If you'll please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 23. A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You are the only wise God. your word teaches us your great wisdom and it's the only place we can we can know you and where you reveal yourself to us as our shepherd even in the time when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death and Lord I know that there are some here today who are in that valley right now and they can't see you Immortal, invisible, veiled from our eyes. Yes, it's only light of your splendor that hideth thee from our vision, but you're hidden nonetheless very often. We can't see you. And we need to see you. We need to feel you near us. There are some, Lord, who read these promises in Psalm 23, and it sounds wonderful, They just think, I don't have no experience of that. Oh Lord, come upon us now. Let us experience you as our shepherd this hour. By the power of your spirit, Lord, grant that. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So what are two or three of your greatest fears? And when I say fear, I'm referring to things that you would go out of your way to avoid, or if they do happen, they just fill you up with all kinds of anxiety and dominate your thinking and your emotions. That's what I mean by a fear. I think this sermon will be more helpful to you if right at the outset you establish in your mind two or three or four of the things that you most fear, other than God. I'm not talking about fear of God here. Fear of God is a good thing. I'm talking about earthly fears. When you think of the various troubles and disappointments or losses of this life, which of those tend to be the most frightening to you? Maybe it's losing your job. Or maybe it's keeping your job, for some of you. Maybe you're afraid of what might happen with your kids. Or you're afraid you're not going to have enough money in the future. You're not going to be able to pay your bills. You're wondering about your retirement. Maybe you're afraid of health problems that are creeping up. You're afraid of getting old. You're afraid of dying young, or both. Maybe you struggle with fear of what's happening with the government and the economy and around the world, the Mideast. Some of you are afraid you'll never get married. Some of you are afraid you'll have to live the rest of your life in your current marriage. Some are afraid of getting pregnant. Some are afraid you'll never get pregnant. Many people fear being abandoned and ending up alone. Some of you are terrified that people might find out what you're really like. And at the same time, you're afraid no one will ever truly know you. Some of you are afraid that one of these days you're going to mess up so bad, you're going to foul things up beyond repair in your life. Or maybe you feel like you're already there because of your past. You're messed up beyond recovery. Some of you are afraid of the end times. You're afraid of persecution, or you're afraid of failure, or you're afraid of rejection, or you're afraid of injury or disease, or you're afraid your deepest desires will never be fulfilled. Some of you are thinking, OK, I didn't have any fear at all when I came in here, but now I'm terrified. Thanks a lot. There's a lot of threats and dangers out there, aren't there? And when we see them coming, naturally, we're afraid. In fact, sometimes we're even more afraid when we don't see them coming. So often our fear is not because we foresee any particular threat on the horizon, we're just afraid because we don't know what might be looming on the horizon out there. We feel like we're in the dark when it comes to knowing what's going to happen, and that scares us. You know, little children are afraid of the dark. We never really outgrow that, though, do we? We're all afraid of the dark. We're all afraid of the dark. What happens when they announce another round of layoffs at your company? You don't know what's going to happen. You can't see into the future, so fear, right? What happens when you feel a mass under your skin and you don't know what it is? Fear. What happens when it's a blizzard and your spouse is hours late and no phone call? Fear. Why? Because of what you don't know. Afraid of the dark. for a little child to feel threatened. There doesn't have to actually be a monster chasing them. All that's needed for him to feel afraid is darkness because if he can't see then he doesn't know that what whether maybe there's a monster out there. Right. And it's the same for us. When life goes dark, you don't know what to do in a particular situation. You're at a loss, you can't see wisdom, your eyes are blind to which direction you should go. It's terrifying because you might go the wrong way and around that corner might be some terrible threat. Not being able to see what's coming terrifies us because it places us in a position of vulnerability. I asked a question, this question on Facebook, on my Facebook page this last week, you know, what scares you? What are your fears? And then I asked, what effect do those fears have on you? And two different people answered with the word, they used the word crushing to describe their fears, how their fears feel. And that's a good word. That's exactly the word that the psalmist used in Psalm 139, verse 11. Surely the darkness will crush me. It can be crushing. We're in the midst now of a verse by verse study through Psalm twenty three and we come today to verse four where the psalm changes keys and goes into a minor key. Up to now we've been laying down in green pastures and quiet waters and being led by our shepherd. And now all that inverse for all that happiness and sunshine disappears. and the clouds come over and the whole psalm goes dark in verse four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. How did that happen? I mean, one minute I'm in green pastures, now I'm in Death Valley. What happened? Well, what happened was David understood something about the Good Shepherd that a lot of people don't understand, especially the prosperity preachers, namely the fact that our Good Shepherd leads us into dark valleys. That's reality. That's life. That's what happens. Beware of overly smiley preachers on TV who come on and paint a picture of the Christian life that effectively just edits verse 4 out of the 23rd Psalm. No dark valleys. They try to tell you that Jesus' plan for your life is nothing but sunshine and roses, just green pastures and quiet waters. You'll always find yourself there. And if you ever do find yourself in a dark valley, it's only because you don't have enough faith and you're not claiming the blessings that Jesus has promised. Don't fall for that. That is a false gospel. Any belief system or religion that doesn't deal with the reality of the dark valley is worthless, because that's part of life. God does make us lie down in lush, green, beautiful pastures, but not all the time. Sometimes we're in the dark, painful, dangerous valley. And that has a tendency to drive us to God, doesn't it? Drives us to prayer. It's one of the purposes of it. Notice the change in pronouns starting in verse 4. Up to this point, David has been talking about his shepherd. Now all of a sudden he starts talking to his shepherd. is it up to now it's been he him now it's you the whole song moves from theology prayer and darkness will do that to you want it'll drive you to prayer I read a story this week about a little toddler who was on a train ride with his dad was his very first train ride as little kid and they're going across country to long ride the kids is fidgeting he's having a hard troubles our time sitting still in his So his dad lets him get up and walk around, stretch his legs. And he's walking around in the car and he ends up across the aisle talking to the lady that was sitting there across the aisle. And she asked him about his little button that he had on his shirt. She said, where'd you get that button? Oh, my daddy gave that to me. My daddy gave me this button, my daddy gave me this hat. And my daddy, and he's talking all about his dad. And all of a sudden, right at then, they go into this tunnel and it just goes completely dark that fast. And in mid-sentence, this kid stops talking and runs back across the aisle to his dad, grips his leg and just says, hugging his dad's leg as tight as he can. And everyone in the car in the darkness could hear this kid say, Daddy, Daddy, it went dark. Why is it dark? That kid went from talking about his daddy to talking to his daddy as soon as it went dark. That's exactly what David's doing in this song. The moment it gets dark and scary, he stops talking about God, starts talking to God. But then in verse 5, David is back out into the light. Everything's wonderful in verse 5, and yet he's still talking to God. But then in verse 6, he's back to talking about God. And I just think that's a great lesson for us on how to do theology. All theology, if done properly, will drift back and forth between talking about God and talking to God. From theology to prayer. Theology, prayer. Beware of one without the other. either one. Beware of talking long about God without very much talking to God. Lots of theology and not much relationship. And beware of talking only to God without considerable thoughts about God, without theological foundation. If you try to pray without a solid foundation of doctrine and theology, your prayers are not going to be what they should be. Prayer is next to worthless without theology because you don't know who you're talking The less you know about the one you're talking to, the less good it does to talk to him. But theology without prayer is even more worthless. Because if you have lots of information about God, but you don't have any relationship, what good is that? It's like in your marriage. If you had tons of information about your wife, but you never talked to her, what kind of relationship would that be? The purpose of theology is prayer, but prayer requires theology. And so he prays. and it's a theological prayer. Notice here, David doesn't even ask for anything. There's no request. A lot of us think of prayer as just asking for things from God, which is, that's definitely a part of prayer, and we should ask God for things. As Andrew said in the communion, it's important. But, that's not all there is to prayer. There's other kinds of prayer. And here, he never asked for anything. All he does is talk to God about what God is like. It's just more theology except spoken to God. He's just affirming the fact, you're my shepherd, you will protect me. This psalm is a celebration of the fact that if God is your shepherd, you have absolutely everything you need. That's verse 1. And one of the things you most desperately need is protection. We need to be protected because we are vulnerable. We are weak. One of the many ways we resemble sheep is in our incredible helplessness and vulnerability to danger. That's the way sheep are, aren't they? I mean, they're helpless critters. I, in fact, I would love to know from an evolutionist how they explain sheep. How did a sheep ever, I mean, how could such a creature, in a survival of the fittest kind of a system, how could a sheep ever evolve? If evolution were true, I think the first shepherd would have had to evolve before the first sheep, because otherwise that first sheep would have died way before it had a chance to mate with anything. Sheep can't survive without a shepherd. They absolutely can't survive. That's why there's no wild sheep. Right? There's no wild sheep. All the sheep are owned by someone. If there were any wild sheep, they'd soon be dead. It's hard to think of any animal that's more helpless. Can you? I mean, it seems like every other animal has at least something going for it. Something it can do. Hide or run or something. Sheep, they can't do that. They can't outrun anything. They can't hide anywhere. They can't bite or claw or outsmart anything. They can't growl. They can't, I mean, when predators attack sheep, they freeze. All they do is group together. Just hope that the next sheep looks a little fatter and juicier than they do, you know. That's all they can do. If not for the shepherds, all the sheep would quickly become extinct. There'd be no sheep. And yet, there are far more sheep in this world than there are wolves because of the shepherds protecting them. That's us. That's us. We're being protected. If your shepherd stopped, if he fell asleep for a moment, if he turned his face away, got distracted for a moment, if he stopped protecting you for a moment, You'd die. Spiritually, you'd be done. Your spiritual life would be over. Before you went to bed tonight, your faith would be gone. The enemy would devour you, one bite, and it'd be over for you. And every hour that that doesn't occur is due to your shepherd protecting you. So God protects us when we're in the valley of the shadow of death, but what is that valley exactly? What is the valley of the shadow of death? The word death actually isn't in the Hebrew. That phrase is all one word and some have argued that the word for death is a root of half of that word and that may be. That's a matter of debate. But even if it is, the focus is not on death. The focus is on darkness. That's what the word means and that's the context here. This is the strongest word in the Hebrew language for darkness. So it could be translated the shadow of deepest darkness or gloomy darkness or something like that. So the idea of what he's saying here is even though I walk through the valley of the really really severe extreme darkness even there I won't be afraid. And the fact that David says even in the dark valley I will not fear gives us a clue as to what the valley represents if you're wondering what does he mean by dark valley what is this valley it's the place where your most natural response is fear that place the valley of the that's why he says even there I won't be afraid implies the normal thing would be to be afraid so the valley of the shadow of darkness is when the place where those things that you're most afraid of happen Those two or three or four things that you started the sermon thinking about happen Either they're happening to you or they're threatening to happen They're just about to happen to the point where your natural reaction would be fear the valley is a place where you're not your worst nightmares your worst fears come true and So I started the sermon with that big long list of things that we fear when those kinds of things are happening to you Or they're threatening to happen the point where you're naturally afraid. That's the valley of the shadow of darkness. If they're not happening to you, you're not in the valley. If they're not right there at your door, you're not in the valley. So what David is saying here is really profound if you think about it. It almost sounds like a contradiction. He's saying, when all the things I'm most afraid of happen, I'm not afraid. When all my worst fears come, I have no fear. How is that? How is that? Why am I not afraid? Because I'm really strong? No. Because I'm really brave? I'm just a big, wooly bundle of courage? No. Is it because I can handle any wolf that might jump out and attack me because I'm super sheep? Or spider sheep? Or bat sheep? Or whatever? No. Why am I not afraid in this dark, dangerous valley? Is it because I believe in myself and I've got self-esteem? No, no. I'm just as sheep-like as ever. The sheep analogy continues through this verse. He's still talking about the analogy because you can read on in the verse and see he's talking about shepherds. I'm still just as weak and vulnerable and defenseless and helpless as any other sheep, and yet I'm not afraid. Why? Why am I not afraid? He says, I will not fear. Why? Because what? You are with me. That's why. It's not because of me. My lack of fear has nothing to do with me. It's because of Him being with me. It was the presence of God that took away David's fears while he was in the valley. That's the source of courage in the place of fear. The nearness of God's presence. That's what will give you courage when you're in that place. He doesn't say, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness, I will fear no evil, for you will get me out of this valley. He doesn't say that. He doesn't even say, I won't be afraid because my shepherd puts a hedge of protection around me. I mean, that might be true, but that misses the point. The point is, I won't be afraid simply because you are with me. Are there any four words in the whole Bible more precious and beautiful than those? You are with me. What is that like for God to come near you in the valley? Paul experienced that in 2nd Timothy 4. One of the things that we most fear, one of our deep fears, is being abandoned by people we trust in a time of need, right? And being left all alone. Imagine you were unjustly accused of some crime and all your closest friends, everybody, your family, they all believed you're guilty. Nobody believed you. And you're innocent, but nobody believed you. And your mom, your dad, your kids, your friends, everybody abandons you and leaves you absolutely alone. And you don't know what you're going to do. I think this painting captures that. If we can go to the next slide there. This picture. You're on a ship. It's a terrible storm. It's at night. You're trying to stay afloat. It's dark. The wind and the waves are too much for you. You're trying to keep this thing from capsizing, and it's just more than you can handle. You feel like you're going under. If you're going to die, the wheel just rips out of your hand, and you can't control the ship. And even if you could control it, where would you go? There's no place to go. It's just this dark sea and waves as far as I can see, and you don't know what to do. That's what it's like. That's what it feels like to be in the valley, just utterly alone. Paul found himself in that situation once, totally abandoned by his friends, 2 Timothy 4, 16. He says, "...at my first defense no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them, but the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed to all the Gentiles who might hear it." Now the picture looks like this. The waves still there. They're just as big. It's just as dark. But suddenly you feel the Lord's hand on your shoulder and you can actually see in the distance a lighthouse. You have some direction he's showing you which way to go when Paul says the Lord stood by him. What does that actually mean. Literally I mean what. In what sense. Jesus wasn't physically in the courtroom standing next to Paul. But he was there, his presence was there in a very real way. Jesus, what happened was, Paul's in the courtroom, he's utterly abandoned, he's alone, he's in the dark valley, and Jesus came near and turned his face toward Paul in the courtroom so that, in such a way that Paul could tell, Jesus is right here, affirming me, accepting me, vouching for me, and protecting me. Paul knew that was happening the way that Paul knew that was happening was by the Strengthening that he felt on the inside That's what he says. He says he was straight. He strengthened me Paul felt himself go from weak to strong and That's how he knew the Good Shepherd was next to him and his hand was on his shoulder in the valley It's exactly the same thing David is saying here Even when I'm in that horrible valley, I won't be afraid because you are with me I feel your hand on my shoulder. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt God's hand on your shoulder in the valley? One of those moments where you're in the darkness, you're in the valley, and you're weak, and then all of a sudden, He touches you, and it hits you at that moment. Wow! Whatever all these other people think of me, it doesn't even matter. The Lord is at my side. He's standing with me, and at that moment, nothing else even matters to you. That moment when you feel His hand on your shoulder, it wouldn't matter if the whole world turned against you. You could handle it just knowing that God, you have God's approval and He's at your side and you feel like at that moment you just feel your heart fill up with strength and courage. And you realize, no harm is going to come to me. What can they do to me? You know, when David says, I will fear no evil, that word translated evil, it means harm. In this context, it's just It's not talking about evil in the moral sense. The best translation here would be harm or ruin or destruction. David says, even in the valley, I'm not afraid. Anybody's going to harm me or ruin my life or do me in. Now you might think, wait a second. These things are happening. You said that the valley is when those things you fear actually happen to you. It's happening to me. And I'm not going to be harmed? Isn't that the definition of harm? Isn't that what harm is? Is these horrible things that I fear so much happening to me? No. No, that is not what harm means. And this is so crucial, beloved. Get this. One of the most important spiritual lessons you can learn is what harm means and what it doesn't mean. Harm is not the same thing as pain. If you think harm is the same thing as pain, That'll mess up so many things in your spiritual life. It's not the same thing. It's not synonymous with suffering. Harm is not trouble. It's not hardship. All those things, trouble, hardship, pain, suffering, all of that can happen to you with you not experiencing any harm. And if you don't understand that, you're not gonna understand large portions of Scripture. For example, Luke 21, 16, where Jesus said, You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death All men will hate you because of me, but not a hair on your head will perish." Now, how does that hit you? Do you read that and say, that's incomprehensible. That's a contradiction. He just said, I'm going to be hated and abused and betrayed and tormented and put to death, but not harmed? Not a hair on my head will be harmed? If that sounds to you like nonsense, you've got the wrong definition of harm. God's idea of harm is very different than our natural idea of harm. And here's why. It's because He sees the big picture and we see the microscopic picture. And anytime you only see a tiny little piece of the picture, then you can't assess what really is harmful and what's not. There's some things that feel harmful and they're not ultimately harmful. Right? When a two-year-old can't have cookies a half hour before dinner, that, as far as that kid is concerned, that's harm. Right? That's just nothing but harm. But mom and dad know not only is it not harm, it's actually for the kid's benefit. When a little toddler wants with all of his soul and all of his heart to play in the street, in the traffic, and he just wants that, that's happiness. And mom says, no, you can't go out there. Oh, it's devastating, it's harm, it's loss of, my hopes are dashed, my chances at happiness are dashed. That's how the kid feels. Feels like harm. It's not harm, it's for his good. And we're like that. We're like those kids. We can't see the big picture. See, when our worst fears come to pass, that's not harm. Harm is when something happens to you that will hurt you in the big picture, in the long run of eternity. And since we can't see into eternity, we can't even see into the future at all, we don't know what will hurt us ultimately in the future. And so we don't know what's harmful and what's not. We can't assess that. Only God knows that. So the only way that we can measure the amount of harm in our lives is simply by... it's not by how painful things get. It's only by this, whether or not the shepherd is with you. And guess what? Hebrews 13 5, God has said, never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. And so we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? What are people going to do to you if God is right there by your side? How can they harm you ultimately? They can't. And at that moment you realize, I don't need these people to approve of me. I don't need, if God approves of me, I don't need them to respect me. I don't need them to love me. I don't need them to treat me well. As long as I have God's approval, that's all I need. These disasters happening in my life, they're not going to do me in if God is with me. And after his resurrection, Jesus promised, Matthew 28, 20, Surely I am with you, always, even to the end of the age. Sometimes we experience his presence in greater ways, and sometimes we experience his presence in lesser ways, that's for sure. But if you're one of his sheep, there's never a time when he just withdraws altogether and leaves you utterly alone. Never. Never. And so there's never a time when it's appropriate for us to be crippled with fear. It's not appropriate to be afraid. Isaiah 51, 12, God says, I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men? That you forget the Lord your maker. When you fear something in this world, you're forgetting God. You have no right to do that. You have no right to be afraid of anything but God. Because when you're afraid of someone, you're saying, well, that's where my protection is, so I've got to fear that. Because if I lose that, then I lose my protection. And God says, no, I'm your comfort. So you fear me alone. We don't have any right to be afraid of other things. You know why? Because fear is always an insult to your protector, right? Fear is always an insult to the one who's protecting you. We talk about this in marriage counseling. We tell wives, look, it's your husband's job to protect you and to provide for you, right? So if you're afraid and worried all the time about the future, what are you saying about your husband's protection? and provision. You're calling him a worthless provider and protector. It would be, if you want to reverse it for a wife to understand maybe a little bit about how that feels, if you want to reverse it, be kind of like if you told your husband, okay, we're having dinner tonight at six o'clock, and he said, okay, well, who's cooking? And you say, well, I am. And he's like, oh, no, and his face turns white, and he's depressed for the rest of the day. And he pulls into the driveway that night, finishing up a Big Mac. What would that say? What would that communicate to you about your cooking? You'd find that to be somewhat of an insult, right? That's the same kind of insult that millions of wives give their husbands every day when they worry about future provision and protection. Now, obviously, some husbands really are terrible providers and protectors, and so it's no wonder their wives are scared to death. But our provider and our protector can be trusted. Amen? He can be fully trusted. He has infinite power, infinite wisdom, infinite love for us. And so anytime we're afraid, that really is a slap in his face, isn't it? Even when we're in the valley. So what is the valley? It's the place of our fears. And what is the source of courage in the valley? The presence of God. That's what we need to seek. I hope that's what you seek when you're in the valley. The presence of God. I hope that's what you pray for when you're in the dark valley. Does it glorify God if you get into the valley and you say, God, get me out of this valley? Maybe. Maybe. But how much more would it honor and glorify God if we prayed, God, I'm in this valley. I need one thing. I need one thing. I need your hand on my shoulder. I need your presence in this valley. And if you do that, and my fears will be gone. That's what I care about. That's what I need. Give me that. Oh, how that honors God. All too often, instead of looking for the nearness of God as our comfort in the valley, we just look for relief. We look at removal from the valley. So it's a good thing to ask yourself, just ask yourself, what do I require in order for my fears to go away? What do I require? If dangers and threats and problems come into my life, is it enough for me, for the shepherd to just come near to me? Or do I have to be able to see the solution to the problem before I'll stop being afraid? When you have a big problem in your life, do you have to see how God is going to work it out, or at least how He might work it out, or it could possibly work out? Do you have to be able to see that before you'll stop fearing? And you can just relax and rest in Him? If so, that's not trust. That's just sight. You're not trusting Him. If you have to see the solution, you're not trusting God, you're trusting that solution. It's like Suppose somebody you have a friend he wants to go somewhere He wants to go to the zoo and you're he doesn't know how to get there. So you're driving him to the zoo You're driving and you're going and everything's and you look over and he's all worked up and agitated and scared and freaking out And he's like, well, wasn't that the right turn? Oh, maybe we should have gone that way. I think it's the other drink You're going the wrong way. This doesn't seem right. I've never seen this way and he's just going on and on you're like, okay, finally, but I Know where I'm going. All right, just Relax, I'll get you to the zoo. Just stop talking Just trust me But he won't calm down. He's all agile. He's still. He's pointing. He's doing all this stuff. Until finally he sees the zoo sign. As soon as he sees it, then he's finally, he relaxes. Okay, I can trust you. I trust you now. From here on out, I'm totally trusting you. And you say, what? That's not trust. That's just sight. If you feel better, because you can start to see how things might work out. You can start to see how God could work this all for good. That's not trust. Trust is when you can feel better even while you're in the pitch dark valley and nothing has changed in your circumstances. The only thing that's changed is the Lord has drawn near to you. God offers us comfort in the valley. That's what we need. That's what we need. We need comfort. We need that more than we need answers. We need comfort more than we need answers. Can anybody say amen to that one? Okay, good. Because so often we're tempted to think we've got to have answers, right? We've got to have answers. I've got to know. I've got to know why is this happening. Why me? Why now? Why this? Why? I need some answers. I've got to understand why. Do you? What would happen if God actually gave you those answers? Would that help? Would that solve anything? What would you say if God came to you and he says, what would you rather have? You have two choices you can have. Would you rather have comfort or answers? Your choice. Wouldn't it be better to have comfort with no answers than answers with no comfort? We need to take a lesson, I think, from our children. They don't demand answers. They want comfort, right? A little kid isn't concerned with why his tummy aches. It doesn't make him feel any better if you explain the physics of why his toy broke. He's not interested in a dissertation on why slamming fingers in car doors generates sensations of pain. What he wants is not explanations. He wants comfort. He wants to know that his mom understands that he's hurt, how much he's hurt, and that she'll do something to make him feel better. Right? That's what we need. I don't know if anyone ever wrote a psalm that said the Lord is my professor. I shall not wonder. He gives me answers in the valley of the shadow of death. I don't know if anybody wrote that but if they did it's no shock to me why that one never caught on like Psalm 23 caught on. Because what we need in the valley is comfort not answers. Now when answers are needed in order for us to receive God's comfort he'll give us the answers. So if he doesn't give the answers what do we know. I must not need him to receive the comfort that God has for me. Now, having said all that, I will also say we have lots of answers. I mean, it's not like we're totally in the dark about why God sends suffering. The Bible is loaded with information about God's purposes in sending suffering. He sends us into the valley for... I mean, suffering exposes faith. It exposes true faith. Suffering exposes false faith, where we can know, oh, that faith wasn't real. Suffering builds and strengthens our faith. It teaches us perseverance. It drives us to prayer. It drives us to dependence and enables us to experience all kinds of attributes of God that we can never experience any other way. And the list goes on and on. There's all kinds of good, plenty of reasons in Scripture for suffering. But the only one we really need is the one that we have right here. It's just simply this. The Lord is my shepherd. He's the one leading me. That's all the answer you need. He's leading me, so if I'm in the dark valley, if I'm walking through the dark valley, then that must mean I need to walk through the dark valley. If He's led me there, that's where I need to be. If He's put me here, this is what I need, because the Lord is my shepherd. Can God be trusted to always do what's best for His children, or does He sometimes make mistakes? He can be trusted. If my shepherd led me here, this is where I need to be right now. Nowhere else. Think about this metaphor for a second. Why would a shepherd ever lead his sheep into a dark, dangerous, threatening valley where there's predators and all that stuff? Steep canyon walls, no escape. Why would he lead... Why would a shepherd ever do that? It's just to get them to the next pasture, right? In the part of Israel where David was, He wasn't up in Galilee where he shepherded. There's not a lot of green pastures down there. It's a lot of wilderness and a lot of these canyons called wadis that are just steep, steep canyons, very, very difficult to travel through and dangerous. But you had to. You had to travel through those to get from one pasture to the other. The green pastures down there are not just all linked together side by side. So when the sheep had eaten all the grass in one pasture, and there's no grass left, and they're getting down to the dirt, the shepherd had to get them moving to a new pasture, and that required some travel. So in the image that David is painting here, what's the purpose of your dark valley that you're in? It's the way to get you to the next green pasture. That's where you're going. But that's hard for us, isn't it? It's hard for us to leave this pasture. We like our old, familiar pasture. We know this place. We know what it's like. We're comfortable here. We know what to expect here. We've been here. We've laid down in these green pastures, and it's been wonderful for our souls, and we like it here, even though the grass is all gone now. We like it here, but the shepherd is saying, look, I know you like it here, but if you stay here, you'll die. we gotta get to another pastor this pastor was great for you for a time but not served its purpose and we gotta get you to another pastor and the path to that new pastor that greener pastor on the way you're gonna have to pass through some deep dark canyons why else do you think that God would lead us through dark canyons just because he's enjoy seeing his sheep stumble around in the dark Do you think that you're in the canyon right now because God lost control of the situation and some people shoved you into the valley while the shepherd was asleep? No. He's got you in this valley on purpose because He's taking you to a new pasture. A few minutes ago I read 2 Timothy 4, 17 about how God stood by Paul's side when everyone else abandoned Him. Do you know why the Lord did that? Do you know what His purpose was? Did you catch it when I read the verse? I said what the reason was. Did you catch that? It wasn't just to make Paul feel better. There was a specific purpose that God had in mind for comforting him, 2 Timothy 4, 17, but the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. God stood by Paul's side and strengthened him in the dark valley so that Paul could get up and make it through that valley and get to the other side to the next green pasture and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. For Paul, that's the green pasture, preaching to the Gentiles. That's pasture for Paul. And the purpose of strengthening him was to get him to that next pasture, to get him moving. And we need to hear that because Because so often when we get into the dark valley, what we're tempted to do is just curl up in that dark valley and lick our wounds and withdraw from ministry and take time out from relationships and responsibilities and just wallow for a while in self-pity. That's what we want to do. But God doesn't give us strength in the valley so that we'll just curl up and die. He gives us strength so that we can keep going. Keep going. Notice, we're no longer lying down. We were lying down in verse 2 in the green pastures. Now we're walking, even though I walk through the valley. We're walking. We're moving. Everything in you, you're in that valley right now, everything in you wants to just quit right now, just give up. But the shepherd is leading you somewhere. He's leading you to a new path. Keep going. Keep going. I know it's hard. I know you don't want to, but just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep moving. Keep pushing. get through this valley. The Lord will give you strength. If you keep moving, He'll give you strength. He'll take you to the other side. You'll come out the other side of this valley and there will be another green pasture. This won't go forever. This time it won't go forever. Just persevere. You might think, man, I'm in the valley. I want more than anything to feel His hand on me, on my shoulder. I want to experience that, but I never do. How could I do it? How can you actually experience, how do I get this comfort from God that I'm not getting now? How can I get it? Well, one way is to understand how God delivers this comfort. What did He say in verse 4 about how it comes? He says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Comfort comes through His rod and staff. Now the rod was like a club. It was just this thick, short, two-foot-long piece of wood, heavy. Sometimes they would put nails through the end of it. Very effective weapon for fighting off predators or thieves or any attackers, any kind of threats. The staff was another tool that the shepherd used, possibly for guiding the sheep or whatever. So the rod and the staff were just simply the implements of his shepherding, his tools, the tools of his trade. That's what they are. So that's the metaphor. Let's interpret the metaphor. what are the tools that the Good Shepherd uses to shepherd you, to guide you in through the Dark Valley and to comfort you? Usually when I ask a question in a sermon, it's just rhetorical. I ask it and then I just keep writing and talking. I understand that, but this is actually a real question, okay? So this is a communication time, interaction time. Just let's brainstorm for a minute and think about when you're in the Dark Valley, And you need guidance from God. What tool can you think of that he might use to give you guidance? Yeah, that's right. The Word. The Word. This is his rod and staff right here. What else? What else? Okay, prayer. Absolutely. Prayer. Yeah, worship. Other Christians, absolutely. The spiritual gifts that come from the saints, the grace, you need grace in the valley, and grace pours through the spiritual gifts of the saints in fellowship, absolutely. You know, it's interesting you mention those, because those happen to be the first four things that I jotted down. Prayer is Word. Teachers to apply His Word and explain His Word. Spiritual gifts, fellowship. And those are the first four things they thought of in the last service and the Saturday service. So, we're all on the same page here, right? We all understand the implements of God's shepherding. He's riding us down. So, let me ask you this. If those are the tools that He uses to comfort us in the valley, His Word, teachers, spiritual gifts, fellowship with the saints, if that's what He uses to comfort us when we're in the valley, then when you're in the valley, where should you go? Where could you go to find all that? The scriptures and the teaching and fellowship and worship. Can you think of a place? Yeah, right here. We're here. It's in the church. Isn't that where you find all that? The rod and staff of God? The primary tools that He uses to shepherd us? Right here in church. And I just want to make a point of that because the place to run when you're in the valley is to the assembly of the Saints and yet how often do we are we is our natural impulse to do the exact opposite when we're in the dark when we we you know you show up for you show up for prayer group you show up for church you show up every Sunday after Sunday when things are going well but when things get really hard and you're going through that that miserable dark valley one of the first things to go so often church right and the excuses are legion And we got all excuses. I just don't want to be around people right now. I can't be around people. I just need to be alone. If I go there, people are going to ask me, how are you doing? I don't want to talk about it. They probably don't even genuinely want to know anyway. I just don't want to talk about it. People there, they're all smiles. They got all these smiles painted on their face. I can't just go there and be smiling and just pretend nothing's wrong. Things are so hard for me right now. I just need Rest lots of rest especially on Sunday morning. I just need some rest Whatever the excuses Putting distance between me and the rod and the staff the tools of God's shepherding is insanity anytime But when I'm in the dark valley, and it's really insanity That's when I need him the most So we come to the place where we'll we'll find his rod and his staff That's one thing. But having said that, let me add this. Those are His primary tools of His shepherding, but they're not the only tools that God uses, are they? Does He sometimes use some other tools? He does. He does. What else does God use? How else might He guide us? How did He guide Jesus? You know, turn to John 4. I want to show you something real quick. I'll try and do this quickly. John 4, Jesus ends up in one of the greenest pastures that we ever see Jesus in, in His earthly ministry. In verse 34, John 4, 34. He was hungry. He was so hungry that He sent His disciples in to get food into town because they were traveling on foot and they come back with the food. And by the time they come back with the food, Jesus doesn't even want it. He just says, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Jesus had just got done doing ministry with this woman at the well and the whole town of Sychar and all that, and it was so fulfilling to him. It was so joy-producing. It filled, satisfied his desire so much that he didn't even want to eat. He's like, I'm full. I'm happy. I'm just satisfied right now. That's, Jesus is in a green, he is lying down in green pastures in John 4, 34. How did he get to that pasture? What got him there? I mean, what was the timing? What was the way that the Lord led him? You know, I heard one preacher preach on this chapter one time, and he said, Jesus was just so in tune with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was there, and all of a sudden, the Spirit said, Sychar, go now. And he went, and then right there, he's like, OK, here, at this time. And then the woman happened to come out at the very moment. Is that how God did it? What does the Bible actually say? Because none of that's in the Bible. What does the Bible say about how Jesus got, first of all, how he got going there to begin with, and then secondly, what made him stop at that very moment, at that very well, so the timing would work out so he'd be there at the exact time that the woman came out? Two factors. Two ways that God led him. If you backtrack to what Jesus was doing in the previous chapter, Jesus is another green pastor. He's down in Judea enjoying incredible ministry. He is baptized. He's preaching and baptizing people who are getting saved. They're getting converted. They're all coming to him in droves and successful, fruitful, wonderful ministry right alongside John the Baptist down in Judea. That's going on. and everything's great until something happens. What got him moving? Why did he leave there? It was because of the Pharisees. The Pharisees raised their ugly head, they came along, they threatened, and it wasn't time for Jesus to be arrested yet, it wasn't time for him to be crucified yet, and so he flees. He flees. He has to leave this wonderful ministry because of these wicked, vile, sinful men. That's what got Jesus moving. He says, I'm gonna go up to Galilee. So he's walking to Galilee. He gets halfway there and he stops. Now, that's the second factor. What made him stop at that moment, at that time, at that place? So he'd be just the right place at the right time. What made him stop? What does the Bible say made him stop? Anybody remember? Let's see what it says. Jesus is walking. He's heading to Galilee. And it's in verse 6. He gets up to that spot. Jacob's well was there. And Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well, and it was about the sixth hour. What got Him to stop? Fatigue and thirst. He's hungry, He's thirsty, He's tired. He wants to get to Galilee, but He can't keep walking. Why? Human limitation. Just human weakness. The things that frustrate us so much because we don't have the strength to do the stuff we want to do. We have to stop, we have to rest, we have to eat. That's how God led him. Two things, wicked, vile, evil, sinful people shoving him out of a green pasture and human limitation and fatigue and hunger and thirst. That's how God guides us. Those are his rod and his staff. That's how he shepherds us through hunger and weakness and inability and evil people doing terrible things to us. Is that great news? That's his rod and his staff. What else? What else could God use to guide us, to get us in the right place at the right time? How about traffic lights? Could He use red lights for that? I mean, if God wanted to make sure you end up exactly at the right place at the right time, could He make sure you hit just the right number of red lights along the way so that you... yeah. What about the weather? If He wants you to veer over and stop at a certain place and go a certain route? Could he just make it so hot out that you have to go to Dairy Queen? He could do that. He knows how you're going to react. Or could he make it cold enough that you go the other way and go to the Starbucks instead? He could do that. He could even make my wife go to the Starbucks even when it's hot. I don't know how he does that. What about lost car keys or frozen computer screens or troubling phone calls. God guide you through that? See, that's all the implements of his shepherding. Isn't it true that every single thing around you, everything, are the tools of God's shepherding? Isn't everything in His hands? Everything you see is God's rod and His staff, if you have eyes to see it, the whole creation. Aren't the clouds His servants? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Isn't it doesn't the rain and snow only fall at God's bidding for his good purposes. Isn't the breeze and the tree and the fence and the grass and the walls and the door and the carpet and and the ringing phone and everything everything around you. Aren't they all his rod and his staff. Aren't they all the implements of God's shepherding care in your life. Comfort and joy in the dark valley will come when you see His rod and His staff for what they are. You have to open your eyes and see it. Everything around you that can bring you comfort, everything can bring you comfort while you're in the valley if you see it for what it is, His rod and His staff. All too often God's hand is on our shoulder. It's already on our shoulder. He's already standing by our side. His presence is here and His hand is there on our shoulder. Unable to appreciate it because we don't believe that God works through ordinary things He's there So, what are you afraid of what do you fear? It's the Lord your shepherd because if he's not you have every reason to fear but if he is What could happen to you Do you realize that omnipotent love would have to fail in order for anything to harm you? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall lack nothing. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your shepherding hand. Thank you for guiding us through, into, and through the dark valleys. And Lord, I just pray for the people here now who are in that valley. And it is excruciating. And it is terrifying. And there is no lighthouse on the horizon that they can see. And they're desperate, Lord. Make that desperation be desperation for You. For Your presence. Let us long for that. Teach us to long for that. Let us seek that. alert us to the primary means of your shepherding, the Word of God, the saints, prayer, and then all the secondary means, everything around us. Let us see it for what it is so that we can rejoice in your shepherding. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for His glory. Amen. We've got about 10 minutes left here before we dismiss. Questions? Okay. Okay, what do you do when you're dealing with a person that refuses to be comforted? That's a hard one. I've had a few times in my life where I've dealt with someone like that and I just read them a couple passages in scripture about people that refuse to be comforted. Rachel weeps for her children refusing to be comforted. And I'll just use that language, show them in scripture a couple times, and I'll just point out to them, you know, sometimes we do that. Sometimes we, without even realizing it, refuse comfort. God is willing to comfort us and we're holding it at arm's length because we we just don't want to let go of our pain even though we want more than anything to be rid of it somehow we can't let go of it and we grip it tight to us like somebody with a ball of razor blades just hugging that ball and chopping themselves all the pieces and yet they can't let go for some reason and that's the way and usually when I've said that to people like that the they can very often relate to that and they say yeah that's me that's me and they and when they realize that that's them that they're actually clutching on to their pain and you can even offer you know you say sometimes we have various reasons why we do that why we clutch on to our pain and sometimes it's because of self-pity sometimes it's because we want other people's pity we're trying to make a case for for how hard we've got it and if we accept any comfort from God that undermines our case because we're looking for that and you know you can offer a few things and just say you know some of that you might relate to some you might not typically they'll latch on to one of them say yeah that's me but I've just found that if you if you sort of lay that out and let them know that that's what they're doing sometimes that's enough to make them realize okay that's it's a real irrational I think I'll stop doing that and then pray ask the Lord to soften up their heart and let them let him in the one where he'll never leave me or forsake me or leave you or forsake you that's let me look it up here Hebrews 13 5 and 6 okay if if if you want to be well why would God let you suffer if God loves you and he doesn't want you to suffer then why would he let it happen because he's like he's God right he could just snap his fingers and you're suffering to be gone so why would he ever let some excellent question the answer one of the answers to that is in in lamentations chapter 3 where it says in verse 32 he brings grief so he does it is God who makes you suffer But even though he brings grief, he will show compassion. So great is his unfailing love, for he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men. So what that's saying, literally, when it says he doesn't do it willingly, it means it's not from his heart. He doesn't like doing it. So he's putting you through this suffering, but he doesn't even want to. He doesn't like doing it. Why would God do something he doesn't want to do? He's God. He doesn't have to do anything. What could force him to do something he doesn't feel like doing? the only one thing could make him do it, and that is his own love for you. The only time God will ever do that to you is if it's what's best, because sometimes it's best for us to go through some hard stuff. Same thing with your mom and dad. Sometimes they hate the idea of, you know, punishing disobedience or doing something that they know is going to be hard for you or make you cry, and yet they'll do it if they know what's best for you only because they love you. People that don't love you, they would just say, well, I won't bother with that. So it's only because of his love that he puts us through that. And that's a great thing to remember when you're going through that hard stuff is God hates doing this to me. He hates doing it to me. He doesn't want it. It's not from his heart. But he has to do it because he loves me. That's a good thing to remember. Great question. Yeah. Okay, good question. What do you say somebody sees horrible suffering going on in someone's life and it's bringing that person to God. All kinds of good things are coming out of it and then the person still, all they can focus on is Satan doing it. Satan's having a heyday and Satan's getting victory here because of suffering. People like that usually think that Satan's main goal is suffering, to cause suffering. That's not Satan's main goal. Satan's main goal is to cause us to dishonor God and so Here's what I would say to a person like that. Typically what I would say is, I'll affirm, yeah, Satan is at work. Satan is at work, no question about it. Satan is the one that brought all that suffering on Job, right? He's at work. But the Bible also says that God is at work. In all of your suffering, God is doing something and Satan is doing something, and the best response isn't just to focus on what Satan is doing. The best approach is to focus on both. You want to answer two questions when you're suffering. What is Satan up to and how can I resist that? And what is God up to and how can I cooperate with that? And when you answer those two questions, you got it made. You cooperate with the good that God is doing, you resist the evil that Satan is doing, and that'll put you in exactly the right direction. So you could respond in that way and then it wouldn't be, you know, negating what they know in their mind is that Satan does attack us with suffering. but it just fills it out with the greater truth that God is doing something bigger than what Satan's doing. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, what is a shadow? It's nothing. What is darkness? We're afraid of darkness. What is darkness? It's nothing. And yet it can be crushing to us, crushingly scary if we don't trust God. It's an amazing statement in Psalm 139 when he talks about, the darkness will crush me. because darkness is nothing, a shadow is nothing, but we're so weak, we're so fragile, that's all it takes to crush us. Nothing. Right? What if there were nothing around you right now? No air, no... you'd die, right? Nothingness. We're so weak and fragile, we're so needy, nothingness is all it takes to kill us. And yet, we don't have to fear even nothingness because God is our shepherd. Okay, yeah. So what do you do if you're in the valley and you do not sense the nearness of the shepherd anywhere near, what do you do? Certainly, I think what you want to do is seek out the implements of the shepherding. So pray hard, get on your knees and wait on the Lord. Don't run to any substitute. Just cry out for His presence and wait. Cry out for His presence and wait. And, you know, I experienced that this week. I was actually wondering, because this happens to me a lot, when God has to... He tests these things I'm preaching. And I was wondering if I was going to end up having to go through the valley this week, studying this verse. And sure enough, I did. And my little easy answers for finding the shepherd didn't work one bit the first half of the week. and I ended up having to stay on my knees way longer than I thought. And things had to get a lot darker. Then I thought I was down the bottom of the valley on Monday. Tuesday, I dropped down twice as far, and then I thought, man, I really hit bottom. And on Thursday, the bottom, what I thought was the bottom, went out from under me. and I was in free-falling. I'm like, Lord, where is the bottom, actually? And so I don't want to offer these things as simple fixes, but I will tell you that the shepherd does come if you wait for him. And don't take any other substitutes. And sometimes we just need to stay on our knees and keep on seeking and stay in his word and keep on seeking and refuse the substitutes until we can feel that his hand on our shoulder. So keep seeking him scripture keep seeking fellowship keep praying those those primary implements of his shepherding the means of grace we call them the way that grace is distributed just keep seeking that. but then also the second thing is just interpret the rest of his shepherding implements for what they are. I think if you went through life all day saying that's God's rod, that's God's staff, that's God's protection, that's God's guidance, all this ordinary stuff that's happening to me, if I could keep my mind that way all day, I think that I would be more easily able to sense his presence. okay so is is it does God sometimes guide us through impulses just thoughts that come into your head or an impulse that you have and I would say the answer that question is absolutely he does yeah God gives us impulses but just because you have an impulse doesn't automatically mean it's the Holy Spirit right sometimes there's sinful impulses sometimes there's just random impulses that come up from your own mind so how do you know if an impulse is from the Spirit if it's God's guidance or not. The answer is, does it contradict wisdom and the leading that we receive through scripture or is it consistent with what scripture says? So if you get an impulse to go and pray with a friend and say right now, go pray with that friend and you don't know why, would that violate wisdom? Biblical wisdom? No. scripture you look at scripture about praying with a friend and it's all thumbs up right that's all good and so it's not a violation with and so that's a good that's a good impulse to act on if you have an impulse that would violate biblical wisdom and and morality then you know that's not from the Holy Spirit so yeah I think I think God leads us all the time he puts he lets thoughts pop into our head and we have these impulses and we have these feelings and God guides that way all the time, all the time. But we need to always assess those according to the Word. Okay. So if you hear an emotional story of some missionary, something or other, and then you just feel prompted to give, you're just like, I want to support that, I want to give to that, but it's not in your budget, then what should you do? I think you need to ask yourself, is this the wise course? Should I give this? And if the answer is yes, then you need to redo your budget so that you have money available for those kinds of impulses. You need to set up a budget so that you're setting aside money that will enable you so that when you get an impulse, oh, that, I wanna support that. Lord, you've laid that on my heart. You've shown me the beauty of that ministry and you've moved me to support that. You can do it because you've planned a little. And so it's good to plan for spontaneity. You know what I mean by that? It's good to plan to enable yourself to be spontaneous. and that goes for money and for time. If you're the type of person where you believe God, your calling in life is to be able to just, at the drop of a hat, go and help somebody who needs help, you need to be able to just go to the hospital as soon as you hear someone's there, and that's kind of your ministry, then you should plan for that. You should plan your schedule so that it's not so jam-packed full of other stuff that you have a little bit of freedom to where when stuff comes up, you're free to go do it. So, if you're a spontaneous type, plan to enable yourself to be spontaneous. Does that make sense? Bryce? Yeah. Okay, so what if you get a leading from God and then you try to pursue it and then it's completely shut down. There's a roadblock that there's no way past it. How do we explain that? I think that happened to Paul. I mean, Paul talked about going a certain place for mission work and to spread the gospel, and then the Lord prevented them from going. And so, what is that? Why would Paul have wanted to go there in the first place? Only because he thought it was God's will, right? That's where God was leading. And yet, it wasn't. God stopped him. So, sometimes God leads us that way because He wants us to take that route. and so God is guiding me and I use my wisdom and the best thing I can think is he wants me to go to that corner right there and so I start walking in that direction all of a sudden slam into a brick wall there's no way past and there's no question God doesn't want me to keep going this way now he's showing me oh he wants me to go over to that camera thing so I'm walking over there And why would God do that? Well, because if he showed me the camera thing first, I would have walked from here straight over to there, and that's not what God wanted. He wanted me to go there first and then cut over. And that's the way God leads us through life. How can God lead you through all the zigs and zags of life if all he does is show you the end goal? And so he gets us moving in all these directions, and to us it feels like fits and starts and false starts and everything else. But to him, no, that's just how he leads us. And so we need to keep trusting. Okay, I use my best judgment, uh for those first 10 steps, uh, and so I believe that's the direction god wanted me to go just for 10 steps and now He wants me to go another direction and I don't I don't regret and say oh man I missed it the first time now I can see but I missed it the first time. I don't think that way I just think no, this is the way god wanted me to do. I use my best judgment, uh both times So that's often how you lead Stan Yeah, there are some times when you need to just go ahead and give, follow the impulse, go ahead and give, and trust God for the next month's bills, but if you find that happening to you routinely, then probably you've got your budget set up wrong. You need to set aside money that frees you up to be able to do that, because you can only do that so many times before now you can't pay the bills, right? And so God wants us to still continue to be responsible, meet our responsibilities, and yet be able to be responsive to to impulses you know that he gives us right yeah so in Tracy mentioned early on in our marriage when we were we just gave benevolence directly to people now we can give it to the church but there was a time when we would just give it directly to people. We wanted to be able to help people out. And so we set aside a certain amount each paycheck, each month, that we set aside for our own benevolence fund. And it was just for helping people out. And we would just set it aside and set aside. Somebody comes up with a need and we would pray and we didn't really feel like the Lord would have us meet that particular need at that particular time, but then something else. And then one time something comes up, it's like, yes, the Lord wants us to help here. And we would, that money would be there. and whether or not the money was there was part of how we discern whether God was calling us to give. Like, well, the money's not there, you know, we don't have the resource to do it. Other times when we had the resource, then we felt more free to be able to give. So don't think that in order to be responsive to the Holy Spirit, there has to be no organization or no planning or no wisdom involved. right that's right God says to be a good steward and to spend wisely and if I just give a bunch of money to somebody and then that makes me dependent on somebody else that has to give money to me so I can pay my bills because I haven't been planning and being a good steward and that's not honoring to God all I'm doing is just transferring the burden from one person to a different person so so yeah there's sometimes when you know whatever your spiritual gift is there's a tendency to think that to start relying on yourself instead of relying on God right and and we can do that all of us can do it with you get this teaching or ministry or helps or or giving and sometimes if you if you're if your gift is giving then you see a need you think you need to help every single person in need and if you don't they're just gonna go under because it's all on you right this is the way it feels when you have that particular gift if you have the gift of encouragement you feel like every depressed person needs me to come and cheer them up otherwise they're gonna just sink into depression because it's all on me this kind of what happens when you have a spiritual gift because God gives you this passion to do your gift but we need to also have trust in God to say wait a second I don't have the resources to do this particular ministry at this particular time I just need to trust God to take care of it bring someone else