In Our Pain

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us, and a special welcome to those joining us online. We hope your doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

KIDS SERMON

Let’s start as we always do with the kids joining me up front. All the 5th grade and below students, come on down. We have a special talk today.

Last week was a special week because of Thanksgiving, but today we start a season that is even more special.

Does anyone know what today starts? [ADVENT]

That wasn’t fair of me, that was a tricky word.

ADVENT is the church word that means ARRIVAL, it is where we take 4 weeks and PREPARE ourselves for the ARRIVAL of JESUS on CHRISTMAS day.

Each week we prepare ourselves by reflecting on a different theme, represented by these four candles. Each week we’ll light one to help us put our focus on the right things as we prepare for Christmas at the end of this month.

The first candle represents HOPE.

Can someone tell me what HOPE means? [a feeling of desire for something to happen]

What do you guys hope for?

Who do you put your hope in? [parents, teachers, God…]

Typically I hope for bad things to end, or good things to happen.

This week let’s focus on the HOPE that we have in Jesus, the only person who loves us and the only one can save us from all the bad we’ve done (sins).

So if anything bad happens this week, focus your thoughts on the hope you have in Jesus and all He has done for you, is doing for you, and the promises of what He will do for you.

Can we do that?

Before you go off with JoBeth, can someone help me light the candle?

Thanks for joining me, you can join JoBeth and go to your class now.

The second candle represents PEACE.

The third candle represents JOY.

The forth and final candle represents LOVE.

ME/INTRO - Tension

This week we’re starting a brand new series.

The last five weeks we’ve been talking about the church word SANCTIFICATION and how we are a “Work in Progress”. How God, through the Holy Spirit is continually shaping us, convicting us to change certain things in our lives, to help us become the people that he created us to be, to become more Christ like in every way.

Today as we start a new series, our Advent series, we’re going to talk about another church word, INCARNATION, which means God becoming one of us, human. Throughout this series we’re going to circle around Matthew 1:23 which reads...

Matthew 1:23 (NIV)

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

The next four weeks we’re going to walk through the season of ADVENT together, seeing how God is with us in our pain, comforts us in our waiting, gives us courage in our anxiety, and we’ll wrap up the series Christmas week where we’ll celebrate the birth of Jesus where God shows His love for us by stepping down from Heaven and becoming one of us, fully human, yet still fully divine.

Today we’re going to focus our conversation on Psalm 84:5-7, which is a Psalm about a PILGRIMAGE to JERUSALEM.

I want to start by defining PILGRIMAGE because. A PILGRIMAGE is any journey toward something or some place you respect. It could be anything.

In Jesus time, the Jewish people would make many pilgrimages each year to Jerusalem for the festivals outlined in the Old Testament. They would travel in large groups from wherever they lived to Jerusalem to remember, worship, and Give Thanks to God for all He’s done.

In reality, we all make pilgrimages. We all go on journeys toward things or places that we respect.

I’ve shared a little about my professional journey, but I would consider my journey through jobs as a pilgrimage. Throughout High School, I was trying my best to discern what God wanted for me and I did everything I could to follow His guidance at each step of the way, but the reality of the situation was education was only the start of a journey.

In High School, I was very technically minded. In my high school, we had a choice between band, orchestra, choir, or metal shop. Not sure why metal shop was included in that list of electives, but it was. I choose metal shop and it turned out to be my favorite class. Instead of making tiny projects, we designed, built, and raced an electric race car. We had to do all the math to size the components, design the structure, the safety, the electrical systems. We designed, built, tested, re-designed, tested, re-designed, etc. until it was as good as we could get it. I had a great time and that experience, among others, led me to believe that God wanted me to be an engineer.

Because of my metal shop experience, I thought an engineer was someone who designs and builds new things. I equated it to an inventor.

So I went to engineering school for 4 years. Studied endless amounts of math, science, and methodology for solving problems. I left college with a mechanical engineering degree, a chemistry minor, and a belief that I was going to be paid to invent cool things and solve exciting problems.

I was on a PILGRIMAGE toward a career that I believed God was guiding me toward.

WE - Tension

What Pilgrimages have you been on?

What pilgrimage are you traveling right now?

What are you journeying toward?

Today we’re going to read about a Pilgrimage that the “Sons of Korah” took to Jerusalem and wrote about in Psalm 84. We’re going to focus on Verses 5-7.

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

While you’re turning to today’s scripture, a little background on the “Sons of Korah”. They were a Levitical group (Old Testament Jewish Priests) descended for Korah, the person associated with the Rebellion in Numbers 16-17 against Moses in the desert. At the time of the writing of the Psalms attributed to them, the Korahites were responsible for Gate-keeping functions associated with the second temple. The “Sons of Korah” didn’t live in Jerusalem, but regularly made pilgrimages to it for the Jewish Feasts. The themes associated with these Psalms center around God’s presence in Jerusalem making it a place of refuge.

Lets read Psalm 84:1-7:

GOD - Text

Psalm 84:1–7 (NIV)

How lovely is your dwelling place,

Lord Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young—

a place near your altar,

Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baka,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

Valleys

I want to start in V6.

Psalm 84:6 (NIV)

As they pass through the Valley of Baka,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

The word BAKA is the Hebrew word for Mulberry Tree.

They aren’t exactly sure where the Valley of Baka is today, but because Mulberry trees commonly ooze dark sap, the trees look like they’re crying. Valley’s with Mulberry trees were commonly referred to as Valley’s of Tears / Valley of Weeping / Valley of Loss.

An it wasn’t just in the name. Valleys were extremely dangerous places.

Valleys were where dangerous animals lived and hunted. It was not uncommon to get attacked by animals while traveling through a valley.

Valleys were where criminals would wait for travelers to rob, injure, and at times kill.

Valleys were not a place you wanted to be. They brought pain and misery.

BUT…as a pilgrim, you can’t get to Jerusalem without going through some valleys.

In life, we can’t get to the place God is calling us to be without going through some valleys as well.

After college, I got a job at Trane, the HVAC company, where I was hired to design custom commercial air conditioners. When people asked what I did, I always told them, “I design products that optimize human potential…then I’d dramatically pause and say...i.e. I make cold air”.

The reality was that it did not take long for me to realize that my idea of engineering did not match the reality of the profession. I wasn’t designing anything. I wasn’t inventing anything. I wasn’t even using the math and problem solving skills I spent 4 years learning. I was doing very repetitive work, by myself, in a cubicle. My days consisted of selecting the right sized parts from manufacturer’s tables and ordering them for technicians to assemble.

In summary, I spent years learning how to do something that I thought God was calling me to do, only to find out that I was miserable doing it.

I was in a valley, a deep valley, in my pilgrimage toward finding the occupation that God intended for me to have.

So what do we do when we find ourselves in the valleys of life?

Minds

The first things we have to do is get our mind right. We have to acknowledge that

We cannot avoid the valleys of life, or get around them, we have to go through them

There are no easy ways out

Psalm 84:6 says it clearly, and my experience agrees, “as they pass THROUGH the Valley of Baka”

So, what does God call us to do while we’re going through the valleys of life?

I like how the NLT translation words it

Psalm 84:5 (NLT)

What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord,

who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

God calls us to keep our minds on the Him, and on the destination He’s given us.

We can’t avoid the valleys of life, but we can be confident that the valley is not our destination, that God has better days ahead for us, and that God will be with us every step we take through the valley.

What we think about matters

Psalm 23:4 (NIV)

Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

Philippians 4:8–9 (NIV)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

When we find our selves in the valleys of life, we need to focus our minds on the God that won’t leave us, but is leading us toward a better future.

That’s exactly what I had to do. I was miserable, sitting alone every day doing boring work.

BUT, God taught me something about myself and gave me a clearer picture of the destination He had for me.

I knew that, for me, people were more compelling than computers.

God was calling me to a career where I worked with people, not alone in a cubical on a computer all day.

God gave me a new vision of the destination he had for me. I had to keep my focus on the new destination while I was waiting for God to open the right door.

DO

But…waiting is tough.

If you’re like me when things are rough, re-focusing my thoughts is not only hard, but doesn’t seem like enough. I want to do something. And in V6 we see were given something to do while in the valleys of life.

Psalm 84:6 (NIV)

As they pass through the Valley of Baka,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

The Hebrew word for springs is “Mayan” which actually means “well”.

The point is, when we’re in the valleys of life, and things are really hard, we don’t just wait. We act. But our actions are in faith of the provision that we know God will provide.

We dig a symbolic well, in the dry / painful places of our lives, before God does anything, acting in faith that God will provide the water we need at the right time.

Our job is to build the container or dig the hole that we believe God is going to fill.

As a former pastor once told me, sometimes

We need to give God something to bless.

We start preparing for life after the valley, while we’re still in it.

So what did I do? I couldn’t just change jobs. I was not qualified for a non-engineering job. Jobs that work with people require different skill, skills I didn’t have.

While I was in the valley of my career journey, I made the painful choice to start digging in the well of additional education.

In faith, for a job that I didn’t have the skills for or even qualified to apply for, I went back to school. I signed up for an 18 month MBA program, where I would learn the skills needed to work with people.

Did it make my current job any better? No, it made it worse, because it was busier, more tired, and mentally getting a clearer picture of the future I was working toward without any opportunities was tough.

I was digging a well of education I was believing God would fill when the time was right. But it was really hard and many times I felt like I couldn’t do it all.

Strength to Strength

So how do we do this? While in the middle of something terrible, the symbolic valleys of life, how do we find the strength to take the next step, to act before we see the provision we’re desperate for.

The truth is, we can’t keep our minds focused on the promise God has for us after the valley. We can’t prepare for the provision we believe in faith God will provide. We can’t do any of this on our own. We don’t have the strength.

Psalm 84:7 (NIV)

They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

We need the strength of God to get us through the tough times in life. We need to seek out and rely on God for the strength to take each step, growing in our faith that God will continue to provide the strength for each additional step He calls us to take.

And that’s the main point I take away from this passage.

We enjoy God on the mountain top, we get to know Him intimately in the valleys

It is through the valleys of our lives when we are forced to look to God, to act in faith, and to rely on God’s strength for each step we take.

When things are going well, when we’re on a mountaintop of life, we take these things for granted.

The valley’s are where our relationship with God grows and deepens.

It was during this time that I learned to rely on God in ways I had never even considered before. My prayer life deepened. My gratitude increased with every drop of provision God provided. And I needed them all.

Turns out an MBA is vastly different than an engineering degree. Engineering degrees require very little reading and no writing. An MBA requires a ton of reading and more writing than I thought I was capable of. Each assignment was a step of faith, that God would allow me to learn what I needed to learn and produce what the professors were asking me to produce at the level they expected.

AND YET…God provided. God did bless the work I put into the MBA degree. I graduated and right after, God opened a door to become the operations leader at our site for Trane. I was now managing people and my chain to the computer was broken. I was helping people discover what they were meant to do and help them achieve their goals and enjoying every minute of it.

God used that experience to affirm the fact that I was not meant to be an engineer but needed to work with people relationally. God used the process of going back to school to prepare me for the much larger task of going back to get a Masters in Divinity, which required more reading and writing than I would have thought possible, even after the MBA. God provided the strength I needed for each step, slowly building in me the faith to take the next one when called.

Again...

We enjoy God on the mountain top, we get to know Him intimately in the valleys

YOU - Takeaway

So, I ask you.

Are you in a valley right now?

Where is your mind?

What are you doing?

Whose strength are you relying on to get you though?

Here's what I understand.

We need to praise God in the valley.

So right now you feel weak. Who is your God? In the middle of your weakness, my God is your strength.

Psalm 46:1 (NIV)

God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

When you're in the darkness, who is your God? My God is your light in the darkness.

1 John 1:5 (NIV)

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

When you're in a season of trouble, who your God? My God is your joy in the trouble.

1 Peter 4:12–13 (NIV)

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

When you're in the middle of pain, who is your God? My God is your comforter in the middle of your pain.

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (NIV)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

That's who our God is. We pass through the valley. Even though we're in the valley, we do not fear, why? Because our God is with us.

Psalm 23:4 (NIV)

Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

The same God that is good on the mountaintops is good to us in the valleys.

No matter what you’re going though

God is with us - in our pain

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

So remember who it is that we serve.

God stepped down from heaven and became flesh in the person of Jesus.

Jesus is the sinless son of God who loved and reached out to people who are hurting, broken, when their lives were torn apart.

Jesus loved them as they were but He never ever left them there.

Jesus became sin for us on the cross.

He died in our place.

On the third day, when the stone was rolled away He was not there, why?

Because by the power of God, He defeated death, hell, and the grave.

So that anyone, and this includes you, it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what you've done.

Anyone who calls on the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ. Your sins would be forgiven.

You will be made completely new.

If you're at the top of the mountain, He will meet you there.

If you're at the bottom of the valley and hurting, He will meet you there.

Right now the only thing separating you from God is your sin.

When you confess your need, He will forgive your sin.

And that's why we are here. We need His grace, we need His mercy, we need His salvation.

Today you may be in a valley and hurting, turn toward Jesus

Dig a well in faith that Jesus will meet you there and fill it with the provision you need.

Communion

Today we’re going to observe communion as a way of remembering all that Jesus has done for us and believing in faith that Jesus will continue to meet us at the mountaintops and valleys of our lives.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 reads:

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (NIV)

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

As part of the Wesleyan denomination we practice an open table. You don’t have be a member of the Wesleyan church to partake in communion here. You just have to have accepted Jesus as you LORD and savior, earnestly repent of your sin, and empowered by the Holy Spirit do everything you can to follow the commandments of God.

Children may partake at the discretion of their parents.

I encourage you to take some time during the next song, examine where you heart is at and pray for God to show you any areas in your life that you need to repent of.

When ready, the elements will be up front.