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The River ChurchSermons

Patrick Bicknell · 14 Jun 2026

Patrick Bicknell · Sunday, 14 June 2026 · 35:28 · 5,532 words

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Psalm 73 and the struggle between faith and sight are the heart of this message. It examines how the apparent success of the wicked can breed envy and tempt us to forget what we have in God. The speaker argues that God is our portion forever and that trusting Him, rather than what we see, is the key to overcoming that envy. The message calls listeners to fight the fight of faith, remember who they belong to, and share the hope of Christ with others.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

fight 38 wicked 29 envy 18 pit 11 prosperity 11 faith 37 world 33 temptation 11 issue 11 psalmist 8 perceive 5 sight 7

Topics

Faith 10 Sin 2 Grace 1 Hope 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Prayer 1

Scripture referenced 11

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 73 0:00 Psalms 73 0:19 Psalms 73 1:07 Psalms 73:1 1:07 Psalms 73 1:47 1 Timothy 6:12 2:53 Romans 7 4:14 Psalms 73 4:32 Psalms 73 8:09 Romans 12:19 19:42 Psalms 42 27:24

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

So if you want to open your Bibles, go to Psalm chapter 73.

One of my favorite Psalms in the Bible.

There's a couple of verses we're going to get to later on that have been one of the most impactful for me in my life.

I hope you've been encouraged through this series.

I've personally been enjoying it so much.

We're in Psalm chapter 73.

And before we read the word and see what the Lord has for us, I want to pray for just a moment, okay?

Lord, we love you.

And we thank you so much for this amazing morning, this opportunity to read your word, to worship your name.

I pray right now, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would be speaking through me, that you would penetrate hearts in here, that you would open eyes to your truth.

Whether for the first time for salvation or for repentance or for deeper worship and devotion to you, God, have your way with us this morning.

And we pray that we would be obedient to you and that we would be open to what your spirit has for us.

God, we love you.

We praise you.

And we lift these prayers up in the name of Jesus.

Jesus Christ, amen.

All right, so Psalm chapter 73, we're going to be starting in verse 1, and it reads this.

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Now this morning, this psalm starts with something that we kind of talked about a few weeks ago in a different psalm.

This struggle that we have with the...

The perceived prosperity that we see in the world of those who are wicked, those who don't follow God.

And this morning, as we read through Psalm chapter 73, there is a fight going on that we are witnessing.

A fight that is not just unique to the psalmist here, the person who wrote this psalm,

but a fight that every single one of us go through in our life.

And I would venture to say, even if you recognize it or not, it is a fight that you have daily in your life.

And it's a fight that you have daily in your life.

And it's a fight that you have daily in your life.

And it's a fight that you have daily in your life.

And it's a fight that you have daily in your life.

And it's a fight that you have daily in your life.

And it's a fight that you have daily in your life.

And it is this fight between our faith and what we see.

This fight between what is our heart, our life going to be built on.

Is it going to be built on this faith in God or in the things we see in this world?

Because that's what faith is, right?

Paul talks about it in a different area in the scriptures, right?

Faith is hoping for the things that we don't see, right?

When it doesn't make sense.

When we don't know how it's going to work out.

Faith is that unseen stuff that we trust in God for.

Faith is that unseen stuff that we trust in God for.

Sight, what we see in this physical world, is right in front of us.

And so there's this tension and this battle going on.

It reminds me of 1 Timothy 6, verse 12.

It says,

Now, I read that verse sometimes.

I think there's an aspect to it where I go, awesome.

We're fighting the ungodly, right?

We got the truth.

Let's put on that armor of God.

Let's stand bold.

Let's fight against the sinners of this world.

The inner me that loves war movies, I'm like all about that, right?

Put on your armor of God.

Let's go.

Let's suit up.

And let's fight the fight of faith.

We see all the mistruth in the world.

We see the wickedness.

Let's fight against that.

There's an aspect to where we need to be prepared for spiritual warfare, right?

Where we need to be standing for truth, not compromising.

But this isn't just talking about, again, Satan, false teachers, or a sinful world.

I believe this verse also talks about the fight within our hearts.

Because the fight of faith is that.

Every day, as you follow Jesus, as you put your faith in him, there is this fight going on within you.

Because you have this flesh, this sinful nature that is still there.

And the new man, right?

Romans 7, Paul talks about it, right?

The things I want to do, I don't do, right?

Who will save this wretched body that I have?

It's this fight of faith.

What are we going to hold to in our life?

Faith in God or the things that we see?

Now, I believe as we're seeing here in Psalm chapter 73, it's brought about by a temptation.

This fight that we have, this fight between faith and sight.

What we're going to trust, whether we believe in our faith in God or what we see,

it's brought about by this temptation.

And I believe the temptation is to forget what we have and to envy what others have and enjoy.

To forget the truth as a follower of Jesus.

What you have, right?

If you put your faith in Jesus Christ alone, believing he came to this world, lived perfectly on your behalf,

died on the cross for your sins, rose again, believing in that, this amazing truth you have,

forgetting it and wanting the material things of this world.

It's that temptation.

Because we see it.

We see the things they have.

We see the things that a sinful world has and enjoys.

And we forget the truth of what we possess as followers of Jesus.

Don't get too ahead of myself.

We'll get into that in a little bit.

But the psalmist here, he's reflecting on this fight.

And he gives us this imagery.

My feet had almost stumbled.

And so what he's doing here is this imagery of falling into a pit.

You've seen the movies before where this scene has been portrayed.

You've got this deep pit and right on the edge of it, the sand's slipping out.

The hero's trying to get up on the edge of it, get out of the pit.

And every step he takes, the sand gives out on his foot.

And he's slipping and you're wondering, what's going to happen?

This is what the psalmist is saying here.

This temptation, it's this temptation to envy or to hold on to faith.

And as he's struggling with this fight, his feet keep slipping.

The temptation keeps pulling him into it, pulling him into this pit, this pit of despair.

As I thought about this, a deep fear within me arose.

One of my deepest fears in life of just being buried alive.

That's all I can think about.

I'm like, if I fall into this pit, you know, watch movies about it or whatever it may be,

I instantly get like the chills.

I don't want to turn the TV off.

I don't want to deal with it.

This idea of me falling into this pit.

And this temptation brings rise to envy of the perceived prosperity of the wicked.

This fight we all have.

On the one hand, we have faith in God.

We trust that he is sovereign.

If you're going to call yourself a follower of Jesus this morning, this faith we have is fully on God.

It is not 99% on him and 1% on ourselves.

If we're going to have faith in God, it's either all faith in him or it's not.

We trust that he is sovereign.

That he's in control of every area of our life, every aspect of the world.

And so no matter what we see in this world, we know the truth.

That God is for us and that he's in control.

So this one side, we have this faith and then we have this sight.

We see the perceived prosperity.

We're going to leave this building.

You're going to go into your life and you're going to see the wicked people of this world

enjoying all the things this world can offer.

And the question becomes why?

And the envy begins to arise.

And truthfully, we're going to see the wicked people of this world enjoying all the things this world can offer.

And truthfully, this is seen all throughout the Psalms.

David's speaking about it.

This psalm is speaking about it here in Psalm 73.

And I'm trying to follow you.

Why are these things happening?

Why are the enemies of yours winning?

Why are they succeeding this fight we're all having?

Now, spoiler alert, the faith we have in God is so much better.

I'm not going to wait until our crescendo here in this sermon.

We just got to put it out right in the front.

The faith we have in God is so much better than anything this world can offer.

If you're dealing with envy this morning, if you're dealing with that struggle this morning,

your faith in God is the best thing in this entire world.

Because what you receive by simple faith, believing in Jesus, is God himself.

There's nothing better than that.

So let's just put that out there right now.

We don't got to wonder who's going to win this battle.

If we're going to put our faith in God, we have something better than this world could ever offer.

As we see, the psalmist here describes what he's seeing.

So verses 4 through 12, continuing on, he says,

he paints us this picture of what he's seeing in the world.

It says,

Their bodies are fat and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are.

They are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

Therefore, pride is their necklace.

Violence covers them as a garment.

Their eyes swell out through fatness.

Their hearts overflow with follies.

They scoff and speak with malice.

Loftily, they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.

Therefore, his people turn back to them and find no fault in them.

That's just a description.

Let me just describe a bit of what he's seeing here.

Verse 4, he's speaking about how they're untroubled their whole life.

So he's seeing this world of wickedness.

He's saying there's no trouble for them.

They even go to death without pain.

There's nothing of suffering they're going through.

These wicked are pictures of robust health.

Everything goes their way.

This prosperity for them is abundant.

And this just makes me want to add a little side note here

of how much I detest the prosperity gospel.

That truth that if you believe in Jesus,

everything is going to be okay.

You're going to be healthy, you're going to be wealthy,

and things of abundance are going to be all in your life.

That whole way of believing is wanting to be the wicked here in verses 4 through 10.

I could spend all morning talking about that.

I'm not.

There's another reason why I detest that perversion of the gospel.

Verse 5, speaking of their quality of life is generally better than most.

It's not a guarantee that if you're rich, it's bad.

We're not saying that this morning.

That money itself is as wholesome,

that to be rich is to be wicked.

But he's more giving in general what the psalmist is seeing.

And I think we see it in our world too.

Those who have no inclination to honor God.

Those who don't desire him.

Those who want to live according to their own sinful ways.

No desire at all.

And yet, they keep gaining.

They keep increasing.

Their quality of life is generally better than most.

Verse 6, they wear pride and violence like it is the badge of honor.

So literally, I like how it describes that violence is a garment.

They wear it.

They wake up and put on this way of living.

Pride that we would view as probably not a great virtue.

Oh, they're happy about it.

It's this necklace that they are just boasting with about it.

We are prideful.

We are violent.

Verse 7, it's another way of saying that they are the center of the universe.

They have an access in life.

Whatever they want, they get.

We are the center of the universe in this wicked way of living.

And then verse 10 is so sad.

I'm going to read it again.

Therefore, his people turned back to them.

And find no fault in them.

This verse, it literally reads that the people of God want to be like them so much

because of the prosperity they see.

They want to follow that way so much that they literally drink in what they say.

They drink it in so much that I want to follow your way of living.

The people of God, those who are meant to follow God regardless of our circumstances in life,

believing that God is the highest good and the most thing that we should desire,

but they see the wicked and the prosperity and the suffering,

and they go, I want all that.

I'll drink in whatever you're saying and praising that way of living,

even though it's wickedness.

Sad reality that so many people fall into.

Once again, the prosperity gospel, why it lures in people so much.

Well, if I'm struggling with paying my bills, you're telling me I got a way to get out of it.

I'm going to do that.

I preach on the TV.

He's rich.

He's got his own jet.

What he's saying must be true.

Drink in what they want.

And then it culminates here in verses 11 and 12.

And they say, how can God know?

How can God know?

Is there knowledge?

In the most time, behold, these are the wicked, always at ease.

They increase in riches.

Essentially, this verse, the wicked of this world, those who don't want to follow God,

they say, I dare God to stop me.

They know there's knowledge of God.

They know God sees everything, but they're not asking that question.

Does God see it?

The question they're asking is, can God actually stop it?

I can live however I want.

I can indulge in any sin I want.

Makes me think of Pride Month in June, literally parading the sin out in the world.

Literally, indulging in their sin so much, glorifying their sin so much,

that they're willing to go out and parade it to the world without any shame.

Know what that's saying?

How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the most high?

I can do whatever I want.

I dare God to stop me.

This is the wickedness that we're seeing here.

And the unfortunate thing is that if we live by sight, what we're seeing is they're prospering.

There must be something good in it.

That's this fight that we're having.

And then it causes us to question in verse 13.

All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

It leads to the thought of, why am I doing good?

I'm trying to follow God.

Trying to honor him with my life, my family.

I'm still struggling with the bills.

Still struggling to fix our car.

Lost my job and I don't see one on the horizon.

If I'm trying to follow God and these things are happening, why am I doing it?

It's in vain.

Augustine, reflecting on this verse, says this is the thought of verse 13.

That if I serve God and have to go without wealth, while those who do not serve him have plenty,

what I did was pointless.

Where is the reward for my good life?

What wages do I get for my service?

I live virtuously and I am in need while a godless person has plenty.

It's where that thought, that envy can lead us to.

We're talking about this fight, this pit that he's being dragged into, the psalmist here.

That's the pit of thinking following God is for no purpose because of the struggle I have in this life.

We need to follow God.

We need to fight that fight of faith when that arises in our hearts.

When that envy comes, we have to fight against it.

We have to hold to faith.

And I want to contend for two ways that we can fight this temptation.

The first way is in verses 16 through 17, where we zoom out.

So often in life, we get so short-sighted where all we see is our struggle, is the fight that we're going through,

is how other people are prospering and I'm not and there's something wrong with that.

We get short-sighted and we forget what the end is.

Verse 16 and 17 tells us to zoom out.

So it reads,

So literally the psalmist is reflecting here.

He's saying, as I sought to understand, why are the wicked prospering?

Why are they increasing in riches?

They're defying God.

This can be a wearisome task if we just view it in that light.

But he says,

At the time, this is where the word of God was kept.

And so it was a wearisome task until I went to the word of the Lord.

Until I went and saw what God says.

Then I discerned their end.

We overcome this envy, we zoom out.

Now it makes me think, something I do sometimes, I know it's not a great thing I should do,

but I'll be watching movies.

I love biopics, you know, where it's like a real-life story, but they're doing it in a movie form.

And there's someone that is so good at being a villain, I'm like,

I just want to be a villain.

I just want you to lose.

I can't stand watching you.

And so what I do is I'll go and look up, how does this story actually end?

I don't allow the movie to play itself out because I need to know this person lose.

And I'm going to watch this movie.

So I go and look up the ending, and I'm like, sweet, awesome, he loses, I can watch this in peace.

But that's what we're told to do here.

Go to the end.

If we're going to envy what they have, if we're going to envy the perceived prosperity,

okay, where does that get them?

Where does that godlessness lead to?

Where does that wickedness lead to?

Where does that wickedness and sinfulness, where is it ultimately going to end for them?

This is the reality we need to concept or grasp in our head.

If we're going to look at their wealth, their material things, okay, where is that going to lead them to?

If that's where all the hope and trust is built in, where is this wicked life going to lead them to?

That's the reality we need to look at.

And verses 18 and 19 tells us it.

Truly you set them in slippery places.

You make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment.

And swept away utterly by terrors.

This is the end for the wicked way.

If we're going to envy that lifestyle, let's envy it entirely.

You can't have one without the other.

You want to walk that lifestyle of wickedness, where is it going to lead to?

That's the reality for those who live in opposition to God.

That's the reality for those who don't put their faith in Jesus alone.

This is where it's going to lead to.

Romans 12, 19 tells us.

Behold, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

We love talking about how God is a God of love.

Now I'll be honest, I don't love preaching these verses.

These are real souls walking this earth that are going to experience this one day.

But that's why we have to give the warning.

That's why we must see it.

If you're living this lifestyle today, please hear these words.

The wrath of God is coming.

And there's no avoiding it.

And I love in verse 19, it says how they are destroyed in a moment.

So for all those who don't believe in Jesus Christ as the only way for salvation,

if you go your whole life never repenting and believing Jesus is Lord,

believing in a sacrifice on the cross, you know what's going to happen?

In an instant, your eyes are working one day and then they're not and you're standing before God.

And in an instant, it's all gone.

These things we accumulated with our wickedness, how can God know?

And you're standing before him, wept away, utterly in destruction.

And those riches.

That fame, that success will do nothing for you.

Because there is only one way.

There is only one truth.

There is only one life.

There is only one Christ.

And it is Jesus.

The only thing that's going to matter for us at the end.

I feel like I keep saying this, but this is what the Bible says.

There's only one thing that matters.

And it is not how successful were you in this world.

And it is not the fame that we accumulated.

It is not how much money we had.

What is your faith in?

What did you put your faith in?

Truthfully, that's why we keep talking about VBS.

I know it's a silly event.

We're going to dress up as pirates.

We're going to make this whole building look like a pirate ship.

We're going to have a lot of fun.

They're going to eat goldfish and pretend they're pirates on a ship.

And it's amazing.

Why do we do that?

Because the gospel is the only thing that saves.

People are living wicked lifestyles.

This verse in 18 and 19 applies to people walking the beach right now.

It applies to people walking the beach.

It applies to the people in your neighborhood that are riding their bike without a care in the world.

It applies to your family members who don't know Jesus, who haven't surrendered in faith.

There is this urgency that we need to have about this.

Because, yes, we can look to the end and see where it leads to.

But that should break our hearts as followers of Christ.

That should lead us and encourage us to pray for them, to do all that we can to take this gospel to the world.

Because it's the only thing that's going to save.

This isn't a game.

This isn't a country club.

Souls are in the balance.

And in an instant, it will be gone.

And it will stand before God Almighty.

I hope we're a church that wants to do something about that.

Now, the second way I think we overcome this envy.

Consider the question I brought at the beginning.

What do we have?

So verse 23.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you.

You hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel.

And afterward, you will receive me to glory.

And these are the two verses I talked about that I love so much.

Have I in heaven but you.

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail.

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Envy the things of this world.

Let's consider for a moment.

What do we have as followers of Jesus?

C.S. Lewis talks about this so amazingly.

This quote he gives.

It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with dreams.

We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with dreams.

and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on

making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation

at the sea. Now he's British and said holiday, but that's not the truth. Holidays are Christmas

and Thanksgiving. Vacations are happening at the sea, all right? Then he ends it. We are far too

easily pleased. You know, I don't think our issue, or I think our issue is not that we get envy of

the perceived prosperity. Our issue is that we have such weak desires. Our issue is that we would

rather have a billion dollars than the God of the universe. Our issue is that we would have, we

want these massive houses on the lake and enjoying all of this stuff rather than the peace of God

that surpasses all understanding. Our issue is we would rather have brand new

cars, vacations, year-round bills paid for, than communion with God for the rest of our life.

That's the issue. Do you see what C.S. Lewis is talking about here? This is why our desires are

too weak. Put them into comparison. We have all the money in the world, and that's what the psalmist

says. He says the question, whom have I in heaven but you? We know the descriptions of heaven, right?

I'll go through a little bit of them. Radiant light, streets of gold, precious materials, the river of

life, no pain, no more tears, perfect harmony with people and with creation. We're all longing for

that one day, amen? Think of everything God's made in the universe. The infinite expanse of the stars,

the greatest views we could ever see on the highest mountaintops in this world,

the joys we see in creation and everything. Think of all of this. Grab a scale, heaven and earth,

put all these things on one side and put God on the other, and he far outweighs them all.

Why is it heaven? Because God is there. Not the streets of gold, not the precious materials,

because God is there. And when we think about this earth, take a trillion dollars,

whatever the next level of a trillion is, it's not even worth comparing to a fraction of God

himself. But you know what's offered to us in Christ? God entirely. Psalm 42, one through two,

as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul,

thirst for God, for the living God. This is what we should try and model our life after,

the riches and the fame. It's so enticing, but put it into perspective. How do we overcome envy?

Remember what you have. Remember who is yours. But God is the strength of my heart and my portion

forever. I love that word forever, because that's the beautiful truth, that if you put your faith

in Jesus, and I hope you hear me this morning, if you didn't hear anything else, no matter where you're

at in your walk, I don't care how long you've been coming to this building or to other churches,

if you've never put your faith in Jesus, seen him as crucified on a cross for you,

buried and risen again for you, and now he tells us if we would repent and believe,

we would be saved. That's all that we have to do, because you could never earn it,

you could never deserve it, but Jesus paid the price. And all we need to have is faith. If you

confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart, God, raise him from the dead,

if you haven't done that yet, let this morning right now be the day your life changes forever.

And then the truth is, for all time, you are God's and he is yours. You are in his hands and no one

shall snatch you out of them. For all time, you will be enjoying God. And the reason we're going

to do it for eternity, because you could never exhaust him, his character, his qualities, his

beautifulness. It's infinite.

Our minds can't even comprehend it. What greater thing is there to desire than that?

So to wrap up the last two verses, we get a summary of this psalm. Verse 27 and 28.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is

unfaithful to you. But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works. This psalm gets summarized here, and there's two realities

put in front of us. The first is for the wicked, those who are far from God, they will perish.

I hope that will not be true for you this morning. I hope the Holy Spirit's moving in your heart right

now, that this conviction of sin is rising, that you would see your desperate need for salvation,

that you would turn away from this wickedness and believe in Jesus Christ, who will save you

to the uttermost. And I hope that as a church, we would do all that we can to make sure that this is

not true for the people of our community, that we make sure for Walled Lake, for Wixom, for Novi,

for West Bloomfield, as far as God will take us.

That we would desire that they would turn from their wicked ways and fall down on their knees

before a holy God, who is just to save them because Christ died on the cross and rose again.

But then there's the second reality for the righteous in Christ, for those near God will

be sustained forever. And I hope that's an encouragement for you this morning. I don't

know what situation you're dealing with right now in your life. I don't know if you have a health

issue or financial issues or whatever it may be. I do know in those situations, the envy can rise,

that temptation can rise. I don't know if you have a health issue or financial issues or whatever

can come. And you could be on the edge of that pit, feeling like your feet are going to stumble

and slip. Remember him. Remember what you have. Fight that fight of faith. Take hold of Jesus

forever, and he will pull you out of that pit. And when he has brought you through those temptations,

when he has brought you through that fight and that struggle, and he does it time and time again,

then we'll be able to do what verse 28 says,

that I may tell of all your works, that I may tell all, that I may go to my family, that I may go to

my work, that I may be able to walk in this community and tell everybody how good our God is.

Because that's all that matters. That's all that's going to last. I'm going to end with one of my

favorite quotes, very short, which says, this one life which soon will pass, only what's done for

Christ will last. I hope our eyes are set on that truth this morning. Let's pray. Lord, we love you.

And we thank you so much for the grace that we can have in Jesus. Father, I pray for every single

person in this room right now. As we pray, I pray for every single person in this room right now.

We engage in the fight of faith. As we see the wicked of this world prospering and the envy

begins to rise, that you through your Holy Spirit would give us strength, hold on to faith rather

than to sight, that we would trust in you, that you are all that we need. You are all that we

have to desire. You are our strength and our portion forever. And Lord, let it motivate us

to go to a wicked world, to go to a fallen, sinful people. Tell them, grace,

is here. There's something better, and it's Jesus Christ. May we be a people motivated by this truth,

and that it wouldn't just motivate us for VBS, and it wouldn't just motivate us for trunk or treat,

but it would motivate us every area of our life, at every moment, to reach the world of the gospel,

or to use us as a body of believers to be united and to glorify you in this.

Father, we love you. It is all in the very precious name of Jesus. Amen.