The God of My Valleys - Part 2

[MUSIC] Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm really glad you're here. Today we're continuing our series from Psalm 23 called Living in the Goodness of God. It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. And now here's part two of a message called The God of My Values. You may feel like I'm stuck. I'm addicted. I'm in prison. I can't break free from this relationship. I can't break free from this addiction. I can't break free from this habit. And I am stuck. I've been running, I slipped, I fall, and now I'm stuck. You know, Sidham is the place in your life you'd like to forget. It's your public failure. Can you imagine how embarrassing it is to be a king? And you're secretly running from the battle? And while you're secretly running from the battle, you get stuck. And publicly, everybody knows you're running from the battle. And now you're stuck in a pit of tar and you can't get out. That's embarrassing. The Sidham, the Valley of Sidham is your place of greatest failure. What's your Sidham? Your Sidham, the Valley of Sidham is an embarrassment. It's where you look foolish and everybody sees you fall. They're all laughing and they're all ridiculing. That's one of the valleys you'll probably go through in life. Because we all fall in our face at some point. Now let me talk to you about another kind of valley. It's called the Valley of Eskall. Eskall is a valley in Numbers chapter 13. And it's the story of when Moses sends in the spies to find out what the promised land is going to be looking like. You remember that they had, the nation of Israel had been held captive and slavery for 400 years in Egypt. And after Moses is called by God to deliver them and they have all of the miracles and they're set free. And they head from Israel, I mean, Egypt over to Israel. What should have taken about three or four weeks travel? Take some 40 years. What in the world are they doing for 40 years in the desert? It doesn't take that long to get from Israel to Egypt or from Egypt to Israel. Well, God's putting them through tests and they keep failing each test. And finally, finally after a while, they come up to the edge of the promised land and they get ready to go in. And this is a test. Are they going to have enough faith to trust God? Because there are enemies in this promised land. They're going to have to fight for this land. So Moses wants to know what's going on in the promised land. So he chooses 12 scouts. We know the names of them. They're in the Bible. One of them was Caleb. Another one was Joshua. And these 12 guys go in and they scout out the land and they look and say, yeah, it's a great land. But we got some problems here. We're afraid of the people who already live here. And their anxiety and their tension gives a majority of the poor 10 people. So don't even try it. Let's don't go in. Yeah, we're free from Egypt. Let's just go back there though. We don't want to fight these guys. And only Joshua and Caleb say, we could do this. We can win this battle. And we read this story where Moses chooses to spy, sent them in. And in Numbers chapter 13, look up here on the screen, verse 23, it says this, then the spies came to the valley of Eschol. The fruit was so abundant that they cut off a grape branch, which had a giant cluster of grapes on it, but it was so large and heavy that it took two men to carry it back on a pole between them. Have you ever seen a cluster of grapes that took two men to carry? Not me. In fact, there's pictures of this. You got a picture of that. There we go. That's the kind of thing. They're carrying this giant cluster of grapes back. So they're looking at this. This really is the land of milk and honey. This is the land of great bounty, great opportunity. But it says, let's read the rest of that verse. It says, it was so heavy that it took two men to carry it back on a pole between them. And they also brought samples of beautiful, promicranics and figs. Now, they come back with a mixed report. And here's the report in the valley of Eschol. Verse 27 says, this was their report to Moses. It is indeed a magnificent country, this promised land. It's rich and it's fertile. And here's some fruit as the proof. I mean, this is giant. This is miracle-growing stuff. But the people living there are powerful. Notice but, then that's a big but. But, it's great. It's a great country. God's given us a great country. And they're stronger than we are. And they look like giants to us. And notice this, in our own eyes, we felt as small as grasshoppers next to them. That's what you call an inferiority complex. Well, he said, we can't take these guys on. Remember, they've got a slave in town. It's been a slave for 400 years. They don't know how to break out the thing that's going on in their mind. Now, the valley of Eschol is different than the valley of cinema. And what is it? This is the valley of fear. You might write this down. Eschol is the valley of fear. And they have to make this decision. OK, we're going to go in and take what's right for the hours. God has given it to us, or do we back off in fear? Back off in shame, back off in doubt. And in the valley of fear, I either move ahead or I give up. Now, the fact is, these guys had parked at Sinai for over a year. They had lived in self-exile in the desert. Nobody-- God didn't tell them you have to stand the desert for 40 years. They had just been muslin around. And they kept failing the test that God gave them. Now, here's my question. What is your valley? What is your valley of Eschol? What's the place that you are afraid to move forward in? You're going to go through this kind of valley in your life. And you've known for a long, long time that you should be moving forward in this area. God's told you to do it. You want to do it. It's the right thing to do. And you just haven't done it. You, my friend, are in the valley of Eschol. The valley of fear where you either move forward or you give up. You move forward or you give up. You have to face your fears. You have to take a risk or you retreat in defeat. How do you know if you're in Eschol in that kind of valley? Well, tell me how you see what you're looking at right now. Do you see it as an obstacle? Or do you see it as an opportunity? The big thing in your life right now is that an obstacle or is that an opportunity? Two of the 12 spies saw an opportunity. It's a promised land. Let's go for it. We can do this. It's a no-brainer. God's on our side. Ten of them saw an obstacle and they failed the test. As a result, they spent their life dying in the desert. They never got in to the promised land. Why? Because they failed the test of Eschol. Let me give you another one. It's called the Valley of Ila, E-L-A-H. The Valley of Ila is in 1 Samuel 17. And you're going to go through this valley probably many times in your life in a similar way. Now, this is a well-known valley because this is where a little boy named David met the giant named Goliath. You know that story. That is in the Valley of Ila. Look up here on the screen. The Philistines and the Israelites were in the Valley of Ila and they're poised for battle. And it says, Saul and the Israelites camped in the Valley of Ila and they drew up a battle plan to fight the Philistines. Now, the Philistines and Israelites stood each stood their ground, shouting and taunting each other from opposite hills with the Valley of Ila between them. Okay? And now the Philistine army had a giant champion fighter, this is a multi-martial arts here. Giant champion fighter named Goliath, who was about 9 feet tall. This guy really is big. And when Saul and the Israelites saw this, they were terrified and deeply shaken. Now, David's response, he's just a shepherd boy but he's not afraid. He trusts God. He's been trusting God all his life. The Lord is my shepherd. Remember, he's the guy who wrote this. I have everything I need. In verse 32, David says this, don't worry about a thing, David told Saul. I'll go fight this Philistine. Everybody in the army is scared to death to take on this giant. The giant comes down every day and he taunts and he shouts and he goes, you guys are a bunch of whims. You're weaklings. You're not worth anything. He says, let's don't have this battle. How about let's just go mon on, mon on, one on, one. You send out your best guy, Israel, and I'm the best guy for the Philistines. We'll take each other on, whoever wins, wins and the battle's over. You're the conqueror and everybody's scared to death. What is the valley of Ilah? Write this down. Ilah is the valley of conflict. It's when you're facing a giant challenge like a Goliath. You're facing a giant conflict. facing a. giant, somebody's in your face. You've got an opposition. You've got an opponent. You've got conflict. You've got a challenge. And Ela is the valley of conflict. What's your Ela right now? Some of you are in that valley. You're not in the valley of the shadow of death. But you may be in one of these other ones. You may be in Siddham and you may be in Eschol. And you may be in Ela, the valley of conflict where people are fighting each other. Look at that verse three again up here on the screen. The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another with the valley of Ela between them. Some of you that describes your marriage. And you're standing your ground over here and your spouse is standing there, ground over there and you're right there in the middle and there's a deadlock going on. You are in the valley of Ela. One more. One more. And this is called the valley of Baka, B-A-C-A, the valley of Baka. It's mentioned in Psalm 84. And again I just picked out four of the many significant valleys in Scripture. In Psalm 84 the word Baka actually means weeping. It comes from the root word, Hebrew word, to weep. Now it meant to weep but actually there was a valley of Baka like there was these others. And the valley of Baka was a desert. It was a dry, dry, dusty, erid wasteland. And if you wanted to go to Israel, excuse me, wanted to go to Jerusalem as a pilgrim, you had to go through the valley of Baka to get there. And so all the pilgrims who wanted to come to Jerusalem had to travel through the valley of Baka, which means the valley of weeping, but it was actually a dry, barren, dusty place. And this is a metaphor again about when you're going through a dry time in your life. When your joy has all dried up, maybe you're grieving, maybe you're the one that's weeping in the valley of weeping. Nothing grows there, nothing's productive, there's no fruit, just tears. And Psalm 85 verses 5 and 7 says this, "Blessed are those whose strength comes from the Lord." As they pass through the valley of Baka, that's the valley of weeping, they make it a place of springs. I'll send water showing up. As they pass through this dry, erid valley of Baka weeping, they make it a place of springs and the autumn rains cover it with pools and they go from strength to strength, growing until each appears before God in Zion. That verse is so packed, I could spend the whole service just on that verse. I want you to notice. First, when you're going through the valley of Baka, it's dry. You know, I don't have any feelings anymore. I don't feel close to God. I don't feel close to my husband. I don't feel close to anybody. I'm dried up. I've got no motion. I'm just putting in the time. I'm going through the motions, putting one foot in front of the other. There's no joy in my life. It's dried up. There's no energy in my life. It's dried up. I'm depressed. You may be grieving. You may be weeping yourself. You're grieving a loss. You're going through the valley of Baka. But the kind of people that God wants you to be, wants me to be, wants us to be, is we make it a place of springs. Water comes when we show up. They go from strength to strength. That's what God wants you to do the entire life. Growing from one level maturity to the next level maturity to the next level maturity to the next level maturity. They grow from strength to strength. Growing until each appears before God in Zion. One day, you're going to stand before God and God says, I don't care about your clothes, or your career, or your cash, but do you care about your character? Did you grow from strength to strength when you were on earth? And when you were going through these different valleys, the valley of conflict, did you work that out? And when you were going through the valley of decisions and the valley of questions and the valley of confusion, when you're going through the valley of trouble, when you're going through the valley of the shadow of death, what did you learn from all that? Did you grow from strength to strength? Did you keep growing until now you're appearing before me, God, face to face? Let's go on here. Faith turns to place without water into place of springs, where you can find refreshment, where you can find what God wants to do in your life, and even in those valleys of grief, when you're weeping, God wants to use those tears to water, a dry, and arid place. I read a story last week about William Booth, who was the founder of the Salvation Army, and he'd sent a man to some state here in the United States, you know, Salvation Army began in England. And the guy was trying to reach people in his community for the Lord, and he kept saying, I've tried everything. I've tried prayer, and I've tried music, and I've tried services, and I've tried special attractions, and there just nobody's interested in hearing the good news. William Booth wrote back two words on a telegram, try weeping. Try weeping. When you care about something enough that you weep about it, God moves into action. Verse 6, notice that verse again, "Blessed are those who strength come from the Lord as they pass through." You don't stay in the valley of dryness, the valley of weeping. As they pass through the valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs. What is Baka? Baka is the valley of grief and barrenness, grief and barrenness. I just wanted you to see before we look at the solution what God says about valleys, that they are inevitable, that they are impartial, that they are unpredictable, but you are going to go through these in life. You've been through them in the past, and you're going to go through them again. And just a second, I want to wrap it up by talking about what do you need to remember when you're in one of these valleys. The valley of failure, the valley of fear, the valley of conflict, the valley of dryness, the valley of grief, the valley of trouble. What do you do? What do I need to remember? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you. Our with me, three things. God wants you to remember in a valley. Number one, remember I'm not alone. God is with me. Remember that I'm not alone. God is with me. Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, by the way, word shadow death, that's one word in Hebrew, it's soundly wet. Soundly wet is the valley of the shadow of death. It's one of the valleys of life. Guess what? You're going to go through that one. That's one valley. Everybody here and everybody in earth is going to go through the valley of the shadow of death. And he says, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Now, look at that there, verse, on your outline, and I want to circle the word through and circle the word you, because those are the two most important words in Psalm 23, verse 4. Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Two key words through and you. Through the valley is temporary. You don't stay in the valley. You walk through it. You're not going to leave your entire life in the valley. You're going to walk through it. It's temporary. That's an important thing. It's temporary. And he says, you, you're not alone. You're not going to walk through it alone. God is with you in the valley. What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to tell you how you can help support this ministry. Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to love God with all your heart. That's worship and love your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the great commandment. And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize them into the family of God. That's fellowship. A sign of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the great commission. We believe it daily hope that a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company, a great community. You know, I started daily hope so I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around the world. And we want people to know that God's Word is filled with hope and truth. And the power that we need to follow Him every day is available to every single one. know as well as I do that the Word of God changes lives. It's alive, it's active, and it breathes new life and new love into all of our lives. 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