Speaker 3: Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm
Speaker 1: really glad you're here.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 1: We're continuing our series from Psalm twenty three called living
Speaker 1: in the Goodness of God. It's all about how God's
Speaker 1: goodness meets you right where you are and brings hope
Speaker 1: even in difficult seasons. Up next, here's part one of
Speaker 1: a message called the God of My Valleys.
Speaker 2: You know, there's an old Arab proverb that says, all
Speaker 2: sunshine and no rain makes a desert. Life is a
Speaker 2: mixture of good times and bad times, ups and downs,
Speaker 2: highs and lows, mountains and valleys.
Speaker 3: And today I.
Speaker 2: Want us to look at the theme of the God
Speaker 2: of my Valleys, the God of my valleys. Even in
Speaker 2: our darkest days, God says, I'm there, and.
Speaker 3: I'm there with you.
Speaker 2: Now, we've been memorizing Psalm twenty three and we're down
Speaker 2: to verse four now, so let's read it together and
Speaker 2: with great enthusiasm. You've probably got a lot of it memorized.
Speaker 2: Now if you say it the year of Thou because
Speaker 2: you rememberize in King James, that's perfectly fine. All right,
Speaker 2: let's stay together. The Lord is my shepherd I have
Speaker 2: everything that I need. He makes me lie down in
Speaker 2: green pastures. He leaves me beside still waters. He restores
Speaker 2: my soul. He leaves me in the right path for
Speaker 2: his Name's sake.
Speaker 3: And even when I walk through the.
Speaker 2: Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil,
Speaker 2: for you are with me. Very good class. You all
Speaker 2: get an a and you all get a cookie. Now
Speaker 2: this phrase, even though I walk through the Valley of
Speaker 2: the Shadow of Death. There's actually a canyon in Israel
Speaker 2: called the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I'm sure
Speaker 2: David had been through it many, many times. Some of
Speaker 2: these canyons were very narrow at the bottom and could
Speaker 2: be eight hundred feet tall, and so when you're looking
Speaker 2: up on either side, the only time you'd get the
Speaker 2: sun is actually at noonday. And so in the middle
Speaker 2: of the day you could be in the bottom of
Speaker 2: this canyon and not see the sun because the walls
Speaker 2: were so tall. And then this the canyon was so
Speaker 2: narrow the sun only shines when it's right overhead, and
Speaker 2: it would be in shadows most of the day. Yeay,
Speaker 2: even though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow
Speaker 2: of Death, I will fear no evil for you are
Speaker 2: with me now. That word valley got me to thinking
Speaker 2: this week about the god of my valleys. You know,
Speaker 2: about two nine hundred years ago, there was a king
Speaker 2: in Israel. His name was Ahab, and the Syrian army
Speaker 2: decided they were going to depose Ahab.
Speaker 3: And so the King of.
Speaker 2: Syria lined up thirty two nations to come against Israel,
Speaker 2: and they came against Israel, and God miraculously gave Israel
Speaker 2: a victory and soundly defeated the King of Syria and
Speaker 2: his thirty two allies. The Kings of Allies. Well, the
Speaker 2: following year, the Syria decided they were going to try
Speaker 2: it again, and they were going to come back and
Speaker 2: try to take over Israel. But in reviewing the previous
Speaker 2: battle from a year earlier, all of the Syrian generals
Speaker 2: came up with a different plan. And up here on
Speaker 2: the screen, here's what it says. First Kings tells us
Speaker 2: Chapter twenty. The Syrian military advisors went to their king
Speaker 2: and they explained, Israel's gods are the gods of the hills,
Speaker 2: and the last time we fought them a year ago,
Speaker 2: when they lost, we fought them in the hills. And
Speaker 2: that's why they defeated us. This was their rationale. But
Speaker 2: if we fight them in the valleys where they are weak,
Speaker 2: we will defeat them there. And so they changed plans
Speaker 2: and a few other strategic things that instead of fighting
Speaker 2: the Israelites up in the hills country, we're going to
Speaker 2: fight them on flat ground where we can easily outnumber them.
Speaker 2: Their gods protect them in the hills, but we'll beat
Speaker 2: them in the valleys. So just their battle plan, and
Speaker 2: they bring a huge army.
Speaker 3: Back to Israel.
Speaker 2: In fact, the Bible says this, The Syrian forces covered
Speaker 2: the whole countryside, but the Israelites looked like two little
Speaker 2: flocks of goats.
Speaker 3: This is a very imbalanced.
Speaker 2: There may be one hundred thousand troops coming against Israel.
Speaker 2: Israel has it the most seven thousand. So it's going
Speaker 2: to be a slaughter. It's going to be a slaughter.
Speaker 2: But that's not the end of the story. Then defeat
Speaker 2: looks inevitable. But God has something to say about this.
Speaker 2: In Onest Kings, chapter twenty, verse twenty eight says this
Speaker 2: because the Syrians. God says this because the Syrians think
Speaker 2: that I'm only the God of the hills and not
Speaker 2: the God of the valleys. I'm going to give you
Speaker 2: victory over this huge army, so everyone will know that
Speaker 2: I am the Lord. Now I summarize everything we're gonna
Speaker 2: look at today in this sentence. God is God not
Speaker 2: just of your mountaintop experiences. He's the God of the
Speaker 2: valleys too. God says, I am the God of the valleys.
Speaker 2: I'm not just the God of the good times in
Speaker 2: your life. I'm not just the God of the happy
Speaker 2: times in your life. I'm not just a god when
Speaker 2: everything's going smooth.
Speaker 3: I'm the God of the valleys too.
Speaker 2: Now, the valley in scripture literally means a valley, but
Speaker 2: is also a metaphor for difficult times. The Bible talks
Speaker 2: about the valley of troubles, that's acre. The Bible talks
Speaker 2: about the valley of weeping. There's all kinds of metaphors.
Speaker 2: Valleys are a symbol of difficult times in your life
Speaker 2: in the Bible. And God says, I'm not just a
Speaker 2: God of the mountaintops the peak experiences in your life.
Speaker 2: I am the God of the valleys. In the times
Speaker 2: of darkness, the times of despair, the times of defeat,
Speaker 2: the times of discouragement. Because the truth is most of
Speaker 2: your life, my life are not lived.
Speaker 3: On the mountaintops.
Speaker 2: When you're in a mountaintop experience, the view is great, Okay,
Speaker 2: they give you a great view, But mountain peaks are
Speaker 2: far and few. Most of the time, you live your
Speaker 2: life in the valleys, you know. And I got thinking
Speaker 2: about this today. I've spent most of my life geographically
Speaker 2: living in valleys.
Speaker 3: I was born in.
Speaker 2: The Silicon Valley. I was born in Santa s And
Speaker 2: I grew up in the Silicon Valley. And then my
Speaker 2: dad moved our family to the Willamette Valley up in
Speaker 2: Oregon and we lived there. And then we moved from
Speaker 2: the Milamet Valley back to Mill Valley, where we lived
Speaker 2: in Mill Valley in northern California. And from there we
Speaker 2: moved to a little tiny village in the red what's
Speaker 2: called Redwood Valley, five hundred people in this little town,
Speaker 2: and I lived grew up in Redwood Valley.
Speaker 3: And then for the.
Speaker 2: Last thirty seven years, I've been in the Saddleback Valley.
Speaker 3: So I've been in the valley my entire life.
Speaker 2: When I think about it, very few times have I
Speaker 2: actually been on the mountaintops. Now, what I want us
Speaker 2: to do this weekend at three things. Look at what
Speaker 2: the Bible says about what we know about valleys. Even
Speaker 2: though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death,
Speaker 2: I will fear no evil, for you're with me. What
Speaker 2: do we know about valleys? And then I want us
Speaker 2: to look at what kind of valleys to expect. And
Speaker 2: then finally I want us to look at what do
Speaker 2: you need to remember? I don't know what kind of
Speaker 2: value you're going through right now. Maybe a financial valley,
Speaker 2: you're going in a real tough spot. Maybe you're in
Speaker 2: a relational valley. Maybe you're going through a physical illness
Speaker 2: and a valley of disease or sickness. Whatever kind of
Speaker 2: value going through, you're gonna need this message. If ever
Speaker 2: you needed to take notes, it's this weekend. Okay, let's
Speaker 2: look at this first. Let's talk about what do we
Speaker 2: know about valleys? And the Bible tells us a lot,
Speaker 2: and of course experience tells us a lot. You might
Speaker 2: run right these two or three things down. First, we
Speaker 2: know that valleys are a part of life. Okay, they're
Speaker 2: a part of life. In other words, they're inevitable, they're
Speaker 2: part of normal life. You can't avoid them. They're going
Speaker 2: to happen. You can count on them. You either just
Speaker 2: came out of a valley, or you're in the middle
Speaker 2: one right now, or you're headed into another one, because
Speaker 2: that's what life is all about. So don't be shot.
Speaker 2: Don't be surprised. You're going to go through valleys in
Speaker 2: your lifetime. You're not always on the mountaintop. The only
Speaker 2: question is not if you're going to go through a valley,
Speaker 2: it's just when when. And you're going to experience disappointment
Speaker 2: in life. You're gonna experience defeat. You're going to experience
Speaker 2: distractions and disturbances and despair and depression.
Speaker 3: It's a normal part of life.
Speaker 2: Valleys are part of life, and God's plan for your
Speaker 2: life actually contains both hills and valleys. They're part of
Speaker 2: the plan. Look at these scriptures Deuteronomy eleven eleven. The
Speaker 2: promised land, God says to those who are going about
Speaker 2: to get it. The promised land you're about to enter
Speaker 2: is a land of hills and valleys. Now what does
Speaker 2: this mean. Well, metaphorically, what it means is that even
Speaker 2: when you're in the center of God's will, valleys are
Speaker 2: part of the plan. You can be in the Promised Land,
Speaker 2: and it's not all mountaintop when you go through the
Speaker 2: valleys of life. That's part of God's plan for your life.
Speaker 2: The Promised Land includes hills and valleys. One Peter four
Speaker 2: to twelve says this, don't be surprised when you are
Speaker 2: tested by troubles or painful suffering, as if something unusual
Speaker 2: has happened to you. Don't be surprised. They are a
Speaker 2: part of life. They are inevitable, all right, he says,
Speaker 2: it's going to happen. So you don't say why me,
Speaker 2: You say why not me? I'm alive. You have problems
Speaker 2: in your life, not because you're bad human. You have
Speaker 2: problems in your life because you're a human. Even the
Speaker 2: Promised Land has hills and valleys. Don't be surprised by
Speaker 2: troubles as if something unusual is happening to you. Second
Speaker 2: thing we know is that valleys happen to everybody. Valleys
Speaker 2: happen to everybody. There's no way you can avoid them.
Speaker 2: They're part of life. They're inevitable. But not only they' inevitable,
Speaker 2: they're impartial. Good things happen to bad people, and bad
Speaker 2: things happen to good people. Valleys are impartial. Psalm thirty four,
Speaker 2: verse nineteen says this, the good man does not escape
Speaker 2: all troubles. He has them too, but the Lord helps
Speaker 2: him in each and every one. A lot of people.
Speaker 2: I got problems in my life. God's punishing me. Not
Speaker 2: God's not punishing me. This is part of being part
Speaker 2: of the human race. You're in a world that is
Speaker 2: broken and has fallen, So we have problems. Nobody's immune,
Speaker 2: nobody's insulated from pain, nobody is isolated from sorrow. We
Speaker 2: all go through life with problems. Nobody sails through life
Speaker 2: problem free. This is not news to you. Bad things
Speaker 2: do happen in life, and being a Christian, being a
Speaker 2: followed Jesus does not exempt you. Valleys are part of life,
Speaker 2: and valleys happen to everyone. In fact, Jesus said in
Speaker 2: Matthew five point forty five, the rain falls on the
Speaker 2: just and the unjust. Everybody goes through the exact same
Speaker 2: things in life. Not only are our valleys inevitable and impartial.
Speaker 2: Number three valleys are unpredictable, and that's part of what
Speaker 2: makes them a problem is you can't predict them. You
Speaker 2: can't plan, you can't time them. Problems typically catch you
Speaker 2: off guard. They come unexpectedly. In fact, your values and
Speaker 2: your problems come usually at the worst time, when you
Speaker 2: don't have time, when you're unprepared, when you're inconvenient. Wouldn't
Speaker 2: it be easier if you could schedule all your values
Speaker 2: in life. I'm caught up on my sleep, on my
Speaker 2: health is good, nobody's bugging me. Okay, now I'll take
Speaker 2: a problem. Lord, it doesn't happen like that. They're un inevitable,
Speaker 2: they're impartial, and they are unpredictable. Have you ever noticed
Speaker 2: how quickly a good day can become a bad day
Speaker 2: one phone call, one phone call. Disasters come quickly, tragedy
Speaker 2: comes quickly, accidents come quickly. None of us know what's
Speaker 2: going to happen this evening, much less tomorrow, or the
Speaker 2: next day or the next day after that. In an instant,
Speaker 2: everything can change. You can have somebody makes a decision.
Speaker 2: You had nothing to do, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: your life's thrown upside down. Somebody up in corporate made
Speaker 2: a decision. Proverbs twenty seven, verse one says this, don't
Speaker 2: ever brag about tomorrow, since you don't know what the
Speaker 2: day will bring.
Speaker 3: Forth.
Speaker 2: Okay, So problems are inevitable, valleys are impartial, and values
Speaker 2: are unpredictable. Now I want to go a little bit
Speaker 2: deeper before we look at the solution and prepare you.
Speaker 2: Even though they're unpredictable, there are some values I can
Speaker 2: guarantee you you're going to go through in life, and they're.
Speaker 3: All in scripture.
Speaker 2: The Bible is filled with significant valleys, and I just
Speaker 2: picked three or four of them just to show you
Speaker 2: that if you study scripture, you're going to be aware
Speaker 2: and then you'll be prepared for the inevitable values that
Speaker 2: come into your life. Do you know what's going to
Speaker 2: happen to you next year?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: But can you guess what will probably happen to you
Speaker 2: during your lifetime? Yes, because they're predictable in the sense
Speaker 2: that we know what to expect. So let me just
Speaker 2: give you a couple of them. Let me give you
Speaker 2: four different significant valleys in scripture. Number one is the
Speaker 2: Valley of Sidam, the Valley of Sidham. Now, the Valley
Speaker 2: of Sidam is actually in Genesis chapter fourteen, and this
Speaker 2: is if you like war stories, this is a tremendous
Speaker 2: chapter Genesis fourteen. How many of you either saw the movie,
Speaker 2: you read the book Lord of the Rinx. Okay, you
Speaker 2: know that the big climactic battle is called the Battle
Speaker 2: of the Five Armies. Right, it's a big, app big
Speaker 2: epic battle, the Battle of the Five Armies. The battle
Speaker 2: in Genesis fourteen is far bigger than that because it's
Speaker 2: the battle of nine armies, nine armies coming against each other.
Speaker 3: And here here's the story.
Speaker 2: There are four enemy nations outside of Palestine. They're going
Speaker 2: to try to overtake. This is even before Israel has
Speaker 2: become a nation. Four enemies outside is going to try
Speaker 2: to take over five tribes inside. So it's five armies
Speaker 2: fighting for their life and their freedom against four armies
Speaker 2: coming from the outside who happened to be bigger. And
Speaker 2: the story goes like this, look up here on the screen.
Speaker 3: Then the four.
Speaker 2: Kings of Shinar. By the way, Shinar is now called Babylon.
Speaker 2: It wasn't called this back in those days. But the
Speaker 2: king of Babylon, the King of Lsr Elamb and Golam Goem,
Speaker 2: these four kings went to war against the five Kings
Speaker 2: of Sodom. You've heard of that one Gomorah, You heard
Speaker 2: of that one and three other cities. Now, the five
Speaker 2: Kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddam. This is
Speaker 2: the first valley that I want you to understand. You're
Speaker 2: going to go through the valleys of Siddam, the Valley
Speaker 2: of Sidham, which is now the Dead Sea. So it
Speaker 2: got wiped out. Remember fire and Birmstone came wiped out,
Speaker 2: Sodom and Gamor it's now called the Dead Sea. Okay,
Speaker 2: the five Kings joined forces there in the Valley of Siddam,
Speaker 2: which is now the Dead Sea. For twelve years they'd
Speaker 2: been oppressed by other kingdoms. So in the thirteenth year
Speaker 2: they rebelled. And then it says but in the fourteenth year,
Speaker 2: their presses recruited his allies to team up and reconquer
Speaker 2: the land. So they, after being pressed for twelve years,
Speaker 2: said we're not paying any more taxes. Forget you guys.
Speaker 2: And so now the guys, yeah, you are going to
Speaker 2: pay taxes. And these four armies come against five armies.
Speaker 2: So the nine armies fought in the valley of Sinnam.
Speaker 2: Now what happens here next is why it's important to you.
Speaker 2: In verse ten, it says this, Now, this valley was
Speaker 2: full of sticky tarpits, And when the kings of Sodom
Speaker 2: and Gomorrah tried to run away from the battle, they
Speaker 2: slipped and they fell, and they got.
Speaker 3: Stuck in the pits.
Speaker 2: So the two kings of these cities are stuck in
Speaker 2: these tar pits. So the invaders plundered the cities of
Speaker 2: Sodom and gomor Uh, and they took everything they had,
Speaker 2: and they also captured Abraham's nephew Lot, who was living
Speaker 2: in Sodom. Now I'm not gonna go into this part
Speaker 2: of the story, but Abraham later goes back. He goes
Speaker 2: to war against these guys, freeze his nephew, and gets
Speaker 2: the cities all their their loot back. But the point
Speaker 2: I want you to understand here is that it says
Speaker 2: they slipped and fell in the tar pits. In the
Speaker 2: tar pits, what are they what are they talking about there? Well,
Speaker 2: that's kind of bitumen in the area, and they got stuck. Now,
Speaker 2: how do you end up in this kind of valley?
Speaker 2: But this kind of value value of cinema, Well, you
Speaker 2: do what these kings did. They ran away from something,
Speaker 2: and while they were running away, they slipped, and when
Speaker 2: they slipped, they fell, and when they fell, they got stuck.
Speaker 2: Has that process ever happened to you in life? Yes,
Speaker 2: when you run away from something, maybe a responsibility, and
Speaker 2: then you slip and then you fall and then you
Speaker 2: get stuck. And this valley is a slimy, dark tar
Speaker 2: pit area where you stumble falls. I want you to
Speaker 2: write this down, Sidem is the valley of failure. You're
Speaker 2: going to go through this in your life. You're going
Speaker 2: to have failures in your life. You're going to have
Speaker 2: failures where you where you run from responsibility, where you
Speaker 2: try to get away from it. I don't know what
Speaker 2: it is. You slip, you fall, and you get stuck.
Speaker 2: You slip, you fall and you get stuck. Question, what's
Speaker 2: your sidam today? What are you running from? And you
Speaker 2: know you need to face it, that conflict, that confrontation
Speaker 2: you're running from, And what's your dark slimy tar pit.
Speaker 2: Some people, it might be a bar. For some people,
Speaker 2: it might be a nightclub. For some people, it might
Speaker 2: be a hotel room when they're traveling. You know, Sodom
Speaker 2: and Gomar weren't exactly family friendly cities. They were known
Speaker 2: as sin cities. But I will tell you this, it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter where you've gotten stuck, or how you've gotten stuck,
Speaker 2: or what pit you're in, Jesus.
Speaker 3: Can get you out.
Speaker 1: What a special message from Pastor Rick. And now let's
Speaker 1: hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick
Speaker 1: with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 2: I want to introduce you to Agatha, who's translating Daily
Speaker 2: Hope into German for her husband. She writes, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 2: your preaching is bringing many souls to God. My husband,
Speaker 2: who is an unbeliever, is drawing closer and closer to
Speaker 2: God every day. I translate what I hear on Daily
Speaker 2: Hope into German because he can't speak and understand English.
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, your teaching has changed his life and I
Speaker 2: can see his progress and eagerness to follow Jesus. Agatha, Well, Agatha,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for sharing your story with me.
Speaker 2: This is a wonderful story to hear that you're translating
Speaker 2: what you hear on Daily Hope for your husband and
Speaker 2: that he's growing closer to Jesus. I'm so happy for that.
Speaker 2: We're always looking for translators to help us in new
Speaker 2: languages as we take the message of God to more
Speaker 2: people around the world. So you will keep praying for
Speaker 2: your husband and you keep praying for us, that God
Speaker 2: allows us to take the good news of God's hope
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Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this
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Speaker 3: Please feel free.
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Speaker 1: That's Rick at pastorick dot com. Be sure to join
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