Shepherd | Week 4

So, hey, let's do this. This morning, we are going to continue in our series, the good shepherd, looking at one of the most famous passages in the Bible, Psalm chapter 23. When, again, they had asked me, hey, do you wanna teach in the series? I was like, yeah, as long as it's not verse four. And guess what verse I got?

Verse four. All the other verses are like rainbows and butterflies. I got the valley of the shadow of death. So we get to enjoy it together. So

Also, full disclosure, it has been about four or five months since I've preached a message, so only two options are going to happen today. Number one, I've completely forgotten how to do this, and it's just going to be really uncomfortable for all of us. Or option two, I just enjoy it too much, and we're gonna be here until about 03:00.

So but either way, we're gonna journey together. Alright? Psalm 23. Open your Bibles. Let's read the word of God. Psalm 23, are you there?

This is where you respond. Okay? I know, like, in white church, it's not a thing that we do, but it's okay to say things in church. Alright? Full disclosure. You're allowed to. Psalm 23, are we there? Yes. There we go. Psalm 23. We're gonna read all of verses one through four.

Here's what the Bible says. It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores

my soul. He leads me in paths of right righteousness for his name's sake. Here's verse four. You're gonna feel like you're at a funeral. I promise you we're not. It says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil. Some of your translations will say, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff,

they comfort me. Father, I ask, God, for you to do what you would do this morning. Would you take the voice of one person but speak through the Holy Spirit and speak specifically and tangibly to each and every person that's here this morning? Would our minds be still, our hearts be open, our cell phones be silent

to hear what it is you have to say to us this morning. Jesus, we're yours. We ask for you now to speak. It's in your name that everybody said, So

I I have shared before, I grew up in a pretty big family. I'm the middle child of five kids, which when you're the middle child just means you're the greatest of all of them. Right? You're the best one. And I I grew up you know, when we would travel as kids,

we never really flew anywhere. Right? I now know that it was because flying a small army cost a lot of money. Right? So as kids, we did lots of road trips. And to this day, I still hate road trips. They're just one of the worst things ever. Right? Like, I've got a couple friends that to, you know, decompress into, like, distress, they'll just go on a long drive. And I'm like, that sounds like my version of hell, not something that I'm gonna volunteer to sign up to do. But luckily for my wife, when I got married, she also got invited into these family road trips. And there was one in particular that I was thinking of this week preparing for this message where

I've got a couple siblings that live up in South Lake Tahoe, which is just an incredible place if you've ever been. It's beautiful during the winter. It's even more incredible during the summer, and we go up there pretty regularly to visit them. Well, my wife was gonna need to go. Our daughter was about a year old at the time, and my dad thought it would be a good idea to rent a motor home and have all of us drive together. Now, reflecting on this story, it must have been a while since we had done a road trip together, at least enough time for us to forget how miserable these road trips really are and actually be willing to sign up to do this again. But lo and behold, we end up in this motor home. And I don't know if your family's like this at all, but in my family, everything's a competition.

Right? Like everything. It's like, do wanna eat dinner? Yeah, but I'll beat you at it. It's like, okay, we're gonna race to see you can eat dinner the fastest. I don't know how, but everything turns into a competition for us. So my dad

is like, Hey, we're going to race. We'll see you drive there, and I'll drive back, and we'll see who can make better time. Again, in hindsight, looking back at the thought of racing in a motor home doesn't sound like the greatest idea, but lo and behold, that's how our journey begins. And so I start off as the driver,

and, you know, again, I've had all week to think about this story. I was not using GPS. I I don't know why. It wasn't like this was the eighteen hundreds, and we were in, like, a covered wagon. Like, we had cell phones for whatever reason, because I've made this drive a bunch, I didn't think I needed GPS. And I get in the car or the motor home, and my only goal is to get there as fast as humanly possible.

I don't know if you know this, but if you just put the pedal to the metal, you can get a motor home going pretty quick. I mean, you hopefully, don't have to slow down quickly because that'll be an issue, but it's surprising how fast you can get those things to go. Like, I was passing little old ladies. They were giving me the number one sign out the window, and I was like, hey. They're cheering me on too. And, you know, it was like the you know, like, when the road trip starts, it's it's like just spirits are high. Energy is there. And there's, some magic that happens in road trips where the drive there takes four minutes and the drive home takes four hundred hours. Like, I don't know how the math works, but it seems like it always works out that way. So we're going. Spirits are high. We're having a blast. Right? We're probably three hours into this drive, and

by that point, everybody's kinda moved to the back of the motor home, and they're doing their thing, and which, again, I I don't get why you can just walk around in a motor home without seat belts on while you're driving, but in a car, you get a ticket. But I don't make the laws. I just follow them. You know? So,

we're driving. I'm by myself at this point. We get on this narrow road. We're, again, getting close to four hours into this drive, And I look up and I start to see these buildings. I was like, man, I recognize these buildings,

but I can't really make out what they are. And then as we start to get closer, I see like, oh, that's the Vegas Strip.

Like, those are the casinos and the hotels. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, like, I've made this drive a decent amount of times, and I don't ever remember going through Vegas. But, man, Vegas is awesome. Who doesn't like Vegas? Like, let's make a pit stop in Vegas. So I pull over. I'll never forget. We go to a Carl's Jr, and I'm telling everybody, like, hey. Get your food. Let's go quick. Get back in the car because I gotta win the competition. Right?

But I had this sneaking suspicion that something was wrong. So I pull out my cell phone, which I probably should have done before I started the drive, and I opened up GPS and I typed in the address that we were going. Mind you, at this point, I'm four hours into a seven hour drive.

I type in where we're going in Tahoe, and it says from where we are to there is seven hours. And I was like, no. That can't be right because we've already driven for four hours. There's no way we have another. So I, like, closed it. I opened up another app, and it confirmed

my dark suspicion that I had. I had, for the last three hours, after missing a freeway, been driving in the complete wrong direction. Though it be very quickly, it was in the wrong direction. And I've drive for four hours in a seven hour trip, and we're not a minute closer to our final destination.

And worst of all, I'm the only one that's aware of it at this point in time.

So I run through like every good dad and husband. Do I tell anybody, or do I just be like, hey. Why don't you just take a nap? Just hang out. Chill out. Like, I'll get us there. Don't worry about it. You know? And they're like, man. This three hours is taking forever. I'm like, you're just not good at math. Okay?

But I was like, no. I gotta tell them. Right? So I tell everybody as they're getting back into the motor home. And it was like I don't know if you can if you've had those moments where it's, like, palpable. Like, you can literally feel and see the energy, like, suck out of the room.

And all of a sudden, I was you know, I went from being the one that everybody was cheering on, like, look at how great he's doing. Daniel's awesome. Look at how fast he's getting his there to being like, he's an idiot. I don't know why we let him drive. He always does this. Like, what's who let this idiot drive? It's your middle child. You don't let middle children drive. Right? And all of a sudden, in a moment, I went from being, like, the hero of this story to, like, the complete zero of it. And I get back on the road. I'm by myself. Everybody's in the back. And my my wife, who's, like, the sweetest person in the world, comes up and, like, puts her arm around me. She's like,

hey. I know you tried really hard, and, like, I I still love you. And I I know it's really sweet, but the moment when your wife says, I know you tried really hard,

it's never on the back end of something good. Right? And I know you're sitting here this morning like, why are you telling us any of this? Here's why I tell you this. Because as I read Psalm chapter 23 and we get to verse four, it kind of ends up in a destination that you never thought we would get to.

And I think what David does is he talks about just the plain nature of life. And maybe you know what I'm talking about, where it felt like you were heading in one direction, and it felt like just out of nowhere, you woke up one day and you were in a place and you asked yourself the question, how did I end up here?

It felt like we were going in this direction. I thought that everything was pointed this way, yet today, right now, in this moment, I find myself here. What do you do when you find yourself in a moment where you're in a place where you never thought you would be?

When it felt like the trajectory of your life was heading here, yet today, here's where you sit.

Part of why Psalm 23 is one of those passages in the Bible that has stood the test of time is because I think it talks not just in beautiful poetic language, but it just talks about the reality of life. David in the first three verses of the Psalm is talking about how this life with God is incredible.

It's one where he says if you walk with God, if you give your life to him, you will want for nothing. He will meet your every need. He will make you lie down in green pastures. There's streams of living water. It's just this incredible journey. And then out of nowhere, he transitions into verse four

and he says, but you better believe you and I will find ourselves in really dark valleys. Sometimes it will be a shadow that's actually cast by death. And there's no forewarning, there's no preparation, it's just like mountaintop experience and now you're in the deep valley. And I'm at least grateful

that David talks plainly like that because here's what I have learned in the short years that I've been on this side of eternity. Seasons are going to come and go. Good times will be here, yes and amen,

but you better believe there's gonna be some difficult ones that we're gonna have to survive through as well. So if you're taking notes, here's kind of the big idea, what I wanna circle us around this morning. I hope my goal for all of us is that even when seasons change, our faith can remain.

Part of what I love about this verse is that David again, you got to remember Psalm 23 is written at the end of his life. He's an old man looking back, thinking back over the journey that he's had with God.

And he's thinking about the great moments, but he's also reflecting honestly about the hard moments that he's had. And if you don't know the story of King David, man, it's an incredible story.

There's almost nobody else in the Bible that's more uniquely qualified to talk about the high highs that you will have on a journey with God, almost followed immediately by the low lows. We find David. The first time we see David in the Bible is when he's a 13 year old little boy.

The prophet Samuel has come to his house because God told him at the house of David is going to be the next king of the nation of Israel. But when the selection ceremony is happening, when Samuel is going through and looking at all the potential brothers to be anointed, David's left out. He's not even brought inside.

And eventually his dad goes and gets him, and Samuel goes, this is the one. He's going to be the king. He pours oil over his head, anoints him the future king of God's people and has this incredible mountaintop.

But then he's sent right back into the field and he spends the next few years just being a regular thirteen year old shepherd boy.

And the Bible doesn't really tell us a lot about his life in the next few years, and we don't see him again until one day he's literally bringing his brothers some Chick fil A when they're on the battlefield. The nation of Israel is fighting the Philistine army,

and David was literally just bringing his brother some snacks.

He walks up and he sees this big hairy dude that's talking all kinds of trash about the nation of Israel and more importantly about the nation of Israel's God. And David's like, why are you guys letting this guy talk trash? I could take him. And they're like, you think you could take him? He's like, yeah. Could take him for sure.

And they're like, alright, bud. Have at it. And he goes out there and he kills Goliath. And all of a sudden, he becomes a national hero. He's brought into Saul's home and he lives this life of luxury in the king's castle for about ten minutes.

And then Saul gets jealous of him. And David has to flee and he has to run and he has to hide in caves and he's given opportunities to take vengeance for himself. But God reminds him, vengeance is mine. You are just to walk through this valley. But ultimately David will become king.

He will be the greatest king that the nation of Israel has ever had. Again, for short seasons. David will then have one of the greatest moral failures we see in the Bible. He will sleep with one of his friend's wives, have a baby with her,

and then have the friend killed to cover up the mistake that he made, and ultimately the baby will die. David goes from being this conquering king to a dude that is riddled with sin and shame. But he repents

and he again wins some really important battles for the nation of Israel, reunites the kingdom like no king has done before

And he experiences yet again another mountaintop experience until his son Absalom tries to betray him and overthrow his kingdom and David finds himself in another valley. Why do I belabor all of this?

Because David is not sitting at the end of his life having been through and having lived this life of just pure pleasure and luxury, looking back on his life, challenging you and I to remember that God is good even when your circumstances are not. He's a guy who has gone through it. He has lost loved ones unexpectedly.

He has been betrayed by people who he thought would never betray him. He's been full of fear. He's been He's had moments of great faith, and at the end of his life, he's remembering through it all, God was with me. Here's why I say all of that to us this morning.

I know that we don't come to church excited to be like, oh, awesome. We're gonna talk about suffering and trials and difficulties. Like, I'm in. But I think the truth is, is I think sometimes we forget, Christians, you and I forget,

that we have surrendered our life to a king who conquered his kingdom not through power and might, but by submission, By being beaten, mocked, brutalized, tortured, hung on a cross, ultimately asphyxiating, dying a gruesome death knowing that that was the path to restoration for you and I.

And he looked at his disciples, he looks at all of us and says, you better know in this world, you will know suffering. But remember, it's not you that they actually hate, it's me that's living in you that they hate. Yet so often I think we're just so caught off guard when trials and difficulties come.

I don't think we should be surprised by valleys. In Psalm 20 three:four, David is referring to, yes, a literal valley. The valley of the shadow of death is a real place that's in The Middle East. You can go to it and see it. David has walked through it. He has led his flocks as a shepherd through this literal valley,

but he's also writing about the metaphorical lows that you and I will have. And part of my goal this morning is for us to see seasons are gonna come and go. Much of life could be summed up as being in a tough season, coming out of a tough season, or getting ready to head into a tough season.

Yet I watch so often where people walk away from their faith when life becomes difficult because they believe that the circumstances must mean that God has left them. My hope is that you and I will see the seasons that we are in will come and go, but our faith, our God, it can remain and be constant.

The Bible talks a lot about valleys. Even if you just go and look through all of the physical valleys that the Bible talks about and their meanings, it's incredibly powerful.

But here's what I wanna do. There's four things that I want us to see that the Bible talks about about these valleys, these low points of our lives. And then I wanna get really practical to get in and go, what do we do when we find ourselves there? So here's the first thing the Bible says about valleys.

Valleys are inevitable. I know it's not like some earth shattering point, but valleys are part of our life. They're part of our human experience on this side of eternity. Here's what the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 11.

It says, but the land that you are crossing, the Jordan to take possession of, is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. Here's why Deuteronomy chapter 11 is a really important verse for us to see. In Deuteronomy 11, the nation of Israel is leaving exile. They are leaving captivity,

and they are entering into this place called the promised land, which was the place that they had always been told they were going to ultimately live.

And they had the misconception that the promised land was going to be a place of nothing but perfection and joy and peace and happiness and goodness. But God tells them in the very beginning, you're about to enter into the promised land. You're going to cross over the Jordan and notice what is in the promised land,

mountains and valleys. Here's why that's important for us to see. Sometimes you and I can believe a false truth and that we only will find ourselves in difficult moments when we make poor choices.

That valleys are only ever entered into on the backside of doing something wrong. Now, for a lot of you young adults in the room, right? Spend a lot of time as a young adults pastor. Don't hear what I'm not saying. You need to stop making some dumb decisions. Alright? Like, you should stop dating people that are the same person and expecting to end up in different places. Sometimes you are in a valley because of your dumb decisions. Amen?

But there are also times that you will be doing the right thing. You'll be going to church. You'll be trying your best. You're paying your taxes, paying your tithes, being generous, showing up, being faithful, praying, reading your bible, doing all of the stuff, and someone will still die.

You'll still get a cancer diagnosis. You'll still lose a job. You'll still have a friend betray you. And it has nothing to do with whether or not God has left you. It has everything to do with the reality that you and I live in a fallen and broken world.

We live in a world that is decaying with bodies that are breaking down and riddled with disease but we can take heart because this is not our forever home. Christians, we have to remember that this is not the place we're supposed to get ultimate satisfaction from.

That we live in a broken and fallen world and we just have to begin to accept the fact that even in the promised land, there are going to be valleys. Here's how first Peter chapter four verse 12 says this. He says, dear friends,

don't be surprised at the fiery trials that you are going through as if something strange were happening to you. He says, don't be surprised. Don't go, oh, what's happening? Just understand this is part of the broken world I live in. And here's what's important. We have to have a theology of God that is developed and built

regardless of the circumstances that are happening around us because there will be seasons where you will walk through really hard things and you will be tempted to believe that because of what's happening to you, because it is not good, that means that God must not be good. It's not true.

We have to have a foundational rock solid granite faith that is built on the bedrock that God is good no matter what is happening around me. Here's the second thing the Bible shows us about valleys. Valleys are unpredictable.

Again, I know it's not earth shattering, but I was thinking about it this week. Imagine how awesome it would be if God gave you like a two week head up for every, like, difficult thing that was going to come your way.

Like, hey, check it out in two weeks. I know you got a really important meeting at 09:00. Well, at 07:45, your kids are gonna fight, and basically, you're gonna wanna lock them in a closet, and so you're gonna have to deal with them, and then you're gonna rush out to your car. At 08:45, you're gonna have about two minutes to spare, and you're gonna turn the key over and the battery's gonna be dead. You're gonna miss the meeting. Your boss is gonna yell at you. So you should just take care of that battery today. Like, that would be amazing, right?

But I don't know about you, but that's not my experience. It seems like the valleys, the tough moments come at the most inopportune time. And I can't find it anywhere in the Bible, but it also seems that they come in waves of three.

They just happened. There's two that have taken place. You're like, all right, what's the third one? Let's get it out of the way.

I'll never forget when my daughter was in the hospital back in December. I came home for six hours to get a little bit of sleep and a change of clothes for us, and I left at 05:30 to go get for a surgery that she was having. I stepped down into the final step of my downstairs at my house. I put my foot down into about an ankle deep level of water.

I was like, the whole house has to flood right now? Like, right now the whole downstairs has to flood? Oh my God, there was better times to flood my house than right now when my daughter's in the hospital. And yet I found myself completely shocked that things were happening.

But here's the thing. If you read the Bible, it tells us they're gonna happen. And they're gonna happen at really inopportune times. Here's what the prophet Jeremiah says in Jeremiah chapter four.

He's trying to prepare the nation of Israel what it's gonna be like to live in captivity in Jeremiah chapter four verse 20. I'll read it right here. It says, waves of destruction roll over the land until it lies in complete desolation.

Suddenly, my tents are destroyed, and in a moment, my shelters are crushed. You know that verse in Jeremiah that everybody talks about and quotes often about how God has these these good plans and a plan that's to to do good things in our life? You should read the rest of the story.

Because Jeremiah was the only prophet that was actually being honest with the nation of Israel. They had all these false prophets that came in, and they were like, oh, you guys aren't gonna be in captivity for very long. It's gonna be awesome. Just really short. Just endure for a little bit. Then Jeremiah walks in and he's like, hey, God has really good plans for you. It's gonna be incredible

eventually, but this next season is gonna be really, really hard, and you better prepare for it. He actually says, create homes,

marry, develop families because you're gonna be here for a while. And as he's laying out what their season in captivity is going to look like, he says, gonna come out sometimes and it's gonna it'll be in a moment. Your entire shelter's gonna be crushed because valleys in their very nature are unpredictable.

They happen at the worst times. Here's the third thing that the Bible tells us about valleys. This is where it starts to become good news. Valleys are temporary. Valleys are not meant to be a place that you and I live. They're supposed to be a place that we journey through.

Notice what David says. He says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He doesn't say, though I camp, though I live. He says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Valleys are temporary.

I feel like God literally brought me here to tell somebody this weekend what you are walking through right now, what you are currently experiencing feels like it's going to last forever. It won't. The heartbreak that you feel right now, it will heal. The disappointment that you feel, the grief that you feel,

it won't be how you feel forever even though sometimes it feels like it will. The greatest lie of the enemy and the lie is becoming more and more convincing if you look at the suicide rates inside of our country. The greatest lie of the enemy is to do something permanent about a situation that is in its very nature

temporary. The way you feel today is not how you'll feel forever. It's one of the greatest things that I learned. No matter how bad, no matter how dark it gets, you will get through this. I feel like the world is so desperate for the church to become who the church is supposed to be again inside of our nation,

inside of our communities, inside of our schools, inside of our circle of friends. We are supposed to be the hope of the world.

We're not supposed to be the ones fighting with each other over really silly things. We're supposed to be the ones that are a city on a hill, the light into the darkness, the ones looking around telling everybody else, hey, guys, I know it feels like this is never going to end, but it will. Church,

we will get through COVID-nineteen. Even if it becomes COVID-twenty nineteen and it lasts for a long time, there will be a day that we are on the other side of this, and we have to remember that. If we can begin to remember that these things are temporary, it will change how we process through them, and we'll stop fighting

with each other and we'll start fighting for each other. This is not going to destroy us. The church's best days are still ahead of us though right now it feels really divisive. We will get through this. For those of you who have made poor choices

and the valley that you find yourself in today is a byproduct of the decisions that you've made, I want you to know that this is not a place, these valleys, these moments of temporary failure, they are not a place that you and I are called to set up and live. It is not your destiny.

It is not the name that has been given to you and I. Yes, momentary failures will happen. David literally committed adultery and murdered a man yet God still had good things for him. I would venture to say the mistakes that you and I have made pale in comparison

to literally committing adultery and killing the guy to try to cover it all up. And if it's true about David, it's true about us. This valley is not our identity. You have to stop camping in this place that's supposed to be a temporary thing that you get through. Here's the four things the Bible tells us about valleys.

Valleys are supposed to be purposeful. This is where the gold can be found. If we begin to learn that, hey, valleys are just part of life. They're gonna happen out of nowhere, but they are temporary. If we can do that, then I believe that's how we begin to do what David did. And we go, okay, I'll slow down.

Notice that David is walking through the valley of the shadow of darkness. If I was in the valley that's called the shadow of the valley of death, like, I would be sprinting through it. I'd be like, oh, let's get out of here, man. Let's get back to the mountaintop. Yet David somehow

has figured out how to just slow down and walk in the middle of a really difficult season. Because I think he's learned that there's purpose in pain if you'll slow down and be present in it. If you and I can just slow down and our prayers can stop being, Hey, God, would you just end this as soon as possible?

Would you just make this stop as soon as possible? And our prayer would become, God, would you teach me what it is you're trying to teach me in the middle of this season of darkness,

in this season that is really hard that I don't understand, that I don't want to be a part of it? God, would you teach me the lessons that you have for me? All of a sudden, I think we begin to understand what the Bible means when it says that God works out all things for our good.

That doesn't mean that all things are good, but it means that if you and I can understand that there's purpose in pain if we slow down and begin to look around. We can begin to put one foot in front of the other and say, okay God, I don't know why I'm here. I don't know how I ended up here,

but I'm going to put one foot in front of the other and I am going to learn the lessons that this season has for me. Here's what I'm beyond convinced of. Inside of this room, there are some incredible ministries that God wants to develop. He wants to create incredible ministries through our lives.

But here's the other thing that I know. Oftentimes, the most effective, the most powerful ministries, they come out of seasons of great misery.

It's out of our pain and out of our hurt and out of our trials and our difficulties that we gain the ability to have a unique vantage point to journey with somebody else that's going through the same thing.

When we've gotten through the valley, we then have a unique ability to turn around to other people that are in it and say, hey, when I was in it, I didn't think we were gonna make it through, but I did. I know right now you don't have any faith, but just use mine. I got through it. I promise you, you'll get through it.

That's how we become the hope of the world. But the enemy has gotten us so busy just fighting with each other, we've forgotten to learn the lessons that are in these seasons so that we can begin to help other people walk through them as well. There's incredible

purpose in pain if you'll slow down. Here's how First Peter says this in chapter one.

It says that these trials will show that your faith is genuine. It's being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold, so when your faith remains strong through many trials,

will bring you praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Here's what Peter says. He says there's a refining process that you and I have to go through. You and I can allow valleys to either define us or refine us. We get to choose.

Tough moments are going to come. Difficult seasons are going to be a part of them. Whether or not they're going to refine you or define you, that's up to you. We get to make that choice.

And what Peter says is there will be a day where all of this makes sense. You will look back and go, oh, I fully understand exactly what God was doing. Some of you in this room know exactly what I'm talking about. There are seasons that you've walked through that were really hard that you would never volunteer to sign up through and walk through again,

but you know that in that season, God developed something in you that is now an essential part of who you are, that it never could have happened on the mountaintop. There are lessons that we have to learn and they can only be taught in the valley. Now here's the slippery slope that happens sometimes theologically.

We go, okay, so that means that God is sending us valleys and sending us difficult things to teach us lessons. That sounds a bit sadistic. That's not what's happening. God's heart breaks with the things that our hearts break for. He doesn't want death to be a part of our story. It was not a part of the original design.

Death and sickness are not a part of God's original intention but because of sin and the brokenness that we live in, they are now a part of the world that we're in yet God uses them for our good. He doesn't send them for our good. He uses them and redeems them for our good. So here, what do we do?

If you find yourself this weekend, you find yourself here going, man, I'm just in a dark valley and I don't know what to do. The part that I love about Psalm 23 verse four is David gives us some really practical things that we can do when we're in a dark valley. Here's the first thing that he says. We have to refuse

to be discouraged. The first thing, if we find ourselves in the dark valleys, we have to make a decision not to be discouraged. Look at Psalm 23 verse four. David says that even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

I love that it doesn't say, hey, even though I walk through this valley, there is no fear here. I'm not afraid. I'm not tempted to be afraid. David doesn't say that. David says, even though I'm here, I'm choosing not to be afraid. He makes a declarative

statement in the middle of a tough season, in the middle of a dark valley. He says, I will fear no evil. I think sometimes you and I have to remember, we will not get the choice of what season or valley we find ourselves in, but we do get a choice on how we respond to those valleys.

We get a choice of how we are going to journey through those seasons of bitterness and those seasons of darkness. We have to begin to remember to go, hey, I know there's a lot of things right now that are causing us to be afraid. I would say right now, I have not seen fear

be such a part of our culture as much as it is today. Everybody is afraid of everything, and there's 10,000,000 things to be afraid of. And yet God's invitation to you and I as believers who have the same spirit living in us, the Bible says, that rose Jesus from the grave. He says, remember that's not a spirit of fear.

You and I have not been given a spirit of fear, but one of power and of sound mind and of self control. And sometimes we have to look in the face at the things that are causing us to cower and to be afraid and to go, I will not fear. We will find ourselves in circumstances that we did nothing to deserve

and it would be really easy to justify just throwing a temper tantrum and being really upset and God says don't. Make a decision to not be afraid. Make a decision to walk by faith and not by fear. Even though it's tough, even when it doesn't make sense. Because why?

Here's the second thing we have to remember when we're in these seasons of darkness. Remember that God is still with us. I know that statement, remember that God is with you, is kind of cheesy. But I think sometimes we undervalue the greatest thing that God has given us. The greatest gift that God has given you and I,

it's not even his power, though he is powerful. The greatest gift that God has given us is his presence. And there is something about trials and difficulties and really hard moments where you will experience God in ways that you never dreamt possible.

Again, I've been telling God at all of these services, like, I'm good on trials. I don't need any more. I've learned these lessons. Let's move on to the rainbows and butterflies for the rest of my life. But here's what I know.

The seasons of my life that were the hardest to walk through were the ones where I felt God the closest. It stopped being an idea and it became a being. If you notice in all of Psalm 23 up until verse four, David is referring to God in the third person. He says, The Lord is my shepherd.

He does this. He does this. He does this. And then in verse four, he switches and he stops talking about God and he starts speaking to God. He doesn't call him he. He says, you. I know that you're with me. And David remembers what uniquely happens in seasons of difficulty. In the seasons of hardship, the ultimate

becomes the intimate. And David goes, man, I remember when life was the hardest, when I wanted to give up the most, that was when I remember you being the closest to me. Do you know what the bible actually says that when we're broken in spirit that God draws nearer to us?

There's a verse in the Bible that I think about a lot. John ten ten says that Jesus has come so that you and I can have life and life abundantly. Here's where we miss the mark a lot in modern Christianity. We believe that abundant life means a lot of things.

Friends, I have to tell you, the greatest gift that God wants to give you, the abundant life that is available to you and I as believers, is one where we journey with God. Where we have an intimate, enjoyable relationship with our father in heaven who knows us.

That's what he ultimately wants for us. I wish I could say he wants to give you a new truck. I want a new truck but what God promises us that is always better is his presence. He says, no matter what you go through, I will be with you. And at every low point of David's life, he just remembers the intimacy of his father.

There are some of us in this room, we need to stop talking about God and we need to start talking to God. We need to stop theorizing about God and we need to just sit down and close our eyes and begin to pray.

And we need to begin to go back to him just like a child. He says, Just come to me with all of your mistakes and your grumblings. Just come to me and let me be your father and remind you that you're gonna get through this. But now here's the part that I love about this passage in the way that it ends.

David doesn't just go, okay, here. Now you have the presence of God. Just go be. He says there's one other thing that God is going to do for you that he's done for me my whole life. Notice what he says at the very end. It's his comfort.

They have to click through because it's all a slide that has to go to number three first. Just so you know, Psalms 23, here's what he says. He says, I will fear no evil for you are with me. And then he says, your rod and your staff,

they comfort me. Here's the third thing we have to remember. We have to remember that we get to rely on God's protection.

I don't know if you know this, but our head of security apparently has a shepherd's rod in his arsenal of weapons that he will beat you with if you try to do something crazy while on campus. So I learned that this weekend too.

David says this really incredible thing at the very end of this as he kind of concludes what it's been like to journey through tough moments. He goes, you know what I take comfort in?

I take comfort in that you are a God who shepherds us. Right? He's also referring to something that he's done his whole life. David was a shepherd.

The two tools that every shepherd would have is the shepherd's staff, which is the thing you think about when you think of a shepherd. It's the stick with the little curly thing on the end. That's the shepherd's staff. It's used to pull dumb sheep out of bushes and to nudge them away from the cliffs,

all of which, again, is not a compliment to you and I that we're like these dumb sheep that end up in bushes, but that's beside the point. He says that shepherds have another tool that we don't talk about a lot. Shepherds have a rod, and the rod was almost more important than the staff.

If you go and read the story of David pleading his case to King Saul about why he was qualified to go and fight Goliath, it's one of the most incredible stories in the Bible. Anybody that's like, the Bible's boring. I'm like, you just don't read it.

Because in this story, they're like, are you sure you can fight Goliath? And he's like, oh, yeah. When I was a shepherd, there was this one day a lion tried to come and attack my sheep. And you know what I did? They're like, no. What'd you do? Tell us. He's like, man, I grabbed the lion by its beard,

and I beat it with the club until it died. Like, you grabbed it by its beard? He's like, yeah. I also did it to a bear. And they were like, yo, this is a bad man with jamba. Like, man, if you wanna go fight Goliath, tear it up.

Like, this is a dude that literally grabbed these crazy animals by their beards and beat them. I'm like, I don't even know a lion had a beard, but it's in the Bible. And David says, here's why I can rest when everything around me says I should freak out.

Here's why I can stop and slow down when my mind won't stop racing because of all of the variables that could go wrong. He says, I remember that you're a God that has a rod. You are a God that has a staff that is going to protect me and fight the battles that I cannot fight.

You are my provider. You are my provision. You are my defender. And when I truly believe that, I can rest even in the toughest moments. Friends, I think so often we forget that the Bible tells us that Jesus, the first time he was on this earth, two thousand years ago, it says he came as a lamb.

He came as a lamb that was going to be led to the slaughter for you and I. But we forget the part about that he's coming back again.

And when he comes back again, he's not coming back as a lamb. The Bible says he's coming back as a lion, as a conquering king, and across his thighs will be written, king of kings and lord of lords. He's coming back tattooed and ready to fight. We serve a conquering king, and sometimes we think of Jesus as just this meek,

mild holy land dweller that's in like a freshly pressed robe with straight hair and nice sandals. And yes, that's a part of who God is. But he's also a fierce defender of his children.

And he is fighting things and stopping things from coming into our life that we can't even see. Some of us have to stop talking and focusing on how big our problems are, and we need to begin to remember how big our God is. He wants to fight for you, but you have to let him.

I close with this story to illustrate this. When I was a kid growing up, my mom was petrified

of mice. Like, it's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But she gets, like, physically ill if there's a little mice, a little mouse anywhere around her. There was one night we were literally woken up in the middle of the night to my mom screaming bloody murder. I was convinced it was the night that I was gonna die. Like, there was something crazy happening.

We go downstairs, and literally, there's this tiny little mouse just sitting on the ground, just sitting there. My mom is screaming. We're all like, you woke us up for this? I'll never forget my brother walks downstairs, doesn't say a word, has a BB gun, goes,

shoots it, walks back up the stairs, and goes right back to bed. And I was like, man, that was awesome. Here's why I tell you that. What was this insurmountable task for my mom was something that was easily handled with just the right equipment. If you and I

if you and I would stop feeling like we have to fight all these battles on our own and we would begin to invite God into them with us, We would begin to experience the victories that he can win on our behalf because he has access to weaponry that we do not have.

He's bigger than the problems and you will see once he steps in, oh, that wasn't that big of a deal. Because do you know the valley? It's called the valley of the shadow of darkness, the shadow of death. You know what's crazy about a shadow? It can't actually hurt you.

Go let a semi shadow run you over. You will be shocked. You're like Superman. Just goes right through you. Shadows can be scary. Shadows can seem big, but they're not real. They can't actually hurt you. They can just convince you to stop going and to be afraid, but I'm here to tell you the shadow proves

that there's sunlight and if we can change our perspective, keep walking, we will look up and we will stop seeing the shadow and we'll begin to see the light that is our God who's been there the whole time, who has never left us

and I believe if we do that, that is how we develop a faith that can remain the same even when seasons change. Father, I thank you, God, for every person that's here today. That, Lord, I know in this room are people who are walking through really difficult things.

That Lord, some people in this room aren't sure of how their business is gonna keep going or where the next paycheck's gonna come from or how they're gonna move past the heartache or the grief that they feel right now because of the loss that's taken place in their life.

And God, I'm not attempting to throw simple answers at what I know are really hard and complicated questions, but Lord, know that you're good and our answer and our hope is always found in you. God, would you begin to use us as your church to be the hope of the world? Would we remember that valleys are just part of life

but through you and in you we have the ability to walk through them and not allow them to define us. Jesus, we desperately need you. It is in your mighty name that everybody said,

amen and amen. Hey, if you guys wanna pray with somebody, we've got a prayer room over in the back. We've got people that would love to pray with you. If you're watching online, just go to rockpointe.io.

We've got people that can pray with you online. But other than that, you guys are amazing. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend, and I'll see you the next time I'm in town.