Focal Point

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

Pastor Mike Fabarez: What we need are comforters. And God's agency, the instrumentality of God's comfort is people, like Titus to Paul, like Paul to the Corinthians, like Jim or Bob or Brenda in your life. They are called in. So I want to ask you this. Has anybody in your life been an encouragement to you, been comfort been an instrument of God's comfort? Most of us only hear a eulogy at a funeral when good words are spoken over someone who's gone. But the Apostle Paul opens Second Corinthians with a eulogy of another kind. Good words spoken about the living God, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

Today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Favareis traces how thanking God for past comfort readies us for whatever comes next. And if you're new to our program, Pastor Mike's booklet Seeking Comfort is yours free. Request a copy at focalpointradio.org. And now let's join Pastor Mike. Number two, just jot it down this way. You need to make sure you're right with God. And just cuz you're in church on a Sunday morning does not mean you're right with God. You know that, right? Matter of fact, I know many of you would even confess, I don't mind going to church, right?

But I don't really want to be submitted to God. I I'm not going to submit to him. Even the word submission people struggle with. But here's the thing. We have no trouble with that if we're truly converted. If you know what the grace of God is, you have no problem saying he's not only my redeemer, but he's also my king. You have no problem with that. Let me show you. Go to Ephesians chapter one. And in verse six says all of this is to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

You can't do this without Christ, the beloved. In the beloved is his son, Christ. You need to be right with the living God by knowing that the only way you're going to get the redemptive grace of God is through his beloved son. As a matter of fact, keep reading. In him, verse seven, we have redemption through his death. Redemption's a good word. I'm purchased out of the problem that I'm in. And the problem is the wages of sin. I'm a sinner, and because of that, here's the law. The law of sin and death. There's the connection.

And I can't separate death from sin. But here's the thing that can separate it, the death of Christ on a cross. And according to Isaiah 53, it is the father who was pleased to crush the son, putting him to death that he might offer his soul as a guilt offering. And the whole point of you being redeemed is based on Christ dying for you. And if you understand that, that that is all about the grace of God, the glorious grace of God, that starts like that hymn, John Newton's hymn, that you're going to say I know I'm a wretch before God.

And that's what makes his grace so amazing. And if you don't see grace as amazing, most people can't sing that song and mean it cuz they don't think they're a wretch. They may think they're a sinner, but then they shrug their shoulders and well everyone's a sinner. Nobody's perfect. But those of us that know the amazing grace of God, it's been extended to us and we realize it for what it is. We know we need punishment for our sin. But we don't want to have it. None of us wants to have it. But by the blood of Christ on the cross, I've been redeemed.

I've been taken out of my bad situation and been made a child of God. Look at it. He lavished it on us, verse number eight, in all wisdom and insight. He knew all about me. He knew all about his plan, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in his son in the Messiah in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to look forward to it in the Old Testament. We, 2,000 years later, look back to it. A plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and on earth.

In him we've obtained an inheritance. I know I am right with the living God because of the death of Christ on a cross and my trust in it, having been predestined. I know that's a scary word for you according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the council of his will. The reason that's not a problem for you if you understand the amazing grace of God is because verse 13 has been your real time experience. And and we don't deny that. Verse 13, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, the good news of you being saved and believed in him, then you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

That picture of you in real time hearing a message and rightly responding to it is absolutely real. That's a real thing. But when you grab on to the grace of God, you look back on it and have no problem saying well I couldn't do this without God. I mean you see that from chapter two in in Ephesians. We were dead in our transgressions and sins. So you can stumble over being called before the foundation of the world, being predestined for adoption as sons as verse five says. But real understanding of the grace of God extended to you is something first of all we in real time experience we reach out to and respond to a message.

That's a real decision that you make. And yet the reality is once you make the decision to look back and you say that's amazing. I couldn't made it without God. And God is the one who gets all glory for this. God gets all the credit for this. And that may bother you, but let's deal with that sermon another time. Right now all I'm saying is I hope that you've experienced that grace so that you can say I know I am now sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance, not my righteousness, not my good deeds, but the guarantee of our inheritance is the spirit of God, the act of redemption until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

What kind of glory? We already know this from verse six, the glorious grace of God. I hope the grace to you has been extended to you and that you've grabbed it by the experience in real time in verse 13 by hearing the message of the gospel. And if you sit here today and say well I want the benefits of God, I just don't want to have God, you know, calling the shots for me, you don't understand the grace of God because all of us that understand the grace of God say that's no problem. Of course.

I mean such such grace, so marvelous, so grand, it demands my life, my soul, my all. These hymn writers had it right. This is true. It demands everything from me. We become servants. We say we've only done that which we ought to have done when we do everything he asks us to do and none of us can even do that. But we're ready to do what God asks. That's the grace of God. Now go to chapter two in Ephesians and you'll see the peace of God. What are we talking about? Verse 17 of chapter two.

Christ came and he preached peace. We'll see what that means in a second. To you who are far off and peace to those who are near. Now again, in the context of Ephesians, we got Jews and we got Gentiles. And the Jews seemed near because they had the oracles of God in the Torah, in the Old Testament prophets and writings. And they were there reading it. They had the light of the scriptures and they were near. And then there were the Gentiles, the Greeks and the Romans. They were far. But both near and far, it says through him we both have access in one spirit to the father.

You want to define peace with God, that's it. I now have because of the spirit's application of the redemption of the son in the plan of the father, I now have access to the father. And I'm now in at peace with the father. So then you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the rest of the set apart ones, the rest of the saints and members of the household of God. That's peace, knowing that I am right with the living God. And you want God's comfort, well then you better draw near to God.

And you ought to make sure you have the real grace of God and the real peace of God. It starts vertically. All of this starts vertically. As long as peace gives me some reference to the concept of comfort, let me give you one last reference to jot down from the benediction of the second letter to the Thessalonians. First Second Thessalonians chapter three. Second Thessalonians chapter three. Just jot down the reference. I'll read it to you, verse 16. He says now, it's a prayer, now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.

The Lord be with you all. May the Lord of peace, right, himself give you peace at all times and in every way. If I want peace in my heart when life is tumultuous, if I want to be held together with peace, a peace that Christ gives me that's not like the world gives. It's not being buried in sand or a waited waited blanket as much as you like yours. If I want peace that transcends circumstances, right, then I'm going to have to get it from God, the God of peace. But it starts to make sure it it starts with making sure you're you're right vertically with God.

And there are people in this room, I'm sure of it, just by the mass size of this group that I'm right with the living God. You know about God. You know facts about God. You've been toying around with concepts about God. When it comes down to it, if I said if Christ were to walk from the back room and tell you to move to to to the to the outback of Australia and be a missionary, that's not for me. But real people by that by that I mean real regenerate people, right, they have no problem with that.

Is it hard? It may be hard, but it's not a hard decision because we understand the great grace and the peace that we have with God and therefore we're his. You want the benefits of being comforted by the God of the universe that's so much better than any of these band-aids the world wants to stick on you when you're feeling discouraged, then we're going to make sure we need to make sure we're right with God. Make sure that the the peace and the grace that Paul is talking about in the salutation, it's not just a throwaway line, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just make sure that's true for you. And it's I I would be remiss starting a brand new book. How many sermons I don't know how many sermons it's going to be in the book of Second Corinthians. But we'd be remiss say are you are you if I didn't say are you sure you've experienced and you have in your life the real transcendent grace, the amazing grace where you can call yourself a wretch and say I'm better than I deserve. And you know what? For all of that by the way, if I greet you in the in the lobby and I say how are you and you say I'm better than I deserve, you ought to be ready for me to respond in a way like yeah, you're right, you deserve to be in hell and you'd be okay with that.

Right? So stop being trite if you don't mean it. Right? Because that's the truth. And you should say you're right, I'm a wretch. That is where I belong. Cuz real grace, think about this, is saying I know I am a sinner that deserves God's punishment. It's not just now my house is bigger than when I was 30. Right? It's it's knowing for sure that I'm right with God, not because of my righteousness, but because of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ on a cross. I just want to make sure that you're right with God. Let me plead with you.

As it says in Second Corinthians five, we'll get there Lord willing. Let me beseech you as though God were making this appeal through me. Be reconciled to God. Get peace with God. That's what it means to be reconciled, made right with him. And then you can lean in and draw near to God. He'll draw near to you and you want his comfort, he'll bring you comfort. But you got to have a relationship with the living God. More could be said on that. But I think you get my point. Verse three. Here's the beginning of his argument.

Let's just look at it. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. It's a great opening line and it starts with this word blessed be. Blessed be the God and father. Now in the Old Testament I often talk about the word cuz it shows up a lot in the Psalms and as we preach through the Psalms between series, I throughout these Psalms, you know, Israel's greatest hits we call them and and a lot of times we encounter the word blessed. And I sometimes talk about the Hebrew word which the root of it means that we are bowing down.

And it is a kind of a subjected humble and bound before God. I know he's the provider, I'm the recipient in the sense there's concept of grace there and worship, at least deference that I'm bowing down. But that's not the word in the New Testament. Even though it's translated blessed, the idea here goes even further, which I guess is implied in in the Hebrew word baruch. But here's this word. And I only bring this Greek word up, a lot of Greek this morning because we use this word as a transliterated word. I used it in some teaching this week.

Let's start with the word evangelism. Okay? Evangelism, we use that word and we talk about that being a transliterated word. The last part of it, we talk about the euangelion. There's the Greek word. Eu, this particle epsilon upsilon, eu in English, is followed by the word angelon. Angelon, right, that's the message. But the noun, right, when we talk about an angelos, we're talking about not a baseball team, but we're talking about angels, messengers. And we say the message they bring or that we bring, the message of the gospel is a good message. We call that the good news.

The message is good. Okay, this is the same concept, but instead of the word message, it's the word logos. Eu logos. We transliterate that word eulogy. If you go to a funeral, you have people that eulogize the deceased. They eulogize them. What does that mean? They come up and they say good words about the deceased. Right? He was a good father, a good husband and a good worker and a good golf partner or whatever. We eulogize them. We say good things about them. That's this word. This word is the word we transliterate eulogize. And we're supposed to eulogize or say good things about God, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ because he's the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

And all I'm saying is that that translates into saying as I bow down and recognize humbly that he's the provider of what in this context of mercy and and comfort. But it's I'm saying that. I'm I'm expressing gratitude for that. And I like the way this is stated. It's stated is just a blanket say blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, right? The father of mercies the God of all comfort because this is true whether or not you've had any of it this week or not. And so let's just state it that way.

Just kind of as indicative. It's the reality. Even though I make it an imperative thanks. Let's thank God, number three, for providing comfort. Whether you've had any of this week or not, I'm going to say let's just thank him that he is the God of all comfort, that he is the God who shows mercy to his creation. We want that mercy and we want that comfort. But I want us to start just by giving thanks. And unless you became a Christian in the middle of this sermon, I'm assuming you can look back and see that God has granted you comfort in the past.

You've seen his mercy by encouraging you, by giving you this this parakaleo, which by the way I've never defined the word, but let's do it now as long as we're talking Greek. Parakaleo, right, or paraklesis, this word here, this noun, comfort. The word para is next to and you know the word kaleo, we use that a lot here, is the word to call. Right? Like like we're we're we're calling like ekklesia, right? The the the kaleo that we're calling together a group. Well, parakaleo is being called in alongside of. Comfort is when we're we're buoyed and we're strengthened in the inside of who we are.

And that we would say is comfort. Same word sometimes translated in the Bible, encouragement. The word encouragement, the word comfort, both come from this Greek word here, paraklesis. And that is that I'm having this inner strength by being buoyed and and supported and stood up straight and God is pulling me together. When I feel like my life is falling apart, then I'm pulled together. I'm comforted. And it says that's the God, but you should thank him for doing that. We should just be thankful to him. We should we should eulogize God for that. And let's just think about this.

I'll give you some some footholds here. And I thought about how many to do this make you think about it in the past. I I'll give you four Psalms. And and I want you to think about the ways in which God has has done this. And the first one we've already kind of touched on, but let me give you a Psalm for it. Psalm 69 verse 20. Psalm 69 20, which is simply a cry of of being forsaken and not having it. But when you have it, it's the opposite. And that is I need someone to comfort me.

He says reproaches have broken my heart so that I'm in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none. I looked for comforters, but I found none. Okay, what we need are comforters. And God agency, the instrumentality of God comfort is people, like Titus to Paul, like Paul to the Corinthians, like Jim or Bob or Brenda in your life. They are called in. So I want to ask you this. Has God brought you comfort in the past through people? And let's just jot that down, right? And there's a Psalm for you. At least it's the cry of not having that.

But you know when you have it, it's just the opposite. Number two or letter B. Psalm 86. Psalm 86 16 and 17. Here's what the psalmist cries out. Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give me strength. It says show me a sign of your favor because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me. I I want you to show that in my circumstances. And maybe you can look in the past and you've seen circumstances that have comforted you. Right? When you heard you had cancer, your heart was freaked out. You were you're falling to pieces.

But then, right, God through all the the stuff you did, the therapy, whatever, you came out of that and you got a a clear scan and the circumstance was a favorable God showed you favor in the circumstance and that is encouraging you. So have people Has anybody in your life been an encouragement to you, been comfort been an instrument of God's comfort? How about any circumstance you lost a job, you thought I wasn't going to be able to pay the rent and all of a sudden now you get a job just at the right time?

Whatever the circumstance the favorable circumstance, well that be something that can motivate your eulogy to God, your your good words to God. How about this one? Psalm 119 verses 49 through 52. Psalm 19 verses 49 through 52. And if you know the Bible, you know Psalm 119 is all about the Bible. Every verse except for like two mention the scripture with some synonym. And in this particular passage, it talks about how the word of God encourages us, specifically the promises found in the word of God. Let me read this to you. Here the psalmist says who I think is David, remember your word to your servant in which you have made me hope.

When you you turn me to the Bible and I look to it, this is my comfort in all of my affliction that your promise gives me life. Right? I feel like I'm back together. I can face today. I'm not like Elijah under a broom tree. It says this, when I think of your rules from old, I take comfort in them, oh Lord. Think about that. Have you ever had a time in the word that just that time in the word turned everything around and the promises of God, the hope of God, the narrative of God, something in scripture has ministered to you as it says in the book of Romans, the encouragement, the parakaleo of the scriptures have strengthened you.

Well, you should bless God for it, eulogize God for that. Here's one. I know you know the verse, but you probably don't think of this right off the top of your head and that's Psalm 23 verse four. Psalm 23 verse four. You know Psalm 23. Well, verse four says even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you're with me. You know the next line? For your rod and your staff they comfort me. Now I know sometimes when I'm teaching through Psalm 23 I talk about that being a a weapon, a defensive weapon against the wolves and the bears and the lions.

And it's true. They can use those weapons for that. But you also know that the rod in particular, if not the staff, can be used as a disciplinary tool of the shepherd to the sheep. Sheep are kind of dumb. They stray, but these these elements these these instruments, these implements of the shepherd are used to discipline. And I only think of that because I know Hebrews chapter 12 that talks about the encouragement we should derive when God corrects us. So let's think of that. Has God ever encouraged you through people, circumstances, or his word, the promises of his word?

Has he ever encouraged you just through correction? Now that's going to take a little maturity even to sort that out, but you ought to eulogize God for that. The Bible says that we ought to be encouraged that we're not illegitimate children going on without God's discipline. Now in the moment it's hard for us to thank God for being a God of all comfort when we're disciplined cuz all discipline according to Hebrews 12 it's unpleasant. But afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. That's a great phrase to talk about how we can be encouraged by the fact that God correct He didn't let me keep going down that path.

And if you just take some time this week and you just start to say well God, I want to praise you for being the God of all comfort. I'm going to look in my past and see how since I've been a Christian, you've utilized people, circumstances, promises, and correction to strengthen me. Then I'm just going to start praising God for that. And when you start praising God for being a God of mercy where you should have just fallen off the cliff, but he didn't let you and the God of all comfort, the God of encouragement, you can start to say maybe in the next thing I'm going to go through or the thing I'm going through right now and I feel like I I don't want to keep going.

God, I I trust that you're going to get me through this. He is the God of all comfort. And we should think to ourselves God can do this. And mercy is not a bad way for us just to stop for a minute and camp on that for just a second. Mercy. You remember in Matthew 18 the servant had ran up this ridiculous debt and then the master he comes and he says please he begs for mercy. And mercy is I know I owe you this and you should throw me in the debtor's prison, but don't.

And and the master has compassion on his servant and he forgives him his whole debt. That's mercy. And if you think about what we deserve and say better than I deserve and say yeah, you deserve hell, that's right mercy that you're not in hell. And all of us experience mercy. But in particular, there are times when God's mercy shows through that it's such a sense of like a warm blanket that we have this sense of the reality of God doing for us a kindness because he's a compassionate God. And as Psalm 103 says like a father has compassion on his children, so he has compassion on us.

He removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. God is a good God and forgiveness of your sins should certainly remind you the mercies of God, of the comfort that we should derive just by knowing God. And if you want to add to that, talk about the ultimate comfort when he shows his grace in a magnified way. And I'm not just talking about a salvific grace, but the grace that we get like the prodigal son in Luke 15 who when he comes back, the dad doesn't say yeah, you you've you squandered the wealth.

You're going to the debtor's prison till you pay it all back. But he forgives him. He embraces him. Even though he's saying God I'm not the He says to his father, father, I'm not even worthy to be called your son. But then he says what? Well let's get let's get a ring on his finger. Let's get sandals on his feet. Let's put a robe on him. Let's kill the fatted calf and let's have a feast. Right? Cuz my son has returned. He was lost, now he's found. He was dead, now he's alive. The God who in your past has lavished on you the grace and the mercy of not giving you what deserve and giving you all the blessings you don't deserve ought to be enough for you to say I should bless the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

And you know what that's going to do? It's going to set you up if you continue to do what we should do and that is gathering together through the instruments that God uses to comfort us to say we can get this.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Mike Favareis completing a message called The Basis of Real Comfort. Hear it again or forward it to someone who's hurting at focalpointradio.org or through the free Focal Point app where every series in Pastor Mike's library travels with you from the morning commute to the late night drive home. Pastor Mike just reminded us that God comforts his people through his word. And few places in scripture do that quite like the Psalms. That's what makes this month's resource such a natural fit. It's called Psalms of Trust by Pastor H.B. Charles Jr. And he describes the Psalms as the most honest book he's ever read, a place where a writer can praise God in one breath and ask Lord, where are you in the next?

In these pages he sets 10 Psalms of trust before you, one at a time, each born out of hardship rather than ease, without cherry picking verses or ignoring the tough parts. Read the whole Psalm, he says, and you'll meet the valley of the shadow of death right alongside the green pastures. And if you've ever felt guilty for bringing God your complaints, this book will come as a welcome surprise. Request Psalms of Trust along with your gift to Focal Point this month. Call 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. Donations by mail can be sent to Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654.

Every week people bring Pastor Mike the questions that keep them up at night on this program and live on Ask Pastor Mike live. Some are grieving, some are confused, some simply need someone to open the Bible with them. Your support is what lets us keep answering with scripture instead of opinion. When you give monthly, you're not just funding a broadcast, you're sitting across the table from someone in their hardest week. Would you join the Focal Point partner team with a gift each month? Call 888-320-5885 or sign up online at Focal Point radio.org. Next time Pastor Mike opens a brand new message from Second Corinthians called The Reciprocity of Comfort.

That's Wednesday here 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.

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