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Colin Smith: Biblical faith is utterly God-centered. By the way, that is good news. Faith is not about your capacity to believe. If faith was about your ability to trust, then frankly, some of us would have a great advantage over others.

So thank God that faith, Christian faith, is not about your ability to trust; it is about the trustworthiness of God, and that's the same for all of us.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller, and today we're going to have an encouraging message as we continue our story of Asaph from Psalm 73. Here was a guy who was discouraged in his faith, but God turned him around. Colin, so far in our series, we've been looking at the first three points of a five-point turn. We've seen how Asaph had to stop, he had to think, and he had to confess.

Colin Smith: And today we're moving on to the fourth part, that he had to believe. This is a huge turning point for Asaph and it's going to be a huge turning point for a discouraged person who's listening today. Asaph had become absorbed with himself, all of his own thoughts, all of his own frustrations, a bit of self-pity put in there as well.

As God begins to deal with him in a very deep way, his eyes get taken off himself and he begins to get his eyes onto God. He sees something in God that he did not see before and suddenly there's some light that begins to dawn for him. He moves from the place of feeling there's no point in going on to feeling that he has to go on because he is walking with God and God is walking with him. This is a story of tremendous encouragement, and I hope that it will be a real blessing and a lift to a person who has been really down on themselves, frustrated, and today's going to be the point where you move to the place of believing and find the help and the light that comes from God.

We continue to follow this marvelous story of Asaph who tells us about how God brought him through a great crisis in his life. Remember that Asaph was a mature believer, but he's telling us in this Psalm about a time when his feet had almost slipped. Verse two: "I almost lost it. I almost gave up."

We've seen that even the strongest Christian can come to an experience like this. There was a time in Asaph's journey as a believer when he could make no sense of what God was doing in the world, couldn't really understand what God was doing in his own life, and could no longer really see the point of pursuing a godly life. The good news of this Psalm, because all of us may come to such times in our lives, is that God can bring you through an Asaph experience. Psalm 73 tells us how that happened.

God brought this man through a five-point turn. We're discovering that Asaph's five-point turn is really a pattern of what needs to happen when we feel that our feet are also slipping and we are in danger of leaving God's path for our lives. Just to review very quickly, we saw that the first part of that five-point turn was that Asaph had to stop. If you're going to turn around, the first thing that you have to do is to stop moving in the wrong direction. This happened for Asaph when he made a decision of loyalty to God and loyalty to His people. Remember the first step in turning your life around is not to get an answer to all your questions; it is to make a decision of loyalty to God and to His people.

Then we saw that Asaph had to think. He went into the sanctuary, he remembered God's truth, he met with God's people, he considered the ultimate outcome of life. That's when the light went on for this man. God straightened out his thinking as he came into the presence of God in worship. One of the wonderful blessings of coming together in worship is that God ministers to us in this way in His presence, and as we seek His face, He straightens out our thinking around His truth.

Then we saw that in the light of that, thirdly, Asaph had to confess. There are some sins to which you and I are especially prone when our hearts are grieved, and Asaph confesses these. "I was bitter," he says. "I let my heart rule my head. I acted on impulse. I was like a brute beast before you." The beasts always act on impulse.

Today we're coming to the fourth dimension of Asaph's turnaround. I want us as we come to it to notice the progression that there is through this five-point turn. Last week we noticed how the discovery of truth leads to prayer. We saw that prayer flows out where truth flows in. The pattern was very simply that God straightened out this man's thinking when he came to worship, and the result of the encounter with truth is that he begins to pray. Prayer flows out where truth flows in. Now, what flows out where prayer flows in? What comes of prayer?

The answer is faith. Faith flows out where prayer flows in. You see, there's a progression here: truth bringing him to prayer, prayer building his faith. There is a logical progression there because faith is simply truth embraced and applied to life. It's not just truth heard; it's truth embraced and applied to life. So this man hears and rediscovers the truth of God, he embraces it and applies it in prayer, and the result is that his faith grows. A mind opened, a soul cleansed, and a faith restored.

That's really where we're headed today in these next verses because we're going to see how Asaph's faith was restored. So our one simple word today, of course, is the word "believe." Let's begin with the big picture. Before we get to Asaph's affirmation of faith, I want you to notice the radical shift that is taking place in these verses. The first 14 verses of the Psalm, the whole of the first half, Asaph has been completely and utterly absorbed with himself. What's it been about? "Why are things going wrong in my life? Why can't I make any sense of what God is doing in the world? Why is God blessing other people more than me? What is the point in me pursuing a godly life?" When he tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to him. Verse 15.

Asaph has been absorbed with himself, and it's only really when he comes into the presence of God that he understands the problem. Throughout the first half of the Psalm, he's been quite convinced that the problem is with God and he's been quite convinced that the difficulties that he is facing are the root of all his unhappiness. But when he comes into the presence of God, God turns on the light and then Asaph sees that the real problem that he's struggling with is himself. "My heart was grieved. My spirit embittered. I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you." After all this time where he was going round and round and round trying to make sense of all this, wrestling with these great questions about God and about life and about everything that's happening, he discovered after all this when he came into the presence of God that the real problem is actually himself.

That's his discovery, and that's his confession. Let me quote here from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, whose writing on this I've found so insightful. He says, "Self is our most constant enemy. It is the most prolific cause of all our unhappiness." That's true. "Self is our most constant enemy. It is the most prolific cause of all our unhappiness. What's the biggest cause of your unhappiness? Yourself. What's the biggest cause of my unhappiness? Myself."

Lloyd-Jones continues, "As a result of the fall of Adam, we are self-centered. We are sensitive about ourselves. We are always selfish, always protecting ourselves, always ready to imagine offenses, always ready to say we've been wronged and dealt with unfairly. I am speaking from experience. May God have mercy on us; it's the truth about us all." Recognize that?

If self is the problem, what is the deliverance? The answer is God is the deliverance. If self is the problem, God is the deliverance. Let me just read these verses with some emphasis and I think you'll see how Asaph moves from the misery of preoccupation with himself to the joyful freedom of confident faith in God. Look at these verses with me just for a moment, beginning with verse 22.

"I was senseless. I was ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. Yet, I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. Afterward you take me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Do you see the movement? It's very marked. Asaph discovered the glorious freedom of a God-centered life, the deliverance from preoccupation with self. That's what faith is about because biblical faith is utterly God-centered. That is good news. Faith is not about your capacity to believe. If faith was about your ability to trust, then frankly, some of us would have a great advantage over others. Some of us find it very easy to trust; some of us find it very difficult to trust. Frankly, your ability to trust has a great deal to do with your past experiences of whether trust has been honored or whether your trust has been let down.

So if faith is about your ability to trust, then some of us will find it easy because of our background, while some will find it hard or almost impossible. So thank God that faith, Christian faith, is not about your ability to trust; it is about the trustworthiness of God, and that's the same for all of us. The whole point of a God-centered faith is that I am liberated from myself and my hurts and from my wounds and I am centered in Him who is altogether trustworthy. This is a great movement that takes place for Asaph. There is a God in heaven, and He can be trusted. Your faith will grow as you get your eyes off yourself and fixed onto Him.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Believe," part of our series from Psalm 73 about the life of Asaph. If you've missed any of the broadcasts in our series, you can listen online at openthebible.org or through the Open the Bible app. You can also order a copy of this series on CD; ask about "I Almost Gave Up" when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org. Back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: This is then the fourth dimension of the five-point turn, and we've expressed it in this one word "to believe," to come to a God-centered faith. Really what we have in these verses before us is one of the finest expressions of faith that you will find anywhere that you will ever hear.

Let's look at it in three ways as we focus in on verses 25 and 26. The first is this: he affirms a faith in God who is in heaven. God in heaven for you. "Whom have I in heaven but you?" verse 25. Now, the first thing that you need to know about heaven, of course, is that heaven is utterly God-centered. When John saw his vision of heaven that's recorded in the Book of Revelation, you remember that he saw—he states it twice in chapter five and in chapter seven—that the Lamb of God, that's Jesus Christ, was at the center. If there is just one thing that you need to grasp about heaven, it is that Jesus Christ is at the center of everything there.

God wants you to know that He is at the center of all things in heaven so that knowing that, you will know how to live your life wisely on earth. Of course, there are other people in heaven besides Jesus. So let's take a moment to think about Asaph's question together. "Whom have I in heaven but you?"

Who do you have in heaven? Let me tell you who I have in heaven. I have a grandmother and a grandfather in heaven to whom I was very, very close, very close indeed. I look forward to seeing them again. I have another grandmother, I have another grandfather in heaven whom I only ever met once in my life. I look forward to getting to know them in heaven. I have a pastor who shaped my life in a formative way through his personal care and through his ministry when I was a teenager, and he's in heaven. I have thought many, many, many times how much I would love to share my life with him now, but he died 20 years ago, just in his early 50s.

Some of you have a husband or a wife in heaven. Some of you have a child in heaven. Sometimes you think about seeing them and you wonder what it will be like. There are people in heaven, and one of our great joys when we arrive there will be that reuniting with them. It's a wonderful thing. Then there are pleasures in heaven. Psalm 16: "At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." We're not told very much about these pleasures; they're largely hidden from us, but we're certainly told very clearly that they're there. Paul says that the human mind can't conceive what God has prepared for those who love Him. We wouldn't be able to imagine it frankly even if God told us.

And there are possessions in heaven. Certain things will be given to you in heaven that you do not have now: crowns, rewards. Many songs have been written about the things of heaven. "I've got a mansion just over the hilltop," remember that one? "I'm going to walk the streets of gold," remember that one? It is surely significant that the Bible says very little about the people, the pleasures, and the possessions of heaven. They are there, but the one thing that is made unmistakably clear because it is the central thing is that Jesus Christ is in heaven. To be in heaven is to be in the presence of Jesus.

It seems to me that this is precisely the point that Asaph has grasped. He comes to a God-centered faith and it begins here: "Whom have I in heaven but you?" Any other perspective on heaven and you've completely missed the point. Let me try and illustrate this for you. Imagine with me, please, Tom and Mary, a young couple engaged and about to be married. The wedding is just five days away and Tom takes Mary out for a candlelit dinner. Looking over—get in a bit of a romantic mood here, will you?—looking over the candle, Tom says, "I can hardly wait till Saturday comes."

Mary smiles as she looks back over the candle into Tom's eyes. "Tell me," she says, "why are you so excited about Saturday?" Now all Tom has to do at this moment is to say, "Because on Saturday I get to marry you." But Tom's a bit of a dummy. He doesn't always get his cues. So he says, "You know, Saturday my great-uncle Jack's coming in from Boston and I haven't seen him for 10 years." Or he says, "Saturday the guys from the football team at college are all going to be here and you know we're going to go out on Friday night." Or he says, "Oh, the reception's going to be at the Grand Hotel Ballroom and I love the food that they serve there."

Now, of course, all these things may be wonderfully true. It is great that Uncle Jack and the football team's coming and there will be a marvelous meal. The problem is that by making them his focus, Tom has completely missed the point, right?

Do you know that surveys show that something like 90% of all Americans think they'll be in heaven? Heaven's big among the people who work beside you. They think they'll be there. A good question to ask someone who thinks they'll be in heaven is this: "Why would you want to go there?" And actually, your answer to that question may just be one of the most revealing things about you. Because the reality is that a lot of people, their conception of heaven is about people, possessions, and pleasures. It's all it is. And their idea of heaven is as Christless as their life on earth. There is only one heaven, and Jesus Christ is at the center of it. Heaven is about Christ. Eternity is about Christ. And once you've grasped that God-centered, Christ-focused reality of eternity, then you know how to live life in this world.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Believe," part of our series on Psalm 73 called "I Almost Gave Up," really a look at the life of Asaph. If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can listen online; just come to openthebible.org.

Open the Bible is able to be on the station, we're able to make the podcast, the app, and all the other resources available because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you three copies of our first graphic novel, inspired by Pastor Colin's book "Heaven, How I Got Here," the story of the thief on the cross. Plus, we'll send one copy of the original book. Colin, what is one thing that you'd like people to take away from this new graphic novel?

Colin Smith: Well, it would be that when God draws near, He comes to give us what we do not have. That's the message of grace, and it's the greatest good news in all of the world. C.H. Spurgeon used to tell a story about a pastor who took money one day to an old lady who was in great need. And he knocked on the door and she didn't answer. And eventually the pastor went home. He saw her the next Sunday and he said, "Well, I came with a gift to your home." And she said, "Oh, when did you come?" And he told her, and she said, "Oh, I heard you knock on the door, but I didn't open the door because I thought you were the man coming to collect the rent."

You see, I think that's where many people are. They have this idea that if God draws near, He's calling for the rent; He's coming to demand something from us. There are millions of people who have never understood grace and their whole idea of Christianity is that they're going to be told what they need to do and what they need to be and they don't have either the desire or the ability to do it. The story of the thief on the cross just blows that out of the water. Here's this person who has not lived a life that has been pleasing to God at all, and instead of coming with a demand, the Lord Jesus Christ gives the most marvelous gift: He opens heaven for this man who believes.

So here's an opportunity with a graphic novel, a simple pictorial presentation of this marvelous story of God's compelling grace. You could put it into people's hands. We'd love to see this graphic novel getting into the hands of as many people as possible, people who need to understand grace. A younger person in your family, someone who is trying to live a good life but really hasn't understood the heart of the gospel. You could be the means of getting a simple presentation of God's grace into their hands. We'd love to encourage you to do that and hope that this graphic novel will be useful to you in that regard.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you three copies of the graphic novel plus the original book "Heaven, How I Got Here: The Story of the Thief on the Cross" as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give at our website, openthebible.org, or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. In the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in.

Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children, and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website, openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.