Walking through the Valley

Life is full of valleys so many times. There are mountaintops in life, but honestly, when we look at our lives, at best, life could be labeled as 50/50. The great problem with a valley is, this is the place, when we make some of the worst decisions in life. After the valley, we usually look back later and think, “WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING?” But the great thing about it is that we do not have to be sinking in the valley and making bad decisions. We can be looking up to the Lord and high stepping during the valley. So I want to help you do just that.

Let us read the whole Psalm 23:

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

This particular text is one of the best known verses of Scripture. Just about every funeral that I have done, or, to be honest, every funeral I have ever been to, they have used this Scripture.

Unfortunately, this Scripture has very little to do with death, but has much to do with life. Only about five or six percent of it deals with Eternity, though there is the application here in much of the Psalm. Much of it has to do with life and the life that we have as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at verse number one. It says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” When you look at that, the very first verse gives an illustration of a shepherd and a sheep. In a shepherd and sheep relationship, we know that the shepherd is the protector and the leader of the sheep. Now, let me say this, that the sheep need the shepherd more than the shepherd needs the sheep. For example, without the shepherd, the sheep, are often hanging off some cliff somewhere, eating some little scrap of grass on the side of a rock, getting ready to commit suicide as they fall off the rock on the side of a mountain. Really, many times, they are mistakenly called goats.

But when you see tame sheep with their shepherd, you see them out in a bountiful field with grass knee-high, and they are fat, and sassy. The wild sheep, with no shepherd, are skinny and unprotected. What you see illustrated here is, God saying, “I am their shepherd, and MY SHEEP shall not want.” God knows how to provide for our needs, even in the valley. God knows how to provide for His children. What happens is, as we move out of the place of the Shepherd’s care, then, there comes problems. We wander from the Shepherd in the valley.
That is why this message is so important. I have seen people that quit God, give up on God, give up on church, give up on serving God, file for divorce, etcetera.

However, it is worthy to note, that there are times even during the mountain tops, we get our attention off of God. This would be illustrated in that while the tame sheep are feeding and the Shepherd decides to move the fold, we stay still, and keep eating, (The Blessings) and not move with the Shepherd and the fold. This ultimately means that we get out of the will of God in the blessings.

Back to the point. So, God knows our needs, and in verse number two, David illustrates it again, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.” Two parts are here. First, God can give you food to eat, and He can give you raiment. But, the second part is interesting, “He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

You know what is interesting about sheep? Please note, I am not a sheep farmer; I did not grow up on a sheep farm, but I have done a little bit of studying that reveal sheep are very timid creatures. You can yell at them, and they will shriek away. Also, they are finicky, like Christians so many times are. Sheep will not drink from water that is rushing. If you have got a big, rushing stream, the noise from it scares them.

So, for the shepherd, one of the challenges is to find the water that is very smooth flowing. God does not particularly cater to us. He is God and not us, but He will lead us if we let Him. Like church members, we want church the way WE want it. Fast food restaurants try to make food the way you order it. God knows our needs. He knows how to provide for us. He knows the needs of our heart. He knows what we are going through. We may have wants, and at times, He will give those to us. However, sometimes wolves will hide in tall grass. So there are times when God says you can not eat over there, because He knows it is dangerous. Like marrying an unsaved or unspiritual person, you may think you can win them, but God knows better.

This is important because you look at the very next verse, number three, “He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

Let us park the Bible bus for just a minute, and let me explain some things. He knows our need. He knows what we want. He knows our emotions, and what He says is, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Righteousness has a two-fold definition. One, it is holiness towards God, and likewise, it is also defined as right living. God knows how to keep us straight. God knows how to make us live right. God knows how to work in our lives, to lead us in that way which He would have us to go. Notice it says we are lead in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Here comes our text verse, number four. It says, “Yea…”(that means “yes”), “though I walk”…(that means I’m going to walk) “through the valley of the shadow of death…” (Look at the end result): “I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”

Interestingly enough, God says, "You’re going to walk through the valley." It has been said that either you are coming out of a valley, or you are in a valley, or you are going into a valley very, very shortly. You had better grab your seat buckle because you are about to go through a major valley, probably because it has been a while since you had one. Life is full of troubles, as Job says, “…as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). One of the things about Christianity today, is people have made Christianity out to be some kind of Day Spa. “Jesus is our homey” and “Jesus is my buddy,” or a genie in a bottle, that if we rub Him the right way, we get some wishes. I have heard some preachers preach as if as soon as you get saved, God is going to pour some spiritual blessing upon your life and you will be happy and jolly like never before.

I was listening to Alistair Begg on VCY America. He was saying something that was right on the money. He said, “You know, in America we preach this jolly Jesus. This jolly Jesus is so good and so happy, and a jolly good fellow, and if you just accept Jesus, this jolly good fellow, then you can be jolly too.” He went on to say, “If you take this jolly Jesus to the Sudan, they would not even know who you are talking about, because since they got saved, it’s been persecution. They have seen their brothers and sisters and their kids killed for Christ’s sake, for taking a stand for God.”

I say that to bring out this point, that yes, we have valleys…but even the unsaved have valleys. They have deep valleys. The difference between their valleys and our valleys is we have got Someone to walk with us so we can be victorious. The difference is that with someone who does not know the Lord, when they get in a valley and cannot cope, they have no one to look to. They turn to drugs, they turn to drinking, and they turn to some sort of addiction to get them through the valley, whereas when you and I who are saved and know the Lord, when we get in a valley, we know Who to turn to. We look up to Jesus Christ. That is the difference of the Christian life. That is the difference between you and me who know the Lord and have a personal relationship with Him than somebody who does not.

Likewise, do not miss this point right here: Even though we are Christians, we still may not make the right decisions in the valley. Many of these bad decisions were made, when I felt, “God’s not gonna come through,” or we say "God’s not going to take care of the situation.” or we ask, “Where are you God?" We may not verbally say it like that, but in our actions, that is exactly what we are saying, because we fail to trust in God. We fail to deal correctly with what God has told us to do. What has happened is, in the valley, we have stopped listening to God. Look at the last part of verse number four here: He says “I will fear no evil.” He says we can be in that valley of the shadow of death without being fearful. Why? “Thou art with me.”

If we know that God is with us, I have said it before, that if we really believe that God is with us every single second, it would revolutionize the way we act and talk. You know, I will be visiting somebody and they say, (I can hear the door), they say, “Hey, the preacher’s coming!” They have televisions, radios, and computers going on everywhere and magazines and other things laying out. …Hey, forget about me being here…The Lord Jesus Christ was here before I came! He saw everything, Amen!

David said, “I know that God is with me. I will fear no evil.” Look what he says: “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” This is kind of interesting when I study this. “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Now, I do not know about you, the rod and staff, which is the Word of God, says very clearly about punishing our children, “Thou shalt beat him with a rod, thou shalt deliver his soul from hell.” And it goes on to say, “Withhold not correction from a child. If thou beatest him with a rod, he shall not die.” When I was a child, I thought I was going to die, and sometimes wanted to because it seemed like it was so much pain to that particular misdemeanor. Why is that we must discipline our children? We must teach child boundaries. There is a right way, and there is a wrong way. There is a right reaction, and there is a wrong reaction.

This is the way we follow the first part of Psalm 23, "The LORD is my shepherd;" You take the child of God. He says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

Now let us go back to our illustration: Here is a shepherd, here is a sheep that is going away from the shepherd, and is going in the wrong direction. Maybe it is near a wolf pack over here, or maybe it is by a cliff, ready to fall off. The shepherd will come over and take his staff and smite him and say, “Hey, you have gotten out of bounds. You are not walking correctly. You are not walking the right path.”

Here comes the promise. The subject I am writing about “How to Walk Through the Valley.” Many times, many a Christian I know used to serve God and used to be on fire for God, and used to be a soul winner and doing that which God had called them to do. However, a valley came, and they could take it for a couple weeks, and usually we have enough fleshly fortitude to get through a few weeks; however in a prolonged valley, if we look to ourselves, we will get deeper in the valley. Like Job’s life. For many years, or maybe for decades…this could be health problems, financial problems, marriage problems, or loneliness from being single. How will we continue to look to the Lord and trust Him?

One of the first things we have to realize is the valley has a purpose, In the valleys is where faith grows. The Bible declares “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb 11:6)

Faith feeds with our relationship with the Lord. A valley comes, and we should not look at the Lord, outraged, and say, “Why is this happening to me?!! I’ve been TRYING to be faithful to you!” Is that not what we do? “God, I’ve been COMING to church, READING my Bible and PRAYING, and look what’s come into my life!”

The valley came for a purpose in our life that we might GROW! Without valleys in our life, we can never be what God wants us to be. That is why with persecution, God says that those who live Godly shall suffer persecution. Persecution is where character is born, and where more love and appreciation for our Lord Jesus Christ comes. However, in the midst of that valley, somewhere from point A to point B, we forget that God is with us. That is essentially what the Scripture is teaching. We forget that God is with us.

The question that needs to be answered is, “What is a valley?” A valley is a trial, test, situation, or circumstance, which is prolonged in our lives.

It could be financial. We could lose our job, or these bills come in and so on down the list and we say, “Well, I cannot give to God anymore. You know, I can use this money for something else.” What happens though, is we get deeper in the ditch. It becomes a ditch the devil is using, rather than the Lord. They say a ditch is a grave with both ends knocked out. So we get in the midst of the financial valley and we say, “I can’t give to God anymore.” And we stop. We forget that God is with us and that God is still the God of our finances and He was before the valley. As He will be after the valley has passed

I was talking to a preacher not long ago, with doctorates and a great resume of ministry. This guy had been to a religious school, and a seminary. He could probably preach better than I could, knew more about the Bible than I do…His little girl died. He said, “I grew up in a home where there was casual drinking, taking a little drink now and then was not that bad." It might not have been that bad for his father and mother, but when times got tough for him, he got in the valley.

A couple of doctorates did not make any difference when he got in the valley. His little girl died and he pondered and pondered in the valley, and for the rest of his life he would have to deal with the fact that his little girl was not coming home anymore. He could not hold his little girl in his arms anymore. What happened in his valley? He went to the booze bottle, got addicted and lost everything as far as his ministry.

It is not just the Christian leader; it can be anybody who names the name of Christ.

If we fail to walk through the Valley!

So let's review:

· We must believe the Lord is my Shepherd

· We must allow the Lord to lead us for Him to be our Shepherd

· Valleys are the places where our faith grows the most

· Valleys have a purpose

Chapter 2

DON'T RUN IN GOD'S HALLWAY

The reality of walking through the valley is one of the most integral attributes for us as Christians. Never should we be taken off guard by a valley. There is the example of people who I call valley drop outs. These are the people who quit in the valley. Statistically, I guarantee it, by this time next year there will be several people who you know that will go in the valley – and they will never come out. They will stay there. They will get into a rut, and they will no longer serve God. Dr. Lee Robertson use to say, "a rut is a grave with both ends knocked out."

A valley should not be a negative, but a positive. A rut is always a negative; it takes you where you do not want to go. Back in Virginia, where I grew up, we had a lot of dirt roads, during April we would have a lot of rain, the road would wash out, the road would be filled with ruts, and the ruts would almost take you over the bank of the road, in the direction the water ran. When a valley becomes a rut, we had better look up.

It can happen to this preacher, as well as it could happen to you. My aim and my prayer is that it would never happen to anybody, especially those who are reading this. I pray by this time next year, you will see yourself go into valleys, but you will see yourself step up and step out and be victorious in those valleys no matter what they may be.

That is why 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” You see, what is the worst that can happen in the valley? You could die. But really, for those who know the Lord, is that, that bad? For, if we know for sure that Jesus is our Saviour, death has no sting. The Word of God says in Matthew 10:28, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

You see, no matter what you are going through, God can lift you up. “Cast your burden upon me.” God says.

In fact, your loneliness, financial problems, grief, guilt, reaping of wickedness, marriage problems, and joblessness, will not kill us. What happens is we just lose hope. Remember, God has not given us the spirit of fear, as well as, “I walk through the valley, I will fear no evil.”

If you are reading this and you are not saved, you are going through a valley, you have been there all your life. The Valley of Sin. The only way you are going to get out of it is to trust Jesus as your personal Saviour. Get saved, get right, get in the Book and get busy for God. That is the only way it is going to happen. This concept will be repeated at the end of this booklet.

Likewise, for us Christians, after we are saved, as we walk and we serve God there is going to be circumstances that come. There is going to be depression that is going to come. There will be situations that arise that we are not ready for. But the question is, will our Christianity really take root, and will we have a faith that walks the walk and walks that walk through the valley?

Don’t Run in God’s Hallway!

Remember when you were in school? You would run down the hall, the teacher would stop you and say, "Where is the fire? You do not need to run, we are here all day." She would say then, "Slow down and be safe." That likewise is what happens to us, when we fail to walk in the valley. You say, “What do you mean?” I do not know about you, but if I am in pain I want instant relief… My wife is the one, if she has a toothache, or if she has a headache, she just does not take aspirin. She deals with the pain. If I have got a headache, or a sore toe, or an ingrown toenail, give me about five aspirins and call me in the morning. I do not want to deal with the pain. How many of you reading this, are like that? Most of you are, if you are smart.

Many times that is what we do with God. A valley or a trial comes into our life, and we say, “God, I just want to be done with it.” We get in a situation; maybe it is a marital relationship. This year, fifty percent of folks who got married will say, “You know what? I do not love them anymore. They are not meeting my needs anymore. I just want to be away from them. I just want to be done with it. I am just going to file for divorce.”

But that is what we do to God in the valley. We divorce God. David says, “I will fear no evil for THOU ART WITH ME.” We have to consciously say to God, “I am going to trust You in the valley." We will have to purpose also NOT to say in the valley, “You’re not with me. You’re not here, God!

When the rod and the staff don't guide me any longer, and my feelings are guiding me, I think of how I project the situation, how I can figure it out, rather than that of faith. When we get into the valley, we need to stop, ponder, and as Isaiah 40:31 says, “They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” We need to slow down and walk in the valley, and not run away from it.

So many times, we want to run and be done with it and be out of a situation. If we would just stand back, and as Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage.” Wait and walk with God during those times. A very popular poem is, “Footprints in the Sand.” by Mary Stevens

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was
walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the
sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he
noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one
belonging to him, and the other to the Lord. When
the last scene of his life flashed before him, he
looked back at the footprints in the sand. He
noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed
that it happened at the very lowest and saddest
times in his life. This really bothered him and he
questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, You said that
once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all
the way. But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life, there is only one set
of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed
you most you would leave me." The Lord replied,
"My son, My precious child, I love you and I would
never leave you. During your times of trial and
suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it
was then that I Carried You."

As the Word of God says, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” If we are walking through the valley, and He is with us, that means we have to be in step and we are going to have to be in stride.

God is in no hurry. He already knows the beginning and the end, and as we walk with Him, if we try to take off running, we are leading Him, and not He leading us. Those with little kids, you will know what I am talking about. If you take your kids to a toy store, even though you are the parents, who starts leading whom? The kids get anxious and they are pulling you!

That is what we do to God in the valley. In the valleys, we say, “No, God. Let us go, God. Let us get out of here.”

But there are some important lessons that God is trying to show us. 1 Peter 1:7 says, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:"

The first point of learning to walk in the valley and not letting the valley destroy us, but letting the valleys be stepping stones for greater faith in Him is first, to remember to slow down, wait, and walk with the Lord.

There are at least twenty-eight direct invitations, that is almost half of the books of the Bible, where a specific commandment is given to wait upon the Lord. That’s not counting all the verses about peace, about trust, and there are hundreds of those, if you add them all up. What happens in the valley is we say, “God, that’s not the way I want to do it, and not the way I’m GOING to do it!” So we take off running.

Likewise, we say, “God, I am depressed, I do not want to do anything, and I am not going to do anything! I’m just going to sit here and not do any activity.” Then we become complacent, and then we start to rust out.

Some people ask me, “Why do you have so much energy? Why do you have so much enthusiasm?” I would rather burn out than rust out. There is a danger of running in the valleys, or God’s hallway, but there is a danger of sitting also, and getting out of the will of God.

Remember, we have an enemy that can also use the valley, if we let him. If we let him, then Satan says, “Now I’ve GOT ‘EM!”

You know we are the salt and light. An illustration of this is, sugar-cured hams. Many of you may have never heard of this, but a salt-cured ham does not have to be refrigerated. I wondered how they make salt-cured ham. After a little studying, essentially what happens is, they just put a lot of brown sugar and salt on the ham.

You put on the salt, and then after a day or a day and a half of having that salt and sugar solution on there, you hear a sizzling type-noise, almost like it is frying. However, there is no heat! The salt is a preservative. The ham got its preservative by, once salt gets into that fresh meat; it is like if you pour salt into a wound, it creates a hostile environment. The salt keeps the cells moving. As long as it keeps the cells moving, the bacteria can not stick to it.

You see, bacteria and algae have to be in a complacent environment. That is why you see green ponds, because the water is not moving. If you have got a fish aquarium, if you keep the water moving, it stays fresh longer. I say that, to say, when we sit during a valley, we get complacent and algae from Satan will get all over us, and it is a downhill spiral.

The main point when walking through the valley, is we have to determine no matter what you are going through I will make it for God's Glory and my good. I am not going to run, and I am not going to become complacent. I do not know what you are going through today, I do not know what you have been through, I do not know what you are going through tomorrow, but one thing you and I both need to keep in the back of our mind is, “I am going to have to keep going.” I need to say, “I am not getting out of the valley and I am going to be here until the purpose of God is fulfilled. Until God chooses to deliver me and I will learn all the things God wants to show me, and so I am staying right here. I am going to make the best of it for God and let God make the best of it for me."

Valleys Have Divine Approval With Purpose

Valleys have a purpose, and these same valleys are like taking tests in school. When a child fails a grade, it is usually said to the child, “Because you have not learned in the first grade all the things that you need to learn in the first grade, you cannot go onto second grade. You need to repeat a year or maybe two years, or even four years to know all the things you need to know before you go to second grade.

Same is true spiritually when the trials and tests and valleys come. God has a specific purpose for that test. Until we get it, we keep retaking the same test. So many Christians live in this vicious cycle. You keep dealing with the same things over and over, and until we deal with the lesson God wants us to learn and get the lessons out of the valley. Sometimes God will send a multitude of valleys with the same point that He has been trying to get across. We will go around in circles until we get the point or pass the test.

Something we have to understand is, we will have to walk in the valley, and there is no getting out of it, if we want to be faithful to God. Secondly, no matter what comes in our life, it has Divine approval, with purpose. Think about the life of Job and how he walked through the valley of the shadow of death and feared no evil, and God kept him. Likewise, He can keep you.

Job realized that he was not going anywhere, and that is why he said "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him." We must determine that we are walking. We are not running, or we are not sitting down. Romans 8:28 says very clearly, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

If you love God and are called according to His purpose, it says that ALL things work together, that being the bad, the good, and the stressful, and the perplexing, all those things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. I liken this, "that all things work together" to working a puzzle. I am focused on a single piece, but with the big picture in mind.

Looking back in the book of Job, chapter one: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”

Four things are said about Job, and God knows everything from the beginning to the end. He knows every little particular and He says that Job feared God, he was perfect, he was upright, and he ran from evil. Think with me, how many times do we hear, "He did not deserve that!", "Why do bad things happen to good people?" But what happens in Job's life here is a set of great perplexing situations that come upon Job for God's Glory. We know that he had seven sons, three daughters, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yolks of oxen, five hundred she-asses and a great household, and that he was the greatest man of wealth in the east.

I think he not only had his wealth in finances, but likewise he had his wealth of family. He was a man who prayed for his children, as it is explained in verse number five, in chapter one. Then, in verses six and seven: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

Here is what is happening, “I’ve been going to and fro,” says Satan. And we know the story. Satan says, “I’ve been out trying to destroy people’s lives and get some people in the valleys."

And God says, “Have you considered my servant Job?”

Satan says, “No, I didn’t, because You’re so good to him. Your blessings are so great upon his life. He’s got all these sheep, he’s got all these oxen, and he’s got all this family and all these great things are going on in his life. Then he makes the comment that Job only serves God, because God is so good to him.” Satan says to God, “Let’s see him in the valley. Let’s see him in the valley and see if he’ll serve you!”

God says, “Okay, go ahead. You can see him in the valley.”

So a series of events happens to Job and it had nothing to do with him, really. It really had everything to do with God’s glory.

You remember Satan? The reason he was kicked out of heaven was because he wanted to take God’s glory. Today he has no new tricks. He does it to Christians just like Job. That was not just one incident. Satan wants to destroy your life. He wants to take God’s glory from His children who are serving Him by getting us in a valley and getting our eyes off God. So then the Lord would no longer be your shepherd.

You go back to those times when I have said it over and over again: When we quit God, when we give up on God, when we stop working on our prayer lives, reading our Bibles, and trusting God, what happens is, we bring glory to Satan rather than God. In essence, Satan becomes our shepherd. We show that God is not sufficient for us in the valley. We are saying ultimately, that God, He is the God of the hilltops, but He is not the God of the valleys.

I don’t know about you, but the God that I serve in the valleys is my God of the mountaintops. Amen! Romans 8:37, “Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him…” “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…for thou art with me.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “For there is no temptation taken you but such is as common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape…” (walking through the valley) “that you may be able to bear it.”

This verse is often misconstrued and taken out of context. God will not put more on you than you can bear when you ARE trusting in Him. If you are not trusting God, then you are bearing the weight yourself. There is no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit. You see, God will not put more on you than you can bear when you are trusting in Him and walking in the Spirit of God, through a valley. If you are walking in the flesh, you are not going to be able to handle it. We have got to understand that the valley has Divine approval and purpose. Job’s wife did not see this. She said to him, “Why don’t you just curse God and die?” The valley did not have anything to do with him; it had everything to do with others and God’s glory.

And today, what a blessing it is to see, that if Job went through all that, then I can get through what I am going through! I can get through this valley or this situation that I am going through. If Job can do it, I can do it! God worked mightily in Job’s life. We can see it was a Divine order from God or a Divine approval from God to let Satan do these things. Job likewise was blessed above measure.

Chapter 3

DIVINE OUTCOME.

Two preachers one day were arguing about eternal security versus not having eternal security, talking about God’s providential hand on those who were saved and, likewise, for those that get away from the Lord. In their debate back and forth, one preacher finally asked, “If you were in a lifeboat, and you decided to jump out of the boat, wouldn't you die in the water?”

And the other guy said, “No, not really. Let me illustrate: My son and I were out on a river canoeing. My son was two or three years old, he was a little tyke, and we were going through some rapids and I was scared he was going to fall out. My son started to cry a little bit, so I went up to the front of the boat and grabbed him. And I held on to him so he wouldn’t fall out of the boat.”

And the other preacher said, “That’s where you’re wrong. What if your kid had squirmed out of his jacket and jumped out of the boat willingly?”

And the preacher answered, “You don’t understand. I didn’t have him by the coat. I had him by the waist, and I wasn’t letting go.”

When we invite God in the valley, and when Divine trials and tribulations come our way, and if God has allowed it, He also has a way of escape. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Building off of an earlier illustration of the puzzle, it is sort of like painting a picture. For instance, if you paint a picture of nice scenery of some sort, and if you want to put people on it, you would paint the trees, and the forest, and the greenery and all the background. Then, all of a sudden, the artist would take some black paint or some brown color of some sort and he would make a blotch right there on the painting. And you would look at it and say, “Man, now there’s a blotch!” Then the blotch would start to take shape and the artist would take his paintbrush, put eyes and so forth on the figure, and the picture would start to come together. Many times, valleys are just that way. It’s a blotch on the picture of what we expect or what we can see. But as the Master Painter goes to paint on the picture, and works His wonder, then it all comes together.

But in that valley, just like with Joseph, he was ordained to lead the nation. He was ordained to do a work for God. He had the coat of many colors. What happened to him is that he was persecuted by his brethren, thrown in a ditch, sold into slavery, then he went into Potiphar’s house as a slave. All of a sudden, Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him and he was put in jail for something he did not do. He was a man of great character, like unto Job. Then later, he goes into a palace, and God uses him for the deliverance of Israel, and likewise his own brothers.

Now let’s park here a minute and give application. If we had envy and were not walking with the Lord, we would have said, “Man, those guys sold me into slavery, I’m not giving them anything. Let them starve to death!” But that is not God’s outcome; that is our outcome.

You see, go back to Psalm 23 where it says, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for” …For my cause? For my career? No! “For His name’s sake.” It is all about God. It has not so much to do with me and my life. With that life, God allows trials to come by Divine Approval. Likewise, it has a Divine Outcome. The only thing I need to do is wait upon the Lord. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” God will work mightily in my life.

You know what may happen? A valley may come tomorrow, or you may be going through a valley right now. You do not understand the circumstances or all the things that are going into the curriculum of your spiritual education. Let me say, that it is okay. God knows all about it, and what we need to remember is, if we are going to walk in the valley, as I said earlier, statistics would show that in five years, there will be a slight majority of people who will not be walking with the Lord like they are this morning. Or, likewise, maybe you are reading this and you used to walk with God a year ago, but for the last year, you have been in the valley and you have slid away from God. You have stopped walking. You stopped, maybe tried to run out of the valley, and God is not able to show you the things He wants to show you.

But we need to memorize these points. When the valley comes, and it comes every single day sometimes, sometimes over a long period of time, first thing you say is, “Something has come into my life, I don’t understand it or what’s going on. That’s okay. I need to slow down. I need to walk. I need to walk through that valley.” The next thing that I have got to understand is, this comes only naturally to those who are walking by the Spirit of God. Do we not say that all the time? "God knows all about it!" But a better question is, "Do we know all about it?" The third chapter is the one we miss. We forget that there is a Divine Outcome. Put these points together: A valley has a Divine Approval, and a Divine Outcome.

I wish that I could give you a pill. I wish that I could say something to encourage you to walk in the valley, but this is where our spirituality takes the test. This is where what you have learned and seen and read will really take fruition in your life. The question is will you do it now?

Chapter 4

Walking Through the Valley:

THE BIG PICTURE

Up until now we have only looked at God's approval, plan, and a Divine outcome. Some of the greatest blessings in my life come in the valley. Like I have already said, faith grows in the valley.

I want to say it over and over again. We must walk through the valley. WHY? The sins that you allow to enter in when you are in the valley are sins that are very, very hard to get rid of.

Think about it, the teen age years are hard years, with peer pressure, hormones, and big decisions that need to be made. We often, in our teen years get into valleys. These valleys will lead us to Christ or away from Him. If we get away from Him, then we will allow sin to creep into our lives. The sins you put in your life between eight and eighteen are the sins you still struggle with the rest of your life. Just about everybody would agree that this is true.

The reason is: that sin becomes your crutch in the valley. You see, typically, if you are in the blessings of God on the mountaintop or the mountain peak, it is easier to live the victorious Christian life. What happens when you get in the valley? The “sin that so easily doth beset us” (as the Word of God says in Hebrews 12:1) is what we run to. Sin, rather than God.

If we do not live the Christian life, if we do not walk through the valley of the shadow of death without fear, it is not God’s fault. Why is this? We have a great God. He has supplied us with the Spirit of God and the Word of God to guide us into all Truth.

To give you an illustration, we have picnic tables now in the backyard of the church. Really nice ones, from the Outlet Center shopping mall. I was using a church member’s box truck to put tables into his big warehouse. I always make him back his truck up in the warehouse, because there is little room on each side of the mirrors, and he has done it so many times with ease. But I was all excited about these new tables, and I looked at another church member, and said, “I’m going to pull that thing up in the warehouse for him.” I looked and the garage door was open. I was looking in the side mirrors, making sure I had enough room and suddenly I heard, “CHCHrrrrr!” I backed up and realized that the garage door was down just a few inches. I did not have enough headroom, and I ripped the door off his warehouse.

I said that because this is what happens to us in the valley. We get looking at the mirrors to see if the mirrors are okay, we make sure that we are not scrubbing the sides, but we forget about looking ahead, or what is the Head, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. We get to looking at the surface and do not really see the big picture. The big picture is, “I must keep on for God, and it is important that I do so.” It is important for me, it is important for my family, and it is important for the next generation.

I really believe that the Lord could come back tonight. I also believe that it could be a hundred years, and it could be two hundred years. If that be the case, that means I am going to have grandchildren and even great grandchildren that will be living during that time. Most of the actions and reactions that I take, as the Word of God teaches, passes to the third and fourth generation. The decisions that I make will be passed on to my generations after me.

Think about it. You take one guy who goes to prison and his behaviour likely passes on to at least one of the children. It is proven by statistics to be true, that the next four generations will be corrupt. That is why this is so important to you and me. It is important to you parents and young people. It is so applicable all the way down into the nursery. It is applicable to any, who can comprehend the words that I say.

So as we continue to look at Psalm 23,

Psalm 23:4 – “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”

Why would a Christian?

· Not see the Lord as their Shepherd in the valley?

· Not allow the Lord to lead him in the valley?

· Not see valleys as places where our faith grows the most?

· Use sin as a crutch rather than God?

· Not see the big picture?

I know some Christians who are fearful of death, maybe because they are not gripped onto Heaven like they should be, because the Word of God says “absent from the body…present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). We look forward to Heaven. Paul said to himself, “I have a desire to depart, but for me to stay right now, it is much better.” God had a purpose and plan for his life, and God has a purpose and plan for our lives. You notice what the promise says, “I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”

Most of the time, the fear of death does not move us out of God's plan for our lives, but usually it is the misery of the valley in which we are not trusting God. Likewise, many times in the valley when we are getting out of line, or walking incorrectly in the valley, God takes His big rod from Heaven and says "You’re going the wrong way." Sometimes we resent God's chastisement. We must be sensitive and responsive to God's leading or instruction.

An illustration of this is sometimes you can whoop the fire out of a child, (that is a southern term), and they will just look at you. They do not receive the instruction. They do not receive “the Board of Education upon the Seat of Instruction.” So you see, it takes a few times to get your point across.

Sometimes, even of God’s people, we get in the valley and we do not respond correctly. We can look back and if we will be honest with ourselves, (and God knows all about it), we see the bad decisions we made. The great thing about it is, we can learn from that. One thing great about the valleys, and I said this earlier, you do not go on unto the next grade, the next test, until you get that learning of the valley lesson first. Until you pass that test in that valley, you do not go on. This is the reason we should never be unprepared for a task that God has for us. We will cover this point later. Just like Moses on the back side of the desert, this was a preparation for his task later. Valleys are going to be a part of your life. They are preparing us for future valleys. People quit, because of pressure, fear of death, and lack of preparation

“THROUGH” IS THE OPERATIVE WORD

We gave the example of Job earlier. Job was righteous, upright, and he did what God called him to do, and what happened to him was not because of his sin, but for God’s glory and for you and me to get through what he went through. However, what is so great about Job is we see God's provision and plan for Job through the Valley.

CHAPTER 5

THE ROAD MAP IN THE VALLEY

The roadmap of the valley is Divine Allowance and Divine Outcome, wrapped up in one, with a course of action. Sort of like a trail through the deep woods, we stick to the path. Or like Jesus said:

Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

To get the right map, we need to ask God to reveal to us why this particular valley. We know there is a purpose, but what is it specifically? It is not wrong to ask God, “Why?” Now, I am not talking about complaining to God, telling God about all the situations and circumstances you are going through. and blaming Him –Though sometimes it does give us a little solace to do so, but it is not right. Remember, the nation of Israel questioned God. You remember they came to Moses and said, “Were there no graves back in Egypt that we could have died in Egypt?” They started questioning God’s man, they started questioning God’s character. They started questioning God’s provision in their life.

One time God said, “Moses, step back, I’m getting ready to annihilate these people.”

Moses said, “Remember your promises, God.” Then God thwarted His Divine wrath upon them.

Look at Psalm chapter ten real quick. We are talking about how to walk through the valley. It is Divinely Appointed and Divinely Approved, and there is also a Divine Outcome. As we walk, asking God Why, He will direct us.

Psalms 37:23 "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighted in his way."

You say, “Why is that important? Are we not supposed to live by faith?”

Let me say this…Faith is not blind! You say, “What do you mean?” Well, faith is not by sight, but faith is not blind because God gives me His Word. Based upon His Word, I take the steps. Not counting our faith is based on God's character and History. Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."

Psalm 10, verses 1-2: “Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” Think about what he is saying: “God, where are you when all this stuff is going on?” Like God’s not there! Verse 2, “The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.” Skip on down to verses16 – 18. “The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.”

What I want to show you here, is that many of the Psalms are like this. David starts out talking to God, “Why is this going on?” “Why do the heathen rage? Why do the wicked imagine a vain thing?” Like myself, I say: why do the wicked seek to pervert America? Why do people seek to do things that are ungodly? God interestingly enough, many times, will show me why He has been so gracious to America and as well as to others.

You notice that by the end of the chapter he has already answered himself. God has answered him, in that God does not want us to just blindly walk around when we are in the valley. God may not give us all the details, but with each step we take, we get more details. You know how people say, “Hindsight is 20/20”? With God, and us walking through the valley with Him, it does not have to be hindsight; He reveals stuff to us about what we are going through as we need the details. That helps us to continue to walk in the valley. The hymn sings, “One day at a time, Sweet Jesus.” I will say this: “Each step we take, dear Jesus.” We ask God, “Why am I in this valley?" "Why am I in the trouble I am in?" "Why am I in the midst of these financial problems?" "Why am I in the midst of these marital problems?" "Why am I in the midst of all that I am going through?”

A couple of things may happen: God may say something like this: "Maybe the valley is for you. Maybe you are in sin. Maybe you have got some things in your heart that need to be cleaned up. Maybe the valley is for someone else to learn from in your life. Maybe the valley is for just for My Glory." Remember Lazarus? What did the sisters say? “Jesus, we know that you love us. We know that we called for you. If you had only come a little bit quicker, my brother, Lazarus, would still be living.”

He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but unto the glory of God.” This is one of the things that we fail to see in the valley. Now, to our justification. We always have these truths mentally, but they are not evident in our actions. I believe this is true because we are not focused on anything but ourselves. “What’s in it for me?” Sometimes my life is just about others, just like Jesus