Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: This message, I know it's counter-cultural for the church today because basically what I'm saying is I want you to spend time, hopefully to flavor the rest of your Christian life, praying for things that you will never reap the benefit of directly. Pray for the churches you'll never go to, pray for the people you'll never meet, pray for the ministry of your progeny that you'll never see, your spiritual descendants. You've got to spiritually be able to see beyond the me and mine and the here and now.

Dave Drewy: And welcome to Focal Point with author and pastor Mike Fabarez. Flip on the news, you'll find ample evidence that our world is going from bad to worse. With the decline in the culture, it's easy to be pessimistic about the future.

We may even be fearful for our kids, grandkids, and later generations. But today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike says we need an ambitious faith about the future. For the next half hour, we'll see why God's ongoing mission in our world should inspire us with biblical optimism.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Colossians 1:6. Don't need to turn there, but let me quote one phrase. Colossians chapter one, verse number six. It says, "All over the world the gospel is bearing fruit, and it is growing, just as it has been doing among you." God is doing His work everywhere, and we need to be thinking and praying with ambitious, optimistic faith about God doing His work all over the place. Do you have the passion for that?

Think about Acts chapter five. I love that passage. Don't need to turn there, but remember Gamaliel in the Sanhedrin? These Jews are trying to figure out what to do with this early church that kept growing. By chapter five, we had gone from a little upper room group of people with shaking knees to five thousand people on the temple courts. This locomotive was moving, and Gamaliel says this: "Well, you know what? If it is of God, we will never be able to stop it." Remember that? He says, "If we start fighting it, we will be fighting God Himself." He said if it's not of God, it'll die.

Do you hear that? Are you a part of that same movement that they were? Yeah, absolutely. And here's what you need to see, Christian, pre-millennial Christian, Christian who believes in the rapture: you need to realize that we need to have that kind of optimism about the growth of the church. I realize there will be tares. I get it. There will be false teachers. I understand that. There will be false prophets. I get it. But do you recognize that the church of Jesus Christ will prevail and finish its task until the coming of the Lord? It will prevail. You need to realize that.

So let's stop being so pessimistic. I understand that our eschatology, if you're a pre-millennialist like me, you believe in a pre-tribulational rapture. People peg us as pessimistic. "Oh, you're the doom and gloom Christians. Oh, you believe the world's going to hell in a handbasket." I'm not going to deny my eschatology. The world will move from bad to worse. That's what the Bible says. But the church will be triumphant, and that means it will do its job, and we will fill every seat on this invisible locomotive called the church. And when the last seat is filled, the trumpet will sound, Christ will descend, the dead in Christ will rise first, and we will go meet Him in the air. And then He'll get back to this program called Israel, okay?

And you and I need to say, "This is an optimism that most of us lack." We look at the news and go, "Oh, it's getting worse, Ethel. Oh, look at it. It's terrible. What will the world be like when our grandkids are grown up? Oh, it's going to be awful." It's awful. But when you start praying that way, and I know a lot of us are tempted to pray, "Oh, I don't know how they can survive if the world keeps getting worse and everybody's tattooed and pierced and it's bad and the music and it's awful. What are we going to do?"

Remember this: Second Peter chapter two. The context is this: If God can pluck Lot, who He calls righteous there, and I'm thinking, "Well, he wasn't all that righteous," but if He can pluck Lot, righteous Lot, out of Sodom and Gomorrah and punish that town and deliver Lot, then don't you think He can rescue people? And here's how it's put. Here's the punchline: "Don't you know that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment?" Don't you think He knows how to do that?

It's going to be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Perfect, no problem. The culture can go from bad to worse. The church will be triumphant, and there will be a true church that will continue in every generation. It will be strong. It will grow. And you and I need to have that kind of optimism about our grandkids' church. "I just hope they still believe in the Bible." No, I hope they change their culture. I hope they infect people. I hope that people are drawn because of their confidence in the sovereign God of the universe to where their churches are filled and they're excited about finishing the task that God has called us to.

I quoted, I know I quote it often, but in 1899, when D.L. Moody was near the end of his life and near the end of his ministry, at least, here was his telegraph to his son about the birth of his granddaughter. Do you remember me quoting this? He says, "I'm thankful for the good news," the birth of his granddaughter. He says, "May she become famous in the kingdom of heaven." That is the prayer of her grandfather. Do you think Moody had ambitious faith? A lot of us would say, "Oh, it's 1900. I sure hope she survives. I hope she's still trusting God when she grows up." No, Moody said, "May she be famous in the kingdom of heaven." Do you pray like that for your grandkids?

I don't want them to survive. I would like them to thrive. I'd like them to be there moving this thing called the church and penetrating a lost culture. We recognize the world's going to go from bad to worse, but the church will remain strong. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. Be more optimistic, please. If you're not optimistic, it's not a blessing. It's just a prayer. And probably for most of us, it's just a defensive prayer. Let's pray some offensive prayers and be optimistic about the future of the church and the church around the world. Because it's the church in China, the church in Cuba. They feel bad for us, you realize that, right? Because they're a lot stronger than we are in so many ways. But we need to pray for them, too, definitely.

Third, let's just start asking. Let's start boldly asking. That's all theory so far, but now I'm saying we need to start praying. How do we do that? What does it look like? "Oh, bless you, children." Do I just say that today before they go to bed? What am I doing? What am I supposed to be doing? "Bless you, my son." Glad you asked. We've got to look at some content. Let's go back to Isaac and Jacob's blessing found in Genesis chapter 27. Let's go there. Genesis chapter 27. Three different things we can ask for as it relates to the future movement of the church and the church around the world. Let's try and summarize some things that they asked for about the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant.

What do we want in terms of the fulfillment of the New Covenant? Genesis 27, Isaac's blessing Jacob. Look at verse number 28. Here's the gist of it: "May God," remember I said that's how blessings are, they always involve God, "may God give you of heaven's dew and earth's richness, an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed." Wow, it's big. That seemed to fit well on some prosperity preachers' messages, right? This is not selfish prosperity gospel. This is about the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. They're aliens and strangers, they're living in tents. God has promised that those people would establish themselves in that land, they would be rich and plentiful, and that they would rise up as leaders. And all that Isaac's asking for is the fulfillment of God's promise.

What has God said about the church? God has said that He wants the church to be glorious, that He wants the church to be strong. And I want to pray for the strength of the church. To put it in poetic words, verse 28, I want to pray for heaven's dew and earth's richness, an abundance of grain and new wine. I want, let's put it clearly, those who curse the church to be cursed and those who bless the church to be blessed. That's what I want for my great-grandchildren's church. I want it to be a strong church.

And if you're thinking, "Wow, that sounds too prosperity-driven for me," then jot this in the margin if you would: Second Corinthians chapter three, verses seven through 11. Here's what it says: If the Old Covenant was glorious, and it seemed to be, right? God did something there. Big lightning flash. They were going to build a worship center. How did they do it? "Well, let's just put up a tent." No, "Let's spend too much. Don't buy the expensive paint." What did they do in the Old Testament when they built a worship center? They were naming the columns. People were throwing in their gold earrings and melting them down so that they could gild the whole thing with gold.

Listen, here's the point. If there was a need, it was met. Why? Because it was strong. The movement of the theocracy in Israel and even the monarchy, when Solomon sat on the throne, it was a glorious thing. And people came and bowed down to them. And if you blessed Israel, you were blessed. And if you cursed Israel, you were cursed, see? And the Bible says if the Old Covenant came with glory, what about the New Covenant? Here's some of the words from Second Corinthians three: "If the ministry of the old one was glory, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glory, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness? For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison to the surpassing glory, and that which is fading away that came with glory, how much greater is the glory that lasts?"

I know glory's a big word, but recognize this: It should be a strong and glorious church. It ought to have what it needs. I don't want the junior high pastor coming and saying, "Well, I'd like to do something great and really do something fantastic to draw these kids in and connect them with God." "Well, I don't know, can you do it on $20?" I want to be able to say, "What do you need?" Absolutely. The church is going to have what it needs. And this needs to be what we think. I want the church to have heaven's dew and earth's richness, okay?

And again, he's going to pass the bag again, he wants a raise. That's not what this is about. Because the whole point of this sermon is about my great-grandchildren's church. It's about the church in Jakarta. It's about church in Brasilia, Brazil. It's about a broad and a long view. And this is what we need to do. And I love it, too, because look at in your mind James chapter four. You don't have because you don't ask, and you ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives that you might spend it on your pleasures or yourself, okay?

Now here's the thing. This is great. When I'm blessing generations that I'm not going to live in, when I'm blessing churches I'll never attend, can it qualify for that second part? Can God say, "Well, you're just so selfish. You just want to spend it on your pleasures. Here, another selfish prayer from Mike." Is that what God says? No. Why? Because I'm not even going to be here. I'm not going to go to that church in Brasilia. I'm not going to be a part of my great-grandchildren's church. But if I pray for that, I know I won't trip up on that second one. So all I need to do is start asking. In this case, my great-grandchildren's church may not have because I didn't ask.

Do you recognize the power of your prayers? Do you see with optimism, with ambitious faith, you could start praying for churches in other parts of the world and you could start praying for churches 150 years from now and you could make a difference? I'm absolutely convinced my grandfather had so much to do with Compass Bible Church, and he never even heard of it, never saw it. He died before he ever saw it. But he prayed for me, he prayed for my brother. He plucked two kids that had no right to be on a stage with a microphone, and we're both preaching in churches trying to make a difference in the kingdom. Why? Because a grandfather who never lived to see it was praying faithfully. I'm convinced of it for something great to happen in the church through his progeny, through his spiritual descendants. Do you pray like that for your grandkids? Do you pray like that for churches you'll never attend? Let's pray more ambitiously. Let's start asking for the church to be strong. And I'd love for my descendants, biological and spiritual, I'd love for them to be a part of it, wouldn't you?

Let's start praying that way. Start asking. Are you in Genesis 27? Look at Genesis 28, praying now for Jacob's descendants. Look what he says. Verse three: "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples." Verse four, it's all based on the Abrahamic Covenant. "May He give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land that God gave to Abraham." He wanted them to grow. Why? So they could fulfill the promise of God, okay?

What's the promise of God for us? The Bible says that one day, here it is, Revelation seven, there will be a multitude standing before the throne which no man can count, people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. That's God's plan for us. So when you pray for increased numbers in the church in Bogota, when you pray for increased numbers in your grandchild's church, do you recognize what you're praying for? You're praying for the very thing that God promised He wanted to do in the world. Therefore, let's make it real specific. Letter B: You need to pray for numerical growth. "I don't like big churches." Too bad. You are going to have to, if our grandparents prayed for the health of the church in our generation, you're going to have to put up with that. Because here's the thing: That's the goal of the church, to take the message of the gospel to more and more people, to have more people bow the knee to the lordship of Christ so we can fill up every seat on this invisible locomotive and go home.

And God says He's going to use us to do it. And you know what? If we don't finish the job, may our kids finish the job. And if they don't finish the job, may their kids' kids finish the job. Let's keep praying for numerical growth. That's God's plan. Revelation 7:9 and following. Let's turn to the end of this. This is Jacob, Genesis 48. And I just want to bring this up because we kind of slammed Jacob earlier, mama's boy. But he's all grown up now. He's wrestled with God. He's seen a lot of things happen. God has taken Jacob and changed him. He's a different kind of person. By Genesis chapter 48, when he gives a blessing to Manasseh and Ephraim, his grandkids, he's a whole different kind of person. This guy's become a godly man. Look at verse number 15.

Here is Jacob blessing his son in this case, and ultimately he's going to bless Manasseh and Ephraim in this passage. But verse 15 says, "Then he blessed Joseph and he said: 'May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, and the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may He bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.'" Wow, that's a spiritual prayer. That's a kind of prayer that a godly person prays, leaning on his cane, praying and worshipping God, and praying for the blessing that is a spiritually-minded blessing.

Because here's the thing. I don't just want, somehow, the church to be strong financially or strong in influence and big and filled up and lots of people there, if it's not, last one now, Letter C: spiritually mature. That's what I want. I want the future church and the church around the world to be walking with the shepherd, don't you? That's the point. I want them to be godly. I want them to be able to say, "I know the living God. I talk to Him. I read His word. We commune with one another." They've got to be spiritually mature.

It isn't just about doing something flashy in the name of God. It's not about filling the seats. We could hire gals in short skirts to dance on the stage and fill the seats. You understand that, right? It's not about that. It's about being spiritually mature. It's about a church that knows the God that created them. Some people say, "Well, this is so Old Testament, blessing, blessing, blessing." It is in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, let's close with this: Second Timothy chapter four. Do you know that the whole book of Second Timothy is a blessing basically?

Here is Paul saying to Timothy at the end of his life. As a matter of fact, when you get to chapter four, look at verse six. He's done. "The time of my departure has come. Poured out like a drink offering. I've done my thing. I've run the race. I've fought the fight." But he's giving the baton of leadership to a church that's far away, in Ephesus, and to a young guy named Timothy and he's saying, "Timothy, man, here's my blessing for you. May God do this, may God do that, may God accomplish this, may you be strong, may you survive." Now you want to talk about spiritual maturity, look at chapter four, verse number one. What a great biblical New Testament blessing on the next generation.

He says, "Oh, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge. Preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men won't put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." Never heard of that. No, that's going on, isn't it?

He says even if that happens, man, even if they have their ears turned away from the truth, verse four, and they turn aside to myths, here it is, verse five: "But you, Timothy, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." Make the word central, preach it. Don't tell people what they want to hear. Tell them what they need to hear. Preach the word of God. Now that's the kind of church you want your great-grandkids going to, right? Isn't it? You don't want them going to some fluff church with dancing bears on the stage, do you?

No, you want a godly church that is led by godly people. And may I be so ambitious to say even your great-grandkids leading in that church so that it is doing the thing that Paul had commissioned to his next generation, and that is preach that word. Stay faithful to the word of God. Do the right thing. Don't equivocate. Discharge your ministry. I want this thing to be godly, mature, spiritually mature.

This message, I know it's counter-cultural for the church today. Because basically what I'm saying is I want you to spend time tonight, this week, hopefully to flavor the rest of your Christian life, praying for things that you will never reap the benefit of directly. That's what I'm asking you to do. Pray for the churches you'll never go to, pray for the people you'll never meet, pray for the ministry of your progeny that you'll never see, your spiritual descendants. Let's start praying for that.

And as you do, you'll recognize, "Wow, my eyesight has gotten really long, really broad." You do recognize, don't you, that the essence of sin is increasing myopic perspective? I mean, myopia. It's increasing myopia because sin at its core is when I'm interested in no one but myself, right? Is that not sin? Isn't that Lucifer's problem, before the world was created? Here he was, caring about nobody but himself.

There's nothing more godly than what I'm asking you to do today. Broaden your perspective, lengthen your view on things. May God look down from heaven and see people who are not myopic, who have great spiritual eyesight. That's the goal. Certainly Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph by the end of their lives, they had it. May we have it, too.

God help us. And I want to pray right now, even asking You to bless the next generation in the church. We pray for You to come and like the early church, Maranatha, as Paul said, come quickly, Lord. We want You to come. But God, we also want to say that if You don't come in our generation, we ask that the church would be glorious, that there would be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.

So God, we want that to be a reality, affecting and making a difference in every crevice of society, in every culture of the world, impacting people who speak every language. God, I just pray it would be a reality for us, that we would have such a part in this. And I know in heaven, some people think we're going to get there and our view's going to be all about that's going to be done. God, it's not.

Revelation's very clear in chapter six that we're going to be looking back at the planet, at seeing this locomotive. We can't wait for it to finish its job. God help us to care. Help us to pray. Help us to pray with an ambitious faith, with an optimism we've never prayed with before. Not being presumptuous about Your grace, but being hopeful that You will fulfill the calling that You've called the church to, to do its job, to bash through the gates of hell. Help us God to have that kind of faith as we approach the future, as we think about the future. Help us with this I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dave Drewy: A strong challenge to have ambitious faith as we approach the future and further God's kingdom. You've been listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez and a message titled, "Living and Dying with Biblical Confidence." It's part of the series Ambitious Faith. And if you want to go back to any lesson from this study, they're all waiting for you at focalpointradio.org. You can also grab the free Focal Point app and have the full library at your fingertips wherever you go.

Now before you head out, we'd like to put a resource in your hands, and this month that's *Songs of the Son* by Daniel Stevens. It's a theological and devotional reading of the Psalms, written to show how this ancient book, as honest and raw as it is, points unmistakably to Jesus. The Psalms aren't just relatable poetry. They carry a rich theology of who God is, what Christ came to do, and how His voice runs through Scripture from beginning to end.

It's the kind of book that makes familiar passages feel like they have more to say than you realized. *Songs of the Son* by Daniel Stevens is yours right now. Just make a donation to Focal Point or sign up as a monthly Focal Point partner. However you choose to give, it's your generosity that puts this teaching in front of people who need it day after day. Call us at 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. You can also reach us by mail by writing to us at Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California, 92654.

And if this is your first time reaching out, there's a booklet set aside for you at no charge. Pastor Mike's *Do the Right Thing* takes on the courage it requires to stand for biblical truth in a climate that pushes back hard against it. Get your free copy by calling 888-320-5885 or contact us online at focalpointradio.org. Well, I'm Dave Drewy, inviting you back again tomorrow when Pastor Mike begins a message about the courage to do the right thing Tuesday on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. It's an honor to be with you every day, helping you explore the depths 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. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.