Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: There's a Hebrews 11 being written every generation. You realize that. And the people that know you, I wonder if you're on that list. I know it's an earth-bound Hall of Fame, but I think in the earth-bound Hall of Fame as it relates to faith in Christ and ambitious faith, I want to be on that list for the people around me.

I would like my grandkids to say, "I want to imitate his faith. He was ambitious about his faith." I hope the same for you.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez. The Bible is packed with stories of men and women who did great things for God. Of course, their lives are often filled with loss, rejection, and fear as well. What was the motivation behind these great lives? And how can we follow their example through good times and bad?

Today, Pastor Mike concludes a study in Hebrews. We've been inspired by these godly examples of ambitious faith, and now it's our turn to step out. So, let's join Pastor Mike with today's message, Looking Past the Pain to the Prize.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Suffering is sometimes the cause of greatness and sometimes it's the effect of greatness. Sometimes God uses the pain to make us great. If He's going to prepare you for something great, you've got to know that the pathway is partly the cause for the greatness. The difficulty, the sweat, the training, the pain that you experience.

Sometimes we just need to make the connection in our mind. God is preparing us for fruitfulness, greater fruitfulness. In Malachi Chapter 3, verses 2 and 3, there's two pictures of God sitting with His people and preparing them for something great. One picture is His as a refiner. He takes this precious metal and He's going to put it in the furnace and refine it and get all the dross out so it will be even more productive or even more valuable in His sight. That doesn't sound good, being put through the furnace.

The second picture is that of a launderer. He's taking soap and he's scrubbing the fabric so that it can be even more useful in terms of its cleanliness. That doesn't sound good either. I don't want God scrubbing hard on my life, and yet that's the picture of God. If He's got people that He loves, He's going to get them ready and He's going to prepare them. The process, whether it's pruning or whether it's a furnace or whether it's God scrubbing some section of your life, it all sounds unpleasant.

But the Bible says, as it will in Hebrews Chapter 12 and we'll get to that soon, the Bible says it never feels pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 2nd Timothy Chapter 3, you need to understand that a lot of the pain that you experience is the process of getting you ready for doing something great. 2nd Timothy Chapter 3, he says, "You know all the persecutions that I endured. Yet the Lord, He was gracious to me. He rescued me from all of them."

"I'm still here, I'm still alive, I'm still doing something for God on this earth. In fact, you just need to know that's not unique to me because I had a preaching style that they didn't like or I was too direct or whatever they didn't like, my accent. Everyone, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And if you think it's better today for us, well, they're not throwing physical rocks at us, no, but you might lose your job over this. You may lose friends over this. You might have people in your family oppose you over this. You want to stand up and have an ambitious Christian life? Great people. Yeah, well, there'll be great suffering that goes along with that. It's going to happen.

How do you handle all that? Well, you need to be heartened. Number two, jot this down on your worksheet if you would: be heartened by your future compensation. Do you think there's any perks that come along with being great in God's kingdom? There are. Be heartened by that. Because God in eternity is going to praise and glorify and exalt His servants. And those that have been willing to go through the jeers and the hard times in the Christian life, those who are considered last on earth will be first in heaven.

That there was something going to be added to their eternity that was going to make it all worth it. Turn with me to Luke Chapter 16. Luke Chapter 16, letter A. Now, again, the context here is what we're going to get if we compare faithfulness now and God's reward later. And he says this: there is something called riches in the eternal state, true riches. I love the phrase.

How can you get a better resurrection? Well, more true riches would be good. Verse 12. "And if you've been trustworthy with someone else's property, if you've been godly, if you've been ambitious about doing things for God with that property, then here's the deal. If you haven't been trustworthy, who's going to give you property of your own?"

God says care about eternity. How do I do that? I have ambitious faith and I step out and do something great for God. I distinguish myself now because here's heroes He richly rewards them with riches and, let's letter B, and property. And that's real. I mean, this is a real thing called eternity, the New Jerusalem. You're going to live there. I'm not talking about this earth, not talking about money down here. You can't serve God and money. Let's serve God and then God will entrust us with property of our own. Okay, what do we got? A and B, we got riches and property.

Let's go to Matthew Chapter 19 and pick up a couple more. Matthew Chapter 19, take a look at verse number 28. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, that's what we're talking about here, the eternal state, when I get my resurrected body. You who have followed Me," now He's speaking specifically to the 12 apostles, He says, "you will sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel."

Judging in the Old Testament concept was you were a leader. Let's call it this, letter C: let's call it power or responsibilities because you will have a level of power in the kingdom. And then He turns to us basically, not the 12, let's look at verse number 29 to go to letter D. "Everyone who has left houses," we've already dealt with property, "brothers, sisters, or father or mother or children or fields for My sake." Now it's sandwiched between houses and fields, and in between are all these relationships.

It's as if you've done that for My sake, and that takes ambitious faith to leave all that for God's sake, then you'll receive a hundred times as much and you'll inherit eternal life. Now, here's the deal. We've already dealt with property. If you're willing to sacrifice for the sake of ambitious faith and the pain that it costs you is maybe a home or some property or money or whatever, you're going to get a hundred times as much there in the kingdom.

But also sandwiched in the middle are all these words of close relationships: brother, sisters, father, mother, children. If because of your ambitious faith for Christ those relationships are strained, and you know you're doing the right thing, you're stepping out for God and there are people that are going to be disappointed in you or whatever, there's problems there and there's strain and there's hurt. The Bible says you'll get a hundred times as much. Let's put that down as letter D: relationships. Relationships. Be great to have a lot of relationships and a lot of friends there.

One more. Matthew 20. You don't even need to turn there, but at least write it down because you remember what they were asking for there. Can please my son sit one at Your right hand and one at Your left? Now, what's the point of that? Well, because in an ancient monarchy whoever sat at the right and the left, those were the prestigious places. That was about reputation. Here's the deal. In the kingdom, there is an opportunity for you to have a better reputation. And so let's put that one down. Number five: reputation.

Riches, property, power, relationships, and reputation. Now back to our passage, Hebrews 11. That was a long foundational statement to say this, that there were people, verse number 35, tortured, refused to be released because in their mind they thought, maybe I can get a better resurrection out of this. Maybe because of this pain if I'm willing to endure it, I will be better off in the kingdom. What possibly could they be thinking about? Well, I think things like this: eternal riches, property of my own, real power or responsibility in the kingdom taking charge of many things, multiplicity of deep and meaningful relationships in the kingdom, and reputation.

Which, by the way, is not just heaven-side, it's also earth-side, if you look down to verse number 38. Because in the middle of this list of people that have suffered so greatly, he steps out and says, "You know what? These were the great people. The world wasn't worthy of them." What fantastic people these were. These are men and women who are to be honored. Now, we're not in heaven hearing that. We're on earth reading that.

And you know what, for us, we read those stories and we think those guys were pretty bold. Joshua, man, he went out there and bold and courageous, man, he's a hero. Moses, Abraham. Let's just put this as a sub-point to the compensation. Okay, we got a package for eternity, a better resurrection, but there's also something you get here and now, and that is a godly reputation. And is that worth anything here and now? I think it is. I think it's a good thing.

Bible says, you know, a good name is better than great riches. And you know what, even on earth it would be good for me to be able to be seen by those, my descendants, even as we talked about earlier. When I leave behind a legacy, I want my grandkids to say, "You know what? There's a godly example for me." There's a Hebrews 11 being written every generation. You realize that. And the people that know you, I wonder if you're on that list.

I know it's an earth-bound Hall of Fame, but I think in the earth-bound Hall of Fame as it relates to faith in Christ and ambitious faith, I want to be on that list for the people around me. Ah, that sounds ungodly. Okay, read your Bible because it's all over the place. Paul says this: "Follow me as I follow Christ." Does he not say that? He says, "You know my faith, imitate my faith." I'm not ashamed of that, not afraid of that.

I would like my grandkids to say, "I want to imitate his faith. He was ambitious about his faith." I hope the same for you. That's a reason for me to say, you know what, whatever level of greatness we can achieve as Christians, let's put up with the difficulty of it and just recognize the great suffering, whatever, I'll be heartened by my future compensation, which will not only come in heaven, which that's the primary thing, that's why we spend 80% of the time on that, but I think there's also a little bit of a perk here on earth. Because it will be a great thing for those who come after us to look at us, to look at our generation that was ambitious about their faith. I'd like to have that be a part of the future compensation that we receive, even here and now.

Verses 39 and 40. Hebrews Chapter 11. Yeah, I am heartened by my future compensation, but there's another level of encouragement that comes in almost a difficult to define form. As a matter of fact, he doesn't spell it out for us here. We have to read between the lines in verses 39 and 40, but we get it. And we understand the whole book of Hebrews is about this transition from Old Covenant to New Covenant. We're talking to Hebrew Christians who have a lot of baggage as it relates to the Old Covenant, and he's saying there's something better now.

The shadows have passed. He says in verse 39, "All of these were commended for their faith, yet none of them had received the promise." What had been promised to them, the promise. And what was the promise? Ultimately they had the same problems that we have, and that is that they recognized they were sinful people and couldn't relate to their Creator. They needed a fix.

That's why their worship services every week involved a barbecue. You recognize what that was all about, right? We killed an animal to show that we needed really some kind of intermediate, we needed some kind of atonement. And if God was going to look on us as holy, He had to take our sin and put it on something else. And so we had the scapegoat and we had the bulls and the lambs and the goats being sacrificed, and it was all about a reminder that because of their death, symbolically we could live.

But it was all a fuzzy picture for them, wasn't it? I mean, for them, it was just a future somehow God will atone for our sin. We know these are symbols, but it's a shadowy figure of something future. Verse 40. "But God had planned something better for us so that only together with us they would be made perfect." Now, how are they made perfect? How are they made right? Because they are redeemed by Jesus Christ. What was their view of Christ? It's out there somewhere.

The prophets talk about it. The suffering servant, the coming anointed one, the great king who's perfect and we don't fully understand and the Lord won't put him in the ground to decay. I don't get it, but it's coming and God's going to fix our problem. And you say the word "Jesus" or "Yeshua" and they think back to Joshua. You say "Yeshua" in the New Covenant and you think of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

You say the word "Galilee" and they think, "Oh yeah, that's up there in the northern part of the tribes of Naphtali, the tribe of Dan, and yeah whatever Galilee." And you say "Galilee" to us and we think Ministry of Christ. We think the Decapolis, we think Capernaum, we think of Jesus walking on water, we think of Jesus calling His disciples, we think of Jesus on the shore building a breakfast of broiled fish for Peter saying, "Do you love Me?" And we picture something completely different.

You say the word "Golgotha" and they say, "Half of them say never heard of it." Some say, "Well, I think the Aramaics call that little place over there Golgotha, the skull I think, yeah whatever, kind of a place we try to avoid that hill." You say "Golgotha" to a New Covenant believer, what do you think? The place where your sins and mine were nailed to the cross in the shadow of the Temple Mount.

You say "Mount of Olives." "Yeah, I know that. It's off to the east of the Temple Mount, near where Solomon built his temple." Think of us, you think of the angels saying, "Just as you saw him ascend, he'll come back just the same way right here, Mount of Olives." You see how different this is for us? The focus of our faith can be crystal clear if we know our Bibles. We can say this is what it's all about.

Hebrews Chapter 12. Let's look at this really quick. Hebrews Chapter 12. This is something the Old Covenant saints couldn't do. And once you find that, if you can do three things at once, jot this down. Number three: you and I need to be encouraged by Christ. We have the anointed one in our memory banks. We know Jesus. They heard the teachings about a future coming Messiah. We have a focal point. We have a place to put our gaze.

Hebrews 12:1. "Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses," and we are, we just got done with Hebrews 11 and it's amazing, the people that are templates of ambitious faith for us, "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us," which by the way is the whole theme for Chapter 12, "and let us do what? Let us run with endurance or perseverance the race that is marked out for us."

Now you could say in the Old Covenant: period, done. Hey Moses, Abraham, Isaac, look at those guys. Now run the course that's set out for you. Stop sinning and let's make a difference for Christ. But he goes on for us. Old Covenant saints couldn't do this. Underline this: "And let us fix our eyes on Jesus." Okay, now Jesus, by the time the book of Hebrews was written, Jesus is gone. He's ascended to heaven.

He's not talking about our physical eyeballs looking at somebody. Jesus is gone. He sent the Spirit now into our lives, and what he's saying is get your focal point in your mind on Christ. Fix your eyes on Jesus who, by the way, you want to talk about ambitious faith, He is the author and He is the perfecter of our faith. And then you want to talk about Bible stories. "Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

And in that picture is the entire ministry of Christ. And you and I, if you've been to Sunday school, if you've read your Bibles, can flood with a volume of examples from the life of Christ. And that as our focal point is fixed on Christ, as it motivates us to walk our path, we're empowered by that. Old Covenant saints, by the way, couldn't do that. They couldn't, verse number 3, consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that they wouldn't grow weary and lose heart, but we can do that.

Because we know exactly about Christ's temptations. We know about the pinnacle of the temple. We know about in the desert and fasting. We know about Him being opposed and smitten and smacked on the face by Roman soldiers. We understand that. They don't understand, they don't get that. All they knew is that there was a coming atonement. I've said it many times with the Old Covenant saints: this was a credit card for them. Their sin was paid for on credit. Ours is paid for on a debit card.

It's out of the riches of Christ. I'd much rather be looking back at the cross than having some fuzzy picture through the prophets prophesying of the future Christ. Now think about that. Do you take advantage, full advantage of that? We should. And then we should stand back and say, "Man, we're blessed." You want to talk about the opportunities for ambitious faith, here's a big line coming up. You want to talk about opportunities for ambitious faith with Christ as your focus, you and I have more potential than anybody we read about in Chapter 11.

You and I have more potential than anybody we read about in Chapter 11 because we have a focal point: Jesus Christ. And that for us ought to be more than encouraging. It ought to be a power boost for us to say we're going to stand up for Christ. We're going to stand up for the kingdom. We're going to do something great and ambitious for the kingdom of God. 13 weeks, one point, and that is what are you and I going to do for Christ with our lives?

Be mediocre? Or are you going to step out of the mediocrity and are you going to stand up and say, "I'm investing in eternity. I'm going to live for the glory of God. I'm not going to be just a floater in the Christian life, just kind of going with the flow. I'm going to step up and I'm going to do something for God." That's what this series has been about. Do not be a hearer of the word who does nothing but hears it and says, "Well, that's interesting."

Bible says if you do that, you deceive yourself. God wants, in this church and every other church that preaches the word, He wants people to be doers of the word. What's it going to be for you? It's all about this moment. What are you going to do? Let's do something for God. Let's not be content with just kind of going along with it. Let's step out. Let's step up. Let's be ambitious about our faith. Let's talk to God for a minute about it.

Been talking about ambitious faith. I assume there's been some challenge here, been some templates that we can get motivated and inspired by, but it all comes down to what are we going to do? Bible says, you know what, you can be someone who hears all of this, and if you are and you don't do anything about it, you're like the foolish man who builds his life on the sand. But if you're willing to put this stuff into practice, "He who hears My words and puts them into practice, I'll tell you what he's like," Jesus said, "he's like the wise man who built his house on the rock."

And when the storms came, nothing happened. When the floodwaters rose, the house was still there. That thing was solid. You and I, we want to have that kind of solid reality when we get into the kingdom of God, here's the deal: we've got to be doers of the word. What are you and I going to do for Christ? I know you've been thinking about it. We've been putting it right there. Not going to be mediocre. Maybe a job change for you. Maybe a geographical move for you.

Maybe a volunteerism for some kind of ministry that you've been afraid to jump into. Take the step and let's do it. Talk to God about it. God, we thank You for Hebrews Chapter 11. You end on a note that's sobering, that the greatness comes at a cost, that we cannot be great in the kingdom of God without suffering greatly. Give us the courage, the boldness, the strength, the perseverance to endure it. Not only to endure it, but to be heartened by the fact that we have opportunity for a better resurrection and a great reputation.

That our grandkids and our great-grandkids can say there was someone that didn't just survive, there was someone that was interested in thriving for the kingdom of God. And Lord please, as we'll learn in Hebrews 12, let us get our gaze, the focal point of our mind fixed on Christ. What an incredible opportunity we have with the anchor of our soul being Christ Himself.

What an opportunity we have to step out in faith with ambitious faith, to take a risk and put our hearts and our future and our lives and our families in Your hands and to say we're stepping out. We're going to do something aggressive for the kingdom of God. I know for many people that feeling of palpitation and anxiety is based on just fulfilling their calling. Maybe signing up for something, maybe getting involved in a ministry.

Could be something that You've been nagging at them about, their heart has been pricked by Your Spirit, they've been pressed and they've been convicted, and God I just pray that today would be a turning point. We want to be useful in the kingdom. And God I just humbly pray that because of our focus on Hebrews 11 and all that You've taught us in this text, there might be some people here who end up in Your Hall of Fame.

Who are people that in the kingdom You acknowledge, that their names are inscribed somewhere that's not just in the book of life. That's great, we all start there, that's fantastic, but God do something here in these people. Let there be a handful that are great in the kingdom of God, that are distinguished. God, and I pray that because of Your work in our hearts that we'd be motivated to do it with a kind of passion and zeal that wouldn't have otherwise been a part of our spirit. So thanks for the investment in us trying to figure out, think through, take this passage apart and understand it. We love You God for speaking to us consistently week after week in the study of Your word. Now God I pray we'd put it to work in Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): That's the conclusion of Ambitious Faith, 13 weeks in the book of Hebrews with Pastor Mike Fabarez here on Focal Point. The complete series is available at focalpointradio.org or through the free Focal Point app. And don't forget Ask Pastor Mike Live airs every Tuesday through Thursday at 1:00 PM Central, and the phone lines are open to anyone. You can also watch and catch up anytime on the Mike Fabarez channel on YouTube. Everything you need is at askpastormike.live.

And this month, we're excited to offer you a copy of Sinners in the Hands of a Good God by David Klotfelter. For anyone who has wrestled with the harder edges of Christian doctrine: divine judgment, human sinfulness, the holiness of God, this book is a steady, scripture-rooted guide. Klotfelter's central argument is that the God who holds sinners in His hands is not a God to be managed or negotiated with, but one worthy of complete trust because His goodness and His holiness flow from the very same source.

Request Sinners in the Hands of a Good God when you make a faithful gift to Focal Point today. Call 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. Listener support is the lifeblood of this ministry, and the most meaningful way to give is as a Focal Point partner. When you commit to a monthly donation, you're making a decision that pays forward every single day, keeping the teaching on the air, funding future programs, and reaching the person who hasn't yet had the chance to hear it.

Make that decision today. Join the team as a monthly partner at focalpointradio.org or by calling 888-320-5885. Reaching out for the first time, we'll send you a complimentary copy of the new booklet Storing Up Treasures by Pastor Mike Fabarez. Just get in touch at focalpointradio.org. So what happens to the youngest, most innocent lives when Christ returns? Pastor Mike Fabarez fields real questions about prophecy, the afterlife, and the end times in another edition of Ask Pastor Mike Live Friday on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. It's an honor to be with you every day helping you explore the depth of scripture. But I want to be clear: no amount of Bible knowledge is ever going to save you. Be sure where you stand with God. Get in touch with us. We'd love to pray with you and for you. Visit us today at focalpointradio.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

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