message
Posted by: chapmanjimmy <chapmanjimmy@...>
To download this sermon for future reference:
Choose "Save As" from the file menu on your browser and save it as a text document.
or
You may also copy or highlight the sermon text and choose "Copy" on your edit menu.
Open any text application and choose "Paste" on your edit menu.
Select "Save" on your file menu to save the sermon to your hard drive.
HOW HIGH ARE YOUR VALLEYS?
Adrian Rogers
Psalm 23:4
Turn please to Psalm 23. I know that you are familiar
with this wonderful Psalm. And do you know that one of
the great dangers is that we may be so familiar with
the 23rd Psalm that we miss some of the beauties?
One time a botanist was out on his hands and his knees
with a magnifying glass looking down at a little
flower in a pasture. And a big, old brawn shepherd
came and stood behind. And at first the botanist was
not aware that the shepherd was there. And the
shepherd had a smile on his face. To him it was
ludicrous. Here was a man on his hands and knees with
a magnifying glass looking at one little flower. And
when the botanist finally recognized the presence of
this shepherd and he felt a little silly himself, at
first, but then he said to the shepherd, "Here you
come and take a look." And the shepherd kneeled down
and took the magnifying glass himself and looked at
that exquisitely beautiful little heather bell, the
little flower there, and after he did, the tears
popped in his eyes and started to course down his
cheeks. And the botanist said, "Why are you crying?"
"Oh," he said, "I knew they were there, but," he said,
"I just think of how many I trampled under my feet
without really looking at them." I wonder if we don't
do that to some of the more familiar passages in the
Bible. I wonder if we don't need somehow to take God's
magnifying glass and look a little more closely.
I had thought when I first started that I would preach
on the entire Psalm, and then I said, "No, I'm going
to narrow it down to one and we'll just take the
magnifying glass and look at the one verse. But I want
us to at least share the whole Psalm together to get
the one verse in its proper setting.
It begins this way, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still water. He restoreth my
soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for
his name's sake. 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.
Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine
enemies. Thou annointest my head with oil. My cup
runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever."
You know mankind has had some magnificent and amazing
ideas that have changed the course of history.
Copernicus set in a cathedral one day and it had a
chandelier, similar to our chandelier, only it was on
a longer pendulum. And he was watching the chandelier
and seemed to sway ever so slightly. He was like some
of you. He wasn't paying attention to the sermon. He
was just watching and thinking and his mind was off
somewhere else. And he got to thinking, he said,
"There is some force, there is something causing the
pull, the sway, there is some attraction." And he came
up with the idea that this world indeed is not the
center of our universe, but that the sun is the center
of the solar system and that the earth revolves around
the sun. And all the ideas of astronomy and science
and so forth were changed by this great idea that
Copernicus had.
Again, there was a man, a brilliant man at the close
of the dark ages. He was in a shop watching a scribe
transcribe laboriously a manuscript a letter at a
time. So exacting and so carefully was he doing it.
And this man said, "You know if I could take little
blocks of wood and carve little letters and make them
where I could turn them around and move then, why,
then these men wouldn't have to do all of this
laborious work. His name was Gutenberg. And he
invented the printing press. And that brought in the
Renaissance that helped to bring in the Industrial
Revolution. And so many things were changed and life
will never again be the same because of this great
concept of moveable type.
Again there was another man, he sat in his rocking
chair smoking a pipe and thought. With his white
whiskers there he sat and thought and stroked his
whiskers. And finally he came up with an idea. His
name was Albert Einstein. The idea, the thought was
that of relativity. And some other things that you
know they say that only 12 people on earth understand
the theory of relativity. I'm not so sure of that
because I don't know the other 11. It's just such a
concept, a thought. With that theory and the idea of
the theory of relativity we move into the atomic age
and we've split the atom. We've come into something
that whether we agree with it or not, or whether you
are in favor of it or not, you're going to have to
admit that this idea was so great, so lofty, that it
literally changed the scope of history, dramatically
did.
But I want to tell you dear friend, I don't believe
that any of them ever had a greater idea, or concept
or a revelation a shepherd boy who said on a lonely
Judean hill, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not
want." You talk about a thought that can radically
transform your life and radically change this world,
it is that thought, "The Lord is my shepherd." I
believe that the 23rd Psalm ought to be one of the 7
wonders of the world. Have you ever thought about what
a magnificent Psalm it is? Think about the scope and
the reach of it. It's sweet to a little child. And yet
it is perplexing to a scholar. It is quoted at
funerals and it is quoted at weddings. It is quoted in
the nursery school and it is quoted on the battle
field, the 23rd Psalm.
I want us to look at just one verse in that 23rd
Psalm, the fourth verse that's going to be the key
verse for what we have to say this morning. Look at
it, verse 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." There
are three words in that verse that I want you to
underscore and all three of them start with the letter
"T". And I call it three tremendous t's. And
incidentally, the title for my message this morn is
this, "How High are Your Valleys?" How high are your
valleys because we all go through the valleys. I want
to tell you dear friend, you can go through some
mighty high valleys if you know the Lord. One man
said, "I'm happier now when I am sad than I was glad
when I was glad before I found the Lord Jesus Christ."
Even our valleys can be lofty valleys.
I want us to think on verse four now, let's look at
it. "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."
Underscore the word, "though". Yea, though. Then
underscore the word "through" then underscore the word
"thou" and you will have it. Though, through and thou.
Three tremendous words beginning with the letter "T".
The first one tells us of a dark possibility. "Yea
THOUGH I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death..." Friend, it is absolutely possible that this
afternoon that you may start into that valley,
sometimes unexpectedly. The next phone call, the next
letter, the next corner we turn can plunge us into a
dark valley.
Now the valley of the shadow of death was a literal
valley in Palestine. And David was very familiar with
it for David was a shepherd boy. And there at the Mt.
of Olives, a spring breaks out and causes a little
river. It has been flowing through the centuries and
this little river flows down toward the dead sea, down
into that valley area, and as it flows it has cut and
cut and cut a chasm until that chasm has become in
some places 1500 feet deep, but it is very narrow. In
some places it may be only 15 or 20 feet wide and it
is a very dangerous valley because of its narrowness
and because of its deepness, there are very great
grotesque shadows coming out of there. And in that
valley are all kinds of animals and so forth. Used to
be, bears would be there. Lions would be there. Hyenas
would be there, jackals would be there, sometimes
robbers and thieves would lurk there, sometimes
scorpions and other things. And the shepherds called
it the valley of the shadow of death.
It was a very common occurrence for the shepherd to
have to lead their sheep through this valley, because
in the winter time in Palestine it can get quite cold.
I've seen it snow. But if you go down to the Jericho
valley, it's like a summer health resort. And it's
very warm there in Jericho and so in the winter time
the sheep would graze there in Jericho and yet when
the spring would come and the green hills would start
to blossom with beautiful flowers would come on those
green hills. Grass that you couldn't even tell was
there just turns a beautiful bright mint green. And
it's time there for the shepherds to lead their sheep
from the winter grazing grounds up into the mountain
tops and up into the hills. And they have to lead them
through this dark valley, the valley of the shadow of
death and that's what David is talking about,
literally, but he's using it symbolically to teach us
a wonderful, wonderful lesson and that is the
possibility that any child of God can have a dark
valley.
Don't you think for one little moment, sir, just
because you are a Christian that you can't have any
trouble. I want you to jot in your Bible this verse
now, Psalm 34, verse 19, "Many are the afflictions of
the righteous." Did you hear that? Not of the unsaved,
not of the ungodly. "Many are the afflictions of the
righteous." Because you are saved does not mean that
you'll not have any dark valleys. I thank God for the
other side of that verse though that says, "But the
Lord delivered him out of them all." Hallelujah for
that.
Let me give you another verse to jot down there in the
margin. I Peter chapter 5 and verse 10, "But the God
of all grace who hath called us into his eternal glory
by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you."
Notice that. It speaks of the grace of God. It speaks
of the glory of God. But it also speaks of the grief
of God. "after you have suffered a while," not if you
have suffered, but just after you have suffered.
Somebody has said that God only had one son without
sin, but he's not had any son without sorrow. Sooner
or later a hush will come to your home. I don't want
to be morbid about it. I'm not trying to be morbid
because dear friend, my message this morning is not a
morbid message. But I would be less than honest if I
were to tell you this morning that if you become a
Christian that from there on there's going to be
nothing but joy and light and sweetness and roses and
that you're going to move through life in an ever
ascending scale of health and success and happy family
life and prosperity and a serene old age and a
glorious exit into heaven. That's the way we all like
to live. But I tell you there are plenty of people who
love God just as much as you do and more than many of
us who have gone through some dark valleys.
And David was one of them. And there's a though there.
"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death..." But friend, you know as well as I know that
you can't have a valley unless you have mountains. And
you know that this Psalm 23 is perched between two
other Psalms. Psalm 22 tells of the crucifixion of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 22 is written as though
someone were seated at the foot of the cross. And it
describes graphically the crucifixion of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And therefore it is a mountain Psalm. It
tells us of mount Calvary, mount Moriah where the Lord
Jesus died. And then look if you will please in Psalm
23 or excuse me Psalm 24 and that speaks of the
coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ when he is going
to be lifted up in glory. Listen how it ends, "Who is
this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads o ye gates
and lift them up ye everlasting doors and the king of
glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory? The
Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. Selah."
And so you see in Psalm 22 you have the crucifixion of
our Lord, Mount Calvary. And then Psalm 24 you have
the coronation of our Lord, Mount Zion. And Psalm 23
is the valley in between. This trilogy of Psalms is in
a distinct order. You have first of all the Savior's
cross, then the shepherd's crook, and then the
Sovereign's crown. All of them are right there
together. And Psalm 23 is the valley between the blood
drenched slopes of Mount Calvary and the sunlit peaks
of Mount Glory and Mount Zion. And thank God dear
friend, for every valley, there must be a mountain.
And you need to remember that when you are in the
valley, you couldn't be in the valley were it not for
these mountains.
And oh I want you to think on that. I just want you to
think on that. I want to tell you something else. The
Bible speaks of the valley of the shadow of death. And
for every shadow there must be a light. You can't have
a shadow unless you have a light. Christ said, "I am
the light of the world." He is the light even through
the dark valley. It is Christ. A shadow may frighten
you, but a shadow cannot really harm you. A lot of us
have been frightened by our own shadow so many times
and shadows of others, but thank God, death is but a
shadow if you know the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you
keep your face toward the light, the shadow will fall
behind you. You won't even see it at all.
I would to God that I could plant this in your heart
this morning. You will pass through that valley, but
you can't have a valley without mountains and you
cannot have shadows without light. And never forget
it, never, never, never forget it. There is a though.
You are going to pass through that valley. And I know
today. I know as surely as I'm standing here, I'm
speaking to many of you who have passed through dark
valleys or will indeed pass through them, or may today
be in the middle of them.
But now I want you to notice something else. I want
you to notice not only the dark possibility, though,
but I want you to notice secondly, the determined
purpose, through. Through. "Yea, though I walk through
the valley." God doesn't just lead us into the valley
and leave us there, He always brings us through.
Remember again Psalm 34, verse 19, "Many are the
afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth
him out of them all." Friend, He brings you in only to
bring you out. And God is going to bring you through.
Those of us who fly on airplanes I think perhaps would
change this from the figure of a shepherd to his sheep
to a pilot and an airplane and his passengers. You
know, have you ever gotten on an airplane when it is
turbulent and cloudy and you just wonder if they can
ever even take off in that soup. And finally they get
clearance and down the runway that thing goes and it
gathers speed and it lifts off and gets up in that
cloud and bumpy air. And those clouds are gathering
and it is bouncing this way and that way and you get
thinking about that airplane poison. You know, one
drop and it will kill you. And you just, you're just
riding there.
I had a pastor friend who was sitting on an airplane
with a lady. And she was very nervous, she was crying.
And it was rough. And he turned to her, he tried to
comfort her and she said, "Do you mean to tell me
you're not afraid in all of this." He said, "Well
lady, before I got on this thing I committed my life
into the hands of my heavenly Father." And then he
said, "I will have to admit that I have reminded him
about it several times since we've been up here."
I think all of us can identity with that, but you
know, that airplane goes on as it gains altitudes and
it's almost like a miracle every time it happens.
Bang! It just bursts through those clouds. And there
is the most dazzling blue sky and the most golden and
warm sunlight. And it dawns on me, that sun has been
shining the whole time. It is a lesson that is ever
fresh. You know we come through a day like we had
yesterday and the day before. You know it's cloudy and
overcast and we say the sun is not shining today.
That's just a lie isn't it? We know the sun is shining
if you think about it. It's always shining. And God is
always there. Dear friend one of these days He'll
bring you through and you'll come out of those clouds.
And you can say the Lord is my shepherd, or the Lord
is my pilot. But I want you to know that we're coming
through.
David knew what it was. I believe he wrote Psalm 23
when he was an old man, but I believe he learned the
lesson when he was a young man. But David had been
through the valley of suffering as Saul persecuted
him, but he came through. He had been through the
valley of slander when others lied on him. But he came
through. He'd been through the valley of sin when he
committed adultery with Bathsheba and repentance and
that agony. But thank God he came through. And he
wrote Psalm 51. He'd been through the valley of sorrow
and he'd seen his little baby die and he'd seen his
son Absalom that he loved, "Absalom, O Absalom, my son
Absalom, would to God that I'd died for thee." But he
came through. He came through. He knew what it was to
go into dark valleys. But he came through. And so will
you. So will you.
"Weeping endures for the night, but joy cometh in the
morning." I want to tell you if you love our God and
if you will trust Him He'll turn every hurt into a
hallelujah and He'll turn every Calvary into an
Easter. And He'll take every tear and change it into a
pearl and make it a diadem for you to wear. God's plan
my dear friend, is to bring you through. You're going
through. You're going through. It is his plan and
purpose. "Yea though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death I will fear no evil."
Now the third and final thing I want you to notice.
Not only the dark possibility, and not only the
determined purpose, but I want you to notice the
delightful promise, "Thou art with me." David never
left his sheep alone. He always went through the
valley with them. How much more is that heavenly
shepherd who said, "I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee."
Now friend, do you think God is close now? Do you
think God is close in a worship service? He is. He is.
Thank God for that. Do you think God is close in your
devotionals? He is. Do you think God is close in the
good times? He is. But God will never be closer to you
than when you are in a dark valley. He is especially
nigh unto those who are in trouble. That's what the
Bible teaches. He is especially near.
Do you know how the Psalm starts? "The Lord is my
shepherd." And he is talking about the Lord. But now
notice in the dark valley, do you notice how the tense
changes? "Thou art with me.'" He is not talking about
the Lord now, he is talking to the Lord. You know
right now you could get in this service and we'd be
talking about Him, you go in the dark valley, you'll
be talking to You know, and, it's so different. When a
man talks about his wife he may call her the little
lady. But when he gets with her he better not call her
that. If he talks to her, and with her, and there is
that "I" "Though" relationship. Oh how near the Lord
is, how near the Lord is. Here is that promise, that
delightful promise. "Thou art with me."
Let me give you another verse. Jot it down in your
margin. Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 2, "When thou
passeth through the waters I will be with you." Not if
you pass, when you pass through the water I will be
with you. "And through the rivers," not into, but
"through the river, they shall not overflow thee."
"When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be
burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." And
this delightful promise vanishes all fear.
Do you know what David says? David says, "The Lord is
my shepherd and yea though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou
art with me." I will not fear. God has not given us
the spirit of fear, but love and power and of a sound
mind. Over and over in the Bible 365 times, one time
for every day in the year God has said, "Fear thou
not," or its equivalent. I will fear no evil. His
presence vanishes fear. Why should we be afraid if He
is there? If God be for us who can be against us?
Ladies and gentlemen, it is better in a dark valley
with Jesus than it is on a sunlit mountain without
him. Better to be in a dark valley with Jesus than on
a sunlit mountain without him. "Thou art with me." Oh
what more could we want than his presence.
Not only does his presence vanish fear, but it
provides protection. You notice it says, "Thy rod and
thy staff they comfort me." The rod and the staff were
different. The rod was a club about so long. The
shepherd would make it from a gnarled root on one end
that he would make like a bulbous club, then he would
lengthen it on out and smooth it on out until he had a
handle grip. He could use that thing as a man of war.
It was to protect the sheep. And there was plenty to
protect the sheep from. Do you remember when David
said, "I slew a lion and I slew a bear." Why did he do
that? To protect his flock. And listen, David was a
strong, swarthy young man and he had this rod and he
knew what it was to use it as a club. That is to take
care of his sheep.
You say, "Well, my goodness, it is just a sheep. What
man would risk his life for a sheep? I mean after all
he's a human, that's just a dumb animal!" A shepherd
had a sacred honor to keep his sheep. A sacred honor,
it meant something. It may not mean much to you, you
say, "Only an animal." But not to a shepherd boy in
David's time. David risked his life. "A lion and a
bear." And he took that club and he went into battle
to protect that sheep. And then David applied that to
himself. He said, "Oh, how much more is God going to
take care of me." The mighty rod of God, the power of
God. We're kept by the power of God. Why should I
fear? His presence vanishes fear. His presence
protects me from mine enemies.
And then he said, "Thy rod and thy staff." The staff
was different. The staff was a long instrument that
had a crook at the end. We call it the shepherd's
crook. He would take some sapling and he would smooth
it out and take all the bumps out of it. And then he
would put the end in boiling water and soak it there
and bend it and soak it and bend it until he had a
crook in the end of it just like he wanted it. It was
just big enough to fit around a sheep's neck if it
were a grown sheep, or around the chest of a lamb if
it were a small lamb. And with that he would guide the
flock. Just a touch. He never used the rod on the
flock, just the staff. Then when the sheep would fall
into some crevice he'd reach down and lift it out.
When it would fall in the fire he would lift him out,
when it would be in the quicksand and in the mud. You
remember that Psalm, Psalm chapter 40, it said, "He
hath lifted me up out of a miry pit." He's talking
about the same thing. David is thinking of himself as
a sheep and as the Lord lifts him and keeps him. You
see, dear friend, he keeps his own. Do you know one of
my favorite verses in all of the Bible? John 10:28,
and 29, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and
they shall never perish." Isn't that great? His sheep.
You see, his presence vanishes fear. His presence
protects us from the enemy. His presence gives
security. "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
And oh, so you see, there are three tremendous "T'S".
"Yea, though," there is a dark possibility. And yet
there is a definite purpose, "Through." And there is a
delightful promise, "Thou art with me."
This past week I went to Washington D. C. to the
international prayer breakfast. And there at the
national prayer breakfast were congressmen and our
president. And we had prayer together. And I went over
to a friend of mine, Senator Jesse Helms, I think one
of the great senators in Washington from North
Carolina. He's a southern Baptist. He's born again. He
loves our Lord. And Senator Jesse Helms has a bill
that wants to help the freedom to have prayer in
public schools, not some state enforced religion, not
that, but to allow people to go back to the principles
upon which this government was founded and the ideals
that made us the great nation and to allow us to have
voluntary prayer in our schools. I am helping him in
that thing and glad to be one of the supporters of
that thing and helping him. We were talking about this
particular thing and then we started sharing about the
things of the Lord. Senator Jesse Helms told me a
story that so moved my heart I want to share it with
you.
It's a story concerning Alexander Solzenitzen. Do you
know who Alexander Solzenitzen is. If you don't now
you ought to know. He is one of the leading thinkers
and literary artists of all times. He's alive now in
our age. He's a Russian dissident. He was a Russian
citizen, but he believed in God and he believed
against a godless communist philosophy and so forth.
And because of that they put this brilliant,
scintillating, gifted, articulate man in a dungeon,
they put him in a prison camp. And he was telling
Senator Jesse Helms about it. And he said Senator,
"You've never known real repression." And he says, "I
pray God that you never will." And he says, "I want to
tell you what happened to me." And he told that he was
put in that prison camp and that he was shut aside,
shut away from all communication from the outside
world. No newspapers, no radio, no television, no
books, no pencils, no paper and no conversation.
Completely shut off. Not knowing what on earth was
going on in the world. Hard, physical, manual labor
day after day after day. That kind of existence.
Alexander Solzenitzen said, "I came to the place where
I decided I would take my own life." But then he said,
"I thought of my faith in God. I though of the
teaching of the Bible," and he said, "I knew that I
could not do that. But life was intolerable." He said,
"I did not know what I was going to do." And then he
said, "This thought came into my mind," he said, "I
know what I'll do. I will try to escape, knowing that
it is impossible. But I will break and run and then he
said they will shoot me in the back and I won't have
to take my life, they will take it." And of course
that was twisted thinking and later on he knew that
was twisted thinking. But the man was in that sort of
a situation where even his normal logic was somewhat
perverted.
So he came out on this particular day and made up his
mind this was the day. The guards had been very
brutal. The prisoners were sitting under a tree given
just a few moments of respite and rest. Sitting under
a tree, they were not allowed to murmur one word to
another. Alexander Solzenitzen made up his mind and he
said, "This is the time." And he put his hand on
ground, ready to push up, ready to spring, ready to
run and just at that moment a fellow prisoner came and
stood before him and looked into his eyes, they
couldn't speak a word. And Solzenitzen said, "Love and
peace were in that man's eyes and his eyes met mine
and we stood there and he looked into my eyes knowing
he could not say a word. But kindness and compassion
and peace flowed from his face. And then he took a
stick as though he were just making a mark in the
ground. It would mean nothing to the guards, but with
that stick he drew a cross." Solzenitzen said, "I
looked down and God spoke to my heart and God said,
'Solzenitzen, I am with you in the valley.'" He said,
"Little did I know that in 3 days I would be in
Geneva, Switzerland a free man."
All over the world people were talking about
Solzenitzen and what had happened to him and people
were pressuring the Russian government and people were
praying for him and-finally because of this pressure
this man was set free, 3 days, and he was in
Switzerland. But there he was right on the verge of
saying, "It's all over. I can't take it any longer."
And I believe today that I am speaking to some people
who are saying, "I can't take it any longer. I've had
all I can I take. I don't think that I can go on." I
would to God that he would give me the ability to hold
up the cross before you. And I would to God that He
would give me the power to tell you that yea though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death you
should fear no evil that he is with you and he is
going to bring you through. And it may be sooner than
you realize. But he will, he will. "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." Let us pray.
RA-0649
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
The text contained in this database is protected by copyright
and International Law, and is solely owned by it's authors.
The reproduction, or distribution of this product, or any
portion of it, without the expressed written authorization
from the contributing authors is forbidden.
Remember, this database is to inspire the development
of new messages to further the kingdom's work.
Yours because HIS
Bro. Jimmy Chapman
Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.