Focal Point

Guest (Male): Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Here's what the Bible says. God is working good in your life. Even when he says to you, "Here's a painful pause" or "a difficult detour." Either one, God is trying to work something good in your life.

Be patient with God's timetable. He's got one, but you're going to have to be patient. If you're going to be a Christian with ambitious faith, you're going to need patience.

Guest (Male): Seasoned travelers know it's a good idea to pack a bit of patience in their luggage. Whether it's a canceled flight or a traffic jam, unexpected delays can be unnerving, taking us off course. Today on Focal Point, we'll learn practical tips for gaining endurance for the day-to-day challenges of life.

Mike Fabarez is picking up where he left off in our study in Hebrews Chapter 11, and he takes a few cues from the life journey of Abraham. It's a message about trusting God when hope seems lost.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: I know that it hurts when life is not going the way we would have hoped. I know that sometimes when you think this is the way it ought to be and life takes you down a completely different path, I recognize the disappointment there. I know it hurts.

I also recognize that when I open up my Bible, I seem to find that people in the Bible have not been immune to this disappointment either. Take Abraham, for instance. If you want to talk about a hero of faith, Abraham's the guy. He's called the father of faith.

What we read about him is not just some wonderful story of a life that's well-lived and where everything works out. As a matter of fact, we find in the verses in Hebrews 11 about Abraham that his life was filled with disappointment. It works out, it seems, in the end.

But let's put ourselves in the sandals of Abraham and his wife Sarah and recognize that the longing and hope that they had, God kept saying month after month, season after season, year after year, and even decade after decade, "Abraham and Sarah, I know that's what you want, but not now. No, not now."

Has God ever had you wait on something you really wanted? Something that you think is right and it's good, and God has confirmed this as the right plan for your life, and then God says, "Oh, not now, though"? Take a look at the text, Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 12.

It says, "By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore." Abraham was 75 when God made the promise that he would be a great father of a great nation.

Do you know how many years it was until God finally fulfilled the promise for Abraham? 25. 25 years of waiting. He had that child, but it was after a long period of disappointment. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. You know that those 25 years were filled with some heart sickness.

He had his child and you'd think everything was great from that point on, but it really wasn't. There was another crisis in Abraham's life. Let's pick it up in verse 17. Here's the other episode that Abraham is remembered for when it comes to pain and the head-scratching season of his life.

It was the day that he heard from God after having this child. Now he's over 100 years old. He's got the pride and joy of his life, Isaac. You can imagine how his chest would swell when he would walk around with the final fruition of God's plan for his life. "Here is the one." That's great, everything's going to work out perfect and they lived happily ever after.

That's not what happened. There was this thing that's described here as a test from God. That's how Genesis 22 describes it, too. God came and tested Abraham. By faith, Abraham, when tested—look what he was asked and actually did because he was willing to follow God even down a path that didn't make much sense—he was willing to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Can you imagine that?

Some of you don't have to imagine it because God's done that to you. He's taken the thing that you think, "This is it, this is God's path for my life, this is God's plan for me," and then God took that plan, that dream, that hope, and he said, "Okay, now we're just going to take it away."

You talk about the deprivation and pain of waiting for God to do something, but you know what it's like when God takes something away. That's hard. That's the crisis of life. There are those painful pauses, but there's also those difficult detours. Abraham knew what that was like.

The path should go from here to there and all of a sudden God says, "Okay, now take Isaac, take him up this hill called Moriah, and I want you to go sacrifice him as a burnt offering." Wow. That didn't make any sense.

The pains in our life of having God say "wait," the struggle in our life of having God say, "This thing that you love, I'm going to take it away from you"—those are hard. How do we manage that? How did Abraham manage that? Part of it is found in the context.

The context of the whole list of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Look back up to verse number six. You might remember this verse. It really is the foundation for this chapter. Verse six said without faith, without trusting in God, it's impossible to please God. You can't please God without faith.

Then he delineates two things. You've got to believe that he is, that he exists. God by definition is this perfect one, this good one. And you must believe or trust in the fact that he is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him. Do you see that there in verse six?

There is that predicated knowledge that I am confident in the fact that there is a good God and that God is good to those who seek him. The bottom line foundational assertion of Abraham's faith had to be that God is still a good God even when I'm hurting. There had to be that affirmation.

That'd be a good place for us to start when God makes you wait with a painful pause or a difficult detour. Let's start with this number one: we need to reaffirm God's goodness. That's really where it starts. I need to be able to say, "I might be hurting, God may be making me wait, there may be disappointment, a dream may be shattered in my life."

Things that should have worked out aren't working out. "Why this now? I don't believe this is happening to me." If you want a godly perspective, if you want ambitious biblical faith that's going to let you navigate through that, you've got to be able to say God is still good. God is good.

We've got to look forward and recognize that while there's injustice, it's all temporary. Let's jot this one down secondly: God will overcome evil. Even if in my life I'm doing the right thing and I have to go through pain, I need to get the big perspective. The big perspective is God is doing this and allowing this in his grace, according to 2 Peter 3, because he wants people to come to repentance.

He wants to pluck people out from the punishment of their sin, but in the meantime, I'm going to have to go through some injustice. There will be some pain. It doesn't mean God's not good. And it doesn't mean that God won't one day right all the wrongs.

As a matter of fact, go back to Hebrews 11 and you'll see that. We've already looked at that in the discussion about Abraham. Abraham's following God. He's supposed to inherit this great land, but when he goes there, what happens? He's living in tents. You're thinking, "Wow, that's not such a great thing."

He had to look at a distance and welcome these promises from a distance, knowing that one day they would be a reality. That's what verse 13 said. Drop down to verse 16. He says when we do the same thing, we have to long for a better country, a—look at the middle of verse 16, I love these three words—a heavenly one.

That's the ultimate reality, the big picture here. Therefore, God's not ashamed to call them their God because it says he has prepared a city for them. That's how the book ends, right? The Book of Revelation ends with the fact that all the injustices and pains of this world will be set aside. The old order of things will be done.

I love the way Revelation 11 puts it. Handel was so good to put together in *Handel's Messiah*—we hear it at Christmas—where he puts together the words from Revelation 11 with those great words from the end of the prophecy of Isaiah. He blends these together.

In Isaiah he says every crooked way is going to be made straight. Every rough place is going to be made plain. All that's wrong is going to be made right. Then he just enlists those words from Revelation 11 where the angels cry out and say, "Now the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever."

I love the next verse and it's not in that song, but he says he has taken his power and he has begun to reign. He's going to correct everything that's wrong. So when it comes to me saying, "Life's hurting right now for me, God. I got desires that aren't fulfilled. I got a plan that seemed right and good and now all of a sudden you put me on some weird detour and it hurts."

I got to step back and say, "Okay, wait a minute." Like Asaph I got to say God's good. Like Abraham I got to say in the end it's going to be made perfect and right because you will overcome all evil. At the end of the book, in Revelation 21 and 22, it says he is going to take every pain and wipe it away, wipe away every tear. Death, mourning, pain, the first order of things is gone.

God is going to correct everything. In the meantime, it's just an opportunity for God's saving grace. That's a whole another sermon, but it lets me say, "Okay, God, I'm hurting but it doesn't mean you're not good. You are good as a person and you will overcome evil in the end."

Thirdly, I want you to be more specific about it. Unfortunately as I read Hebrews 11 and I look at Abraham, sometimes I'm kind of detached and dispassionate about that. That's Abraham. Abraham had Genesis 12 and Genesis 15 where God comes down and specifically says, "Through you, Abraham, I got a plan for you. I'm going to make you a great nation and all the families of the world be blessed through you."

That's Abraham. Abraham's got the finger of God right on his chest saying, "You are chosen, you are special. I'm going to do good things with your life." But he hasn't said that to me. I'm just a no-name Christian in the 21st century in some weird place called Orange County and I'm not like that. God doesn't have some good plan for me.

Then I start thinking, what does the New Testament say? Is there any verse, is there any concept, is there any principle that includes me in some specific plan about the actual game and the way it's played and the moves on the board and maybe why I pulled that low salary card?

Maybe why I had to stop there and not be able to afford the house on the house square? Maybe there is a plan that is specific to my life. There is. Sometimes I know it gets thrown at us on a Dayspring card when we're hurting and you just kind of brush it away in your pain.

Maybe in the quietness of a church service, it'd be good to look at that verse again and recognize it's not just a Dayspring card. This is the truth of God's word about every day New Covenant Christians like you and me. It's found in Romans Chapter 8. Let's turn there. This is an important verse.

You need to see yourself in this text if you meet the criteria. There is a definition here. Just make sure you meet the definition. If the definition applies to you, then you can scrawl your name right here in this verse and say, "This is talking about me and it's specific about my life."

Romans Chapter 8, verse 28. Take a look at this verse. Take a look at it with fresh eyes. Here's what the Bible says. The Bible's very clear. It says, "We know..." Now look at it carefully. This is important. "We know that in most things..." Underline the word "most" there. Do you see it?

I got the new version here. What's the old version say? "All." That's right. All things. "In all things, God works for the..." Here's our word, what? "Good." "Of those who..." Now here's the definition. Do you meet it? "Those who love him." Do you love God? "And who have been called according to his purpose."

Very specific. You're a Christian. You've been called by God to follow Christ. Two things. Do you love God and are you called according to his purpose? If so, then read that phrase again. All things. Every single episode of your life is designed specifically to work for the good of God's plan for you. He's got a plan for you.

There is a good that he is working out. You may not see it this side of heaven. But you might if you read the next verse because maybe this will help you a little bit because one of his specific purposes for you is bound up in the words of verse 29. "For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son."

Who's his son? Jesus. How did Jesus live? Pretty well. Was he good? He was perfect. Now he wants to conform you to that image. Have you arrived there yet? Let me know. No, you haven't gotten there yet. You're not quite like Jesus quite yet.

That means that the next draw of the deck that God may be through that trying to work out his perfect plan in your life, which in part is to conform you to the image of his son. As C.S. Lewis rightly said, "He may whisper to us in our pleasures, but he seems to shout to us in our pain."

If it's a painful pause or a difficult detour, it might be that God is trying to arrest your attention so that he can change you to be a little bit more like his son. Maybe the wait has that purpose. Maybe it's got some other purpose. I don't know. Maybe it's a purpose you won't know about till you get to heaven and maybe when you get to heaven he won't even tell you then. I don't know.

The bottom line is there's a reason for it. According to this text, if you love God and you're called according to his purpose, it's a good reason. That's an important thing. That's affirming the goodness of God. Now you may still hurt just as bad. It may hurt.

You may say, "God, I don't like this painful pause" or "I don't like this difficult detour," but at least I can stand back and say with Asaph and Abraham, and I can say here with Paul, that he's working all things to good in my life. He's working all things to good in the world. You know what, he's good in his heart.

God is a good God despite my pain. Even though I'm hurting. Even though he's making me wait. Even though my heart is sick. Let's start with that. Let's reaffirm the goodness of God. That'd be a good place to start.

How do we deal with these two things? They're very different kinds of pain and they both hurt. The first one, let's look at it again. Hebrews 11, verses 11 and 12. Abraham is made to wait. If you've been through that kind of pain—it may not be infertility, it could be the deprivation of some other godly desire that you have.

I know sometimes it's easy to shake our fist at God and think, "God, why you doing this? Why'd you put this desire, this ambition in my life and then you said 'no' to me? You shut the doors on me." Whatever it is, that's a kind of a heart sickness, a pain, a difficulty that all of us experience as Christians.

As we do, we need to know how to deal with this. How do we deal with the fact that God may lead us to some kind of godly desire and then make us wait? We don't like to wait, right? If it's a good and godly thing, when do you want it to happen?

Now would be good. I don't want to wait a year. I don't want to wait two years. I certainly don't want to wait 25 years for something if it's a good thing. I want it now. God doesn't work that way. He's got a whole different timetable. What we need to learn is what Abraham had to learn and we've already had this spelled out for us in Chapter 6 of Hebrews.

Real quick, keep your finger in Hebrews 11, turn back a few chapters to Chapter 6. Do you remember five chapters ago when we were studying this text? We were looking at the promise that God made to Abraham. God makes this promise and he swears on oath and he wants Abraham to trust him just based on the promise.

His then responsibility was to do what it says here in verse number 15. "So after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised." Part of the godliness that God wants to create in our lives, part of the virtue that he wants to build into you—underline it right there—is to be able to wait how? Patiently.

We're not born that way, are we? Your kids born that way? Oh, they love to wait patiently. They hate it. Dad doesn't like it much better either. When it comes to being a faith-filled person who has the kind of ambitious faith to trust God when he's making me wait, I need to learn to be patient with God's timetable. That'd be good thing jot down number two: we need to learn to be patient with God's timetable.

Because God's timetable is not your timetable. Have you figured that one out? It ain't the same. God in his sovereignty has me waiting for things that I don't want to wait for. So I need to learn to wait patiently. That's tough. Thankfully the Bible addresses this quite often.

One classic passage that we would be remiss not to look at would be James Chapter 5. You're in Hebrews, turn to the next book. James Chapter 5. Very helpful for us because it gives us lots of good examples that this is not just an uncommon thing and God is being really unique with you making you wait and everybody else gets everything when they want it.

No, we all have to wait. As a matter of fact, the patterns of learning to wait with a virtuous patience, that's part of just living on the planet. Verse seven, James 5:7, "Be patient then, brothers, until the coming of the Lord." If you want to know when every longing will be fulfilled, it's ultimately at the coming of the Lord.

If hope deferred makes the heart sick, that was Proverbs 13:12, right? Then longing fulfilled is the tree of life. When ultimately do we experience that? It's interesting that even in Revelation 21 and 22, it's there, the tree of life. The fulfillment of all things will be then, every longing will be fulfilled.

Sometimes we may have to wait until then. When it came to him living in his land as the leader of this country, so to speak, Abraham didn't get that until he sat on the couch in God's presence. That was the coming of the Lord, so to speak.

There's all kinds of waiting that even goes on in our daily life. In their lives, he says, "Look, you agrarian society, look how the farmer has to wait for the land to yield its valuable crop." You don't throw a seed in the ground and then it pops out. I know for us that's how it works for us, but it doesn't work for them. They've even got to be patient waiting for the autumn and the spring rains.

For us it's different as it relates to food, but you got to wait for tomorrow, you got to wait for your paycheck, you got to wait for your vacation. There's all kinds of things we got to wait for. It's built into life. So you too be patient.

But here's the virtuous part of it. If you want to talk about real biblical patience, it's a kind that comes with these two words: "and stand firm." It's a kind of strength, a sterling resolve to be able to say God's not given me what I want, he's not given it to me now, but I'm going to be able to stand firm.

I'm not going to whine, I'm not going to break down, I'm not going to be depressed. Look at verse number nine, here's another temptation we have. We start grumbling. You never do that, but people you know do that sometimes, right? Oh, you do that too.

Because when we don't get what we want when we want it, we start to become pretty difficult people. The Bible says don't do that. Stand firm and know that God just at any time could break through the barrier. That's what verse eight said. "Be patient, stand firm because the Lord's coming is near."

So don't start grumbling, don't start being an irritable person because you're going to have to be accountable for that. You're going to be judged for that. The judge, by the way, could walk through the door at any time.

Think about some of the periods of deprivation in my wife's life and in my life when we were waiting for children. That was a tough season of our life. I remember my wife and I used to talk about these things specifically. We do not want to look back on this when God fulfills this, whether when we're on the couch in the kingdom or whether he fulfills it in this life, we don't want to look at this period of deprivation and say, "Man, we were sure irritable and ugly people during this time."

To be able to have the biblical virtue of patience was to try and still have that inner resolve of trust in God. God is still good. We don't have what we want. We think it's the right desire, God seems to confirm the desire, but God's making us wait. But we're not going to be irritable, awful people, ugly people to be around. We want to still rejoice in God and affirm his goodness.

He gives some examples. "Think about the prophets, for instance," verse 10. "Take the example of patience in the face of suffering. Think of the prophets. They spoke in the name of the Lord." Now these were the guys, they are the heroes of the Old Testament.

You know how they were. They would go out and preach and everybody loved them, baked them bunt cakes and everybody put their arms around the prophets. A lot of hugs at the door, great sermon. Is that how they were? No. They picked up rocks to kill these guys. They threw them in wells. They took them before kings and they put them in prison. These guys did the right thing and they always got bad stuff happening to them.

Now think about how they had to persevere and be patient in the face of that kind of suffering. We don't call them losers. No, we call them heroes. We consider them blessed, verse 11, because they've persevered.

By the way, another example, bottom of verse 11, think about Job. Think about Job's perseverance. You know he had it bad. But see what the Lord finally brought about for him. For the prophets, they didn't get the warm reception until they sat on the celestial couch in God's kingdom, so to speak, and had the ultimate fulfillment of their lives where they really got high fives the way they needed to.

For Job, did he have to wait until heaven? No. Have you read Job 42? The Bible says the second half of his life was more blessed and prosperous than the first half. If you know the book of Job, he starts as a pretty prosperous guy.

Then there was those rotten little 41 chapters in between. Things got really bad there for Job. But remember Job. And I love the last phrase. "Remember, the Lord is full of compassion and mercy." It didn't look like that when Job is sitting there with sickness all over his body, with the loss of his children. That didn't look like God was full of mercy and compassion.

The bottom line is God broke through and—talk about prosperity and joy and fulfillment—Job had it all. He said, "God's going to break through either here or there. So don't be nasty, don't be ugly, don't be a complainer, don't be a grumbler." And you need patience.

Be patient with God's timetable. He's got one, he's sovereign, he loves you, he wants to do good in your life, but you're going to have to be patient. You're going to have to learn to be that. If you're going to be a Christian with ambitious faith, you're going to need patience.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Mike Fabarez here on Focal Point and a message titled "Trusting God When Hope Seems Lost." To hear it again, just go online to focalpointradio.org or download the free Focal Point app and carry it with you wherever you are.

I want to share a really encouraging note we received from a listener who says, "It's been approximately eight years since I first heard Pastor Mike on the radio while traveling through Eastern PA. Since then, my wife and I have Focal Point on our phones, iPad, and stream on TV. We are both active participants in our local Bible-believing church. However, Focal Point has been and continues to be our supplemental source for spiritual guidance, teaching, and encouragement. We have downloaded numerous sermons and listen to podcasts frequently. We thank God for FPM and pray continually for Pastor Mike and all the ministry out-reaches. FPM's vast library of biblical teachings, topics, and concise notes are an unbelievable asset in our walk with Christ. Thank you for loving and honoring God through this ministry, your faithfulness to his word and passion for his truth. God bless, Rick and Lisa."

Well, thank you Rick and Lisa. So glad to hear it. You know, Focal Point exists because of the men and women who faithfully give every month to keep these verse-by-verse teachings on the air. If you're not already part of the team, we invite you to become a Focal Point partner today and sign up to give a monthly gift of any amount.

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Well, I'm Dave Druey inviting you back again tomorrow when Pastor Mike Fabarez finishes our message on trusting God when hope seems lost. That's Tuesday on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Hi, Pastor Mike here. God's word promises it'll never return void. So I wonder, how is God's word moving in your heart right now? Drop us a line, let us know. We'd love to hear from you. We'd love to be praying for you here. Just go to focalpointradio.org. Then be sure to join us again tomorrow right here as we continue to explore the depths of scripture. We'll see you then.

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