Start Over: Focus

So some people are back from the holidays. Happy New Year.

Well, that was sad. I might as well just say, how are we doing, instead of Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, guys. Yeah, God has some great things in store for us this New Year.

I hope we believe that as we walk with Him and trust Him.

You know, I love the New Year. I wanted to start off with some questions and resolutions,

but I think we always do those things. But just one question.

Can I see a show of hands if anybody feels like they probably ate more than they should have eaten in the last week or so?

Come on. The rest of you are lying, right?

So I need just the comfort of that because I just felt like, bleh.

It was amazing food, but I felt like a blob.

You know, I love the break.

I got a chance to catch up on things that I don't normally do sometimes.

You know, I realize that I'm a parent and we have kids.

You know, they're not in school anymore and you have to figure out what you're going to do with them for 24 hours, right?

I've been just like, you know, you remember what parenting is like.

And so we had some great time with our kids and I got to read some books.

And as I've shared before, if you don't know me, my name is Tobin.

I'm one of the pastors here.

One of my big learning things throughout my life and one of my big struggles is parenting.

And I just feel like I've probably never had as many models as I needed to or the type of models that I needed to.

And so I always felt like I'm in this massive deficit when it comes to parenting my kids and loving them.

And so I got to read books this break and read about parenting.

One of my favorite authors I've been reading is a guy named Paul Tripp.

And we've had him come speak and he did a parenting conference here.

And Tripp talks a lot about as a parent we look for teachable moments.

You're always looking for teachable moments in your kids' lives.

And teachable moments aren't necessarily things that you can produce.

They're just things that happen.

And often teachable moments happen.

Sometimes they're within the good and sometimes they're within the bad.

But always teachable moments are these opportunities for us to show our kids God's grace and who God is and how amazing he is and how wonderful he is.

And so I was looking for teachable moments this holiday.

And we were playing some games.

And all of a sudden I heard this bark, this dog bark outside of our apartment.

And so I went to the window and I saw there was this amazing, you know, my wife is going to kill me here when I start talking about these things.

But there was this amazing, beautiful chocolate lab puppy that was running around on the podium below us.

And it was just, it's like one of your dream dogs, right?

So it's beautiful.

So I grabbed KK from the board game, our youngest, and we went down to play with the dog.

And it was just, you know, just a little puppy and it was running around and licking us and all these things.

And after about 10 minutes of playing, KK, who's 8 years old, looks at me and she asked the question that only 8-year-olds can ask.

She said, Dad, do you think there will be dogs in heaven?

It's teachable moments, right?

So in my mind as a pastor, I'm thinking teachable moments and what should I say?

And I said, you know, well, I'm sure God will have amazing things in heaven.

These amazing things are going to reflect his nature.

They're going to reflect his character.

They're going to reflect his creativity.

They're going to reflect his beauty.

And so I said to her, yeah, you know, I said all that to her because I wanted this teachable moment to be theologically correct.

And I said, you know, I hope so because dogs are just awesome.

And I hope God has dogs in heaven because they're just awesome.

And so we kept playing with the puppy for a little while longer.

And then, you know, then she asked the question that, you know, is going to come next.

And she looks at me after about five minutes and she says, what about cats?

Will cats be in heaven?

And, you know, and so again, I'm thinking teachable moment, teachable moment, you know.

So I'm thinking about all these theological things I just said to her.

And I was going to say the exact same thing about God's wonder and his creation and his creativity.

And I looked at her and I said, nope.

Cats are evil.

Now, calm down now because I know that some of you, you know, are getting all fired up about this.

But, you know, I love cats and I love dogs and I grew up with both cats and dogs.

But I realized at a really early age that cats and dogs, they're very different.

They have very different perspectives on life.

They have very different focuses.

Cats and dogs use different pronouns.

Cats and dogs have different theology.

They see the world differently.

I'm an example for a dog theology or a dog focus.

Dogs say things like this.

If you love me and you feed me and you walk me and you take care of me, you must be God.

That's dog theology.

Dogs say that.

Dogs use pronouns like you and us and we.

But cats, their theology is a little different.

Cats say things like, if you love me and you feed me and you clean my litter box and you flip those things off my skin and you take care of me, I must be God.

Cats' favorite pronouns are I and me and mine.

And they think very differently.

You know, cats, when they look at God's word, they look at the Bible.

They see the Bible as a story and they see this story is about them.

So everything they read is about them, David and Goliath.

And they're David and they're beating the giant and all these things.

And they see that in the middle of God's word that they're at the center of it.

And cats use words like, you know, what's in it for me?

And they come into churches and they say, what can I get out of this?

What does this have to offer for me?

They use those type of things.

Those are cat questions.

But when dogs, they or people with a dog focus, they look at God's word.

They see just the whole of God's word and they're just happy to be here.

I mean, they're just happy that they're included in God's plan.

They see this as God's the hero.

God's at the center.

It's God who's doing everything.

And it's all about God.

And it's not about them.

And so dogs and cats have very different focuses.

So the question is for us today, what's your focus?

Now, be honest.

Are you a cat?

Or are you a dog?

Don't say what you want to be here, but just say what you think you are.

Because I think that I struggle with both of these things.

And there's sometimes I'm being a dog really well.

And other times I'm being a cat.

And so we wanted to look at this passage because we realized at the beginning of this year,

we're going to struggle with focus.

We're going to struggle with our theology and who we are and the pronouns we use.

We're going to struggle with how we see ourselves and how we see God, how we see God's word,

how we fit within God's word.

And so we started talking about this idea of start-overs and do-overs.

Because we realized that God gives his children an amazing amount of start-overs.

And so I wanted to look at Psalms, Psalm 73.

It's one of these Psalms that I actually just studied recently with our elders.

And it's one of these things that I continually go back to.

It's a Psalm of this guy named Asaph.

Now, Asaph didn't know anything about dog or cat theology,

but he has a ton of things to teach us about just focus and vision and do-over.

And I think that, you know, as we look into this new year, Asaph, you know, he's 500 B.C.,

so he was 2,500 years ago.

But when you read the Psalms and when you read them up on screen,

what you realize is that the things that Asaph faced and struggled with

are the same things that you and I struggle with today.

They're the same emotions and the feelings and the confusion and just the unclarity.

And so I want to look at Asaph's life in Psalm 73,

and I want to look at a couple things.

I want to look at very briefly, and we're going to go to communion after this.

So what we're going to do is we're going to look at what his problem was.

We're going to look at what caused his problem,

and how did he fix it or how did he heal himself.

So what his problem was, what caused his problem,

and how did he fix it or heal himself, and then we're going to do communion.

So you got it?

Okay, so when we come to Psalms, they're very difficult to teach sometimes,

and they're incredibly hard to understand

because they're not necessarily this deep theological treatise like the book of Romans is.

And you realize that when these guys wrote these Psalms,

some of them wrote them 1,500 years before Jesus was born, like Moses.

And so they didn't even know about Christ.

They didn't even know about what God was going to do.

They didn't see the cross.

They didn't see the resurrection.

They didn't understand grace like we understand it today.

And so all they knew when they wrote the Psalms from 1,500 B.C. to about 500 B.C.,

all they knew is that somehow one day God is going to come back,

and he's going to make everything right.

I mean, that's all they knew.

They didn't see the cross.

They didn't see these things.

And so when we come to Psalms, sometimes they can be incredibly challenging

because the Psalms are meant to be mirrors.

The Psalms are meant to be mirrors of our lives and in our hearts and of our souls and of our emotions.

And the Psalms are very honest and raw, and sometimes they just drive me crazy.

Can I be honest with you?

I mean, I think one of the reasons I believe the Bible is true is because of things like Psalms.

Because if I were going to write a book about God and how amazing he is,

I wouldn't add things in about doubts and struggles.

It would always be about heroes and victory, and we're all doing well,

and we all get rich, and everything is good, like sometimes we hear in churches today.

But when we read the Psalms, it's raw, and it's out of control, and it's pain, and it's suffering.

And there's a couple Psalms in here that they didn't even teach the young Hebrew boys

because basically the guys are just saying,

God, why don't you just destroy everybody?

Because they're evil and wicked, and why aren't you kicking the butts

out of all these people who are making my life difficult?

And you read that, and you go, wow, if I was going to write a Bible,

I wouldn't put that in there because that's too honest.

It's too real.

It's too much how I feel.

It's not how a good Christian should feel or think.

When you come to the Psalms, you realize that the focus is always worship.

It's what we've been doing today.

It's what we're doing right now.

It's what you're doing in every second of your life.

Worship basically means, in Hebrew, the word just means to bow before.

It means to bend the knee.

It means to submit.

It means to offer to whatever you're worshiping what they deserve for who they are

and what they've done.

The focus of the Psalms and of our life is worship.

It means to bow the knee and to offer whatever we're worshiping,

what we think they deserve for who they are and what they've done.

The object of worship in the Psalms,

and I don't know what the object of worship is in your life.

The object of worship in my life sometimes switches and changes

because I am a cat sometimes and I'm a dog sometimes.

But the object of worship in the Psalms is Yahweh.

It's God.

It's the creator of all things.

And so when we talk about worshiping God,

in Hebrew, what it means is we come before the Lord,

we bow down before him,

and we give him what he deserves

because of who he is and what he's done.

We come before the Lord,

we bow down before him,

and we give him what he deserves

because of who he is and what he's done.

So here's a great question I've been asking myself a lot recently.

If someone were to come in and watch me worshiping God,

if someone were to follow me around

and watch me worship the Lord,

if they looked at how I used my time,

if they looked at how I used my talents and my gifting,

if they looked at how I used my money,

if they looked at all these things I offered to God

because of who he is and what he's done for me,

what would they think about the God that I worship?

If they watched everything that I do and I give and who I am,

and they looked at these things,

and they realized that Tobin's worshiping,

and he's giving to God what he thinks God deserves

for who he is and what he's done,

would they look at my worship and think,

wow, he serves an amazing God.

He serves an incredible God.

He serves a sacrificial God.

He serves the creator God.

Or would they look at my wife and say,

wow, his God is about that small.

His God is insignificant.

Because as he worships, it's insignificant.

As he gives, it's insignificant.

As he serves, it's insignificant.

And what we see in the Psalms is a call to examine our lives

and who we worship and how we worship.

And what we have to understand is,

as we grow in our understanding of God,

who he is and what he's done for us,

our worship always grows.

And if you're here and you've been a believer for a long time

and your worship hasn't changed,

what you do hasn't changed,

what you think hasn't changed,

what you give hasn't changed,

then you have to ask the question,

are you really worshiping the true God creator of the world?

Because the passages say that as we see him

and as we understand more of him,

our worship is just going to grow

because our understanding of him is going to grow

and our vision of grace is going to grow

and our mercy is going to grow

because God is awesome

and we continue to grow as we worship and come before him.

And so we come to this Psalm and it's Psalm 73

and it was written by Asaph

and he's a very interesting man.

We only know a few things about him.

We know that he wrote 10 Psalms

so he was very important

because God entrusted him with God's word.

He was one of David's worship leaders.

And so when you came to the tent of the meeting,

because the temple wasn't built yet,

Solomon builds a temple, remember?

So Solomon builds a temple,

David can't build it

because he has blood on his hands.

So there's just this tent

with the Ark of the Covenant inside of it

and all of Israel gathers around it.

And Asaph is one of these guys.

He has this incredible privilege

to call the Lord forward.

The cloud of God falls on the tent of worship.

People fall down and they worship God

and Asaph is there and he's worshiping God.

But as he's doing that, he has some problems.

And it's in your passage way.

And in verse one, he's basically,

he starts the passage and he says,

this is the truth.

This is what I know of God.

This is what I've been learning.

This is true.

This is real.

You can bank on it.

Surely God is good to Israel.

So it's all the people

because everybody is worshiping.

So it's all the people of God are worshiping.

And to those who have a pure heart,

it doesn't mean perfect.

When God says he wants you to have a pure heart,

all it means is that you're real

and you're pursuing him

and you're honest

and you confess and you repent.

So here's God.

He's good to all the people

and he's good to those who have a pure heart,

to those who serve him.

And then you get to verse two and three

and it says this is his problem.

You look in the passage

and this is what he says.

He says my problem is this.

My problem is I've lost my focus.

In the Hebrew,

it actually means that his vision

has become cloudy.

He's lost his focus

and he's come close to stumbling,

to falling.

So he's lost his focus.

His vision has come close to cloudy

and he's come close to stumbling.

And in verse 13 and 14,

it says that he's actually come close

to giving up on God.

I don't know if you've ever been in that place,

but Asaph, when he came and he worshiped

and he saw things going on before him,

he just wondered,

is it all worth it?

Is it really worth what we're doing here?

Is it really worth worshiping God?

Is it really worth coming before him?

I mean, he had massive concerns.

He had massive doubts.

He wondered if God were real.

If all this thing meant

what it was supposed to mean.

And he shares this concern with us

in a very intimate and personal way

because he's struggling with

should he give up on God.

So here's a question I have for us.

Have any of you in here ever doubted?

Have any of you in here ever wondered

that God is real?

Have any of you in here ever had

such deep and heavy concerns and burdens

that you just wondered,

should I just give up?

I mean, is it worth working through

all these things?

Have you ever been there?

Well, I was amazing.

God opened my eyes to Christ

in this little amazing church

in Montgomery, Alabama.

I love the church.

The people are amazing.

We go back and it's just like

I'm back at home.

But one of the things

that was hard for me at the church

is no one ever talked about feelings.

No one ever talked about doubt.

No one ever talked about concerns.

No one ever talked about fear.

As a Christian,

you were never supposed

to talk about those things.

You were just supposed to

hold those inside

and your appearance

was what was important.

So no one ever talked about it in church.

But when I went outside of church,

people talked about it all the time.

They talked about doubts of God

and existence and is he real

and are church hypocrites

and all these things.

And I learned later

that sometimes when we have these fears

and these doubts

and these concerns

that we don't want to share these things,

I learned that sometimes we do that

because we're afraid

that God's going to get angry at us.

We're afraid that God

is not going to like us anymore.

We're afraid that God's

just going to give up on us.

We're afraid that God's going to say,

oh, you had a fear.

That's terrible.

You're out of here.

You should never have fears.

But I realized in my life

as I did that,

I was living like a cat.

I was living with this idea

of performance.

performance.

And I didn't understand grace.

I didn't understand

that God came to me

and he accepted me

not because of my thoughts

or my fears or my doubts,

but he came to me

because of Jesus Christ.

And Christ is the same

yesterday, today, and forever

and he never changes.

And so I realized personally

that it was really good

to express my doubts

and to express my fears

and to express my concerns.

And I realized as a Christian

that I actually didn't

really grow in my faith

until I expressed those

and worked through those

and talked to people

about those,

I realized for me personally

one of the greatest factors

of my spiritual growth

was bringing my doubts

before people and the Lord

and asking them these questions

like, so what about this

and what about that

and how do we justify

these things

and how does a good God

allow this stuff to happen?

And you know,

when we started Watermark,

we said we wanted to be

a church where people

could come and they

could have doubts.

We wanted to be a church

where people could come

and they could ask questions

they could have concerns

they could have fears.

We wanted to be a church

where people could come

and you know,

I think there's probably

people in here

that they don't know

if God really exists right now.

And I think there's probably

some people in here right now

who are wondering

if God is really good,

if following Christ

is really worth it

because it's been really hard

and it's been really difficult.

I'm pretty sure

there's probably people in here

who are wondering

if Christianity is true.

I'm pretty sure

there's some people in here

who are wondering,

do I even really believe

what I'm saying?

Because when I preach,

sometimes I look at you

and it looks like

I'm pulling your teeth out.

You're sitting there going,

mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm,

and I realize,

okay, they're having

a real hard time with this

but I wonder why

we don't ever talk about it,

we don't ever address it

and sometimes we just

rest in our doubts

and I've had friends,

we've talked about doubts forever

and often my friends

just say,

I don't want to really

talk about it.

I'm just happy

with my doubts

but what I realized

when I struggled with that

was that that's really

just a fear, isn't it?

I don't want to bring

my doubts out in the open

because maybe people

are going to answer my doubts.

Maybe God's going

to answer my doubts,

maybe God's going

to answer all my fears

and my concerns

and my doubts

and then I'm going

to have to deal with God

and I don't want

to deal with God,

I just want to deal

with myself

because I like being God

but our prayer for us

as a church

is that we'd be a place

where people could come

and ask questions

and seek the elders

and leadership

and community group leaders

and your friends

and share

and share your doubts.

I mean it's okay

to have doubts,

just don't stay there.

Don't stay in your doubts,

examine your doubts,

pull them out,

look at what God's word says,

look at what people

around you say,

see what God is speaking

to you and deal with those

and so Asaph comes

and he has these

incredible doubts

and he just shares them.

The next thing you see here

is what caused these doubts

and that's verses 3 through 14

and basically what you see

is that he loses his focus

as he's leading worship

and he looks out around them

and he sees these things

that he doesn't understand

at all

and you see what he sees,

he sees these people

who are living lifestyles

that don't follow the Lord

and they're prospering.

Have you ever seen that

in Hong Kong?

He sees these people

who could care less about God

but they're wealthy

and it just blows his mind.

It blows his mind

because he grew up thinking

well if you love the Lord

and you follow the Lord

then everything's going to be good

and God's going to prosper you

and everybody's going to get a Rolex

and your kids aren't ever going to die

and your life's going to be perfect

and you're always going to get married

and your wife's never going to leave you

or your husband's never going to leave you

and if you do all these things

well God's going to bless you

but Asaph looks around

and he sees these things happening

and he just cannot understand it

because all these things

are against everything

that he learned and understood

as his walk with the Lord.

I mean verse 11 says

he actually sees people mocking God

and they say well God is real

yeah well yeah

he's not real in my life

and I'm doing okay

so I don't really need him.

You see how he describes the people

in verses 4 through 12?

There's no pains in their death

their bodies are fat

they're not in trouble as other men

nor have they been plagued like mankind

pride is this necklace

their garments are violence

and it covers them

their eyes bulge with fatness

and their imagination is their heart

and they just do whatever their heart wants to do

and their imagination runs crazy

they mock and they speak wickedly of oppression

and they do whatever they want

and they look at God

and they just kind of laugh at him

and you know what?

and as they do that

people gather around them

like an entourage

and they encourage those things

and they just say yeah that's great

you're right

let's do it

let's get going on

that's great

and Asaph is leading worship

and he's seeing all this happen

and he's wondering

God what are you doing?

aren't you in control?

don't you care?

aren't you focusing on these things?

and what gets worse

is that he realizes in verse 13

that he actually envies

them

have you ever envied those people?

he looks at what they have

and he realizes that he doesn't have it

he doesn't have a spouse

he doesn't have the kids

he doesn't have the family

he doesn't have the money

he doesn't have whatever they're mocking God with

whatever he wants

he envies it in his heart

and he's basically saying

have I served God in vain?

have I served God for nothing?

and the envy actually points to this root struggle in his life

and basically what he's saying is

if I just had this

if I just had this thing

my life would be okay

and everything would be okay

and the struggle would go away

what's that in your life?

what is it if I just had this

I wouldn't struggle anymore?

if I just had the life

if I just had a job

if I just had some true friends

if I just had five minutes alone

to myself in the bathroom

without my kids running in

if I just had three flats

because you need more than one flat in Hong Kong

right?

you gotta have three

you gotta have two that rent

and one you live in

right?

so if I just had those three flats

everything was gonna be okay

if I just had money

if I just had a spouse

if I just had kids

maybe not that

but if I had more money

if I had a chocolate lab

then everything would be okay

and ASAP says

that he realizes

this envy comes in

and this envy focuses on something

and it's basically

he starts to use different pronouns

if you follow the pronouns

in the passage

it's amazing

because at the beginning

the first 14 verses

he just says

I

I

I

me

me

me

and he gets to this point

where he sees God

and God comes in

and he says

you

you

you

you

and at the end

he says

you and me

you and me

you and me

so he goes from cat theology

I

I

I

me

me

me

to

you

you

you

you

you

you and me

you and me

there's a flow here

and you can see that he's struggling with it

but he's struggling with these things

and he's asking these questions

and he asks the question

that we all ask

and the question is

is God really good?

you ever ask that question?

is God really good?

I mean is God really in control?

does God really want my best?

I mean it's the very first question that was ever asked

it was a question that was asked in the garden by Satan to Adam and Eve

and it's the same question that the world and the devil keeps asking you and me and Jesus throughout our life

and the question is

is God really good?

but the question boils down to one question

and the question is

what's wrong with God?

because of God

we're really God

everything

would be okay

because I'm walking with him

I'm trusting him

and so it's almost like this psalm starts off at this pinnacle

and then he starts on this slippery slope

and he just starts falling down into this cavern

of I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I

and then he hits verse 16

and something happens in verse 16

and then he goes back up the hill

and so he ends up at the end in verse 28

where he started with verse 1

but he goes down

and then he comes up

and my question is

what caused him to come up?

what causes you to come up?

how do you get from I, I, I, me, me, me, I need, I need, I need

to God?

how do we change our focus?

and he says it really quickly here

and really succinctly

he basically says

I came

I,

verse 17

I came into the sanctuary of God

how does ASAP change his focus?

he says he came before the Lord

I mean how does he go from

what's wrong with God

and why is everything a mess

to what's wrong with me?

why am I like I am?

and the psalmist says

he comes before the Lord

now there wasn't a sanctuary back then, right?

there was this big tent

and so in Hebrew

what it actually means

is it means

he came before God

and he laid out all his concerns

he came before God

he laid out all his fears

he came before God

and he laid out all his doubts

he expressed them

he spoke them

he was angry

he spoke truthfully and honestly to God

like so many of us cannot do

because we're afraid of doing it

but God wants us to do it

he came before the Lord in his sanctuary

and he prayed

he came before the Lord in his sanctuary

and he spent time with God

in God's word

he came before the Lord in his sanctuary

and it means that he came

into the community

and fellowship of God's people

and he spent time with them

he came before the Lord

he prayed

he expressed his thoughts

and he came before God's people

all these four things

I don't want to do

I mean when I'm a cat

and I'm in the middle of the junk

those are the things

I least want to do

what I want to do

is I want to get by myself

what I want to do

is get away from God's people

what I want to do

is just stop talking to God

because I'm angry with God

but what Asaph does

is he comes before the Lord

in his sanctuary

and he lays out all these things

and what he does

God shows him some things

you see what God shows him

the first thing he shows them

is that those who aren't following God

their end is a disaster

all these people

in verses 4 through 12

who are fat

and they're rich in pride

and they do whatever they want

and they say where is God

he says in the end

their future is a disaster

I mean he looks at their lives

and he sees these things

he doesn't see a struggle

but what he realizes

is that there's always

going to be a struggle

Solomon

the wisest man who ever lived

I put the passage

in the very top of your bullet

in Ecclesiastes

and in that passage

Solomon says

that God has put eternity

in our hearts

and we will always

struggle with that

what the passage means

in Hebrew is God

has built heaven

inside of you

God has built a relationship

with him

inside your heart

and until you have

that working

you're always going to be

unhappy

you're always going to be

dissatisfied

you're always going to be

a cat

you're always going to be

selfish

you're always going to be

angry

you're always going to be

bitter

you're always going to

envy people

because God made you

for a relationship

with him

God made you

for heaven

and when ASAP looks at these people who don't have that

what he realizes is that they're standing

on a teeter-totter

and their lives are on a precipice

and ultimately what he says is

a person's present condition

is no indicator of their future condition

I mean in our world we look at a person's present condition

and then say they got it made

and ASAP was struggling with that same thing

but what he realizes is that the present condition

is never a good indicator of your future condition

it doesn't mean where you're going to end up

it doesn't mean where those people are going to end up

the next thing that God shows ASAP as he struggles

is he sees the foolishness of his heart

you read this?

I mean 22 and 23

are some of the most honest verses in scripture

he comes before God

he lays out his struggles

he lays out his plans

and he realizes that all of his doubts

all of his fears

all of his concerns

when they're compared to God

and his riches and his glory

and who he is

all of those things mean nothing

he looks at all these things that he's angry about

and all these things that he's working through

and basically he realizes that he was just an animal

he was just worried about himself

he was just worried about his food

and his clothing

and his fornication

and whatever else animals do

he just worried about those things

verse 23 is one of my favorite words

it's nevertheless

you can circle that

you can go back home

and think about that

and ponder that

because this is what it means

it means no matter what's going on in your life

no matter how you've done

no matter where you are

no matter what you're struggling with

no matter where your sin is

nevertheless

God is pursuing you

God is seeking you

God wants a relationship with you

nevertheless

no matter what's happened in the past

no matter where you are

no matter where your struggles are

God is going after you

and it doesn't just say

that God is going after you

he says that God

if you're his child

God is holding your hand

did you know that

no matter what's going on in your life

no matter the struggles

no matter the doubt

no matter the fear

no matter the concern

God is there

he's in your life

he's holding on

and he's taking care of you

the last thing that Asaph saw

as he looked at these things

as he realized

the fullness of God's mercy

and grace

in his life

verse 24

it says that God

protects his people

he guards them

and gives them his glory

verse 25 means that God

provides for us

he cares for us

he's always there

even when it doesn't seem like it

he's there

verse 25 says

God shares everything good with us

he shares glory with us

and finally in verse 28

he comes to this conclusion

and you can circle good

because it's a word

that started him on his journey

his journey was

is God really good

and now he says

God is good

and all I need

is God

and God is enough

he had these concerns

he had these doubts

he had these fears

he was envying

he was jealous

he thought other things

were needed

to fulfill his life

and at the end of the Psalms

he writes

God

is enough

God

is enough

how about us

is God enough

for you

if you just had God

would that be enough

the nearness of God

beside you

in this life

is that enough

they have to realize

just as we

need to realize

as we head into the new year

that you and I

are going to struggle

we're going to wonder

is God enough

we're going to try

to fill our lives

with a lot of different things

we're going to say

if I don't get this

if I don't have this

if I'm not happy

I'm not going to be

fulfilled

I'm not going to have enough

and ASAP

begs us

to come before him

to come before the Lord

and lay those things out

in front of God

and allow God

in his sanctuary

to talk to you

to speak to you

to meet you

and to show you

that he's

enough

we're about to head

into communion

whenever we come

to communion

we ask the question

is God enough

that's what communion

is about

right

communion is about

taking the elements

and the bread

and the wine

and it's about

celebrating God's

sufficiency

and Jesus Christ's

sufficiency in our life

it's about saying

he's enough

even amongst the struggles

even amongst the concerns

even amongst the doubts

even amongst the fears

my prayer for us

as a church

and as individuals

and brothers and sisters

as we go into this new year

is that we realize

that we are going to face doubts

we're going to be hit

by a ton of concerns

we're going to look around us

and people's lives

are going to be

so much better than ours

and we're going to want

the things that we think

are going to make

their lives happy

and the passage says

if we move down that route

we're going to fail

because there's nothing there

but emptiness

hollowness

deceit

and brokenness

my favorite passage

in verse

in this whole section here

is this basically

what we've read again

in verse 23

what he says here

and I don't know

if you realize this

he says Tobin

you were walking

in darkness

you were an enemy

to me

you were acting

like an animal

you had doubts

and you had fears

and you had concerns

and you were living

like a cat

and your pronouns

were I

I

I

me

me

me

me

and still

I held on to your hand

still I would not

let you go

still my grace

was in your life

and I was covering you

with my love

my prayer is

that we would understand that

I'm going to ask

the communion stewards

to come up right now

but I want you to think

about this

the passage says

that God

never lets go

of his children's hands

no matter what

they're going through

no matter their struggle

no matter their doubt

no matter their concerns

there's only one person

one child

in all of history

that God

let go of their hand

he let go of Jesus' hand

why

Christ

was nailed to the cross

Christ's words were

my God

my God

why have you

forsaken

me

we come to communion

today

to worship

the God

who always

holds our hand

who forsook

his son

so that you and I

would never have to be

forsaken

Christ

forsook

his son

he let his son's

hand

go

so that he would

never have to let

our hand

go

we go

who