Rick Warren - The God of My Valleys—Part Two

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 twenty three 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 Valleys.

And you may feel like I'm stuck. I'm addicted. I'm

you know, imprisoned. 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 sitdom, the value of Sydtom is your place of

greatest failure.

What's your sydom?

Your sydom? The valley of sitdom is an embarrassment. It's

where you look foolish and everybody sees you fall and

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 you about another kind of valley. It's called

the Valley of escall Es. Call is a valley in numbers,

chapter thirteen, 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 in

slavery for four hundred 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 takes

them forty years. What in the world they're doing for

forty years in the desert 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 their enemies in this Promised Land. They're gonna have

to fight for this land. So Moses wants to know

what's going on in the Promised Land, so he chooses

twelve scouts. We know the names of them, they're in

the Bible. One of them was Caleb, another one was Joshua.

And these twelve 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 report. Ten people said,

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 can do this, we can win this battle.

And we read this story where Moses chooses, the spy

sends them in and in numbers chapter thirteen, look up

here on the screen, verse twenty three. It says this,

Then the spies came to the valley of Eshkol. 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?

Okay, In fact, there's pictures of this. You got a

picture that there we go. That's the kind of thing

are carrying this giant cluster of grapes back. So they're

looking and this really is the land of milk and honey.

This is a land of great bounty, of 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 pomegranates in figs. Now,

they come back with a mixed report, And here's the

report in the valley of Eskol, verse twenty seven 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 is the proof. I mean, this

is a giant This is miracle growth stuff. But the

people living there are powerful. Notice but that that's a

big butt. But it's great. It's a great country. God's

given us a great country. But the people living there

are powerful, 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 four hundred years.

They don't know how to break out the thing that's

going on in their mind.

Now.

The valley of Eshcol is different than the Valley of Cinema.

And what is it. This is the valley of fear.

You might write this down. Eshcol is the valley of fear.

And they have to make this decision. Okay, we're going

to go in and take what's rightfully ours. 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 at isle in the desert. Nobody God didn't tell

them you have to stand in the desert for forty years.

They had just been mosy and around and they kept

failing the tests that God gave them.

Now here's my question.

What is your valley? What is your valley of sh call?

What's the place that you're 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

esh call 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 an esch call in

that kind of valley. Well, tell me what, 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 it an obstacle or is it an opportunity. Two

of the twelve 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 into the promised land. Why because they failed the

test of Eskol. Let me give you another one. It's

called the Valley of Ela e Lah. The Valley of

Ela is in First Samuel seventeen. 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 Elah.

Look up here on the screen.

They Philistines, and and and the Israelites were in the

Valley of Ela, and they're poised for battle. And it

says Saul and the Israelites camped in the Valley of Elah,

and they drew up a battle plan, battle plants to

fight the Philistines. Now the Philistines and the Israelites stood,

each stood their ground, shouting and taunting each other from

opposite hills, with the Valley of Elah between them. Okay,

and so then it is that now the Philistine army

had a giant champion fighter. This is a you know,

multi martial arts here, giant champion fighter named Goliath, who

was about nine 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,

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. The Lord is my shepherd.

I have everything I need. In verse thirty two, David

says this, don't worry about a thing. David told us

all 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 a bunch of whimps, your weaklings.

You're not worth anything. He says, Let's don't have this battle.

How about let's just.

Go mono amna one on one.

You send out your best guy, Israel, and I'm the

best guy for the Philistines. We'll take 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 Elah?

Write this down. Ella is the valley of conflict. It's

when you're facing a giant challenge, like a goliath. You're

facing a giant conflict. You're facing a giant. Somebody's in

your face. You've got an opposition, you got an opponent,

You've got conflict, you 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 Death, but you may be

in one of these other ones. You may be in Sidham,

and you may be in Eshkohl, 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 Elah between them. Some

of you, that describes your marriage, and you're standing your

ground over here, and your spouse is standing their ground

over there, and you're right there in the middle, and

there's a deadlock going on. You are in the valley

of Elaw. All right, one more, one more, And this

is called the Valley of Bacca, Baca, the valley of Baca.

It's mentioned in Psalm eighty four, and again I just

picked out four of the many significant valleys in scripture.

In Psalm eighty four, the word Baca 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 Baca like there were these others. And the

Valley of Bacca was a desert. It was a dry, dry, dusty,

arid 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 Baca to

get there. And so all the pilgrims who wanted to

come to Jerusalem had to travel through the Valley of Baca,

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 psaw eighty five. Verses five and seven

says this, blessed are those whose strength comes from the Lord.

As they pass through the valley of Bacca, that's the

valley of weeping, they make it a place of springs.

Huh.

All of a sudden, the water's showing up.

As they pass through this dry, arid valley of Baca weeping.

They make it a place of 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

services on that verse. I want you to notice first,

when you're going through the valley of Baca.

It's dry. I don't have any feelings.

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 emotion. 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 Baca. 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 your

entire life, growing from one level of maturity to the

next level of maturity, to the next level of maturity,

and the next level of maturity to the next level maturity.

They grow from strength to drink.

Growing until each appears before God and 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 I do 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

value 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? What's going on here? Faith turns a

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 they're 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 six.

Notice that verse again, Blessed are those whose 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 Bacca, they make it

a place of springs.

What is bacca?

Baca 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.

In 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 value of failure, of the valley of fear,

the value 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 are

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, that

word shadow death, that's one word in Hebrew, it's sound weet,

sound mo weet. 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 on 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 twenty three, Verse.

Four, even when I walk through.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear

no evil, for you are with me. Two keywords through

and you through the valley is temporary. You don't stay

in the valley, you walk through it. You're not gonna

live your entire life in the valley. You're gonna 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 gonna walk good 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

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