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00:30Cut the music off, cut the music off.
00:41How you feelin' social fam?
00:43Are you ready for this series, Lessons from the Valley?
00:47I know what some of y'all are thinking, like really PR?
00:51It don't take all that, that's a little extra.
00:54To you I would say, shut up.
00:56It does take all that.
00:58It does take all that.
00:59Y'all, I have not preached in five weeks.
01:02You gotta make an entrance when you've been off for five weeks
01:06and it feels good to be back.
01:10And over the next six weeks,
01:13we're gonna talk from this series, Lessons from the Valley.
01:18Lessons from the Valley.
01:19Have you been watching the Olympics, by the way?
01:21Have you been watching the Olympics?
01:24Tell you what, minus that opening ceremony, it was pretty incredible.
01:27I've been completely inspired by these Olympians.
01:32I've been inspired by their tenacity, by their dedication,
01:36by their perspiration, all of them who are going for the gold.
01:42And so in my inspiration, I wondered what it would feel like today,
01:45albeit these are stick-on circles,
01:50and this is a medal from Amazon.
01:54And some of y'all didn't even clap when I came out, but that's cool.
01:57I wanted to reenact perhaps what it might feel like
02:01to actually get the gold at the Olympics.
02:06To get to the awards ceremony and get the gold,
02:08because you do know that's what everybody's going for.
02:10They're going for the gold.
02:12Isn't it interesting?
02:1310,500 athletes, 32 sports, 329 different events
02:20from 206 different countries all going, watch this,
02:25not trying to get the silver or the bronze.
02:28They're really trying to get the gold.
02:31It's actually kind of jacked up how they do the podiums
02:34because they make the silver and the bronze the same height
02:36and the gold is taller.
02:38They should make the bronze like a baby step
02:40and then the silver a little bit higher
02:42and then put the gold at the top.
02:44But this is the spot that everybody is going for.
02:48And have you experienced this phenomenon
02:50watching the Olympics?
02:52Isn't it interesting that when we watch these athletes
02:55who are at the top of their game,
02:57as they are competing,
02:59something on the inside of us resonates.
03:02In some way, they tap into our innate desire for greatness
03:07and our desire to be connected
03:09to something bigger than ourselves.
03:11So even if you don't know their name,
03:12just the fact that they got USA
03:15or whatever your country is on their test,
03:17you'll be like, oh, that's my person right there.
03:20That's me.
03:21Isn't it crazy how their victory becomes your victory?
03:24Come on, y'all.
03:25You can't even do a cartwheel.
03:27But Simone can, so her gold becomes your gold.
03:31You pull a hamstring running errands, but that's all right.
03:35Noel Lyles is running for you,
03:37so his gold becomes your gold.
03:40Some of y'all can't even swim and even if you could,
03:42you ain't messing up that hair, but that's all right.
03:45Katie Ledecky can and her gold becomes your gold
03:49and they challenge us to greatness.
03:53We love our Olympians on the podium, don't we?
03:58We love them.
04:00But what many of us don't understand,
04:02what many of us don't think about or even talk about
04:06is that as soon as the Olympics have concluded tonight,
04:12many of these Olympians who were just celebrated by millions
04:17and cheered on by thousands
04:20will walk off of the podium back to their home
04:26and then walk into the deepest and darkest depression
04:31of their lives.
04:33How in the world could you be on a podium one moment
04:38with everybody cheering your name
04:41and then be in the deepest, darkest depression of your life
04:46the next week?
04:48It is the transition from the accolades you get on the mountaintop
04:54to the normalcy and reality of life in the valley.
04:59I want to talk about what happens in the valley,
05:03this challenge that these Olympians go through.
05:05It's what sports psychologists call post-Olympic depression.
05:10Post-Olympic depression is the emotional crash
05:13following the physical and mental peak of the Olympic Games.
05:17During this time, athletes can experience periods of confusion,
05:21loss of purpose, resentment, negative self-worth, emptiness,
05:27and are even at risk of committing suicide.
05:30And I know what some of y'all are thinking.
05:32You're like, well, the only athletes going through that depression,
05:34those are the ones that didn't make the podium.
05:36That's why they depressed.
05:37No, no, no, no.
05:39Go watch the documentary where Simone Biles and even Michael Phelps
05:45in a documentary called The Weight of Gold
05:48talks about how right after winning the gold,
05:51it was the pressure and the weight of that achievement
05:54that actually drove them into a deep, dark valley of depression.
06:02Why are you bringing this up?
06:04I'm bringing this up because I came to tell you today
06:06that unfortunately, life is not lived on the podium in Paris.
06:12How many of you know life has to be lived out in the valley?
06:16Life is lived in the valley.
06:19When you go to the Olympics,
06:20you don't take the podium home with you.
06:22You might take the medal home with you,
06:23but you don't take the podium with you.
06:25And often you go straight from the mountaintop experience
06:29straight into the valley.
06:31Why?
06:32Because life is lived in the valley.
06:35Life is lived in the reality of the valley.
06:38No one perpetually lives on the mountaintop.
06:41I wish I had a series for you called Valley Free Life.
06:45Oh, that would be a good series.
06:47Some of y'all would be excited about it
06:48and you'd be like, oh, write a book on that.
06:50But that would be a false premise to base a series on
06:53because you do not live life on the mountaintop.
06:56You live life in the reality of the valley.
07:00I need you to wake up your neighbor
07:01and just push them a little bit and say,
07:03neighbor, life is lived in the valley.
07:08That neighbor didn't even want to talk to you,
07:09so find your other neighbor and say,
07:10other neighbor, you my second option.
07:14And I'm telling you the truth.
07:17Life is lived in the valley.
07:22The valley is where you fight the battles.
07:24And that's what many of us are going to miss out on.
07:27Many of us are going to miss out
07:28on what God wants to do in us and through us
07:31because we're constantly looking for the next mountain.
07:34And God's saying, no, there's actually something
07:36I want to do in your life in the valley.
07:38You're like, well, I don't want to be in the valley
07:40because the fight is in the valley.
07:42Yes, the fight is in the valley.
07:43But how many know the fruit is in the valley too?
07:46Some of y'all are like, I don't want to be in the valley
07:48because the suffering's in the valley.
07:50Yes, the suffering's in the valley,
07:51but the strength is in the valley too.
07:54How many know the hard work is in the valley,
07:56but the harvest is in the valley too?
07:59The pain is in the valley, but the purpose
08:02is in the valley, too.
08:04Yes, you like the mountaintop for inspiration,
08:07but if you want to be unshakable,
08:09you got to go through a valley season,
08:11because there's something about the valley
08:14that exercises the muscles of faith
08:17that you don't want to work out.
08:20Ooh, I'm not going to get a whole lot of amens this series,
08:22but that's all right.
08:23I love what Winston Churchill said.
08:25He said, mountaintops inspire leaders,
08:29but valleys mature them.
08:31Mountaintops inspire leaders, but valleys mature them.
08:36How many of you know, if we're going to be unshakable,
08:38that means we have to be mature.
08:40And I believe that this is the year
08:41that God is actually causing our church to grow up,
08:45and can I tell you, you grow up
08:47when you go through the valley.
08:49I think I got my work cut out for me over this series,
08:52so y'all pray for your boy.
08:54I'm telling you, because for many of you,
08:55this is going to be a paradigm shifting series,
09:00because you have to change your mindset
09:02that life goes from mountaintop to mountaintop.
09:05And so you're going to have to completely change
09:06the lens through which you see life,
09:09and perhaps the lens through which you even see God.
09:12Because many of us think that life is the podium in Paris.
09:17And many of us think we're like,
09:18I think we're like this dude, Quincy Wilson,
09:20this young king.
09:21Did y'all see Quincy Wilson?
09:22Look at him, put him up there, Quincy.
09:2516 years old, the youngest runner at the Olympics.
09:2916 years old, got the gold medal in the 4x400 relay.
09:3416, and watch this.
09:36He posted something that made me laugh.
09:38Look at what young Quincy, 16 year old said.
09:41He said, dang, I really got to go to school
09:44in two and a half weeks.
09:47Can you imagine?
09:49This dude was just in Paris
09:52with 70,000 people screaming his name,
09:55one of them being Snoop Dogg.
09:58And he's got to go from Paris with Snoop
10:00to chemistry class with Fred.
10:04Chilling in there talking about,
10:05man, I was just eating some croissants last week in Paris.
10:09Why am I here?
10:10He's about to step into, watch this,
10:12the reality of the valley.
10:15Ooh, isn't that what you experience on Sunday?
10:17Some of y'all come in here and it's like,
10:18oh God, this is awesome.
10:20I feel your presence.
10:22Ooh, I got a new thing coming.
10:23Get up, get up, get up out of that grave.
10:25You're like, oh, I feel the miraculous power of God.
10:28It's my breakthrough.
10:29Oh, it's the mountain on Sunday.
10:30And then Monday you go right to your cubicle
10:33with that coworker that you want to speak in a tongue
10:35that needs no interpretation to,
10:37and you are faced with the valley.
10:40And this is a reality of life.
10:42And if you can just learn that life is full
10:45of mountaintops and valley moments,
10:48how many of you know you'll be able to step
10:49in the fullness of what God has for you?
10:52God is not just the God of the hills
10:54and the mountaintop moments.
10:56He is the God of the valley too.
10:59In fact, I wish I had a sexier title, but I don't.
11:02That's my title today, God of the valley, God of the valley.
11:06Because the first lesson that you got to get from the valley
11:09is that your God is the God of the valley.
11:14That he cannot be relegated to certain seasons
11:17or areas of life.
11:18He is not limited to certain spaces and places of your life.
11:21He is the God of the valley too.
11:25If you look at history and especially how they would worship
11:28one of the reasons they would have so many idols
11:30and many cultures were polytheistic
11:33is because they believed that the world was so massive
11:35and so big that there's no way that one God
11:38could be over every single area.
11:40So you had to have a river God,
11:42you had to have a frog God,
11:43you had to have a mountain God,
11:45you had to have a sky God,
11:46you had to have a sun God
11:48because they thought this world is so big
11:49there must be a multiplicity of gods
11:52that governs each area.
11:54But look at our God.
11:55He says, I am the God that spoke the world into existence.
11:59I am the one that's keeping it in orbit.
12:02I cannot be relegated to one space or place.
12:05I am God over every area of your life.
12:09That's why when he revealed himself to Moses,
12:11he said, I am that I am.
12:14Whatever you need, I am
12:16because I'm not just the God of the mountain,
12:18I'm the God of the valley.
12:20And one of the easiest and yet erroneous ideologies
12:23about God that you can have
12:25is that he is with you in the mountain,
12:27but he's forsaken you in the valley.
12:30It is an easy ideology to buy into
12:33and yet it is egregiously erroneous to think
12:35that God is with me in the mountain,
12:38but he's forsaken me in the valley.
12:40He's with me when I'm feeling good,
12:43he's forsaken me when I'm sick.
12:46He's with me when I get a bonus,
12:49he's forsaken me when I file for bankruptcy.
12:52He's with me when the marriage is good
12:54and I love my boo and ooh, date night.
12:59But he's forsaken me when I get served divorce papers.
13:03Ladies and gentlemen, that is a bad theology.
13:07And some of y'all are like, well,
13:09I know you say that he's with me in the mountain
13:11and he's with me in the valley too,
13:13but that's not what I feel.
13:15That's not what I feel in my heart.
13:17Well, forget what your heart feels.
13:20Have you ever looked at your heart?
13:23You ever looked at your heart?
13:24You ever seen a EKG machine?
13:28Have you ever noticed when it's monitoring
13:31the waves of your heart?
13:33Have you ever noticed that little machine
13:36has a graph that goes beep, beep, beep?
13:42That first beep was weak.
13:43Beep, beep, beep, it's up and it's down.
13:49Beep, beep, it's hills and it's valleys.
13:54Beep, beep, up, your heart waves
13:58are showing you what life is.
14:00Beep, up, beep, down.
14:03Beep, beep, they love me, beep,
14:05they talking about me on Instagram.
14:06Beep, up and down.
14:09They love the church today.
14:09Ooh, this is the best church I ever had.
14:11Beep, beep, oh, I can't stand that pastor.
14:12I don't like him.
14:13It's up, it's hills and valleys.
14:16And I want to warn some of you who are like,
14:18I'm sick of this up and down, Lord.
14:19Can't it just be even?
14:20Can't you just flatten it out?
14:21All right.
14:22Beep, you're going to flat line right out of here.
14:28You better start saying, God, I trust you in the hills
14:30and the valleys.
14:31See, the up and down is not proof that there is no life.
14:35The up and down is proof that there is a life,
14:37that I have a heartbeat.
14:38So I just made in my mind, when I'm up,
14:40I'll give him praise.
14:41When I'm down, I'll give him praise.
14:43Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord.
14:46Why do I got to praise him with my breath?
14:48Because that breath is connected to a beat of my heart.
14:51And the same way the beat goes up and down,
14:53my life is going up and down.
14:55But God, you are still worthy of the praise.
14:58Whether I'm up or whether I'm down,
15:00I wish somebody would take at least 10 seconds
15:02and give God some praise.
15:04Not because you're in a mountaintop season,
15:06but praise him because you in a valley season.
15:10Your praise don't count till you get in a valley.
15:15It don't mean anything till you get in a valley.
15:17Anybody can praise on a mountain.
15:21I don't need to know what to do when somebody says,
15:24I just had an extra Tesla I want to bless you with.
15:28I know how to give God praise over that.
15:31It's can you praise him when you're on the bus stop?
15:35Can you praise him when you got that car?
15:36You should go, Lord, please, come on now.
15:38Just one more time, let us start.
15:41I can, it's in the valley,
15:45the valley where your muscles and your strength
15:49and your fortitude comes to you.
15:52Is this helping anybody?
15:53It's just the appetizer of the series,
15:55just the appetizer.
15:56Each week, we're gonna learn lessons from the valley.
15:58But the first lesson is that he's not just the God
16:01of the mountains, he's the God of the valley.
16:04Come on, some of y'all are proud Sunday school alumnus.
16:06You know, Psalm 23.
16:08Look at what David writes.
16:09He says, the Lord is my shepherd.
16:11I shall not want.
16:14He makes me lie down in green pastures.
16:15He leads me beside still waters.
16:17He restores my soul.
16:19And then that verse four,
16:21he hits us in the chest with the reality of life.
16:25Even though I walk through the valley
16:29of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil
16:33for you are with me.
16:35Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
16:38A better translation would be,
16:39even though I walk through the valley of darkness,
16:45the imagery is of a complete darkness
16:48that you can't even see your hand in front of your face.
16:51Anybody ever been like in the country
16:53and seen like country darkness?
16:55Some of y'all been in the city your whole life.
16:56You need to get out.
16:58You ever been, I was born in Mount Pleasant, Texas, okay.
17:00If you've been like in the country,
17:02in the country where there's not a lot of light,
17:04country dark is different than city dark.
17:08Country dark has that dark that says,
17:10I ain't going out there.
17:11I don't care who it is.
17:12I don't care if it's my child.
17:13I am not going out there.
17:15And it is the type of darkness that you can't see anything.
17:19This is the imagery that David has given us in this psalm.
17:23It is the darkness that I cannot see my hand
17:27in front of my face.
17:28And somebody knows what it's like
17:30to be in that type of darkness,
17:32to be in that type of season.
17:35No wonder he has to walk through it.
17:38Cause you can't run when you're going through the valley.
17:42And some of you are trying to rush
17:44and run through the valley season.
17:45And you're missing out on what God is trying to do
17:48in that season.
17:49You cannot run through a valley season.
17:51You got to walk through a valley season
17:55and you're taking slow steps.
17:57And you got to trust that even there is no evidence
18:00to substantiate that the shepherd is with me.
18:02I have to know that he's with me.
18:05I can't see it, I don't feel it,
18:08but I know that he's with me.
18:10See the mountaintop is about what you feel.
18:13The valley is about what you know.
18:15It's in the valley that you have to know who your God is.
18:18It's in the valley you have to be confident
18:20in the character of God, that he is a good, good father.
18:24And he wouldn't be leading me into this.
18:27I feel like preaching now.
18:28He wouldn't be leading me into this
18:30if he didn't have a purpose, if he didn't have a plan.
18:32That's why the Bible says the steps of the righteous
18:35are ordered by the Lord.
18:37And I can't just follow when he takes me on the mountain.
18:39I got to follow when I'm in the valley too,
18:42trusting that you are taking me in the right direction.
18:46Who am I preaching to today?
18:48Have you ever felt like, God, this don't make no sense.
18:51Why would we go through this valley now?
18:54Your GPS is broken.
18:57It doesn't make sense for us to be going
19:00through the valley.
19:01Come on, what'd they teach me in class?
19:02The shortest distance between point A and point B
19:05is a what?
19:06Straight, well, take me on a straight line.
19:09Why am I on the Texas Giant?
19:10Why in the world are we going up and down
19:14and up and down?
19:16It's because God says, I'm sovereign.
19:18And I know you think it's crazy for you to be going up
19:20and you to be going down.
19:21But what the enemy doesn't know is you're gaining momentum
19:24and you're getting strength.
19:25And if you'll trust me to get you to the destination
19:28and don't give up in the valley,
19:32the shepherd will lead you where you need to go.
19:34Can I just tell on myself?
19:35I tell on myself.
19:37I wasn't that excited about coming back here to Gillies.
19:41Y'all, this is three years.
19:43We've been in 10 different venues all over the city.
19:49We keep putting in offers.
19:51It seems like doors are closing.
19:52I'm trying to have faith.
19:54I'm doing Jericho marches, throwing bottles of Crisco oil
19:57on every building that I see.
19:59This don't make any sense.
20:01We got folks in the watch party room.
20:02Make some noise for watch party room.
20:07So if I were God, I would have gone.
20:11I started Granada Theater.
20:13Then bigger venue, bigger venue, bigger venue.
20:16Boom, here's a building.
20:18But he ain't doing that.
20:19Why in the world do we go from Fair Park back here
20:24to a space that is too small?
20:28Can I just keep it 100?
20:29It's felt like it's a valley.
20:31I don't understand.
20:33And God says, I know it doesn't make sense to you right now,
20:36but I'm still working on the miracle.
20:38And I need you to keep showing up and keep being faithful
20:42and keep preaching in the valley.
20:44Because if you can preach in a valley, in a rented venue,
20:47how you gonna preach when I bless you with the building?
20:50How you gonna preach when you got your own space?
20:53Oh God, I'm getting happy off my own sermon.
20:55I got to trust him in the valley.
20:58It don't matter what I feel like, I'm trusting the shepherd.
21:04Every chess player will tell you,
21:06sometimes you gotta move back
21:08before you move forward again.
21:11And God, the sovereign player of chess
21:13who is strategically and carefully orchestrating your life
21:17knows when to send the valley.
21:20And he knows when to take you on the mountain.
21:23And what I'm really trying to articulate in the series
21:25is that you're probably gonna have more valley seasons
21:30than you will have mountaintop moments.
21:34Mountaintop moments are awesome,
21:36but right after the mountain,
21:38you gotta come back down to the valley.
21:40Well, could you give us some biblical examples?
21:41Absolutely, you remember Moses?
21:44Moses comes up to the mountaintop
21:48and has an encounter with God.
21:50I mean, this is Mo, he goes all the way to the top.
21:53Even his elders had to stop a certain level.
21:55God said, leave them there, come up higher.
21:57Comes all the way up to the top of the mountain.
21:59God gives him the 10 commandments, the law.
22:04If I was Moses, I'd be like,
22:05yo, let's just chill up here, God, this is awesome.
22:07But he had to come down to the valley.
22:10And when he comes to the valley,
22:12the people are not holding hands
22:14singing our God is an awesome God.
22:16They done stripped butt naked,
22:18turned it all the way up and got a golden calf,
22:21worshiping an idol.
22:23How y'all worshiping an idol?
22:25The mountain is about how you feel.
22:28The valley is about what you know.
22:31And these are people who have been brought out of Egypt,
22:33but Egypt is not out of them.
22:35And in Egypt, they saw all these different gods
22:37and Yahweh is trying to teach them,
22:39you don't need idols and gods you can see.
22:42I need you to trust the God that you can't see.
22:45And it's in the valley
22:47that it shows what you really know.
22:50It's in the valley where you got to find your own word
22:54and your own substance to stand on.
22:56And you better have more than three podcasts
22:58and your favorite preacher sermon.
23:01You better get in the word of God yourself
23:03and get the word of God in you.
23:05And that happens in the valley.
23:08Remember in the New Testament,
23:10Jesus takes three, I'm sorry,
23:13two of his favorites, Peter and John up the mountain.
23:18Takes them up the mountain top.
23:22And as he's up there on the mountaintop with them,
23:25does something that we only see him do once
23:27while he is on earth.
23:29While he's on earth,
23:31they experienced the miracle of God looking normal.
23:35That's why they couldn't believe that he was the Messiah
23:37because he looked too normal.
23:38Because he went to the bathroom
23:39like they went to the bathroom.
23:40They're like, he can't be the Messiah.
23:44And yet he looked normal.
23:45But on the mountaintop in one moment,
23:47the Bible says he was transfigured before them.
23:50He became white as clothes became bleached,
23:54whiter than anybody could bleach them.
23:55And they were like, oh my goodness,
23:58we didn't know you were God like that.
24:00And Moses and Elijah show up.
24:02This is a mountaintop moment.
24:03And what does Peter say?
24:05Oh, we should stay here.
24:08Let's live on the mountain.
24:09And a voice from heaven tells Peter to shut up.
24:12You know you got a big mouth.
24:14When God the Father has to interrupt you from heaven,
24:18says, listen to my son.
24:21But they wanted to stay in the mountain.
24:23And God says, no, we can't stay up here.
24:25Even though I just revealed my glory to you,
24:28we gotta go right back down into the valley.
24:33And what's facing them in the valley?
24:35They're the other disciples who are still salty
24:37that they didn't get to go up to the mountain,
24:39are fighting with the Pharisees.
24:41And there's a father who needs deliverance for his son.
24:45And he came to the disciples to get deliverance for his son,
24:49but they're too busy fighting with the Pharisees
24:51that they're missing out,
24:52that there's somebody in front of them that needs ministry.
24:56Ladies and gentlemen, that is the valley.
24:59And life is lived and God still is with you
25:05in the valley moments.
25:08Is this helping anybody in here today?
25:12Elbow your neighbor and say, I know this for you.
25:14Come on, elbow that other neighbor.
25:15Tell them too, this for you too.
25:18Hear me.
25:21If I was the enemy and I wanted to get you stuck,
25:26I would convince you that God has forsaken you
25:29in your valley and that he's only with you
25:33when you're on the mountaintop.
25:35If I was the enemy and I wanted to take your fight away,
25:39I would convince you that because you don't feel him
25:42in this season of life, that he has forsaken you,
25:46that he was only with you when everything was going
25:49the way you wanted it to go.
25:51But hear me, that ideology is the ideology of the enemy.
25:57Somebody like, do you have some scripture for it?
25:59I sure do.
26:01It's in first Kings chapter 20,
26:03but before I get to first Kings chapter 20,
26:05let me just give you the backdrop of the book of Kings.
26:09First and second Kings was originally put together.
26:13And when you read first and second Kings,
26:15you are reading the history of the kings of Israel.
26:21But let's back that thing up biblically
26:23and figure out why the children of Israel
26:26had kings in the first place.
26:28The first king was Saul.
26:30And the reason they wanted a king
26:32is because other nations had kings.
26:36God said, I want you to operate under a theocracy
26:38where I am your God, I have every single thing
26:41that you need.
26:41They're like, we're tired of you.
26:43Give us a politician.
26:45Because that'll fix everything.
26:48We want to be like the other nations.
26:49We don't want to be different.
26:51Give us a king.
26:52We want a politician.
26:53Because if we could just get the right politician,
26:55everything would be okay.
26:57Isn't it crazy how the Bible is irrelevant
26:59and doesn't even apply to people today?
27:02Ah.
27:04They say, give us a king.
27:06Because that'll fix everything.
27:07Got Saul.
27:09That was jacked up.
27:11And God says, even in your wanting a king,
27:13I'm going to move and I'm going to use it.
27:16And we go from Saul to David.
27:20And when you step into first Kings,
27:23you see David who is passing off the kingdom
27:27to his son Solomon.
27:29And he tells him some powerful last words.
27:32He says, make sure that you keep the decrees
27:34of the Lord your God.
27:36One of the themes of first and second Kings
27:39is that any nation that pushes out God
27:41is going to be doomed.
27:43Any nation that rejects God
27:45will be destined for destruction.
27:48That is a theme of first Kings and second Kings.
27:51And when you come into first Kings,
27:54David has passed it on to Solomon
27:56and you will read all these different Kings,
27:59some of which completely rejected God
28:03and the nation suffered.
28:04But do you know who the worst was?
28:07This dude named Ahab.
28:10Ahab, let the church say Ahab.
28:12Ahab, the Bible says he excelled in evil.
28:17He was more evil than any other king that preceded him.
28:20You know, you are hashtag jacked up.
28:23If that's on your resume, I'm the most evil king.
28:27To make it worse, he married an evil woman.
28:32Some of y'all know her name.
28:34If you meet any woman with this name today,
28:38you have my permission to not say hello to her
28:41and run for the hills.
28:43Because nobody would name their daughter this.
28:44Her name is Jezebel.
28:46So Ahab marries an evil woman
28:50and she takes the evil to a whole nother level
28:53and introduces bell worship into the kingdom of God.
28:59They're worshiping bell.
29:00And all of a sudden, in the midst of this apostasy,
29:03a prophet shows up by the name of Elijah.
29:05Shout out to the prophets who will speak to people
29:08and let them know, I don't care what your feelings are,
29:11I'm gonna declare what thus saith the Lord,
29:13whether you like it or not.
29:14Elijah just shows up with no introduction
29:18and says, guess what?
29:20It's not gonna rain until I say so.
29:24So all of a sudden, there was a drought for three years.
29:26Hold up, y'all, this is a valley.
29:28We've got a king that is evil
29:30who's married to sister girl who is even more evil
29:33and there's a drought in the land.
29:36They are all in a valley.
29:38Now understand, God, as the good shepherd,
29:41will often lead you into valleys.
29:44Valleys build your faith.
29:46Valleys build tenacity.
29:48Valleys make you pray.
29:49Valleys make you seek God.
29:51He gives you strength in the valley.
29:53But how many know there is another valley,
29:57that God has nothing to do with?
29:58And I call this the valley of bad decisions.
30:04Ahab made bad decisions.
30:08He made bad decisions to worship Baal.
30:10He made bad decisions to marry Jezebel.
30:14And here he is in a valley,
30:16not that he's being led into a valley of his own decision.
30:22Ooh, it's quiet in this Presbyterian church today
30:26because some of y'all are crying out to God
30:28over a valley of a bad decision that you made.
30:33Some of you are like, well, I'm in this valley.
30:35I just need, I'm in this financial valley
30:37and I just, no, no, no, no, no.
30:39You knew you didn't have the money
30:41and you started charging it.
30:42That's the valley of a bad decision.
30:46Some of you are like, I don't understand
30:47why they're acting like this.
30:49You saw their profile before you went on today,
30:52but you were tired of being by yourself.
30:54It's the valley of a bad decision.
31:00Here's Ahab in the valley of a bad decision.
31:04And in that valley where there's a drought,
31:08Elijah, the prophet of God comes on a mountaintop moment
31:15and he tells the children of God, make a decision.
31:21If you're gonna follow God, follow God.
31:24If you're gonna follow Baal, then follow Baal,
31:26but you cannot keep wavering between two opinions.
31:30How many of you know, this is the hour and the era
31:32that the church of the living God is in.
31:35You cannot have one foot in and one foot out.
31:38If you're gonna serve God,
31:39come on, serve God with everything that's within you.
31:42If you're gonna live for the world, then live for the world.
31:44I love Elijah, the prophet of God.
31:47Say, y'all make a decision.
31:49Call all the prophets of Baal on a mountaintop
31:52and say, y'all make an altar and I'll make an altar.
31:55And the God that answers by fire, he is the true God.
31:59Y'all gotta read this when you get to the crib.
32:00It's an Old Testament showdown.
32:02All of a sudden, the prophets of Baal
32:04start cutting themselves and crying out to Baal,
32:06saying, oh, Baal, we need you.
32:08Elijah starts messing with him,
32:10talking about what's wrong, you got to sleep?
32:11He must be in the toilet.
32:12How come he ain't answering by fire?
32:14They cut themselves all night long
32:16and their God did not answer them.
32:18And there is Elijah.
32:20I don't even think he got Pentecostal with the prayer.
32:22He just said, Lord, show these people today
32:25that you are the living God.
32:26And all of a sudden on a mountaintop,
32:28fire came down from heaven and consumed the whole sacrifice.
32:33Oh, I love the Bible.
32:34Read it when you get to the crib.
32:37All of a sudden, Elijah has all 450 of the prophets killed
32:43and Jezebel said, oh no, he didn't.
32:46She said, may the gods do also to me by this time tomorrow
32:50if I don't kill you.
32:53And Elijah, y'all, takes off running.
33:00I'm talking about Sidney McLachlan Laverne,
33:02like read it when you get to the crib.
33:04He outruns a chariot, runs away
33:08because Jezebel gave a threat that she gonna kill you.
33:12Hold on, dude.
33:14You just called fire down from heaven
33:17and she's threatening you and you're running away.
33:19I would have been like, oh, it's about to be a fire part two.
33:21I'll call fire down on you, girl.
33:24He runs and watch this.
33:27Right after outrunning a chariot,
33:29gets hit with post Olympic depression
33:34and sits up under a broom tree and says, God,
33:38I'm no better than my fathers.
33:41Take my life.
33:44Don't tell me that you can be so spiritual
33:47that you won't go through a valley
33:49because here's a prophet of God
33:50that called fire down from heaven
33:52and he's going through a season of depression.
33:54Don't tell me that if I was really praying like I should,
33:57if I was really fast and like I should,
33:59I should never go through it.
34:01How is this in the Bible?
34:03Where a prophet of God is under a tree
34:08and he's like, Lord, take my life.
34:12I'm the only one left.
34:14I'm in a valley.
34:17You can't always trust your perspective in a valley
34:20because by the way, Elijah, you're not the only one left.
34:24There was other prophets that had not bailed,
34:26had not bound to bail,
34:28but your perspective can be off sometimes
34:30when you're in the valley,
34:32especially when you have isolated yourself from other people.
34:36Don't trust your own thoughts when you're in isolation
34:39and you're going through a valley season.
34:41Make sure there's somebody around you
34:43that's speaking life into you,
34:46saying this is not who you are.
34:49This is a season.
34:51And there he is in a valley.
34:56And an angel comes to him and does something so spiritual,
35:01but yet so practical.
35:02Says, you need to eat.
35:04Eat some food and go to sleep.
35:08Take care of your physical body.
35:11And it'll have ramifications on your spirit
35:13while you're in the valley.
35:17Now, all of that precedes this moment
35:23where all of a sudden Ahab, who's still in position,
35:27who's still not moved that prophets of bail
35:30have just been killed,
35:32is approached by Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria.
35:36And he comes to him and says, hey, guess what?
35:39I want your wives, your children,
35:42your silver and your gold, and I'm coming to get it.
35:46Now, if that was you,
35:47all the fellas in here make some noise.
35:52I appreciate it.
35:54If that was you, I'd be like, hey, over my dead body,
35:59I wish you would.
36:01Ahab goes, go ahead, come get them, come get them.
36:05Pretty when you get to the crib, he says, just take it.
36:09Just take my wives.
36:11Now, the comedian in me goes,
36:12well, I can see why he wanted him to take his wife.
36:16He's married to Jezebel.
36:18But it's actually a picture of some of us, hear me,
36:22that the valley has made you lose your fight.
36:26And so you just relinquish to the enemy
36:29and say, I'm not gonna fight anymore.
36:33It is what it is.
36:35I ain't even gonna get in the word of God anymore.
36:37It is what it is.
36:39I'm not even gonna pray anymore.
36:41It is what it is.
36:43Not knowing you are engaged in warfare.
36:45And watch this, as soon as Ahab said, okay, you can come,
36:48guess what Ben-Hadad said?
36:50He said, all right, by the way, I'm coming tomorrow.
36:52And I'm not just getting your wives, your children,
36:53your silver, your gold.
36:54I'm gonna take absolutely everything from you.
36:58And when Ahab heard that,
37:00he went to the elders of the city and said,
37:02yo, they coming tomorrow
37:03and they're coming to take everything.
37:05And the elders of the city said, no, no, no, no, no.
37:08You can't let them do that.
37:09And all of a sudden a prophet,
37:11an unnamed prophet of God comes to Ahab.
37:14I don't know who this prophet is.
37:16Oh, but when I get to heaven, I wanna meet this prophet.
37:18He had to be one of the prophets that were in the cave
37:20that nobody knew about.
37:22He rose up to Ahab and says, guess what?
37:25God is gonna give you the victory.
37:27Don't you just back down and die.
37:29I know you're outnumbered.
37:30I know they got more horses.
37:32I know they got more chariots,
37:33but you've got God and you've got every single thing
37:36that you need.
37:37You need to fight back.
37:39Who is this message for today?
37:40I know you're in the valley, but would you fight back?
37:44Would you get your fight back again?
37:46And guess what?
37:51They fought him and they won.
37:55They won the victory, even though they were outnumbered.
38:00And after they won, the enemy was like, okay, they beat us.
38:05And the prophet said, hey, by the way,
38:06they're coming back in the spring.
38:09And the enemy said, all right, they beat us,
38:12but there's gotta be a reason why they won.
38:16Like we had more soldiers than them.
38:17This victory was supernatural.
38:20As the worship team or the piano player
38:22comes to play softly,
38:22I wanna show you this in 1 Kings.
38:25All of that was to get us to this moment.
38:27We are eavesdropping into the enemy's camp
38:32after they've been defeated.
38:35They won on the mountain.
38:37Meanwhile, Benedet's officials went to him and explained,
38:40Israels don't miss this.
38:42Israel's gods are mountain gods.
38:46We fought Israel's army in the hills
38:50and that's why they defeated us.
38:52But if we fight them on flat land,
38:56there's no way we can lose.
38:58Here's what you should do.
39:00First, get rid of those 32 kings
39:01and put army commanders in their places.
39:04Then get more soldiers and horses and chariots.
39:06So your army will be as strong as it was before.
39:09We'll fight Israel's army on flat land and wipe them out.
39:14Benedet agreed, said, oh yeah, that's a good plan.
39:16That's a good plan.
39:17That's why we lost.
39:17Yeah, we fought him in the mountains.
39:19He's a mountain god.
39:20Yeah, that's the, he agreed.
39:22And in the spring, Benedet got his army together
39:25and they marched to the town of Aphen
39:28to attack Israel.
39:29The Israelites also prepared to fight.
39:31They marched out to meet the Syrians
39:33and the two armies camped across from each other.
39:36The Syrians covered, watch this, the whole area.
39:40But the Israelites looked like two little flocks of goats.
39:46That's not really the picture you wanna see in a battle.
39:50Here their army is spread out,
39:52hundreds of thousands of people.
39:54Here's Israel's little bitty army.
39:57They don't look like goats.
39:58They look like little flocks of goats.
40:02The odds are stacked against them.
40:04They got more horses, more soldiers, more chariots.
40:08All Israel has is one victory in the mountain
40:11and now they're in the valley
40:13and God happens to be with them in the valley.
40:16And look what this prophet says.
40:17I can't wait to meet this prophet when I get to heaven.
40:20The prophet went to Ahab and said,
40:21the Syrians think the Lord is a God of the hills
40:25and not of the valleys.
40:27So he has promised to help you defeat their powerful army.
40:32Then you will know that the Lord is in control.
40:35In other words, this enemy has got it twisted.
40:38They think that God is only relegated to the hills
40:41and that it was a fluke last time
40:42because you were in the mountains,
40:44but I'm about to give you the victory
40:45and show them that even when you ain't got enough resources,
40:48even when you ain't got enough chariots,
40:50even when you ain't got enough horses,
40:52I can still give you the victory in the valley
40:55cause I'm not just the God of the mountain,
40:58I'm the God of the valley.
40:59I'm not just a God when you're going through the blessing.
41:02I'm the God when you got a burden on your back.
41:05I'm not just the God
41:06when you're going through the amazing season.
41:08I'm also the God where you're going through the test.
41:10Is there anybody in here that can testify
41:13that you've been in a valley before
41:15and all the odds were stacked against you,
41:17but somehow, some way, God showed you,
41:21I'm the God of the valleys.
41:28The enemy thought he can only give him
41:32the victory on the mountain.
41:34He can't give him the victory in the valley.
41:37Here's my question, and I'm done.
41:40Are you thinking like the enemy?
41:44Do you think God can only give you
41:45the victory in the mountain,
41:48and he can't give you the victory in the valley?
41:51Hear me, your theology will affect your methodology.
41:57The enemy said, he's not the God of the mountains,
42:01he's the God of the valleys,
42:02so we'll move and attack in the valley,
42:05and they lost, because they didn't have
42:07an awareness of who God was.
42:10Your belief will affect your behavior,
42:14and if you think God is only the God
42:17of mountaintop moments, you will miss him
42:21in the ordinary and in the seasons of the valleys.
42:25I just came to tell you, your God is the God
42:29of the valleys, and even in the valley,
42:32you can get the victory.
42:34Don't give up, don't throw in the towel,
42:38just because you're in the valley,
42:41just because you're outnumbered.
42:44Would you stand to your feet all over this place
42:46and in the watch party room?
42:53I'm gonna ask every head be bowed and eyes be closed.
43:00I wanna talk to the person who's in a valley,
43:05and the odds are stacked against you,
43:10and you're looking at the army who's bigger than you,
43:17who's got more chariots and more horses,
43:21and you're allowing what you see to affect your trust.
43:29And I just came to remind you that if you have God,
43:34that you have the majority,
43:38that he wants to show you the same way he showed
43:42the enemy and the children of Israel,
43:46that my victory is not relegated to mountaintops
43:49in certain locations.
43:51I can give you the victory in a valley.
43:55I can give you the victory in a low place.
43:59I can give you joy that makes no sense
44:06when you're going through the most painful season
44:08of your life.
44:11I can use you to bring hope to somebody else
44:14when you are in the valley of hopelessness.
44:21Stop thinking like the enemy,
44:24that he's only the God of the mountain.
44:26He's the God of the valley.
44:29And hear me, the enemy can only defeat you
44:32if you don't show up for the battle,
44:36if you stop walking with him through the valley.
44:40Don't get stuck.
44:43He's with you.