Focal Point

Dave Durey: Today on Focal Point, with pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: I want you to go and pull up to your small group, wherever that small group is meeting. I want you to pray, God, I'm hurting. I want you to bring me comfort. You to bring me comfort through the body of Christ that I'm about to meet with. God who raises the dead can raise your spirit, can get you through your trial.

Dave Durey: Is God against doctors? Well, not at all. The apostle Paul traveled with one, but when King Ace's feet became severely diseased, scripture says he sought help from physicians rather than from the Lord. And the very next verse records his death. Today on Focal Point, pastor Mike Fabarez puts his finger on a dangerous season in believer's face and then takes us to Romans 8, where present sufferings shrink beside the glory to come. It's a word for anyone leaning hard on a diagnosis, a bank balance, or a support network. Our message is titled The Practical Requirements of Comfort.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Follow along as I read these four verses from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 through 11. I'll read it from the English Standard Version, and it reads like this. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Now I couldn't help but quote this line in every message so far as we've been dealing with this topic because Paul knows what it's like to be completely beyond what he thinks he can handle. And if you're feeling that way this morning or this week or you're in the middle of something or you feel like I just can't do it, this is Paul Paul is admitting this feeling.

So much so that he says we we despaired of life itself. We we were done. We didn't want to keep going. He was despairing of life. Indeed, verse 9 says because he felt like he'd received the sentence of death, which is not some formal decree from some beam of seat or some bench in the Roman municipalities. Not that he hadn't been accused of crimes. Of course, all of those were crimes for the sake of Christ, but doesn't mean that. It means that he thought this was it, that the God sentence upon them was death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

That that's a great argument from greater to lesser, right? If I'm struggling, I don't think I can go on here and I have so much pressure on me that this trial is making me feel like I'm going to give up. If the God who can raise Christ from the dead can do that, we'll certainly he can revive my spirit and he can bring me what I need to get through. And he says he's delivered us from such a deadly peril, speaking of whatever he talked about there in verse 8, and he will deliver us because his trials continue.

On him we've set our hope that he will deliver us again. We're confident in that. You also, verse 11 says, must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Now there are five things in these four verses we need to take note of, and all of them are key ingredients. You can't do it without all five of these. They're very important and you should learn from the apostle Paul to do precisely what he's doing in this particular passage. And let me start with the first key ingredient, which is probably the hardest for many of you to engage in.

And yet here in this passage, look at verse 8 again. He says, I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we suffered or experienced in Asia. We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. You think that's something you'd keep to yourself. You'd like to keep up the appearances of a strong Christian life, wouldn't you, Paul? And you're telling people you're struggling. Well, that seems that seems seems incommensurate with the Christian life. And yeah, of course, it's not. If Jesus said in this world you'll have tribulation, if you happen to come to your small group this week and say I'm having tribulation, that should be exactly what people should expect.

And we're all going to experience the ebb and flow of difficulties and struggles and hard times. And what's happening here, the apostle Paul says I don't want you to be unaware of it. I want you to know you're my brothers and I want you, brothers, to be aware of my pain. And and that's not how most of us think. And and a lot of pride in this room will keep you from making this clear to someone else that you're struggling. You have to be, number one, transparent with Christians. And of course, the context is you need to be transparent with Christians about your struggles, about the difficulties, about the pain.

And you need to share that with people because people are the are are the instrument of God's comfort. And until they know that, God can mobilize them or at least he doesn't seem to mobilize them as we need them mobilized. Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. Verse 1. Philippians 2. If there's any bolstering and and booing my spirit in the midst of if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any comfort, there's another word, similar word, from love. If there's any fellowship, coin and a participation in the spirit, any of that fabric of the of the mending of people's lives together to hold me up, if there's any affection, any sympathy, these are things you hope to get where?

In the midst of people. He says, hey, all you Philippians, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, get together and have be on the same page, have the same love, being in full accord with one mind. And when you get together, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. Now here's the key. Verse 4. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. Have this mind in among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. And then it goes on to this great Christological section about how he left heaven to come and meet the needs of human beings by his life and death on a cross and his resurrection.

I just want to remind you, if you think well, I'm not hurting so I 'm not going to small groups, that's not the point. Matter of fact, if you're feeling really good and you're strong in your Christian life and God is given you smooth sailing this week, fantastic. You need to be there so you can live out verse 4 because your interest needs to be there for someone who may be hurting. And all of a sudden now their interests go in the front seat of your mind and your life and and and all that you're interested in doing.

You're there to help. This is so important that you recognize that all these great words, comfort, encouragement, uh of participation, fellowship, affection, sympathy, all of that is done in the context of the body of Christ getting together. If you're too busy to go to a small group at your church, whether you're listening on the radio or whether you're sitting here looking at my face right now, then you're too busy as a Christian. You need to cut you cut back. You just need to. You got to have time for this. It needs to happen. 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

Let's look at verse 9 now. That's the first ingredient. You got to be honest. You got to be transparent about your hurts. Verse 9. Now look at it carefully. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. Oh man, we thought we were going to die. But that was to make us not rely on ourselves, but on our small group that God provided. Write down small group there. Make sure you underline that and highlight that that phrase. Do you see that there, small group? No. I thought this was it was all about pastor Mike about small groups.

About other people. Yeah, but Paul knows the difference between the means and the source. And you know who doesn't know the difference between the means and the source? Non-Christians. Don't act like a non-Christian. Don't think like a non-Christian. They start to focus on the means and not the source. And you can too, but you're supposed to be a Christian. And the difference according to Romans 1 between Christians and non-Christians is they don't give thanks, but you give thanks, not to the means, although you should give thanks to the means, but to the source. Number two, you need to trust the ultimate source of comfort.

Christians are supposed to look past the means, even though we give thanks for the means. Look at 1 Corinthians 16 if you want to see how we should praise the means. We should take note of them and you should be thankful for your small group and Christians that have stood by you just as Paul was of the people that God used like Titus in his life to bring comfort. But you ought to know the comfort comes from God. It is God who comforts the downcast. And you need to be focused on that because if you start trusting in the means and not the source, right?

I guarantee you it may not happen early in your Christian life, but later in your Christian life you're going to be dinged for that. God is not going to put up with it. 39 years into his reign. I'll make you look at this in 2 Chronicles 16 this week. If you go to your small group, you're going to read about Asa, one little verse where he gets sick in his feet. Who knows what it was? Gout, diabetes, who knows? Arterial disease, something affected his feet and it became severe. He had been the king for 39 years.

He had been leading Israel, which according to the book of Moses, he was supposed to write himself a copy of the law, carry it around and read it. He had 39 years of knowing God's truth, God's word, and trusting in God. Now at the end of his life, he picked up the phone and he called the physicians. Right? He he he said, I need my doctor right now. Now is God against doctors? No. But he dies in the next verse because he sought the physicians and he did not seek the Lord. That's the problem. Paul traveled with his own doctor.

You can travel with your doctor on the mission field, take him along. It 's a good thing to have. But do you understand you're supposed to trust not in the doctor, not in the chemotherapy, not in your oncologist, not in your financial planner, not in the the S&P 500. You're supposed to trust in God. Now those means may provide what God is giving you, but all good things come from him. And if you confuse the source with the means, I guarantee you you're going to get in trouble. Just think of David. I quote him often, but out there as a teenager when he tried to put on Saul's armor, he goes this doesn't work, this doesn't fit.

God has delivered me from the paw of the lion and the bear. Guess what? I'm going to go after this guy in the name of the Lord. And he runs to the battle, whirling a slingshot over his shoulder and lands one right between his eyes and kills the giant, trusting in God. He then writes songs about it. As the commander in chief of the Israeli army, he says, you know what? We don't trust in chariots and horses. People trust in bows and spears and all kinds of swords, but we trust in God. Well, at the end of his life he's out there.

At the end of his ministry, after all these years counting his troops like some guy about to retire sitting here recounting all of his money. If you're trusting in the means and not the source, particularly if you've been around the block in the Christian life a few times, God is expecting you to trust in him. Remember the whole point of Jesus telling the apostles, don't take a backpack, don't take a wallet, don't take a staff, don't take anything you need for this trip. They should have raised their hand and said, Proverbs says we're supposed to.

But here's the son of God saying, don't bring any of that. And at the end of the ministry he goes, okay guys, I'm about to go be crucified here. I'm going to leave you at the ascension. Hey, go get a backpack, go get a staff, go get a next pair of sandals, go get a cloak, go get a sword. Matter of fact, if you if you if you can't if you don't have a sword and you got two cloak, go sell a cloak and get a sword. What are you talking about? Were they supposed to trust in the swords and the cloaks and the wallets and the backpack?

No, not supposed to trust in those things. They weren't supposed to. And yet they were supposed to have them because those were the general means of God providing for them. But here's the thing about spiritual maturity. You're supposed to trust in the source, not in the means. I want you to go to your small group. I want you to go to church. I want you to read your Bible. I want you to prepare for all the eventualities of life. I want you to save for retirement. I want you to have health insurance. I want all I want you to all do that.

But the minute you trust in that, you've just violated the basic principle of being a Christian. You're supposed to trust in God for all of that. If you need comfort, I want you to go and pull up to your small group, wherever that small group is meeting. Whether it's a sub-congregation, you break into small groups for the second half, or whether it's a home somewhere and a home fellowship group, I want you to pray, God, I 'm hurting. I want you to bring me comfort. You to bring me comfort through the body of Christ that I'm about to meet with.

There's means and there's source. Please don't get those confused. God who raises the dead can raise your spirit, can get you through your trial. Verse 10. You're still with me on this passage? Verse 10. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, right? Whatever it was in Asia, he got through that. And he will deliver us. He's still struggling. He is about to say in verse 11, I need help. He will deliver. And on him we've set our hope that he will deliver us again. Now what kind of deliverance do you have in mind? Is he going to live forever because he's going to keep praying this all the way through the second Roman imprisonment and he's not going to get his head chopped off?

No. We've learned that throughout the whole book of Acts. I mean, think about what was going on in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 12, you get one apostle is is is imprisoned, the other one gets his head chopped off. James is dead. Or how about John the Baptist? John the Baptist in in Matthew 12 gets killed. Or what did God not deliver them? When Paul does go to get his head chopped off in 2 Timothy 4, he says, God will bring me safely into his kingdom. He knows being brought safely into his kingdom is a kind of deliverance.

Look up again at verse number 7. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. You will have comfort. There's the deliverance from despair, from thinking you can't handle it, from thinking you you just can't make it. You're going to die. You you can't do it anymore. God will deliver you from that. He will. That's what the Bible promises. Paul ends up getting a no from God three times in 2 Corinthians 12. You remember that? I prayed that this thorn in the flesh would go away and God says, no, no, no.

You're going to live with a chronic illness. And he lives with that as far as we know from all of his writings to the end of his life. So the chronic illness didn't go away, but you know what went away is all the despair about his chronic illness. He was okay because he said God's God said his grace is sufficient for me. He could stand up straight, though the outer man is decaying and certainly in his mind certainly must have been his chronic disease, the inner man is being renewed day by day. Here's the deal.

You need to have the deliverance in your mind, not the kind that the prosperity gospel preachers will tell you about in their arenas, but the kind that God really promises that whatever comes your way, no matter what difficulty you have, God will allow you to stand up straight and stand up strong with courageous perseverance so that you are not defeated. One day you're going to die. One day you're going to be physically defeated, but you're never going to be someone who's lacking the deliverance of God if you're a child of God and you got to live like that.

Turn to one passage with me real quick on this, Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter 8, if I said to you, pick a chapter of Romans that is going to encourage you, you'd think of Romans 8, but you may forget the context. The Christians in Rome were being persecuted. They were suffering. If you have any doubt at that, look near the end of this chapter when it says in verse 36, as it's written, for your sake we're being killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. That's the mindset, at least circumstantially among the Roman Christians.

This is hard and it was going to get really hard. Nero, Diocletian, I mean the Roman emperors that wanted to eliminate and and and and extract the Christians from Rome. I mean, this was a bad time. They were living in the catacombs at one point under persecution running from the officials of Rome. It's going to be hard. But my favorite verse starting this whole thing, at least this part of the discussion in verse 18, Romans 8:18, he says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Do you understand we're going to get delivered ultimately at the end of this road? And whether your heads get chopped off or you get killed or whatever happens, talk about deliverance. The glory that's going to be revealed to I mean, we're not even going to be able to compare how bad the bad was on earth to how good the good is there. That's the picture. And he says it's going to be so good. Now I know verse 19 he says creation just can't wait to be done and to get to the place where the sons of God are revealed in all their glory.

That will be good. Creation was subjected to futility. And we've read this twice talking about the need for comfort. We know it's because the world has been cursed in Genesis 3. And it's all about futility at this point. But in verse 21 creation knows if we personify creation as knowing anything, of course, God knows that creation is going to be set free from its bondage to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. It's going to be so good for the children of God. For we know the whole creation, verse 22, has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth.

And that 's not a fun afternoon, right? That's hard. Until now. Until the present day. And that's the first century, 2,000 years ago for not only creation, but we ourselves. We know what it's like to suffer. That's how this all started in verse 18. We're groaning inwardly. We can't wait for adoption. That's the ultimate deliverance, the redemption of the body. You may have a redeemed spirit right now. God may have purchased your spirit out of the slave uh holding of of of sin and you may now be forgiven. But here's one thing, your body is still laden with sin and corruption and it's dying.

And there's all kinds of persecution going to hurt your body. But one day the redemption of your body is going to solve all that. Now that is the hope of the Christian life. In this hope we were saved. Hope if you had it, well, it wouldn't be hope. You can't talk about hope in a prosperity gospel church because it's all about the here and now. But I've told you multiple times it's not about the here and now. It's about the then and there and here. He says it for hope, man, we wouldn't be hoping for what we see.

But if we hope, verse 25, for what we don't see, here's our word. We'll wait for it with Philippians and Those are two great words. The pressure, the downward pressure of I can't take it anymore and to remain, to stand up, to to be there, to not give up, to hold up under the pressure of suffering. And of course, the agency of that is the people of God. The source of that is God himself. God has a good plan. He wants to keep you strong, waiting patiently, enduring courageously. Number three, you need to affirm God's good plans.

You need to say God does have a good plan and the plan is to get me through all the sufferings of the present time and they're going to be so small compared to how great the glory of the next life is going to be. Spirit's going to help us. Verse 26. If you're still in Romans 8, verse 27, he's always praying for the right things. When I'm praying for the wrong things, verse 28, we know that those who love God, all things work together for good. We're going to get there. We're going to be ultimately delivered.

He's going to deliver us with with hope and courage and strength throughout all of the patient enduring we have to go through because we're called according to his purpose. What's his purpose? We'll laid his love on us before he knew us. Then he predestined us. He planned and architected our salvation. He conforms us now to the image of his son, but he'll ultimately conform us to the image of his son when our bodies are redeemed in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. If he's predestined you, he's called you. If he's called you, he's justified you.

If he's justified you, he's glorified you. Well, we haven't gotten there yet, but it's as good as done in this chain of the things that God says he's going to do for every Christian. And the reality is that if you're on the justification module, the link in this chain, what what's next is it's it's absolutely indomitable. It's going to happen. You're going to be glorified. And that's the great thing. Even if you are like sheep that are led to the slaughter, verse 36, there's nothing that is going to separate you from this plan and the love that God has endowed.

God's got a good plan. It may be that you end up like John the Baptist or James the apostle. But just know where it's all headed. And know that all of this is to help you to stand up under whatever struggle God throws in your path. Back to our text, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 11. Paul's still going through it and he says this in the present tense. You also must help us by prayer. Let's just stop right there. It's as simple as that. Number four, request prayer support. The apostle Paul incessantly requests prayer support and of course, he does.

Then I think you should not think you're above that. When was the last time you asked for prayer? You need to ask for prayer. Well, some of you don't even have the context to ask for prayer. You need to be in a group where your chairs are face to face, people that know you and care about you and learn about who you are. They know you, you know them, and you can share what it is that you need help with in your prayer life. God, please make this church obedient to this very simple command that you do not forsake the assembly of yourselves together, not just in theater seating, but in round circles in people's living rooms or in all the 100,000 square feet of facility we have here because it happens all night long.

Ever Well, not all night long, all week long. That's what I meant to say. Every night, right? People are meeting in small groups around this campus because that's where the the heavy lifting of being able to say, pray for me, help me through this, takes place. If you're strong, that's fantastic. No trials right now, great. Go and put their needs before your own. But if you're hurting and you're struggling, that's when you ask for prayer. And and it's really hard when I sit there on the patio and I talk to someone in the lobby and they say, oh, I'm going through a terrible time.

And I ask, have you asked people to pray for you? I mean, don't don't say no to that. Well, don't lie to me either, but you need to ask for prayer. If I ask you things like have you told your small group? The the wrong answer is I don't have a small group. That's the wrong answer. You need to find a small group, be a part of that small group, and make sure you ask for prayer. A lot of things come to our prayer ministry. You got a prayer ministry here. It's even linked on our on our website.

If there's something that we need to pray for as a church at large, we got a whole army of people who take that list every single week and we pray through it. We pray for all those needs. We got a long-term list. We got the immediate list. Then we got the crisis list that comes through on any day of the week, any hour of the day. We we got we got people manning this ministry to have people come together when you have to raise your hand and say, I need prayer. You need to request prayer.

Dave Durey: You're listening to Focal Point with pastor Mike Fabarez and part two of The Practical Requirements of Comfort. We're in a study called When Life Beats You Up and we'll continue next time. If today's message struck a nerve, hear it again at focalpointradio.org or download the free Focal Point app and keep the full series close by all week long. Romans 8 tells us our present sufferings aren't worth comparing to the glory ahead, though that doesn't make the waiting any easier. Psalm 73 proves it. Asaph nearly lost his footing watching arrogant people prosper while he struggled until he went into the sanctuary of God and saw where their road ends.

His honesty is a gift to anyone who's quietly wondered the same thing. Pastor HB Charles Jr. titles that chapter When Good Things Happen to Bad People. And it's one of 10 honest hope-filled studies in Psalms of Trust, his new book. For anyone who's been doing everything right and getting nothing for it, that chapter alone is worth the read. Ask for Psalms of Trust when you give to Focal Point this month. The number is 888-320-5885. One more time, 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. To mail your gift, our address is Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654.

Pastor Mike described a prayer team that works through requests every week from long-term needs to the crisis that comes in at midnight. In a similar way, Focal Point stands ready for listeners scattered across the country, many with no one else to ask. Our monthly Focal Point partners keep biblical answers within reach for them through this program and ask pastor Mike live. Add your name to that team today by calling 888-320-5885 or online focalpointradio.org. New to Focal Point? Let us mail you pastor Mike's booklet Seeking Comfort as our way of saying welcome. Call 888-320-5885 or visit focalpointradio.org.

Thursday pastor Mike completes The Practical Requirements of Comfort with a word about thanking God when relief finally comes. I'm Dave Durey and I hope you'll join us for Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Hi, pastor Mike here. God's word promises it'll never return void. So 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 and then be sure to join us again tomorrow right here as we continue to explore the depths of scripture. We'll see you then.

Dave Durey: Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.