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Colin Smith: You need to know that there will be times of special testing in your life and that your future usefulness to Christ will depend in large measure on how you handle these times when they come.

It was the Apostle Paul who said that we are to put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand. See, not all days are the same in the Christian life. There are some days where Satan makes a special attack. Paul says it's the day of evil, and when it comes, you need the armor of God so that you will be able to stand.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Today we're continuing a message entitled "Stop" as we look at the first several verses of Psalm 73. I think many of us can relate to the psalmist, Asaph, because we do go through high times in our spiritual lives and really low times where we do feel discouraged and beaten up, wondering if God has our back anymore.

Colin Smith: Yeah, I called this series "I Almost Gave Up." There will be folks listening right now who say, "That's exactly where I'm at. What is the point in believing? What is God doing to answer my prayer? I just feel so discouraged. Where is the evidence of God being in control?"

It's so important to know other believers have been there before you, and God will not abandon you there. He will bring you through. We've actually got a real-life story in Psalm 73 that tells us about this man Asaph, how he got to a point of despair and how God laid hold of him and brought him through into a whole new understanding of the goodness and grace of God, even in the difficulties that he was facing. We're praying that God would do that in the lives of people who are listening right now.

Guest (Male): If you can, I hope that you will open your Bible and join us in Psalm 73 as we continue this message, "Stop." Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now, in the first half of the psalm, which we're going to cover this morning, Asaph tells us why it was that he became so troubled. He tells us what brought him to the point where he almost gave up. It really comes in three parts. The first is that he could make no sense of what God was doing in the world.

"I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I see those who have no integrity in the world of business, and they're doing very well. I can make no sense of that. Why does God allow it?" Asaph could make no sense of what God was doing in the world, but actually, the real problem was deeper. It was that he could make no sense of what God was doing in his own life.

Look at verse 14. We'll come to 13 in a moment. "All day long, I have been plagued. I have been punished every morning." You see, it's personal now. He's poured out all his frustration about how God rules the world, but actually, the real problem is that things are going wrong in his own life, and it just makes no sense to him.

Remember that this is the confession of a godly man. Asaph is in full-time ministry. He is a spiritual leader. Other people are looking to him for leadership. This is a man who's reading his Bible. This is a man who is saying his prayers. This is a man who tithes his money. This is a man who has poured great energy into pursuing a holy life, who has sought to live with integrity. He's made sacrifices for the advance of God's kingdom. But now it seems that everything's going wrong in his life. And just why would God allow that to happen? It just makes no sense.

This man could make no sense of what God is doing in the world. He could make no sense of what God's doing in his life. Therefore, thirdly, he could no longer see the point of pursuing a godly life. That's where he came to, and that's verse 13. "Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain I have washed my hands in innocence."

You see what he's saying? If you go back to verse 1, "I've always believed, I've been brought up to believe, that God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But what I'm seeing as I look out at the world is the prosperity of the wicked. Then I look at the problems of my own life, and I've tried to be pure in heart, and the whole thing just doesn't make sense to me anymore." This was Asaph's problem, and he'd lived with it too long. He says, "Honestly, my feet had almost slipped. I was nearly gone. I almost gave up."

If a godly man like Asaph could be tempted like that, would you be surprised that that might happen to you? You need to know that there will be times of special testing in your life and that your future usefulness to Christ will depend in large measure on how you handle these times when they come.

It was the Apostle Paul who said that we are to put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand. Not all days are the same in the Christian life. There are some days where Satan makes a special attack. Paul says it's the day of evil, and when it comes, you need the armor of God so that you will be able to stand.

That's what Asaph did, and God brought him through. His story really is a model for us as to how we must act when we come to these points where we feel like giving up. The rest of the psalm tells us Asaph's story, and we're going to walk with Asaph on his steps to recovery from this crisis. There are really five steps, and we're going to follow them over these next weeks.

We're really just going to take the first one only today, and that's the step that we find in verse 15. Look at what he says there, and this will be the focus for the remainder of our time. "If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' I would have betrayed your children." He's poured out in this psalm, you see, reflecting back on this experience, what he was thinking at this dark time in his life. What he's saying here is very simply, "Look, if I had gone public with what I was really thinking at that time, I would have let everybody down. If I had gone where these thoughts were taking me, I would have betrayed your children."

But Asaph does not want to go there, so he takes himself in hand and he puts on the brakes. Last week, our family had the joy of a few days away in Door County, where we've enjoyed a break after Christmas on a number of years. The place where we were staying in Sister Bay was off a road that was off a road. You get the idea.

We arrived in the evening, pitch dark. You know how it is. "It's somewhere up here on the right." My wife said, "I think it's this turning here." "Oh no," I said, "I think it's further on." Well, a mile down the road, it became very clear that there were no more turnings on the right further on and that we were right out in the sticks. Graciously, she said, "I'm sure it was back there." "Yes, I know," I said. "I'm just looking for a place to turn."

The problem, of course, in the dead of night out in the sticks on a very narrow country road, is there just wasn't a place to do that. We were on one long, straight, narrow road. No crossroads, no houses with nice drives. The only thing to do was to pull up and to make a three-point or, in this case, a five-point turn.

There are some places in life where turning around isn't easy. You may have been looking for some nice, easy opening where you can swing your life lazily around with style, and you're not finding one. That's how it was for Asaph. "My feet had almost slipped," he said. "I almost lost the road altogether." What he tells us in Psalm 73 is how he had to make a five-point turn. But if you're going to make a turn like that, you can't do it at 50 miles an hour, right? What's the first thing you have to do? You have to stop. It's not even enough to slow down. You've got to stop.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Stop." It's part of our series on Psalm 73 about how Asaph had to turn his life around and the steps that he took to do that. If you ever miss a broadcast in our series, come and listen online at openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Another way to listen is through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store. Let's get back to the message. Again, here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: You've got to stop and make a decision. That's what Asaph does right here in verse 15. Let me try and unpack that a little bit for us. You see, Asaph's turn did not begin with an answer but with a decision. That's very, very important. Remember, his problem was, "I can't make sense of what God's doing in the world. I can't make sense of what God's doing in my life. Therefore, I've concluded in my mind there's no point in continuing to pursue a godly life."

If that's the problem, you would think that the turning point would begin when he gets an answer. But that is not Asaph's story. Asaph wants us to know that the first step to turning your life around is not finding an answer, but it is making a decision. His mind was driving down the road to despair, but he makes a decision. "I am not going any further down this dark road."

That's verse 15. "I will not go where these thoughts of the first 14 verses are leading me." That's where the turn begins. See, something within us cries out to God, "Give me an answer!" And God says to us, "Give me a commitment." We say to God, "I need to understand," and God says to us, "You need to follow."

Let me talk real straight this morning. Maybe you're facing a crisis in your life right now. Things have been going wrong. Your mind is confused. You don't have the answers. You need to make a decision. If you follow the dark impulses of your mind right now, you will spoil your testimony. If you follow the thoughts that are running in your mind in these dark days, you may blow your marriage. If you follow the inclinations of your heart, you may no longer be useful in ministry. Don't go there. Make a decision. Stop that way of thinking. Stop that way of acting. Climbing out of a black hole does not begin with an answer but with making a decision. Very important.

Then here's the last thing this morning. Choose loyalty to God and His people. You see, that's the decision you have to make. That's what Asaph did. Look at what he says in verse 15. There are two key words, really: "your children." He says to God, "Your children." God's children. "If I had said I will speak thus, if I'd gone where my mind was going, I would have betrayed your children."

He's talking, of course, about God's people. He's talking about the community of believers. He's talking about the people of faith. He says, "If I had followed the thoughts and the inclinations of my heart, I would have let everybody down. I would have betrayed my family. I would have spoiled my testimony. I would have lost my ministry. I would have become a Judas. I would have betrayed your children."

This teaches us a second thing that I think is very, very important at the critical points in our lives. You see, help comes when a man or a woman gets their eyes off himself or herself and begins to focus on loyalties and responsibilities to others. Get your eyes off yourself and your own pain. Focus on others who look to you and depend on you.

After all, there are children who look to you as their model of faith. They see you as their example in life. They may be grown children; they may be married children, but it's still true. There are neighbors, there are colleagues, there are customers, there are business partners who know that you are a Christian, and their whole perception of Christianity may be shaped by what you do or do not do now. You can't give up. You can't give up.

See, your crisis, whatever it is, is something part of something far, far bigger than yourself. You belong to the body of Christ. You belong to the body in heaven as well as on earth. You are surrounded, the Bible says, by a great cloud of witnesses: men, women, children, angels. God has set a track for you to run on, and you are to run that race that has been marked out for you, however difficult. Asaph knows that if he were to give up, he would have betrayed God's children, and that stops him in his tracks. Thank God for it. Thank God for the word "almost." "I almost gave up," but he didn't.

Now, there's a lot more to climbing out of a black hole than this, and we will follow what more there is over these coming weeks. But this is where it begins: with a decision and with a commitment. You stop and you refuse to go where the dark thoughts would take you, and you make a commitment to God and to His people.

Now, you know there never was a more awesome example of this than the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we're coming to in just a moment around the communion table. On the night that Jesus was betrayed—and can you begin to imagine the pressure of that night?—on the night when He was betrayed, John tells us that Jesus prayed. He was about to endure the agony of the cross, but the focus of His prayer, recorded in John chapter 17, was entirely on His disciples.

That is a staggering thought. You see, He's doing in fullness what Asaph had begun to pursue. That when you face great pain, you've got to get your eyes onto others. He's facing the cross. He's praying for His disciples. And there is an awesome statement in the prayer of Jesus in John chapter 17 and verse 19 that you could meditate on for a hundred years and not get to the depth of it.

This is what Jesus says in His prayer to the Father. He says, "For them—for them—I sanctify myself." Now, to sanctify yourself means to give yourself to a special purpose, and in this case, the special purpose was, of course, to go to the cross. This is what Jesus is grappling with, and He says to the Father, "I'll do it for them. I'll do it for them. Father, I'll do it for these who are Your disciples now, and I'll do it, Father, for those who will become Your disciples in all the ages that are to come."

Hebrews tells us that this is how Jesus endured the cross. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. What is that joy? It is the joy of seeing God's work fulfilled in you. Now, if you are a Christian, you bear His name, and He says to you today, "You take up your cross and follow me."

Asaph, of course, lived a long time before Jesus, but frankly, that's exactly what he did. And in his older years, where he shares this testimony, a story now complete, he writes under the inspiration of the Spirit, and he recollects the depth of the struggle that he went through. He says, "I want you to know this: There was a time in my life when I almost gave up. I couldn't make any sense of what God was doing in the world. I couldn't make any sense of what God was doing in my life. My feet had almost slipped. And if I had followed the thoughts and inclinations of my heart, I would have let everybody down. But I'm so glad I didn't. And I'm here to tell you today that God brought me through. That God turned me around. And you need to know it started when I made a decision that I would not betray the Lord and I would not betray His people."

Guest (Male): What a powerful reminder from Pastor Colin today that we may have kids or we may have those who are weak in their faith who need to see believers standing strong, even in the middle of great difficulty and pain. Our message, "Stop," is the first message in our series of Psalm 73 called "I Almost Gave Up." If you ever miss a broadcast in our series, come and listen online at openthebible.org, or you can listen through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store.

Open the Bible's 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. 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, without any question, it's that when God draws near, He comes to give us what we do not have. And you know, the default assumption of the fallen human heart is that if God draws near, He's going to place some demand on us that we can't meet. There are millions of people who have never understood the wonderful truth of God's grace. 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 have neither the desire nor the ability to do it. As long as folks think that God is placing demands upon us, well, they're never going to open the doors of their hearts or of their lives to Him.

So here is a marvelous opportunity to share the story of the thief on the cross that tells us that God gives to us what we do not have. It explains God's marvelous grace. Is there someone in your life, maybe a young person brought up in church, but they have never really understood the love, the mercy, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? This graphic novel is a simple way in which they could grasp the most important truth in all of the Bible. Could you please place it into their hands? Could you give them a copy of this? Is there someone that you know who's trying to live a life that's pleasing to God, always feels that they're failing and needs to understand God's grace? Well, that's who the graphic novel is for. We want to communicate the very center of the gospel to as many people as possible. I hope that you'll take these copies of the graphic novel, that you'll put them into the hands of people who will benefit from them and will be released in seeing the marvelous good news of the grace of God that brings hope for every single person.

Guest (Male): 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 thanks 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: Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." God's Word is the food that will nourish your soul. You need it every day. And Open the Bible Daily is a daily devotional that will open the Word of God and lead you to Jesus. It's available for free on our website, openthebible.org. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.