I Shall Not Fear

[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com Good morning If you have a Bible term to Psalm 23 And as you're turning there, if you are new to Citizens, if you're visiting

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're checking out our church, maybe you're checking out Christianity.

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome, we're glad you're here, my name is Jamen and I am one of the pastors here.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is our second week in Psalm 23.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will be in this Psalm for a total of three weeks in this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to look right at the middle of the Psalm two weeks ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: On Sunday, my wife and I celebrated 18 years of marriage.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: our love can vote and on our anniversary my girls asked if they could watch our wedding video and so we haven't watched it in a while the only copy we have is on a DVD which is this Frisbee that plays movies and Kerry found it and figured out a way to play it on the laptop and so we got it gathered around the laptop and we watched it and here's what was true about that moment it was very very sweet.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, as we watched it, my daughters kept commenting on how young we looked.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were 21 and 22 and we got married and they thought that was just so young.

[SPEAKER_01]: Later I told them that my mom and dad were married when they were 18 and my daughter said, isn't that illegal?

[SPEAKER_01]: My dad, here's some observations from sitting there.

[SPEAKER_01]: My dad officiated the wedding.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a pastor, and he pulled double duty that day as dad and pastor, and I listened to the whole sermon that he preached during the ceremony.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what's true now is so many of the things that he communicated then of proven true.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said something to the effect of if you fix your eyes on Jesus and not on one another, then you'll find the help you need to love one another well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that has been true in our 18 years together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our friends were there, and they sang how deep the fathers love, which is still one of our favorite songs, our vows that we recited were precious.

[SPEAKER_01]: Carrie still has her ring from that day, I'm on number 10 or 11, I think.

[SPEAKER_01]: But watching our wedding, 18 years to the day after with my kids, and with mostly with a wife who's been faithful to her promises because God has been faithful to us is just special.

[SPEAKER_00]: And something else happened watching our wedding video.

[SPEAKER_01]: of a few minutes into the video, they're just panning out across the ceremony and Grandma and Grandpa Roller were ushered to the front.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Grandma died of colon cancer.

[SPEAKER_01]: The year after was born.

[SPEAKER_01]: Grandpa died a few years later from heart failure.

[SPEAKER_01]: We saw Carrie's uncle, Billy, who died from COVID in 2021.

[SPEAKER_01]: Salt Branden.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a college friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was just a year older than me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He died of cancer last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: My mom's mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Carrie's grandma.

[SPEAKER_01]: My friend's dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: Karen, I talked about it later.

[SPEAKER_01]: We counted 12 people at our wedding, who have died since our wedding, and we didn't have a big wedding.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to be morbid.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to be gloomy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just having this moment with my family.

[SPEAKER_01]: On a special day, on an anniversary day, and I just couldn't ignore the people I saw who were no longer here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the song puts words to what that felt like.

[SPEAKER_01]: and it can loom over any moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it loomed over that moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't ruin it, but you couldn't miss it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't steal the show, but it was an uninvited guest for sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Meaning we did not get that DVD out and sit down with our family to watch our wedding for the purpose of being confronted with loss, but that's what happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that is life in this broken world.

[SPEAKER_01]: death casts its shadow over all of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I were to say it in the voice of Ecclesiastes, which means, if I were to say it in a way that we'll ruin your day, the wedding doesn't protect you from the funeral.

[SPEAKER_01]: Better is the house of mourning than the house of feasting for this is the end of all mankind.

[SPEAKER_01]: The shadow goes wherever it wants.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm mindful of that right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today's promotion Sunday, one of my favorite things about our church, one of my favorite things about our churches that God has filled our church with children.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are a gift.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you look on a social media, if you watch the news, you might say something like the future of this country is bleak and I get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you go to the chapel during kids sitting on a Sunday morning,

[SPEAKER_01]: Or if you come here on a Wednesday night when our youth gather, you might say something like the future of the church is bright.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is forming here, young disciples who know, love, trust, and obeyed Jesus, and it's just a privilege to be a part of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And today is the day that it's a milestone day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last year's kindergarten class moves into first grade, which means they're part of kids sitting now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last year's fifth grade class moves into sixth grade, which means you have to come in here every Sunday and listen to me, and you don't have a choice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And all of that's happening so fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know of at least one sixth grader who is in here now, and I held you when you were a baby.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I am not going to name your name because that's not the kind of attention you want and sixth grade.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's just part of what it means to be a part of citizen church years, to be a part of discipling this generation of the church and it's a gift.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we make space to honor that and celebrate that and the hope in all of that is that our students would not think of citizens as mom and dad's church but that they would say this is my church.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we

[SPEAKER_01]: Celebrate the milestone of that, and what that means today is celebrating at the best way we know how, and that means everyone gets ice cream after church.

[SPEAKER_01]: And some of our church members are not here today because they're home on hospice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And some of our children are not here because they're recovering from treatment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And some of our children who should be moving up a grade are not here because they're no longer with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And some of our brothers and sisters who desperately want children can't have them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know we're not all thinking about that on a day like today, but mom and dad are thinking about that on a day like today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that doesn't make it wrong at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's good and right to celebrate what God celebrates.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's my point.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just mindful as a pastor.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm mindful that even on a day when a church celebrates the shadow of death does not give that church a break, then give that church a break.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last week, we started looking at Psalm 23 this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of our time would be on verse 4.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what we know.

[SPEAKER_01]: The shadow can impose on anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's just an unwelcome interruption.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a wedding video that reminds you of funerals.

[SPEAKER_01]: What the solemn is describing, though, is a more pronounced experience of suffering than that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's a valley of deep darkness as the way the Bible describes it, other places.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's surrounded by pain, lost, danger, the threat of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: The word for evil that's used in verse four covers a range of experiences.

[SPEAKER_01]: It can be a malicious kind of evil, or it can just be the brokenness of living in a fallen world.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we ask what it is, what is the Valley of the Shadow of Death?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's hospice, and it's car wrecks, and it's abuse, and it's disease, and it's relational betrayal, and it's chronic illness.

[SPEAKER_01]: We could go around the room this size.

[SPEAKER_01]: We could go around a room a third of this size.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we could just name the valleys we've been through, or the valley you're in right now, or the valley you're scared as part of your future.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what we would describe are all different kinds of ways that the shadow of death just took the light out of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: In people, say all kinds of things in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: My life is over.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is meaningless.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is my fault.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is not worth it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what I deserve.

[SPEAKER_01]: People say all kinds of things about God in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: God must not know.

[SPEAKER_01]: God must not care.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is not good.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is not real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last week we said Psalm 23 describes three scenes of life with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it spans the entire course of our life with the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the Meadow and the Valley and the Home.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the good news of Psalm 23 is all who confess Jesus as shepherd can say what the Psalm says in each of those scenes.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in the Meadow, we can say, I shall not want.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in the home, we'll see this next week.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can say, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you followers of Christ say in the Valley?

[SPEAKER_01]: what hope do we have living in a world haunted by the shadow of death?

[SPEAKER_01]: What does it sound like to hold on to our faith even in the darkest moments of life?

[SPEAKER_01]: What we want to say, what we want to be able to say is I shall never experience you, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I can go around you.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we want to say is that we will avoid suffering and pain and loss and death.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't say that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The shadow didn't respect that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The shadow didn't honor our weddings or our services or our wishes or our hopes or our dreams.

[SPEAKER_01]: It shows up uninvited, but it always shows up.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one can go around the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we can't say I will never be there, but what is so precious about this soul.

[SPEAKER_01]: what has made this Psalm resonate with Christians for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.

[SPEAKER_01]: What it wants to help form in us is a life that can be right in the valley and be unafraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will fear no evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: I shall not fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here's what we're going.

[SPEAKER_01]: I shall not fear, is what Christians say, can say, have said, in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that is the fruit of relationship with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the natural reaction.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not everybody says that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Many of us, plenty of us, all of us, can describe what fear has looked like, does look like in our life.

[SPEAKER_01]: David says, I will fear no evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: But his eye statement is a fruit of his use statements.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he says in the valley about himself, he says because of what he says in the valley about his God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to name two and then unpack them together.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are in control and you are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The life that says I shall not fear is the heart that says to God, you are in control and you are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Start with me in verse three.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll back up just a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last week I invited you to read the Psalm every day.

[SPEAKER_01]: I invited you to commit this Psalm to memory, if you haven't memorized it, or if you memorized it and then forgot it and need to memorize it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you've done that, if you've spent any time in this Psalm this week, you've probably noticed that there's a break in your Bible between verse 3 and verse 4.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that break, even if it's just the space that the Bible puts there, or the publisher puts there, because it makes sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: It starts with it makes me lie down, and he leads and he besides still waters.

[SPEAKER_01]: He restores my soul.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me in paths of righteousness.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all very restful, even though.

[SPEAKER_01]: in verse four.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that sounds like a change of subject, but there's a connection we can't miss between verse three and verse four.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me in paths of righteousness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Means God guides me for His glory and for my good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where He leads me is good for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It accomplishes good in me because the shepherd is good to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me in paths of righteousness.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what that means.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well then, how did I get in the valley?

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's David Gibson, he's a pastor in Scotland, in order to book on Psalm 23.

[SPEAKER_01]: The unexpected development in the story of Psalm 23 is that the good shepherd's path of righteousness sometimes includes the valley of the shadow of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I find myself in the valley of deep darkness, it is because he has led me there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does it mean God is malicious?

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean that God's the author of evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean that God delights in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: He does not, here's what it means.

[SPEAKER_01]: It means this God is in control.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is in control.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing more important to believe in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing more important to say to God in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are in control.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think about the alternative.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think about what we lose if Psalm 23 doesn't have Psalm 23-4.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is my shepherd.

[SPEAKER_01]: I shall not want.

[SPEAKER_01]: He makes me lie down in green pastures.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me beside still waters.

[SPEAKER_01]: He restores my soul.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

[SPEAKER_01]: You prepare table before me in the presence of my enemies.

[SPEAKER_01]: You and I, my head with oil, my cup overflow, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds great, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Life with God is rest and waters in table and food.

[SPEAKER_01]: And whatever the oil is and goodness and mercy, it's meadow and it's home, it's pasture and it's table.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that sounds great until when, until you find yourself in the valley, when the shadow blinds your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we only hear about the shepherd Lord, who makes me Meadows and Fees, then when we are in the valley, we will wonder what happened to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will wonder if he is who he claims to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so when you started leading me, did you not know about the valley?

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you be able before we got to the valley?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you not strong enough to walk through the valley?

[SPEAKER_01]: But.

[SPEAKER_01]: If the valley is part of the path of righteousness, it means the valley is not a surprise to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is not stronger than God, and it will not be wasted by God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The presence of verse 4 is telling something about our God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our God is not just God in the wedding, He's got in the funeral.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not just God in the church service, he's God in hospice, he's not just God in celebration, he's God in the shadow, he's not just God in the meadow, he is God in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's Pastor Gibson again, it's a long quote, but it's worth our time.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is not possible for the sheep to have an encounter with either death or its advanced shadow that is outside God's decree in his loving fatherly care.

[SPEAKER_01]: As you read these lines, know the valley that you are in to be God's valley, and you're good shepherd to be the one who's led you there.

[SPEAKER_01]: At this very moment, you might feel more lost than ever, and deep as darkness like a shroud, but your Lord Jesus is not standing there beside you, lost or scratching his head wondering what to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: It may not yet be part of your theological framework that all things, including each valley, come from God's fatherly hand, but it needs to be, for if God is not in charge of the valley, how do you know He can get you through it?

[SPEAKER_01]: God is in control.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is in control.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I say one reason?

[SPEAKER_01]: This is so important.

[SPEAKER_01]: In my experience, if we don't see the valley as a path of righteousness from God's sovereign hand, many of us see it as a path of punishment.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what we say in the valley is, I don't, what did I do to deserve this?

[SPEAKER_01]: What did I do wrong?

[SPEAKER_01]: The valley will magnify regret.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is happening because of my past to be clear.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are consequences for sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we suffer as a direct result of our foolishness and selfishness and pride, but hear me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The valley is never the place where God demands more than what the cross of Christ already paid.

[SPEAKER_01]: The valley is not the place where God charges interest on a debt that Christ has already canceled.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a path of righteousness.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we need a category for the valley, where it's not where God punishes His sinful people, but it is where He accomplishes His good purposes.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I think about my own life, I've told you something like this before.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have not endured valleys as dark as many I know and love.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of my life has been watching others go through the valley and being with them and not being at the upper center of it myself, but I have.

[SPEAKER_01]: in seasons of life, hard seasons of life, needed to remember that God has controlled.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a season of our church, where it just felt like crisis after crisis, after crisis, loss and failure and conflict.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking fall of 2019 through the pandemic into late 2021, just a growing list in those years of challenging things and heartbreaking things and some of them you know and some of them you don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at some point in all of that, it's just like one more chip fell.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was talking with Adam, we served together as lead pastors here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And just in my fatigue, in my frustration, I just said, what are we doing wrong?

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, what do you mean by we?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: is that if things are going wrong, it's because I'm doing something wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that sounds kind of humble.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that sounds self-reflective, but it can actually be very prideful.

[SPEAKER_01]: It assumes that I have controlled power and influence that only belongs to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The unspoken belief behind my question to Adam, the unspoken belief is that God is God and a church is success, but He is not God and a church is suffering.

[SPEAKER_01]: So chronic crisis must mean leadership is failing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if our church is in a valley, then the pastor's must have led them there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know it's true, citizens looking back seven years now?

[SPEAKER_01]: Good to see you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our chief shepherd, our perfect pastor, was leading us every moment, every moment leading us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did not just lead us out of it, he let us into it, not to punish us, but to accomplish his good purposes and to people that he loves.

[SPEAKER_01]: and some of the fruit of that now, some of the things that are most beautiful about citizens' church, some of the things that you most love and cherish about the culture of our church, are things that were forged in that very same crisis of pain and loss and suffering.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what God said was God said, I am going to write this chapter of this church's story this way and the beauty of the chapters to come will rely on the chapter that none of us would have ever written.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me, it is much easier, I know, to see the valley as a path of righteousness once you make it out of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So hear me, if you are in a valley now, God is in control, God is in control, and he's not punishing you for your sins.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a good shepherd with good plans.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows what he's doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows where he's leading you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at the verse 4 again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're rawed and you're staff that comfort me.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I remember this correctly, it's been a while, but the way you write a paper in school is you put your thesis statement in the first paragraph.

[SPEAKER_01]: Teachers, is that still true?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're looking at me like, I'm off the clock.

[SPEAKER_01]: School starts tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Hebrew poetry, that's not how it works.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not how you write Hebrew poetry.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Hebrew poetry, you make your main point right in the middle of the poem.

[SPEAKER_01]: You build this colomactic moment in the middle and then you work out from there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the heart of the message is right in the middle of the poem.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in the Hebrew of Psalm 23, there are exactly 20 lines.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so line 10 holds the heart of the meaning

[SPEAKER_01]: of the Psalm.

[SPEAKER_01]: To make it even more clear, there are exactly 55 Hebrew words in Psalm 23.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have 26 words and then you get the phrase in the middle followed by exactly 26 more words.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what the heart of this poem is?

[SPEAKER_01]: The phrase right in the center of the Psalm that holds all the meeting together for you are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is my shepherd.

[SPEAKER_01]: I shall not want.

[SPEAKER_01]: He makes me lie down and green pastures.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me to side still waters.

[SPEAKER_01]: He restores my soul.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me in passive righteousness for his namesake.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the point?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the heart?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the message in the middle that holds it all together?

[SPEAKER_01]: For you are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Martin Luther called this phrase, the little Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: because you can summarize the whole message of Scripture in these words.

[SPEAKER_01]: God with a creation, fall, redemption, new creation, incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, return, all telling, all telling, a God with a story, working towards a God with us happily ever after.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the mission of God in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: His presence covering the earth and and.

[SPEAKER_01]: that is the cry of faith in the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: For you or with me, can't avoid the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: The great comfort to the Christian is that we are never, we are never alone there.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I can be honest, if the sermon was a conversation and at this point, you were like, hey, okay, what does that mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: If I can be honest, I'm not entirely sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because here's what I've observed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes, in suffering, there is a felt experience of the Lord's presence, like a miraculous experience of the Lord, and people will say things like the Lord is just so near.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't want to leave that hospital because God was so close in that room.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's sacred.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is holy.

[SPEAKER_01]: One delogents said at this way, the darker, the shadow, the closer the Lord,

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've seen and heard that testimony and others in the Valley will say I feel so far from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the physical pain, because the valley has made me emotionally numb, or others would say, when all of this started, I felt so near to the Lord, but the longer it lasts, the further he feels from me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I want to be very careful in saying you are with me is always a felt experience of God's presence, because everyone's experience is different and most importantly beloved, it is true whether we feel it or not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I do know.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I were trying to just explain the sign of it, the fruit of it, the mark of God's presence in the valley is that you are changed in a way that only makes sense if he was there with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've said this before.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a story I've never in my life heard.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard people share their story for decades.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've never heard this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've never heard someone share their story and say, there is a season of life where I got everything I wanted.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tung's of leisure time picked up a few hobbies.

[SPEAKER_01]: Was good at them from the very beginning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Made a bunch of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Marriage was easy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Problems were light.

[SPEAKER_01]: Life was like that for years.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that season of life made me who I am today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Never heard that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Delta never heard?

[SPEAKER_01]: I've never heard someone in more or less words say, I went through a valley, and I came out unchanged.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one stays the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one stays the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not everyone's changing the same way, but no one stays the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some are hardened in the valley, some abandon their faith in the valley, some grow bitter, some are beautified.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some rediscover their faith, some find such healing and Christ that their healed wounds become a ministry to others for the rest of their life.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one stays the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: The mark of God's presence in the valley is that you are changed in a way that only makes sense if he was in that valley with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we know it when we see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing has strengthened the faith of the church like the saints who go through the valley and come out more like Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: And how does that happen if he is not there?

[SPEAKER_01]: You've heard the phrase, God works in mysterious ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up hearing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was the kind of thing that in my 20s, I would roll my eyes when people said it because it's just so cliche.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I learned where it was from.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's from a poem by a guy named William Cooper.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was written in 1773, and I quoted this a few months ago, but it's worth quoting it again.

[SPEAKER_01]: The poem is called, God moves in a mysterious way, and that's where we got that phrase from.

[SPEAKER_01]: It goes like this, God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.

[SPEAKER_01]: He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm, ye fearful saints, fresh courage, take the clouds you so much dread, our big with mercy and will break in blessings on your head.

[SPEAKER_01]: Judge not the Lord by feeble sins, but trust him for his grace, behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.

[SPEAKER_01]: His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's beautiful.

[SPEAKER_01]: In so many ways it's saying God is Lord of the Meadow and the Valley, and when His providence feels like a frown, the

[SPEAKER_01]: When life feels cruel, behind the frown is a smile, and behind the cruelty of life is a kind instead of fast God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what makes the poem wait a year?

[SPEAKER_01]: More beautiful.

[SPEAKER_01]: William Cooper wrote it in his own suffering.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wrote it in his own valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a piece of art that was forged in the valley of a shadow of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: He and his brother were the only two of seven children to survive past infancy.

[SPEAKER_01]: His mother then died giving birth to his little brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: A biographer described his life and said this, heartache was his hand maiden from the day of his birth.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the suffering of his childhood led to a life of paralyzing depressive episodes.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, he became a Christian in an asylum that he was admitted into because of his depression.

[SPEAKER_01]: After his conversion, his depression did not go away completely, but would return every few years.

[SPEAKER_01]: He met a pastor named John Newton, who wrote a him called Amazing Grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the middle of his suffering, John Newton, his pastor encouraged Cooper to write, and in his suffering what he wrote was this, God moves in mysterious ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: ye fearful saints fresh courage take the clouds you so much dread or big with mercy and will break and bless things on your head.

[SPEAKER_01]: Judge not the Lord by feeble sins but trust him for his grace behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do you live a life in the shadow of death and then write words that will encourage the church long after your life is over because in the deepest part, in the deepest part of the valley, you find what is at the heart of the Psalm for you or with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm here, but I'm not alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's changing me.

[SPEAKER_01]: His presence is a comfort to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will get through this and I will not be the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would just be dishonest or at least I would just miss a precious opportunity if I didn't say this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am freshly reminded of all of these truths this week as a pastor because I get to pastor this church.

[SPEAKER_01]: this test.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have the sacred honor of saying, I have learned these things from God's Word, and I have learned these things from God's people.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've witnessed my sisters and my brothers here,

[SPEAKER_01]: go through the valley that didn't ask for, stay longer than they imagined, hurt more than they thought possible and be changed by God and hope in God and long for more of God all by believing about God you are with me here and now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a gift of God to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if we ended here without saying more,

[SPEAKER_01]: I would have failed you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's what I mean.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have we said enough to lead us all to say I shall not fear?

[SPEAKER_01]: Does all of this just automatically go into your ears and amount in your hardest fearlessness?

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we need, what we most need, is Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: You remember one of the names of Jesus is Emmanuel, and that means God with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what it means is the phrase God with us is not just at the heart of the Psalm, but the person of Jesus is at the heart of the Psalm, which means God with us is not the truth in the valley, but Jesus himself is the person right in the middle of the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we need to see him not just as the one who comforts, but as the one who first suffered and the one who first conquered.

[SPEAKER_01]: The shepherd of Psalm 23 is the good shepherd of John 10, and the good shepherd of John 10 lays down his life for the sheep.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you hear nothing else, please hear this lean in.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you hear nothing else, hear this.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can know that Christ is in the valley with you because Christ first went through the valley for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: The light of the world was plunged into the shadow of death for your sin, and he walked the path of righteousness all the way to the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: The chief shepherd who leads the church was first the sacrificial lamb who saved his enemies.

[SPEAKER_01]: He could have stayed safe at the table and his heavenly home, he descended, he descended in love to the valley of the shadow of death and in the valley our Savior proved two things.

[SPEAKER_01]: He proved his steadfast love for his people and he proved his power over sin and death.

[SPEAKER_01]: The shepherd staff was an instrument to lead the sheep, but the shepherd's rod was a weapon to protect the sheep.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for most that meant there is this wooden stick and they would take this big piece of iron and melded at the end of the stick and it would make this weapon powerful enough to kill anything that threatened the sheep.

[SPEAKER_01]: The shepherd was not just a guide but a warrior.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when our good shepherd went into the grave, he went in armed with everything he needed to defeat the enemies of sin, death and hell.

[SPEAKER_01]: His weapons are stronger, his powers greater and Christ turns the valley of death into resurrection life.

[SPEAKER_01]: The great hope we have in the valley is that it does not last forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: The great confidence we have in this life is that the shadow does not get the final word.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can say, I don't have to be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: This won't last forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus rose and will come again.

[SPEAKER_01]: His resurrection will be my resurrection.

[SPEAKER_01]: He will turn all this for my good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you don't, remember to say all that or know how to say all that or are looking for a more simple way to say all that, just use the words the Psalm provides for you are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we need you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ, we look to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Beloved as you, just assume a posture of prayer and respond to God's word.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's something David does in the song that I'd encourage you to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: David inverse four stops talking about God and he starts talking to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: He stops saying, he, and he starts saying, you, for you are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are rod, you are staff, and comfort me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: If life is great, if it's meadow and green and abundant, we've got the answer to prayers,

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't just talk about them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to Lord, thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for the saving grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for common grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those are a four tastes of an eternity that is all meadow and no shadow.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're here in your inner valley, coming out of a valley,

[SPEAKER_01]: all of life has felt like deep darkness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to God, talk about Him, talk to Him, help me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm fighting to believe.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You, Lord Jesus, are not the author of the valley, but you are the hero of the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are our friend in the valley, our companion.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so on behalf of my brothers and sisters, God, I just pray that you would appropriate to every heart with that heart needs to grow in likeness to you, Lord Jesus, to grow in love for you, Lord God.

[SPEAKER_01]: We love you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.