Would you stand with us if you can and will please? I want to read all the six verses of Psalm 23, but I'm interested in the fourth verse. Psalm 23, beginning in verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. 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 before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest 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. Again, verse number four. Hasn't this psalm meant so much to all of our hearts over the years? Verse number four. 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. I'm interested in crossing the valleys of life. Crossing the valleys of life. If the Lord be our helper, I only speak under three headings tonight. I'm interested in the path through the valley. If you were to cross a valley this year, what might you find? What might be some mile markers through that valley experience? I think this psalm, along with a number of other portions of scripture, can give us that. I'm interested in the purpose for the valley. Why? You've asked why. I've asked why. It's a big thing in our area. Baptist preachers say that you're never to ask why. The Lord Jesus, from the cross of Calvary, cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? James said, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth all men liberally and upbraideth not that shall be given him. He didn't say, but let him ask with faith, did he? He said, let him ask in faith, within the parameters of the teachings of the word. Why? The question why is asked over 400 times in the Bible. Rarely do we get an answer, but it may be that you need an answer. The Bible does afford us some reasons as to why we go through what we go through within life. And then I'm interested in the peace that can be found in the valleys of life. Have you ever left an intensive care waiting room? You've been visiting with a family that they don't know God. Their loved one back in a dire condition, they don't know the Lord. Have you ever left a hospital room and just wondered in your heart, now how are they gonna make it? How are they gonna get through? Have you ever left the funeral parlor, and you know that family don't have a pastor, as Brother Fox was talking about. They don't have a church home. And you're wondering, how are they gonna make it? And they're not open to listening to the gospel when you try to witness to them, or share the gospel with them at a funeral service. Have you ever left like that? Aren't you thankful that God's people can have peace no matter what you face in life? Even at the point of our loved one is about to be taken from this walk of life and ushered into the next, God can grant peace. There's pain for sure, but God can grant that. Back in the years, I won't give you any of the details. I wouldn't bore you with it. We've not experienced what you've experienced, I'm sure. But between the first of the year of 2007 to the end of the year 2008, Amanda and I and our children, we went through wave on top of wave. We wouldn't get over one until there were things that kept coming at us. It began with a cancer diagnosis in my life, and I did not know until my mom was diagnosed with cancer the following year, she had prayed as only a mother can. Now, we fellas, if we'll be honest, we learned to love our children, and we loved them, and we'd give our lives for them. But now these ladies loved their children before they ever saw the light of day. And David wrote of his mom, but he did not write of his father. He called her thine handmaid. God gave you a gift when he gave you your mother. She loved you when nobody else loved you. She prayed for you before anyone else prayed for you. She was up with you when no one knew your name. She invested in you when the world cared nothing for you and she would do it all over again. But my mom had prayed. She and I had one conversation about her diagnosis, and she said, I prayed for you, that if the Lord be pleased, if somebody in the family has to have cancer, has to die in God's economy, if he would be pleased, he would heal you through all this medicine and all you've been taking, and take me. And she was diagnosed on her birthday, June the 18th of 2008 and died November the 3rd. And we'd been through so much. I was not bitter. I was numb. And we had her funeral on the 5th of November. She died on a Monday morning early. We had her funeral on Wednesday. My wife and I were walking across Eddington Cemetery to go sit under the tent for the graveside service. And you forgive me. I'm just as human as anyone else. But I walked up. Walked up to her grave and I looked over in there and I said Lord you've got to help me You got to give me some scripture. You got to give me something and And I looked over in there and I said is this it is this all she gets? I thought she died early. And I said, is this it? When we were children, I remember the night my mom left my dad. We were in Norfolk, Virginia. He was stationed there. He was in the Marine Corps. He would come in at night after drinking with some of his buddies. And my sister and I, we would either catch the back of his hand or the bottom of a military boot. And my mom would step between us and she would take the beating. And so when me and my older sister were growing up, we saw her do without, I watched that all of her life. And so you understand, I asked, why? She never had anything. And I said, is this all she gets? I need something. And I'm telling you, this verse I'm preaching from tonight settled in on my heart. 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. And in that moment, I was able to rejoice in the fact that though I didn't see any outward signs of things looking promising in our life, the Lord was with me. My shepherd was with me, and he was leading me, and he could offer comfort to me even in those times. Consider with me, and I'll not keep you long tonight, but consider with me the path through the valley. David here, he writes, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. If you go through a valley, and we will before the year's out, won't we? Somebody in this family, this church family, is going to get a diagnosis from a doctor probably. A child's going to wreck an automobile. Somebody's going to face hardship on the job. This world is full of sorrows and woe. I'm thankful that I'm at a good place in life right now, as far as I know. But we do face trials and do cross valleys. This shepherd that is our shepherd, he's my shepherd in verse one. He maketh me not to want in verse number one. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, verse number two. He leadeth me beside the still waters in verse number two. He restoreth my soul in verse number two. And he leads me in the path of righteousness in verse number two for his name's sake. He's also the shepherd that leads his children. Through the valleys. I'm glad we have a shepherd that navigates the way he leads the way He speaks to our heart so that we know where he is We know who he is. He knows who we are. It's brother Fox said earlier. He knows our address, right? He knows who you are tonight, and I'm grateful for that and The valley of the shadow of death lends itself to the idea that the valley experiences in life can be dark experiences, right? The valley of the shadow of death. We were in the Holy Land some four years ago. Our church sent us, my wife and I with another group of people. And of course, the tour guide took us. Our leader of our group asked him, is it possible to scratch something off the itinerary this week and go to the valley of the shadow of death? And we got to go there. We also got to go to Jacob's well, which was not scheduled that week. But the valley of the shadow of death, it gets its name because it is so narrow. It's so narrow and so deep, so much so that there's no point in the daytime hours that all of the valley is ever completely lit up. There's always shadows. There's a darkness around the curve. You'll find yourself in a shaded area. I find that valley experiences can be that way too. Sometimes our valley experiences not only can be dark, but they can be distanced experiences. I just alluded to 2007. two preachers that travel this country preaching and are sought after. They were preaching in our area about a month apart. Both of them come to see me. I was under a quilt. I'd had chemotherapy and I was under a quilt. And both of them, it was interesting, both of them asked me the same question. They asked me, how long? Preacher, when do all this start? And I said, about 10 months ago, about 11 months ago is how I answered them. And both of them said, well, your year's just about up. And I know what they were talking about. Now, I've not experienced what Job's experienced, but that's what they were alluding to. Job's experiences, we believe, last about 12 months. And that begs the question, was Job, did Job have a bad year or did he have a bad life? We don't know. But we do know God blessed him. in the end. God blessed him before his trials and God blessed him beyond his trials, as we heard a little something about that on Monday night. But what they were saying is that maybe your trials are just about over with. We had another year of crisis after crisis after crisis. Here's the thing about it. We don't know how long trials, when they come, we don't know how long they're gonna stay, do we? We don't know what we may experience before we get out of this walk of life. Some of my heroes in the faith are people that follow walkers to church. They're people that don't have a lot. of extra in this walk of life, and yet they have the joy of the Lord, and they have the peace of God resting and residing upon them so much so that they'll be a blessing and invest in your life. They don't have any money to invest in your life. They don't have the houses and lands, perhaps, to invest in your life, but they'll make a deposit into your life that will make a difference and help you cross these valleys that may be very distanced experiences. The valley of the shadow of death. In Palestine, the valley is actually four miles in length. This valley experiences or valley experiences can be very difficult paths as well. We find that. The valley of the shadow of death is derived from a root word that means deep gloom. In other words, the valley of the shadow of death is the valley of deep gloom. We all preach on the valley of dry bones. And they're the Valley of Giants, the Valley of Elah, where David went down to do battle with Goliath. And he actually didn't defeat him with what he had in his hand that day. He defeated him by what he had in his heart. And that's how you'll face your giants in life as well. Of course, there are other valleys, the Valley of Baca, the Valley of Weeping. But this valley, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, is the Valley of Deep Gloom. And that lends itself to just how distressing, how trying, how taxing, yeah, even how depressing that our valid experiences can be in life. We glean from many in our songbooks that went through very trying experiences to write what we sing. And a lot of times, in the midst of a trial or dark experience, God will so allow pressure to come upon a saint that they leave words behind and testimonies behind that causes us to rejoice and go on a little bit farther. Charles Lamb, when writing about the valley experiences of life, he called them the mumps and the measles of the soul. William Booth, of course, the founder of The Salvation Army, his wife, once wrote about the valley experiences in her life. These are her words. She said, "...darkness gathers thicker than ever. Around the path I tread, and doubt, gloom, melancholy, and despair seem to be my lot." Of course, R.W. Dale was believed to be pastoring the greatest church on planet Earth by one of our country's leading evangelists of the day. He traveled to England on a number of occasions and would go there. It was a soul winning church. It was a missionary sending church. God was doing the work there. And yet in its heyday, R.W. Dale wrote in his journal, He wrote in his journal, seasons of depression, heavy, terrible, overwhelming, come over me without apparently any definite cause and stay in spite of means which seem most powerful to effect their removal. Sometimes our valley experiences can be sickness and sometimes it can be sorrow. Sometimes it can be something of a totally different nature, but we all go through and we all experience valley experiences In life, I watched my stepfather when my mom I talked about her net passing and going to be with the Lord By the way, I was privileged to lead my mom to the Lord one Sunday morning I mean right in front of God and everybody she got up in the middle of the congregational service and was under conviction and just motioned for me we went to a Sunday school room and I I was able to lead her, privileged to lead my own mother to the Lord. But I watched my stepdad, I watched him grieve. He would get on the couch where my mom would lay after her treatments and you couldn't get him up and he just mourned. He's well now and we rejoice in that. But one writer spoke of bereavement as being such a valley, and he wrote this. He said, He went on to write, to follow the dear one into the land beyond. The shadow is so black you wonder how the sun can shine and how the birds can sing." And that's the truth, isn't it? I mean, we are real people and we live in a real world and sometimes life just hurts and we call those storms or we call those experiences valley experiences. The path through the valley and then the purpose for the valley. Why do we go through what we go through within life? You do know and you do believe Romans 8.28 and the truth of it, right? All things work together for good. That doesn't say everything is good. That doesn't say you can shout every day of your life. Now, you ought to have a song in your heart. God's people are singing people, right? Now, you wouldn't appreciate my singing like I appreciate my singing. I can sing as good as a choir, amen? Going down the highway by myself, but you wouldn't care anything about it. I can't sing bass like Dennis can, and I can't sing whatever you sing alto, whatever you sing. But God does give his people a song. And no matter what we face in life, it does not come without rhyme nor without reason. God will take it and work it. God will take the circumstances of it. Yet even the pain of it and work it in and through our lives. Now why do we go through what we go through? Why does he choose as our shepherd to lead us through valley experiences? I mean after all he's God. He could prevent it, couldn't he? But he chooses to allow things in our lives and we experience those things and many times they drive us to God. Notice if you will in verse number four. Notice, if you will, that the purpose for the valley is advancement. God advances us. Watch what he says. He does not write, Yea, though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death. It's not hay words, it isn't. He says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He says, I'm not going here to stay. I'm not here to stay. It may be an extended season, but it is but for a season. It is but for a time. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He says, God's going to not just bring me to the valley, but he's going to take me through the valley. He will advance me through the valley. Speaking of a young preacher in our area, Brother Fox, he's gone through it at every turn. Of course, he's an unusual young man. He probably is borderline genius. And I've had the privilege of speaking with him on many occasions. As a matter of fact, he called me the night before last. I was talking to him about a particular situation he's going through. When he was growing up, he went to Ingimar School, which is in Union County, Northeast Mississippi. He didn't spend time with his peer group. He either hung out with the janitor or the teachers or went and sat in the principal's office. His peer group didn't understand him. He didn't understand them either. He wanted to fit in. But he lived a very lonely life growing up. As a matter of fact, I remember a service after he was saved and then surrendered to preach. It was in a service that broke out into a testimonial service. I don't know if you can identify with this or not, but this young man, he wept. He was in an amen pew right over here in a very small church building. It was a Thursday night. He just wept and sobbed uncontrollably. And he said, you all have been thanking the Lord for salvation, and I do too. But he said, I thank the Lord for friends. He said, for the first time in my life, somebody besides my grandfather and my grandmother are my friends. He said, God has surrounded me with friends. But he's an unusual young man. He's, socially, things have always been awkward for him. God's raised him up. He'll be a writer. He'll be a conference speaker one day. God's just raised him up. His hand is on him. And I spoke to him and I said, listen, I said, you remember pre-salvation? You remember how lonely it was? You remember how you spent time by yourself? I said, there's a pattern you can find in the Bible. Watch Amos. It's no accident that God called a sheep herder and gatherer of sycamore fruit. Those are lonely occupations. And sent him up to the northern kingdom to preach and call them to repentance. It's no accident that he called somebody like that, that was willing to live life all by himself. And it's no accident, right, that after Saul of Tarsus is saved, I mean, he was out front before salvation. Look at him after salvation, when God put him in the ministry. He took even some of that that he'd experienced all of his life and worked it into his life in the ministry. And so God advances us. He takes us through what He takes us through to get us to the other side of the valley, and we'll look at things a little differently when we get over there. I don't know if you've ever been through a valley or not, but let me tell you what God did for me, especially in those two years that I referred to earlier as I began the message. I was full of myself. And God emptied me, not completely because he still has to work on me in that regard, but he emptied me. Oh, brother, he crushed me. And I found myself often saying, Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for my mindset. Forgive me of being full of myself. And God will do that. He will advance you. It's amazing after you've been in a hospital near death, and you get out and you look around at life. You hear the birds singing a little differently. Even a hay patch looks good. Can I get a witness? When you've been through enough of a trial, Not only is a purpose for the valley that of advancement, but it's also for agreement. Let's see if you agree with me here. The verse does not begin, Nay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Doesn't begin like that at all, does it? But the verse begins, Yea, though I He says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It's a principle of agreement here. I call it the principle of abandonment. That you get to the place in life that you say, yea, Lord, if this is my lot in life, you know where I am, you know who I am, you know my social security number, you know my favorite color, you know me better than I know me, and so Lord, if this be my lot in life, I'm gonna praise you anyhow. David says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, that they comfort me. Would you believe there's some guys that believe that Psalm 23 was pinned down by David as a young man? I don't believe that. I believe he's an aged man. I almost see him, don't you, with a wrinkled brow. He bends his hand down to the inkwell, or maybe up to his tongue and down to the parchment, and he writes, looking back over his shoulder, looking back over life, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. You can equate it to something like this. I know what it is to visit hospitals or the nursing home and some aged saint. I mean, just seem to have the glow of heaven on their brow. And you go in to try to be an encouragement to them. And they don't want you praying for the healing. They want you to pray, God, speed the process up. I mean, they're ready to go on, and they have no cares, no concerns at all. Why? It's because they've lived long enough. They've lived out what the Word of God teaches, and they've lived long enough. They know the Lord's not going to turn His back. They know that He is there, and He offers comfort even in the midst of our trials. And that there's also proper assessment that is found as we cross the valleys of life. If you cross a valley, I'll promise you it'll make a better man out of you, and it'll make a better woman out of you. Amen. When you go in on this side, take an inventory of your life. And when you go out the other side of a crisis in your life, you turn around, take inventory then. I promise you, you'll express yourself a little bit differently. You could say it like this. Now, we go through the valleys we go through for God's glory. I tell you, when you see somebody and they're struggling, it's all they can do to get to the house of God. What do you do? What do you attribute that to? You say, it's got to be a God thing, right? We go through what we go through with for maturity's sake as well. Listen to how James put it. James wrote, my brethren counted all joy. He didn't say if. But he said, when you fall into diverse temptations, those diverse temptations are different kinds of testings, multicolored. It's a technicolor word. They're multicolored. They visit your home differently than they visit my home, but they do visit frequently. He said, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. but let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." You see, God matures us and develops us, right? When we go through trying experiences, difficult times, it is that we turn our eyes away from this world and we focus our hearts upon Bible truth and the God of this Bible. We go through what we go through with for ministry's sake. In 2 Corinthians chapter number 1 and verse number 4, I think about that verse just now, which teaches us that we experience what we experience. We cross the valleys we cross because somebody else is going to be following us and they'll too have to cross the valley. Listen to how Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in the verse I just referred to. He says, "...who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Let me illustrate that for you. Back a lot of years ago, we used to go to a Bible conference out in Steelwell, Oklahoma. First Baptist Church, Steelwell, Oklahoma. And Brother Roger Haney was the pastor. He has since retired about two years back, and he travels and preaches. But we were going to go on Saturday night. They start their meeting or did start their annual meeting with a singing and they cook steak. Amen. Can somebody say amen about that? Lord did us a favor when he gave us a cow. You got four of them, a chicken and a hog. Amen. We were going to go out on Saturday. We'd never been able to do that. So we wanted to go out on a Saturday and then come home on Thursday. And, um, A little fellow by the name of Russ, he's six years old, he was at his grandma and granddaddy's house, and he was moving a pistol from the nightstand, from the closet, and was gonna put it on the nightstand like he had seen his granddaddy do. You know the rest of the story, don't you? Tragedy. They had Russ's funeral on Wednesday. We were packed, ready to pull out on Saturday. Friday evening, Russ's uncle. He called and he said, Brother Kevin, he said, Brock, which pastor is just a hill over from my house. He said, Brock has locked himself in Russ's room and we can't get him to come out. We don't think he's going to do himself any harm, but he won't even answer us. Will you come in the morning and see him? You know what we did? We postponed our trip to Monday. What do you say? I'd never been through that. I went over and brought my quarter to myself, sat on his sofa, and we talked, and we cried. And before we prayed, I said, if I could just open my heart and show you, maybe I could express better how bad I hurt for you. I said, I wouldn't pretend to know how you feel. I said, I want to pray with you. And we prayed, got up, and I was going to leave. And coming in under the carport was a dad, a mom, and two little boys. and that daddy's eyes met Brock McWhorter's eyes. They fell all to pieces and into one another's arms. See, I could hurt four, but this man coming in, he had buried his T-baller, too, a couple years earlier. He had buried his young hero, his hopes and dreams, two years earlier. They made a connection that I could not And he ministered to him in a moment in a way that no one else could. You say, Preacher, why? Why do I go through the valley? Why do I hurt sometimes? Why is life so hard? It's because somebody else is going to come that way. And they're not going to need someone to be judgmental. They're going to need a brother. They're going to need a sister in Christ. to say, come here, I know how you feel, I've been there too. Why do we go through what we go through with? Let me give you just one more and I'll move on to our final thought and be brief with it. We also go through what we go through with for testimony's sake. The Bible teaches us that no man liveth to himself. You don't live to yourself, nor do you die to yourself. Somebody's watching. And if they're watching, they're following. You'd be amazed at your sphere of influence. Most of us won't know anything about that. Our family might learn after our funeral or for the visitation before our funeral. Most of us know nothing of the influence we may have upon others. Many years ago, I was pastoring a church in Pontotoc County. And Brother Don Sable, we used to have Brother Sable twice a year. We'd have him, he'd give us a week either in March or April, then we'd have him in a December Bible conference to close the morning services. Brother Mays Jackson said in the 80s that he thought Brother Sable was the best Bible teaching preacher in shoe leather. And if he missed it, I'd love to sit under who he missed it by. He's got wisdom, the wisdom of Solomon. He used to have his old motor home he drove. And we were sitting in it drinking coffee one morning and the only dairy farmer still left in Pontotoc County pulled in in his Dodge pickup and across the road was a country store. And I said, Brother Sable, I said, you see that man there? And he said, he is. And I told him the background, him being a farmer, dairy farmer and what have you. And I said, I have prayed with his wife and his three children. He's a lost man. And I said, would you pray for his salvation? And I said, I have prayed. I said, preachers have prayed and fasted for him at different times over the years. And I said, his wife has prayed and fasted, and his three children, which are now grown, have prayed. And he said, let me tell you something. He said that when he was in the pastorate many years ago, of course, Brother Sable was one of these guys that just irks you. Man, he can do anything, right? Trigonometry, I mean, you just name it. He knows it and he can do it. But he built houses when he was pastoring, bivocationally. He said they'd go in Philadelphia, Mississippi. They'd go into a cafe every morning. They'd make their way to a job site. And he said this guy said he found out he was a preacher. He'd moved into there and said he'd tell preacher jokes while they were getting their biscuit or whatever and cup of coffee to going out to the job site. And he said there were two or three times he wanted to call him outside. And not fight with him or anything like that, but just tell him he didn't appreciate it. And he was as much a man as he was. And to back off. And quit insulting him. But he said, every time I wanted to speak up and stand my ground, he said the Spirit of God would smite my heart and wouldn't let me say anything. He said about two years of that, every morning, almost every morning, the man popping off at him, he said finally he got to where he'd say, good morning preacher, where y'all working? Where you off to? He said 23 years after he met him, he got a call in the night. The wife and the two boys were in a local church down that way, and the boy got himself into some trouble. The man called him. Brother Sable said he went over, sat down at their dining room table, and he said, young man, you've been raised in church talking to the son. He said he gave him some Bible and told him what he needed to do to make things right. He needed to prove himself. The young man agreed. The mom appreciated it. The other brother just sat there, he said, and he said, the daddy just paid attention. He said, I prayed with him. He said, the mom, the two boys go down the hall into their bedrooms, getting ready for the night. And he said, the man just sat there. He said, I sat back down and shared the gospel with him and said he was saved right there at his dining room table. He said he talked to him about the importance of the local church, following the Lord and believers baptism, and the local church and what that would mean in his life. And he said the man thanked him. He said he prayed with him, got his hat, his Bible, and he said, I'm going home. He said when he got to the threshold of the door, he turned around and he said, fella, I got one question for you. He said, you remember how we all got started? You and I got started. You remember what you used to say to me And he said, yeah, I remember. I said, I'm sorry for that. He said, yeah, but he said, my question is, he said, out of all the people you know, why'd you call me? He said, Preacher, I've watched you for 23 years. I've known you when things were good at the church and when things were not good at the church. I've watched you when your family was doing well and when y'all had some battles. He said, you've been the same through it all. He said, I wanted to talk to somebody that's walked through it all and been faithful. He said, that's why I called you. You be careful how you conduct yourself, even in the valleys of life. Let me just mention lastly, the peace that's found in the valleys of life. David knew he didn't have to go the valley alone. You can be assured of that tonight, child of God. You don't have to go through hardship. about yourself. As a matter of fact, you don't go through hardship alone. Watch what David writes. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. I want to shout to him across the generations, don't you? David, how can you write that? See, he's lost interest in us now. And now he's talking to the shepherd himself. He says, for thou art with me. He's looking over there on the other side. His confidence came from the Lord himself. That's why Sunday school's important, Bible reading is important, Sunday morning worship's important. Every time the doors are open, it is important. He says, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. He said, the Lord, my shepherd, looking back across my life, I have found him to be enough. It's been three years ago, my wife and I, with two other couples, got to go to England. I got to go three times in the 90s. Can you imagine a redneck in London, England? I've been four times to London, one time up into the northern country, and loved every trip. I'd love to go back tomorrow. I love it that much. See some of those churches where Charles Simeon and some of them pastored? First trip over, I'd never heard of Joseph Parker. He was a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon. We've all heard of Charles Spurgeon, but I'd never heard of Joseph Parker. But we went to the City Temple where Parker pastored at one time. Until he and Spurgeon got in a spat with each other, they'd swap pulpits once a year. Parker would go to the Metropolitan Tabernacle and Spurgeon would go to the City Temple. That's unique, isn't it? Don't you wish we all could do that again? But they got in a battle like, well, they got in a battle. But when he went to the city temple, some of the elders of the church asked him if he would consider preaching through the Bible. Just started Genesis 1 and preached through the Bible. And he prayed about it and agreed to do it. And they put it in, Corey's the book man back there. The set of books is known as the people's Bible. He didn't preach every verse. He didn't even preach from every chapter. But when he got to the 23rd Psalm, he had prayed over it and labored over it all week long. He announced the text and he read from verse one, the Lord is my shepherd. And he hesitated. And after moments of silence, he said, the Shepherd Psalm begins, the Lord is my shepherd. Emphasis on my. And he paused again. He said Psalm 23 verse 1 says, the Lord is my shepherd. They said he closed his Bible and said, dear people, that is enough. Just knowing that he is my shepherd has gotten me through some dark valleys in life. And he'll get you through your valleys as well. He is enough.