Don’t Waste Your Valley

DON’T WASTE YOUR VALLEY

1 Kgs. 20:28; Deut. 8:7

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: “Having Trouble with your Wife”

1. A father came home from work just before supper and was met by his five year old daughter on the sidewalk outside his house. The little girl was not smiling.

2. “Is something wrong, honey?” he asked. “Yes,” she said, “all day long I’ve been having trouble with your wife.” (Source unknown).

B. TEXT

The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.” 1 Kings 20:28. “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with ...valleys and hills...” Deut. 8:7.

C. THESIS

1. Today we’re looking at spiritual valleys, why we have to go through them, how they can be beneficial to us, and how to NOT waste your valley.

2. The title of this message is “Don’t Waste Your Valley.”

I. IS GOD A GOD OF THE VALLEYS?

A. SOME THINK GOD’S NOT THERE

1. Many people believe God is NOT there when they are going through severe trials, hardships, & losses. How could a loving God allow these things to happen to me? Either 1). God doesn’t love me or regard me as important, or 2). “God is only present with me during the good times and when He wanders off, the bad things occur. He cares about me but He’s not around to stop what’s happening. He’s probably just so busy.”

2. But God Himself set up the unusual situation in 1 Kgs. 20 where the Arameans thought this exact thought – that Jehovah was only a God of the mountains-tops. God is using this analogy to point out to His people that He’s also a God of our Valleys.

3. This is no coincidence. God is telling us that He IS equally with us when we’re in the horrible moments of our lives! THERE MAY BE TIMES YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE GOD IS, BUT THERE WILL NEVER BE A TIME GOD DOESN’T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!

B. HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO A VALLEY?

1. Your valley is a place of setbacks, doubts, disappointments & discouragements. We feel like God has let us down, failed us, not kept His promises. The valleys seem to be a place of negative growth; our faith seems to be betrayed.

2. N.T. BELIEVERS ON TRIALS. James advances the remarkable teaching that the OPPOSITE IS TRUE! In fact, he says we Christians should “throw a party” when terrible things happen to us (“Count it all joy” Jm. 1:2). This is also the view of Peter (1 Pet. 1:6) & Paul (Rom. 5:3).

3. This view of adversity being a “blessing” is really only possible to Christians, who can see the eternal benefits of God’s dealings.

C. HUMOR: The Math Teacher

1. A Math teacher was having trouble teaching arithmetic to one little boy in her class, so she decided to use an illustration.

2. "If you reached in your right pocket and found one dollar, and you reached in your left pocket and found $5, what would you have?"

3. "Somebody else's pants." James is trying to teach us to count it all joy.

II. VALLEYS: PLACES OF GROWTH

A. TRIALS ARE BENEFICIAL

1. Trials are not only inevitable, they are beneficial. Biologists have discovered "the adversity principle;" – “habitual well-being is not advantageous to a species.” Adversity actually gives us greater vitality.

2. When you get saved, your troubles -- far from terminating -- are just beginning. There’s no triumph without a trial, no testimony without a test, and no crown without a cross!

3. We’d rather have nothing but mountaintop experiences, but no growth ever occurs on the mountaintops. It always happens in the valleys -- that’s where the growth occurs.

4. ILLUSTRATION “All things for the best.”

a. During the reign of ‘Bloody’ Mary, Queen of England, Bernard Gilpin, a Protestant, was accused of heresy and was being moved to London to stand trial. His constant saying was, “All things are for the best.” On the way, he broke his leg. His guards mocked saying, “All things are for the best?” He said, “I believe so!”

b. His journey was delayed a few weeks. As he began his journey again, Queen Mary died and the next Queen, Elizabeth -- a Protestant -- sent him home in triumph! [7700 Illus, #6846.] Though God allowed his leg to break, God used that to save his life!

B. PURPOSES OF TRIALS

Testing is “to examine in order to determine the quality, value, or character of.” God has many reasons for allowing trials & losses to come our way.