The Valley of Blessing

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Hi, happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Hi, youth group.

Welcome.

Our youth is here.

Yes.

So good to see you guys.

I hope that your bellies are still full from Thanksgiving goodness.

Who is still on leftovers today?

I am.

I think it's okay.

I think today is the final day.

It's the cutoff, but it's okay.

If we haven't met, my name is Naseem.

I am our connections director on staff.

And I've been around Awakening for almost six years, which is crazy.

And I love my job so much.

And one of the things I love most about it is being able to meet people who are new to our church.

So if that's you, if you're exploring, please come introduce yourself after.

I'd love to meet you and get to know you.

We're so glad you're here.

Personally, for me, I just wanted to share just with fall and Thanksgiving, our family absolutely loves fall time.

We love the holidays.

And, you know, we being in a big Persian family that loves to eat and loves to have good food and have people over and host, the fall is really special for us.

My birthday is the week before Thanksgiving.

So it's like my birthday to Thanksgiving to setting up for Christmas and then going into the holidays.

So it's just a fun vibe around the Khalili house, all around.

So we love this time of year.

But with that, I wanted to also address the reality that that's my lived experience.

And I know that many people sitting here now or watching online, that might not be yours.

And a holiday like Thanksgiving weekend might evoke a range of emotions and experiences and trauma even.

And so I just want to say right off the bat that whatever you walked in here with this weekend, we see you, we love you.

Most importantly, Jesus Christ loves you.

And we're so glad you're here.

Amen.

Yeah.

Thank you for being here.

So no matter what your experience is with a holiday like Thanksgiving, I think we can all agree that Thanksgiving this time of year, it evokes a sort of conscious or subconscious just thoughts around the concept of gratitude, right?

Like maybe it's November, you see on your calendar Thanksgiving coming up, and you're like, yeah, what am I thankful for?

Like what should I be thankful for?

Or maybe it's more of this like cherished tradition of sitting around a table Thanksgiving weekend or with friends giving and going around and sharing what you're thankful for, right?

But this is not your typical Thanksgiving sermon.

My aim here is not just a blanket statement of the importance of gratitude, no matter what, or you know, viewing the world through rose-colored glasses or anything.

No, I know that for many people sitting here now or watching online that you might have walked in here with walking through a valley, right?

Walking through maybe multiple mini valleys or maybe one long, dark valley.

And that's the reality.

I think about just Thanksgiving last year.

Let's throw it back for a second.

Can you think about like where you were and we were in lockdown and that had its own stressors of its own?

And then a year later, I'm so grateful Thanksgiving kind of looked different this year, but pandemic or not, life has its own worries, right?

Life has its own valleys and hardships and personal things we are all walking through.

And this morning, I want to talk to us about how, as Christ followers, you and I are invited to walk in a posture of Thanksgiving every day of our lives, not just on Thanksgiving weekend.

And I don't mean this as a posture of like insincere gratitude or fake it till you make it.

No, I'm I'm personally not really bent that way.

I admire my friends who are, but I am one of those people who I just feel everything deeply.

And I my empathy radar is just so high that when my friends close to me are going through things, I carry that with me.

I'm very affected by it.

But what I mean by this is that God has given you and I an invitation to take part in a posture that produces a blessing.

Spoiler alert, the blessing is not having your circumstances change or having your prayers answered the way you want.

Maybe sometimes, but that's that's not the blessing I'm talking about here.

Because the reality is our experiences are real, our emotions are valid, we feel them deeply, and the valleys in our lives can feel very dark and very lonely, right?

I almost didn't give this sermon because of that.

Because I'm currently in the process of trying to practice what I'm about to preach.

So this one's coming at you very raw and very fresh and vulnerable.

And there's a beautiful story in your Old Testament we're gonna study today about a life of one king and his kingdom, and how an unexpected blessing came out of a valley that they were walking in.

So let's pray.

God, we're so grateful for your word, and we're so grateful that we can gather this morning.

Thank you for every single person in this room.

And I just pray right now, Holy Spirit, that you would invade our minds and this space and this text and bring it to life.

And I pray that we can just apply it to our lives and learn from you today.

In your name, amen.

Amen.

So I want to invite you to open your Bible with me, if you have an actual Bible, to 2 Chronicles.

And if you want to open up your phone, do it if it won't distract you.

If not, the slides will be on the screens to my right and to your left and in your bulletin.

This morning, we are looking at the book of 2 Chronicles in your Old Testament, chapter 20.

We're looking at verses 1 through 30.

And I, you're welcome.

I'm not gonna read all 30 verses at you this morning.

I'm gonna make this more kind of storytelling mode.

And we're looking at a moment in the life of King Jehosaphat.

Side note, I feel like every time I preach lately, it's the longest, hardest biblical name, but we're here for it.

So King Jehoshaphat, let's do this.

So I wanna just start off with a disclaimer.

When I was younger, I would kind of in like my quiet time when I was reading the Bible, I would just opt for the New Testament, which just was like, old is kind of boring and hard to read and digest.

I'm gonna stick to the new.

And the older that I've gotten, the more I've dove in the Old Testament, what's helped me is I have now viewed the Old Testament like I would a drama series on HBO.

I don't know about you guys.

I love TV, I love film.

So to me, it's just it is that because the Old Testament is that engaging and wild and unbelievable and action-packed.

So I want to pick I want you to picture yourself, plop back on your black chair.

I'm sorry, it's not like a comfy couch, but you're sitting back and you're tuning in to the latest episode in 2 Chronicles.

Okay, let's dive in.

So I want to set some context for us.

So this is around 800 BC in Israel, and Israel is divided into two kingdoms, the north and the south, and we're looking at south, Judah.

It's called Judah, and King Jehoshaphat is king of Judah.

And just to give you some context into the type of king that Jehosaphat was, if you look back in chapter 19, we learn that he's a good king.

He's a noble king, he's a good leader.

He reminded people his people to think carefully before judging each other, to fear the Lord with reverence and faithfulness.

He appointed judges with a heart for justice.

So he's he's a good guy.

That's just some context from chapter 19.

And when we're plopped into chapter 20, what we learn is there's a war about to start.

There's a war about to start, and there's three enemy nations, the Moabites, Ammonites, and the Edomites.

And they have all collectively declared war on Judah, on King Jehoshaphat.

And Jehosaphat is terrified by this news, as I'm sure you can imagine, right?

The sheer anticipation and fear of we're about to be attacked by three enemy armies.

What do we do?

The pressure he's under is a leader.

And then I think the pressure of all his people are looking to him, right?

How is he gonna lead?

What is he gonna do?

So much pressure.

How will he lead us?

And I want us to start looking at the text in verse 3.

King Jehoshaphat, it says it's in your notes, he was terrified by this news, and he begs the Lord for guidance.

He also ordered that everyone in Judah to begin fasting.

He prays, O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?

You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.

In your hand are power and might, so none are able to withstand you.

If disaster comes upon us, we will stand before this house and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and you will rescue us.

And I love how he ends this prayer.

God, we're powerless against this great horde.

We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

Amen.

So look at this paragraph, look at this prayer.

90% of Jehoshaphat's prayer is declaring who God is, right?

It's declaring the character of what he knows to be true about God, and therefore how they will react in that knowing, right?

And I love how it ends with so much humility.

There's a desperation.

God, we don't know what to do.

Our eyes are on you.

I love the NLT says, we don't know what to do, but we're looking to you for help.

I want to pause right here before we continue reading this text.

Friends, we're learning about a moment in history and how one king responds to calamity, right?

In that, this provides an excellent lens through which we can view our own approach when it comes to the battles and valleys in our own lives.

As I was writing this sermon, I was thinking about the word valley and how we use that word metaphorically, right, when talking about our struggles and things we're going through.

And it makes sense because a valley, literally, is that long peak, that mass of land that kind of sits in the middle and is has like two peaks or two hills or mountaintops to the right and to the left, right?

And like it's when we think about walking through a valley, I think about like how Psalm 23 says, walking through the valley of the shadow of death, right?

There's it's dark, it's long, we're like en route.

And we're waiting to get to that peak or that mountaintop where it's like, God, do I go right or do I left?

Like what decision do I make?

When are you gonna answer?

God can feel distant.

You're like, God, where are you?

I need you.

And and with that, I think of all the natural human reactions you and I might have in our valley moments, right?

And and I listed like my top four in your bulletin.

I think there's many more, but as I was pondering, I'm like, what do I feel in my valleys?

And hope this resonates.

The first thing I think of is fear, right?

When we're faced with valleys, there's fear.

When we're faced with unknowns in life, there's fear.

That fear leads to grasping for control.

We hate being out of control, right?

Especially as Americans, we hate being out of control.

We want to be in control.

So that fear, there's a grasping for control, like God, what can I do to control this situation?

And then a feeling of being hopeless.

Right?

If if God doesn't move the way we want him to, or we don't get an answer if and when we want it, we start to feel hopeless.

And then I think about our reaction of feeling rattled, right?

Like our faith starts to feel rattled or shaken.

When when God again doesn't answer the way that we want, we start to question him.

We're like, God, where are you?

Are you even for me?

And that's all natural.

It's human, right?

If you look at basic science, physiology tells us that when you are faced with a stressful stimulus, your natural reaction is fight, flight, or free.

So all of this is natural.

And yet today, church, I want to encourage us as we look at this story.

Here's this truth.

The reality of the valley you and I are walking in does not need to be the posture that we take as we walk through it.

I'll say that again.

The reality of our valleys, the reactions that we might have, does not need to be the same posture we take as we walk through that valley.

When I look at this story, I see Jehosaphat, his posture is almost the exact opposite of what our natural reaction would be.

His first response is not in reactivity to fear, it's a step of faith.

Let's let's look at that text again.

So in faith, he cries out to God and he says, first he prays, and then he fasts, right?

We do that in desperation.

We go into prayer mode and fasting mode, and then he prays God.

We cry out to you in our affliction, you will hear and you will rescue.

And I don't know if that's just me, but how often are we questioning if God actually hears us?

How many prayers have we prayed, like, God, do you actually hear this?

I hope so.

And it's this reminder to me that faith is not just hope that our circumstances change.

Faith is knowing who God is and that God said that he will do what he will do, and he will move because that's his character, right?

Like he is who he says he is.

That's unchanging, right?

God is unchanging.

And then we see surrender, a posture of surrender in Jehoshaphat.

When he's praying, he prays, God, we're powerless.

We don't know what to do, but we're looking to you for help.

It reminds me of when we're worshiping, when we like raise our hands like this in worship, it's this surrender posture of like, God, forget me and my agenda right now.

I just want to worship you for who you are, right?

I'm proclaiming your character, I'm surrendering to you.

And then I see a posture of thanksgiving in Jehoshaphat.

He's rejoicing.

Again, he knows what's true about the Lord.

So in his prayer, he prays, God, in your hand are power and might.

No one's able to withstand you.

He knows this confidently.

So he's thanking God for it.

And if I if I were to kind of put that all together and tie it up, I would say there's an overall firmness in his faith.

An overall firmness or being unshakable.

And as I was thinking about this sermon, I was thinking of the word unshakable.

And honestly, for me, that's not often a word I hear much when I'm thinking about like a good leader.

I think it's so underrated, right?

Like that is what makes a good leader, someone unshakable, right?

You want to follow someone who's firm in their faith.

And Jehoshaphat really models this beautifully for us.

This is the posture, the positions you and I, even in our valley moments, to begin to experience a very rich kind of spiritual formation.

The beautiful thing to note here is this is Jehoshaphat's reaction before we get to the end of the story.

You might be wondering why I kind of paused this in a cliffhanger.

That was intentional.

I think context is so important.

As you're reading this story, no, he has not walked through the valley yet.

They haven't reached the battleground yet.

This is his posture going into it.

Hold on to that.

That's important for us.

So let's keep reading.

Imagine this is like now we're tuned back into the season finale, starting, right?

Like part two.

Here we go.

So Jehosaphat is done praying.

And after he's done praying, immediately the Spirit of God speaks.

The Spirit of God speaks through a prophet named Jezeel and he begins to prophesy from God.

So this is what God says.

Verse 15.

The Lord says, Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde.

For the battle is not yours, but God's.

Tomorrow, go down against them.

You will not need to fight in this battle.

Stand firm.

There's that word firm.

Hold your position and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, Judah.

Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed.

Tomorrow, go down against them, and the Lord will be with you.

And then immediately Jehoshaphat bows his head again in thanksgiving and he just praises God.

And so what happens next?

In verses 20 through 30, I'll just summarize the story for you.

What ends up happening is the next morning, before they head out into battle, Jehosaphat goes and addresses the town again, kind of like this, right?

And he says one more time, Hear me, Judah.

Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established.

Some translations in your Bible say, instead of established, you will be made able to stand firm.

Again, that word firm, right?

You will be made able to stand firm.

And what ends up happening is as they go into battle, before they even send down the army, they send down like a worship brigade, like people who are singing and dancing and playing instruments.

And I want you to picture this moment because it kind of sounds a little ridiculous, right?

Like picture if we were about to go into battle and we'd be like, okay, Cole, Robbie, worship band, you guys lead us.

You guys start leading and you guys start singing before the army goes out.

It sounds weird and yet it's so powerful that that's their posture is before they even head into battle, they're led by worship, right?

And what ends up happening is as they go down into this valley to meet the enemy army and fight them, what God ends up doing is he causes the three enemy armies to kill each other, to fight one another, and they literally kill each other.

And I want to just again say HBO drama, right?

That's a gruesome image to think about.

All these dead bodies, that's a lot.

And yet not one of the enemy survives.

And the word says that it took Jehosaphat's army three days to collect their spoil.

What that means is all of the weapons and equipment and it are uh all the like the good things that were like left behind by the people who died, it took them three days to collect all of it and take it back to Judah with them.

And I love this last note in verse 25 and 26.

As I was reading, it kind of felt like this aside from the writer to the reader.

And it says, on the fourth day, they gathered in the valley of Baraka.

That's Hebrew for blessing.

So some of your Bibles say valley of blessing, which got its name that day because the people praised and thanked the Lord there.

It is still called the Valley of Blessing to this day.

Isn't that powerful?

And the story ends in verse 30.

The realm of Jehosaphat was quiet or still.

For God gave him rest all around.

Church, as I read this chapter as I sat with it, as I was preparing for this sermon, it God made it so clear to me.

The blessing here is not simply that God brought them victory, that God brought them out of battle.

No, it's so much more than that.

It's called the Valley of Blessing, I believe, because of the transformation that took place in the lives of these people, in the lives of King Jehoshaphat with this posture before the battle was even won.

In the valley itself, the blessing was in the valley.

That's what I believe that God has for us today, church.

And when you hear the words valley of blessing, it kind of sounds like a contradiction, right?

Like those two words together, and that's purposely why I titled this message Valley of Blessing, because I wanted to strike that tension.

And I don't mean this as some sort of prosperity gospel thing, right?

Like if you have enough faith, then God will move this way or you know, do this and you'll get that.

No, that's not God's character.

But as we read, we see that the blessing is the spiritual formation and the growth that happens when you and I know God's true character.

Amen.

When this knowing of God's character, when that's expressed through a posture of thanksgiving, that posture becomes our weapon of confidence in the valley, right?

That is our weapon of confidence in our valley moments.

Our posture of thanksgiving is a spiritual tool and it points us back to what we know to be true of God despite our circumstances.

And you might be thinking that sounds great, Nassim, but that's easier said than done, right?

Sure.

Absolutely.

I want you to think about maybe you sitting here today or you watching this online.

What valley are you walking in right now?

It could be a series of mini valleys, it could be one long, dark valley.

What valley are you in?

I'm sure that's a loaded question.

This story in particular ends with a neatly tied bow, right?

We have resolution, there's a happy ending.

For many of us, we are still walking in our valleys today.

And I want to be really clear right off the bat in distinguishing between what I mean when I say valley and just plain suffering.

And I want to distinguish that that there is suffering in this world that very often is just due to the fact that we live in a fallen world that is corrupt and dark and ruled by sin and the enemy, right?

And that suffering breaks God's heart and it pains God's heart.

This is not a sermon about thanking God for suffering by any means, absolutely not.

When I refer to valley, I'm specifically talking about the moments that God allows us to walk through because he's walking with us in it, and there's something he wants to teach us through it, right?

Just like this text in 2 Chronicles, the work he was doing with Jehosaphat.

So not every suffering we go through is necessarily a valley, but the reality is some of our valleys involve some form of suffering, right?

Especially the long valleys that we walk in.

It's hard.

And maybe you're wondering, okay, what does this chick know about valleys?

She looks like she's 23.

I get that a lot.

I think I'll take it as a compliment in a few years.

I actually just turned 32 last week.

And so, thank you, I guess.

Thank you.

Okay, no.

No, no, no.

But as I share that because as I was writing this sermon, I knew I wanted to share a valley.

It only makes sense in this sermon, right?

And I knew the valley that I needed to share.

And I don't, I didn't want to share it at all.

Um, and normally, I uh before I dive into my valley, I wanted to make a really a great distinction between the words transparency and vulnerability that I recently learned.

That's just paint such a beautiful picture of these two terms.

Transparency is defined as sharing a moment that we have walked through when you've kind of already walked through it and processed it, right?

You've learned the lessons that have come out of it.

You kind of have a bird's eye view over it and then you're sharing it transparently, right?

Vulnerability is sharing that same moment when you're still in process, when you haven't come up out of it, when you don't know the lesson or if there is one, you're kind of just in it, feeling it.

This is vulnerable for me.

And for me, one of my longest valleys is having a desire to be married, a desire to have kids, a desire in my 30s to kind of, for lack of a better word, move on with the next phase of my life that I feel like I'm ready for, right?

And I'm like, come on, God, it's been so long.

And God just feels silent and God just feels like nothing.

And normally I'm very open in sharing this part of my journey because I know it's not just unique to me.

There's many people sitting here right now, men and women, you understand.

What makes it very vulnerable to share right now is because two and a half years ago, I preached my first sermon at Awakening in that cafeteria.

And in that sermon, I had a point about our perspective in the moments that are dark.

And I shared this valley.

And so to stand here two and a half years later and to still be in the same valley, it feels embarrassing, honestly.

It feels like in my pride, I don't want anyone to pity me or feel overexposed.

It brings up a lot.

And the older I get, the longer the valley goes, the harder it is.

So it's that much harder to share it this morning than it was two and a half years ago.

And it's a journey.

And then I was like, how would I, why would I not share this?

Because this is the very definition of what people are dealing with in their valleys, right?

It's a long road.

Many of us are still going through our valleys.

We haven't reached the end yet.

So I knew I needed to share it.

And then I think about people in this very room who I get to walk with in ministry who have a desire for children.

And that long desire has just been met with miscarriages or infertility or just nothingness.

And that's a valley of its own.

I think about parents who are praying for their kids to come back to Jesus, parents who are praying on their knees every morning for their kids to come back to God, and that's a valley, right?

People who are living with chronic pain or a diagnosis and their new normal is walking through just the new normal of being diagnosed with something like cancer or whatnot.

It's a valley.

It's a long trek.

And as I'm trying to put myself in this story, I felt so convicted because I'm trying, I'm wanting to try to adopt this posture of knowing that God's faithfulness, God's character is not dependent on him answering my prayer or not.

No, God's faithfulness is how he views you and I.

His character is that he calls you and I his special possession, his chosen people.

That's who you and I are as his sons and daughters, church.

That's his character.

That's what we know to be true about God.

And as I share my value and maybe you're thinking and reflecting on your own, I hope to encourage us by sharing a really sweet learning that I had from a friend of mine.

Friend of mine who recently, very tragically and suddenly lost her dad in the last month and a half.

And as I've been walking with her through this process, she's just been so graceful to just share openly her process.

And as we were talking and as I was preparing this sermon, I took this to her and I was like, what is a posture of Thanksgiving even look like to you right now?

Like, are you even there?

Because if you aren't, I totally get, you know, like what does this sit with you?

And not thanking God for the suffering.

Absolutely not.

Thanking God for who he is in it, right?

Thanking God for who he is despite it.

And what she shared with me blew my mind.

And I just, with her permission, I'm so grateful to be able to share that with you today and hope that will encourage you.

She shared, Nassim, for me, thankfulness or a posture of gratitude does not look like every day I wake up with a burst of joy and I'm like, God, thank you for this.

Thank you for that.

It's not that.

It's also not this routine of a gratitude journal, right?

Ten things I'm thankful for to make my mind, you know, automate.

No.

She said, for me, a posture of gratitude and thankfulness looks like every single day I'm trying to plant one seed of faith.

Every day I'm trying to plant one seed of faith.

Maybe that looks like reading one Bible verse that reminds her of God's character in this valley.

Maybe it looks like one worship song that just lets the truth of God be this soothing balm over her soul.

I thought that was so powerful.

And as I've been sitting with that, like for me, and I know for her, learning that faith is trusting and knowing, friends, God's objective character, despite your subjective experience of him.

Amen.

That is the truth.

God is not our view of him, he is his own objective character, and he wants us to get to know him.

There's this trend right now on TikTok.

Hang with me.

Hang with me.

Maybe our youth will know this.

I'm not, I can't believe I'm even saying that phrase, but here we are.

And it's called, can we skip to the good part?

And I was just, I don't, I'm not a TikToker, so I my friend sent me this, and I thought it was a perfect addition to this message.

Basically, what this compilation is, is people are making these 30-second videos where the first half is kind of a mundane, dry, sad moment.

And then the music says, Can we just skip to the good part?

And it snaps and it cuts to a good part.

People are using it for baby announcements or engagements or pregnancies and so on, like the, you know, the typical good news things.

And it's just like being sad, snap, got a wedding ring, or whatever, right?

Can we just skip to the good part?

And I kind of smiled as I looked at this, and then to be honest, I rolled my eyes because I was like, this is the problem.

This is the problem with the world we're living in, is that we think that our valley moments can just be cut up and compilated into a 30-second video where we can just say, snap, let me skip to the good part.

That's not life though, right?

That's not.

Many people sitting in this room, you've been walking through the bad part for years, or we don't know when or if the good part will come or what it will look like.

Who knows what that good part will be?

We're not necessarily even guaranteed that good part, this part of eternity, right?

The good part is so much bigger than that.

And so as I was just pondering this, I felt like the Holy Spirit was like, what if the good part or the blessing in the valley is the transformation that happens in the valley if we lean in?

What if the good part is what happens as we get to know God more in his character as we're walking through the valley?

What if the good part is walking in that posture of King Jehoshaphat?

So we don't let the valley necessarily just shake our faith, but become firmer in our faith.

That is the good part.

It reminds me of this verse in Psalm 40, 11.

It's been a little anchor for me in this season.

It says, As for you, God, you will not restrain your mercy from me.

Your steadfast love and your faithfulness preserves me.

The word for preserve, other translations will be sustain.

I was looking at that word sustain.

I love that word.

I was like, what does this actually mean?

I was looking at the Hebrew definition of sustain.

There's four definitions I want to share with you that are in your notes.

To sustain means to uphold, to strengthen, to refresh, and to comfort.

Do you believe that, church?

Do you believe that you have a God and his love and his faithfulness, that his character in your valley moment sustains you?

It refreshes you, it upholds you, strengthens, and comforts you.

That is his faithfulness.

And I read that, I'm like, wow, God, like this last month or so has been hard.

It's been a journey for me personally.

I mentioned my valley, which has its ups and down moments, but also just being in ministry, we walk with people in our church through very painful moments and it's been very heavy.

And as I am writing this sermon and processing what I'm about to preach, I feel like God is refining my character and even working on my humility.

And God's like, Nassim, you're gonna share with your church this time around what you are currently processing, what you're going through.

And so I just humbly confess to you today, church, that I'm in process, that I am, this is hard to do and I'm in it with you.

Yet in our valley moments, this is that promise that He sustains you and I.

Wow.

That is powerful.

In his book, Disappearing Church, Mark Sayers talks about this concept of how we view our faith as solutionism.

The fact that we're so quick to like solve an issue, a faith or a problem, like an equation.

Like if I do X, God will give me Y, right?

If I'm a good Christian, then this will happen.

What he talks about is true faith is not a solution, it's a process.

It's walking a path.

He says solutionism is instant gratification.

Just like that TikTok video, right?

When the answer, what if the answer is a path of walking in Jesus' footsteps?

That's how we grow as faithful disciples.

I follow his path, which is a process.

He concludes, instant solution requires no faith because the problem is solved in a moment.

But a path requires faith and courage.

And the good news is, friends, I don't think that God is like with a knife to our back saying, just have more faith, then I'll answer you, right?

It's not a game, it's not a lesson to be learned, like he's trying to test our faith level.

God is overflowing love.

In the midst of our valleys, he's given us a gift in Jesus Christ who's in the valley with us.

See, as Christians, we are not succumbed to having to manufacture resiliency or courage or faith.

You don't have to be strong all the time.

You have an advocate who is Jesus Christ who walks in that valley of shadow of death with you.

He's walked it before, right?

Every emotion you and I feel or have felt in our valleys, he's felt tenfold.

And through the gift of his Holy Spirit, he deposits that peace, that faith, and that comfort to you and I.

So we don't have to carry it on our own.

And the best part is this is not anything that it's because of something you and I have done or could ever do, it's because of who he is.

Because he's that righteous, right?

And that that's a gift.

And so if you're wondering, where do I tangibly start?

Where how can I even begin to develop this posture?

I want to give you just two quick next steps that are powerful.

The first, reflect on who God is daily.

I mentioned this earlier.

God is not your view of his character, he's who he says he is in his word.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but not sorry, right?

We we often have faulty images of God because of our own experiences, but God is who he says he is in his word.

So if you don't know him, get to know him.

Open your Bible.

I know it sounds easy, but it's a discipline and it takes time and it's transformative.

The second is in confession, in prayer, surrender to his control.

Right?

Pray that out loud.

Like, God, we're dependent on you.

Remember how King Jehoshaphat prayed?

Like, God, the battle is not ours, it's yours.

We're powerless.

You will help, you'll answer.

And friends, God is so good that even in something like this, there are byproducts.

He's so gracious that he also gives us little gifts in the valley.

And two of those byproducts, the first is peace.

We're able to rest in a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Remember, it says God gave him rest all around.

Thanks to Jesus Christ, you and I have that peace.

We have that Holy Spirit dwelling within us every day, even in our valley moments.

And finally, we become firm in our faith.

That firmness we talked about earlier, remember, you will be made able to stand firm.

As we develop this posture like Jehoshaphat had, we become firm.

Like what a gift, right?

And so for you and I, as we walk through our valleys that are deep and good desires, even that we have, let's remember that he's our sustainer, right?

And so as we are about to close in worship, I wanted to share with you a gift or a resource that I've included in your bulletin.

This is another vulnerable thing for me to do.

This is a page out of my journal that I've transcribed from me to you.

And in a moment of me being in my valley moments, I was writing.

And I was writing all the emotions and feelings that I was feeling.

Feeling empty, feeling that God was silent, feeling doubtful and weak.

And then I was like, okay, well, even in this, what do I know to be true about God?

What do I know to be true about God?

And I started just opening up my Bible and writing every single promise of his character that I know.

And guys, I mentioned earlier my friend with her faith seeds, these are my faith seeds right now.

These are the seeds that I'm planting.

That my prayers right now, that's my posture of thanksgiving because this is who God is.

Something I love saying is like when we're talking, even maybe you've heard me say it if we're close, is what can I bank on?

Like, what do I know to be true about God?

Friends, this is what we can bank on.

So I pray that you use that as a resource, take it home with you, put it somewhere, whatever.

That's a gift for you.

And as Robbie leaves us in this next song, I just want to invite you to let the words wash over you and let the Holy Spirit move.

I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes for a second.

I'm gonna pray over us and just silence your mind from all the noise.

Maybe even put out your hands in a posture of surrender.

Let's practice what we just learned, right?

God, we thank you that even in the darkest, loneliest, longest valleys, you're sustainer.

God, you are near to the brokenhearted.

God, even when we're insecure, God, you make us sure footed.

God, when we feel lonely, your word says that you uphold us with your right hand.

God, even in weakness, you are the strength of our hearts.

I love that, God.

You are the strength of our hearts.

And I pray that over our church this morning that in weakness and whatever people walked in here with, Lord, this is what we know to be true of you, God.

This is what we know we can bank on is your character, God.

And so what more could we do but thank you, God, for your faithfulness?

God, thank you that you are our sustainer and that you refresh us.

And that's my prayer over my church this morning.

As we're in process, would you refresh us?

Refresh anyone who needs that this morning.

Comfort the person that needs comfort, sustain the person that needs sustaining, God.

We thank you for your character.

We thank you that you're unchanging, even in the valley.

So what else can we do but worship?

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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