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The River ChurchSermons

John Carter · 14 Jun 2026

John Carter · Sunday, 14 June 2026 · 48:03 · 6,868 words

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The sermon explores Psalm 73, titled Blurry Vision, showing how Asaph nearly slipped because he envied the prosperity of the wicked. Using a picture of modern symbols (phone, money, car, likes), the speaker illustrates how focusing on the world can blur our view of God’s goodness. Asaph reminds us that God is good in his character, not just in what we see, feel, or envy. Listeners are challenged to ask what is clouding their vision, to draw near to God, and to trust that He holds onto them.

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.

asaph 52 blurry 18 asaph's 15 focus 36 man 63 good 68 envy 16 perspective 17 vision 14 envious 9 start 36 bitterness 10

Topics

Faith 4 Israel 1

Scripture referenced 4

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

Psalms 73 1:03 Psalms 73 1:09 Psalms 73 2:40 Psalms 73 2:57

Transcript

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

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:33. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Good morning, everyone. Man, it's good to see everybody.

I know it's a little rainy outside, but it's good that you are here this morning. Amen?

Wow, I know. A lot of warm days, and then the clouds come, and you're like,

Oh, man, do I really want to go? Do I want to be excited about church?

Are you excited to be here this morning? Is God good this morning? Is God good this week?

All right, we got something to be excited about then, right?

Hey, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Psalms 73.

Psalms 73, and as you're turning there,

I'm going to give you a little bit of information about the Bible.

I'm going to ask the team to throw a picture on the screen,

and I want to ask you, what is it that pops out when you look at this screen?

What is the focus on?

I don't know if you can see.

Like, what immediately catches my attention, see, it's with me all the time, is a phone, right?

Like, I see the phone. That's right there in the center of the picture.

What else sticks out?

There's money, there's a trophy in the image, a car.

Oh, you see the Bible. Someone said the Bible.

We'll get to that in a minute.

What else is on there?

What's sharpest in the image?

You see the likes, right?

The comments, a large, I mean, I don't know that I've ever posted anything in my life that has had 500 comments.

I'm assuming that's a big deal, right?

2,000 people paying attention to what's on social media.

This is often, as we look at this, as we examine this,

this is often what the world says the good life looks like.

Would you agree?

Would you agree?

Would you agree?

Someone said Bible earlier, but in the background, it's a little blurry, it's hard to see.

It's in the same room, it's in the same picture.

You see a cross, you see a Bible.

It's pretty interesting, right?

And so today, as we look at this, I was like, man, this picture kind of represents what Asaph,

the author of Psalm 73, is going through if it were in our day and age.

This picture kind of represents a little bit what we ourselves often can be,

if we're not careful,

And Asaph, as we walk through Psalms 73,

we're going to see how this picture's relevancy really plays out

and how really Asaph gives us a really, he's vulnerable in this Psalm.

He lays out where his heart is at in this Psalm.

And I think if we're honest with ourselves,

we can look at what Asaph goes through and we can bring it into our world

and we can go, oh man, I might struggle with that too sometime.

I might see things,

focus on the wrong thing.

Sometimes, and this is the part that Asaph is going to get into,

the title of my message is called Blurry Vision.

Sometimes our vision of who God is and his goodness can sometimes be blurred

because we're focused on the wrong thing.

So this morning, if you have your Bible,

you're going to see exactly what Asaph, as the leader,

he was one of the leaders of the, I guess you would say the temple, the choir temple,

in the time of David.

So Asaph is not a man that is unfamiliar, an occasional Christian in that sense.

He is somebody that is, we would describe as a leader of God's people.

He leads them in worship.

He leads them in the temple.

So Asaph is being very honest and he starts off with the fundamental,

in verse one, we'll read it in a minute.

He says, God is good.

But then real quickly, in verse two, he says, but I almost stumbled.

I nearly slipped.

In verse two, he says, but I almost stumbled.

And then when you get to verse three, he's going to identify why he almost slipped,

why he almost stumbled.

And the words that he says in here in verse three is this.

He says, I almost stumbled because I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

See, that word saw is very interesting.

It's very unique.

It's intentional.

It shows what Asaph was looking at.

It shows what Asaph was watching.

And it shows where Asaph's focus was at.

So we're going to walk through that.

So let's start in chapter 73, beginning in verse one.

Asaph says these words, truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

Truly God is good to Israel.

I love that Asaph starts here before he goes into his near stumble, before he

opens his heart and confesses the things he is envious of.

He starts with a fundamental foundational truth that God is good all the time.

Here we go.

God is good, right?

Like this is one of the things I'm going to say that a lot.

So I'm just going to ask you not to repeat that phrase or we'll never get through this message.

It's already an hour long, guys.

I'm just kidding.

But this is the point, right?

We're going to work through this.

This is Asaph's fundamental.

Doctrine, you would say, man, he starts here before he goes into what he struggles with,

before he talks about where his heart was and what condition and what he was focused on.

He starts with, and he uses the word truly God is good.

So today, one of the main questions I want you to think about and consider as we walk

through this psalm is this.

I want you to think and ask yourself, what is it, what is it that you are focused on

that is causing you to struggle?

What is it that you are focusing on that is causing God's goodness to be blurry?

What are you focused on?

What are you looking at?

What are you seeing?

What are you watching?

What are you bringing to, what are you staring at in essence that is allowing you to lose

focus and make the goodness of God be blurry in your life?

How many of you would attest very easily?

You believe that.

See, just like that image, we can have the cross in there.

We can have the Bible in there.

But if our focus is shifted in the wrong place, the focus of God's goodness becomes blurry.

And as Asaph is laying down this foundation about who he is, what he believes, I love

this, more than anything else, he lands on who God is.

He starts with who God is.

And our faith, listen, as we walk through this psalm, we have to recognize this.

Our faith cannot, cannot be built on what we see.

Why is that?

Because honestly, if we are completely,

completely transparent, sometimes what we see can be confusing.

Asaph walks through this confusion.

We can't build our faith on what we feel.

Why is that?

Because sometimes what we feel is shifty.

It's not stable.

It changes from one thing to another, maybe depending on your mood or the day or the circumstances.

So we can't base our faith on what we feel.

Asaph's going to walk through this.

We can't even base our faith on what we envy.

Why?

Because what we envy, what we envy can be deceiving to us.

Anybody ever do this?

I did this this other, this last week.

I was doing some electrical work at my parents' house and I was at Home Depot and I got, I

walked past this section where there are these new tools.

I won't say the name brand.

They're red.

I buy nothing but the red tools.

That's not true.

I'm starting to shift to the yellow brand now.

But I walked past them and I'm like, oh man, these tools, these are going to solve all

This is going to make my work.

And so I bought them.

I spent like $30 on these tools and then I started to use them and I'm like, this isn't

doing at all what I want it to do.

You're disappointed.

I was like, man, this is the answer.

This will make my job easier.

This will make, make, make my workload lighter.

This is what I need in my life.

I spent the money and then when I started to use it, it was a disappointment.

It was a letdown.

I was deceived in thinking this is what I needed.

Maybe, maybe it's not as silly as something as simple as some electrical tools.

Maybe there's something else in your life that you would say, man, if I had this, if

this was what was in my, if this is what I, then it would be set.

Then I would have what I needed and I would be golden and my life would be good and I

would be living the good life.

If we walk through this, you're going to see Asaph is laying down his fundamental faith,

not on what he sees, not on what he feels, not on what he envies, but he lays his faith

down on who God is.

This is where we start.

We have to start there.

We have to start with the very character of God.

And when, when the Bible talks about God being good, this is not God saying, yeah, I'm, I'm

occasionally good in your life.

I am just going to send some good vibes your way.

In the general sense of the term, he's not saying I am generally kind towards you.

That's not, that's not what, when the scripture speaks about the goodness of God, it is not

talking about it in a casual sense like that.

When the Bible says God is good, he is, the scripture is fundamentally saying this is

the very core and nature and character of God.

And this is where Asaph starts.

He starts with God, truly God is good.

He is good in his character.

He's good in his purpose.

He is good in his wisdom and he is good in his mercy.

He is good in his discipline.

You don't necessarily like that word.

I believe God is good in his discipline.

He is good in what he gives.

We like that part of God, but he's also good in what he withholds.

Is he not?

Not only is God good and when he gives us things, but he's also good when he withhold

things from us.

God is good when I understand him.

He's also good when I don't understand him.

This is where Asaph begins.

He starts here and he lays down the foundation of, and this will come back later.

In the psalm, this is so important for us to grasp and not run past in verse one, what

fundamentally Asaph is laying down as a doctrinal foundation that God is in fact good.

It is his character.

It's his nature.

It's his behavior.

There is no God's good sometimes.

No, he's good all the time in every circumstance, in every situation, in every condition or

factor that you may be struggling with.

God is still good.

Whether that's a.

Health issue, financial issue, relationship issue, any issue that you're walking through.

This is a core truth you can come back to where Asaph starts before he even walks through

his own heart's condition.

He says, man, this I know for certain.

This is true.

God, God is good.

We start here and then Asaph walks into, as you look at verse two, but he says, but as

for me, he starts to be very vulnerable.

He opens his heart up and we get to see a picture of Asaph's heart when he.

Starts to struggle.

I love the realness of Asaph.

Here's a man who leads the people of Israel and praising God.

He, he understands doctrine.

He, we lay that out in verse one, but yet we can also be very real and say, but man,

sometimes, sometimes my heart can be confused.

Verse two, he says this, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped.

And saying, man, I had a bad day.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying, man, my heart is trying to convince me and tell me that there is something better

than God's goodness.

And I almost stumbled in believing that I almost stumbled in slipping and believing

this was better than the goodness of God.

This isn't just a one day I came in and man, today was a rough day, guys.

I just, I'm almost stumbling.

No, this is Asaph being vulnerable, open, like, man, my heart is struggling because

I am seeing things that don't make sense from where I'm sitting or where I'm standing.

I'm seeing things that man, honestly, it really, and this is the core of what the psalm is about.

It's really starting to make me question the goodness and the character of who God is.

I don't know if I can trust God.

He has the doctrine.

He knows the Lord, but I love how real he is.

And sometimes I think in the church, we want to come in with, with being dressed up.

Nothing wrong with that.

We want to put on Facebook, the Bible verses.

But in our hearts, and this is where Asaph goes,

sometimes we see things and we go, Lord, where are you?

Does it even matter?

Is me pursuing you, being obedient to you, being faithful to you, does it matter?

Is there really, is it really worth all of the struggle and difficulty that I may be going through?

Anybody ever feel like that?

I know I have.

Just being honest.

This is Asaph's heart, right?

Look at this as he goes through this and he starts to help us see and recognize what is happening.

In his own heart, he's being open.

He's being vulnerable.

He's being as real as a person can be.

Look at this.

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.

And I want you to see his perspective.

Because from verse 4 to verse 12, you get to see what his heart, from his heart's perspective,

what he was seeing.

He doesn't hide anything.

You get to see, I'm going to use this term, you get to see his blurry vision.

I want you to see this.

He says, as he's speaking of the arrogant and the wicked,

For they have no pains until death.

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.

Pride is what they boast in.

This is what they present to the rest of the world to see as their pride and their joy.

What they proclaim is, in fact, their own arrogance.

Violence covers them like a garment.

Their eyes swell out through fatness.

They are full of, at least from his perspective, this exuberant joy.

I mean, have you?

Have you ever laughed so hard your eyes cry?

Your cheeks hurt?

I kind of envision this is what Asaph is looking at.

And he's looking at the arrogant and the wicked, the violent, the prideful.

And he says, man, they're having a good time.

Look at this next line.

Their heart overflows with folly.

Man, they can laugh and have a good time.

And they can do this with, folly just simply means foolishness, right?

They can have this fun and this good life, and it can be total foolishness.

This continues.

He says, they scoff and they speak with malice.

They even threaten oppression.

They set their mouth against the heavens, even against God Almighty.

They can say some of the most arrogant things.

And here they are.

It seems as though they prosper.

There's nothing going on.

There's no consequences.

Their tongue, look at this word, struts through the earth.

Man, if you haven't ever seen anybody, big man on campus is what came.

It crossed my mind, right?

Like, I don't know if you've ever seen anybody that has this strut on campus,

whether that's high school or college.

Man, they just own the stage, so to speak.

They have a strut, right?

Here is their presentation.

This is what Asaph's presentation is.

This is what he sees, what he focuses on.

And I want you to see that in verse 10 and 11 is where the warning,

the danger really comes into place.

Listen, these people, they're going to exist.

There's never been a point in history where arrogant people

haven't been there.

Just going to be honest.

There's never been a point in human history,

maybe if you go into the garden before the fall,

but after the fall, the wicked have always been present on this earth.

So you see Asaph looking.

He even admits his own envy in this.

But look at what the danger is in verse 10.

Therefore, his people turn back to them,

that is the arrogant and the wicked,

and they find no fault in them.

Their behavior seems kosher, if you will.

I don't know if that's the right word to use.

It seems okay.

It seems acceptable.

This violence, this malice, this scoffing, this oppression, this malice,

all of this seems okay to them.

And look at what happens.

So they see this behavior.

They see what is happening.

They focus on it.

And then they start to question God in verse 11.

And they say, how can God know?

Look at this next question.

Is their knowledge in the most high?

And he concludes his perspective, what he sees.

With his blurry vision.

In verse 12, with this, this, this, or these are the wicked.

Always at ease, they increase in riches.

Asaph's being very open, very vulnerable, very honest

in his initial assessment and what he's focused on.

He says, man, I was looking at the arrogant and I saw the wicked prosper.

And I see the way they live.

And man, it makes me question whether God fully understands.

Does God even know what's happening down there?

Ever feel that way?

Does it really matter if I am obedient to God, if I'm faithful to God?

Man, does he even know what I'm going through?

Anybody ever feel that way?

Does he even know the hurt that I have in my life, the suffering, the pain,

the struggles that I go through?

Does he even know what I'm feeling?

This is where Asaph is landing when his eyes and his vision is blurry.

He says, man, listen, I look at the wicked.

They can live as they want.

They can talk as they want.

They can act as they want.

Does God even see this?

Does he know?

Does he understand?

And you start to see the danger of envy and bitterness taking root in Asaph's heart.

Really, it starts making the envy and bitterness in Asaph's heart,

starts making him question who God is at his core, his character, his behavior.

I want you to see this next verse.

He says this in verse 13 and 14.

You really get a clear picture of where Asaph's heart lands.

In verse 13, he says,

All in vain.

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

Man, if you are one that highlights in your scripture, I would circle those three words.

All in vain.

Does following God sometimes feel like it's vanity to you?

Does being obedient and faithful and true and following God's word and claiming his goodness,

does it sometimes feel like vanity to you?

Like, man, maybe it's too costly when I do the right thing.

Here, Asaph is really just pouring out the honesty of his heart, where his heart's at.

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

Look at this, verse 14.

For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

What is he saying?

He's saying, listen, man, I have tried.

Every day this is a battle.

It's a struggle.

I'm getting rebuked because I'm trying to be faithful to God.

I'm trying to follow him.

Anybody feel that struggle ever?

Is it just me?

Right?

This is real.

I mean, we can pretend like we don't have these struggles, but man, Asaph is just hitting us right between the headlights, so to speak.

He's like, listen, guys, I'm just going to tell you where I'm at.

Some days it's hard to be a Christian.

Man, we want to do right things.

We want to be faithful in our marriage, and we say, man, this is hard.

Maybe we say, man, I am faithful in my giving to the Lord, but man, sometimes at the end of the month,

it feels like I don't have enough.

God, where are you?

God, I have been faithful in trying to be obedient to your word, and it feels like I am getting punched from the left side and the right side.

It's hard.

And you're like, God, where are you?

Do you even know what's happening?

Are you paying attention?

Asaph is saying literally these words, all in vanity.

Every day I've been stricken.

I'm rebuked every morning.

If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Verse 16, he goes in and he says,

Asaph's like, man, I tried to make sense of this.

I have struggled with this.

This is something that is deeply rooted in my core of my heart.

My heart is envious.

You're going to see this in a little bit.

I am embittered, he will say.

I'm dealing with envy.

I'm dealing with bitterness.

And all of that is because he's looking, he's focused on the wrong thing.

And he says, man, I've tried to figure this out from my perspective.

And all I end up with is exhaustion.

It is a wearisome, I'm exhausted.

I don't have the answers.

This is where I love where Asaph goes.

See, it's easy to struggle with these things.

It's good to know that this is the reality of life.

And sometimes we face these hardships.

I am so grateful that Asaph doesn't stop there.

There's a wonderful word that follows this in verse 17.

He says, man, this was all super confusing, super hard for me to grasp.

It's a wearisome task.

Until, until I sat in the sanctuary of God.

I want you to catch this.

Look at this.

This is so beautiful.

As he's struggling, as he's being exhausted, as he's finding where envy and bitterness just cut.

They just don't answer the questions for him, right?

He starts to, and he recognizes, he says this in verse 17.

Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned therein.

This is such a beautiful phrase.

Man, until he went into the sanctuary of God.

What's in the sanctuary of God?

First and foremost, it's a sanctuary.

It's a safe place.

It's a place where Asaph could pour out his heart, his struggle, his difficulty.

God, man, this is where my heart's at.

I'm just being honest.

I know your character.

You are a good, truly, God, you are good.

But man, I am seeing all these things happening.

I am witnessing this, and it appears as though you can live how you want.

Act like you want.

Talk how you want.

And there's nothing that changes in this world.

And it seems like it's nothing but a fight and a battle to follow you.

Lord, what am I doing?

That's pretty real, isn't it?

I mean, that's as authentic as I think you get.

I don't care if you come to church or not.

That's like, wow.

They talk like this in the Bible?

Yeah, because it's real.

And then he says, and he gives us the hope.

He helps us focus our attention to what the turning point is.

What changes Asaph's heart from envy to faithfulness?

What changes Asaph's heart from bitterness to confidence?

He says, until I went into the sanctuary of God.

I want you to look at this other picture.

Everything is still in the room that was in the first picture.

Maybe not the phone.

I couldn't find the phone.

Probably in his pocket now.

But what's the focus?

Where is the attention drawn?

Where is your focus at when you look at this picture?

You see the cross.

That's right, Ricky.

You see the Bible, the word of God.

Now, the other things are still there.

None of these other things are evil or wrong in and of themselves.

The difference is what?

What's the difference between picture one and picture two?

The focus.

Where the focus is at.

And this is what happens with Asaph.

He says, man, when I was looking at it from my perspective,

when I was envious, when I was bitter,

when I was focused on everything else and not focusing on God,

I had lost my perspective.

I started to question God.

And then what helped me, what moved me from that place,

to a place where I can be solid and confident,

is that I went and I spent some time with God.

I shifted my focus.

He went to the sanctuary of the Lord.

And I want you to see what happens, the difference of his heart,

what happens when he actually goes and spends time in the presence of God.

It's important to recognize that, man,

when we start to worship God and spend time with God,

that doesn't mean that all of our questions get answered.

It doesn't mean that all of our problems go away.

It doesn't erase.

It doesn't erase the hard things in life.

It doesn't do that.

When we go to the Lord and we spend time in the presence of God,

what happens is our heart's focus shifts from what's super important.

I want you to see as we walk through these texts,

as we look at what happens to Asaph's heart as he spent time with God.

Look at this in verse 18.

Truly you set them in slippery places.

Here he is speaking of the arrogant and the wicked.

You make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment.

Utterly by terrors.

Man, that sounds totally different than they don't have any problems, doesn't it?

That sounds totally different than, man, they get away with everything, doesn't it?

This is a whole different perspective.

He says,

Love this.

So in that first part, we see God as he has spent time with God.

God helps correct his perspective.

Fix his blurry vision to see the difference between the right now and the eternal.

It's a totally different perspective.

See, if we focus on what we are envious on, what we see in other people,

we easily say things like, man, how are they getting away with that right now?

How is that the way they can live right now?

When you throw eternity and you spend time with God and you put that into perspective,

you start to recognize what Asaph recognizes.

It's not just the right now thing.

There is an eternal aspect to everything.

Every engagement, every conversation, every word, every business transaction.

He starts to see and God fixes his perspective, his vision on the truth for the arrogant and the wicked.

But I love this.

And this is so powerful.

The next verses, God doesn't just fix the perspective for out there.

These next verses are so powerful.

He helps fix the blurry vision in here.

It's not just about out there.

Man, listen, this stuff's going to exist and we will recognize this stuff.

But when our eyes.

Our eyes are fixed on all of these things.

The good life, as Asaph would probably term it in our terms today.

And we forget the truth.

I love how God not just corrects his vision for the outside.

He fixes his blurry vision for his own heart.

Look at this.

Look at the next verses.

21.

When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in the heart, I was brutish and ignorant.

I was like a beast toward you.

What?

What is?

What is Asaph saying?

He's recognizing as he sat with God, as he sat in the sanctuary of God, he started to

have this conviction in his own heart.

Man, I was walking in envy and bitterness against not just those out there, but Lord,

I treated you as a beast.

I was ignorant towards you.

I was willing to think for a moment that all of these things that I was pursuing or envious

of or embittered that I didn't have were better and greater than any goodness you offered

me.

Look at what he says.

Nevertheless, this is so beautiful.

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.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

Look at this next line.

This is totally different than the heart of envy and the heart of bitterness.

Look at the next line.

He says,

21.

And there is nothing on earth that I deserve.

I desire beside you.

He says,

My flesh and my heart, they are going to fail.

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

You see, in the sanctuary, Asaph sees what envy could never see.

In the presence of God, Asaph starts to see what envy and bitterness could never show

him.

It was a tiresome and weary task to try to figure this out when he was looking at it

from the wrong perspective, when he was focused on the wrong thing.

Then he spent some time.

He spent some time with the Lord.

It might look like prayer.

Asaph, being one who was musically talented, I imagine that was time worshiping, playing

some music, understanding and reminding himself of the character and the goodness of God.

We see what Asaph walks through and wrestles through.

He's very honest with where he's at.

He doesn't put on a front at all.

I hope you can see that.

He's like, man, this is where I was at.

I was stumbling.

I was about to stumble.

I was about to slip and fall.

And I don't know what that looks like in your life, right?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know what it is that you're struggling.

There's many different things in your life you could be wrestling with right now.

That's why I ask that question.

What is in your life right now that you are so focused on that you have lost sight of the goodness?

Or maybe you haven't lost sight of it, but it's just a little blurry.

What is it that you're looking at, what you're focused on, that has caused the goodness of God to be blurry in your life?

I want you to see where Asaph ends and lands his whole thoughts.

This is so beautiful.

This is wonderful.

I love this verse.

It says in verse 28,

Where does Asaph land?

What is his conclusion?

He starts with this.

This connects directly to verse 1.

Truly, God is good.

And Asaph makes this massive conclusion.

If God is truly good...

Then the good life for me is when I am near God.

You ever think about that?

Man, so many times we get distracted with what we think the good life really is.

Like that image.

Like the way the world says, man, social media, be popular, be noticed, have influence, have money, have cars.

I'm surprised there wasn't a house on there, right?

But these are things that the world proclaims.

This is what the good life looks like.

Man, when you get this, every commercial you watch is focused on, man,

once you have this, you will have the good life.

And it's so easy to get distracted and forget, man, yes, I believe in God.

Yes, I know God is good.

But sometimes our focus is off.

It's blurry.

And we are looking at the wrong things.

And God becomes blurry.

And we focus on the things we think we have to have to have the good life.

Asaph lands on a totally different perspective.

He's walked through it and he says, nope, truly, God is good.

And if God is good, then the best place for me to be...

...is near and close to God in his presence.

Love that this is where Asaph goes.

For me, it is good to be near.

Asaph's not saying, man, God's just useful.

Good to have religion in my life.

That's not what he's saying.

He's not saying, man, this is just something I'm supposed to do.

If I do this, this will make me a better person.

That's not at all what Asaph says.

He just lands with this simple statement.

Nope, God is good.

That is a core conviction I hold.

At the core of my heart, God is good.

When I understand what's happening, when I don't understand what's happening.

Paul says it like this, when I have much and when I have little.

I love that Asaph walked through this.

When I'm obedient and when I'm envious, God is still good.

When I am faithful and when I am bittered and I start to question God's character.

Don't forget where he landed there a couple minutes ago.

While I was struggling through all of this, God, you were right there with me.

It wasn't about Asaph hanging on and holding on to be good enough for God...

God, no, God was hanging on to him.

He says, "My right hand is held by you, God."

Now, I don't know what you're struggling with.

I don't know if you've walked through this and you're dealing with envy or bitterness.

Or maybe you're questioning and you're like, "God, are you really good?"

And you're struggling with that.

I love that even as believers, this is one of those things that we can come back to.

It's like even as we are struggling, whether that's with sin or whether that's with envy or bitterness

or any other circumstance, anger, hatred towards someone,

love difficulties.

We can always come back to this confident statement, "God is good."

Because God is good, I want to be close to God.

I want to live the good life.

That's my hope for you to hear today.

If you do not know the Lord, if you're watching online or you're in this room and you're like,

"Man, I'm pursuing what everything the world tells me to pursue.

And my perspective of the good life is really looking at what the world tells me this, if

I get this, if I get that," I want you to know all those things have a limit.

They are temporary.

They're not eternal.

Asaph got that blurry vision fix when he realized, "Man, there's an end to this if I do not have

God in my life."

And if you're here today and you've never like, "Man, I want what Asaph has, this understanding,

this clarity of vision to see the goodness of God in my life, I want to be near God."

Man, it's super simple, super easy.

It's also super hard.

Simple in this fact, God doesn't require to jump through hoops, he's a very loving, caring,

He says, "Come as you are, call on me."

That's all you have to do is like, "God, I need you."

I call on him all the time.

Listen, I need God.

I need his presence and I need his nearness.

I call on him all the time.

So if you're here and you don't know the Lord, it's just as simple as saying, "God, I need

you.

I need you to help me see clearly.

I need you to fix my blurry vision so that I can see you for the good God that you are."

Maybe you're here as a Christian and you realize, "Man, my vision's been blurred, I've been focusing

on the wrong thing.

I've been looking and staring and being consumed by the wrong thing.

My vision needs to be fixed."

Guess what?

The answer's the same.

Just as a lost person needs to draw near to God, so does the believer.

The believer also that has lost focus and has lost their proper perspective needs to

realign and draw near to God.

I love what James says, "When you want to flee the enemy, you draw near to God.

You pursue God."

Guess what happens?

God says in James exactly what he does.

He draws near to you.

He's waiting for you to say, "God, I need you."

He's not holding back.

He's like the prodigal son.

When the prodigal son goes and lives his life and then he realizes, "Man, I had it better

when I was with my dad," and he starts walking down the road.

I love this story, probably because it relates to me so much.

As that prodigal son's walking down, what does the father do?

This is a picture of who God is.

The father sees his son afar off and he says, "All right, boy.

I'm coming after you."

He pursues and runs towards his son.

When he gets to his son, he hugs him and he says, "Listen.

You are no longer dead.

You are alive.

You're back.

Praise the Lord.

Let's have a party.

I'm so glad you're with me."

Maybe you think, "Man, but you don't know my story, Pastor John.

I've got some rough history."

You're not alone.

I've got a rough history.

There's many in this room who love God and God loves them who have a rough history.

There's no falling too far where God's not sitting there waiting.

"I want you to come back.

Come back to me."

Maybe you're here today as a believer and you feel like you've fallen too far or maybe

your focus has been shifted on something else and you just need to realign and be like,

"Man, I need to go spend some time in the sanctuary, in worship, in prayer, in opening

his word."

I hope that no matter where you're at in life, you will recognize truly the goodness of God.

No better place was that expressed than on the cross when God himself sent his son on

your behalf and my behalf.

He said with the life and blood of his own son that you matter most to him.

His son was willing to step and fill in the gap of our shortcoming, our failures, and

he says, "I still love you.

I care for you.

Come to me."

Truly, God is good.

If God is good, then I and you need to be near God.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you so much for this wonderful song that reminds us, Lord, that sometimes

I'm guilty of this just as much as anybody else in the room, Lord, that we can have our

And your goodness becomes blurry and we forget all that you have done for us.

Your love and your care, your compassion, your mercy, your grace, your love, Lord, you

just lavish these things on us.

Lord, sometimes we lose focus.

Lord, I'm just going to be very honest.

Help me to not lose focus.

Help my eyes to see you and your goodness in all things, in all the ways, whether I

understand or don't understand, whether I grasp it or don't grasp it.

Lord, I know there are people in here today.

That can relate very much with what Asaph is saying and walking through.

I pray that, Lord, that you would show them that you are still hanging on to them.

That you are with them the whole way through.

You've never left them and you've never abandoned them.

Lord, if there's someone here today that's never called on you, I just pray that your

spirit would move in their heart and they would recognize today is the day of salvation.

We love you.

In Jesus' name.

Let's stand and let's worship.