If you have your Bibles. Please meet me in the Book of
Psalms chapter 73. On a personal level.
This song has been something that's been on my heart all
week. It seems and just recently, I'm
hearing that, a lot of people are being drawn to this song.
I see all the guys nodding their heads because I'm thinking that
this is what you spoke about last night.
The men's meeting Psalm 73 is going to be different type of
message. We're not going to take main
points out of this necessarily. We're just going to kind of go
verse by verse and see what the Lord has in mind concerning this
song, why he's given it to us. But it's very important to
understand who here is speaking. And if you look at your Bibles,
it says, right there in verse 1, that this is a Psalm of asaph
asaph. Now, before we move on, we have
to ask ourselves. Who is this person ASAP?
Who is this individual? That is writing this song.
And by the holy spirit's inspiration, we know that asaph
is mentioned in other portions of scripture and you don't have
to turn there, but there's one here in first Chronicles 25:1
and it tells us that David and the chiefs of the service also
set apart for the service, the sons of asaph.
And if human and I've just showed you 'then who prophesied
with Liars with Harps and with symbols.
So right there, in that simple verse.
And another verse in first Chronicles, we realize that
asaph is a special individual. He's not just this random
character that is writing a song that has found itself on the
Bible. This man has been set apart.
Who lived under the reign of King, David himself to be a
minister and a specific type of Minister First Chronicles.
Six tells us that he was set apart to do what to lead.
The people of God In Worship. He was a man that was gifted by
God to write to create Tunes with a heartbeat that gives
glory to the Lord. This was an individual that was
gifted to create not only with the mind but we just even read.
who prophesied who had the ability by the spirit to create
something and to declare something with instruments, that
would declare the glories of God.
If there's a title for this message, it would be this
Confessions of a worship leader. Confessions of a worship leader,
let us feel the way to understand that this man is a
spiritual leader. Let us understand that this
person has been given a Divine task.
To minister unto God and to minister unto the people of God,
that his life, and his days were set apart for such a purpose.
And if there's anything else that we can add to this person
concerning his characteristics. If there's any detail that the
Bible has given us surely it, is found in this Psalm, surely it
is found in this beautiful song, I'm so glad that the Bible gives
us honest text. I'm so glad that the Bible gives
us stories of real. People who really live for a
real God and went through real Relations so that we can relate
to them. And that's what asaph is
experiencing here. If there's one thing that we can
know about him, it is this that he has come at one point in his
life into a crisis moment with his faith.
That's what the song is. All about, a worship leader, who
serve God, love God adored, God, believe God.
But at one moment, he had a humble confession, because his
soul went into turbulent mode. His faith was being challenged
in such a way that as we read, we realize that if he had gone
further, he would have crashed and burned and his relationship
with God. And if we can sum up what this
Soul commotion is all about. If we can sum up what Psalm 73
really boils down to it, is this that asaph made the observation
in his life that the Wicked, the unbelieving seem to have a
better life than the righteous. That those who reject God mock
God. Rebel against God.
Seem to experience more joy. More thrill.
Equal, if not more prosperity. Than those who have committed
themselves to live for the Lord. And this was bugging him.
This is tormenting him. This was challenging him.
To really think is this whole Jesus thing worth it?
So we read in verse 1, a Psalm of asaph.
Look what he says here. Truly God, is good to Israel, to
those who are pure in heart us. That's a good start.
Because he confesses that he does have a knowledge of the
goodness of God. This is a person who knew the
goodness of God, who experienced the faithfulness of God, who
wrote about the goodness of God, who sang, who taught in some
sense. The people of God that God in
fact is good and he's not just good.
In general, it says here to those who are pure in heart.
Meaning, those who have set their lives apart to honor, God
and serve God and walk in his ways.
Surely God is Get to them. And he knew this, he really did
like many people in the church. That know.
God is good, God is good. All the time all the time, God
is good. He knew it and he sang it and
he's not saying it sarcastically necessarily but he's about to
admit now with that truth is another truth that he did not
fully grasp that truth with all of his heart.
God is good, Shirley to those who are pure in heart, but
that's a big word. Something happens.
But as for me, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.
My steps had nearly slipped so saying, as much as I know that
God is good. At one point, I felt my feet
drifting another Direction. Now notice he didn't say, my
feet had slipped isn't say, I did stumble.
He said nearly, he said almost And so, he's inviting us into
what was going on into his heart.
At one point that I'll do for a moment for a long moment, he was
walking with god with both feet planted on the Narrow Path,
walking with him day by day, serving him, he began to feel
the right foot Magnetize towards the world and say you know what,
maybe I can do this thing with one foot in the world and one
foot in God, or maybe he felt both feet, wanting to just stop
walking forward and perhaps just turn around all together and do
what. Let me just get a little bit of
this world and get out long enough and maybe just walk back
with God again. Or perhaps he was fully
convinced. You know what, I don't even know
if I want to walk this walk anymore.
I'm tired. I'm doing a pros and cons list
of my mind right now. I'm leading worship every
Sunday, but I'm seeing something else with the people around me
that are doing other things throughout the week and it seems
like this is a really worth it. So why don't I just walk out on
this whole thing completely? And we don't know how long that
this man has been going with this stop paddle.
We don't know how much he was really thinking this or how long
rather but it proves something to us, doesn't it all pay
attention to this truth? It proves something to us that
even faithful truth believing devoted followers of God.
And dare, I say even spiritual leaders and faithful
communities. Can sometimes feel like they
want to give up. And this person was tempted to
walk into a different direction. and if we're honest with
ourselves, maybe at one point you and I have been tempted with
that thought. At one point, maybe for
different reasons. Maybe not for this reason but
for different reasons maybe like Elijah you felt like you were
all alone in your pursuit of faithfulness.
Here I am God. I'm the only Prophet here in
Israel that standing for you and I have a bounty on my head.
What's going on? Take my life now.
No. Okay, Jeremiah.
Here, I am serving you serving you serving you.
My friends are making fun of me. They think I'm holier than now.
Think I'm taking this too seriously.
Take me out, God. Or maybe just like ASA, you've
come to the conclusion. I won't point in your thinking
that the really is no benefit. To living for God.
There's no advantage. Because when I compare my life,
as a righteous man, in Christ to those who willfully disobey and
walk away from relationship with him, it seems like I'm paying a
higher price than they are. It seems like there's more
blessing for them and there's more reproach for me.
It seems like people are walking a war where I'm walking and
rebuke, people are walking and prosperity.
And here I am in doing persecution.
And here I am trying to sacrifice and there's the world
living in self-gratification. Have you been there?
If so, take heart. Because this is a hopeful text
for us. He says, in verse 3 for I was
envious of the Arrogant. This is why he almost slipped
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
So you know what was happening to ASAP again?
We don't know that the period of time he was in during this, but
we can imagine when he was going through, there he is, looking at
the world, looking at his relatives, looking at his
friends that he knew in high school and college.
Now, he looks at his life. It looks back.
He sees their businesses prospering.
He sees that they're making memories with their families.
He sees the joy that they are clearly displaying.
He looks back at his life. He goes on Facebook.
He goes on Instagram, he checks out Snapchat, and he sees the
stories and he sees the laughs, and the memories and he looks at
his account and looks at his life.
And then throughout that time, something begins to ruin his
heart. Angie.
Envy a mixture of emotion, a mixture of discontentment and
resentfulness towards those who seem to have an advantage that
he himself, could not have in his own life because of his
dedication to God. So what does he do?
He feels like he's missing out. He feels like again.
There's no, this, there's no advantage to this.
I really can't find how many different than the world.
I really can't find why obeying God does produce a greater sense
of life. When those who seem to
completely, not just disobey God of a mock, God seemed to be just
Okay. What did a safe?
See what were the things that he observed over the things that he
calculated throughout his life. Well, verse for down tells us
For they have no pangs until death.
Their bodies are flattened fat and sleek.
And he and this language fat and Sleek means your prosperous, you
were healthy. You were whole you were well and
so what is he observing? I see that the wicked are going
through life and it seems like nothing is afflicting them.
That there's no disease falling upon them that there's no plague
coming in their life. It just seems like everything is
fine. And here are some Christians
that are Faithfully serving God and they're burning with cancer.
Here's some people that have set it apart in their minds and
hearts to live for the glory of God.
And their health is betraying them day by day and hear the
wicked living in perfect health, until their dying breath.
How can this be? And not only that, but a sub
Shirley had observed. If you have a different
transition, you'll notice that talks about how they have no
pain in death. That when they come even to the
point of death, there seems to be no anxiety of the wicked.
There seems to be no fear. There seems to be no worry of
the unknown, when it comes to the afterlife, they seem to slip
right into death and everything seems to be just okay?
He, surely has made that observation more than once and
it bothered him. How is it that they don't have
hope for the next life and they can die with such ease.
How they can land their deathbed and not Wonder cry out.
Do not assume that every person who is outside of Faith dies in
a panic. I remember one time being at a
wedding and I bumped into an individual that didn't know very
well, but I knew enough of him to know that he did not love
God. In fact, he blasphemed God He
was a wealthy individual, he had money, he had jewelry.
I before meeting this person, I had heard from another person
that he had gotten really, really sick.
I mean, very sick. And so when I saw this person at
the wedding, we began to converse and catch up.
And I had brought up the point that I heard that you were
really ill. I won't point that you're still
almost recovering and he said, yeah, he began to describe how
it just happened. All for a sudden where this
disease has struck in him and he had lost all this weight and
bleeding, and all these different things, and he's in
the hospital for weeks and months and huge show me even the
pictures on his phone of things that I don't even describe this
morning. And talking this person, I know
where he stands with God, and I thought to myself, as he's
explaining it. Wow.
Lord. You're So merciful that you're
wounded. This person to surely wake him
up and help him realize that life is short.
That your house, your car is your jewelry means nothing.
And so letting him speak. Let him speak.
I finally wanted to ask him because he had brought up the
point that he had almost died. They had come to the place of
death. Death's door was right there one
night in his hospital bed. And I was excited when he
brought that up because I wanted to bring up the point.
That there's hope in death, that you don't have to fear death,
that you don't have to worry about what's gonna happen when
you die, if you have Christ. And so I brought up the
question, Were you afraid? Did you have this sense of the
unknown? Especially in that time when you
were facing death? And you know what I was
expecting? Oh yeah, you have the answers.
Oh yeah, I sought God. Oh, yeah, I really wanted to
know how I can have hope in the next life.
And as I was anticipating that answer, as I asked it with such
excitement, he looked at me, he said, no.
I'm not afraid of death. So I said, hold on.
Did I ask the right question? You're not afraid of death.
Do you not know what's going to happen after you die?
No. In fact, I'm ready to stand
before, God. That's myself, man.
No, you don't know what you're talking about.
That's all the conversation ended.
I thought to myself. How can somebody who has no
hope? Have such confidence.
It's amazing what false peace can do.
False peace can take you to death itself and convince you
that there isn't a living God that you will face. he says here
in the next verse, They're not in trouble as others are there,
not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Those who live outside of Faith seem like they have trouble free
lives again, they go through life.
Their success. There's little consequence to
their sinful actions in the Rebellion against God, they
still have good times. They still travel, they still
have nice homes and nice families, successful kids that
go on to be educated and there seems to be little turbulence in
their lives. And here I see Christians,
Christian teenagers that have given their lives to Christ when
they were invited to a youth group, but day by day, they go
home to an abusive father. And abusive mother, I see
Christians struggling to get by another day financially.
I see Christians parents who have wayward children that kids
that are wasting their lives and Brokenness and sin.
And I see others that they're not Christians and their kids
are for honest, better than those of Christian households in
terms of success and prosperity and all that good stuff.
I don't get it. How does this make sense?
Brothers and sisters. We cannot make the mistake with
our faith. That the psalmist has made and
that even jobs friends have made when they came to try to comfort
him and failed miserably. They came with a theology.
That's called retribution, theology, or retribution
principle and idea, is this that if you do good God will do good
to you. And if you do evil God will
allow evil in your life. And though we have principles
and promises about walking with the lord, it's not as simple as
that realize that when jobs friends came to him they were
trying to get it out of him that he had sinned in his life joke.
You can't lose your family, you can't lose your business.
You can't lose your health and less, you've allowed sin in your
life. Cough it up.
That's what the Book of Job is all about.
That's what we have to be very careful of taking theology, out
of the Book of Joel, because a lot of the things that these
friends said were wrong, A lot of it was true but they were
implementing truth in a wrong way and so this whole dialogue
jobs friends might come on man the sooner the better you get
back right with God God is going to do good to you and Joe saying
I'm right? I don't have anything.
I can't think of anything that I'm wrong for here.
The other disciples in John chapter 9.
They see a man born blind. They said hey Jesus have a
question for you. What happened did this man
sinned or his parents sin that he should be born this way.
You know what? Jesus says wrong, both of them
are wrong. Neither him nor his parents.
He's not paying the consequence for his own sin.
And this matter, nor is his parents for his parents, in,
this has happened to him at the glory of God.
May be displayed through it. You come to Acts chapter 28,
verse forward, Paul in that ship were abandoned.
And they were, there's a shipwreck and they found
themselves on the island called Malta.
And as they're preparing a fire, because it was called a Viper
comes in snaps on his hand and it's hanging there.
And let me read this. Look at the conclusion that
these And people were thinking, when the native people saw the
creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, no
doubt. This man is a murderer though.
He has escaped from the sea justice has not allowed him to
live. So you have Jesus disciples, you
have jobs friends, you have this psalmist, you have even people
in a pagan society that believe this idea of God you walk with
God. Everything will go, right?
You don't walk with God, everything will go wrong.
And it's not that easy, it's not that simple, it's much more
complicated than that. And if you and I believe that
kind of idea, you know what we're going to do is a
consequence many things and here's one of them, we will fail
to realize how God packages His blessings in different ways.
Yes, God can bless you with good things and God is blessing us
when it comes to health and when it comes to things, the Bible
says every good and perfect gift comes from above, that's true,
but don't limit it to that don't limit how God expresses His
blessings with things going well in your life, just hear this
verse. Look what the psalmist said in
the Book of Psalms, 119 verse 71, it is good.
Look what he says. This is powerful, it is good for
me that I was afflicted. Are you sure it is good for me
that I was afflicted. That I might learn your
statutes. So this man experienced some
kind of Affliction, some kind of pain in his life, something and
you read the rest of that Psalm you realize, this is a man of
God, who loved the word of God, who said, Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet? I don't walk without your word,
I seek your Counsel day by day and at one point he was
afflicted and he says it was good for me.
God packages blessing of my life with Affliction because it
brought me even closer to his word.
Brought me closer to his presence.
Brought me closer to the knowledge of him.
If you're being Afflicted in one way or another right now know
this, if you're a believer in Christ, you may not see the
blessing now. But wait till you come on.
The other end. You'll realize that this
psalmist I was afflicted. I didn't see it, maybe during
it, but I see it now and I say, oh, it was good for me that I
was afflicted. We see in verse 6, Psalm 73,
therefore pride is there necklace violence, covers them
as a garment, their eyes swell out through fatness their hearts
overflow with Follies. So we see here that these Wicked
people who are living autonomous independent apart from God Lives
realize, hey, we're not living for God.
And look at all the good things that are happening to us and
because of that failure to see, as we're going to find out in a
moment that got indeed was watching and he was keeping
those. What does he do?
One of the wicked, do they have more wickedness to their lives?
They indulge themselves a more iniquity.
They fail to see the consequences of sin.
They don't immediately see the interventions of God's
discipline and judgment and they go, you know what, let's do some
more evil. You know what the psalmist is
saying? Come on.
Sure, I am swatting away Temptations like flies for my
workplace in my high school. Here, I am fighting a war
against my flesh. It seems every hour here, I am.
Truly trying to live. Holy And here these people
drinking sin, like water. And everything seems to be going
fine. His Holiness worth it.
Look, this is why he says in verse 13.
Look at verse 13. Your Bibles please.
All in vain, have I kept my heart clean and wash my hands in
innocence. For all the day long I've been
stricken and rebuked every morning.
It's not worth it. I'm trying to compare your, I'm
living with God, I'm living for God and they're not and they're
not only being blessed. This seems maybe even more
blessed than me. Am I wasting my time here?
Am I really wasting my time doing this?
What advantage do I have is a Godly Man.
They're boasting in their sin. They seem to be getting away
with it. They seem to, in fact think they
have God's approval to some degree.
What I'm about to say is not going to be very politically
correct. Hold tight in 2015.
Ireland. Legalize same-sex marriage.
And interestingly enough that day, the voting polls were open
to legalize same-sex marriage. A double rainbow appeared in
Dublin. and as it appeared, it was fuel for those who would
oppose God's idea of marriage? To all the more rejoice in that
decision and it gained the attention of the world.
Let me read to you, what the huffing Huffington Post said.
As Ireland, headed to the polls, to vote on legalizing gay
marriage. Mother Nature seemed to
acknowledge the importance of the occasion.
With a number of rainbows, some of them Double Rainbows that
were captured by Twitter users in the days, leading up to
Friday's vote. Now let me read you a couple
tweets that were kind of viral. There's one man who said there's
a big gay rainbow over Dublin. If that's not Jesus giving the
yes vote, I don't know what is Here's another one, there's a
rainbow over Dublin. Currently very appropriate.
God clearly approves Now, look at Psalm 73 verse 11.
And they, the wicked say. How can God, no?
Is there knowledge in the most high?
You know what they're saying? Against God.
God doesn't really know what's right for us.
God's standard isn't really the only standard God has to update
with our culture. God has to keep in touch with
how we're developing. And in light of that example,
that's exactly what they were thinking.
God approves of this sin, God approves of this shift in our
understanding of traditional marriage. and I read one comment
that I thought was Was totally right.
And as a response to that that the double rainbow wasn't a sign
of double approval. It was a sign of God, reminding
himself, ee not to judge the world.
The Wicked, the wicked. Have made a God in their own
image. Because they fail to see the
immediate Act of God's judgment and God's discipline.
Actually believe that, he's maybe even approving of their
lifestyle. And I can name off different
since here but let's continue and we can go on through the
rest of the song trying to see what was weighing down, Aesop's
heart. But what we see next in the
transition of the psalm is where we want to give most of our
attention. He says here in verse 16 but
when I thought how to understand this It seemed to me a wearisome
task. In other words, I've been
dealing with this internally. In such a way that I couldn't
really express it to anybody. I mean, I'm a spiritual leader
here. I'm the guy leading the songs.
I'm the guy encouraging others to continue in the faith.
But if I'm honest with you, I don't understand what benefit I
have living Fram. I'm trying to make sense of it.
I'm really trying to weigh it out and I can't seem to come to
a conclusion. So what do you and I do when we
feel like the world are circumstances, whatever it may
be seems to pull us and trip us and have us walk a different
direction. Well, let's see what the
psalmist did verse 17 until I went to the sanctuary of God.
This bothered me. This was eating me up inside.
But everything changed. When I made one decision, when I
chose to come to church on Sunday morning.
When I chose to, even in my doubts, even in my turmoil, even
in my frustration, I chose to come to meet with God.
Because I'm not getting answers from myself.
And I know myself enough to say that I've lied to me more than
anybody else. So where can I go to find some
answers? You go to where truth is
proclaimed. And he goes with a presence of
God dwells. He goes with truth is known and
he learned something. He was reminded of something.
Because this is where you and I are reminded of Truth.
This is where you and I are. So bird from Temptation, are
cleansed from our own thoughts that are telling us, otherwise,
and seem to even mix it with emotion and other people trying
to pull us into a different lifestyle, or different way of
living. This is where we get relined, by
the word of God. No wonder the devil wants you
and I to skip church, especially church that proclaims the truth
wholeheartedly and without compromise.
But he chose to go. And when he came, he learned
something very quickly, we don't have to read about from Verse 18
to 22, he came to the realization.
That these present realities of the wicked and even the
righteous are not permanent realities.
They're not permanent now. If I would encourage you to turn
to reverse, it would be this one.
Psalms 50 Psalms 50 just to read something.
Beginning in verse 16. What did asaph learn?
I'm sure he learned something here.
What we read in verse 16 but to the wicked God says what right?
Have you to recite my statutes, or take my Covenant on your
lips? God is speaking in this Psalm
God is speaking to the wicked in this text but when he says for
you hate discipline and you cast my words behind you, if you see
a thief, you are pleased with him and you keep company with
adulterous verse 19, you Give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your
brother. You slander your own mother son.
He's describing different sins, different behaviors that are,
contrary to the heart, of God, to the will of God to the
Holiness of God. And what does he say?
In verse 20? What is God say, in verse 21,
these things you have done and I've been silent.
You thought that I was one like yourself. but now I rebuke you
and lay the charge before you You know what God is saying?
This is God speaking in that saw me, you know what he's saying?
I'm I kept notice of all the things that you're doing, and
I've been silent. But here, this very carefully,
please don't do this in your life.
Please, please, please hear me very carefully.
Do not make the mistake of assuming that God's.
Patience is the same as his approval.
Can I say that one more time, many people who are living in a
pattern of sinful, Behavior are assuming that God's apparent
silence. Is him really accepting what's
going on? And he says, in that Psalm, I
have been silent. And his silence is not a sign of
his approval. His silence is a reflection of
his long-suffering and patience that even in your pattern of
willful Rebellion against God, that you would realize that at
one point that this is wrong. I'm sinning against him and I
want to live for Christ. So then you have people in
Ireland in 2015, that have assumed that the Silence of God
was his acceptance. And yet people day-by-day
looking at their lives thinking nothing's going wrong.
If there is a God, surely he's fine with what I'm doing because
there's nothing to show for it. You know who wrote Psalm 50.
Look at verse 1. Asaph.
ASAP did learn something. ASAP did come to realization.
Okay? So just because things are not
happening. Wrongfully for the wicked,
doesn't mean that. God's approving of it means that
one day God will bring a receipt.
And people will have to make a payment unfortunately because
they refuse the one who made the payment for them.
The blessed savior Jesus Christ. And so what happens?
He reminds himself in God's house.
Again, that God's silence is not his approval, but it is the
expression of his patients. Do you remember the story of
Adam and Eve when they sinned against God?
Do you remember when God was looking for Adam?
Where are you, Adam? Notice how he's approaching Adam
if you read it. Carefully says he was walking.
He was walking. He was walking to Adam to face
Adam to discipline Adam. but if you read in Luke chapter 15 with
the Prodigal Son and the son comes to his senses and he
realizes what he had done in Rebellion against his father.
He tries to muster up a speech and he says, you know, what I've
rebelled against God, I rebelled against my father, I'm going to
come to him and try to convince him.
Not to make me his son, but to make me a servant.
I rather be a servant than eat from the pigs.
And so he comes back, and before he can even say a word, you know
what, the father does read it carefully, he doesn't walk, he
runs, he runs towards the prodigal.
What does that mean? That God is slow to judgment and
quick to Mercy God, when it comes to judgment, when it comes
to discipline, he walks, he's slow to it.
But when I repented heart comes before, mrs.
I really want to get right with you.
He runs towards you and when he runs towards you I want to speak
to the product was in here. if you're in sin right now and you
know that you're in sin, Don't try to convince yourself even
though you know truth even though you walk with them I'm
one moment don't try to convince yourself and convince God for
that matter that you're not worthy of his full blessing.
Even though you knew that you were walking rebelling against
him because I want to let you know what happened.
When the product went back he didn't go back and convince the
father of the father so you know what?
Yeah, let me let me put you with the service.
The father said, go get the best robe.
Go get the best robe and we're going to celebrate the fact that
he come back. If you need to come back to God
today. No, this he's waiting with a
robe a ring and a feast and all of Heaven Will Rejoice the fact
that you've decided to walk with him again.
He's slow to judgement. He's so quick to Mercy.
Let me read this poem to you, we're going to close in a
moment. This poem is called a hundred
years from now. Pay, very close attention.
I know with all the phones ring in a Texan, the snapshots and
it's just right here, pay attention.
It will not make much difference friend.
A hundred years from now. If you live in a stately Mansion
or on a floating River, scowl if the clothes you wear are
tailor-made or pieced together, somehow if you eat big steaks or
beans and Cake, 100 years from now, it won't matter about your
bank account or the make of car, you drive for the grave will
claim your riches, and fame, and the things for which you strive,
There's a deadline. We must all meet and no one will
turn up late. It won't matter.
Then all the places you've been each one will keep that date.
We will only have eternity. What we give away on earth when
we go to the Grave, we can only save the things of Eternal worth
what matters, friend the Earthly gain for which some men always
bow for your destiny will be sealed.
You see a hundred years from now.
Poem by Walden Parker. And after being dealt with, by
God in the sanctuary of God. When he had received a Divine
standpoint, we need to receive the Eternal perspective on how
God will deal with all of mankind.
Both the righteous and the wicked.
He realized something I was wrong.
And he says, in verse 22, I was brutish and ignorant.
I was like a beast towards you. I've allowed my thinking to come
to such a place where I was like an animal.
My reason but here, this very carefully as we close The he did
not only come to that conclusion, after coming to the
house of God, he didn't come to the conclusion.
Only that God will eventually judge the wicked for their
Rebellion against him. No, no, it wasn't just a future
realization ASAP. Had a present understanding of
how really on a surface level. It seems like the wicked have a
better than the righteous. He couldn't be more wrong in
that either. Why, what is he saying verse 23?
Less. Nevertheless, I am continually
with you. You hold my right hand.
He goes, okay, I understand that there's going to be a judgment
to come. I understand that it's going to
be all dealt with and justice will prevail, but there's
something about now that I realize that he holds my right
hand, he holds my right hand we're talking about God holding
your hand. You don't hold the hand of a
stranger, I hope. This is familiar language.
This is intimacy. This is communion.
This is God saying and revealing to us through this that I'm
holding you I'm holding you, I'm leading you.
I'm comforting you, I'm with you and he's saying this in light of
the fact that he went through intense season of doubt, and he
still knew that even in my doubt of the goodness of God, even in
my false, convincing and the persuasion actually pulling me
away from him. God was still with me.
I praise God that in the moments of Despair Temptation
persuasion, whatever you want to call it that God doesn't crush
me in that moment. God doesn't look at me.
Say haven't I? Done enough for you.
Hasn't my son done enough for you?
Have you been to enough Bible studies?
Haven't you heard enough sermons out with you?
No, he says, I hold you, you're gonna get out of this.
You're going to realize soon enough.
Just come to the sanctuary of God.
Come into my presence, no matter how long it takes, watch how I'm
going to lead you out of this doubt.
I'm gonna lead you out of this false persuasion that your flesh
that your friends, that your family are trying to pull you
into, you hold my right hand. There's a stop there.
He says, in verse 24, you guide me with your counsel and
afterward you will receive me to Glory.
So it's not just this intimacy with God.
It's the fact that God and his children when he deals with you
and I he does not leave us in this life by ourselves.
He navigates you and me through this life day by day, he guides
us with his counsel, we have his word, we have the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit, I was having a conversation with a friend not
too long ago about. I don't know how we came to this
point but we were talking about growing up in the 90s.
I'm a 90s baby. And we're talking about how
great it was to grow up in the 90s as a child.
You know, like if you wanted to go hang out with your friend,
there's no such thing as texting them to come outside.
Oh no. You have to get on your bike,
you to go down the street, you have to face the parents at the
door and knock and ask. If whoever is that home?
No come back in a couple hours. I'll come back with my bike rain
snow summer. You played outside, you played
outside. And how do you know you're going
home? You have to go home when the
street lights start coming on. Okay, time to go.
Home. Dinner's ready?
And all these wonderful memories of growing up in the 90s.
But there is one thing we concluded that we're thankful
for that, we didn't grow up in the 90s without I'm thankful.
I was in a young adult in the 90s for one main reason no GPS
has Because I remember as a 90s kid sitting in the backseat of
my parent's car, and seeing how their map would cover. 3/4 of
the windshield, trying to figure out how to go to a specific
location risking our lives every single time.
And I know this sounds funny but hear me out talking with my
friend thinking to myself. Can you imagine what life was
like, without a GPS? Can you imagine trying to go
anywhere without punching it and address placing it on that
magnet driving and trusting that?
Wherever this lady's gonna take me is going to be where I need
to go. I thought to myself, What would
life be without a GPS? And here's a thought, how can
people live without God? I don't know how they do it.
How can you live through this life without being navigated by
him? How can you not have his
instruction to know how to deal with circumstance?
Not a deal with people that a deal with different things.
How can you go through this life without God's spirit indwelling
you saying, this is the way you should go walk in it.
No son. Don't go there circumstances,
people, spiritual leaders are also filled with the Holy Spirit
leading you and guiding you. Thank God for God.
You guide me with your counsel. And he doesn't do it.
Just partly. He doesn't do it.
Just in your younger years and then later on you become normal
and you just go through life. No, he says, I'm going to lead
you until I bring you into Glory.
There's not a season of life that he doesn't lead you.
If you want to cling to him he'll lead you And when you look
back from Glory, I can guarantee you this, you will see how he
has, truly LED you protected you, and whatever he needed to
do to make sure that you would along the way, be conformed to
the image of his son and touches many people for his name.
No wonder he explodes in verse 25.
Whom have I in heaven, but you Whom have I in heaven but you
and there is nothing on Earth. I desire.
Besides you, this is a different person than what we read from
verse for down. Whom have I in heaven but you
and you know what? I've come to this conclusion, no
matter what the wicked has, no matter what the righteous have.
I have this one thing and it is enough God himself Our faith.
If you claim to be a Christian in this place and you can't say
that, you have to ask yourself, some serious questions about the
temperature of your spirituality.
It's not about going to church on Easter and Christmas.
It's not about performing some sacraments, it's not about doing
this and doing that, and checking it off and having some
kind of insurance to get into heaven.
What is this Faith about where your heart is ravish and
captivated by Christ. You realize that he's forgiving
you for your sin and now he wants to walk with you day by
day. Do you have that?
You're not a Christian because
you have a cross around your neck and you're not a Christian.
If you got baptized as a baby, you're a Christian when you
realize that he paid for your sin and you've received them by
faith and he is, Lord of your life.
My Flesh and my heart May Fail. But God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever and let's just conclude here, verse
27. Behold, those who are far from,
You Shall Perish, you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to
you and look what he says in verse 28.
But for me, it is good to be near God.
Different person. It's good to be near God and I
have made the Lord God my refuge.
It's another way of saying I've chosen though I don't understand
everything to its fullest capacity to trust in God to to
rely on his wisdom to rely on his timing to rely that he is in
control. And because of that I'm safe.
You and I have to make a conclusion that being with god,
without gold is better than having treasure without God.
You and I have to be convinced that being with God, in
sickness, is better than being without God and health you and I
have to come to the conclusion that being with God and
persecution, is being better than being without God and
having popularity, And that's the conclusion that he makes and
it doesn't end there. He says I will make God my
refuge that I may tell of all your works.
I'm going to let my life from this moment on readers of this
Psalm. Know the goodness of God, I'm
going to declare to the world that it doesn't matter what you
have or you don't have. If you have God you have
everything. I want to tell the world that
things may not make sense. We are legalizing things
concerning life, concerning everything that seems to be
against the word of God and it seems to be no intervention days
are only being darker and darker it seems.
But I'm gonna trust and tell everybody that one day.
God is going to clean up this mess.
I'm going to Claire, The Works of God.
Have you ever wondered what happened to Ace after this
point? Have you ever wondered what kind
of Legacy left? What kind of influence he
probably had based on that decision?
maybe we can't make strong conclusions, but if you read
this little obscure verse in the book of Ezra chapter 2, It's
when the Israelites were many years.
Many, many years after this song was written, were taken out of
Israel to go into captivity in Babylon and we're later brought
back into Jerusalem and there's this list of genealogies to keep
record of who from what descendant, came back to the
nation, and look what it says in Ezra 241.
I thought it was precious. Just a simple verse the singers,
the sons of asaph 128, the singers, the sons of asaph 128,
and I thought to myself, Here's a man who chose not to walk away
but chose to stay walking with him and could it be that the
result of his faithfulness? Was that his offspring for days
to come would serve God and live for God?
He's talking about 128, musicians, 128 ministers, 128,
people that as a result of perhaps this man making that
choice of standing firm would benefit from his faithfulness,
you have no idea what your Yes to God can do.
Do not just in your lifetime but Pastor lifetime.
I will tell of all your works. I will declare from generation
to generation how good God is. Despite this world falling apart
and maybe even thinking that their life is better without
him. I if I have any voice of have
any influence, I myself will stand on this truth.
He is enough. Do you know him this morning?
I'm not talking about you going to church, I'm asking if you
know him like the psalmist knew him if you don't.
Today can be your day. Today could be your day where
you come to that point where you say, maybe I've been religious.
Maybe I had this understand that God is there, but there is no
hint of real relationship with him.
I mean, you've been sitting here this whole time.
You're thinking I don't really fully get it, but I know I don't
have it. It can be yours because there is
a real God who? So loved you that he sent his
son because there's a Chasm. There's a separation between you
and God all Humanity, God, if sin and he sent his son to pay a
price and build a bridge between you and the father, he paid the
price, no matter what you've done in your life, it doesn't
matter how black it is. It doesn't matter.
The stains of sin on your soul, know this that he sees it and
he's not ready to You he's ready to forgive you he's ready to
come and cleanse you and I just cleanse you to bring you into
Glory but cleanse you so that you can have fellowship with him
in this life. He's here to take those burdens
away. He's here to tell you if you
receive him that you can walk through anything in this life
and no like what Jesus said that you will have trouble in this
world, but take heart, I have overcome the world take heart.
I've given you a peace that surpasses.
All understanding take heart that you can see all this chaos
and have this assurance that God is in control.
And it's an invitation that God makes to all men if they're
willing to Humble themselves and say I need this God, I need you.
And know this, when you ready to make that decision, when you're
ready to humble yourself, when you're ready to see what this
word says, is true about the human nature and how good God
is, and you come to that place, where you say enough is enough,
I Surrender my life to Christ, he won't walk towards you, he'll
run. He's waiting, but he's not going
to push himself on you. He's not going to force you.
He's gonna wait for you to come to that realization that you're
eating out of a pig's pain. And like that.
Prodigal son, you spent everything on the world, you
indulge yourself, you went to the bank and you're still empty
inside. And I father, you read in Luke.
15 did not run and chase his son.
He was waiting for him. All he needed.
All he needed was the son to term.
And once he did, he came after him.
Would you do that this morning? Would you do that this morning?
Let's pray. Let's pray.