Exodus. But helpful for us to see is that the opponents in life, whether Pharaoh or the Egyptian army, I just want to make sure that one of the opponents in my life is not God.

I don't want God to oppose me. Pharaoh may oppose me, the Egyptians may oppose me, a lot of people may oppose me. I don't want God to oppose me. Let's put it this way, number two on your outline. I think it's helpful for the Passover to be stuck in the middle of these two earthly opponents. There's a heavenly opponent and you need to make peace with him. Number two: ensure that you're at peace with God.

And to get that right, we need the blood on the doorpost. Oh no, that was symbolic. We need our trust in the blood of Christ. See, and then the one who opposes me because of my sin becomes my redeemer and my friend. That's an amazing transaction. That's called reconciliation. It's much like the picture in Ephesians chapter 2. Remember that passage, Ephesians 2? Well, then let's turn there.

Ephesians chapter 2. Ensure you're at peace with God. Ephesians 2:1. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. We were opposed to Him. But here's the grace of God. Ready? Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins. You were dead in your transgressions and sins, and God in His grace quickened you, made us alive, brought you into His family.

By grace you've been saved. Verse 10. Well, now we are, present tense, God's workmanship, right? We're new creations in Christ, created in Christ Jesus to do what? Good works, which God has in His sovereignty, He has prepared them in advance for us to do. So now that you're a Christian, you always do good all the time, right? Always. Never without fail. Right? No. But if you are a Christian, you're going to step off the path every now and then.

It's called sin and it happens and it's a reality in the Christian life. Now, what happens when we as friends of God, we're no longer opponents, we're not alienated from God, God is no longer our enemy, what happens when we step off the path? Nothing? No. God is a loving father who's going to get you back on the path. And you know how He does that? He does that with spankings. Ow, right? Spankings.

You know what that looks like in my life practically? Like God is opposing me. Doesn't it? You know what my kid, I've got a nine-year-old, ten-year-old, and a four-year-old. And every time I discipline those kids, every time, they sit there and they think you don't like me, you don't let me do whatever. From his perspective, it feels like Dad is my opponent. Do you get that? Two levels. I need to make sure you're at peace with God level number one.

If you're not a Christian, become a Christian today. That's the great thing you can do right now. You can repent of your sins and put your trust in Christ. And you will change enmity to reconciliation. Great. Now here's the thing. If you step off that path and you spend some time in the gutter, here's what you can expect: opposition from God. If the first one, letter A, was ultimate opposition, letter B is practical opposition.

I don't kick my kid out of his family because he's done wrong, but I do correct him. And that feels like opposition. See? And I don't declare war on my son, but I do do things in his life that feel like opposition at what level? Ultimate opposition? No. But He is, if He is your Father, He is going to practically oppose you. Okay? And that happens. And when that happens, you need to make sure that you fix it.

How do you fix it? If you say you're without sin, you're a liar, the truth's not in you, so you're going to step off the path. When you do, you need to confess your sin because He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And some people think that's ultimate opposition being fixed. We're talking about practical opposition there. We're talking about the fact, and I know that because it's chapter 2, and I'm off on a tangent right now, but chapter 2 of 1st John says this:

I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if you do sin, He's talking to Christians now, we have an advocate, we have a mediator, we have somebody who stands and pleads our case in our defense. The point is this: Christians sin, and when you sin, you'll feel the opposition of God. If you want to remove the opposition of God, what do you do? Confess your sins. What happens then?

He's faithful and righteous to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And now He doesn't oppose you anymore. Next time you encounter opposition, and Pharaoh comes in his anger to oppose you, or the Egyptian army sharpens their spears and they're pointing at you and you think the world is coming against me. Okay, here's a question you ought to ask: is God behind this?

Because even as a Christian, God may be behind it. Was God ever sending world leaders against Israel in the Old Testament as an act of His discipline ever? Yeah, right. Exchange Pharaoh for another guy named Nebuchadnezzar. Remember him? Who was doing that deal? Or how about Tiglath-Pileser in 721 BC with the northern ten tribes of Israel? Well, yeah, God was doing that.

God was using those opponents in the lives of His people because He was disciplining them. So you will encounter opposition in your life and you need to say, "Uh oh, get on your knees, God." Psalm 139: "Search my heart, try me, know if there's any wicked way in me. Am I in sin right now? Is there something I need to confess? Why is work against me? Why is my family against me? Why are people against me right now?"

Ask the question, "Is there sin in my life?" Are you tracking with that? That's pretty simple, but we've got to start with that prayer. And if you say no, it's not that, the blood's on the doorpost, I'm a Christian, my sin is confessed, this should not be God's opposition here. Then you can rule that out and say, "I'm dealing with Pharaoh and the Egyptian army. Now what do I do?" Well, number one, don't fear. I pray more.

And then lastly, look at verse number 29, Hebrews chapter 11. Okay, we're back to the Egyptians now. You've got Pharaoh and he overcame his fear and he exchanged that for focus on the invisible God. He kept the Passover. He was sure that God was not his opponent, right? God was on his side. Verse 29: by faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. And you remember why, because if you read the story in Exodus, what you'll find is God could have sent them along the Mediterranean coast up to the land of Canaan.

He could have sent them there no problem, right? That was the land of the Philistines and He could have sent them there, but He didn't send them there. Instead, He sent them a different way, knowing that they would have their rear ends against the wetness of the Red Sea and they would be stuck. And here come the spears of the Egyptian army. So He put them in that situation. Well, the great news was they passed on dry land.

Like I said, you saw the movie. You know how dramatic this was. And then the Egyptians said, "Well, we're going to chase those guys." And what happened to them? They all got drowned. Hmm. What was that like? Glad you asked. Turn to Exodus chapter 14 with me. Exodus chapter 14. What lesson do we learn from this? What are we supposed to do? How are we to deal with our opponents? How did God deal with Moses and Israel's opponents in this passage?

I mean, their knees are knocking. Naturally, they're concerned. "Wow, we're in trouble. Our back is against the wall. What are we going to do?" Verse 13, Exodus 14:13. Moses answered the people, "There, what do we do? What do we do? Do not be afraid." He's preaching our sermon today, right? Don't be afraid. "You will see the deliverance," two words, "that the Lord will bring you today."

Who's going to bring the deliverance? God. You're going to see God's deliverance today. "The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again." And that's true, right? They're going to be floating in the bottom of the Red Sea. Verse 15. Then Yahweh says to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites," I love this, "what are they supposed to do? Move on." And I'm thinking, "But I've got a problem here, right? I've got the Red Sea in front of me."

Well, verse 16: "Raise your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry land." Fantastic. Now I skipped something in verse number 14. Did you see this? "The Lord will fight for you; you only need to be still." Just chill out. Just keep. And then again, a little variation on this, verse 15: "Just move on, move forward."

I love the New Testament equivalent to this. He says when we're unjustly persecuted, when people are piling their opposition against us, we entrust ourselves to our faithful Creator and continue to do good. Okay? That's what we do. You've got people ganging up against you, right? Entrust yourself to God. Don't be afraid. You trust God, keep walking, keep doing the right thing, and watch. As this text says, watch God deliver you.

Okay? Let's put it this way, number three on your outline: you need to leave your opponents to God, because God will take care of it. You don't have to put up your dukes and repay evil for evil. That almost sounds biblical, doesn't it? Verse 17, Romans 12:17: "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."

Did Moses even try that? Absolutely. "Hey man, Pharaoh, just let us go, okay? We just want to go out in the desert and we want to worship our God." I mean, he tried. "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room," now this is an amazing statement, "for God's wrath." For it is written, interestingly enough, now He quotes Deuteronomy 32, which Moses penned, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

Who's the judge, jury, and executioner? Me? No. God. God will take care of it. Okay? That was hard enough, but you want to talk about ambitious faith? Verse 20: "On the contrary," you wish this one wasn't here, right? "If your enemy is hungry, feed him." That's hard, because you want to kind of lace the food maybe with a little something, right? I mean, that's hard. Feed him? I don't want to feed him. I want to hurt him, right?

No, no, no. Feed him. "If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head." And a lot of people say, "Well, I don't understand that." And that is a hard idiom. We're not sure exactly what that means. But it means this, verse 21, we know for sure: you're not going to be overcome by evil. You're going to overcome evil with good. There will be a redemptive work somehow in this.

Just know your place. "Well, I'm going to be a doormat. That's my place." No, you're not going to be a doormat. You're just going to know your role in this. Okay? It's like the analogy of being a kitchen worker in the state penitentiary. There's one for you, okay? Now, you hear comes a guy who carjacked you in the line, okay? He carjacked you, now he's in prison, and he's coming through the line.

What are you supposed to do if you work in the kitchen? Feed him. Okay? Feed him. Why? Because your job is just to, according to verses 17 and 18, just do what's right. Do the right thing and live at peace with people as far as it depends on you. If you can, do it. And if you have an opportunity to do good, do good. Okay? Leave room for God's wrath, because He is the judge.

He is the executioner. He will take care of them. They could be on death on God's death row, so to speak. But it's not your job. Your job is just to be polite, be kind, be respectful. As a matter of fact, the Bible says in the Sermon on the Mount, even pray for them. Pray for them. Sometimes I want to pray imprecatory psalms on them. Sunday school grads know what I'm talking about. But I need to pray for them, okay?

Because why? Because my job is not to be the judge there and be the executioner. That's God's job. Now, does God take care of people that oppose you? Yeah, He'll deal with them. He does. Nothing escapes His notice. And I know some of you say, "Oh God, you don't see. You're not watching. It's so unjust. These people are unjustly ganging up against me. It's wrong. You must not understand what I'm going through."

Do you think God understands? Absolutely. We just quoted Deuteronomy 32. You know what else it said in Deuteronomy 32? As Moses recounts at the end of this situation here in God's deliverance, he looks back and he says this: He says you protect us like the apple of your eye. Now, when I grew up hearing that statement, I had no clue what it meant, right? I just pictured apples and eyes, I didn't understand.

But do you know that the Hebrew word 'ishon' doesn't mean apple, red thing? It means the pupil. That's the apple, right? That came through an English idiom and all that. He will protect us as the pupil of his eye. How well do you protect the pupil of your eye? Right? If I shake your hand on the way out at the door, say, "Hey, great for being here," and then I go and try and just mess with your eyeballs a little bit.

Are you going to protect your eyeballs? You're going to wrestle me to the ground. "Stop touching my eyeballs," right? And the Bible says that's how He deals with His people. He protects them and defends them as the apple of His eye. Now, they were in Egypt for a long time crying out for relief. The timetable is not our timetable. He's incredibly patient. He has incredible tolerance for people messing with His eyeball.

But trust me, it doesn't escape His notice and He will respond. And if you want to start saying, "God, you must not know what I'm going through," that should, by the way, for Sunday school grads, be reminiscent of now Isaiah 40. Does that sound familiar? Just wait on the Lord. If you wait on the Lord, you will renew your strength. You know the passage? You will rise up and fly like on wings of eagles.

You will walk and not grow weary. You'll be able to run and not faint. And ultimately, the bottom line is you wait on God to deal with your opponents and all the injustice in your life. He will deal with it, because He cares for you. And He's going to protect you like He would protect the eyeballs in His head, which is just an analogy, right? He doesn't have eyeballs. The point is He's going to guard your life.

He knows. Nothing escapes His notice. Well then, why is He doing it? One last passage. Exodus chapter 9. I just want you to know, it's back to the concept, this biblical optimism of Romans chapter 8, and that is that God has a plan. He's working out His glorious plan in your life even using your opponents to do so. Exodus chapter 9, Exodus 9:15: "For by now," He's talking now to Pharaoh, "I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the face of the earth."

Do you often think that? Why, God, why is He allowing this? Couldn't you stop this? I mean, you could be oppressed with disease or attacked by people and God, stop it. Why? Well, of course He could have stopped it. He's God, He could stop it. But verse 16: "I have raised you up for this very purpose." It's part of my plan. "That I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Now, you're not Moses and you're not going to write the first five books of the Bible, and I understand that, but on some level, He is going to use the opponents and the conflicts in your life when you are right with Him, your sin is confessed, you're being unjustly opposed. He'll use that to glorify Himself. He will use that to work another good chapter in His plan for your life. It may not feel good.

You may have to wait for a while for His deliverance. You may see your opponents thriving, but you know what? Just entrust yourself to God. He'll take care of it. He's doing it for a purpose. You've got to believe that. Ambitious faith, I grant it, it's a lot about offense, but you better have a kind of faith that's able to play defense so that you can stand up in the midst of opposition. Let's get out there and do that. Stand strongly without fear. Let's pray.

God, help us, please, to be the kinds of fearless Christians that you want us to be, because we're going to be opposed. We are. We're going to be people that slander us and threaten us and try to intimidate us. And that's going to happen on a small scale, a large scale. It's happened to your church throughout history. We are hated in many ways. We're opposed for lots of reasons.

Practically, but divinely, we go through these things because you have a plan. Our responsibility is to face it fearlessly. How do we do that, God? You've taught us by praying. No anxiety, but we pray. We make our petitions clear. We grab some friends. We get on our knees and we exchange fear for focus on you. God, we want to make sure we're at peace with you. We don't want to be disciplined in our lives. We want to sort all that out.

And then, God, we want to make sure that we don't take things into our own hands. That we're careful and wise and shrewd and all of that, but God, we've got to make clear in our minds that you are the one that will bring about a just resolution. Eventually, you will. And so, God, we don't want to take vengeance ourselves. We want to leave room for your response to those that unjustly treat us the way they do.

So God, help us in this. I know this is hard. It's one thing to talk about battling sin. It seems so theoretical. But now we're talking about opposition that they have names and we know where they live, we know where their office is, that we have to deal with them on a daily basis, and it's hard. But God, help us to entrust ourselves to you. Keep doing the right thing, no fear, making sure that we're constantly with an ambitious faith saying you're our God.

We see you who is invisible. We're going to walk with an incredible trust that you're going to take care of us. We don't have to be afraid. So God, help us in that. May we stand strong for you this week. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): At times, we may find our backs against the wall, but with God by our side, we have no reason to fear. A reminder from Pastor Mike Fabarez here on Focal Point. Today's message is titled, "Trusting God When Your Back's Against the Wall." Remember, you can always revisit or share these daily lessons by going online to focalpointradio.org or by downloading the free Focal Point app.

This month's featured book fits right alongside what we've been unpacking in Hebrews. It's called Songs of the Son by Daniel Stevens. Stevens works through nine Psalms that are quoted directly in Hebrews, tracing what the Psalm meant in its original context, then circling back to see how Hebrews puts it to work. The result is a sharper, clearer view of how the Old Testament was already pointing toward Christ, His character, His voice, and what He accomplished at the cross.

Ask for Songs of the Son when you send a gift to Focal Point today. Call our team at 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. And if you'd rather send your donation by mail, just write to us at Focal Point, P.O. Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. If this ministry has made an impact in your life, we encourage you to become a Focal Point partner.

Consistent monthly gifts are what power this broadcast. They keep Pastor Mike's teaching on the air, extend the reach of the ministry, and put these lessons in front of people who haven't yet had the chance to hear them. Commit once and that commitment goes to work for the Gospel all year long. Sign up at focalpointradio.org or call us at 888-320-5885. Getting in touch for the first time? We'd love to welcome you with something useful: Pastor Mike's brand new booklet, Do the Right Thing.

It pairs perfectly with our current study in Hebrews. So get your free copy today by calling 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org. I'm Dave Drewy, and we'll see you next time for a lesson on embracing the unconventional and the unexpected. That's Thursday on Focal Point with Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Hey there, Pastor Mike here. We're almost out of time, but before we go, I wanted to personally invite you to contact us here. Let us know how we can be praying for you. Head on over to focalpointradio.org and click the contact page or send me a note on Facebook: facebook.com/pastormike or x.com/pastormike. Can't wait to hear from you.

Guest (Male): Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.