Better to have God than everything else

[0:00] in your Bibles to Psalm 42. No, that was only a joke. I was just, that was just joking. Just joking, just to see. No, 37. Stay where you are.

[0:15] Psalm 37. As we begin, I want to just point out one thing about Psalm 37 that you may not know and you might find interesting. I mean, it is part of God's canon of Scripture. But in 150 Psalms, in 150 of them, there are only nine Psalms which are didactic. Now, I have to use that word because it takes a lot to explain. But a didactic Psalm is a Psalm that instructs as it states. Instructs as it states. It's called didactic teaching. And there's quite a lot in Scripture that does this, but there are only nine Psalms. And Psalm 37 is one of them. And it's an odd way of instructing, but it's a very direct and powerful way, especially in wisdom literature and proverbs and so forth. And there are different ways the receiver can learn different levels of information. As we said on Wednesday evening, it's not the source which is just the issue, but it's the level of information you can get from the source. So two people can look at the same scenario and draw differing conclusions because they've drawn out different levels of information.

[1:38] And a didactic message or a didactic word in Scripture, I guess it's a bit like a parent telling a child, put your coat on, it's cold outside, we're going for a walk. And the child's inside in warm.

[1:53] So this doesn't make a great deal of sense, put your coat on. Okay. But five minutes into the walk, okay, can I have my coat please? Now people who can only learn through the experience of what they've, rather than learning through what they're being told, are not learning didactically. They're hearing the truth, but they only really get the point when they get to experience it. Now the trouble with that is, is the learning process for the person is a lot slower, a lot more difficult, and they do not pick up on everything that God wants them because God speaks his word. And not everything is taught via experience or through the lifetime. Some things are taught just by listening. And so a didactic statement is a statement that's teaching as it's saying something. And Psalm 37 is one of these psalms out of nine in the 150 that there are. And this psalm in particular is concerned with the, in many ways, with the emotion of the length of the length of the journey between now and glory. And for some people, it seems like a long time between now and heaven. And for some, it can seem like much longer than it was yesterday or a year ago because of certain things that have happened. But what this psalm encourages the believer, the reader, is that God will not leave you behind. Okay? You're going to get to the very place where God wants you. And in the moment, it may not feel like you're going to get to the place where God wants you. Okay? There's, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of time between now and then, and I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to make it. Okay? And what this psalm does in a, in a, in a, in quite a powerful way is to say, you're going to make it because God's going to get you there. A New Testament, a testimony of this might be in Ephesians 1, where it tells us that we are sealed with the Spirit until the day of redemption. In other words, God is guaranteeing safe delivery of you into glory. Okay? I've had a few things lost in the post on the way to me.

[4:26] I've had a few things lost in the post on the way to others. Okay? Because while, while delivery is meant to be guaranteed, we live in a world where things don't always reach their destination. But God, God, God doesn't have those failures. If God says you will be there, you will be there. And if it doesn't look like it at the moment, what you need to do is focus on that, not your present condition.

[4:55] And this is what this psalm gets you to do. It gets you to look at your present condition in the light of the future, because there is a lot of time between now and, and then. And so focus on the future. So if a believer, if you are a believer who's living through this time, wondering whether or not you're actually going to make it, and you, and you're not caught up in any kind of works righteousness. In other words, you really do believe that everything down, everything is down to God's grace, and that it's not dependent on you. You really believe that. But at the same time, you're still, you're still wondering. You need to be assured that God has sealed you, and will guarantee safe delivery of you into his presence. Now I've noticed, and I think perhaps many of you have, if you've been in a car, that sometimes the same journey can seem shorter or longer.

[5:59] And this isn't anything to do with the amount of traffic that you might have to pass through. But how many of you have said, well, it didn't take us as long to get back as it did to get there.

[6:09] But it's the same amount of miles. You've not driven, let's take into consideration there's no traffic, okay? And why does that happen? Why do you think that it took you less time to get back than it did to get there, when it's exactly the same length of journey? And the reason is, quite simple, is because on the way back, you know where you're going. But on the way there, you don't. And that sense of, I don't know what's ahead of me, can cause you to feel that it's a tremendously long time before you get there. But when you go there a second time, okay, and the person beside you hasn't, okay, you don't have the feeling that you initially had, but they do.

[6:57] Okay? Because you know where you're going. You know how long it takes, and you know you'll get there, and you'll get there in this amount of time. And this is how this psalm is working. It's telling us about the future. It's telling us what's going to happen to you, what's going to happen to the wicked, how God is going to work everything out, and that salvation is from the Lord, and you are part of God's salvation. There is another thing when it comes to journeys, and this is both detrimental to the Christian or the Christian faith, and a blessing at the same time. It's one of those mixed blessings. And that is if you've done the same journey over and over and over again.

[7:42] Sometimes you can pass certain landmarks and not actually remember that you've passed them. Now, you know that you would have had to have passed them to get to where you are, you just can't remember it. I know I must have turned right at that roundabout to be able to get into where I live, but I don't ever remember. And that's because the frequency of doing it so much bypasses your conscious, gets all the way back into your subconscious, and suddenly, I don't want to get into psychology here, but that's just generally what's happening. The repetitive nature of it tends to blur it out as though it's no longer relevant. The trouble is, in the Christian life, the details are incredibly relevant. God wants you to remember every step. He doesn't want you to get lost in the journey by not paying attention to however frequently God has taken you down the same path, or the same way this is just happening again. These details are important to remember. So, in this psalm, this is how the psalmist works things out. He knows that the believer has a hard time living in the world because of unbelievers, which he calls the wicked, evil men.

[9:06] Okay? Now, he knows that God's people have to live and work and walk in the same world that they do, but they live by a different set of rules or no rules than what God's people live to. And everybody's life as a Christian, sorry, as a, on earth, is more or less the same. Now, I know that there are some exceptions where some people pass away young, some people pass away very, very old, but three scores in ten, okay, as the scripture says, but generally speaking, people are living way beyond that now.

[9:40] But the point is, is that most people, as they live life on earth as a Christian, are going to experience more over time and throughout time. But it's not always the case that it's going to be, it's always going to move towards a sense of ease. In other words, I've met plenty of people, plenty of people who have said to me in their 60s and 70s, I really didn't think at the age of 40, that I would have to deal with this now at the age of 60. Even my own mum, who had seven boys, said that it was much easier to bring you up because I was 20 years younger than what it is now to bring your youngest brother up because I'm, right, things get, not everything, okay, parenting a child remains the same, okay, not just because I was the easier child compared to my brother. But that definitely must have been a big factor. But you understand, so sometimes we convince ourselves wrongly that we get older and all of a sudden things are going to get easier.

[10:50] And the truth is, that's not always the case for everybody. So what do you do when you're moving into that area and time in your life where you think, this should be easy for me? And then it's not.

[11:07] Then it becomes, like, really difficult. Then it becomes a lot of other things to deal with that you did have the energy for 20 years ago, 30 years ago, but now you're 20, 30 years older.

[11:19] You're not quite so sure you can muster that same type of strength. And this psalm is saying, as we've sung, that God's really your strength, okay? God's grace is sufficient. And God will always get you through. And that's how it works, because things don't get easier as we get older. Some things get easier as we get older, but some things get a lot, a lot harder. And so this isn't just about dealing with one issue. This man here says, I was young, and now I'm old. And he testifies to God's faithfulness, but he's speaking as an old man.

[12:01] I don't know how old he is, but he's speaking as an old man. So here's the overview. Verse one, he tells you to fret not and do not be envious. This is as you live in a fallen world. He says, trust in the Lord, delight yourself in the Lord. Verse four, commit your way to the Lord. Verse five, be still before the Lord. Verse seven, refrain and forsake wrath. Verse eight, turn away from evil.

[12:28] Verse 27, wait for the Lord, which is actually doing something and keep his way. Verse 34. And all of that is spoken in the context of you being blameless before God, of a God who establishes your steps.

[12:47] Verse 23, who saves, helps, and delivers. Verse 39 and 40. The psalmist is saying that in a world where unbelievers prosper, sometimes even at greater depths and breadth than believers, okay, you need to remember that being faithful to God is better. Being faithful to God is better than any type of worldly gain.

[13:19] And the worldly gain should not just be thought of in terms of material possessions. It is better to be faithful to God than to have any type of gain that would make your life easier through unfaithful methods or motives or actions. Even if it benefits you personally. It is always better, the psalmist is saying, to remain faithful to God. Every time I read this psalm, it reminds me of one lady in particular who used to say to me, and she was 80 when she used to say it to me.

[13:57] She used to, you know, look at me as she did every Sunday. And she says, Daniel, time and truth go hand in hand. That given enough time, the truth will always come out. Given enough time, the truth will always come out. And she's absolutely right. And this is what this psalm is saying. You cannot be fixated on the short amount of time that you live in. And determine the whole of mankind and the whole of the world and the whole of the future based on the small span of time that you live within God's world.

[14:34] You just can't do that. You can't work everything out by observing in the years that you have. Time and truth go hand in hand. That given enough time, the truth will always prevail. And that's what this psalmist is understanding. That's what he wants you to understand. That while it may look like this in the world at the minute, it may look like the wicked are prospering. It looks like they don't get ill. They have money. They have this. They have that. I mean, the man in Psalm 73 clearly understands this as a big issue. But the psalmist is saying, remain loyal to God. In all of that, remain loyal to God. It is better to be loyal to God. It's better to have God's faithfulness and be faithful to God than it is to have any kind of gain through any kind of wickedness.

[15:26] Now, when it speaks here of blessing, it's clear that the blessing is personal change. In other words, it's not just blessing in terms of bread. He does speak of children not being without bread, not being without the food that they need to live daily. But it's clearly speaking about a blessing that changes a person in their heart and changes a person in their loyalty. Okay? It's easy to not believe God. It's easy to not live the Christian life. It's easy to sin. It's easy to do all of these things. The difficulty is always going to be trying to do it God's way. That's where the difficulty is always going to be. And because the psalmist understands that, the first thing that he teaches us here amongst everything is to learn how to cultivate commitment. Learn how to cultivate commitment. And so we'll begin with this just for a second of cultivating commitment.

[16:31] One of the things, as I've highlighted already, in order to cultivate your commitment as a Christian to God, not to anything like service or anything, this is just your commitment to God, your daily devotion. Let's forget about serving in the church. Let's forget about any of that stuff for a moment.

[16:50] Just think of this in terms of what does my daily commitment to God in prayer, in communion, in love look like? Just that, just that, me and him. What does that look like? And this, the psalmist here wants to point out that the first thing you're going to have to do to cultivate any kind of commitment in yourself is see beyond your present condition to the future. In other words, it's not always going to be like this. However great it is here, it's going to be better then. However bad it is here, it's going to be better then. In other words, in both cases, whether you have it good or you have it not so good, the future is going to be better in both cases. It's not just better for those who have it bad. It's better for those who even have it really good. And there are many believers in this world who seem to have gone through life without any, it seems, without any kind of hiccup.

[17:50] They've not been ill. You know, they've not had any financial difficulties. They've had somewhere to live. They've not had any problems with their children. And you think, just keep, keep them away from me. Just provoke me to all kinds of jealousy that I don't want to feel.

[18:06] How do I... And then you speak with them and you realise actually that's not quite so true after all. Now I don't think any of us can get through this life without experiencing throughout the years some kind of pain and sorrow that we need God for. And this psalmist clearly understands that his biggest pain is actually living alongside these people that just seem to be able to do whatever they want. They don't have to repent. They do have to repent, but they don't repent.

[18:42] Okay. They do whatever they want and they get away with it and they prosper. And here I am trying to be faithful to God in an environment like that. And it's difficult. And the first thing he realises is that he has to see the bigger picture. He has to see where the world is going. He has to see where God is taking everything. Because if he doesn't, he'll get so caught up in the moment that he'll live in the moment and he will not think about tomorrow. He won't think about the future.

[19:11] And the moment will then direct his tomorrow. It'll then direct his next week. It'll then direct his next month. He'll be so caught up in today that tomorrow will be the outcome of today rather than the outcome of the future that he fixes his mind and heart on. And so what you have is one bad day then dictates the next day and dictates the day after that. And how many of us have been in that kind of situation where that kind of thing happens, something happens that then just snowballs into everything else? Well, the other way to cultivate commitment is not just to think about the future, but it is to be influenced by the truth. It's not to know the truth. It's not even to just believe the truth.

[20:02] It is actually to come under truth's influence in the same way a car comes under the driver's influence. In the same way anything comes under the influence of something else. And you understand, let's take a car illustration or an airplane illustration, that it's coming under the influence of a driver, of a pilot who then exerts control over. And you say, well, I'm not a plane, I'm not a car. No, and that's the problem. Because you have a will where you can rebel against any kind of influence being put over you. And this is why we're to come under truth's influence. And this is what the psalmist understands. In other words, he has to constantly remind himself as he says this, no, the Lord knows. The Lord knows the days of the blameless. He knows this to be true. And this is what the Lord says about the wicked. And what he's doing is that he's bringing himself under the true word of

[21:04] God so that it will then influence his mind, his heart, his feeling, and tomorrow. The trouble is, is that coming under truth's influence is one of those things that seems to be easier said than done.

[21:19] Even now you hear God's word. But it's amazing how skillful even church people, Christian people, can be over the years with their shield of faith to be used as a shield for almost anything else.

[21:36] And what I mean by that is, is that we are good at defending ourselves, not just from the things that we don't want to, that we know that are bad, but sometimes when we see that, that, that cannonball of God's conviction coming our way, we, we, we, we've learned how to duck. And what we're saying is, I don't want to, I don't want to, it's inconvenient for me to come under truth's influence at this time, or I'm not ready for that kind of change. I'm too old. And this is, this is one of, this is why, this is one of the reasons why men in their old age fall, right? Because they've lived their whole life being faithful to God. Solomon was really faithful to God. He got older and older, having spent all those years being the wisest man on earth, being the godliest man around, okay, suddenly he starts to throw it all away. Even amongst Christians who have really were, can point at a time where they were far more committed to God, not just in terms of service, in the daily devotion, than what they currently are. And I said, why, what's happening? Well, what's happening is, is that you're, you're moving away from truth's influence on side of it rather than live under it. Okay. And that's, that's just an observation that we, that we can make about ourselves. This is a bit like a, a child not listening, not because they're not hearing what's been said, but because you're not saying what they want to hear.

[23:10] And, and that would probably be a pretty good illustration of what it is to not come under truth's influence, even when you're hearing the truth. And let's imagine that the parent really does know better, and which is in both cases, the parent does know better. And like the parent saying to the child, put your coat on, it's cold outside. And the child's thinking, well, I'm warm. Well, the child's not wrong. The child's not wrong at that point to think, well, I'm, I'm, I'm warm. But that the child, the child thinking about where they are and not thinking about where they're going to be, okay, then doesn't come under the influence of what the parent's telling them.

[23:51] They just, but then they go outside, okay, five minutes into the walk, I'm cold. Can I have my coat, please? This happens every time we go out, okay? Go to the toilet, okay, because we're going to be in the car for two hours, okay? Go to, we now have dry runs, to excuse the pun, where we just tell them what we're going on holiday, even though we're not, just to see whether or not five minutes down the road, they want the toilet. Then we just bring them straight back to the house, training in righteousness.

[24:23] That kind of, that kind of thing is so subtle. It is so subtle that we can do it like passing the landmark that we pass every day without even knowing that we've done it. Because we're so subtle, it not come, and the trouble with it is, you know, well, am I a sinner? Am I doing this? The issue is, is that by not coming under truce influence, you actually keep yourself away from how God blesses. That's what's really happening. You're keeping yourself out of the area that God pours his blessing into. So that's what's really happening. You're missing out, to put it bluntly.

[25:05] So two ways to cultivate your desires. Focus on the future, a lot, the future that God has revealed in his word. And the second way to cultivate commitment is by coming under truce influence. In other words, read God's word to yourself, just as this psalmist is doing, speaking God's word to himself.

[25:27] That's really important. The next thing that the psalmist clearly understands, this is found early on in verse four, is the changing desire of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. But remember where the psalmist lives. He lives in a world where everyone else seems to be getting what they desire as well. So you figure it out. Okay, I'm delighting myself in the Lord in the hope that I get the desires of my heart. They're not doing any of that and they're getting everything they desire. And the issue that this psalmist faces is a fairly simple one. And I think of Demas in the New Testament every time I think about this. Who's, remember, he was a follower of Christ. He was a disciple. But then it says, where is he now? Well, for his love for the world, he's gone.

[26:22] And Demas is known in scripture as someone who once followed Christ, but his love for the world took him away. And so the issue that you have is, what do you do? What do you do when the world has managed to exert so much influence over you that it's actually changed your desire for God? And don't think this will happen in a moment. It happens over time. And it normally happens as it correlates with your dropping decline in commitment to God. So as one goes up, the other begins to come down.

[27:05] And when you begin to notice that, what you tend to do is, is I'll pray more, but I'll keep doing this other stuff as well, because you're noticing that your commitment is declining, but you're not noticing why it's declining. Because you're not noticing that your desires are changing. And what you're trying to do is you're then trying to hold two things. And Jesus says, no one can serve God and mammon. Why?

[27:34] Because is the issue really money? The issue's got nothing to do with money. The issue's got to do with being wholehearted in your desire to do it God's way. That's what's at stake. Because God knows that the moment you gain a desire for something else, the other desire that you had for God or for anything begins to decline. Okay? And this happens, this happens with women in clothes. Okay? At the time when they buy a dress, they absolutely love it. But then it doesn't take long before they love another dress. And they love this other dress more. Okay? And as their new affection grows for one, it declines the other. Okay? Thomas Chalmers, okay, there's a famous Scottish theologian for you, preached the very famous sermon of the expulsive power of the new affection. He points out that anybody or anybody only ever changes, they can only ever change when one desire replaces a pre-existing desire.

[28:37] So a man who loves this, but then begins to love this, will see immediately a decline in his desire for the previous thing. Because one desire takes over the other desire. One desire expels the old desire.

[29:00] The new one takes you away from the old one. And what Thomas Chalmers is saying is, unless you truly appreciate that Christ is your ultimate desire, until Christ is your ultimate desire, there will be plenty of other desires in the world to trump the one that you currently have. And so people simply move from their love of one thing to the love of something else, to the love of something else, to the love of something else. And this carries on ad infinitum, until of course your ultimate desire is ultimately Christ. Christ who is ultimate. And only at that point are you then no longer taken away, because there is nothing in the world that can trump desire for Christ, or Christ that produces this kind of desire.

[29:50] So this psalmist knows that to stay safe in this world, what he needs is a really strong desire for God. And by delighting himself in God, God will give him the desires of his heart. In other words, God is able to shape the individual in such a way that he will stay close to God.

[30:14] God is able to shape the individual through what he desires. In fact, all of us are shaped through what we desire. Let me give you an illustration of a negative influence. I'm not a big fan of competition. That's not because I lost at everything. I can cope with losing and I can cope with failing.

[30:39] I mean, it's amazing how good you can get to it when you've done it a lot. I've got no problem with that. So don't feel, well, he's just someone who's failed a lot, someone who's lost every race.

[30:54] That's probably true. But that's not the reason why I'm not a big fan of competition. So I'm going to use this as an illustration. We live in a world where it's competitive, but God wants the Christian to be a person that looks at everything too complete. Okay, he wants us to complete rather than compete. In other words, the ground of the cross is equal. But is it possible for competition to have a negative effect on the person who's competing, bearing in mind that in competition, it will always produce more losers than winners? Guaranteed. Competition only seeks to approve and uphold one person and possibly three. Okay? But in other situations, everyone else, it's just a reminder you're not where they are and you never will be. Okay? Now, I'm not talking so much about athletics, but you could use that as an illustration. I'm talking about life, competitive life as it is. So what negative effect could actually come from that? Well, imagine for a moment a child who never wins anything. How long do you think it will take that child to think that because they never win anything, then I won't do anything. I'm not talking about whether competition is right or wrong. I'm talking about the effect, the negative effect that can have on a person if they never get to the place where they've run to get to. And I think it doesn't take us long to be able to look at certain situations and draw quite clear conclusions that actually some things in this world, the way that they are set up, are set up to create losers. And we think, that's fine.

[32:41] Okay? Even the economy is based on winners and losers, but should it be? And what you end up having is you end up having a group of people who are no longer motivated to complete anything because they live in a world where everything's about competition. Unless I can win, I'm not going to bother. Unless I can come first, I'm not even going to bother starting. And the psalmist understands and God understands clearly that that's not the issue. In order to live before God, it's not about coming first, it's about finishing the race. It's about completing. It's not about competing.

[33:20] And this is really important when it comes to being shaped. And here's why. If a child delights in winning, or even an adult delights in winning, they will be shaped by the thing that they delight in, as 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18, Jeremiah 2, Psalm 115, Matthew 13, Isaiah 6. There's plenty of examples here, Psalm 37 verse 4, plenty of examples to say that the thing that we delight in will shape us.

[33:55] But will it be a negative shaping, or will it be a positive shaping? Well, as you delight in winning, what happens when you don't win? What kind of shape is that turning you into? What kind of impact will that have over you? But those who delight in the Lord will be given the desires of their heart? In other words, God doesn't reward first, second, and third. Okay? Those who delight in the Lord will receive the blessing of the Lord. And this is absolutely crucial because what we desire, we are shaped by.

[34:39] What we love, we become. What we worship, we will be. And so the Christian is meant to understand that as long as I live in this world where everyone else is playing by a different set of rules, trying to be the winner, trying to gain this, that, and the other, that for the Christian, that's not the motivation. The motivation is beginning with God and finishing with God.

[35:03] Staying firm, staying steady, it's not about coming first, it is about crossing the finish line. In other words, I'm going to live in light of the future. So here's the exhortation.

[35:16] The Christian is to understand which is better. Verse 16, better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of the wicked. It's not about how much you've got, it's actually about what you've got.

[35:31] Okay? It's not about how much you've got, it's rather about what you've got. And you, if a believer, have God, and that is better. The other thing that it says here in verse 25 is a man's testimony, that once he was young, and now he is old, and he has not seen the righteous forsaken, or his children begging for bread. Never has he seen that. And he's saying that is better, to be able to live before God and know that wonderful truth, and of course, experience it.

[36:09] And then, of course, at the end of the psalm, the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is our stronghold in times of trouble. And these are the truths that cultivate his commitment.

[36:21] These are the truths that keep him going in a world where he's not winning. These are the truths that keep him loyal to God in a world where he doesn't seem to be getting anything that anybody else is getting. And he's reminding himself and being reminded by the Word of God and reminding us that better is a little with God than abundance without God. Okay? Better is a little with God than abundance without God. It's not how much you have. It's rather what you have.

[36:55] So here's the conclusion. The psalmist says that there is only one future, but there are two outcomes. One future, but two outcomes. There is the final separation of the righteous from the wicked. In other words, you live alongside each other now, but it won't always be that way.

[37:16] Most of our problems come from living alongside others that aren't actually consistent or at all consistent with the ways of God. They're not converted. They're not saved. And in a world, this has a knock-on effect. Even if we're not even related to them, even if we don't know them, they do a dodgy deal. They do something down the line. And suddenly I work for the company that did the dodgy deal. And now I'm out of a job. Okay? This is the kind of environment that this man understands that he lives in. Okay? It wasn't my fault a top business owner decides to siphon the pension fund. Okay? And now I'm out of a job without a pension. Okay? But I'm affected by it.

[37:58] But I understand, if I'm a believer, that it's better to have God and none of that than to have all of that and not have God. So notice then the imperatives throughout, and I'll draw these out.

[38:13] One of the things is, is that you're to remain loyal to God. And the way you remain loyal to God is in a very strange way. And I'm going to summarize these rather than go through them.

[38:23] That you remain loyal to God by standing in a very strong current in the sea. And you say, well, I'm just standing there. No. You're standing strong in a sea of strong currents.

[38:38] Well, I'm just standing there. No, you're not. Listen. You're standing strong in the sea of strong currents. That's not a person who's doing nothing. That's a person who's not being carried away by what surrounds them. That's what's happening. And sometimes that doesn't seem like much.

[38:56] That I'm not moving anywhere. And that's the point. When you're surrounded by this type of environment, you're not meant to move anywhere. So stand strong in the Lord. Wait for the Lord.

[39:08] Be patient. Don't fret. Don't worry. Trust. Wait. Lean on God. All of these imperatives are simply saying, stand still. Don't move. In a world that wants to move you where it wants to go.

[39:25] And the psalmist hears the person who says, yeah, but it's easy for you to say, you're not going through what I'm going through. And the psalmist says, rubbish. Absolute rubbish. And that's just one of those things that we always think. That I have it harder than you. That my life is more difficult than your life. You know, it's like the schoolboy who wishes he wasn't at school, but at work.

[39:52] And the man who's working wishes that he wasn't at work, but retired. And the person who's retired thinking, I'd love to go back to school and start it all over again. Everybody thinks somebody else has it better. Everybody thinks that somebody else has got it better and in a better place.

[40:06] And it's just not true. Maybe for a short period of time. But I was young and I am old. And God does not forsake his people. And what that means is this. It really doesn't matter how loyal you are to God.

[40:24] God will outdo you on every stage. Doesn't matter how loyal you are to God. God will outdo you every time. I am young and I am old, the psalmist says. And God does not forsake his people. Amen.