[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:25] Speaker B: It's so good to see everyone at church today as we continue our series 23 andme, which is a verse by verse examination of the 23rd psalm. Have you enjoyed the series so far? Come on.
Pastor Bill always does a fantastic job. He did so in verses one through three. If you haven't listened to it, please go back and check it out. I believe it'll be a blessing to you. And today we're going to look at verse four, as this is week four. Now, with that being said, psalm 23 is a pretty familiar verse for many of us, both christian and non Christian alike. And because it is a familiar verse, and it's probably becoming even more familiar, as this is the fourth week in our series, I have both a caution and an encouragement for you today. The caution is when something becomes familiar. Sometimes its power can fade.
Sometimes we can take it for granted. There's like a law of diminishing returns where every subsequent experience becomes less impactful over time. Not because the potency of whatever it is that we're accessing has lost its power, but because we've gotten a little bit lazy. So I encourage you to lean in. I believe God has something for you today. He wants to speak directly to your heart. And I believe that what he just may offer you is tranquility on the inside, which can lead to stability on the outside. Come on, somebody. Can anybody use some peace and stability in their lives? Hey, mark me down for a table of four. There's four in my household and all we need, some peace. Help me, Jesus, and some stability.
So what we're gonna do is we're going to read psalm 23 aloud. Notice I didn't say a soft. Let's read it aloud together. It's gonna be a challenge, but I believe we can do it. It'll be up on the screen, so would you read along with me? Here's what psalm 23 has to say.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me by still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare before me. Excuse me. I was trying to recite it. Let's do that. When we're done, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Isn't that good? Can we give a round applause for the Lord for psalm 23?
Oh, I love how Charles Spurgeon, the great theologian, he said of psalm 23 that it is the pearl of the psalms that delights every eye. Oh, I like that. The pearl of the psalms that delights every eye. In fact, for a believer, it's such an encouraging passage because in some ways, it really is a depiction, a portrayal of our entire lives, that they are filled with hills and with valleys. And our good shepherd, Jesus, is with us all the way through. It's a verse worth memorizing. In fact, Pastor Bill, he's issued that challenge to us every single week to memorize psalm 23. Has anybody memorized psalm 23? Anybody?
Okay. Would you like to come up and recite it for. I'm just kidding. The hands are like, WHOOP. In fact, I was trying to show off that I had memorized psalm 23, and I even flubbed a couple of the words a second ago. It's definitely worth memorizing and hiding in your heart. Oh, I love how David said, Lord, I've hidden your word in my heart that I may not sit against you. God, there are times whenever we don't have the moment to flip through the scriptures to be able to see what God may have us do. Which is why we need to hide God's word in our heart so the Holy Spirit will bring it back to our memory in time of greatest need. It's important to memorize it. I challenge you to do that if you haven't. It reminds me of a story of this Sunday school teacher that she challenged her group of elementary students to take the week to memorize psalm 23. And all the kids were so excited. You know, kids love a challenge. And this one little boy in particular, he was just not having it. He was so nervous and really dreading the public speaking component of it. And so he went home, was just really grappling with memorizing the verses and was getting some of the phraseology flipped backwards and forwards. And so when Sunday came around, all the kids got up there and confidently recited psalm 23. And this little boy was last. And he stood up there and his knees are knocking and his lip is quivering, and he said, the Lord is my shepherd. That's all I need to know. And then he walked off. And I'm thinking, you know, in the simplest of way.
That's true.
That's true.
How much of a dramatic impact would there be on our lives if we really believe the Lord is my shepherd, and all that that entails, that he guards, that he guides, he protects, he provides. The Lord is our shepherd indeed, and we are his sheep. And that is not a compliment.
It's not a compliment at all. I mean, sheep are. They are the dumbest of all of God's creatures. Did he just call us dumb? No, the Bible did. I just teased it. No, they really are. You know, the Bible says of us that we are sheep nearly 200 times. It's almost as if God really wants us to get it that we are sheep. I was reading an article of an event that happened in 2005 in Turkey. So across the pond, and there was this one sheep that crazy enough, just walked right off of a cliff and died.
But to make that even crazier, 1500 other sheep, one by one, went right off the cliff after him. It's almost as if the sheep were like, you know what? All right, line up, everybody, one by one. Let's go off the cliff today. It's gonna be good. And they all plummet off the cliff. Now, the funny part is, is that of 1500 sheep, only 450 of them actually died. Because the 450 that went off first was like a mattress, like a cushion for the other. The other sheep.
We are sheep.
We have no navigation skills.
Right?
I mean, salmon, dogs, birds, they have navigation instincts. Sheep. Nuh uh uh uh.
I took that one away for the 11:00 service. That was unintentional, but I liked it.
Sheep have natural defense mechanisms. They don't have any. They're not sleek, they're not stealthy, they're not fast. They don't have fangs or claws. They're just a walking leg of lamb. You might as well just give them a jar of jelly mint. I mean, for them to be able to be devoured by any predator that is nearby. Look, a sheep on its best day is only at its best when it's under the care, the protection and the provision of a shepherd.
We are only at our best when we are yielding, submitting to the care, the protection and the provision of our good shepherd. He is our shepherd. We are the sheep. But there's so much more to psalm 23, which is why we're going to circle back to verse four today. Here's what verse four has to say. Even though. Do you hear the faith declaration there? Even though, you know. Faith says, even if. Fear says what if fear and faith both have a common beginning. It's looking into the unknown.
Fear says, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm sure it's gonna be bad.
Faith says, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I know God is with me. David says, even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me.
I've given my message today the title of a walk through the valley.
A walk through the valley. We see in scripture many valleys, and they have some commonalities. A valley was a dark place, a desolate place, lots of shadows. It's an eerie place. It was a place that robbers, that bandits would oftentime, that they would lurk in the shadows, waiting for an unsuspected traveler to come by so they could pounce on and pillage. Valleys were places where battles would take place. And that's why valleys oftentimes would reek of death and human decay. There were thistles and thorns and wild animals like cats, Satan's favorite animal.
Just teasing.
The valley was a literal place. It was a place that it was very difficult for you to get through without something bad happening to you. David was a shepherd. Remember, first, before he was a king. And even as a king, he still had a shepherd's heart. Oh. Oh. I hope that as God elevates you, that we still stay humble. Because he must increase. He must increase. Not me. It's not to my name. It's not to my glory, but to yours, o lord. And though, even though David became a king, he still had a humble heart of a shepherd. He was a shepherd first.
And there were times he needed to lead his sheep into the valley. Based on the changing weather patterns and movement of water. Sometimes he had to lead them into the valley to take them from one green pasture to another green pasture. So David understood. He was very familiar, intimately, so with the physical landscape of a valley. But what I want you to understand is that valleys aren't just literal. Valleys are literary, that a valley is a physical place.
But a valley is also a spiritual, emotional place.
David has familiarity with that, too. When he was very young, he was overlooked.
He was overlooked by his father. Samuel came sent by God to anoint the next king. Lined up all the sons, and David was left out in the field. He was overlooked by his father, leaving him a sense of unworthiness, of being discounted, of being overlooked. As a young man, David found himself as an innocent fugitive on the run, trying to get away from a murderous tyrant in Saul. That left David in the valley feeling alone, feeling scared. Later on in life, David experienced the tragic loss of a baby, leaving him in a valley of depression.
As an older man, he suffered through a major fallout with one of his adult children, who led a mutiny to try to overtake David, leaving him dismayed, disoriented, deeply troubled. David experienced both kinds of valleys.
He was well acquainted with those valleys. He had some serious scars.
How many of you know that you can trust somebody with scars because you know they've been through something?
It's hard to take someone seriously when they're trying to give us advice if they've never been through something, which is why we can find great credibility in psalm 23, because it wasn't just written by some poet king.
This is a memoir of a shepherd who, he's been through some stuff.
He has street cred, if you will. And like David, I would imagine that you have some scars, too.
I'd imagine that you've found yourself in a valley or two from time to time, and maybe you're in a valley right now, and if you were to try to wrap language around it and articulate what it feels like to be in a valley, maybe you would say something like this. I feel lost.
I feel alone.
I feel overwhelmed. Do you might feel overwhelmed these days?
I feel scared, depressed, anxious. Can anybody relate to that?
You might be thinking, I'm glad I came to church today. Good grief.
Can you please tell me something positive? Sure, I'm positive. We're gonna go through valleys.
It's gonna happen. David experienced it. We're gonna experience it. Life is full of valleys. Some are long, some are short, some are deep, deep, deep and steep. Some are dark. Some are scarier than others. But one thing is true of all types of valleys, and that's that nobody wants to go there.
Nobody. I've never seen anyone on Facebook post calling on my prayer warriors, calling them all. Where are my prayer warriors at? I'm just asking you to be in agreement with me and pray that I enter the lowest season of my life.
You'll never see that. We never want to go to the valley. No one wants to be in the valley. We want to be on the mountaintop. Don't we? Whoo. We love a good mountain view. We will pay top dollar for the mountain view, won't we? We will work hard and climb up hundreds of miles just to get to the zenith so we can look and take it all in. I'm talking about the good moments, the mountaintop moments of life. That's where we want to be. It's when you get a promotion at work. It's when your baby sleeps throughout the night. It's whenever there's an estranged relationship where a wayward child or parent comes back home and it's reconciled or restored. It's whenever you find a front row parking spot at Heb.
Now, you know, that's a miracle.
Parking in nothing. Bundt cakes. Just to go get some apples is wrong.
We celebrate and we praise God when we're on the mountaintop.
But what do we do when we are plunged into the valley?
I don't know what valley you're going through. I don't know if it's a job loss, a divorce, an illness, an injury.
Maybe it's some sort of social embarrassment, or you did something or said something, but now you feel like a leper, and you can't show your face within that social setting ever again. Maybe it's a decision you made to give your heart to Jesus, and you thought the world would hoist you up and say, hip hip, hooray. And instead, they've given you the heisman, and they're pushing you away. And there's a little bit of persecution coming. Now, Jesus even said. He said, woe of you if you're liked by everybody. But if they hate you, they hated me first. They don't hate you. They hate me. And I am in you. So take heart. I've overcome the world. I don't know what valley you're going through today, but whatever it is, I want you to know that it's real. And God sees you. God cares for you. And what I want to do for just the very next few minutes is I want to revisit verse four. And I want us to find some truth embedded in verse four, written by David, that will help us have some peace and some perseverance when we find ourselves in the valley.
So let's take a look at our first point, if you're taking notes, to jot this down, what must we remember when we find ourselves in the valley? Okay, number one, his plan.
His plan.
Oh, we're in the valley. It's dizzifying and disorienting. And the first thing we do when we're in the valley is to, like, do a check. Am I okay? Am I still alive? Look at my bank account. Is everything okay there? Check the status of your house, your home. Is everybody still with me? I mean, you're looking everywhere but God, right? I mean, it is fight, flight, or freeze mode. When really, if we can. If we can. I know it's hard. If we can, if we can take a step back instead of fight, freeze or flight, we focus. What are we focusing on? We're focusing on God's plan. That he has a plan. He has an agenda. 30,000 foot view. What is that? Oh, this is good. Is that he is going to make every wrong right.
That there will come a time when there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain. That the whole world will be filled with the knowledge and the glory of God. Come, Lord Jesus. But you're sitting there. I'm standing here going, yeah, but I'm still in the valley.
Yeah, I know that's coming whenever that is. But what's God's plan for me right here in this valley? I mean, the walls are caving in. I'm in the shadows. Does anybody even see the pain I'm going through? What do we do whenever we're in the valley?
Remember his plan.
What's his plan?
I'm gonna let David tell you. Ready? What'd he say? He said even though I walk through the valley, what's God's plan to get you through it?
God's plan is to get us through the valley. Look, God doesn't lead us to the valley to leave us in the valley. God leads us to the valley to. To lead us to the next mountaintop.
It's from green pasture to green pasture. By definition, a valley means you can go through it. Otherwise, it's a dead end. Then say, though I walk to a dead end. No, no, no. God has not left us for dead. We're not sitting ducks for the enemy. God is going to lead us through the valley. Now, it might be scared, it might be scary, it might be hard. It may not be easy. But God will see us through it.
I'm just so hopeful that you'll grasp that today. And here's why. Because for some of us, we have been in the valley for a very, very long time.
A very long time.
And if we're not careful, the valley goes from being a place to an identity.
Where we become a valley girl or a valley guy.
Five. Five five. Valley way. That's. That's where I live. I've. I've been rejected so many times. I'm just a reject. I've lost so many times. I'm just a loser. I battle anxiety day after day. I'm just anxious. That's just who I am. It's. Oh, no, no, no. The valley may be where you are. The valley is not who you are.
You're a child of God if you know Jesus. And yes, you may be in the valley, but God will see you through it. I don't know how long it's going to take, but God will see you through. That is God's plan for us. It's not a destination, it's a transition. It's okay to pitch a tent there, but don't you build your condo there, because God doesn't plan on keeping you there. He's going to bring you through the valley.
Now, I appreciate how David, he said even though I walk through the valley, not sprint, not dash.
Look, if you're at all like me, when I am in a time of trouble, when I'm in the valley, I want to get out there as fast as I can. I mean, I want God to be like milestone electric. He'll fix it in the flesh. That's what I want. Get me out of here. I don't want to be in the valley. But David said, even though I walk through. I appreciate that, David. It's almost like David is saying, I'm going to take my time.
I'm not going to get ahead of God. His timing is perfect.
He can be trusted. He is good. I want to take it all in because I don't want to miss any lessons God has for me in the valley.
I don't want to waste my valley time.
I believe God wants to teach us some lessons in the valley. I believe it. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm going to throw out a couple of ideas.
In fact, I believe you're in a valley right now. The Holy Spirit doesn't need a sidekick.
He doesn't need me to tell you. He'll speak to you right now about a lesson you can learn.
Here's a couple of thoughts. One, spiritual strength. Spiritual strength that sometimes we go into the valley, not so we can be defeated, but so we can be developed.
If you want to develop your body, you won't get real strong. I mean, don't look at me, look at somebody else. But if you want to develop your body, you won't get real strong.
You don't do so by sitting in a la z boy, on the mountaintops of ease. Can we. Can you imagine that? I'm gonna go work out.
Look at God. You know, that's not how it works. You know how we grow physically. Strength, pressure and resistance.
That if God wants to build us up as a spiritual house, and he does is what scripture says, then it's possible we go into the valley so we can get stronger for the next valley moment, because it's coming.
I think about David, how when David went before King Saul and was trying to make his case as to why he should be the one to fight Goliath, he lays out his resume. And some of the things he says is, look, I'm just a shepherd boy, but can I tell you about some valleys I've been through? Is that I have defeated both lion and bear. I mean, those ferocious beasts came to snatch those sheep out of my care. But I'm a shepherd, and I watch after my sheep. I protect my sheep, and they snatch these sheep, and I chased them down, and with my rod, I beat them to death. And I grabbed my sheep and I brought them back to safety in the fold. And I'm telling you, Saul, because I have defeated lions and I've defeated bears, by the power of God, that I can defeat this next valley named Goliath.
There are times that God will let us go through the valley to strengthen us, not to squash us.
The second lesson maybe we can learn when we're in the valley is refinement.
A journey without valleys would lead us to believe that we don't need God, wouldn't it?
Have you ever invited someone to church and their life seems to be really going really well? They're on a mountaintop in that moment. You invite them to church, and they're like, nah, I'm good.
I'm good. Good.
Then they go into a valley, they come back to you, and they're like, what time did that service start again?
Valleys have a way of softening our hearts, opening up our hearts to God, that we become very aware of our need of a strength that is outside of ourselves. Our hearts are more open to God when we're in the valley. That whatever it is that broke our back. Watch me now. Is the same valley that can bend our knee in worship. When you're in the lowest of low, there's nowhere to look but where.
And he is my helper, my very present help in time of need. Psalm 121 says, I lift my eyes up to the hills, the mountains, the mountaintop. Who's on the mountain? The Lord God. I lift my eyes up. My help comes from the lord. How about empathy?
I said something about scars earlier, right? When you've been scarred and someone says, hey, what have you been through?
Notice the key phrase, been through. A scar is not an open wound.
A scar is evidence that you've been healed, that God got you through it. And when we go into valleys, it can help us be more empathetic with other people, that maybe God's allowing me into a valley to build me up, to refine me, but also so I can help somebody else get through their valley. That's similar as well. I don't want to waste a season in the valley. I've got to remember his plan. What's his plan? It's not to bring us to it, to leave us there. It's to lead us through it. On the other side of this valley, there's going to be another mountain for us to be able to celebrate and praise God. If you're taking notes, the second thing we must remember in the valley is this. His presence. His presence we have. His plan is to get us through it, and then we have his presence. This really is the main thing, I think it's that God is with us in our valleys. He did not promise that we would never go into a valley. In fact, he promised we would, and he promised to be with us. Jesus said in Matthew 28, verse 20, he says, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.
And it's his presence with us in the valley that gives us permission not to be afraid.
Listen to David. He said, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Now, when David talks about fear, he wasn't pretending like it doesn't exist, right? We're not saying speak in faith. No, I'm not in trouble. I don't need help. No, no, there's real evil. It really exists. We just have a God who's bigger and greater.
David wasn't manifesting something good. Oh, I'm not gonna fear evil. I'm just gonna attract some good stuff in my life. That is a lie from the enemy. He's getting us to pretend. Culture thinks that you can attract good things. It's called the law of attraction. Or manifesting the enemy. Oh, he is so. He's so clever, but also so unoriginal. Only God can speak things into existence, and he's trying to get us to believe that we can become little gods and that we, too, can speak things into existence. No, we can't we can't speak things into existence, but we can speak to the one who can.
David's not denying the evil exists. He had experienced it up close and personal. What's David doing? He's not relying on his own laurels and strength and skills and achievements to overcome fear. What's he doing? He's saying even though there is some real enemies out there to be afraid of, I'm not going to fear because God's with me.
That's it. His presence is with me. And I've got to get you to understand this. This is so cool about psalm 23 that we got any english teachers out there?
People who love to read, they're just literature, grammar nerds. Okay, so verses one through three, David is speaking in third person. For those of you that are literary nerds, you're like, oh, yeah, come on, talk to me, third person. Third person. Here's what he's saying. He said, the Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down. He leads me by still waters. He makes me lie down. He restores my soul. He leads me to passive righteousness. Third person. In other words, the first three verses, David is giving his theology. He's talking about God. Oh. But once he finds himself in the valley, he goes from third person to second person.
He goes from he to you.
You, God, you are with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that whenever he was in the valley, all of a sudden the ultimate becomes intimate.
That God is close to those who are broken in spirit. That God is close to us. When we're going through valleys, he's personal. He's there. In our deepest, darkest moments, David went from talking about God to talking to God. And what I'm suggesting to us today is that when we're in a valley, maybe we need to do the same thing. Maybe we don't talk much about God to other people. I don't know why God's not showing up. I don't know where God is. Instead we say, God, where are you?
We start talking to God. Instead of talking about God, it's his presence.
The third thing we need to remember when we're in the valley is his power.
His power. God is planning. What's he up to? He said, lead us through it. His presence. He's with us always. He's right there. He's with us. And then we have his power.
David says, your rod, your staff, they comfort me. See, the rod for the shepherd was a symbol of power. The staff was a symbol of leadership. You put the two Together, you've got the shepherd holding the rod and the staff. He's in his position of power and of authority. David knew that. It was the rod that David probably would use to go defeat that lion and that Bear that I described earlier. A shepherd's rod was like a long stick, and on the bottom of it, it was like this clump that shepherds would wedge, like, sharp barbs and sharp objects into it. So this is like a last of the mohican style weapon. I mean, the shepherd was straight Savage when it came to protecting his sheep. And what I'm trying to suggest to us today is, that's our God, is that he is powerful and he protects us whenever we are in trouble.
The truth is, if you don't have an intimate relationship with God, then what you have is all you have.
But if you know Jesus, you have more than what's in your hands. Cause you're in his hands. There's more.
We have access to a power that's not of ourselves. It's a heavenly power. It's a spiritual power. The same power that rises Jesus from the grave lives in us. Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. Whenever our strength fails, the Lord's strength can kick in, if we'll allow it. Oh, I think about. I think about a time ago, years ago, whenever I used to work out with a friend of mine, friend of mine, friend of mine. It's getting late. Friend of mine named Will was my workout buddy, and he was awesome. He was intense. Will, if you're watching, I miss you. I miss you. I need you. Will. He moved. Move back, Will. So Will and I would go work out 24 hours fitness, and he was awesome because he would show up before I got there, and he'd have the pre workout already made. He'd give it to me, and I'm like, thank you, you know? And then he would have the workout regimen already planned and picked out. One particular day, he said to me, hey, we're gonna mix it up today. We're gonna go heavy. It's chess day. It's chest day. Let's go heavy. Let's do heavy, heavy weight, low reps. Let's get it. Okay, so I get it. I go all out. I mean, I get to the point in time where my. My arms are like cooked noodles. You know, you can't do anything with it. And then he says, all right, now that we're done, we're just beginning.
Excuse me. He said, we're gonna burn out. Burn out. I said, tell me more. What are we doing? He goes, we're gonna do high reps with low weight. You're going first. You get on the bench press with just the bar. Just the bar. 45 pounds, just the bar. I'm like, okay, what do I do with it? And he goes, I want you to bench press 50 times. I'm thinking, it's just a bar. 50 times. No big deal. So I get on the bench press. I'm already worn out, and so I'm pumping this thing, and I'm embarrassed because people are walking by and they're like, oh, poor guy, you know, he can only do the bar.
So I'm, I'm pumping it. Hide my face. At the same time, pumping this bar. By about rep 25, I start to feel it. The lactic acid starts to fill in, and I'm like, uh oh, this is going to be a problem. I get to rep 30, and will can see that I'm shaking, and I'm struggling. And so he gets under there, and he starts getting ready to split, and he's shouting at me, come on, Scott, you got it. And I'm struggling to get that bar up again. It's a bar. I'm embarrassed.
I do five more, and I get to 35, and I inch my way to 40. He's still shouting, come on, Scott, you can do it. He spits flying in my eyes.
And then by rep 40, my arms give out. I can't. I can't do it anymore. Just. They flop.
Will is so caught up in the moment, he doesn't know that my arms are done. He's still going, you got this. You got it. He does ten reps by himself.
When my strength gave out, Will's strength kicked in.
We get to a point in time in life where we've had it. I can't do it anymore.
I've been laying in the bed long enough. I don't have any more strength.
That's when God's strength can kick in. That's when we lean on his strength. When I am weak, then I am strong. That's what the Bible says. It's my weakness that allows God's strength to be made manifest to the world. You get through something tough and someone asks you, and they go, how'd you get through that? And you go, I have no idea.
I'm not the kind of person that could have gotten through that. And you say, I'm not that kind of person either. But you know how I got through that his strength got me through it. The fourth and final point.
His precedent. His precedent.
And you might be thinking, where's that in verse four? His precedent. Well, Jesus, our good shepherd, is saying to us, whatever valley you're in right now, I've been there. I've done that.
I got to get you to know the psalm 22 comes before psalm 23. In psalm 22, verse one, David writes, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
What David was doing was he's painting a picture of the little literal words jesus would utter while he's hanging between two thieves on a cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What did jesus do?
Jesus literally went through the valley of death.
That he took on the full wrath of God. That he was forsaken by our father so we could be forgiven by that same father God.
That he took on the full justice of God. That sin.
God is a just God. And being a just God, sin has to have a. There has to be just recourse for sin. So Jesus the shepherd became the lamb, the sacrificial lamb. He died for us. That jesus went through the valley of death so that we could only go through the shadow of that same valley. Oh, I love how fb Meyer puts it. I mean, fb meyer, listen to him preach. He said, christ met the substance we encounter. But the shadow, the monster, is deprived of its teeth and claws. The wasp stung the good shepherd to death and left his sting fixed on that cross where he died.
Jesus willingly experienced the death of the valley so that we would only have to experience the shadow. You might be saying, I'm still scared of that shadow. Well, let me ask you this. Would you rather be hit by a truck or the shadow of that truck?
When you put it that way. It's appointed for man to die once. That's the just punishment for our sin, our rebellion against God. But spiritual death and separation from God, that is not his hope for us. But Jesus, he went through the valley of death and has come back. He's coming back to bring you and you and you and me to be with him. Amazing.
Death is the darkest of all shadows. And yet we can walk through even that one with peace and confidence, because Jesus walked through it victoriously by his death, his burial, and his resurrection.
Lord God, we thank you so much that you are our shepherd. We are your sheep. Father, I pray for everyone in this room today. You would meet them where they are, right there in the valley. Father, I pray if there's anyone here today that does not know you as Lord God. I pray they'd open their heart to you. They'd open up their heart, they say, lord Jesus, I believe that you died for me. You rose again on the third day. Come into my heart. Save me. Forgive me. I make you lord and savior of my life and father. For anyone here who is a believer, they do know you, but they are. They are down, but they are not out. Lord, help them to keep walking, knowing that you're gonna get them through this season. Maybe they're on a mountaintop right now. Things are great, but they're still feeling a little bit empty. That's because you are only that which can satisfy. Maybe they're in the valley and they're desperate and you've allowed them to go there. So that way, the only place for them to look is up. God, we look to you. You are our good shepherd. And we thank you for your plan, your presence, your power, and the precedent of you having loved us enough to die in our place. So that where you are, there we may be also the true mountain. The mountain of God in heaven. God, thank you for your love and your grace. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting Metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week. Weekend.
