Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 27, 2017 | Really? - If You're In A Valley, You Took A Wrong Turn

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August 27, 2017 | Really? - If You're In A Valley, You Took A Wrong Turn · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's raining.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: But God's told me the rain will stop by tonight.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to come to the baptism.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Our baptisms are so much fun.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And tonight will be no exception.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: We've never had it at the Holders before, but it's going to be great.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: So bring a bag of chips.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Make a barbecue, if you would.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Barbecue chip.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or Cheetos, the greatest single snack ever made.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or salad or something.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you at the baptism, 6 o'clock.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to start by reading some verses out of the book of Job.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Go to Psalms halfway in, turn left.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Job chapter 1.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Just before Psalms is the book of Job, most famous book in the Bible, a book entirely devoted to the question that I am addressing this morning in our series Dumb Things, Smart Christians Believe, in the penultimate week, the next or last week of that series.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Job chapter one.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh read the first um four verses.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Three verses.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: There was a man in the country of Uz named Job.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could pronounce it, there was a man in the country of Ooz named Job.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: But you probably should.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was a man of complete integrity who feared God and turned away from evil.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: He had seven sons and three daughters.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: His estate included 7,000 sheep and goats, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very great, very large number of servants.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Christian Standard Bible.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Job was the greatest man among all of the people of the East.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he's the greatest man.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: He has all of these property, children, ten children.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have something going on in heaven.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: He knows nothing about it.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a deal.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So an argument between Satan and God.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Satan says, Job's only doing this because he's rich.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: He only worships you because things are good.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, not true.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So Job, he gives Job permission.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Satan permission.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Satan wreaks havoc on Job.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four catastrophes.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Two of them what we would call acts of God, hurricane Harvey type things.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the other two, uh people, enemies that come against Job.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, Job loses his whole family, loses his property.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we read in verse 18.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: A messenger came and reported, this is the fourth catastrophe.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: It collapsed on the young people, so they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Horrible tragedies.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then Job stood up, tore his robe and shaved his head.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will leave this life.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he worships God.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So Satan comes to God, chapter 2, and says in verse 4, skin for skin.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's still worshiping you only because he personally is healthy.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his own life.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Stretch out your hand, strike his flesh and bones, he'll surely curse you to your face.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Very well, the Lord told Satan, chapter 2, verse 6, he's in your power.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Only spare his life.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So Satan left the Lord's presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: His wife said to him, Are you still holding on to your integrity?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Curse God and die.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: What a blessed verse.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: With that verse, we will, with that interesting piece of advice, we will go to prayer.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Father, our prayers are this morning.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: A nice, quiet, moderately temperatured morning when people in southern Texas need your protection.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we're looking forward to honoring you tonight in baptism.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: We ask that this morning, as we consider a subject that many of us, according to surveys, over 50% of us are wrestling with right now, the issue of pain.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would guide us, help us, give us clarity, wisdom, a listening ear.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 5:15
  unknown: Amen.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we're in a series.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Again, uh, dumb things smart Christians believe.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I uh thought, well, you know, there are probably some dumb, dumb things I've believed as well.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I could easily pick on dumb things that I used to believe as a kid.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got five things here, and I'd like to know whether or not you believed some of the dumb things I used to believe as a kid.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did anyone else believe that if you pulled your blanket up over your head, the monsters couldn't get you?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got an amen on that.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I believed that my school teacher was telling the truth.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: She really did, have eyes in the back of her head.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I behaved myself.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I believed, I'm sorry about this, but I'm sure I'm not the only one, that if you flush the toilet while sitting down, you might get sucked in.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I believed that if you crossed your eyes too often, they would stay that way because the two most important people in my life told me that all the time, especially my mom.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I believe that when you turn the lights off in a room, you had to sprint out quickly to escape the boogeyman.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was telling Melody these last night, she said, you really were an erotic child, weren't you?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: But there's uh something that uh a lot of smart Christians believe as adults that I have some trouble with, and that is if you're in a valley, you took a wrong turn.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a story as familiar to you, I think, as your own.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: The name on the story could be Michael or Jennifer or Thomas, but her name was Sarah.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Sarah was miserable.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Life for her was a dark valley with no apparent way out.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: The days were long, but the nights were longer.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what made it devastating for Sarah was the unexpectedness of it all, for she had not rushed into her marriage.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, though waiting had been hard for her, as it is for every girl in her twenties.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: She had waited for just the right guy, a Christian man who loved the Lord, who loved her, who was faithful in church, who wanted to start a Christian family.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not everything had been ideal, of course.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: He hadn't settled on a career yet.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was talking about going back to school, which would mean she would be supporting them both for a while.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: But he was kind and he was full of promises, and she loved him and her friends and family, uh thought he was good, and and and were very happy for her.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so when she walked down the aisle and when she stood with him on stage, and he took her hands and she said, I do, it was without a shred of doubt or hesitation.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because she knew that she had been faithful and obedient to God, and she had done the right thing in the right way, and she was confident that they would be blessed as a result and that she would be happy.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And on that glorious day, she felt like she was standing on a mountaintop.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: How could Sarah have known that just a decade later, that cool, invigorating air of the on the mountain of love would be just a distant memory, replaced by the stale, stifling heat in the valley of conflict with the rock walls feeling as though they were closing in on both sides.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: You name the problem they had it, poor communication, lack of intimacy, sexual difficulties, constant arguing and put-downs, financial troubles.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: They had completely different ideas about how to raise the child.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And worst of all, for Sarah, he seemed to have lost his love for the Lord and his desire to be any kind of a Christian leader in the home.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as Sarah struggled in that dark valley, she found herself tugged in two opposite directions.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, she felt that God probably wanted her to hang in there, to endure, to pray without ceasing, to get help and follow wise advice.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, most of her friends were absolutely convinced that she should move on and get away from this loser.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: They told her that without a doubt, she had married the wrong guy, that God had not led her into this marriage, that nothing would ever change, and she should save herself before she completely fell apart.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And to her horror, Sarah found herself receptive to their advice and fantasizing more and more about leaving and making the pains stop.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: There was one thing they said that she quietly disagreed with that she knew was wrong.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was their conviction that she had made a mistake in marrying him, that God could not have led her into this marriage because she thought back over all those years when she had prepared herself for marriage and prayed and trusted God and waited for a good Christian man.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: She could not imagine doing anything different.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: She could not see how she had taken a wrong turn anywhere.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if Sarah or Michael or Jennifer or Thomas is listening right now, let me urge you to listen critically and biblically to the well-meaning, loving advice that you get when sympathetic people find out that you are in a valley, a dark valley at home, a dark valley at work, a dark valley at school, a dark valley anywhere in your life.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not talking about those kinds of valleys that we have absolutely no control over, the Hurricane Harvey kind of valleys, the tragedies, the medical issues, the injustices.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about those valleys that you could, if you wanted, walk out of, or helicopter out of.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about those valleys, those valleys that your friends, some of your friends think that you are a fool if you stay in.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: For I'm saying there are smart Christians today, and some of them may be among your friends or family who believe that if you're in a valley, you must have taken a wrong turn, that our heavenly shepherd never leads his sheep into a dark valley, that God's leading always takes us to the mountaintop.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, they say you have to expect some rough patches along the way.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has to climb over a few rocks.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a necessary part of the climb, in fact.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it'll never go on and on and on and on.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not if God's leading you, not if you're one of his sheep and in his care.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, haven't you read Jeremiah 29, 11?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: God's plans are good, not bad, he says.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, if you find that you are in a valley that seems to have no end, then for heaven's sake and for your own sake, get out of it.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: What should you say to that?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I say to that?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: I say, really?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then I look in the Bible and I hear other people saying, Really?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Job, for example.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine Job who knows that he hasn't done anything wrong, he hasn't taken any wrong turns, and yet his three friends are coming to him saying, you know, you had to have taken a wrong turn?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, no doubt about it.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: He knew he was in a dark valley.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: He opened his mouth in chapter three and cursed the very day of his birth.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: He spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which I was, it was said, a male child is conceived.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or verse 11, why didn't I die at birth?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't I perish when I came from the womb?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Why did the knees receive me, or why the breasts that I should nurse?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then in chapter 30, now my soul is poured out because of my plight.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: The days of affliction take hold of me, my bones are pierced in me at night, my gnawing pains take no rest.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: My garment is disfigured, it binds me about.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: God has cast me into the mire, and I've become like dust and ashes.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, he's so upset he looks up to heaven and addresses this God directly.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I cry out to you, but you don't answer me.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I stand up and you regard me.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: You see me, but you've become cruel to me.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: With the strength of your hand, you oppose me.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care how dark your valley is.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: It certainly wasn't any darker than the valley Job found himself in.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And his loved ones gave him great advice, huh?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Worst advice ever.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Curse God and die, said his wife.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or then you take Jeremiah.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Job's not the only guy.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah is oftentimes called the weeping prophet.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: He was the weeping prophet because he wept a lot.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason he wept a lot is that God had told him, God had given him this awful commission and said, I want you to be my prophet, but I've got to warn you, nobody's ever going to listen to what you say.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to reject you.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't ever want you to get married, by the way.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: No children.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Good luck finding friends.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going to get persecuted throughout your whole life, but this is the message I want you to give.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah says, and I have to sign up for that.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've picked you.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So Jeremiah says, okay, but then it's worse than he ever expected, so he weeps all the time.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine going to him and saying, you know, if you're in a valley, you took a wrong turn.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they threw you down here in this pit to die.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, they found that pit in Jerusalem.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: In the old city, loved to show that to you sometimes.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The same pit where Jeremiah was thrown and left to die as the Babylonians were attacking.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he's down there, no way out, 20 feet down, total darkness, you know, with, you know, and imagine somebody lifting off the lid.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're in a valley down there?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: You must have taken a wrong turn.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah probably would have said something beside, really, but certainly, certainly he felt it.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Cursed be the day I was born.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: May the day my mother bore me not be blessed.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Cursed be the man.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Even the guy who carries the news to the newspaper, cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, A child's born to you, a son.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow in my days and shame?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: They put him in the stocks.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: They kept whipping him.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: They hated him.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: They hated him.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the New Testament's full.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just Old Testament saints.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Take the Apostle Paul, who's given this commission by God to go out through the world and preach the gospel.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: But by the way, there's a lot of people that aren't going to like this very much.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And not even at the end of his life, he testifies, I've been in prison more frequently than any other Christian, flogged more severely, exposed to death again and again, five times the 40 lashes, three times beaten with rods, once stoned, three times shipwrecked, night and a day floating in the open sea.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul, if you're in a valley, you must have taken a wrong turn.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: But frankly, you know enough, even if you didn't know the Bible, knowing Psalm 23, knowing that this is a psalm where it begins, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know that Christians are the sheep of a loving, caring shepherd, who, stunningly, though he takes us by quiet waters, also, verse 4, must be taking us into a dark valley.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: He takes us there, for he says, David says, even when I walk through the darkest valley, I'll fear no danger, for you are with me.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, bottom line, dear friends, is if you're in a valley, it's not necessarily true that you took a wrong turn.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Which leads to the question if being in a valley doesn't necessarily mean I took a wrong turn.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what does it mean?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer to that question, I mean, there's all kinds of valleys, aren't there?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the answer to that question is best answered by you answering two other questions which can completely change your perspective and your life at this time.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, why am I here?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And number two, what should I do now?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you where you are if you are in a dark valley?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, it seems to me, and this is not inspired, not getting this out of the Bible, but as I put it together in my head and think about the Bible, it seems to me that there are really three kinds of valleys, basically, that you can find yourself in, dark valleys.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: One, calling a God said valley, second, a wrong-turn valley, and three, a no-clue valley.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one, this God said valley, is the valley that God told you to go into.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're following his word, you're witnessing, you're doing something else, but as a result, you're being persecuted, and there seems to be no way out.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, maybe the first great God said, God sent me here, valley, is is Egypt in the Bible, because at the end of Genesis, God sent Joseph and the 70 down to Egypt.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: He had his reasons.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, the Pharaoh was friendly.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: They got beautiful land in Egypt.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: They were fed when they were starving.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And God had sent them there.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now he didn't tell, or not Joseph, he didn't tell Jacob that a later Pharaoh would get paranoid and they would be put under slavery for hundreds of years.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Jacob would have opted out early.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: But they were in a God sent me here valley in Egypt for 430 years.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they were slaves eventually.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact of the matter is that they didn't take a wrong turn.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: God put them there.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then when God delivered them with Moses, remember He sent them to a place in between two mountains with the sea in front where the Pharaoh's armies are coming after them.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now that was a brief valley, but God sent them there too, so he could show them again his powerful hand.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, there are times that God sends you places and sends me places, and we know, you know what?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: The reason I'm in this valley is I did what God told me to do.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was clear.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: He told me to read the Bible, to pray, to witness, to be live like a good Christian.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will at times go through a dark valley.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: They'll suffer persecution, 2 Timothy 3, 12.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a second type of valley that sometimes is true, and that's the wrong term valley.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the valley that you know you're in, and there's never a doubt about this.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people in the hospital, I've had so many people look up from their bed and say, Pastor, what did I do wrong?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, You tell me, well, I don't know.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you don't know, then you're not here because of that.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the Bible it's always clear if you're in a wrong turn.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Valley, it's because, you know, you did something seriously wrong to get there.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Israel knew that it was in the wilderness because God told them, I'm sending you into the wilderness because of your unbelief, because I told you to go into the land.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: You refused to trust me.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: You felt that the giants were bigger than me, and so 40 years of wandering.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then at times he made them suffer even darker, darker darkness inside the wilderness because they would doubt him again.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: He sent snakes because he gave them the gift of manna, and they said, we want something else.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, as you go through the history of Israel in the Old Testament, you find again and again they're in dark valleys because they took a wrong turn.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Canaanites, Ammonites, Assyrians, Babylonians constantly, because God said in Deuteronomy 30 and 31, you follow me, I'll make you prosper.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't follow me, I'll send you into defeat and into captivity.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, as you know, that happens.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: One of the great things about people going into jail, Proverbs predicts that this will happen.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs says you can take fools, you can take obstinate people.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: As long as they're not scoffers, as long as they're a lesser fool, prison, you know, some sort of bondage can really help because people come to their senses.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they come to the white, kind of a white, hot, clear, pure sense of who I am and what I want, and it's a wonderful thing.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen it time and again.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a wrong-turn valley that you can certainly gain from being in a wrong-turn valley, a prison at times.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's a third kind of valley, however, it's the kind of valley Job was in.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Job's friends, they were certain he was in a wrong turn valley.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: They said you wouldn't be here.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Our theology tells us that the only time you're in a valley is if you've taken a wrong turn.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: God always sends the good people to the mountaintop, even in this life, and he always sends the bad people into the dark valley.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: You must be a bad guy.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Job says, I'm not.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with you about law.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: His theology was kind of the same as theirs, so he said, I think God's made a mistake.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: I believe with you that the whole wrong-turn valley thing and so forth.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Job's theology was messed up as well until the end of the book.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, I think God got it wrong.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to appeal to God because he's somehow done the books wrong and so forth.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's just really kind of funny.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, God says, Would you just shut up?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in that chapter 38.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: You don't understand what's going on.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the theology stings.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus had to tell his disciples though.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: There are some valleys, dear friends, and you don't have a clue why you're in them.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Job to the end of his life, as far as had no clue that there had been a Satan God thing going on in heaven.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you know, as best you know anything, you know you didn't do anything wrong to get yourself in this dark valley.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, you're pretty sure that it wouldn't be sinful to walk out of the valley.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not a thing that God told you to go into.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just a no-clue valley, which leads you to the question, well, then what should I do now?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer to this question, what should I do now, depends in part on what kind of a valley you're in, doesn't it?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're in a God said valley, if you're like Jeremiah, and you know, you're going, just kill me.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the truth is that if you're Jeremiah, or even Daniel, remember when Daniel's in Babylon and he's doing what God wants him to do?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's praying every day, and he's Christian witness, and every, not Christian witness, but a God witness and so forth.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then the edict comes down.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you pray to anybody else, you're gonna get thrown into the den of lions.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so Daniel goes, Shhh, well, I'm gonna keep praying.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm certainly not gonna be afraid.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So there he is, praying, and the people are that he knows they're watching him, and he has to go to the den of lions.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in a God said valley, if you're doing what you know God's told you to do, then you need to stay put.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: You need to hang tough.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot leave the valley, no matter how costly it is.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: After all, Jesus was in many such valleys, wasn't he, in life?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, right after his baptism, when the dove had come down in the Spirit, and God broke open heaven and said, This is my beloved son.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is on a mountaintop, and the next thing his father says is, go to the wilderness.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to experience a little of what of what Israel experienced for 40 years, and he goes to the wilderness.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know it's gonna be 40 days.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's told he can't eat, Jesus is told he can't drink, Jesus is told he's got nothing except for prayer, and he's in this valley with the tempter coming and offering him food and drink.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: He has no choice, though.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: God said to go there.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, does he have a choice?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Could he leave?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, he could, but he knows he would be disobedient if he said, okay, I renounce everything.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to go live on the Riviera as long as I'm close to it up here in Rome.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they would have they would have let him go.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're in a God said valley, if you've done what you know God wants you to do, you need to stay put.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how about if you're in a wrong turn valley?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my answer is two.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say you need to take responsibility, which is really hard.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're if you've done wrong, it's hard to confess your sins, faithful and just to forgive us.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: 1 John 1.9, it's yeah, I'm the hardest, you know, it's tough, but you have to, number one, take responsibility.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And number two, you have to make changes in yourself.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the whole book of Judges is devoted to the wrong-turn valley.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because the people of Israel in the book of Judges have this sort of a cycle.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: It goes over and over seven times where the people turn from God, chapter 3, verse 7.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then God judges them by sending them into a dark valley, delivering them to their enemies.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so then they whine and they cry and they turn back to God.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: They make changes, they acknowledge their sin and they make changes.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so then God sends a judge who rescues them, and then they have a period of peace, and then they blow it again, and they have the whole cycle again.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And this, these are wrong-turn valleys, and every time they learn that they have to acknowledge their error, their sin, their mistake, their rebellion, and then they have to make changes, not just whine and cry.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: They have to put away the idols, they have to, you know, break down the false temples and so forth and begin truly worshiping God.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the temptation, can I just tell you, having been in some wrong-turned valleys of my own, and everyone in here has had addictions or had some, you've done some wrong-turn valleys.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it true that we look for shortcuts out of those valleys?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to go through the hard deal of confessing it and making changes and getting embarrassed and so forth.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: We want to just helicopter out of the dark valley as quickly as possible.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Helen Keller was so right.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: She's very biblical when she said there are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Take responsibility, make changes.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what about if you're in a no-clue valley, if you have no idea why you are, you know, where you are, if you're like our story, if you're like Sarah.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer to that question is learn.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: It seems to me that that's the biblical answer to that question.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Larry Osborne puts it this way: California uh writer and pastor, there are always lessons to be learned and character to be built, no matter what the cause or what the valley.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: A valley of injustice helps us identify with the sufferings of our Lord.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: A valley of pain prepares us to empathize and support others.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: A valley of suffering teaches obedience and trust.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Even a valley of self-induced hardship can serve as a warning to never go there again.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a joy in learning.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: As you look at that dark valley, you find yourself saying, though the fig tree doesn't bud and there's no fruit and the vines in this valley, though the olive crop fails, the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take joy in the God of my salvation.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk 3.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where does the joy come from?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it comes partly from knowing that you're learning, you're growing.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Count it all joy, James 1, 2 through 5, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if any of you lacks wisdom, get this.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him learn.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let him ask God, why am I here in this valley?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, teach me the character and maturity that you want me to learn.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea why I'm here, but as long as I have to be here in this dark valley, please make me more like your son.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: In the problem of pain, C.S.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis puts it this way: pain insists upon being attended to.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: So God whispers to us in our pleasures.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: He speaks to us in our conscience, but he shouts in our pains in those dark valleys.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I would add, to rouse a deaf Christian who needs to learn and grow.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, there this sermon series title is not unique to me.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: There are a number of books, my three favorites here, that have a similar title, 12 Christian beliefs that can drive you crazy.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: By my favorite author, two of my favorite authors, Henry Cloud, John Townsend, Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe, Gary Kenneman, Tim Dumb Things, Smart Christians Believe, Larry Osborne.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Larry says something very helpful at this point.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: If God asks his only but begotten son to go through the valley of the cross, we shouldn't be too surprised when he asks us as his adopted sons and daughters to go through a few valleys of our own.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: If Jesus learned obedience through the things he suffered, we shouldn't be surprised if we're asked to take the same course.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Throughout our 40 years in Topeka, the lives of Melody and I, for better or worse, have been deeply intertwined with two wonderful organizations, Topeka Bible Church and CAREPREVELT LATING SchOOL.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And for the most part, walking uh with those organizations has been like climbing a mountain, oftentimes standing on the mountaintop, not always a mountaintop, but almost always a blessing, new experiences every year, wonderful people to live with and to serve alongside.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a time, uh some years ago, when working at the school had become for us, especially for Melody, who was going every day, when it seemed, when it had definitely turned into a valley.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: For what seemed like an extraordinarily long period of time, that valley never went up, it only went down, it never turned lighter, it only turned darker, it never became easier, it only became harder.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was conflict, pain was emotional, yes, but as you and I know, emotional pain can sometimes be worse even than physical pain.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Melody was the one who was there every day.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she was walking through that valley, and we wondered seriously if she should get out of the valley, if she should leave the valley, if she should escape the valley and escape the pain.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And being married to her, I was involved with the school, but not as deeply as she was.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know how it is?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: When you are married to her a friend of someone who is in a dark valley, you want them to escape even more than they do.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right about that?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because you care about them so much.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we talked, we talked, we talked for hours about it.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: We talked, I mean, why how did we get to this place?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: How did we get here?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: That first question.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we concluded that there was no wrong turn that we knew of anywhere, that we would do exactly the same thing again.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and neither did we think that it was a God-said valley, that somehow that God had said, you must be here, you must go there, you cannot leave.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: We we felt that there was a freedom to leave the valley.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: We felt like it was okay, not a God-said valley, that this is really in a no-clue valley, that we didn't really know why it had why God had allowed it to become as bad as it was.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: So the question was what to do.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Melody came up with the really interesting idea out of the blue, to call two Christian leaders in this country that she hadn't talked to, and I hadn't talked to for years.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Two Christian leaders whose names are very well known across the country, who had been close friends of her father that she had known.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: They'd come into her home oftentimes when she was a kid.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Both of these men had hunted with her dad repeatedly, and she had been friends with him, and she said, I think I'm gonna call them up.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't talked with them in years, but they know me well.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget sitting in bed beside her, propped up by the pillows, nervous, both nervous, as she dials the numbers, she says, Well, maybe the Lord won't have them answer.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of this first person, who's the president of a national organization that we all know.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: She identified herself, and immediately I could hear over the phone, Melody, really, I'm so happy you called, et cetera, et cetera.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Melanie said, I've just called because I need advice.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so she goes, she goes through it and she says, I'm sitting here with my husband.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to decide, and I want to make a decision tonight, whether or not to leave or not.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it was silent for a while, and then she was quiet for quite a while because the man said, I want to tell you my own story.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, uh, I've been involved in this organization for years, as you know, and so forth.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And there came a time when I was exactly where you're at.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was very, a very dark valley, and I came very close to leaving.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then I made a decision that I shouldn't leave when the valley was at its darkest, and when the valley was at its deepest, and when the valley was at its hardest, that if I left when the valley was at its darkest and deepest and hardest, that then I would not be able to resist the temptation later to become bitter.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I decided to hang on until it got slightly better, and then I would leave if I wanted to.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously I haven't.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: A year from now.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Melody took that advice.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, I I didn't give her my advice.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've long since learned that no, I used to.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, and it's not a bad thing, it's just that I know she's smarter than I am on such things.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not as though she wouldn't listen to me, but she listened to that advice and she took that advice.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, a year later, things were much better.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we are both very happy that she has stayed at that school.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you're in a dark valley and you're not quite sure while why you're there, I mean the answer is it's not a wrong-turn valley, and you're not convinced that God's planted you there and you have no choice biblically, but you go, I'm not quite sure what I should do.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just urge you, urge you to learn in that valley, to ask God, what should I learn so long as I am here?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: What is there that you can build in me of my character?
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want me to stay longer so that I can see your mighty hand perhaps work a miracle?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want me to stay longer because there will be collateral damage?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: If I helicopter out of the valley, do you want me to stay longer so that there are more lessons of character I can learn so that I can be more like Jesus?
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, I pray for those dear folks who are in valleys, not of their own choosing now, dark valleys, deep valleys, hard valleys, and ask that so long as they're in those valleys, you would come to them as you promise in Psalm 23 and walk with them through those valleys and comfort them and teach them what it is that they should know.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.