Valley of Dispair

All right, good morning. While they are heading out,

let's go ahead and turn to Psalm chapter 84.

Psalms 84 · chapter mention

That's where we'll be this morning, Psalm 84.

And if you recognize this chapter, it's because you just

heard a message on it not all that long ago, but we're going

to cover it again because I believe God has some things for

us in here this morning. So Psalm 84 is where we'll be.

Hope y'all had a good week. Glad to see everybody that made

it here safely. I'm sure some are still coming

in. The weather changes from county

to county so some may be getting a little bit more sleet or

something like that. So hopefully they make it here.

Pray that they will. Psalm 84 is where we're going to

be this morning. I'm going to, I'm going to jump

straight in and just read this passage.

It's only 12 verses long and then and then we'll pray and

then we'll get into our lesson. So Psalm 84 and verse one, and

it says How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, my

soul longeth, yeah, even fainteth, for the courts of the

Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out

for the living God. Yeah, the Sparrow hath found in

house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her

young, even thine altars. O Lord of hosts, my King and my

God, blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still

praising thee, Seala. Blessed is the man whose

strength is in thee, and whose heart are the ways of them who,

passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well.

The rain also fills the filleth the pools.

They go from strength to strength.

Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer, give ear, O God of

Jacob. Selah.

Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine

anointed, for a day in Thy courts is better than 1000.

And I had I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my

God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the Lord God is a son and shield.

The Lord will give grace and glory.

No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

And I think it's interesting as we go through this.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but does anybody know

what that Selah means at the end of the couple of those?

Yeah, Pause, stop and think of that.

There's a old evangelist. He's dead now, but he wrote a he

wrote a song called. Well, think of that, and it was

based on this. Stop and think about what you

just read and see what what God has for you.

Remember, these are songs. So there's a very good

possibility when they hit that sealer that they paused and, and

maybe the instruments kept going, but they stopped to think

about what they just sang. O Lord God of hosts, hear my

prayer, give ear. O God of Jacob, pause and

reflect on that God of Jacob, who, who was that?

So just an interesting thing in this passage.

We don't see it in all of the Psalms, but we see it all over

the place in the Psalms. And so time for pausing and

reflecting. And we're going to do that this

morning. Is is take a look at what we can

find from Psalm chapter 84 in the valley of Baca.

Psalms 84 · chapter mention

But let's pray and then we'll get into it.

Father, I thank you for this day you've given us.

Got to thank you for the safety you gave us this morning on the

roads. Thank you for holding the

weather off as we prayed even last night that you would hold,

hold the weather away so that we could meet in your house this

morning. Thank you for doing that.

And I pray that you'd help those that are still on their way to

give them safety. And God, I just pray that you'd

meet with us this morning here in Sunday school and in the next

service as well. But God, I pray that as we read

here in the Psalms, Psalm 84, I pray that we would just really

desire to be in your house and to hear from you and to not just

be here because it's what we do on Sunday, but because we need

to hear from you. We need the strength that you

can give us through your word to carry us.

And so I pray that you just bless the lessons this morning

and God that you'd give us what we need from it.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Now this valley of Baca, if you

remember, it wasn't all that long ago.

Does anybody remember what Baca means?

You may even see it in your Bible.

I don't know. Some, some have it weeping.

It's a valley of weeping, which which automatically makes us

wonder, you know, what, what was, what was this valley?

Where was it? And so I've read a couple

different things. Some say, you know, they were

coming to Jerusalem to to worship in the in the temple and

they may have just been coming through the desert to get there.

But there's a good possibility this is not an actual physical

valley. It's not even a real thing.

It's it's a picture that that somebody was putting in Psalm

song for them to to think about as they were making their way to

the temple to worship. It's also you see at the the

header there to the chief musician upon getteth A Psalm

for the sons of Korra. I also read another thing that

this is possible that this Psalm goes all the way back to the

wilderness wanderings, even though David wouldn't have been

there, but the wilderness wanderings.

And this song was written by and for the sons of Kora.

Now kora, this is the same kora that the earth opened up and

swallowed him and all his men up.

That's the same family. And I think it's interesting the

grace of God on the family, even though they're patriarch was

this had had this major rebellion against Moses and

Aaron, but they were that were musicians there in the temple in

Jerusalem. And so anyways, we don't know

exactly it where this valley would be or if it even is a

physical valley, but it does mean the valley of weeping.

And so pastor preached a message, like I said a couple

months ago on this and it's been in my mind since he preached

that on and off. And then I, I came to this

lesson this week and I said, well, we get to learn about it

again. And I think we can learn some

really good lessons from it. And now here's the thing though,

we all, even when pastor was preaching, we're all going to go

through valleys. And I hope that your, your mind

and your heart are prepared so that when you do go through a

valley, another another word I saw here was despair.

That's a good word for it, a valley of despair, that when you

go through that your mind and your heart are prepared so that

you don't, it's not a, a time to be melancholy, even though it's

not fun. It's a time to learn.

It's a time to, as we'll see here in just a second, to lean

on God and his understanding, not on our own.

And so when you go in through a valley, I think often we look

for sympathy, we look for help from the people in the church

and that's good and that should happen.

But but a valley is meant to strengthen us.

That's what God puts us through them for.

So keep that in mind when you go through your valley.

It's not a, oh, why does this happen to me?

Think about Job. We just finished reading Job.

We're, we're also reading through the Bible

chronologically this year. And Job is one of the oldest

books. So you start in Genesis and then

you jump straight to Job after like 10 chapters of Genesis

chronologically. It's the oldest book that we

have. And Job is really struggling to

understand why he's going through it.

In fact, all of his friends are telling him, you're going

through it because of sin. Who are you to question God?

And Job's saying I, I can't find anything in my life and he goes

to God. God, you are righteous and you

are just. Why am I going through this when

I don't know of any sin in my life?

The point though is his mindset was right.

He wasn't asking God, why are you putting me through this?

He was saying, what do I need to learn?

What do I need to change in my life?

And at the end of the verse, at the end of the book of Job, God

basically tells him, there's nothing.

It was a trial that I put you through to strengthen you.

When you're tried, you'll come forth as gold.

And, and Joe finally understands that.

And then he he's actually able to turn to his friends.

In fact, God rebukes his friends.

And we're going to talk about that a little bit here at the

very end, because other people that have gone through those

valleys, sometimes others that have not gone through those

valleys can be a huge help to the people going through this

valley of weeping if if they're right as well and doing what

they are supposed to do as a Christian.

So we'll look at that at the very end.

But I want to as an introduction here as they go through this

Psalm 84, they are heading to the temple.

This is not one of the Psalm of degrees.

Remember, if you've heard that it's a song they would sing as

they headed to the temple. This is not one of those psalms,

but it is a Psalm that as they were getting to Jerusalem, they

would have been singing as they journeyed on their way.

And so this is this is they are making their way to a good

place, but there are going to be trials and struggles on the way.

And I, I can't think of what better picture for the Christian

life. We're headed to a good place.

We've got a promise in the Holy Spirit sealing that promise.

We are headed to a, to a really good place, not just heaven, but

fellowship for eternity with our Savior and with our God.

But along the way, we're going to, we're going to have some

struggles and some of us, some of us know more about those

struggles than others maybe. But we all will go through them,

whether it's whether it's physical, whether it's mental,

whether it's spiritual. We're going to go through some

of these these struggles and some through some of these

valleys. But we're going to a good place.

And that's not the typical funeral message.

He's in a better place. That's not what I'm talking

about. I'm talking about if you're

saved. We know what our end is, but it

doesn't mean that our days here on earth are going to be easy.

And so that's what this Psalm 84 is about.

Look, in verse 4 we find that this Psalm is a is.

We find blessings in this Psalm and the first one is in verse 4,

the blessing of dwelling in God's house.

It says blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be

still praising thee. And then we see that word after

it. Sela think about that.

Blessed are they that dwell in thy house.

They will be still praising thee as they go through this valley.

They will still be praising thee.

So we we find the blessing of dwelling against God's house.

We see another blessing in verse 5, the blessing of drawing on

God's strength and that is a blessing.

Pastor says it all the time. I don't know how the how

somebody goes through life in the world without knowing Christ

and and it's true. They have no real true strength

to draw from when they go through these trials.

They make it through but it but it depletes them because they're

completely going on in their own strength.

But verse five said, blessed is the man whose strength is in

thee, in whose heart are the ways of them, but blessed is the

man whose strength is in thee. You can find blessings in these

valleys by leaning on, on, on our God, on Christ on the

strength that we have in him. We also see the blessing of

depending on God's provision in verse 12.

O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

But you're going to need provisions going through these

valleys. You're going to need spiritual

provision. You're going to need physical

provision. And that's a blessing to be able

to lean on God for that, for that provision that we need.

And we find that we need these things.

Anybody, ever, anybody that's ever done any hiking or mountain

climbing that's extensive. And I'm not talking about a

three mile hike, but a real, I know Scott does some of this.

He'll come into church. I did 32 miles yesterday.

I don't know if it goes that far, but long, long hikes, some

of them, some of these mountains, they take, you know,

14 or 16 or 18 hours to get to the top of these mountains.

Needing things on your journeys is not really an option.

You must have them. And so when we, when we're going

through Psalm 84 here, blessed is the man whose strength is in

thee. Blessed is the man that trusteth

in thee. Blessed are they that dwell in

thy house. These are blessings, but they're

blessings that we must have. We need them or we're not going

to make it through the valley. And so I think the psalmist here

is saying they are blessings, but they're absolute

necessities. And so we would do well to learn

what we need and how we can get those things.

And so let's jump right into this actual lesson.

And the first point I have here is the Valley of Baca is a place

of pilgrimage in verse. Let's see in verse six, who

passing through the Valley of Baca make it a well, I think the

keyword there is through. He's not staying there.

And, and thankfully, you know, this is this, this is a valley

that probably every single Christian and probably every

single person in the world will go through.

But, but the goal is not to stay in that valley.

The the goal is to pass through that, that valley, passing

through the valley of weeping or the valley of despair.

First I want to look at this. It's it is a tough valley to go

through. It's tough and I already

mentioned this, but this, this, this valley could be physical,

could be disease, could be, could be, you know, sickness, it

could be a disability, could also be emotional.

And I, and I know people go through that.

And I think the ones that aren't dealing with anxiety or

depression sometimes look at others that are and say, well,

they must just be, have a weak mind.

But it, it's, it's a real thing. And, and, and so it could be an

emotional valley that we're going through.

It could be the loss of a loved one.

It could be family, family issues, family divisions, even

even divorce or the loss of a not a loss physically of a

child, but a child that walks away from God.

Those are emotional valleys that we go through.

It could be a financial valley. And we all, we all know what

that can feel like, right? Being tight on money and not

knowing what, what you're going to do.

Those are valleys, but also could be spiritual.

And we talked about this last week with besetting sin.

Why do we, why are we always, it seems dealing with and I and I

think it's because Satan knows what what our weaknesses are.

And so we continually deal with those same weaknesses.

But these valleys could be spiritual valleys where we're

dealing with a besetting sin or Satan just has us in a, in a, in

a spirit of bitterness. And I'm telling you, when, when

somebody gets bitter or when you get bitter, it, it, it changes

everything you're doing everything.

You see through that lens of bitterness.

Nothing is right, right. You can find, you can be

critical of everything. So it could be that you're

passing through this valley, but remember that it's a pilgrimage.

You're not staying there. And, and, and we'd be, we'd be

good to remember that because that is the second point.

Remember that it's temporary. In Psalm chapter 30, verse 5, it

Psalms 30:5

says weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the

morning. Remember, it's not there

forever. And I think we get kind of stuck

in that cycle of we, we, we expect it to last forever.

We just, it's part of who I am. This is what I deal with.

But it doesn't have to be. And so it's a temporary valley.

Eventually it will come to an end.

And I wrote this, but we already kind of talked about we don't

just wallow in our valley, which is the easy thing to do.

I've heard of people that, you know, they're, they're

struggling with whatever situation and they can't even

get out of bed. And I'm not, I'm not knocking

them. I'm saying it, that happens.

And we, we can't wallow in our valley, though.

So here's the, here's the attitude we have to have.

What can I learn while I'm in this valley?

What, what is it that God wants me to learn?

But what can I learn while I'm here?

And you've heard this probably more than once in messages.

God puts us through things, I believe to to strengthen us, to

help us, but then so that you can turn around and help

somebody else who's going through that same thing later.

And we're going to see that here in just a minute.

But I think that's a absolutely a part of going through a

valley, particularly these valleys of despair, these

valleys of weeping. You know, this is not just a

tough time. This is a valley.

This is, this is a, this is a place of despair, of almost

hopelessness. And that's why he's saying, but,

but blessed are they that dwell in thy house.

Even when they're going through the valley, they're, they're

blessed for dwelling in the House of God.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.

Blessed is the, is the man that trusteth in thee.

And so remember that this is a pilgrimage, though it's not

going to be easy. It's not meant to be easy by the

very word pilgrimage. It's, it's a, it's a marathon.

It's going to be a tough, a tough thing, but it's temporary.

But the second thing is, and we already talked about this a

little tiny bit as well, but it's a place of profitability.

He says this in verse six. Who passing through the valley

of Baca make it a well? What does that mean?

It doesn't say he maketh a well, which seems like seems like that

should be the phrase. Who passing through the valley

of Baca maketh a well? He turns the valley of weeping

into a well, and you can take that a whole bunch of different

ways. I even read somebody who was

saying his tears actually make the well.

I don't know if we can we can pull that from this passage, but

it's very clear that a well is being made.

Now you're in a you got to think you're in a wilderness, in a

desert. Why would you make a well?

Because the very next verse says the rain also filleth the pools.

So when they're making, when you're going through this valley

and you make a well, remember this, this is not always to help

you. It may be to help the next

person coming along behind you. But he makes a well and the rain

Now can we make it rain? That's nothing.

That's nothing of our doing. Can we make a well?

We can. So we're doing the the physical

part in preparation for the blessing of God.

And when the rain does come, I think that's very much what it's

saying. The rain, the blessings from God

finally come and the pools that we've prepared and the wells

that we've prepared fill up with the blessings of God so that

others coming along can be a part partakers of those

blessings. I'll give you a perfect example.

You know the name Horatio Spafford, He wrote it is well,

with my soul. There's a few details here about

this song that I didn't didn't really know.

But he was a attorney in Chicago and he was very, very heavily

invested in real estate. In 1871, If you know your

history, the great Chicago Fire happened.

He lost tons and tons of his real estate kind of before

insurance was really a thing. So you just, it was just gone.

You just lost it. He was very actually pretty

wealthy, though. And right around that same time,

he lost his only son, who was four years old to scarlet fever.

And so he stayed in the city of Chicago.

This is this is also at the same time DL Moody and and some of

the others were evangelizing Chicago.

So he teamed up with DL Moody and helped rebuild a huge

sections of Chicago. A lot of his own money going

into that. But anyways, after most of that

was was done, he wanted to go meet up with DL Moody and Iris

Sankey in Europe where they were.

Already they had already moved, gone on to England with their

crusades anyways, So he sent his wife and daughters.

And we know this is this part of the story.

We know he sent his wife and daughters ahead because some

some work in in New York, some business required his attention.

So he went to New York, they sailed to London, and halfway

across or so a ace, an iron ore ship of some sort, hit their

boat and sunk it. And out of 273 people, 47

survived. And one of those was Horatius

Bafford's wife. And she made it to Wales.

And she wired, I was going to say, texted, she wired a cable

back to her husband saying with two words, it said saved alone.

And so he booked his passage as quickly as he could and headed

to Wales. And that's the part of the story

we know as they kind of got over the place where that ship went

down, that the captain told him, this is this is where that ship

went down and where your daughters were lost.

And Horatio Spafford, it says, went to his cabin, couldn't

sleep. And he said to himself, it is

well, the will of God be done. And very shortly after that, he

wrote the song It is well with my soul.

And it's I think it's interesting.

This is exactly what we're talking about with going through

the Valley of Baca. You know, sometimes our life is

going to be good. Sometimes it's not.

And we don't necessarily get to pick when there's nothing they

could do about that ship hitting.

There's nothing he could do about losing his daughters or

his son, nothing he could do about the Chicago Fire.

But this is this is one of the verses that he wrote.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, very, very

good times, right? Everything's going perfectly

smooth. The very next line, though,

says, When sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot

thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.

That's the peace that passes all understanding that an unsafe

person has no possible way of knowing or feeling or having.

Whatever my lot you've taught me to say, it's well with my soul

because it is. And you know, all those other

things are temporary. In fact, this valley that he

went through losing his daughter was temporary.

But in the valley, what did he do?

He made some wells. One of those being this song.

And this is a song that we still use even now when we're going

through a really tough time. This a song we sing, it comforts

us. It comforts our hearts and our

souls to know that A others have been through it and they've come

out alive. But B that you can you can lean

on God in these times. And that's what we see here in

Psalm 84. But first second Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:3

chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 says blessed be God, even the Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of

all comfort who comforted comforted us in all our

tribulation. And here's the key that we may

be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the

comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

That's exactly what this Psalm 84 is talking about.

God comforts us in our tribulation that we may be able

to comfort them that are in any trouble by the same comfort

wherewith we ourselves are comforted.

So the point here is, is to to know that what can we gain from

this valley that we're going through?

And there's a lot to gain. Now, thirdly, it's a place of

promise. And he says this in verse six.

Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well, The rain

also filleth the pools. It doesn't say that the rain

maybe could fill the pools. If it rained, it's it's

happening, it's going to happen. God is going to send blessing

and it's how how have we prepared to catch those

blessings that he is is sending our way?

And he says this in second Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9,

2 Corinthians 12:9

My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect

in weakness. That's what he is saying here in

verse verse 5. So he says my strength is made

perfect in your weakness. Verse 5 blessed is the man whose

strength is in thee. You know, it takes it takes

getting sick and being in bed for two or three days for the

even the strongest man to realize I'm not that strong,

right. We go through things like that.

Maybe maybe when you've even heard of athletes in their prime

in a helicopter accident, they're gone.

It doesn't matter how strong we are, even even mentally or

whatever other way to we go through a trial and realize I

really don't have that much strength in me.

And so I need the blessing of God.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.

But that's a that's a pretty, pretty awesome promise that God

gives us. My grace is sufficient for thee

and my strength is made perfect in weakness.

And so that's what I want us to remember.

I wrote a few things down here, but I but I I think that we

overlook sometimes things when we're going through that.

We can look at this two ways and I don't know if if this passage

was meant to look at it in in this other way, but here's what

he says in verse 4. I want us to think about this

for a second. I'm going to leave our lesson.

We're we're pretty much done with that.

But think about this. Blessed are they that dwell in

thy house. They will still be praising me.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose

heart are the ways of them. Now here's here's where I think

we we can have an alternative look at this passage because we

already looked at the ones passing through who are going

through this valley. They're struggling struggling

along. They have strength by leaning

on, on, on Christ. But verse six, who passing

through the valley of Baca make it a well.

The rain also fill with the pools.

They go from strength to strength.

Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer give here, O God of

Jacob. But I think the key there is in

verses four and five. Blessed are they that dwell in

the house. They will still be praising

thee. Blessed is the man whose

strength is in thee, whose heart are the ways of them.

And then he goes into this valley.

I think this is an important way for us as Christians to look at

it because you don't always have to be the one that is hurting to

be in that valley, if that makes sense.

You could be in the valley, Walk it alongside of the other person

in the valley. We see that in Psalm chapter 23,

Psalms 23 · chapter mention

the valley of the shadow of death.

He is with you though. Well, that doesn't mean God's

going through the valley struggling.

He's going through the valley to be there with you.

And I think, I think we can see that here in this passage that

other Christians are passing through this valley there.

It's the same pathway. They're going to get to

Jerusalem, but but they might not be without provision.

They might not be without strength.

They might be OK as they go through this valley and they

passing through the valley of Baca make a well for the ones

that are struggling. That's what I'm saying.

I don't, I'm not saying this is the way to interpret this

passage, but I definitely think there's the thought is there

that other Christians are helping the ones along who are

struggling because then it says they go from strength to

strength, every one of them in Zion.

What is that? What does that mean?

I think they're going from well to well to well, barely making

it as they get through this valley, wells that have been

made by others and they go from strength to strength to strength

and they finally come out the other side and they end up

heading to the temple there in Jerusalem.

And where he says in verse 10, a day in that courts is better

than 1000 days not in your courts.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to

dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Think we can interpret this two ways as well.

They finally made it through the valley and they're, they're a

doorkeeper in God's house and they would rather do that than

dwell in the tents of wickedness.

But I also think that we could interpret that, that another

Christian who is a doorkeeper in the House of God is, is the one

that's helping these people through this valley.

Anyway, I just think it's an interesting way to look at it

because we preach that and we teach that and we do that.

But I think this passage is saying that not only should we

or can we, it's a requirement that we, as we pass through the

Valley of Baca, are looking around saying who who needs

help? I'm doing OK.

I have the strength that I need. It reminds me of a story.

We, when I was in, I must have been in 8th or 9th grade, we

went to Pikes Peak and the entire youth group went and

there's probably, I don't know, 70 or 80 of us that climbed

Pikes Peak. It wasn't the whole youth group

because you had to meet some requirements in order to go just

so they didn't have any catastrophes on the way up.

And so one of those things was you had to, we had, I think it

was Tuesday's we would do for like maybe 6 or 8 weeks before

the actual hike. We had workout sessions.

We all had to be there, all the, the guys and the girls.

And we had a lake. Long, long story, but they had

built an overpass near our church and they used this land

to dig out. They were using sand from it to

build the overpass and what turned into a lake And then our

church ended up buying the property and we had this

beautiful, I don't know how many acre lake.

It was huge though. I think they say 60 acres, but I

don't know if it was that big, big, Big Lake.

And they stocked it with fish and everything and we've had

canoes and everything else on it.

The problem was down to the lake was really steep.

So they made steps. Well, that was our workout. 50

lake steps and you down, up, one down, up to, and there was

probably 40 or 50 stairs. They were just railroad ties.

But anyways, that was one of the workouts.

And I remember one of the guys doing those workouts, we were

all in soccer and everything else.

So we were in decent shape, but we weren't, I wouldn't say in

hiking shape with big backpacks and everything.

And I remember one of the guys was, they would say, all right,

do 30 sets of lake stairs. That's what we called them.

And he was cheating. I know he was cheating.

I'd get to the top. I'm passing him, you know, a

couple times every four or five laps and he finished before us.

I'm like he, he's cheating. Anyways, we get to Pikes Peak

and now we're on our way up the mountain And this guy was so

out. I wouldn't say so out of shape,

but he was out of shape for that to where there were several of

them. They took their packs off and

laid them, laid their packs down and they they didn't know where

they were at. If you ever, if you've ever done

a mountain, the, the thin air really gets to you and and

you'll lose your mind almost. And anyways, we had to pick up

his pack and carry it up the mountain as as we went.

But I think that's kind of what this is, whether it's a that

persons fault there in that valley or in that struggle or

whether it's not something they completely out of their control.

We passing through the valley of Baca can be a help to the other

ones that are going through it. And I think that's, I think

that's something we definitely can take away from Psalm 84.

I'd encourage you to go back and read.

It's only 12 verses long and the meat of it's only a few verses

there, but I think we can can get that out of it.

But if you're in the valley and you don't have anybody with you

passing through to help you, Blessed is are they that dwell

in thy house. That's where we get our strength

from. Blessed is a man whose strength

then is in thee and whose heart are the ways of them.

And blessed is the man that trusteth in thee in the valley

of despair, but trusting in God, you'll get through it and you'll

be stronger on the other side. And I know that's cliche.

You don't just automatically be stronger on the other side,

though. You have to put your trust in

God and see what He has for you to learn from that valley.

And then you will come out on the other side stronger and able

to help the others that are going through that same valley.

Maybe on your next trip to the temple and you're able to help

those people along. So lots we can learn from these

valleys. But remember, don't don't get

stuck in the valley and wallow in the struggle of the valley.

There's a lot we can learn from it and then we can help others

when we finally get out of it ourselves.

All right, let's pray and we'll be finished.

Father, thank you for the day again that you've given us.

Thank you for your goodness in our lives.

Thank you for your provision. Got I know there are some here

in in in this church, some of that are sitting here in front

of me this morning that are are have things in their lives that

they're struggling with. Maybe not sin, maybe it's

finances, maybe it's maybe it is emotional.

Maybe it's family, maybe it's their own children that are just

struggling along. And that puts that that's a

struggle for us when our children are struggling and

we've all that have kids. We've all been there.

And so I pray that you'd help us, God, as we go through these

valleys, to lean on you for our understanding and for our

strength and the ones that are not in that valley at this

moment, I pray that you'd help us to be a strength and a help

to those that are going through it.

And God, I just pray that you'd help us to continually grow as

Christians, to continually draw closer to you, to continually

understand your word and, and what you have for us in it.

We got I just pray that you'd just help us as a church God, as

a as a body of believers, that we'd help each other out and and

get through these valleys and praise you on the other side.

Praise you, bless the next service, in Jesus name I pray.

Amen.