Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you're here today. We're continuing our series
Speaker 1: from Psalm twenty three called Living in the Goodness of God.
Speaker 1: It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where
Speaker 1: you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. And
Speaker 1: now here's part two of a message called the God
Speaker 1: of My Valleys.
Speaker 2: And you may feel like I'm stuck. I'm addicted. I'm
Speaker 2: you know, imprisoned. I can't break free from this relationship.
Speaker 2: I can't break free from this addiction. I can't break
Speaker 2: free from this habit. And I am stuck. I've been running,
Speaker 2: I slipped, I fall, and now I'm stuck. You know,
Speaker 2: Sidham is the place in your life you'd like to forget.
Speaker 2: It's your public failure. Can you imagine how embarrassing it
Speaker 2: is to be a king and you're secretly running from
Speaker 2: the battle. And while you're secretly running from the battle,
Speaker 2: you get stuck and publicly everybody knows you're running from
Speaker 2: the battle, and now you're stuck in a pit of
Speaker 2: tar and you can't get out.
Speaker 3: That's embarrassing.
Speaker 2: The sitdom, the value of Sydtom is your place of
Speaker 2: greatest failure.
Speaker 3: What's your sydom?
Speaker 2: Your sydom? The valley of sitdom is an embarrassment. It's
Speaker 2: where you look foolish and everybody sees you fall and
Speaker 2: they're all laughing and they're all ridiculing. That's one of
Speaker 2: the valleys you'll probably go through in life, because we
Speaker 2: all fall in our face at some point. Now, let
Speaker 2: me talk you about another kind of valley. It's called
Speaker 2: the Valley of escall Es. Call is a valley in numbers,
Speaker 2: chapter thirteen, and it's the story of when Moses sends
Speaker 2: in the spies to find out what the Promised Land
Speaker 2: is going to be looking like. You remember that they
Speaker 2: had the nation of Israel, had been held captive in
Speaker 2: slavery for four hundred years in Egypt. And after Moses
Speaker 2: is called by God to deliver them, and they have
Speaker 2: all of the miracles and they're set free, and they
Speaker 2: head from Israel, I mean Egypt over to Israel. What
Speaker 2: should have taken about three or four weeks travel takes
Speaker 2: them forty years. What in the world they're doing for
Speaker 2: forty years in the desert doesn't take that long to
Speaker 2: get from Israel to Egypt, or from Egypt to Israel. Well,
Speaker 2: God's putting them through tests, and they keep failing each test,
Speaker 2: and finally, finally, after a while, they come up to
Speaker 2: the edge of the Promised Land and they get ready
Speaker 2: to go in.
Speaker 3: And this is a test.
Speaker 2: Are they going to have enough faith to trust God?
Speaker 2: Because their enemies in this Promised Land. They're gonna have
Speaker 2: to fight for this land. So Moses wants to know
Speaker 2: what's going on in the Promised Land, so he chooses
Speaker 2: twelve scouts. We know the names of them, they're in
Speaker 2: the Bible. One of them was Caleb, another one was Joshua.
Speaker 2: And these twelve guys go in and they scout out
Speaker 2: the land and they look and say, yeah, it's a
Speaker 2: great land, but we got some problems here. We're afraid
Speaker 2: of the people who already live here. And their anxiety
Speaker 2: and their tension gives a majority report. Ten people said,
Speaker 2: don't even try it, let's don't go in. Yeah, we're
Speaker 2: free from Egypt. Let's just go back there, though we
Speaker 2: don't want to fight these guys. And only Joshua and
Speaker 2: Caleb say we can do this, we can win this battle.
Speaker 2: And we read this story where Moses chooses, the spy
Speaker 2: sends them in and in numbers chapter thirteen, look up
Speaker 2: here on the screen, verse twenty three. It says this,
Speaker 2: Then the spies came to the valley of Eshkol. The
Speaker 2: fruit was so abundant that they cut off a grape
Speaker 2: branch which had a giant cluster of grapes on it.
Speaker 2: But it was so large and heavy that it took
Speaker 2: two men to carry it back on a pole between them.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen a cluster of grapes that took
Speaker 2: two men to carry?
Speaker 3: Not me?
Speaker 2: Okay, In fact, there's pictures of this. You got a
Speaker 2: picture that there we go. That's the kind of thing
Speaker 2: are carrying this giant cluster of grapes back. So they're
Speaker 2: looking and this really is the land of milk and honey.
Speaker 2: This is a land of great bounty, of great opportunity.
Speaker 2: But it says, let's read the rest of that verse.
Speaker 2: It says it was so heavy that it took two
Speaker 2: men to carry it back on a pole between them.
Speaker 2: And they also brought samples of beautiful pomegranates in figs. Now,
Speaker 2: they come back with a mixed report, And here's the
Speaker 2: report in the valley of Eskol, verse twenty seven says
Speaker 2: this was their report to Moses. It is indeed a
Speaker 2: magnificent country, this promised land. It's rich and it's fertile.
Speaker 2: And here's some fruit is the proof. I mean, this
Speaker 2: is a giant This is miracle growth stuff. But the
Speaker 2: people living there are powerful. Notice but that that's a
Speaker 2: big butt. But it's great. It's a great country. God's
Speaker 2: given us a great country. But the people living there
Speaker 2: are powerful, and they're stronger than we are, and they
Speaker 2: look like giants to us. And notice this in our
Speaker 2: own eyes, we felt as small as grasshoppers next to them.
Speaker 2: That's what you call an inferiority complex. Well, he said,
Speaker 2: we can't take these guys on. Remember they've got a
Speaker 2: slave in town. It's been a slave for four hundred years.
Speaker 2: They don't know how to break out the thing that's
Speaker 2: going on in their mind.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The valley of Eshcol is different than the Valley of Cinema.
Speaker 2: And what is it. This is the valley of fear.
Speaker 2: You might write this down. Eshcol is the valley of fear.
Speaker 2: And they have to make this decision. Okay, we're going
Speaker 2: to go in and take what's rightfully ours. God has
Speaker 2: given it to us, or do we back off in fear,
Speaker 2: back off in shame, back off in doubt, And in
Speaker 2: the valley of fear, I either move ahead or I
Speaker 2: give up. Now, the fact is these guys had parked
Speaker 2: at Sinai for over a year. They had lived in
Speaker 2: self at isle in the desert. Nobody God didn't tell
Speaker 2: them you have to stand in the desert for forty years.
Speaker 2: They had just been mosy and around and they kept
Speaker 2: failing the tests that God gave them.
Speaker 3: Now here's my question.
Speaker 2: What is your valley? What is your valley of sh call?
Speaker 2: What's the place that you're afraid to move forward in?
Speaker 2: You're going to go through this kind of valley in
Speaker 2: your life, and you've known for a long long time
Speaker 2: that you should be moving forward in this area. God's
Speaker 2: told you to do it. You want to do it,
Speaker 2: it's the right thing to do, and you just haven't
Speaker 2: done it. You, my friend, are in the valley of
Speaker 2: esh call the valley of fear, where you either move
Speaker 2: forward or you give up. You move forward or you
Speaker 2: give up. You have to face your fears, you have
Speaker 2: to take a risk, or you retreat in defeat. How
Speaker 2: do you know if you're in an esch call in
Speaker 2: that kind of valley. Well, tell me what, how you
Speaker 2: see what you're looking at right now? Do you see
Speaker 2: it as an obstacle or do you see it as
Speaker 2: an opportunity? The big thing in your life right now?
Speaker 2: Is it an obstacle or is it an opportunity. Two
Speaker 2: of the twelve spies saw an opportunity. It's a promised land.
Speaker 2: Let's go for it. We can do this. It's a
Speaker 2: no brainer. God's on our side. Ten of them saw
Speaker 2: an obstacle, and they failed the test. As a result,
Speaker 2: they spent their life dying in the desert. They never
Speaker 2: got into the promised land. Why because they failed the
Speaker 2: test of Eskol. Let me give you another one. It's
Speaker 2: called the Valley of Ela e Lah. The Valley of
Speaker 2: Ela is in First Samuel seventeen. And you're going to
Speaker 2: go through this valley probably many times in your life
Speaker 2: in a similar way.
Speaker 3: Now, this is a well.
Speaker 2: Known valley because this is where a little boy named
Speaker 2: David met the giant named Goliath.
Speaker 3: You know that story that is in the Valley of Elah.
Speaker 3: Look up here on the screen.
Speaker 2: They Philistines, and and and the Israelites were in the
Speaker 2: Valley of Ela, and they're poised for battle. And it
Speaker 2: says Saul and the Israelites camped in the Valley of Elah,
Speaker 2: and they drew up a battle plan, battle plants to
Speaker 2: fight the Philistines. Now the Philistines and the Israelites stood,
Speaker 2: each stood their ground, shouting and taunting each other from
Speaker 2: opposite hills, with the Valley of Elah between them. Okay,
Speaker 2: and so then it is that now the Philistine army
Speaker 2: had a giant champion fighter. This is a you know,
Speaker 2: multi martial arts here, giant champion fighter named Goliath, who
Speaker 2: was about nine feet tall.
Speaker 3: This guy really is big.
Speaker 2: And when Saul and the Israelites saw this, they were
Speaker 2: terrified and deeply shaken. Now David's response, he's just a shepherd,
Speaker 2: but he's not afraid. He trusts God. He's been trusting
Speaker 2: God all his life. The Lord is my shepherd. Remember
Speaker 2: he's the guy who wrote this. The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 2: I have everything I need. In verse thirty two, David
Speaker 2: says this, don't worry about a thing. David told us
Speaker 2: all I'll go fight this Philistine. Everybody in the army
Speaker 2: is scared to death to take on this giant. The
Speaker 2: giant comes down every day and he taunts and he shouts,
Speaker 2: and he goes, you guys a bunch of whimps, your weaklings.
Speaker 2: You're not worth anything. He says, Let's don't have this battle.
Speaker 2: How about let's just.
Speaker 3: Go mono amna one on one.
Speaker 2: You send out your best guy, Israel, and I'm the
Speaker 2: best guy for the Philistines. We'll take take each other on.
Speaker 2: Whoever wins wins, and the battle's over. You're the conqueror,
Speaker 2: and everybody's scared to death. What is the valley of Elah?
Speaker 2: Write this down. Ella is the valley of conflict. It's
Speaker 2: when you're facing a giant challenge, like a goliath. You're
Speaker 2: facing a giant conflict. You're facing a giant. Somebody's in
Speaker 2: your face. You've got an opposition, you got an opponent,
Speaker 2: You've got conflict, you got a challenge. And Ela is
Speaker 2: the valley of conflict. What's your Ela?
Speaker 3: Right now?
Speaker 2: Some of you are in that valley. You're not in
Speaker 2: the Valley of the Shadow Death, but you may be
Speaker 2: in one of these other ones. You may be in Sidham,
Speaker 2: and you may be in Eshkohl, and you may be
Speaker 2: in Ela. The valley of conflict where people are fighting
Speaker 2: each other. Look at that verse three again up here
Speaker 2: on the screen. The Philistines occupied one hill and the
Speaker 2: Israelites another, with the Valley of Elah between them. Some
Speaker 2: of you, that describes your marriage, and you're standing your
Speaker 2: ground over here, and your spouse is standing their ground
Speaker 2: over there, and you're right there in the middle, and
Speaker 2: there's a deadlock going on. You are in the valley
Speaker 2: of Elaw. All right, one more, one more, And this
Speaker 2: is called the Valley of Bacca, Baca, the valley of Baca.
Speaker 2: It's mentioned in Psalm eighty four, and again I just
Speaker 2: picked out four of the many significant valleys in scripture.
Speaker 2: In Psalm eighty four, the word Baca actually means weeping.
Speaker 2: It comes from the root word Hebrew word to weep.
Speaker 2: Now it meant to weep. But actually there was a
Speaker 2: valley of Baca like there were these others. And the
Speaker 2: Valley of Bacca was a desert. It was a dry, dry, dusty,
Speaker 2: arid wasteland. And if you wanted to go to Israel,
Speaker 2: excuse me, wanted to go to Jerusalem as a pilgrim,
Speaker 2: you had to go through the Valley of Baca to
Speaker 2: get there. And so all the pilgrims who wanted to
Speaker 2: come to Jerusalem had to travel through the Valley of Baca,
Speaker 2: which means the valley of Weeping, but it was actually
Speaker 2: a dry, barren, dusty place. And this is a metaphor
Speaker 2: again about when you're going through a dry time in
Speaker 2: your life, when your joy has all dried up. Maybe
Speaker 2: you're grieving, maybe you're the one that's weeping in the
Speaker 2: Valley of weeping. Nothing grows there, nothing's productive, there's no fruit,
Speaker 2: just tears and psaw eighty five. Verses five and seven
Speaker 2: says this, blessed are those whose strength comes from the Lord.
Speaker 2: As they pass through the valley of Bacca, that's the
Speaker 2: valley of weeping, they make it a place of springs.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 3: All of a sudden, the water's showing up.
Speaker 2: As they pass through this dry, arid valley of Baca weeping.
Speaker 2: They make it a place of and the autumn rains
Speaker 2: cover it with pools, and they go from strength to strength,
Speaker 2: growing until each appears.
Speaker 3: Before God in Zion.
Speaker 2: That verse is so packed I could spend the whole
Speaker 2: services on that verse. I want you to notice first,
Speaker 2: when you're going through the valley of Baca.
Speaker 3: It's dry. I don't have any feelings.
Speaker 2: I don't feel close to God, I don't feel close
Speaker 2: to my husband, I don't feel close to anybody. I'm
Speaker 2: dried up. I've got no emotion. I'm just putting in
Speaker 2: the time. I'm going through the motions, putting one foot
Speaker 2: in front of the other. There's no joy in my life.
Speaker 2: It's dried up. There's no energy in my life. It's
Speaker 2: dried up. I'm depressed. You may be grieving, you may
Speaker 2: be weeping yourself, you're grieving a loss, you're going through
Speaker 2: the Valley of Baca. But the kind of people that
Speaker 2: God wants you to be, wants me to be, wants
Speaker 2: us to be, is we make it a place of springs.
Speaker 2: Water comes when we show up. They go from strength
Speaker 2: to strength. That's what God wants you to do your
Speaker 2: entire life, growing from one level of maturity to the
Speaker 2: next level of maturity, to the next level of maturity,
Speaker 2: and the next level of maturity to the next level maturity.
Speaker 3: They grow from strength to drink.
Speaker 2: Growing until each appears before God and Zion. One day,
Speaker 2: you're going to stand before God and God says, I
Speaker 2: don't care about your clothes or your career or your cash,
Speaker 2: But I do care about your character. Did you grow
Speaker 2: from strength to strength when you were on Earth and
Speaker 2: when you were going through these different valleys the valley
Speaker 2: of conflict, did you work that out? And when you
Speaker 2: were going through the Valley of decisions and the Valley
Speaker 2: of questions and the valley of confusion, when you're going
Speaker 2: through the Valley of trouble, when you're going through the
Speaker 2: value of the shadow of death, what did you learn
Speaker 2: from all that? Did you grow from strength to strength?
Speaker 2: Did you keep growing until now you're appearing before me God,
Speaker 2: face to face? What's going on here? Faith turns a
Speaker 2: place without water into place of springs, where you can
Speaker 2: find refreshment, where you can find what God wants.
Speaker 3: To do in your life.
Speaker 2: And even in those valleys of grief when you're weeping,
Speaker 2: God wants to use those tears to water a dry
Speaker 2: and arid place. I read a story last week about
Speaker 2: William Booth, who was the founder of the Salvation Army,
Speaker 2: and he'd sent a man to some state here in
Speaker 2: the United States. You know, Salvation Army began in England,
Speaker 2: and the guy was trying to reach people in his
Speaker 2: community for the Lord. And he kept saying, I've tried everything.
Speaker 2: I've tried prayer, and I've tried music, and I've tried services,
Speaker 2: and I've tried special attractions, and they're just nobody's interested
Speaker 2: in hearing the good news. William Booth wrote back two
Speaker 2: words on a telegram, Try weeping.
Speaker 3: Try weeping.
Speaker 2: When you care about something enough that you weep about it,
Speaker 2: God moves into action.
Speaker 3: Verse six.
Speaker 2: Notice that verse again, Blessed are those whose strength come
Speaker 2: from the Lord. As they pass through, you don't stay
Speaker 2: in the valley of dryness, the valley of weeping. As
Speaker 2: they pass through the valley of Bacca, they make it
Speaker 2: a place of springs.
Speaker 3: What is bacca?
Speaker 2: Baca is the valley of grief and barrenness, grief and barrenness.
Speaker 2: I just wanted you to see before we look at
Speaker 2: the solution what God says about valleys.
Speaker 3: That they are.
Speaker 2: Inevitable, that they are impartial, that they are unpredictable.
Speaker 3: But you are going to go through these in life.
Speaker 2: You've been through them in the past, and you're going
Speaker 2: to go through them again.
Speaker 3: In just a second.
Speaker 2: I want to wrap it up by talking about what
Speaker 2: do you need to remember when you're in one of
Speaker 2: these valleys, the value of failure, of the valley of fear,
Speaker 2: the value of conflict, the valley of dryness, the valley
Speaker 2: of grief, the valley of trouble.
Speaker 3: What do you do? What do I need to remember?
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. Three things God wants you to remember in
Speaker 2: a valley. Number one, Remember I'm not alone.
Speaker 3: God is with me. Remember that I'm not alone.
Speaker 2: God is with me, even when I walk through the
Speaker 2: valley of the shadow of death. By the way, that
Speaker 2: word shadow death, that's one word in Hebrew, it's sound weet,
Speaker 2: sound mo weet. Is the valley of the shadow of death.
Speaker 2: It's one of the valleys of life. Guess what you're
Speaker 2: going to go through that one. That's one valley. Everybody
Speaker 2: here and everybody on earth is going to go through
Speaker 2: the valley of the shadow of death. And he says,
Speaker 2: I will fear no evil for you are with me.
Speaker 2: Now look at that there verse on your outline, and
Speaker 2: I want to circle the word through and circle the
Speaker 2: word you, because those are the two most important words
Speaker 2: in Psalm twenty three, Verse.
Speaker 3: Four, even when I walk through.
Speaker 2: The Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear
Speaker 2: no evil, for you are with me. Two keywords through
Speaker 2: and you through the valley is temporary. You don't stay
Speaker 2: in the valley, you walk through it. You're not gonna
Speaker 2: live your entire life in the valley. You're gonna walk
Speaker 2: through it.
Speaker 3: It's temporary.
Speaker 2: That's an important thing. It's temporary. And he says you
Speaker 2: you're not alone. You're not gonna walk good alone. God
Speaker 2: is with you in the valley.
Speaker 1: What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something
Speaker 1: I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to
Speaker 1: tell you how you can help support this minute.
Speaker 2: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives
Speaker 2: according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to
Speaker 2: love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love
Speaker 2: your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.
Speaker 2: And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism, Baptize
Speaker 2: them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign
Speaker 2: of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything
Speaker 2: I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the
Speaker 2: Great Commission. We believe it Daily Hope that a great
Speaker 2: commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will
Speaker 2: produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,
Speaker 2: a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so
Speaker 2: I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just
Speaker 2: across America, but all around the world. And we want
Speaker 2: people to know that God's word is filled with hope
Speaker 2: and truth and the power that we need to follow
Speaker 2: him every day is available to every single one. You
Speaker 2: know as well as I do, that the Word of
Speaker 2: God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it
Speaker 2: breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.
Speaker 2: So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on
Speaker 2: the website, whether you listen on a radio station, or
Speaker 2: whether you listen to a podcast, you're a part of
Speaker 2: the Daily Hope family, and I need your help. We
Speaker 2: could not do this without your support. We're one hundred
Speaker 2: percent listener funded. Would you continue to pray for this
Speaker 2: broadcast and would you continue to support us.
Speaker 3: And let write to me, let me hear from you.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me,
Speaker 2: So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry
Speaker 2: and God will bless it, and God will bless you,
Speaker 2: and we'll get to heaven and we'll thank God for
Speaker 2: all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.
Speaker 4: Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 4: just go to pastorrick dot com. That's pastorrig dot com.
Speaker 4: Or you can text the word hope to seven oh
Speaker 4: three oh nine. It's the word hope to seven oh
Speaker 4: three oh nine. And really, from the bottom of our hearts,
Speaker 4: we thank you so much for your support. Your gift
Speaker 4: to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ
Speaker 4: with people everywhere. Hey, be sure to join us next
Speaker 4: time when we look into God's Word for our daily hope.
Speaker 4: This program is sponsored
Speaker 1: By Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.