Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: You and I need some biblical heroes and follow their example. Do you think there's some examples in the Bible that we can learn from? Can you find them in church history that we can learn from? There are people in your life right now that have a faith and a zeal for God that you don't have. They make your faith look puny. Are you listening? Because by faith they speak.

Dave Drewie: Welcome to Focal Point with author and Pastor Mike Fabarez. I'm Dave Drewie. Do you have a Christian role model? Is there someone you look to for inspiration or encouragement in your walk with Christ? Well, Hebrews 11 contains a collection of godly men and women we can turn to for good examples.

And today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike turns the spotlight on Abel, a biblical hero who teaches us a lot about ambitious faith. The message is called Trusting God Enough to Give Him Our Best.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: The first named example in Hebrews chapter 11 is an inspiration, a motivation, a catalyst for us to say, "Now, where are we in terms of serving Christ and giving our best for our great God?" And the first one named, if you have your Bibles, you'll see in verse number 4 is the Old Testament character named Abel.

Now we don't know much about Abel. Abel is kind of tucked in a bit of a mystery. He's only alive for seven verses in the Old Testament. And yet his effect is reverberated throughout the Bible. As a matter of fact, Jesus comes on the scene and he hails Abel as this great and godly man.

So certainly from God's perspective, this is a great guy. And the writer of Hebrews, as the Holy Spirit inspires him to jot down a list of heroes of ambitious faith, the first one on the list that's named is this guy Abel. Here's a guy who is sold out for God. And it says by faith he, that is Abel, was commended as a righteous man.

Now that's an interesting thing. And it happened when God spoke well of his offerings. When it comes to giving, what he wants from you is an authentic heart. Here's a good passage to jot down: Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Do you remember that verse from Sunday school? That because of the mercies of God, that we should present ourselves as what kind of sacrifices? Living sacrifices.

See, what does he want? Present yourselves and your bodies as living sacrifices that's holy and acceptable to God. What is? My gift. Well, my gift in that case is myself. He says do that without being conformed to the world. And if you do, and if that's holy and blameless as an offering to God, then you'll know what is good and acceptable.

And then you'll know what to do. Then you'll know what to give. Then you'll know how to serve. Then you'll know how to think, how to praise, how to offer these things to God. Cain was a hypocrite. He had a problem. Let me prove it to you. Go to Jude. Jude's concern was that in the church there were false teachers and false prophets.

They were going around saying things and it wasn't true. And they were just using their ministry and their religiosity as a cover for their own wicked and evil motives. And in the case of the false prophets in verse number 11 of Jude, he's trying to show that one of their problems is greed. And he uses two people as an example for this. One is our friend Cain.

Look at verse 11 talking about the false teachers. Woe to them, the false teachers. They have taken the way of Cain. Right? Because they're out there, they're preaching, they're doing their in pulpits, they're pastors and all that. Here's the problem: they've rushed in for profit. They've rushed in for profit into Balaam's error.

Now there's a connection between Balaam and Cain. If you know the story of Balaam, Balaam was kind of the rent-a-pastor. He was pastor for hire. You want me to say something? Great. Okay, let's put the money on the table. We'll talk about my sermon. He was willing to take money to go out there and say whatever the person that rented him wanted him to say.

He was a sellout for money. And Cain here is put in the same kind of category. And the problem with those false teachers in Jude's day is they were doing religious things for personal gain. Why does Cain come up in all of this? See, what's the big problem with giving? What's the big problem with offering ourselves, our time, or our money?

If I give it to God, I don't have it for myself. See, that's the problem. If I want it for myself more than I want to express the greatness of God or demonstrate my faith in God, then I'm going to hang on to that. That selfishness, that greed, we call it materialism today. And the Bible is saying Cain's got that issue.

He didn't want to give the best of the produce. Why? Because he wanted the best of the produce. David had some moments of sin. You know that, right? Man after God's own heart, but he had his problem. Big problems. Adulterer, murderer. Those are pretty big. But he came through those.

And God still called him a man after his own heart. And one reason was when he was confronted with his sin, when he was convicted of his sin, he came to God with a total authentic openness. One example of that is Psalm 51. Turn to Psalm 51 with me really quick. Now, he had a challenge a lot like a lot of us do.

When our heart is not right, just like Cain, we can make a decision. And Cain's decision was, "Let's just do a religious act. Let's give something to God. Maybe that'll make it right." David knew that wasn't going to work. And look at how he expresses this. He knows what God wants from him, verse 6.

"Surely you desire truth in the inner parts." It's not about the mask. Not about the outside. That's not your real concern. Your concern is what's going on inside of me. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. That's where I feel the conviction. I feel it. I need help there. God, cleanse me.

Cleanse me with hyssop, the branch they would sprinkle on, and I'll be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Do you see that? God wants the person's heart right. He wants his life right. Drop down to verse 10. There it is again. "Create in me a pure heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me."

Drop down to verse 15 and 16. This is an interesting comparison. "O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I'd bring it." Now what does that mean? God doesn't want offerings and sacrifice? Oh, he does. Clearly he commands them.

But in this case, he realized my heart's messed up. What do you want from me, God? A gift? No, it's not a gift you want from the person that's got a messed up heart. No, here's what you want, verse 17. It says, "The sacrifices of God. You want to bring something to God when your life is messed up? Is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise that. I know that."

That's what you want. Then the gifts follow. Look at the next verse. Verse 18. "In your good pleasure, make Zion prosper. Build up the walls of Jerusalem." Verse 19. "Then there will be," underline these two words, what? "Righteous sacrifices. Whole burnt offerings to delight you."

Now, I thought you weren't delighting in offerings. Well, you do when the heart's right. When the heart isn't right, does he delight in offerings? No. Are you catching what I'm saying here? Do not try to give to God if you're not right with God. And some people are going, "Great. I get to keep my money. I don't have to give to God."

But you know what? God wants your heart right. And when your heart is right, then you can bring what the Bible says are righteous sacrifices. Well, okay, I'm going to get around to that. My wife and I love this little phrase. We say it often. It only takes a second to get right with God.

So it ain't a process. It could happen right now for you. It takes a second. Takes a contrite heart. It takes a broken spirit. It takes coming to God. That's confession. Just authentic. God, just make me right. If that gets right, then verse 19, then there's going to be some righteous sacrifices.

Whole burnt offerings. And they will delight you. Can't buy God's favor with gifts or service. He's looking for clean hands and a pure heart. And that only takes a second to acquire that through real confession, real repentance. And then you're ready to give. If you don't, then you're like Cain, kind of bringing your gift, hoping that'll make things right.

And he's going, "No, let's talk about that little battle of sin in your life right now. Let's deal with that. If you don't master that, then you know what? This is a lost cause. I'm not interested in your gifts." Bottom of verse 4, Hebrews chapter 11, one more phrase. Hebrews 11 verse number 4.

There are three sentences here in verse number 4. We dealt with the first one. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain. We saw that. It was the best. He gave him an excellent gift. By faith he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings.

He came with authenticity, with no hypocrisy, with a clean heart, as opposed to Cain, who didn't. One more sentence, bottom of verse 4. "And by faith he still speaks, even though he's dead." Who speaks? Well, some people say Abel speaks. As a matter of fact, turn with me to Genesis 4 one last time.

There's an interesting double entendre here. There's a little double reference to this particular phrase. "By faith he still speaks, even though he's dead." Well, how is he speaking even though he's dead? Back to Genesis chapter 4. Interesting as the story goes on because of jealousy and because of envy and because of his own battles in his own heart, Cain takes him out in the field and kills him.

Right? You know the story. Verse number 9. The Lord says to Cain, "Hey, where's your brother?" Little Socratic confrontation. "I don't know." Okay, liar. Right? He's just killed him. He says, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Right? Which is a classic line there. Well, you know, you may not be your brother's keeper, but you shouldn't be your brother's killer.

I mean, that's the real problem here with Cain. God says, verse number 10, "What have you done?" Now underline this phrase: "Listen," he speaks metaphorically, "your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." From the grave, if you will. His blood, the injustice of his murder is crying out to God.

So he's dead and he still speaks. That's... I mean, we have such a short story about Abel. One of the components of the story is that after he dies, God says, "Hey Cain, can't you hear it?" And you know what? I'll bet Cain in his heart was like, "Yeah, I can hear it." Listen, Cain. Just listen for a second.

Your brother's blood, I saw the whole thing. Listen, can't you hear it? I gotta deal with this. You think I'm gonna let this go? And he sends him out and he says, "No longer are you going to be able to produce anything from the ground." Verse number 12. "You're going to be a restless wanderer on the earth."

And sends him off. So there was had to be recompense. There had to be some kind of dealing with Cain over this. Now, in verse number 4 in Hebrews 11, the Bible says he still speaks even though he's dead. And that would be a weird place for us to see this negative statement from Abel.

So this is a little double reference, a little play on words if you will. Clearly he spoke after he was dead about the injustice of his own death. But now the writer of Hebrews picks up on that speaking after death and he says, "You know, he still speaks even though he's dead." In what way?

Well, by faith. It's all about the faith. It's through this faith that he had to bring God his best. And even though he's dead and gone to this generation and certainly to ours, he's still got something to say. And I guess like God said to Cain for us, though it's a positive, you know what?

You ought to listen up to what he's saying. What is he saying? The only thing I really know about Abel is that he's a shepherd and he brings the best of what he has to God. And I can assume because of the rest of the Bible why he does that. And so we should listen to that.

And the point is that you and I should, let's put this down number three, pick some sacrificial role models. Because the only thing I really know about Abel is that he's a really sacrificial person. He's got a tremendous trust in God to affirm his greatness through some real sacrificial gifts.

And so the Bible is saying to us, "Listen up, man! Listen to this guy!" Now I'm thinking there's not much to listen to. He's seven or eight verses in the Old Testament. And that's by the way why the book or the chapter, the 11th chapter of Hebrews, doesn't end here. It keeps on going.

And the writer of Hebrews lists 16 more people or groups by name in this section. And so he's saying, "Okay, how about this one? How about this one? How about Moses? How about Abraham? How about all these guys?" And he starts giving us more examples. So let's follow that lead for just a minute.

Let's think through three distinct categories. Let's like the writer of Hebrews is trying to promote us to do, let us pick some good and sacrificial role models from the Bible. In your mind or on your paper, jot that down. You and I need some biblical heroes who are sacrificial.

That's not the worship of man. That's not unbiblical. That's exactly what Hebrews 11 is trying to get us to do. Look at these people and follow their example. And in the Bible I look at people all the time and I say, "There's an example." I think of King David as an example.

A guy with the feet of clay, with sin in his life, and yet he comes back even after numbering the troops. If you were in men's Bible study last week we talked about that, right? He numbers the troops. And even at the end of that, when he's convicted of guilt and sin, what does he do?

He wants to go out there after confessing his sin and give God a gift. So he goes to Araunah and he wants to buy that threshing floor which is now the Temple Mount, right? And he goes there and he says, "Araunah, please. I want to buy this and I'm going to offer to God a sacrifice here."

And Araunah says, when the king comes to you and says, "Hey, that's a really nice piece of property. I'd like it," he does what a lot of people would do. "Well, you just take it then. Have it." And you know what King David says? No. He says, "I'm going to pay you the full price."

And then he gives his rationale. Do you remember why? Talk about ambitious faith that is a model to us. What does he say? He says, "Because I'm not going to give God something that costs me nothing." Now think that one through for a minute. You want to talk about a challenging example and template of ambitious faith that's sacrificial?

"I'm not going to give God something that costs me nothing." Now think that through. That is an amazing statement of tremendous faith. Faith that I don't have. A kind of generosity and giving I don't have. Do you think there's some examples that we can learn from?

Do you think you and I can look through the pages of scripture and watch a Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego look in the eyes of the ultimate despotic leader of the kingdom and say, "Throw us in the fire if you want. We don't give a rip"? Oh, and if God doesn't save us, we don't care.

Burn the flesh off our bones, but we're not putting our kneecaps on the ground for you. So kill us if you will. What do you say? Crazy nuts, right? Just bow down. It's no big deal. God will understand. That's ambitious faith. Sacrificial. I'm willing to give my life for this.

Daniel in a lions' den. "I'm going to pray. Hey, open the windows and pray. Oh, I know I'm not supposed to, but God says I should, so I'm going to do it. Throw me in the lions' den if you want. I don't care." Do you think there's some people in the Bible that we should hold up as examples?

Bible says by the way, and we'll learn this in chapter 12 of Hebrews, they're leaning over the rails of heaven and watching. And they're going, "Yeah, wow. Real godly, ambitious Christians there." We got a lot to learn from the pages of scripture. Gonna have 17 examples in Hebrews 11.

But let's jump ahead and do a little homework maybe and try to identify in your season of life, in your stage of life, let's identify some heroes in the scripture. You need some sacrificial role models. Find them within the Bible. Secondly, can you find them in church history? That'd be a good place to go.

That's the second area. Why don't you go to church history? There's been some great periods where Christians have stood the test of endurance. They've stood up and sacrificially said, "We're going to serve God with zeal and faith." There's been a lot of people in the last 1900 years that have done that.

Would you agree there've been some pretty impressive people? I think of Jonathan Edwards. He was just a great... he was just in school. I don't know, he was probably an early teenager, 13, 14 years old. Jonathan Edwards. And he used to, because of his commitment and wanting to love and serve God, he wanted his commitment was to pray on his knees, devoted to God five times a day.

So that meant that part of his prayer time was during school time. So he was at school and he said, "I'm not stopping." And following examples of scripture, he said, "I am going to pray." And that... now, I just thinking, okay high schoolers, junior highers, you just do that between classes.

Just spend... you'll kneel down in the corner by your locker and pray for a while. See if you don't get kicked in the head a few times, right? And yet that's exactly what Jonathan Edwards did. And by the way, because of that example, people in his school as a young teenager began to pray with him.

They began to have multiple prayer services every day in his school. Examples of ambitious faith. People who were willing to sacrifice his reputation for the good of God. That... that's impressive. How about George Mueller? Do you know George Mueller?

Here's a guy that was willing every time there was a need to put his entire wallet on the table and say, "If it costs something, here it is. I don't care. I don't care if it leaves me with not a penny." You want to talk about a guy that was parting with his cash regularly for the good of ministry?

And he couldn't... he kept on giving and God kept using him. So much so that he became famous for leading ministry, but his money was always on the table. That guy lived off of a small percentage of what he made every year and gave the rest of it for the good of the cause of Christ.

Talk about people giving up things. How about Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Dietrich Bonhoeffer was willing to look in the eyes of a culture that was sliding into the Third Reich and he was willing to say, "You know what? Here's the thing. I think this is all a bunch of baloney. And I don't care if you want to jail me for sermons that are no longer legal, but I'm going to stand up to this and stand on truth."

You may not agree with all of his theology. But Dietrich Bonhoeffer paid the ultimate price, did he not? His freedom. The pastor got thrown into prison. We know a lot about Bonhoeffer because he was writing from prison. He was talking about the concepts before he went to prison about radical Christianity, saying that's normative the very thing we're teaching here.

And you know what it ended up costing him? His life. He hung lifeless from the gallows just weeks before the German surrender. And there he hung. And one of the doctors in the camp wrote about how he so courageously went to his death as they said, "If you don't recant, if you don't change, if you don't change what you've been teaching, we're going to hang you."

And he walked up there with resolve after being on his knees in prayer. And this is a modern example now, 1945, right? Hanging lifeless from the gallows. Do you think there's any examples from church history that we can learn from?

People that are willing to sacrificially give of themselves because they have a zeal and faith in God that maybe you and I don't have and we're a bunch of puny little tiny Christians and we can grow from those giants? I think it's time for us to learn from them. I said three categories.

You need to pick some biblical sacrificial heroes. It'd be good for you to do a little reading in church history and pick some historical church history examples of sacrificial heroes. But here's the third one, the one we don't like. Let's pick some heroes that aren't dead yet. Can you do that?

Pick some heroes that aren't dead yet. Maybe you can learn from that. Well, that's man worship. No, it's not. It is so biblical. Paul looked at people and said, "If you need an example, use me if you need to," Paul said. "Follow me as I follow Christ."

Oh, you man... that's not what it was about. It was about saying everybody needs examples. We need them from the scripture. We need them from church history. And you need one right now. You know what modern examples of Christianity have that all the church history examples and the biblical examples don't have?

They live in your world. And that's different, see? They're not living back there during the monarchy of King George. They're living now with all that's going on in our world. And you need to identify some. I've got mine. I look at mine. I got about four guys in my life that I look at consistently and I say, "I learn from that. I learn from that every time."

They are my heroes as it relates to the Christian faith. And they don't have to be 50 miles away. Some of them you see them all the time around this church. And I say, "You have something in your zeal and faith in God that I don't have and I want to replicate that."

We all need modern Christian heroes who are sacrificial. And the Bible's calling us, "Listen up! Because there's faith like that in the scripture that still speaks. Are you listening? There's faith like that that speaks from the pages of historians in the church. Are you listening?"

There are people in your life right now that have a faith and a zeal for God that you don't have. They make your faith look puny. Are you listening? Because by faith they speak. And some of them are speaking right now. You could ask them questions about their walk with God.

Our culture is obsessed with comfort and convenience. And against that backdrop, the real question for you is what kind of Christian are you going to be? Are you going to be the minimum requirement Christian man? The minimum requirement Christian woman?

Or are you like the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:58, going to be a person who completely gives himself over for the cause of Christ? In a world that's all about self-preservation and protecting your leisure time and making sure everything about your brain and your life is all cared for, don't get near burnout because that would be horrible.

Are you going to be totally living in that cultural lie? Or are you perhaps like 2 Corinthians going to adopt the passion that the Apostle Paul said where he said, "I'm willing to spend and be expended for their soul." What is it going to take? For the cause of Christ, I'll do whatever it takes.

Stay the extra hour? Absolutely. Extra mile? Fine. I'll do ten if I need to. Extra dollar? What do you need? Here's my checkbook. In a world that wants you just to blend in, to sit down and shut it up, are you willing to stand up and step out to be someone where you reflect the greatness of God, your trust in God, your gratitude toward God, and you give him your best?

Man, we need Christians like that. And here's the good news: God's got his eyes scanning the planet looking for people like that. And I left out one phrase when I quoted that 2 Chronicles 16 passage. Here's the thing: God is wanting to strongly support that kind of person.

And there's people maybe in this auditorium right now that are ready to say, "I'm ready. I'm going to do it!" And God says, "Great! I'm looking for people just like you." D.L. Moody said it best: if we could just find ten people like that, we could turn this world upside down. Just ten people. Let's pray.

God help us. We need more Bonhoeffers. We need more Muellers. We need more Abels, Abrahams, Moses. But we've got to have more people who will stand up and do whatever it takes. Do it all with excellence, working heartily as to the Lord, knowing that their labor is not in vain.

God, we need that. Forgive us, God. Forgive us for our half-hearted efforts, for our mediocre gifts, for our lukewarm faith. We need to be more sorry than we are, but we want to present to you today a heart that's ready to do whatever it takes. God, turn our hearts around right now and let us live for you with the kind of passion and faith that we've never had before.

We want our hearts to be authentic and real. And right now they can be. All we gotta do is confess our sins and you're faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And with a pure heart, then we can offer righteous sacrifices.

So God, we want to start at that. We want to do whatever it takes. As J. Vernon McGee said, we'd much rather burn out than rust out. So get us off the bench and let us serve you more ardently this week. In Jesus' name, amen.

Dave Drewie: A biblical challenge to get off the bench, get into the game, and give God our best. You're listening to Mike Fabarez on Focal Point and the end of a message titled Trusting God Enough to Give Him Our Best. You can revisit or share this lesson anytime by visiting focalpointradio.org or download the Focal Point app to take the full library with you wherever you are.

And right now our featured resource pairs well with everything you heard today. The Journals of Jim Elliot, edited by Elisabeth Elliot, puts you inside the mind of a man for whom faith was never theoretical. Jim Elliot wrote the way he lived, with nothing held back.

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Pastor Mike Fabarez: Well now, here's Pastor Mike with a quick announcement. Thanks Dave. I'd like to invite you to join me September 19th through the 26th, 2026, on a Christian cruise through New England and Canada. We'll sail Holland America's Zuiderdam, known for its elegance and exceptional hospitality, to historic cities like Boston, Halifax, and Quebec City.

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Dave Drewie: Again, that's focalpointradio.org. Well, I'm Dave Drewie. Join us tomorrow when Pastor Mike explains what Enoch can teach us about making what truly matters our life's pursuit. That's Wednesday 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. 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 Drewie: Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.