- Good morning, everybody. If you would take a moment to turn to your apps or your bulletins for some of our announcements. The first is that we have a special baptism service scheduled for September 29th, Sunday, at 2.30 p.m. Please just mark that on your calendars because it's an important time for our church members to come together, hear and listen to the testimony of those brothers and sisters who are professing their faith.

But also, if you would like to get baptized, please email Pastor Nathan Kwok over at the email that you see there. Another thing I'd like to highlight is that for all the parents in our church who have their children in our education department, there's going to be a meeting on August 18th at 2 p.m.

So please make sure you mark your calendars for that. There's also intentional moms fellowship sign up for the ladies to come together and fellowship. It happens Friday mornings, 9.30 to 11.30 a.m. So if you'd like to participate, please go ahead and go to the teen URL link and you can sign up there.

The last announcement is that we have an all-church picnic scheduled for October 20th. So please make sure you save the date. We're going to start sign-ups a little bit later on, but we just want you guys to make sure you can participate. We don't have too many events through the year where the whole church can come together.

We want our church, even though we're growing in size or whatever it may be, to be able to join together and be in fellowship with each other and to know who are also part of the community. So please make sure you save that date and the registration is going to be coming soon.

Well, as you guys know, this weekend we have most of our couples and family members over at a retreat in Palm Desert. So we want to just keep them in prayer that that's a spiritually just fruitful time, both fellowship but more so in learning, focusing on what does it mean to be a family that's anchored in Christ.

So let's continue to pray for them as they're still over there at that retreat. Okay, please take your Bibles and turn to Psalm chapter 73. Now it's 28 verses and we're going to read it together and we'll walk down this passage and then take a moment to pray for God's blessing on our time and the Word.

Psalm 73. It says this, a Psalm of Asaph. "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For there are no pains in their death and their body is fat. They're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace, the garment of violence covers them. Their eyes bulge from fatness, the imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression.

They speak from on high. They have set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue parades through the earth. Therefore his people return to this place. The waters of abundance are drunk by them. They say, 'How does God know? And is their knowledge what the most high? Behold, these are the wicked.

And always at ease, they have increased in wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence. For I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Then I pondered to understand this, and it was troublesome in my sight. Until I came into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end. Surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment. They are utterly swept away by the sudden terrors.

Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when aroused you will despise their form. When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have taken hold of my right hand.

With your counsel you will guide me and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you will perish.

You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of your works. Let's take a moment to pray. God, we ask for your spiritual blessing that as we jump into your word, as we listen, Lord, that your spirit will grant to us open ears, humble hearts, receptiveness.

And also, Father, God, help us to have spiritual eyes to see, is there any wickedness, any roots of bitterness in our hearts? Is there any envy and jealousy in our soul? God, that you would uproot those things and cause us to be filled with the wonder of your gracious work in our lives.

We thank you in Christ's name, amen. Okay, jumping right into the passage, you notice that in Psalm 73 for Asaph, there is an incredible dilemma. So in verses one through three, Asaph describes in a nice introduction a dilemma that he sees. So I'm just going to read it again for us.

And he says, "Surely God is good to Israel. This he knows as a principle of truth to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped, and I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked." What is he talking about?

He's talking about actually a really common dilemma for a lot of people. For a lot of people. You know what that is? You go on Facebook, you go on social media, you watch TV shows, maybe reality TV shows, you watch certain movies, and you see glamorous living. You see prosperous, free living where people are doing all kinds of things.

Nowadays, you know what's really popular? Experiences. People who are able to go out to the remotest part of the jungle and count there. People who are able to go see different cultures. People who are able to go out and do all kinds of stuff. None of that is wicked.

It's great. But you know what happens? All of a sudden, there's this weird tingling feeling in you that says, "That's so awesome." And then you look down and you go, "My life sucks." There is this immediate comparison that happens between what you see on TV, what you see on social media, and your quick evaluation of yourself.

You know what that is called? It's called jealousy. It's called envy. Asaph immediately introduces us to a stumbling, to a dilemma, to a problem, and he says, "I was envious of the arrogant." He says, "I was envious of the arrogant." Just really quickly. If I were to be very honest with you, I'm a pastor that's dedicated my life to the Lord's work, to the Lord's people, to the Lord's church and His mission field.

Am I not envious sometimes? Do I not have ambitions and desires? Just the other day, I was talking to my wife saying, "Dude, I saw this one episode with this guy. He was a professional in the working workforce. He was an engineer for a long time, and he just decided, 'You know what?

I'm going to take my family and go live out into one of these open land where there aren't so many people. It's not so congested. He has a view of a mountain. He has an axe that he chops his wood with, and it's so manly, and I'm just like, 'Wow.'" And immediately, my wife looks over and goes, "But you can't be a pastor like that." That's true.

But anytime you see a certain kind of living where there's freedom, where there's luxury, does that not elicit some kind of wishful thinking, kind of fantasy land? Now, again, I'm not saying immediately that's all wicked, but notice how that quickly turns into something for Asaph, and you know what that turns into?

It turns into a sourness of heart. And biblically, that kind of sourness of heart is called bitterness. And what that bitterness does is it begins to judge. It begins to shape a reality. It begins to shape a perspective. And now in his eyes, all those people out there, those guys, they're wicked people.

They're arrogant people. They're vicious people. What we have is a heart's desire turning into a position of authority and judging the world. Are we not successful to that? Have you ever never felt that? Where you have any kind of envy and desire, and when you compare and you compare and contrast their life versus your life, all of a sudden, you are tempted to have not just simply a kind of jealousy, but a kind of embitterment, a kind of discontent, depression?

Ugh, there's an angst in you. And there is a conclusion typically at the end of that paragraph. You know what that conclusion is? This isn't fair. My life sucks. So many people talk like that in our generation. There is a complaint towards the Lord. Where is mine? What's in it for me?

And should I even continue trying to walk this noble path when all of those individuals with their freedoms and liberties, they're just living it up? Is this worth it for me? That is a very, very honest and real struggle that I think a lot of people have in our day.

Psalm 73 is so real. It's absolutely relevant for us today. And so, I want to talk about this a little bit more in this dilemma. Deep down here, there are a couple of things that is a dilemma for Asaph. Why? Because there's a struggle. You see, Asaph wouldn't have a struggle if he wasn't taught biblically.

You know what he was taught? God is good, right? For all of you here, you're here because you know God is good. If you believe God was a horrible, horrible, harsh being, you wouldn't be in these seats because then you would have to listen to a person you can't trust.

But you know God is good. That's the dilemma. Asaph knew from when he was a child, he was taught, he knows deep down in his heart, God is good to Israel. He's good to people. He's good to those who are pure in heart. But then what is the problem?

What the problem is, that completely contrasts and conflicts with what he sees with his eyes. He says, "Oh, on the contrary, I see this conflict. I know you're good, but look. Look at the arrogance. Look at those people. Those people who are vile, always selling themselves, always marketing themselves.

Look how good I am. Look how much I've done. Look what I've experienced. Follow me. Subscribe, subscribe." Right? Look at these people. How is it that these individuals are being blessed by God when I know God is good? Brothers and sisters, this may not seem like the biggest problem in the world.

However, this is a major issue. Why? This is at the core of the struggle of faith. Will you judge with your eyes on what you see? Or will you judge by faith, by what God has told you? What Asaph sees with his eyes is just all kinds of backwardness where wicked people are blessed.

They have possessions, luxuries, and pleasures. And then immediately he looks at himself and is like, "The nation of Israel, me and people like me, we barely have little. We only have provision for that day. What gives?" And so that's my question to you. Do you currently operate by sight and you judge what's fair and what's not fair based on what you see with your eyes?

Or are you judging things based on what God has told you, his word? What he said he's going to do into the future that you have not yet seen? That's the struggle of faith, isn't it? Now I'm going to ask this question. What did Asaph see with his eyes then?

What caused him so much grief? Let's continue to look at our passage in Psalm 73 verses 4 through 12. The next section I'm going to call this, the fat cats. The fat cats. Why? Look what he says. Verses 4. "For there are no pains in their death. Their body is fat.

They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace. The garment of violence covers them. Their eyes bulge with fatness. The imagination of their hearts from riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues parades through the earth.

For as people return to this place when waters of abundance are drunk by them, they say, 'How does God know? And is their knowledge with the most high? Behold, these are the wicked. Always at ease. They have increased in wealth.'" What did he see? I'm going to break down what he saw into three categories.

And I have it right up here. First, that he just saw like, "They have so much." Does that sound really childish? Yes, it does. When a little boy looks at his friend and his friend has twice the number of toys, candy, whatever it may be, immediately he's like, "That's not fair." Why?

Why is that not fair? Because he has more than me, right? But that's what he sees though. Look at verse 7. "Their eyes are bulging with fatness." I mean, the imagery is quite descriptive. It's like, they have so much. Their flesh is coming out the different sides of their body, right?

They have so much. I mean, we live in a generation... Again, remember like for a long, long period of time, throughout history, people lived in a kind of lifestyle where they had provision for the day. You guys have probably heard that most of the people throughout all of history didn't have, you know, shoes for running, shoes for tennis, shoes for basketball, and shoes for style, right?

They had one pair of shoes, one cloak, one whatever it may be. And he's looking at them like, "Look at how much they have." It's just spewing out. Look at their abundance. My question to you real quickly, have you seen people with museums of possessions and become jealous? Recently, I confess, sometimes I watch these silly YouTube videos.

One of the silly ones that I saw was Celine Dion was on car karaoke with the talk show host. You guys know what I'm talking about? Some of you have seen it. If you haven't, it's kind of funny. This guy, the talk show host, is in his car. He has a celebrity who's an amazing singer, and he just starts singing karaoke in the car.

It happened to be Celine Dion. Crazy figure, one of the most well-known singers in the world, right? Did you know that she has over 10,000 shoes? She has to have a separate building to house her shoes. They've created some kind of mechanical structure to produce where they could have a screen.

She looks up certain shoes, and it comes to her. That's insane. What happened was that the talk show host brought some of her shoes and said, "You have too many. Give it away." She was like, "No." Then she just started passing them out. She rolled down the window like, "Hey," and everyone was like, "Oh my God, it's Celine Dion," and then she would pass out her shoes.

I'm sitting there, kind of dumbfounded. Why? Because I all of a sudden had this reaction. "She's going to give away those shoes? Those shoes are quite nice." I was like, "What am I doing? Put this away." Now, why do I bring up that silly scenario is because I'm willing to bet that when you hear something like that, half of you says, "That's ridiculous." The other half of you says, "That'd be kind of cool," right?

Because I know some of you have shoe collections. Part of you thinks it would be nice to have a machine that comes around when you pick the shoe and it matches your outfit and just comes to you. Now, the shoes are my cup of tea. Do you know who I kind of envy?

Have you guys heard of Jay Leno? Do you know how many cars he owns? 342 cars. Some, some of the rarest in the world. Does he have a separate building for those cars? Of course he does. He has multiple. Now, why do I bring this up? Not because I'm trying to just simply talk about these famous actors, famous talk show hosts and singers, but because those videos have millions of hits.

Because Jay Leno has his own channel just on going, walking around his cars. And people envy that. I'm confessing for you right now. People envy that stuff. That could cause a dilemma for you. It could cause your heart to stumble. Yes? Now, you might be sitting there like, I'm going to be honest, man.

I'm very content living in my apartment. I don't need 50,000 pairs of clothes. I literally have like six pairs of clothes, like outfits in my closet, and I'm good. Okay. I get that. But I'm willing to bet many of us are tempted by the next thing, which is the wicked are more free.

Think about what he says here. He says there's no pain in their death. He says there's no trouble. There's no plague. There's no limitation. Why? Because when nations run riot, look at what he's talking about. They always are at what? Verse 12. Ease. How many of you would die for at least a month with no stress?

Right? A vast array of counseling scenarios happen because there's so much stress in your workplace, so much stress in your home. The expectations of your family, the expectations of the people around you, the expectations of people who are dependent on you is so burdensome. But the rich, the wicked, they're at so much ease.

They have no pain, no troubles, no burden, no sickness. And then there can be a sense of bitterness. I've actually heard people talk like that. It's like, "You know, one day I wish that guy, he needs to suffer a little bit." Not that I would wish ill upon their soul, but he needs to suffer a little bit because man, that fool does not understand what it means to live in this world.

Have you ever thought like that? Some of us are tempted by this and I'd be willing to bet that now in our day, you know, having huge mansions, all that stuff is overrated. But some of us would love to have the kind of freedom where we don't have to be burdened by stuff.

We don't have to be stressed. Right? But you know, he also says they're so proud. They can just let their mouths run wild. They say all this stuff. They're like, "You know what? I'm going to speak my mind." And then they boast, "Look what I've done." And you know what's really crazy?

Our generation eats that up. Seriously. There are times when all I'm doing is just watching, even if I'm watching like Christian videos, I get advertisements where this guy, he's like really, really well put together, incredibly articulated, and he's telling me what to do. He's like, "You know what? In order to be a man, you got to build your own brand." Right?

"You got to invest in who? Yourself. You got to build up your skills and you got to sell your..." It's like, "What?" And people pay thousands to learn from this guy as their coach. That's the truth of our generation. People love that stuff. People love that stuff. And Asaph is looking at this thinking, "What in the world is going on?

How is this fair? How is God, who I know is good, not allowing us to prosper, but he's giving these wicked individuals prosperity, ease, and peace? Everything seems so backwards. What gives?" You can tell his heart is leaning towards bitterness because he's starting to judge now. He is starting to judge that this isn't right.

He is starting to judge that this isn't good. Let me ask you, have you ever felt that? Perhaps you haven't verbalized it with words, articulated it in that way, but you've felt that frustration where you deem something, "This ain't right. This is not good." Or you just use the kind of more, you know, elementary lingo.

"This is not okay." Maybe you felt like that. Perhaps in even more intimate settings, husbands and wives, if there's bitterness between a husband and wife, where a spouse feels like their significant other is getting away with all kinds of arrogance and selfishness, right? Do married people ever point the finger like, "Oh my goodness, you are so prideful and you're so selfish." Does that ever happen?

It can. Do those sentiments exist in even intimate, private settings? Absolutely. Absolutely. What do you do? Well, the temptation and the stumbling is this, okay? Verse 13 through 16, let's turn our eyes to the passage and read. Asaph says this, he's so open and vulnerable, and he says, "Surely, surely, in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence.

I've been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. If I said I will speak thus, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight." Do you see the temptation? Do you see the stumbling? Do you see the wrong path?

Asaph sees and almost takes. I'm going to call this next section, verse 13 through 16, the depressed comparison. What he says is, "First, when I look at my life compared to their lives, I have done all kinds of goodness, righteousness, come to church, been a noble person, made sure I upheld the standards of God.

All of that was rubbish. It's vain, empty, right? Useless." But when you think like that, the temptation is, then forget it. You're going to get nasty? You're going to do that to me? Then fine. I can outdo you, right? You're going to be selfish? Oh, you don't think I can get angry?

Watch me. That's the temptation. You join them. And he says, "If I spoke what was in my mind," oh man, you better plug your children's ears. Like that's pretty much what he's saying, right? I would have betrayed the generation of your children means, "If I said what I was actually thinking," oh man.

You see, Asaph felt stricken, reprimanded. He felt punished. He literally says, "I felt like I was being chastened and oppressed." See, there are people who talk like that sometimes. When I counsel young individuals who are laboring and striving, and I want to say, yes, I acknowledge and see that people are working hard and it's hard.

Sometimes life is hard. And you feel like you're just hitting wall after wall. You tried walking this way, whether it be investing in certain education, maybe you try walking this way. You know, I'm not going to cut corners. I'm going to make sure I do my work heartily for the Lord.

I'm going to make sure that I be patient in long suffering, and they just keep hitting wall after wall. Yes? And as they do that, they start feeling like, "Is God like, is he out to get me?" And there are moments when I counsel people, they literally feel punished.

Brothers and sisters, if any of you are there right now, this passage is going to be so encouraging for you. The Lord is not out to get people. The Lord is a loving Father. Will he guide you? Will he instruct you? Will he discipline you? Yes. But it's going to be from his loving hand.

Amen? But at the same time, Asaph says, "But this is how I felt. When I looked at their lives and I looked at mine, this is how I felt." Here's the turnaround, verse 17. This is huge. If you're underlining your Bibles and stuff, you're going to want to do this one.

Okay? What Asaph needed was a dose of reality because he was seeing with his eyes. Clearly he observed. And he said, "I perceived this thing that's happening in my life." But then he says this, verse 17, "It was troublesome, it was burdensome, it was heavy until I came into the sanctuary of God.

Then I perceived their end." That's an amazing passage right there. "I came into the presence and sanctuary of the Lord and then I actually genuinely, really perceived. I saw truth and reality." That's what he's saying. You see, remember I called, I asked you guys to think about this. Our Christian struggle is not just you fighting vices of the world.

It's not just you trying to make sure you're a good Christian, coming to church, making sure that you're a noble man. Your struggle is a struggle of faith and you're going to be regularly challenged with, "Will you judge the world by what you see or will you judge the world by what you hear from the Lord, by his presence?" And that's exactly what Asaph is doing.

What I'm telling you is this, for us, when we come to church, it's not just a means for you to find little help so that you can get through life. What you're doing is radically changing how you perceive your entire world. You're receiving truth from God, expanding your perception, and then accurately and realistically seeing all that is in the universe.

You're renewing your mind. That's what's happening. And so what he says is this, "I came into the sanctuary and I perceived." What I'm going to do now is show you four things that Asaph saw, four things that Asaph saw that's going to help us battle all the stuff that we just said.

Battle envy, battle bitterness, battle discontent heart, battle depression. Asaph saw four pivotal things, and here we go at the first. Verse 17 through 20, he says this, "I came into the sanctuary of God and I perceived their end. Suddenly you set them in a slippery place and you cast them down to destruction.

How they are destroyed in a moment. They're utterly swept away by sudden terrors like a dream when one awakens, O Lord. When aroused, you despise their form." You despise their form. What is he saying? He sees the end of this game. If we were to think of all life as a game, and part of the reason why you think it's unfair is because you think you're trying to play this game by the rules.

You think you're playing the game the right way, right? You're taking the high road. And you see all those guys finding loopholes, cheating, being nasty, poor sportsmanship, and you're like, "What? That's not fair." And then he realizes, "Oh, wait a minute. I see the end. When I see God, I see a bigger picture, and in that bigger picture, I see the end that before them is certain destruction." Before them is not like, "You know, maybe God as judge is going to deal with the wickedness of the people." No, he says, "As certain, as certain as possible, God has set their path." You see, what I'm talking about is this.

There are so many people who will say this, "The number one problem of the Christian faith is the problem of evil." How in the world is God who is supposed to be good and powerful allowing all sorts of wickedness, these thieves, murderers, all these kind of vicious things to happen in this world?

He says, "This is a problem." And I always say, "You know, I'm not going to get all philosophical on you. Some scholars do. They're like, 'You know, in all possible universes, this is the best possible…'" No, I'm not going to talk about that. You know what I'm going to say to you?

God has an easy, easy answer for you. Just wait a little bit. It'll be all good. Every wicked person who has said one wicked thing is going to be punished. There is not a wicked thought you're going to get away with. To a meticulous degree, for every detail of ungodliness in this world, I am going to punish.

Have you ever read the book of Revelation? It's scary, right? The problem of evil is not a problem of evil. It's just a problem of time. That's it. You just wait. Do you understand when the Lord says, "Time is up," all forms of wickedness will be punished. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 3.

Take a moment, please, to turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 3. And Apostle Peter explains to everyone the concept of wickedness, the concept of patience, and what in the world is God doing with all that. Okay? So 2 Peter chapter 3. He says this, starting from verse 3.

So 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 3. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They'll say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished." What is he saying? Don't you guys forget God is able to judge all wickedness.

He's done it before. And then he says, verse 7, "But by the same word of the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed." See, Asaph's initial complaint is, "God, do you even see this stuff?" Did you guys notice earlier, it's like, "How will God even know all this stuff is happening?" No.

The reality is God is going to expose every single evil and sin, and he's gonna judge it. He's just giving us time to repent. That's it. And the kind of judgment that's going to come is so scary. People are going to literally run, people are gonna in feebleness try to hide underneath rocks, and they're going to wish they were crushed to death by the earth before they face the wrath of God.

That's an incredible thing. So what happens is when Asaph walks into God's temple, he realizes, "God sees everything. God is going to judge." And as soon as he does that, he opens his eyes, and just like before, he looked out, and then he looked in. Initially he looked out, and he said, "What?

They have it so good." And then he looked in, he's like, "Oh, look at me. My life sucks." But now that his eyes are open, he looked, and he's like, "Oh my gosh, they're gonna die." And then he looked at himself, and he realized, "I'm actually not so much different." The next thing he sees is he sees his own heart.

Take a look at verse 21 through 24. So go back in your Bibles to Psalm 73, and take a look at verse 21 through 24. This is what he says, "When my heart was embittered, I was pierced within. Then I was senseless, and I was ignorant, and I was like a beast before you.

Nevertheless, I'm continually with you, and you have taken hold of my right hand." Do you see what he's saying? This he realizes, like, "Dude, God is in control, and the extent of his control is massive, and he's gonna judge every single wickedness that's on this earth." He quickly looks at himself, he's like, "Oh my goodness.

What in the world was I saying? I was like a bumbling fool." Can I take my words back? There's just a moment of just regret, like, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe I even said that stuff. I was like a beast." He describes himself as having a bitter heart, and you guys have all probably experienced at one point or another, when you are bitter, you are not arguing reasonably.

You're just sour. You're not arguing based on truth. When you're bitter, all you see is red. When you're bitter, you've already gone far past trying to evaluate. You've gone far past just simply judging. You're a bitter individual who will not be appeased until you have justice. See, at that moment, if you're bitter, you're already way too far.

And so Asaph says, "Oh, once I look at my heart, I'm pierced. I was senseless. I was ignorant." He has the humility. He has the humility to say that, yes, although in his human eyes, it doesn't seem fair. Why is it that they're so selfish, and yet you keep calling me to be selfless?

It doesn't seem fair at all. And maybe he feels hurt by that. Maybe he feels disgruntled by that. And yet he has the humility to say, "I was wrong. Absolutely wrong." And remember, remember that in verse one, he says, "God is supposed to be good to the pure in heart, and that now is being examined." God, I'm going to have the humility for your presence to examine even that statement.

I falsely assumed I was pure in heart. You guys get that? "God, that's not fair. You're supposed to be good to Israel because Israel is your people, and you're supposed to be good to people who are good. Why do good people suffer?" And then he stops and thinks, "I made a massive presumption, Lord.

I presume my heart was already pure before you. But as I look inside, I have envy. As I look inside, I have greed. Truthfully speaking, I was jealous, and truthfully speaking, I was judgmental." He is open to the scrutiny of God, and then he confesses, "I was like an animal.

I'm like a beast." Had this knee-jerk reaction, right? I saw something and I spoke. Why does he call himself a beast? It's because instinctually, animals work on impulse. They're hungry, blah, right? They feel cornered. They lash out. And so he says, "I was like a beast." Brothers and sisters, can we model ourselves after this kind of humility Asaph is showing us?

He recognizes that he was judging things based on his sight, and now he has the humility to confess, "That's what I did." If you sit and you start defending yourself, "No, God, I have every right to be pissed." Why? Because look, that's not right. What you're going to be guilty of, you're going to be guilty of pointing your finger up at God and saying, "God, you're either incapable or you don't care for justice." Or you're going to point the finger at God and you're going to say, "God, maybe you are just.

God, maybe... Sorry. Maybe you see that my only conclusion is you don't love me." Have you or anybody you've known gone there? I'm pretty sure, right? I can't sit here and attack you and say, "God, you're not just." You can't do that because the Bible is chock full of that.

If you said that, people are like, "Oh." Right? "God, you don't see. Maybe you don't have eyes to see this stuff." You can't say that. But then maybe you start doubting. Well, then maybe you don't care. Maybe you don't love me. If you're there, man, there is no kind of depression like believing that the God of the universe, who is the definition of love, does not love you.

Right? Like, I feel for you because that's an incredible kind of pain that no human is going to come next to you and be like, "It's all right, man." If you believe the lie, "God doesn't love me. He sees my pain and yet he doesn't care," that's the kind of depression no human is able to pull you out of.

So I want to share with you today that God does love you. And what Asaph says is incredible. Take a look at verse 23 to 26. He says, "I was like a beast before you." Right? That was the end of verse 22. However, verse 23. "Nevertheless, I am continually with you.

You have taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel, you guide me. Afterward, receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you and beside you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Those are some of the most beautiful passages in Scripture.

Do you see the picture? You've got this beast like, right? I see there's all this wickedness in the world and this beast is sitting there before God like, "How dare you, Lord?" And he's got this finger pointing. What are you doing about this? And God comes over and he takes the hand and he guides him.

Do you see the picture? When you try to picture the Scriptures, it's amazing. Would you do that? Some little flea looking at you like, "Look at you, God, what are you doing?" You would just be like... Immediately backhand. But God takes that accusatory finger, holds the hand, and guides him, loves him, and says, "You have me." That's the love of God.

It's astounding. He says, "God, you're with me. Your counsel's with me." And then he says this beautiful thing, "You receive me to your glory." Did you catch that in verse 24? It's like he takes it here, he takes it there, and he takes it to the top. "You receive me to your glory." That's so crazy.

I want to challenge you right now. Have you experienced that kind of love in your life? Because that's the Christian faith, isn't it? Christian faith is not a doctrinal system. You guys have heard this before. Christian faith is not, "Oh, I think, you know, like Jehovah's Witness, and then Mormonism, Catholicism, and then Christianity, I compared it, and this doctrinal system really works." That's not Christianity.

Christianity is, you were an evil person with evil desires engaged in evil deeds, and God just lavished this little being with grace. And then you felt this massive load of love come to you, and you're forever changed. Yes? Have you felt that? That's to you everything. Only then can you say, "Give me more of that.

Take away the world. I may have nothing in this life. I may have nothing in this world, but my portion is full because God has filled my life." Let me ask another way. Not just simply have you felt the love of God, but in some weird, odd way, have you drifted from the Lord, where this teaching, "Brothers and sisters, the Lord loves you," does it not feel any different?

Any different than, let's say, if a random stranger came to you and said, "What's wrong, buddy? You sad? It's okay, man. I love you." Does it feel the same way? Let me ask another way. Does God's love to you feel like some kind of weird consolation prize? "Thanks for participating in this game.

That guy won the reward. But at least for you, we have participation trophy." Does God's love feel like that for you? Where you hear the words like the Lord of the universe who created you, who sustains everything that has breath, He loves you, and yet all it feels like is some kind of consolation prize?

I'm going to be honest. There are moments in our lives where perhaps it may feel like that. But we have to really check our hearts. Asaph, for him, the reality that absolutely changed everything. Oh my goodness, I have God, right? I may not have the dream of Orange County Christianity where I have a three-bedroom house with 2.5 bathrooms because you got to have that .5 bathroom for guests.

I've got 2.5 kids because three is too many. I've got 2.5 cars and three cars in the garage, like whatever it may be, right? I may not have that. I got everything. I've got God. That's the reality where it has radically changed Asaph's life. And if you can't get there and it feels weird, I want to challenge you right now.

How have you drifted where the Lord's presence is not enough? What has gripped your heart so much you want it so bad where someone says, "But you have God," and you're like, "I get it. I have God, but I don't have this yet." Right? Is it the job? Like what good is God's love?

I don't have a job right now. If that's your words, you got to come to the Lord in repentance. What has so gripped your soul where the love of God is not enough? Remember, brothers and sisters, that our Christian faith, again, is not a religious system, is not a doctrinal system.

It is an access to God Almighty. Christ died on the cross, tore the veil, and he became the high priest of all to bring you to God. End game. To bring you to his eternal presence forever. God was not in the business of trying to make you succeed. "Oh, I know life is hard.

I just want to get you from one-year-old to 80-year-old." That is not God's dream. He wants to give you eternity with Christ. He wants to give you eternity with him as your loving father and you as his child. Lastly, once Asaph started to realize that, look, once Asaph started to realize, "Oh, my goodness, look at them people." Initially, he said, "They have it so good." And then he looked at God and he was like, "Oh, wait a minute.

God's about to pour out his wrath. They're doomed." He looked at himself like, "Oh, my gosh. My heart wanted that. I'm like wicked inside. I'm not pure." Right? That's what he's saying. And then he realizes, "Oh, my gosh. Why did I want that stuff? I have God." And then now he comes to a point where he redefines everything.

He redefines what is good. Verse 26 through 28, we're going to finish off here. Go in your Bibles and take a look. Psalm 73 of 26 to 28 says, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is my strength." That is a redefining of life. What's my strength?

My money? No. What's my strength? My skills. No, it's not your skills, right? It's my job title. It's not your job title. That is not your strength. When he realizes by faith, God is my strength. He's the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you will perish.

He realizes far from God means destruction, close to God means life. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, highlight this, you guys. Star it, underline it, do whatever you can to memorize this. For me, the nearness of God is my good. That's Christianity in a nutshell.

I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. Wow, that is the beautiful reality. That's the beautiful reality that Asaph have come to conclusion. That's his judgment now. I may be poor, but I'm good, right? Can you say that? You may not have the perfect family, but I'm good.

I'm full. And the devil may come as like, "Look at this new phone. Look at this new gadget. Look at this better house, better car, better everything. Look at the freedom you can have. You don't have to worry anymore." Dude, I'm good. How do you fight the temptation of the enemy?

When you recognize who you have in God and you use the new mechanism, a new definitive standard, the standard by which I'm going to say, "My life sucks," versus, "My life is good," is no longer the video I saw on YouTube, is no longer the guy who's traveling the world.

My standard is the presence of God. That to me is my good. That's the Christian faith. Prosperity, shalom, peace. That doesn't come with you being able to sell yourself. That doesn't come with you being able to market, take photos of all that you've been doing in life. It comes with you being absolutely content in God.

Now, I want to wrap up and review these four things in a kind of comedic way because I want to talk about maturity. A lot of times when I speak in front of our church, many of you have been Christians for a long time, 20 years, more. These aren't things that you haven't heard before.

So I want to challenge you, are you maturing? And the way I want to review this is by saying, ladies in the room who are single, because a family retreat is happening and there's a bunch of you here, okay? I like to give free dating advice and that dating advice is, "How can you tell if the man you are interested in is a mature man?" Well, let me tell you the difference.

Ladies, a mature man is going to have a vision that is a holistic Christian worldview, meaning he's going to see clearly. A kid is going to have tunnel vision and he can't see the pain coming, right? When you see a little kid, it's like, "God, you're going to get hurt," right?

That's a child. Mature individual sees the end game. What's more, a mature man can humbly judge his own desires. You know what? I got a weird, like, "I love the Lord, but I love myself." I got this weird pride as like, "I boast in Jesus, but I want to boast in myself," and they have a humility that's open, right?

A child, he can't see nothing but his own impulses. He doesn't work off of humble evaluation. He just, "I see it, I do it," right? He thinks it's great, but that's just a child. A man who is mature has a perspective that recognizes what's good. He values God because it's good.

He values a good woman because it's good in God's eyes. He knows the difference between this is a jewel of God versus this is not. A child, a kid, all he knows is what he wants. That's all he sees and he's not happy until he gets it. A mature man is already secure.

He's found where to be content in God. If a kid is sitting there like, "Oh, I don't have what I want," right? He's always disheveled. "I don't have my life." You know, and then, typically, an insecure individual will look at you as the source of his security. When you see that, it all fits together.

He doesn't know who he has, he doesn't have a vision of his own heart, and typically, his vision is short-sighted. For us, by way of conclusion, this to us is not just simply a nutshell of Christianity. This to you, for those of you who have been Christian for a long time, is also your maturity.

Let's pray. Lord God, today, Lord, through this beautiful song written by Asaph, we see the wrestle of the heart. And God, although maybe we might not be able to sympathize or relate in every single way, we confess, God, some of these things are real and near temptations. I ask, Lord, that your spirit would convict us and cause us to grow in faith to the degree where we see you, we see you clearly and accurately, and that our hearts would follow and to love you and desire you above everything else.

God, we will confess, Lord, nothing in this world satisfies, nothing in this world lasts, not anybody else and definitely not ourselves. But Father God, you are eternal, and only you can be the full provision of our hearts. And so, God, we thank you that in your love, you give yourself to us.

It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.