Focal Point

Dave Deway: Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Dave Deway: To say that there is a God is a confession by definition that he is the source of everything. In the beginning, God did what? Created the heavens and the earth. Without God, you don't even exist. Without God, I can't be sanctified. Without God, I can't be prepared to do anything good. Without God, I can't be saved. And without God, I can't be, right? Without God, I don't exist. You know, sometimes we can get impatient with God and try to do things on our own. But the Christian life was never meant to be something we do by ourselves.

Today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez gives some great news that we all need to hear. God is the source of all power. And as the apostle Paul said, his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. But where do we get this power? Well, Pastor Mike takes us straight to it from Hebrews chapter 13.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: I want to try to stretch the umbrella of of the closing theme of Hebrews into a into these three different distinctive thoughts. The important for us is he ends with this benediction, which after all these commands about how to live the Christian life, he now says, listen, it all comes down to God making sure it happens in your life. I mean, look at the main verb down there at the bottom of verse 21. May he work in us what's pleasing to him. I mean, this is instruction about how to live the Christian life. And he says, may he get it done in you.

Okay? There is this sense that we are dependent upon God to do anything good for God. That sound like John 15? I am the vine, you're the branches. My father is the vine dresser. And if you can if you want to do anything, you're going to have to abide in me, remain in me, hold tightly to me. Number one on your outline, let's just confess that reality. Number one, you and I, we need to confess our dependence on God's power. Everything we've learned in Hebrews cannot be done without God. Okay? Now, that paradox is throughout the scripture.

I mean, it sounds a lot like Philippians 2, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Remember that passage? I mean, we're to work. This takes effort and work. But the reality, matter of fact, let's look at that. Let's go to Philippians chapter 2 verse 12. This is the the passage that I quoted. Therefore, dear friends, as you've always obeyed, not only in my present, but now much more in my absence. This is obviously some perfection, but they're consistently trying to follow the the dictates of God's word. He says, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

We've heard that. We've referred to it throughout the book of Hebrews. It is a work. Takes work and effort. Okay? Now, if that were all there was to the sentence, we'd say, okay, pull up your self by your bootstraps, eat your power bar, drink your orange juice, and live for God. Okay? But here's the other part to it, the other side of the coin, verse number 13. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. That's just a blatant parallel passage to what we just read. May God work in you what is pleasing to him.

I want to please God. Don't you want to please God? As a Christian, we'd like to live a life that is pleasing to God. It would be good for you and it would be glorifying to him. So let's live a life that pleases God. You can't do it without him no matter how hard you try. So you need to confess the dependence that we are stated to have in scripture. Just confess it to God all the time. Tell God that. And you intuitively sometimes in our failures, we cry out to God that way, don't we?

God, oh, just help me live the Christian life. God, help me do the right thing. Help me say no to sin. Help me say yes to righteousness. That's a great prayer. It may feel pathetic when you pray it, right? But it's the best prayer you can pray cuz it confesses the obvious assertion of scripture. You can't do it without him. You are hopelessly dependent on God to do the right thing, to avoid the wrong thing, to stand up for him, to step out for him, to live the dictates of God's word. You need God. Let's confess our dependence on God.

But look up at the first verb in verse 21. May he equip you with everything good for doing his will. There is a preparation for living a life that's more pleasing to him. The book of Hebrews, much of it, especially the second half, has been about sanctification. And it's not just we say, God, I want your spirit just to do it. Live that. I'll make every effort, but but you do that in me. You're not going to live an effective Christian life to the level that God would want you to without him putting you through the equipping process to do it.

The Bible says that the prayer should be of our heart. Not only would you let my life be pleasing to you as you move me to do the right things, but would you prepare me, equip me for with everything good for doing his will. Okay? God's equipping, unfortunately, though it's described as everything good, we don't get to the good without going through the the bad and the difficult. The equipping, if you will, the means to an end. The end is great. It's good. But the means to an end is tough, isn't it? If I'm going to get fit and healthy and have the good come out of my life, the good process, it feels really bad, right?

Going to the gym is hard and it hurts and it's a struggle. And I'd rather watch TV or do something else. Here's the deal. So it is in the Christian life. I'd rather have a lot of fun and hang out. Tell everything go well. And I pray for that. But then God sends us through the equipping process. And the equipping process usually hurts. And the Bible says, may he equip you with everything good so that you can be ready to do his will. Now, there's no way around it. We need to depend on him to prepare us and be careful cuz his methods as the great trainer it it is going to be painful.

Let me give you one example. Okay? Second Corinthians chapter 1. Second Corinthians chapter 1. You just need to know that God is probably going to take you through the difficulties to prepare you. What you're asking for, what the writer of Hebrews is asking for, what he's praying for for his first generation initial recipients of the letter is something that probably is going to going to continue to be tough. A life of of of spiritual and probably practical and real deprivation and a life of of of difficulty. Because in the difficulty, God does the the real training.

A lot of people say, I want to be trained to serve God, and they think Bible school or seminary or whatever. But a lot of the training takes place in the pain, difficulty, crisis of our lives. Example, Second Corinthians chapter 1. He praises God, verse number 3. Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the father of compassion and the God of all comfort. Verse 4. Who comforts us in all of our troubles, purpose clause, here it comes, so that Here's the reason. We can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Did you catch that? God comforts us in our troubles, verse 4 says, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. So verse 5, just as the sufferings of Christ overflow into our lives, so through Christ our comfort overflows. We get to dispense comfort to others. For if we are distressed Now, note this. This is very clear. It is for your comfort and even your salvation. Now, think that through. He's talking to the Corinthian people here. If he says, I've been through hard times, it's so that I can minister to you and even lead more of you people to Christ.

That's a big deal. You want to at the end of your life say, I did what the Bible said on a benediction like this you say, I've really put Hebrews to work in my life. Okay? Here's the thing. He will probably equip you through some painful circumstances of life, health crisis, relational crisis, financial crisis. You know all the tough stuff we go through so that you can actually be useful even to the extent of saying, hey, these people came to Christ because of what I learned in the seminary of pain and and crisis. That's how it works.

As a matter of fact, go back in your mind to to to John 15. I didn't turn you there cuz you're so familiar with the passage, but you're not going to bear any fruit unless you're abiding in the vine. But do you remember how the passage goes? I mean, you look it up and study it some other time. This is John 15 verses 1 through 5. And it says this, that if the vine dresser That's the father, right? Finds a branch that is bearing fruit Here's what it says. He leaves the branch alone and says, go for it, man.

Bear fruit. That what it says? Do you know the passage? If he finds a branch that bears fruit Here's what the Bible says. Jesus said, my father, the vine dresser, he prunes it so it'll be even more fruitful. Wow, that didn't sound good. No pruning, I'm sure the inference in this is pain. As a matter of fact, the disciples were going to go through more pain than the average Christians cuz God was planning on using them even greater in the world than probably most of us. And as Spurgeon used to say, God rarely uses anyone greatly until he hurts them deeply.

And it's the reality of the Christian life. The prayer of the writer of Hebrews is, I hope God works out great things in your life. Oh, and by the way, I hope he prepares you with everything good to do as well. God is using the difficulties of your life to prepare you to live out his word. Look at the passage again, verse 20. May the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep And then he goes on to the verbs, equip you and work in you.

But look at that, the God of peace. The whole point of the book of Hebrews is you're never going to get peace with God. You'll never get forgiveness from God with the ceremonial system of the old covenant, the Levitical system, the sacrificial system. The temple and tabernacle worship will not cut it. You need real peace with God. And the only way to do that is not through the blood of bulls and goats. It's through the blood of Christ. The bottom line is just no matter how bad you want to be right with God, you can never be right with God without God's saving work in Christ, the blood of the eternal covenant.

Doing good deeds, giving money to the church does not count. There's no way for you to be right with God for him to say, I'm your friend. I am in with you now. You're my servant. I am your king. You can't have a relationship with God without the work of God in Christ. Can't. A lot of times we see him as some commodity in our life. He's not He is everything to us. At least he should be. To say that there is a God is a confession by definition that he is the source of everything.

That is how the Bible starts, isn't it? In the beginning, God did what? Created the heavens and the earth. Without God, you don't even exist. Without God, I can't be sanctified. Without God, I can't be prepared to do anything good. Without God, I can't be saved. Without God, I can't be, right? Did he finish his sentence? Do you get what I'm saying here? Ontologically, without God, I am not I don't exist. Turn with me if you would real quickly to Acts chapter 17. When Paul gets a chance to talk to people that don't know anything about good theology, look at where he goes.

He goes back to Genesis 1:1. Take a look at this. Acts 17. If you know the context of the book of Acts, Paul is there dragged before a court called the Areopagus. The Areopagus traditionally used to meet at Mars Hill. They weren't meeting there in the first century, but back in ancient times in Greece, that's where they met. But now they're just convening the court of the Areopagus. The philosophers, the professors of the local university in Athens they were there to hear this this babbler, to hear what he had to say about God and some new thing about the resurrection of some Messiah.

And so they bring him there and he doesn't go into some apologetic about the resurrection. He starts here. Look at this. Acts chapter 17. Take a look at verse number 24. The God Look at this. Who made the world and everything in it. If you want to talk about the place to start, even in our evangelism, it starts with the bottom line definition of God. And the bottom line definition of God is, you're not here without him. You don't exist without him. God is everything and you are dependent on him just for your very being.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the boss. That's what Lord means. He's the king, the ruler, the one in charge of heaven and earth. And he didn't live in your your cute little temples built with hands and he's not served by human hands as if he needed anything because he himself Underline this. He gives all men, everybody, life and breath and everything else. Let that one resonate for a minute. When I'm talking about the the good word at the end of the book of Hebrews, it's good for us to recognize all these statements about dependence upon God.

Let's just start by letting this statement resonate. Okay? He gives me life and breath and everything else. And if we're talking about confessing our dependence on God, wouldn't it be good to start there? If God turns his back on you for a second, you evaporate. You you implode, right? I know people don't believe that anymore, but that's the assertion of the Bible that without God, you don't exist. We're not deists. You know what a deist is, right? You believe that they created the God created the world. He's a great watchmaker. He wound it up and he let it go and he's on vacation in in in in Bahamas somewhere or something, right?

He he's not around. He's not He's not checking in very often. Occasionally he'd look to see how it's going. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that everything was made through Christ and that in him all things Here's the word translated in English. All things hold together or consist. They are sustained in him. God not only made everything According to this passage, he sustains everything. He gives us life and breath and everything else. Now, think that one through. You can't oxygenate your blood by breathing in his air in his world in the lungs that he designed unless he gives you another breath.

How dependent on him are you? Well, the Bible says you you're desperately dependent on him, not just for your your sanctification, not just for the equipment to do right, not just for your salvation. You're dependent on him for your very existence. Be good for us to confess that. You know how Think about that. If that's the reality, if you were somehow the God of your own universe and you were sustaining everything in your little universe there There wasn't a person on your little planet that you created that wasn't fully dependent on you for everything including the next breath they took.

Wouldn't it be great just to have a few of those creatures every now and then acknowledge that? Wouldn't it be great for them to say, thank you. That'd be great to hear that every now and then. It'd be good to see a sense of dependence and say, God, thank you even for sustaining my life. That would be nice. Be good for us to confess our dependence on God for life and breath and everything else. Paul's not done. Let's read a little bit more in this passage. It says from one man, verse 26, this this story that's so maligned that is according to scripture, the truth, from one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

You want to talk about dismantling the deistic theology? Here it is. Okay? Every single thing about when you were born and where you now live was determined by the predetermined decree and sovereign plan of God. That's a big statement. Do you ever acknowledge that? Do you ever Do you ever think about You are sitting here in the 21st century because God has determined that to be. And he did all that. Verse 27 says, so that Verse 27, men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him, but it's really not this hard thing to find him because he's not far from each one of us.

He is drawing and pulling his people to himself. And the bottom line is verse 28 as he quotes the Athenian poets, for in him we live and move and have our beings as some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. That is not a soteriological statement. That 's an ontological statement. We are his offspring. Every person that he is created on the planet is a dependent offspring of God. That's not a statement about their salvation. That's a statement about their being, their existence. And no one is here without him. When Jesus was tempted to make hamburgers from rocks, think about that that passage, Matthew 4.

He said, listen, I don't care if I have a pantry full of fresh food. Doesn't matter. He says, God has has made it so, right? That that man does not live by bread alone. He lives by every word that proceeds from his mouth. Man is dependent upon God. And you can have every support system, every life support. You can be in the in the best care facility of God doesn't give you your next breath. You're done. Confess your dependence on God's power. You need it to live. You need it to be saved, the blood of the eternal covenant.

He did that work. You didn't. You need it for the equipment of the Christian life to live life the way God wants you. You need it for the execution of the Christian life, the actual carrying out of the Christian life that he may work in you what is pleasing to him. That's the end of the book. You can see it right there with amen. But there's more. Here's the postscript. Here's the personal word about the letter itself. Brothers, the writer of Hebrews says, verse 22, are you with me? Hebrews 13:22. He says, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation for I have written you only a short letter.

303 verses seems long, but it's really just an admission that there's more to this story than I just told you. This is not the whole thing. And and here's the deal. He says, would you bear with this? That's an important New Testament word, to bear with. And though it sounds like, you know, I just hope you can kind of get to fit it in kind of hang in there with my long letter, but it's not that long. It's kind of brief. I hope you can handle it. That's not what this means. As a matter of fact, write in the margin if you would, Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 3.

Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 3. Here's what it said. A time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. See? But instead to suit their own desires, they'll gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. Okay? Here's the phrase. A time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Same exact Greek word. The point is that the opposite of what the writer of Hebrews is looking for is described for us in Second Timothy chapter 4. Second Timothy chapter 4 says there's a time when people will look at this stuff and go, I don't know.

Grow a goatee and wear a sweater and tell me what you think cuz I'm not into this. Okay? What was I trying to say? If the world says, I ain't putting up with this. I'm not interested in focusing on this. I don't want to depend on this book. I want to kind of reason my way through this and not really see this as the arbiter of truth in my life. If they won't put up with this, that's the opposite. Here's the same exact Greek word stated in a positive. I urge you. That's That's strong to bear with it, to bear with this word of exhortation.

And it's just one installment. It's just a brief letter that that just touches on these topics, but I need you to bear with it. That's not a self-effacing false humility. Well, I hope you can find some time. That is a statement of put up with it. And while that's stated, it's very hard Greek word to translate because we don't know how to translate it and make it sound positive. I put it this way, number two on your outline. We need to demonstrate a dependence on God's word. That would be a positive way to state this word to bear with.

I don't just want to say, well, I'll put up with it. You know, I guess I can handle it. No, you need to embrace it. You should depend on it. You should defer to it. It should be the thing that people can see in your life. You're looking to this book, not just Oprah's you know latest wisdom or your own intuitive sense or or something that you read in some psychology textbook in in college. This book should be the guide for my life. That's what this word put up with means. I want to deal rightly with God.

And to deal rightly with God, the only way I'll know how to do that is by finding out what he expects, what he wants, and what he's revealed. And that means I got to get to know this thing. I want to let this book make decisions in my life. That's the concept. Let me give you a great expression of this in Psalm 25. David wanted to live his life in accordance with God's word, and often he didn't. Now, he didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit, but when he recognized his desire to live for God, it always brought him back to a quest to understand the covenant of God.

Take a look at this, Psalm 25, Psalm of David. Take the first part of this Psalm and see his heart. His heart is to to depend and give deference to the to the path of God in his everyday life. That's what I mean by demonstrating a dependence on his word. I want to be able to on Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon and Saturday at noon to be able to say my life is going to show a deference to this book. I want this book to govern my thinking. Psalm 25. David says, to you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul.

You, verse 2, says, I trust in you, oh my God. Don't let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope that is in you, no one whose hope is that is in you ever is is put to shame ultimately. But they will be put to shame who are treacherous without reason or without excuse. Verse 4. Now, if I want to trust in God, I want to live different than the rest of the world. I want to follow his path. I'm going to need this to be answered. Verse number 4.

Show me your ways, oh Yahweh. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me. See? That's going to have to be the cry of your heart. I need to be governed by the mind of God. Good news, he's given us 66 installments of his mind. And it is there for our taking. It is on the table for us to ingest. And not only should we ingest it, we've got to get to the place where it makes a difference in my decisions about my work, about my clients, about my neighbors, about my life, about my money, about my health.

It it comes from here. I need to say, what what does the scripture say? How does that govern my values? How does that help set priorities in my life? Then he says this, my hope is in you. This is an important phrase. All day long. Now, if his hope is in God all day long and he knows the necessary means to an end is his word, his revealed propositional statements, he's got to be thinking of that all day long. He's got to be deferring to the Bible all day long. He's got to be reminded of God's values, principles, dictates, and precepts.

He's got to go there with his mind. And that's a challenge for us. Do you depend on your experience, your resume, your education, your sense, your your mentors, or do you go back to this in your brain and say today's decisions need to be governed by the principles of the book, the revealed word of God, the historic redemptive purpose of God spelled out in scripture?

Dave Deway: To be strengthened with God's power, we need to rely upon God through his word. You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez. Today 's message is called Interdependence instead of Independence. And you can walk back through it anytime at focalpointradio.org or take them with you wherever you go, no matter what your schedule looks like through the free Focal Point app. Picture a college freshman moving into her dorm this fall. She grew up in church. By Thanksgiving, a professor has disproven the Bible. Her roommate calls scripture mythology, and she's starting to wonder if anyone actually knows whether any of it is true.

She's not struggling because her faith is weak. She's struggling because nobody ever showed her why she could trust what she believes. Well, that's exactly why Pastor Mike wrote a brand new book this month called The Bible, a book like no other. It takes the evidence, archaeology, history, fulfilled prophecy, and lays it out in a way that's easy to follow, yet incredibly compelling. When you give to Focal Point this month, we'll send this book straight to you as our thanks. And if you're able to give above your usual gift, you'll help us place thousands of free copies directly into the hands of students just like her.

People who'd never go looking for a resource like this on their own. Call 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org or take them with you wherever you go, no matter what your schedule looks like through the free Focal Point app. Picture a college freshman moving into her dorm this fall. She grew up in church. By Thanksgiving, a professor has disproven the Bible. Her roommate calls scripture mythology, and she's starting to wonder if anyone actually knows whether any of it is true. She's not struggling because her faith is weak. She's struggling because nobody ever showed her why she could trust what she believes.

Well, that's exactly why Pastor Mike wrote a brand new book this month called The Bible, a book like no other. It takes the evidence, archaeology, history, fulfilled prophecy, and lays it out in a way that's easy to follow, yet incredibly compelling. When you give to Focal Point this month, we'll send this book straight to you as our thanks. And if you're able to give above your usual gift, you'll help us place thousands of free copies directly into the hands of students just like her. People who'd never go looking for a resource like this on their own.

Call 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org or mail your gift to Focal Point Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. We'd also like to invite you to join our Focal Point partners with a standing monthly gift. This kind of giving reaches past today's bills toward the listener still searching for something steady and real. Join us today by signing up online at focalpointradio.org or call us at 888-320-5885. And if you're reaching out to us for the very first time, we'd like to send you something at no cost, Pastor Mike's new booklet Fighting for Peace. Just say hello at focalpointradio.org.

Well, I'm Dave Deway. Next time we'll conclude with the last message from Hebrews. You don't want to miss it. That's Tuesday on Focal Point.

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

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